tl;dr best of 2017
Chappy Hull - Gnarwhal
Top 11 albums by bands that start with “P” in 2017
Palberta - Bye Bye Berta
Power trip - Nightmare Logic
Pissed jeans - Why Love Now?
Pile - A Hairshirt of Purpose
Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent
Palm - Shadow Expert
Palehound - A Place I’ll Always Go
Pallas - Pallas 12”
Primitive man - Caustic
Priests - Nothing Feels Natural
PC Worship - Buried Wish
John Judkins - Laser Flames on the Great Big News, Rwake, Protomen
Mastodon: Emperor of Sand
Loss: Horizonless
Elder: Reflections of a Floating World
Pallbearer: Heartless
Spirit Adrift: Curse of Conception
Julien Baker: Turn Out the Lights
Thundercat: Drunk
Amenra: VI
Mutoid Man: War Moans
Zeal & Ardor: The Devil is Fine
Jay Som: Everybody Works
Run the Jewels: 3
Land of Talk: Life After Youth
Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun
BADBADNOTGOOD: Late Night Tales
Double Ferrari: s/t
Cinemechanica: The Martial Arts
Auric: First and Last
Dan Emery - Thetan and Black Matter Mastering
Top 5 bands that kicked my ass that I never even knew of and was surprised as shit by and stuff, or at the very least just formed recently and impressed me.
5. Tom Violence. Holy shit I love when bands don't stop between songs. Heavy, kind of industrial at times, innovative. I'm down.
4. Bled To Submission. These guys are tight. Symphonic black metal. I'm usually not a fan of synths. They made a believer out of me.
3. Mouth Reader. I know, I am late as fuck on them. Still though I have a soft spot for grimy garage rock. They are grimy as fuck.
2. Voarm. Finally venturing out of TN, RVA's Voarm are the type of occult black metal that made me like that type of music to begin with. Plus they are at least partially from TN, so there's the connection.
1. Benjamin Tod. Benjamin from Lost Dog Street Band branched out on his own this year. His solo album (I Will Rise) is a dark minimalistic journey through depression, addiction, shame, and loneliness. Probably the most moving thing I've listened to this
Kayla Philips - Pulsatile Tinnitus, Bleed The Pigs
Glassjaw - Material Control
Damien Dubrovnik - Great Many Arrows
Primitive Man - Caustic
CHRCH/FISTER – SPLIT
HELL - Sentient Ruin
Chasity Belt - I Used To Spend So Much Time Alone
Triptides - Afterglow
Waleid Elchaer - Obelisk
Unleash the Archers - Apex
Rings of Saturn -Ulta Ulla
Thy Art Is Murder - Dear Desolation
Enslaved- E
Blut Aus Nord- Deas Salutis
Ne Obliviscarus -Urn
Mastodon- emperor of Sand
Black Dahlia Murder-Nightbringers
Persefone -aathma
Mors Principium est- embers of a dying world
Trivium - The Sin and The Sentence
Immolation - Atonement
Duane Johnson - Pinion
Full of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy
Artificial Brain - Infrared Horizon
Power Trip - Nightmare Logic
Gatecreeper - Sweltering Madness
Elias MacDonald - Phobos, Cull, Chasm of Teeth, ex-Altar of Complaints
SUPER SLIMEY by Future and Young Thug
Uhhhh new Artificial Brain
Saw You in a Dream by The Japanese House
E by Dove Lady/One by Dove Lady
I still haven’t listened to anything past Sunbather
Sonic Adventure 2 OST
Marvel vs Capcom 2 OST
Random jazz music
Outsider EP by BukuSteez
I finally tried out James Blake this year (lit af)
Stan Richardson II - Skoolgirl, Working In Retail
NOISE + EXPERIMENTAL
Skin Tension – “A Body Collapsing In A Closed Space”
Do you like jazz but need it to be thrown into a sink disposal unit and thrown around like a fork? You need to catch Skin Tension, one of the incredible local experimental improv groups with rotating members. Everyone involved with this project are some of the most creative people I know. Don’t be scared. It’s ok. A Banana Tapes band so just eat that cherry on top.
