Inspired by the third installment of The Naked Gun, we decided to compile our favorite albums over the first 3 1/3 years of the 2010s.
Text by the ALARM crew. Presented in chronological order.
“The Summer Funeral”
With a history of fusing other revered genres to a doomy combination of black metal and thrash, Japan’s Sigh used its eighth studio album to deliver symphonic, epic metal that calls upon classical instrumentation to top its rock foundation.
Brass, woodwind, and string instruments — as well as organ and piano — accent as well as lead sinister melodies that take surprising turns through fanciful themes. Raspy, menacing vocals coat each track, resulting in a dramatic presentation that isn’t much at odds with its complex backdrop.
“Fisheye”
Beginning as an experimental acoustic jazz ensemble, Norway’s Shining — the brainchild of saxophonist Jørgen Munkeby — transformed to a progressive jazz-fusion outfit before delving into its darker side for a collaboration with black-metallists Enslaved.
Blackjazz pushes deeper into the band’s dark recesses, forging a progressive industrial sound for the young century. Big, complex rock riffs, twisted through gnarly distortion, form the foundation and support a mass of frantic, whirring synth lines and gut-wrenching black-metal screams. In all, Blackjazz is a new epic — and perhaps the best metal album of 2010.
“Aealo”
For more than 20 years, Athens’ Rotting Christ has traversed different directions on the metal path. With its previous release, Theogonia, the group released a striking, original album that fused its dark sound to the ethnic sounds of its ancestors.
Like its predecessor, Aealo features female Benedictine chants, lingual pipes, and a medieval feel. Combined with dueling high-pitched harmonies and powerful guitar work, these new elements highlight an album that’s among the most original metal releases of the year.
“Sideswiper”
Formed by cohorts from the Rhode Island School of Design and joined by ex-Daughters guitarist Nicholas Sadler, the good-time rock quintet Fang Island was one of the most quickly ascending bands of 2010, jumping onto tours with The Flaming Lips and Stone Temple Pilots following the release of its first full-length album.
The self-titled release is chock full of palm-muted and speed-infused indie-prog anthems, with über-layered vocal harmonies to go with a triple-thick guitar assault and distorted-bass bludgeoning. It’s one of those rare releases that feels absolutely radiant and thrashing at the same time.
“Farewell, Mona Lisa”
The Dillinger Escape Plan: “Farewell, Mona Lisa”
Now departed from Relapse Records, tech-core riff masters The Dillinger Escape Plan have continued to perfect the sound that has evolved since the exit of original singer Dimitri Minakakis (after Calculating Infinity) and original drummer Chris Pennie (after Miss Machine).
“Farewell, Mona Lisa,” the opener of Option Paralysis, is an epic jam that combines most of the band’s crucial elements — molten rhythms, jaw-shattering power chords, and harmonic choruses. After another half hour of assaulting riffs and chaos, Option Paralysis then closes with one of the band’s best songs, “Parasitic Twins,” which makes use of a piano-pop bridge and a hot-blooded rock-and-roll outro. Whether or not this vies to be the band’s best album, The Dillinger Escape Plan proves again that it is utterly peerless.
“Cobra Strike”
Known for its unique brand of string-borne heavy metal, Judgement Day proves that hardcore shredding is just as heavy and intense with a violin and cello as it is on guitar and bass.
Informed by brutal, driving force as much as classical training, the trio crafts hyperactive riffs, intricate arpeggios, and syncopated breakdowns on Peacocks / Pink Monsters, its second studio release. The album’s title is actually the name of the painting that adorns its cover, and in the nearly 20-page “making of” booklet — a one-of-a-kind “tome-pack” that accompanies the music — violinist Anton Patzner (also of Bright Eyes) discusses the important relationship of color and music.
“Il Cielo in una Stanza”
Mike Patton: “Il Cielo in una Stanza”
Early last decade, iconic vocalist Mike Patton moved to Italy and did his best to blend with the locals. He picked up Italian, fell in love with Bologna, and, at some point, realized that he needed to add something else to his never-ending list of projects.
