Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order):
After the Burial-Dig Deep
Obscura-Akroasis
Testament-Brotherhood of the Snake
Thank You Scientist-Stranger Heads Prevail
The Weeknd-Starboy
20.Future-EVOL:
There is not an artist on the planet right now that frustrates me more than Future. Despite his regular flashes of grimy trap brilliance, the constantly fluctuating level of effort behind his songwriting and rapping had prevented me from ever getting really into any of his projects. Riding high off of the breakout success that 2015 brought him, Future was finally able to piece together a strong collection of tracks with his early 2016 release EVOL. This is every bit of the catchy, gritty and low-key vulnerable record he's been aspiring to make since he underwent his codeine-soaked renaissance on 2014's Monster. Fingers crossed that we can see more of this laser-focused side of Future Hendrix on his upcoming wave of projects.
Standout Tracks: 1.Seven Rings 2.Photo Copied 3.Maybach
19.Periphery-Periphery III: Select Difficulty:
While it sure as hell won't bring them any new fans, Periphery III is a rewarding 75-minutes for anyone that's on board with the Maryland-bred sextet's emo-tinged brand of djent. Just about every song beautifully blends metalcore aggression with textured prog melodies and the entire band continues to push the boundaries of what they're capable of as musicians.
Standout Tracks: 1.Flatline 2.Marigold 3.Habitual Line-Stepper
18.Car Bomb-Meta:
I honestly hate myself for sleeping on Car Bomb for so long. Meta combines pummeling Meshuggah-style grooves with a Dillinger Escape Plan-esque level of chaos to form a unique, exhilarating behemoth of a record that eviscerates everything in its wake. If the rest of their discography is as unrelentingly heavy and balls-to-the-wall insane as Meta, my fragile brain might explode.
Standout Tracks: 1.Black Blood 2.From the Dust of This Planet 3.Gratitude
17.Banks-The Altar:
Beyonce's Lemonade was the popular choice for breakup album of the year, but the sophomore LP from Banks left a much bigger impression on me. Banks' reflection on her broken engagement is a powerful exploration of the wide range of emotions that come with ending a serious relationship while also serving as a stirring showcase for her vulnerable yet powerful vocals.
Standout Tracks: 1.Gemini Feed 2.Poltergeist 3.Mind Games
16.Frank Ocean-Blonde:
Following a seemingly endless amount of misdirection from his camp and false speculation from industry insiders surrounding its release, Frank Ocean finally released his long-awaited follow-up to his widely celebrated 2012 debut Channel Orange in August. If his subsequent releases end up being as great as Blonde, I'll happily deal with numerous delays and gimmicky internet publicity stints on every album cycle. Despite lacking the volume of attention-grabbing highlights or bold tonal changes of its predecessor, Blonde's more minimalist approach does a better job of showcasing Ocean's unparalleled knack for writing sincere, emotionally-transparent lyrics and creating music with an immersive atmosphere that gets under your skin from start to finish.
Standout Tracks: 1.Pink + White 2.Nights 3.Ivy
15.Alleageon-Proponent for Sentience:
Alleageon's troubling trend of lineup shakeups after every album cycle hit its apex when founding vocalist Ezra Haynes suddenly quit the band in September 2015. He served as the glue that held the band together when guitarist/primary songwriter (and now only remaining founding member) Greg Burgess overindulged in technicality and his departure had the potential to sink the band before they fully hit their stride. Not only did the subtraction of Haynes not end up hurting Alleageon, it led to the creation of their finest album to-date. The versatility of new vocalist Riley McShane (Son of Aurelius) has allowed Burgess to further experiment with classical and straight-up prog arrangements without sacrificing any of the group's signature tech-death bite. Hopefully Alleageon can hold onto this lineup for a little while because Proponent for Sentience sounds like the prelude to something really special.
Standout Tracks: 1.Gray Matter Mechanics-Apassionata Ex Machinea 2.From Nothing 3.Cognitive Computations
14.Travi$ Scott-Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight:
Travi$ Scott's transformation from internet message board darling to legitimate hip-hop superstar has officially been completed on Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight. The promising, but tonally-confused MC that was found on 2015's Rodeo has been replaced by a charismatic oddball that has successfully taken his idol Kid Cudi's place as the king of psychedelic hip-hop.