https://skintension.bandcamp.com/track/a-body-collapsing-in-a-closed-space-2
Street Rat – “Penance”
I can’t recommend this artist enough to fans of harsh noise. I’ve never been to a more engaging show. Using found “instruments” from wherever they’ve been, Miami’s Street Rat will destroy yr fucking mind and yr sensibilities of what can and can’t be done with performance. And on top of all that, they are part of one of my favorite labels, Crass Lips tapes. They are playing at Mouthhole Jan 30th, so I better see yr ass there.
https://streetratlives.bandcamp.com/album/penance
Secret Friends/Flesh Eater – “Contengen / Disjoint” split
Two of the most exciting creators in Nashville right now and their work with Banana Tapes this year has re-kindled my faith in the Nashville music scene. There’s a lot of thought put into these soundscapes and it shows.
https://secretfriendsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/contingent-disjoint
WEIRD PUNK AND POST PUNK
Period Bomb – “Permanently Wet”
Maybe my favorite album that came out this year. I wish I had more words to describe it than weird, goofy, wonky-ass radness, but the words don’t exist so I’m gonna make some up. Wackful insanidriven permafuckcore from one of the best bands in the fucking country today on one of the raddest labels in the goddamn world, Crass Lips. If you haven’t seen this band yet fucking GO! They are almost always on tour.
https://periodbomb.bandcamp.com/album/permanently-wet
Bucket – “Bouquet”
For fans of Fugazi that wanna hear it updated into the modern quirk-ladden vernacular. Bucket’s got what you want.
https://songsmeanalotwhensongsarebought.bandcamp.com/
Tom Violence – “Popular Horror” EP
https://tomviolenceisadream.bandcamp.com/releases
As if being named after a Sonic Youth song wasn’t enough, Tom Violence will destroy you with heavy shoe-gaze tone drones with industrial levels of weight. I don’t even go to the gym anymore. I just move my limbs around at Tom Violence shows and the air is so heavy, I get swole as fuck. One of the best new acts in Nashville.
POP SADNESS + EVERYTHING ELSE
Flesh Eater – “Live at Supra Sound Studios”
If XTC took some ecstasy, had a threesome with Robert Smith and Morrissey then let Devo raise the kid, that kid might sound like Flesh Eater. Another Banana Tapes band that can get you to move ya damn hips in ways you never thought possible.
https://flesheaterband.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-supra-sound-studios
Blaketheman1000 – “Blaketheman1000’s Greatest Hits” and “Tokyo” EP
If you didn’t get to see Blaketheman1000 ever play in Nashville, I am so sorry and have some literature for a support group you can go to. Pop music at it’s finest, these beautiful boys give yr catchy teen-bop side a well-needed scratch all while maintaining drunken confessions at the dive bar levels of honesty and sincerity hidden beneath a carefully crafted crust of humor. Buy the Greatest Hits cassette from Banana Tapes, I listened to it 20 times in a row and it was a straight banger every time.
https://blaketheman1000.bandcamp.com/album/blaketheman1000s-greatest-hits
https://blaketheman1000.bandcamp.com/album/tokyo-ep
Treadles - “Bees are Thieves Too”
I’ve been following this band since 2010 and watching and hearing it’s progression has been a fucking RIDE! KC is a Nashville native living in NOLA now, and all of it bleeds into their music in beautiful cascades of tones, moans, and student loans. One of the best songwriters I have ever met. Please listen, you need it.
https://treadles.bandcamp.com/album/bees-are-thieves-too
Skin Tension – “A Body Collapsing In A Closed Space”
Do you like jazz but need it to be thrown into a sink disposal unit and thrown around like a fork? You need to catch Skin Tension, one of the incredible local experimental improv groups with rotating members. Everyone involved with this project are some of the most creative people I know. Don’t be scared. It’s ok. A Banana Tapes band so just eat that cherry on top.
https://skintension.bandcamp.com/track/a-body-collapsing-in-a-closed-space-2
Street Rat – “Penance”
I can’t recommend this artist enough to fans of harsh noise. I’ve never been to a more engaging show. Using found “instruments” from wherever they’ve been, Miami’s Street Rat will destroy yr fucking mind and yr sensibilities of what can and can’t be done with performance. And on top of all that, they are part of one of my favorite labels, Crass Lips tapes. They are playing at Mouthhole Jan 30th, so I better see yr ass there.