That addition turned into Mondo Cane, a full-scale orchestral homage to Italian cantautori (singer/songwriter) tunes of the 1960s and ’70s. Fans of Patton’s wild exploits may be disappointed if they’re expecting something akin to the Fantômas Director’s Cut album, but lovers of emotion-packed ballads will embrace this disc of orchestral pop.
“The Best of Times”
Sage Francis: “The Best of Times”
Paul “Sage” Francis has built a career out of going against the grain, tackling thorny sociopolitical issues while embracing the limelight of poetry slams and rap battles. His idiosyncratic style garnered him underground buzz well before his Anticon debut in 2002.
Li(f)e, his most adventurous album, is a collaboration with a dozen different singer-songwriter and acoustic-music types, finding Francis at his most personal over styles that aren’t necessarily conducive to rappers. Folk, country, western, indie rock, and more — it’s all delivered via big names such as Calexico, DeVotchKa, Califone, Tim Fite, ex-Grandaddy front-man Jason Lytle, Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie, Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, and producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine).
“Circumambulation”
Secret Chiefs 3: UR: “Circumambulation”
Each orbiting the musical genius of Trey Spruance, the Secret Chiefs 3 satellite groups represent different sonic dimensions of the band’s expansive, undefinable sound. Following Traditionalists‘ full-length take on Italy’s giallo movement, Satellite Supersonic Vol. 1 mostly collects seven-inch material from SC3 subgroups UR, Ishraqiyyun, and Electromagnetic Azoth.
UR, the Chiefs’ “suprasensory surf” squad, presents three tracks of heavily tremolo-ed rock guitar surrounded by synthesized sounds, Eastern instrumentation, and epic motifs. Spruance’s most Eastern-infused ensemble, Ishraqiyyun retains a masterful balance between each side of the globe, as psychedelic and electronic elements are entangled with the Indian sarangi and an electrified Persian setar.
“Crystalline”
Try to imagine gnarly doom funk from another planet, performed by a nonet that is dressed like a death cult at a space disco. That imagination in practice, London’s Chrome Hoof, is every bit as dark, wild, and fun as it sounds.
The brainchild of brothers Leo and Milo Smee, Chrome Hoof is built around an intuitive rhythm section: drummer Milo’s pounding pulses and overlapping time signatures and bassist Leo’s heavy, cataclysmic riffs. With just its third album in ten years as a group, Chrome Hoof delivers its most boisterous and complete release, full of dance-floor jams as well as cinematic math rock.
“Simulacra”
Integrity is one of the forebears of the “metal-core” sub-genre, but the band’s sound might be best recognized for its vocals — the hellish, pained screams of Dwid Hellion. With its first full album since 2003, Integrity has hit a new peak, with dive-bombing guitar squeals over blazing speed riffs and chugging breakdowns.
Fans will love The Blackest Curse, and younger metal-core addicts will discover a band that has influenced many of their contemporary favorites.
“The Mash and the Fury”
Trentemøller: “The Mash and the Fury”
The new album by Danish electronic producer Anders Trentemøller, Into the Great Wide Yonder, is a dramatic departure from his previous work. The songs are more complex and heavier, with layer upon layer of robust orchestration.
But those instruments, most of which are performed by Trentemøller, fall to the wayside when confronted by the tremolo-swollen and overdriven guitar riffs. The guitar work, again performed by Trentemøller, sounds like surf rock during a hurricane, with the shudder of the whammy bar sending trembles through the music. And with a number of great vocal cameos, Into the Great Wide Yonder cements itself as one of the year’s most stunning albums.
“Bilar”
Ratatat‘s members, Evan Mast and Mike Stroud, have used their recordings to combine assorted electronics with guitar and bass. Each release has gotten denser and more diverse, but LP4 stands apart as the most dynamic — and possibly the best written.
In addition to the IDM elements and synthesized funkiness, LP4 features a string quartet alongside horns, piano, slide guitar, and harpsichord. High-pitched guitar harmonies occasionally steal the show, but the moody effect of the strings can’t be overstated.
“Skin Surf”
With guitarist/keyboardist Nick Reinhart‘s newly sharpened vocal chops and a new tech-pop balance, Patagonian Rats marks the true arrival of eccentric math-rock trio Tera Melos. The album lands somewhere between the band’s old schizophrenic yet directed mayhem and the mathy yet melodic accessibility of Bygones, Reinhart’s band with drumming wiz Zach Hill.