Standout Tracks: 1. Sweet Sweet 2.Pick up the Phone (feat. Young Thug and Quavo) 3.Goosebumps (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
13.Black Crown Initiate-Selves We Cannot Forgive:
After a brief detour to the world of straightforward death metal on their 2014 debut The Wreckage of Stars, Black Crown Initiate has returned to their progressive death metal wheelhouse with great success on Selves We Cannot Forgive. This record has all of the grandiose landscapes and hard-hitting riffs that made their 2013 EP Song of the Crippled Bull so captivating along with further experimentation with the melodic elements (acoustic guitars, string arrangements, etc.) and much-improved clean vocals from guitarist Andy Thomas. This record firmly reminded me of why I felt Black Crown Initiate had the potential to be an elite metal band a few years back and I hope they stay on their current grand-scale prog-death course for the foreseeable future.
Standout Tracks: 1.Again 2.Bellie the Machine 3.Transmit to Disconnect
12.Every Time I Die-Low Teens:
It's a testament to the quality of Every Time I Die's music that my least favorite album of theirs since 2009's New Junk Aesthetic still managed to be among my favorite records of the year. It may lack the spark of hardcore punk rage that made their last two records so special, but it was fun to hear them go back to the more "melodic", southern rock-inspired sound that defined their mid-2000's releases. As long as riff lords Andy Williams and Jordan Buckley continue to bless us with divine licks and vocalist Keith Buckey doesn't lose his cynical, snarky edge, Every Time I Die will continue to kick major ass.
Standout Tracks: 1.The Coin Has a Say 2.Fear and Trembling 3.I Don't Want to Join Your Stupid Cult Anyways
11.Migos-Y.R.N. 2 (Young Rich Niggas 2):
2016 marked the year where hip-hop fans started to take Migos seriously and January's brilliant Y.R.N.2 was an early sign that it was going to be a special 12 months for the previously unheralded group. The Atlanta-based trio brushed off their ugly 2015 full of underwhelming pop-influenced releases and legal trouble by kicking off the new year with a raucous return to their high-energy trap roots that is easily their most well-rounded and consistent release since 2014's No Label II. If the quality of this tape and their July EP 3 Way are any indication, you can expect their upcoming LP Culture to be similarly high on my best-of 2017 list.
Standout Tracks: 1.Trippin' 2.WOA 3.Chances
10.Death Grips-Bottomless Pit:
No 2016 redemption story was more shocking or triumphant to me than that of industrial hip-hop/cyberpunk/yelling hobocore group Death Grips. I had completely lost faith that they would ever deliver another high quality release until Bottomless Pit came along and reminded me of the type of in-your-face, teeth-kicking destruction they're capable of when they're firing on all cylinders. After being somewhat underwhelmed by the uneven electronic and avant-garde experiments they put forth on their past few releases, it was so refreshing to put on one of their records and just be in awe of the raw aggression, utter insanity and unlikely earworm hooks present in every single song. Bottomless Pit was the perfect soundtrack for a year that made me want to frequently scream at the heavens and rip my hair clean out of my head.
Standout Tracks: 1.BB Poison 2.Bubbles Buried in This Jungle 3.Houdini
9.Vale of Pnath-II:
Vale of Pnath was a band that had appeared to have fallen of the face of the earth over the past few years. They had been oddly quiet on both the touring and recording front since releasing their pretty impressive debut The Prodigal Empire in 2011, so I figured they had become another casualty of the cruel modern music industry. Their AWOL status came to a sudden halt when they rose from the ashes of prolonged inactivity this past summer with two new members (vocalist Reece Deeter and guitarist Eloy Montes) and a new record in II, which absolutely blows the doors off of The Prodigal Empire. The new incarnation of Vale of Pnath has added a pretty substantial dash of symphonic and melodic death metal to their repertoire, which gives them an epic, European-inspired feel you don't find in a lot of new technical death metal. II is an absolutely killer comeback record from Vale of Pnath and I hope to hell they don't fade back into limbo for another half-decade after this release.
Standout Tracks: 1.Reaver 2.Klendathu 3.The Serpent's Lair
8.Ariana Grande-Dangerous Woman:
Outside of her staggering vocal power and range, I found nothing particularly noteworthy about Ariana Grande's previous releases. The dull songwriting and often obnoxious choruses that plagued her earlier work made the runaway success of Dangerous Woman a complete and utter shock to me. This record sees Grande successfully utilizing a wide range of production choices that perfectly complement her outstanding vocal ability and delivering an abundance of strong hooks that rent out real estate in your brain for months at a time. I've yet to hear another record in this current pop Renaissance pop movement come anywhere close to matching the variety, consistency and memorability of Dangerous Woman.