https://streetratlives.bandcamp.com/album/penance
Secret Friends/Flesh Eater – “Contengen / Disjoint” split
Two of the most exciting creators in Nashville right now and their work with Banana Tapes this year has re-kindled my faith in the Nashville music scene. There’s a lot of thought put into these soundscapes and it shows.
https://secretfriendsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/contingent-disjoint
WEIRD PUNK AND POST PUNK
Period Bomb – “Permanently Wet”
Maybe my favorite album that came out this year. I wish I had more words to describe it than weird, goofy, wonky-ass radness, but the words don’t exist so I’m gonna make some up. Wackful insanidriven permafuckcore from one of the best bands in the fucking country today on one of the raddest labels in the goddamn world, Crass Lips. If you haven’t seen this band yet fucking GO! They are almost always on tour.
https://periodbomb.bandcamp.com/album/permanently-wet
Bucket – “Bouquet”
For fans of Fugazi that wanna hear it updated into the modern quirk-ladden vernacular. Bucket’s got what you want.
https://songsmeanalotwhensongsarebought.bandcamp.com/
Tom Violence – “Popular Horror” EP
https://tomviolenceisadream.bandcamp.com/releases
As if being named after a Sonic Youth song wasn’t enough, Tom Violence will destroy you with heavy shoe-gaze tone drones with industrial levels of weight. I don’t even go to the gym anymore. I just move my limbs around at Tom Violence shows and the air is so heavy, I get swole as fuck. One of the best new acts in Nashville.
POP SADNESS + EVERYTHING ELSE
Flesh Eater – “Live at Supra Sound Studios”
If XTC took some ecstasy, had a threesome with Robert Smith and Morrissey then let Devo raise the kid, that kid might sound like Flesh Eater. Another Banana Tapes band that can get you to move ya damn hips in ways you never thought possible.
https://flesheaterband.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-supra-sound-studios
Blaketheman1000 – “Blaketheman1000’s Greatest Hits” and “Tokyo” EP
If you didn’t get to see Blaketheman1000 ever play in Nashville, I am so sorry and have some literature for a support group you can go to. Pop music at it’s finest, these beautiful boys give yr catchy teen-bop side a well-needed scratch all while maintaining drunken confessions at the dive bar levels of honesty and sincerity hidden beneath a carefully crafted crust of humor. Buy the Greatest Hits cassette from Banana Tapes, I listened to it 20 times in a row and it was a straight banger every time.
https://blaketheman1000.bandcamp.com/album/blaketheman1000s-greatest-hits
https://blaketheman1000.bandcamp.com/album/tokyo-ep
Treadles - “Bees are Thieves Too”
I’ve been following this band since 2010 and watching and hearing it’s progression has been a fucking RIDE! KC is a Nashville native living in NOLA now, and all of it bleeds into their music in beautiful cascades of tones, moans, and student loans. One of the best songwriters I have ever met. Please listen, you need it.
https://treadles.bandcamp.com/album/bees-are-thieves-too
Ivan Doerschuk - Lost Dog Street Band, ex- too many to list
Count The Wicked by Mama's Broke
Ethan Rock, guitars and vocals for Act of Impalement and lead guitar for Vile Desecration
In no particular order but I will say the Weregoat album was my favorite.
Weregoat - Pestilential Rites of Infernal Fornication
Antichrist - Sinful Birth
Necrot - Blood Offerings
Clandestine Blaze - City of Slaughter
Possession - Exorkizein
Condor - Unstoppable Power
Undergang - Misanthropologi
Casket - Ghouls of Filth
Urn - The Burning
Jerry Garner - Vile Desecration
1. Possession-Exorkizein
2. Condor- Unstoppable Power
3. Spectral voice- Eroded Corridors of Unbeing
4. Antichrist- sinful birth
5. John Hoyles- Night Flight
6. Violator-the hidden face of death
7. Bonehunter- Sexual Panic Human Machine
8. Necrot- blood offerings
9. Undergang-misantropoligi
10. Occvlta-night without end
11. Clandestine blaze-city of slaughter
12. Gravestone-Rotten Kill
13. Weaponizer- Lawless Age
14. Power trip- Nightmare Logic
15. Urn-The Burning
(editor's note - Jerry and Ethan definitely cheated off of each other.)