The chaos is carefully controlled, erupting at opportune moments or manifesting itself in layers of outlandishness. Patagonian Rats is rooted in a punk energy as well, powered by spastic drums, guitar noodling, and driving bass distortions.
“Elegy”
Intronaut has made its name in forward-thinking metal circles by understanding that pure metal moments hit harder by sandwiching them between other styles — in this case, passages that are closer to fusion or jazz. Rather than a guitar spotlight, the group reaches for a fretless bass solo; in lieu of a unison run, Intronaut deploys a spacey, percussive breakdown.
This non-linear school of songwriting isn’t for the unadventurous, but there are plenty of overlapping, Meshuggah-style grooves for listeners to latch onto. And ultimately, Intronaut’s willingness to think differently gives rise to a highly unique, thoroughly compelling album.
“Gateways”
Norway’s Dimmu Borgir is one of the preeminent names in symphonic black metal, and it garnered particular fanfare from two of its most string-infused albums, Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia in 2001 and Death Cult Armageddon in 2003.
Abrahadabra, the band’s first album in three years, is its most spectacular and elaborate release to date. It features one hundred guest musicians – ensemble players and choir singers – helping make this a symphonic-black-metal masterpiece. If you enjoy black metal with orchestral additions — or just dark music in general — be sure not to miss this.
“Shylight”
Singer/songwriters Ben Eshbach and Matthew Kelly have separate histories in the LA underground, but from their recent collaborative project, Soviet League, the two have created a dense and masterful indie opus.
With the help of countless guest musicians, the self-titled debut presents 12 meticulously crafted tracks, tapping into orch-pop, electronica, and Western music. There are oodles of pretty guitar tones, big bass tones, and overabundant harmonies, and the music routinely crosses into baroque pop. Despite its lack of name recognition, the Soviet League debut threatens to be one of the best indie-rock albums of 2010.
“I Led Three Lives”
With cinematic soundscapes, Westernized Indian melodies, film-noir mystique, 1960s psychedelia, and crushing heaviness, Grails is an instrumental rarity. The Portland band’s newest offering, Deep Politics, is an engaging and epic mix of acoustic intonations, indigenous sounds and melodies, spaghetti-Western motifs, somber piano balladry, and more doom-filled, Eastern-infused stylistic transcendence.
And thanks in part to arrangements by Timba Harris, the mighty violinist from unparalleled genre annihilators Estradasphere and Secret Chiefs 3, Deep Politics vies to be Grails’ best album yet.
“Micro Machines”
Adebisi Shank: “Micromachines”
Released to European acclaim in 2010, the aptly titled second album from Irish electro/math rockers Adebisi Shank achieved North American release thanks to the peerless Sargent House. The management company/record label describes the trio as a blend of Fang Island’s shredding riffs with Battles’ electronic quirkiness and rhythmic playfulness. That description isn’t off the mark, but readers won’t get a sense of the band’s real abilities until they hear its hyper-melodic, polyrhythmic, and — most importantly — jubilant songs in full.
Second Album delivers a maelstrom of zany electronics, unusual distortions, and triumphant, rapidly ascending scales mixed with vintage synths, marimba, horns, and other accoutrements. This is all packaged between and around gloriously catchy and powerful rock riffs, resulting in a manic and buoyant sophomore effort.
“The Anchor Song”
Maggie Björklund: “The Anchor Song”
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Danish guitarist Maggie Björklund got her chops playing around Europe in country bands and pop groups. But it wasn’t until she discovered the radiant sounds of the pedal-steel guitar that she packed her bags to learn under a Nashville veteran.
Björklund’s debut solo album, Coming Home, is a charming collection of Southwestern folk tunes, and many of her established relationships with US artists help make it so — including guest spots by Calexico, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees), Rachel Flotard (Visqueen), and Jon Auer (The Posies). Coming Home proves itself to be a beautiful debut, from the crooning vocals, Western guitar licks, and cello strikes of “Summer Romance” to the dark guitar lines and ghostly, high-octave contrasts of “Insekt.”