Standout Tracks: 1.Bad Decisions 2.Into You 3.Moonlight
7.Touche Amore-Stage Four:
Touche Amore has become icons in the post-hardcore/screamo community by delivering emotionally-charged music that strongly resonates with its listeners, but their past records are almost jovial in nature when compared to the earth-shattering devastation that is found on Stage Four. Stage Four focuses on the grieving process vocalist Jeremy Bolm endured when his mother was diagnosed and eventually passed away from stage four cancer back in 2014. Every single track on this album is so well-realized, intimate and viscerally gut-wrenching that you feel like you've experienced a loss of your own by the time it's over. It's a deeply powerful and absolutely agonizing listen that hasn't left my thoughts since I first heard it back in October.
Standout Tracks: 1.New Halloween 2.Rapture 3.Skyscraper
6.Run the Jewels-RTJ3:
This record serves as a reminder of why people should wait until the year is officially over to release their year-end best lists. El-P and Killer Mike gave their fans the best holiday gift possible by releasing their hotly-anticipated third LP nearly three weeks before its previously announced release date. While the Christmas release date was a surprise, the quality of RTJ3 was anything but. RTJ3 is another set of infectious, incendiary bangers that reaffirms why Run the Jewels are the best duo in hip-hop today.
Standout Tracks: 1.Panther Like a Panther (feat. Trina) 2.Legend Has It 3.Hey Kids (Bumaye) (feat. Danny Brown)
5.Revocation-Great is Our Sin:
Modern metal's most consistent act has delivered yet again on their fifth LP (and sixth overall release) in the last eight years. Their most thrash-influenced effort since their 2009 breakout album Existence is Futile is another rampant success story full of adventurous songwriting, headbang-friendly riffs and frontman David Davidson's genre-bending guitar solos that remains constantly exhilarating over the course of its 48-minute runtime.
Standout Tracks: 1.Crumpling Imperium 2.Profanum Vulgus 3.Only the Spineless Survive
4.Entheos-The Infinite Nothing:
I don't know who or what was responsible for their transformation (they had no member changes until after this album was released), but something magical happened to Entheos between the release of their solid albeit completely unspectacular EP Primal in the summer of 2015 and the recording of their masterful 2016 debut LP The Infinite Nothing. Entheos seemingly blossomed into a spastic force of nature powered by Evan Brewer's jaw-dropping slap-bass lines, Navene Koperweis' inhuman drumming and above all, frontwoman Chaney Crabb's frenzied vocal delivery overnight and I couldn't possibly be happier about it. Technical death metal is in an amazing place right now and the strength of The Infinite Nothing is enough to catapult Entheos to a prime spot in the genre's talent-loaded hierarchy.
Standout Tracks: 1.Perpetual Miscalculations 2.Terminal Stages of Nostalgia 3.New Light
3.The Dillinger Escape Plan-Dissociation:
Dissociation is a poetic swan song for a band that defied convention at all costs for the entirety of their nearly two-decade career. It's chaotic, beautiful, violent, unpredictable and absolutely breathtaking to behold. In other words, it's a quintessential Dillinger Escape Plan record. The metal world isn't going to be the same without Dillinger Escape Plan in it and I'm beyond thankful to have been alive while they wreaking havoc on the entire musical community.
Standout Tracks: 1.Honeysuckle 2.Nothing to Forget 3.Dissociation
2.Danny Brown-Atrocity Exhibition:
Beneath all of the zany flows and whirlwind energy, Danny Brown's music is driven by an immense sense of pain. None of Brown's work has ever highlighted his internal struggle better than the fucked-up masterpiece that is Atrocity Exhibition. Atrocity Exhibition is a frantic, twisted ride through the personal hell that Brown endures every day. Largely driven by suffocating, sample-heavy production from British electronic producer Paul White, Brown weaves an immensely effective narrative about how he numbs his struggle with depression and anxiety by indulging in copious amounts of drugs and casual sex. Atrocity Exhibition's subject matter and bizarre production choices will alienate a good amount of audiences, but as far as I'm concerned, this is the best hip-hop album of the 2010's to-date.
Standout Tracks: 1.Ain't It Funny 2.When It Rain 3.From the Ground (feat. Kelela)
1.Fallujah-Dreamless:
After flashing immense potential on 2011's The Harvest Wombs, 2013's Nomadic and 2014's The Flesh Prevails, Fallujah has finally made their masterpiece with Dreamless. The Bay Area progressive/technical death metal act has improved upon the emotionally-driven formula they introduced on The Flesh Prevails with smoother transitions between the two sides of their sound, a greater emphasis on Scott Carstairs' awe-inspiring guitarwork and stellar production that lets all of the layers of their music breathe without overpowering one another. Dreamless is a simply stunning record from a young band that I feel has the potential to go down as extreme metal legends if they continue on their current path.
Standout Tracks: 1.Adrenaline 2.Amber Gaze 3.The Void Alone
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