Greg Swinehart - Black Tar Prophet
1.Bell Witch -Mirror Reaper
2.Spectral Voice - eroded corridors of unbeing
3.immolation-Atonement
Jody Lester - Bled to Submission, Bee Bong, ex-Flummox
1. The Body and Full of Hell - Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light
2. Converge - The Dusk in Us
3. Full of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy
4. Spectral Voice - Eroded Corridors of Unbeing
5. Greywoods - Hellgazer
Andrew Pigue - Mothyards, Ghost of Mars, JNN
Carved Cross - S/T
Obskuritatem - Vampirska Kakofonija
R Beny - Cascade Symmetry
Coarses - Temple Steps
Strictly Synth - E.I. Compilation
Wojtek - Our Judgement
Cosmic Void Ritual - Gateways Through Septic Flesh
J Carter - Iris
Coteries - Consumption
Koufar - When The Last One Leaves
Future DZ - Bongo Hymns
Isaak Pancake - Drums Olo
Black Citadel - Relics of Forgotten Satanist Wisdom
DJ Speedsick - N.Y.S.S.
White Rhino Taxidermy - Baphomet Medusa
Derek Martin - Greywoods
Spencer Moore - Inferi, Phobos, Chasm of Teeth
Infrared Horizon - Artificial Brain
Underneath a Melting Sky - Inanimate Existence
Nightbringers - The Black Dahlia Murder
Caustic - Primitive Man
Galactic Empire - Galactic Empire
Perfect World Creation - Dark Matter Secret
Axis Mundi - Decrepit Birth
Loum/Go Be Forgotten - Krallice
Adversary Omnipotent - Enfold Darkness
What Passes for Survival - Pyrrhon
V: The Inside Scriptures - Aosoth
Without Veil, Nor Self - Entheogen
Eschaton Memoire - Chaos Moon
Red Before Black - Cannibal Corpse
Appalling Ascension - The Ominous Circle
Kingdoms Disdained - Morbid Angel
Finisterre - Der Weg Einer Freiheit
Abreaction - Svart Crown
Dunes - Sutrah
A Stirring in the Noos - John Frum
Here are the EPs I jammed:
Vipassana - Itinerant
Pain Will Define Their Death - Vitriol
Bathos - Aborted
The Grey - Oginalii
Only A Light Remains - Bled to Submission
From The Unforgiving Arms of God - End
Widowmaker - Widowmaker
Chris Click- Greywoods, The Ascent of Everest
Bell Witch- Mirror Reaper
Blut Aus Nord- Dues Salutis Meae
The Bug & Earth- Concrete Desert
Converge-the Dusk in Us
Igorrr- Savage Sinusoid
Metz-Strange Peace
Nine Inch Nails- Add Violence EP
Paradise Lost- Medusa
Perturbator- New Model
Primitive Man- Caustic
Process of Guilt- Black Earth
Queens of the Stone Age- Villains
Statiqbloom- Blue Moon Blood
Throane- Plus une main à mordre
Tyler Bennett - Pamphlet
Boris- Dear
Bell Witch- Mirror Reaper
Elder- Reflections of a Floating World
Pallbearer- Heartless
Zu- Jhator
Oxbow- Thin Black Duke
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard- Murder of the Universe
Wolves in the Throne Room- Thrice Woven
Blake Dellinger - Flummox, Unorthodox
Ford Theatre Reunion - We Have Only Left Earth
Primus - The Desaturating Seven
Stump Tail Dolly - Soundtrack to the Second Civil War
Suffering Hour - In Passing Ascension
Laser Flames on the Great Big News - S/T
Shroud Eater - Strike the Sun
Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pacifisticuffs
Alice Cooper - Paranormal
The Obsessed - Sacred
Morbid Angel - Kingdoms Disdained
Dead Cross - S/T
All Them Witches - Sleeping Through the War
Leon Russell - On a Distant Shore
Electric Wizard - Wizard Bloody Wizard
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Aaron Hortman - Vile Desecration
SPECTRAL VOICE
MORBOSIDAD
NEXUL
YOHUALLI
ANTICHRIST (SWED)
UNDERGANG
BONEHUNTER
POSSESSION
CLANDESTINE BLAZE
SACROCURSE
ASCENDED DEAD
J. Weilburg - Chainshot, Alraune, ex- too many to list
Favorite albums of 2017:
Loss - horizonless
Kendrick Lamar - DAMN
Possession - Exorkizein
Uniform - Wake In Fright
Reissues I was stoked on in 2017:
Psychic TV - Allegory And Self
Psychic TV - Pagan Day
Current 93 - Thunder Perfect Mind
Neil Young - Harvest Moon
Blake Conley - The Minor Second, Droneroom, Endless Body, ex-Brother Ares, ex-Cosmic Yawn
Music is not a competition and shouldn’t be ranked as such. Having said that, most played album is most definitely Kendrik’s Damn.