“The 1000 People Band Part 1”
Gangpol & Mit: “The 1000 People Band Part 1”
French animation/electronic duo Gangpol & Mit makes music for a playful cartoon world. On its newest album, the bizarrely titled The 1000 Softcore Tourist People Club, G&M expands its zany video-game aesthetic with a conglomerate of textured, glimmering Tinkertoy instrumentation.
“The 1000 People Band (Part 1),” one of the album’s first “singles,” demonstrates this Mario Kart-meets-Architecture in Helsinki-meets-The Books musical collage. The rest of the album is a strange and lighthearted romp through airy and electro-classical orchestrations, drum-and-bass distortions, wandering keyboard melodies, and other oddities, using mallets, flute, harpsichord, harp, oboe, and other “standard” sounds alongside the 21st Century additions.
“Skull Eyes”
On its self-titled debut in 2008, True Widow turned heads with its blend of down-tuned shoegaze and stoner rock, somehow straddling the line between doom aesthetics and pop sensibilities.
The trio’s second album and first for Kemado, As High as the Highest Heavens…, is a new dose of drawn-out melodies, fuzzy guitars, and hypnotizing harmonies. That last aspect comes equally from guitarist DH Phillips (formerly of Slowride) and bassist Nicole Estill, whose echoing vocals ensure that you experience the music at a comfortably slow pace.
“The Vampire from Nazareth”
Septicflesh: “The Vampire from Nazareth”
In 2008, Grecian death-metal quartet Septicflesh made a triumphant hiatus-ending return with Communion, an album that marked a new symphonic direction on the back of guitarist Christos Antoniou’s classical studies.
The Great Mass is the group’s second post-reunion effort, and it continues this direction with more of Antoniou’s marvelous arrangements. Orchestral and guitar-based hooks lead the way, but there’s plenty of double-kick and blast beats, unearthly growls, and lightning-fast picking. The album also is greatly strengthened by its secondary elements: mid-tempo riffs, Gothic singing, tom-heavy drum pounding, and brooding cinematic motifs.
“Unite to Defy”
In 2009, English symphonic-metal band Xerath delivered an emphatic debut that, according to Wikipedia, intended to “combine film-score composition with syncopated guitar rhythms and crushing metal grooves.”
It’s a spot-on description of an outstanding metal album, but the quartet’s sophomore release, II, is a fuller realization of the band’s potential. Song development, melodic/harmonic interplay, and polyrhythms — each is even stronger than on Xerath’s debut. There are a few intermittent bursts of reverberated clean singing, but none succumbs to cheesy metal trappings. The rest of II is full of Meshuggah-style “djent” intensity, careening single-note guitar riffs, furious drum fills and blast beats, and assailing screams — all joined by eerie symphonic accompaniments.
“Knuckle Down”
With stronger musical chops and a greater feel for melody and structure, Man Man‘s Rabbit Habits helped to expand the band’s critical reach. Now Man Man, the quirky and peerless pop five-piece, has hit new heights with Life Fantastic.
This new batch is the band’s first recording to feature a professional producer, and it shows. Though the compositions themselves are Man Man’s best to date — punctuated by twisting melodies and off-the-wall lyrics — Life Fantastic gets a boost from string arrangements by Bright Eyes multi-instrumentalist Nate Walcott. His resonant accompaniments and pizzicato plucks give the album a new element and infuse it with even more life.
“When I Was Free”
Mixing influences from Italian-Western composers like Ennio Morricone with elements of psychedelic rock, Spindrift has pioneered its own brand of Western music. Its style is manifested through a diversity of sounds, including guitar, organ, pedal steel, flute, autoharp, sitar, tabla, and bass, but its musical résumé is more than mere instruments.
The band’s latest, Classic Soundtracks Vol. 1, is an album of unreleased movie themes and new material that captures its eclectic nature and cinematic tendencies. The twangy, reverberated, psych-effected guitars are a staple in nearly every sonic journey, but with the assorted accents — glockenspiel, Theremin, quasi-Cambodian backing vocals, and even howling wolves — you never feel like you’ve quite been there before.
