25 Words on 25 Even More Albums from 2016

God Body Disconnect – Dredge Portals

If you ignore the intrusive and unnecessary spoken-word bits, this is a brilliant, calming dark ambient journey into the somber trenches of reflection and regret.

Imperial Triumphant – Inceste

I prefer black metal that makes me think of desolate forests instead of desolate clowns. The avant-garde aspect is a little too Pagliacci for me.

Nervosa – Agony

Riff rippers extraordinaire! Three bad ass women from Sao Paolo playing classic thrash that pulls together Slayer, Obituary, and Aura Noir into a tight, explosive package.

Vektor – Terminal Redux

Instead of Barf and Lonestar in a Winnebago, it’s Steven, me, and some frosty road sodas rippin’ donuts on the universe in his turquoise Mustang.

Gorguts – Pleiades’ Dust

The album’s musical complexity and subject matter (the Islamic Golden Age) are fascinating, but this album is most engaging when it relentlessly blasts and roars.

Mourn – Ha, Ha, He.

Jangling, noodly, off-timed guitar music that nudges up ever so slightly against the immense weirdness of early 90s noise rock. Far more pleasant than dissonant.

Eight Bells – Landless

Imagine if Helm’s Alee played smoky, Sabbath-tinged black metal that united atmosphere and aggression to the detriment of neither. Find comfort in feeling constantly adrift.

Endless Melancholy – Her Name in a Language of Stars

Layers of dronescape build and build and build into staggering heights until you are unsure whether you are crushed below or floating above it all.

Funeral Moth – Transience

Plodding. Plod. Ding. Plaw. Deeng. Now, pour some molasses and tar on the word “plodding” and you’ve got yourself this fine piece of Japanese doom.

Commence Plodding

Fear of Men – Fall Forever

Absolutely intoxicating synth-heavy dreamgaze with a delightful dash of 80s Britpop ennui. Jessica Weiss’ vocals sound like running hand-in-hand through a field full of daffodils.

Mogwai – Atomic

Though not as good as Zidane or Les Revenants, Atomic represents Mogwai’s sonic exploration of the dark underbelly of technological advancement. Gripping, haunting, and magical.

Vow – Kind Eyes

This is the kind of album significant others bond over when they have only slightly overlapping tastes. Then they’ll avoid it after the inevitable breakup.

Rendez-Vous – Distance

Italian dark wave with some serious teeth. At times you wanna dance, and at other times you wanna hassle shopkeepers in your studded leather jacket.

Big Business – Command Your Weather

If you consider uniqueness, song-writing, melody, riffage… doesn’t Big Business’ peak have to rank really high against their contemporaries? (This album’s just Jarred and Coady!)

Puro Instinct – Autodrama

Two sisters from LA playing glitzy glam synth pop with dreamy guitar. Warning: you will pick up your pet and make it dance with you.

Alio Die – Seamlessly Bliss

This album is like if leaves were bells and sunlight shook them when it passed through the trees into your bedroom in the early morning.

Boris – Pink + Forbidden Songs

How do you have “Talisman” just sittin’ in your back pocket for ten goddamn years and then spring it on us outta nowhere? The audacity.

Dark Funeral – Where Shadows Forever Reign

By-the-numbers black metal but the only number is 1 and the only corresponding colour is black. Or maybe like an even darker shade of black.

Schoolboy Q – Blank Face

While Blank Face has a slew of great tracks – “Dope Dealer” and “Ride Out” especially -, it needs to be about 20 to 25% shorter.

Stray Ghost – An Avalanche of Swollen Tongues

Originally from 2009, Anthony Saggers remastered it and considers it a new album. The titular track is exactly what this sounds like. Massive, beautiful dronewash.

Vukari – Divination

Sometimes searching and sometimes searing black metal with the Weekend Nachos vocalist on drums. It all grows more daunting and more chilling with each listen.

Apocryphos – Stone Speak

Field recordings of ghost towns and cemeteries creak and crack over constant waves of drone modulation. At times you can feel it in your eyes.

Cities Last Broadcast – The Humming Tapes

“Glossolalia” is absolutely fucking terrifying. It is an almost unbearable triumph of sonic storytelling and aural texturing. The rest of the album is cool, too!

Uninhabitable – Uninhabitable

Usually when you hear “punk” and “crust,” you don’t think of ten-minute long songs, but these gnarly rippers from Asheville pull it off with aplomb.

Get Crusty!

Various Artists – Piano Cloud Series, Vol. 1

A collection of neoclassical piano pieces that would be perfectly suited for studying or reading if they weren’t all so goddamn wistful. So much wistfulness!