favs-
kendrick lamar- damn
pissed jeans- why love now
brokeback- illinois river valley blues
the bug vs earth- concrete desert
big walnuts yonder- s/t
endless boogie- vibe killer
mountain goats- goths
cloakroom- time well
the national- sleep well beast
six organs of admittance- burning the threshold
shabazz palaces- quazarz: born On A gangster star/ quazarz vs the jealous machines
waxahatchee- out in the storm
alison crutchfield- tourist in this town
bon air- the blue line
courtney barnett & kurt vile- lotta sea lice
pharmakon- contact
twin peaks- music from the limited event series
angel olsen- phases
Court Reese (me!) - ex-Act of Impalement, ex-Cosmic Yawn, Cøurtney, [forthcoming band]
This year was a fucking banner year. I'm still finding absolute gems days before I'm writing this. I kept having to change my top favorites, which is such a good problem to have. Without further ado (okay maybe a little for honorable mentions like Extremely Fucking Dead, Khonsu, Terrifier, Astronoid, Blut Aus Nord, Electric Wizard, Cannibal Corpse, Couch Slut, and Lingua Ignota), on with the top records of 2017!
#3
Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
1 track, 83 fucking minutes. My first reaction upon seeing the length was "Jesus shitchrist, they've outDopesmokered Dopesmoker!" But once you get hypnotized you'll hit the hour mark and not realize. An absolutely beautiful, perfectly somber yet heavy memorial to their fallen drummer Adrian Guerra.
#2
Boris - Dear
In this 25th anniversary love letter to their fans (hence the title), Boris has come back with a might STAWMP. This album forgoes much of their more experimental material and delivers an absolutely crrrrushing album, but manages to infuse it with quite a bit of beauty with their incomparable vocal harmonies soaring atop the mountain-leveling riffs.
AND AT #1 IT'S
Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
HAHAHA I DID IT AGAIN FUCKERS I PUT A POP ALBUM AT THE TOP but fr tho hear me out, this thing is pop as it should be, catchy but nowhere near shallow. They even threaten to go entirely off the rails at the end of a few tracks. If you look beyond the dance grooves and Garm's soulful croons (and oh can he croon), the lyrics are absolutely insane, referencing specific dates and addresses, one of which was where the Black House, the Satanic temple of Anton Lavey, once stood. All together the lyrics connect modern and historical events in a way that I still haven't explored all the way down (it's a deep rabbit hole) but they seem to saying that history repeats itself, that certain ideas permeate modern society ever since its inception in the Roman Empire. This subtle, hidden depth within a pop candy coating is why this album is my top for 20WAIT. Did you hear something? Is that
THE HELDY BOYS??
