Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order by artist):
August Burns Red-Death Below
END-The Sin of Human Frailty
Silent Planet-Superbloom
Unearth-The Wretched; The Ruinous
Veil of Maya-(M)other
10.Periphery-Periphery V: Djent is Not a Genre:
Periphery V seems to be the start of a new era for the Maryland "djent" act. While there's still plenty of Spencer Sotelo's soaring falsetto vocals/poppy hooks and the deep, bassy 7-8 string guitar riffing from their 3-axeman attack of Jake Bowen, Mark Holcomb and Misha "Bulb" Mansoor that has been at the heart of the band's sound since their breakout back in 2010, this record marks the deepest dive down the prog rabbit hole they've made to date and that journey into the great unknown produced some of the most melodic, uncharacteristically serious material these typically unapologetic goofballs have ever produced. It's a natural, admirable progression for a band that's approaching the 15-year mark of their existence and the filtration with something that resembles maturity is something they needed to ensure their sound remains fresh for another decade-plus.
Standout Tracks: 1.Wax Wings 2.Dying Star 3.Dracul Gras
9.Year of the Knife-No Love Lost:
At just 20 over minutes in length, No Love Lost is the kind of laser-focused, pedal-to-the-metal onslaught that the metal genre needs more of. Everything from the riffs to the vocal delivery to the audible bass (!) are overflowing with a blistering ferocity and the breezy runtime ensures that the urgency level never dips below that of a 5-alarm fire. Hopefully vocalist Madi Watkins will be able to make a full recovery from the injuries she sustained from a scary van accident the band suffered while on tour last summer and Year of the Knife can go back to eviscerating stages and studios with their stunningly brutal brand of metal/deathcore ASAP.
Standout Tracks: 1.Sometimes 2.Heaven Denied 3.Mourning the Living
8.Mutoid Man-Mutants:
Stephen Brodsky and Ben Koller's sustained run of musical excellence continued with the third effort from their stoner metal/rock supergroup. Mutants is a hard-rocking, deeply hooky live wire of a record that benefits immensely from the addition of High on Fire's Jeff Matz and his groovy basslines to their ranks and the founding members continued dedication to using this band as an outlet to unleash every light, fun metal impulse they have in them that they can't explore with their other groups.
Standout Tracks: 1.Graveyard Love 2.Frozen Hearts 3.Unborn
7.Dying Wish-Symptoms of Survival:
If Dying Wish wasn't already among the torchbearers for this generation's metalcore revival movement, Symptoms of Survival should put them there. Their second LP is a massive step forward from their 2021 debut Fragments of a Bitter Memory, which is crazy since that record was already very impressive. The songwriting that mixes the raw tenacity of metalcore's founding acts with the more melodic tendencies the scene took on in the mid-to-early 2000's acts is more assured, Emma Boster's harsh and clean vocals have more bite behind them and the lyrics are even more personal and dripping with pure venomous vulnerability. Don't be surprised if a full-blown breakout a la Knocked Loose or Vein.fm ends up being on the horizon for them.
Standout Tracks: 1.Symptoms of Survival 2.Path to Your Grave 3.Tongues of Lead
6.Horrendous-Ontological Mysterium:
Horrendous has long been a band that I listened to in passing when they dropped a new record and otherwise mostly just ignored outside of conversations about album artwork that I really like. That all changed with Ontological Mysterium. This record is a deeply inventive blend of a wide array of metal subgenres (death, prog, thrash, melodeath) that is delivered with a sense of playfulness that you rarely see on the more extreme side of the genre coin and features a smorgasboard of astounding guitar leads that brought an immense amount of pleasure to the portion of my brain that is full of nothing but solos, pull-offs, sweeps, etc.