Bah Gawd, The Body and Full of Hell's collab Ascending a Mountin of Heavy Light was one of the best things this year by far! They pushed my expectations right out the door! Going from their noise doom meets noisy grindcore sounds to this, with hip-hop and even dance beats while keeping if not upping the ferocity blew me the fuck away. Like, if their previous collab was Goku and Vegeta battling whomstever separately, this album is their goddamn fusion dance. It answers my question of "what would joy with the power of blind fury sound like?" They answer it with the first scream: this record is bliss erupted. And that's why it's this year's best alWAIT WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING NOW
MY GOD IT'S THE PRIMITIVE MAN HIMSELF
JEsus. Caustic is so heavy I couldn't understand it the first time I listened, and I still don't think I comprehend it entirely. This this is unfathomably heavy. Blending noise, doom, blastbeats all together to create an unbelievably crushing album. This album does away with any mysticism or demon worship and draws from the heaviness of poverty and of racism, and knowing that in today's world, there is no escape, that the struggle just to stay alive often isn't enough. This defenestration (god i love that word, look it up if you don't know it) of fantasies or escapism in favor of the bleakest possible portrayal of reality lends such unflinching heaviness to this record, which is why it's the real
>.>
<.<
top album of 2017.
Underneath a Melting Sky - Inanimate Existence
Nightbringers - The Black Dahlia Murder
Caustic - Primitive Man
Galactic Empire - Galactic Empire
Perfect World Creation - Dark Matter Secret
Axis Mundi - Decrepit Birth
Loum/Go Be Forgotten - Krallice
Adversary Omnipotent - Enfold Darkness
What Passes for Survival - Pyrrhon
V: The Inside Scriptures - Aosoth
Without Veil, Nor Self - Entheogen
Eschaton Memoire - Chaos Moon
Red Before Black - Cannibal Corpse
Appalling Ascension - The Ominous Circle
Kingdoms Disdained - Morbid Angel
Finisterre - Der Weg Einer Freiheit
Abreaction - Svart Crown
Dunes - Sutrah
A Stirring in the Noos - John Frum
Here are the EPs I jammed:
Vipassana - Itinerant
Pain Will Define Their Death - Vitriol
Bathos - Aborted
The Grey - Oginalii
Only A Light Remains - Bled to Submission
From The Unforgiving Arms of God - End
Widowmaker - Widowmaker
Chris Click- Greywoods, The Ascent of Everest
Bell Witch- Mirror Reaper
Blut Aus Nord- Dues Salutis Meae
The Bug & Earth- Concrete Desert
Converge-the Dusk in Us
Igorrr- Savage Sinusoid
Metz-Strange Peace
Nine Inch Nails- Add Violence EP
Paradise Lost- Medusa
Perturbator- New Model
Primitive Man- Caustic
Process of Guilt- Black Earth
Queens of the Stone Age- Villains
Statiqbloom- Blue Moon Blood
Throane- Plus une main à mordre
Tyler Bennett - Pamphlet
Boris- Dear
Bell Witch- Mirror Reaper
Elder- Reflections of a Floating World
Pallbearer- Heartless
Zu- Jhator
Oxbow- Thin Black Duke
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard- Murder of the Universe
Wolves in the Throne Room- Thrice Woven
Blake Dellinger - Flummox, Unorthodox
Ford Theatre Reunion - We Have Only Left Earth
Primus - The Desaturating Seven
Stump Tail Dolly - Soundtrack to the Second Civil War
Suffering Hour - In Passing Ascension
Laser Flames on the Great Big News - S/T
Shroud Eater - Strike the Sun
Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pacifisticuffs
Alice Cooper - Paranormal
The Obsessed - Sacred
Morbid Angel - Kingdoms Disdained
Dead Cross - S/T
All Them Witches - Sleeping Through the War
Leon Russell - On a Distant Shore
Electric Wizard - Wizard Bloody Wizard
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Aaron Hortman - Vile Desecration
SPECTRAL VOICE
MORBOSIDAD
NEXUL
YOHUALLI
ANTICHRIST (SWED)
UNDERGANG
BONEHUNTER
POSSESSION
CLANDESTINE BLAZE
SACROCURSE
ASCENDED DEAD
J. Weilburg - Chainshot, Alraune, ex- too many to list
Favorite albums of 2017:
Loss - horizonless
Kendrick Lamar - DAMN
Possession - Exorkizein
Uniform - Wake In Fright
Reissues I was stoked on in 2017:
Psychic TV - Allegory And Self
Psychic TV - Pagan Day
Current 93 - Thunder Perfect Mind
Neil Young - Harvest Moon
Blake Conley - The Minor Second, Droneroom, Endless Body, ex-Brother Ares, ex-Cosmic Yawn
Music is not a competition and shouldn’t be ranked as such. Having said that, most played album is most definitely Kendrik’s Damn.
favs-
kendrick lamar- damn
pissed jeans- why love now
brokeback- illinois river valley blues
the bug vs earth- concrete desert
big walnuts yonder- s/t
endless boogie- vibe killer
mountain goats- goths
cloakroom- time well
the national- sleep well beast
six organs of admittance- burning the threshold
shabazz palaces- quazarz: born On A gangster star/ quazarz vs the jealous machines
waxahatchee- out in the storm
alison crutchfield- tourist in this town
bon air- the blue line
courtney barnett & kurt vile- lotta sea lice
pharmakon- contact
twin peaks- music from the limited event series
angel olsen- phases
This year was a fucking banner year. I'm still finding absolute gems days before I'm writing this. I kept having to change my top favorites, which is such a good problem to have. Without further ado (okay maybe a little for honorable mentions like Extremely Fucking Dead, Khonsu, Terrifier, Astronoid, Blut Aus Nord, Electric Wizard, Cannibal Corpse, Couch Slut, and Lingua Ignota), on with the top records of 2017!
#3
Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
1 track, 83 fucking minutes. My first reaction upon seeing the length was "Jesus shitchrist, they've outDopesmokered Dopesmoker!" But once you get hypnotized you'll hit the hour mark and not realize. An absolutely beautiful, perfectly somber yet heavy memorial to their fallen drummer Adrian Guerra.
#2
Boris - Dear
In this 25th anniversary love letter to their fans (hence the title), Boris has come back with a might STAWMP. This album forgoes much of their more experimental material and delivers an absolutely crrrrushing album, but manages to infuse it with quite a bit of beauty with their incomparable vocal harmonies soaring atop the mountain-leveling riffs.
AND AT #1 IT'S
Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
HAHAHA I DID IT AGAIN FUCKERS I PUT A POP ALBUM AT THE TOP but fr tho hear me out, this thing is pop as it should be, catchy but nowhere near shallow. They even threaten to go entirely off the rails at the end of a few tracks. If you look beyond the dance grooves and Garm's soulful croons (and oh can he croon), the lyrics are absolutely insane, referencing specific dates and addresses, one of which was where the Black House, the Satanic temple of Anton Lavey, once stood. All together the lyrics connect modern and historical events in a way that I still haven't explored all the way down (it's a deep rabbit hole) but they seem to saying that history repeats itself, that certain ideas permeate modern society ever since its inception in the Roman Empire. This subtle, hidden depth within a pop candy coating is why this album is my top for 20WAIT. Did you hear something? Is that
THE HELDY BOYS??
Bah Gawd, The Body and Full of Hell's collab Ascending a Mountin of Heavy Light was one of the best things this year by far! They pushed my expectations right out the door! Going from their noise doom meets noisy grindcore sounds to this, with hip-hop and even dance beats while keeping if not upping the ferocity blew me the fuck away. Like, if their previous collab was Goku and Vegeta battling whomstever separately, this album is their goddamn fusion dance. It answers my question of "what would joy with the power of blind fury sound like?" They answer it with the first scream: this record is bliss erupted. And that's why it's this year's best alWAIT WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING NOW
MY GOD IT'S THE PRIMITIVE MAN HIMSELF
JEsus. Caustic is so heavy I couldn't understand it the first time I listened, and I still don't think I comprehend it entirely. This this is unfathomably heavy. Blending noise, doom, blastbeats all together to create an unbelievably crushing album. This album does away with any mysticism or demon worship and draws from the heaviness of poverty and of racism, and knowing that in today's world, there is no escape, that the struggle just to stay alive often isn't enough. This defenestration (god i love that word, look it up if you don't know it) of fantasies or escapism in favor of the bleakest possible portrayal of reality lends such unflinching heaviness to this record, which is why it's the real
>.>
<.<
top album of 2017.
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