Standout Tracks: 1.Chrysopoeia (The Archaeology of Dawn) 2.Cult of Shaad'oah 3.The Death Kneel Ringeth
5.Dying Fetus-Make Them Beg for Death:
The release of a new Dying Fetus record feels like a truly special occasion as Make Them Beg for Death is only the 3rd record the iconic death metal trio has released since the start of the 2010's. Unlike most infrequent special occasions or celebrations, Dying Fetus once again delivered the goods in a big way. John Gallagher, Sean Beasley and Trey Williams continue to show why they are master craftsman of the devil music arts by concocting another lethally efficient, brutally heavy ripper of a record that expertly balances mammoth grooves with face-melting technicality without ever letting the scales tip too heavily in favor of either side or redundancy to creep in. They epitomize the practice of mastering a sound without letting it become it stale and may their continued excellence operating in the same lane serve as the blueprint for future generations who wish to achieve something similar.
Standout Tracks: 1.Feast of Ashes 2.Undulating Carnage 3.Compulsion for Cruelty
4.Queens of the Stone Age-In Times New Roman...:
I told a friend of mine on the phone last week that I believe In Times New Roman... is Queens of the Stone Age's best release since Songs for the Deaf and to put it mildly, he was really taken aback by the take. This was a reaction that I fully expected and totally understand since this isn't even close to being among the most acclaimed releases Queens has put out over the years. The reason that I fell so deeply in love with In Times New Roman... was that it was the first time in a long time where I felt like Queens of the Stone Age was firing on all cylinders. My favorite side of Queens of the Stone Age has always been their dirty, cynical take on hard/stoner rock that sounds like it was conceived in the dumpiest room of a seedy motel in the middle of the desert. In Times New Roman.. taps into this endearingly bleak place with a collection of tunes that are full of real pain, anger and despair along with some truly nasty guitar grooves that have so much bite behind them that they almost hearken back to Josh Homme's days with Kyuss. It's awful that it took an extremely turbulent time in Homme's life to get back to this musical sweet spot of theirs, but it's a blessing that part of his healing process involved tapping into a dark, scuzzy place that he hadn't been to musically in quite some time.
Standout Tracks: 1.Paper Machete 2.Obscenery 3.What the Peephole Say
3.Foo Fighters-But Here We Are:
To put it simply, But Here We Are is a beautiful tribute to the memory of the late Taylor Hawkins from some of the people that knew him best and loved him the most. It's every bit as triumphant as it melancholic and classic Foo Fighters as it an unexpectedly experimental departure from anything they've done in the past. The only that sucks about it is that Hawkins wasn't around to partake in such a monumental entry in their impressive catalog.
Standout Tracks: 1.Under You 2.But Here We Are 3.The Glass
2.King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard-PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation:
King Gizz's second dip into the exhilarating waters of heavy metal music is even better than their first (2019's Infest the Rats' Nest). Here, they expand on the unique stoner groove-infused take on thrash sound they had on Rats Nest' by injecting PetroDragonic Apocalypse's 7 tracks with a heavy dose of prog influences. Unsurprisingly, this is a marriage made in heaven for them as it allows their gift for crafting exciting, lengthy instrumental sections to shine through without ever losing focus of the harder-hitting, more riff-driven sound they get to tap into whenever they're making heavier music. Who knows when these workaholic Aussies will feel compelled to make another metal record, but fingers crossed it won't be another 4 years.
Standout Tracks: 1.Witchcraft 2.Supercell 3.Motor Spirit
1.JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown-SCARING THE HOES:
There's an irony to a hip hop record being my favorite album of the year at a time where I'm the lowest I've been on the genre that I've been in over a decade, but let's just say that I would stop feeling that way real quick if there were more SCARING THE HOES making their way into the world. JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown instantly emerge as an abrasive weirdo rap dream team as they deliver an immaculate collection of monstrous tracks that sees the duo exchanging incendiary, bullshit-spewing verses back and forth over absurdly hard production from Peggy himself that makes a strong argument for the use of more raw, sample-heavy beats in hip hop. May this prove to be only the start of a long, prosperous partnership between these two brilliant artists.
Standout Tracks: 1.Fentanyl Tester 2.Burfict 3.Kingdom Hearts Key (feat. redveil)
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