“For 12”
After releasing one album under the name Kunek in 2006, Oklahoma quintet Other Lives changed names and presented a striking “debut” that landed somewhere between indie folk and chamber pop. Tamer Animals, the group’s sequel on TBD Records, intersperses more moments of instrumental prowess between the verses and choruses, giving the vocals more room to breathe and resulting in elongated intros, outros, and bridges.
The album is replete with vocal harmonies (some evoking classics like The Beatles’ “Because”), and it’s just as packed with instrumental timbres — quickly twitching and slowly sliding string clusters, tinkling piano flourishes, acoustic guitar strums, western guitar licks, vibraphone accents, woodwind repetitions, and many others.
“Petrophilia”
Born in Egypt and residing in New York, visual artist Nader Sadek has become a leading purveyor of extreme-metal imagery, creating backdrops, videos, installations, masks, and more, often for music-related purposes. Now he has called on many of his metal brethren to help create a collaborative concept album of pummeling death metal with black-metal undertones and brooding interludes.
Credited as a writer and producer, Sadek is the key creative component, but he doesn’t play the music. Instead, that’s left to a super-group trio of vocalist Steve Tucker, guitarist Rune Eriksen, and drummer Florent Mounier as well as a small army of high-profile guests, including Attila Csihar, Travis Ryan, Nick McMaster, Mike Lerner, and others. Musically, In the Flesh is a bombardment of speed picking, dive-bombing guitar leads, blazing double-bass beats, and deathly growls, but it always demonstrates a sense of balance, avoiding the listening fatigue that’s common to the genre.
“Sing My Loves”
When Cave In returned from hiatus with its Planets of Old EP in 2009, it marked a true full-circle moment — from metalcore mastery to pop-rock faltering back to thrashing, effects-driven hardcore. In 2011, Cave In was back again with White Silence, its first full-length since Perfect Pitch Black, the 2005 transition back to heaviness that featured trance-inducing grooves as well as acoustic balladry care of guitarist/singer Stephen Brodsky.
White Silence is nearly as much a melting pot as Planets of Old. Though tracks such as “Serpents” lean on bassist Caleb Scofield’s searing screams and Old Man Gloom-esque riffs, and the final three tracks are built around Brodsky’s singer/songwriter abilities, the members always complement each other in a way that keeps the band treading new ground.
“Lost and Found”
During his 15-year career, DJ and electronic artist Amon Tobin has transitioned from expert sampler and breakbeat artist to field-recording guru and sound designer. ISAM completes this move to synthesized and manipulated original samples, turning otherwise atonal sounds into instruments.
Tobin’s last few albums have been as heavy on ambience and abstraction as on piecemeal beats, and ISAM is no different. Melodies are interwoven into unsettling mixtures of timbre. There are cuts of recognizable instruments, such as guitar or bells, but they’re often just a layer in a greater sea of sound.
“Ice Cream” (f. Matias Aguayo)
Shaken up and stripped down, the three members of experimental post-rock outfit Battles spent the better part of the past year reshaping and restructuring a sound that, up until then, included multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and loop guru Tyondai Braxton.
Gloss Drop, is a shimmering, fascinating detour from Battles’ previous output, soaring with ebullience and sheen. It bounces about on dance-y, frenetic beats and ripples in restorative whirlpools. Lively guitar parts and math-rock riffs fuse with overlapping rhythms. The music retains Battles’ signatory edge and cerebral tone, but the band’s instinctual process has brought about a surprising, new result.
“Teenage Ziggy”
World’s End Girlfriend: “Teenage Ziggy”
World’s End Girlfriend is the wild, hyper-melodic project of Japanese composer Katsuhiko Maeda, whose vivid arrangements have created a following in his homeland and been used in critically acclaimed films. Originally released in 2010 in Japan, Seven Idiots is his tenth studio album.
The music is a dense, larger-than-life blend of post-rock, classical music and electronica, and within just the first minute of Seven Idiots, the listener is hit with a beautiful union of Battles-esque guitar lines, funky bass slaps, classical melodies, glitch beats, and squiggly synth lines. As the album progresses, it delves into polyrhythms, improvisation, and other complexities — particularly during the “Bohemian Purgatory” triptych — but a robust sense of melody and an opportunity for head-nodding are almost always at its core.
“8/16”
With its 2008 debut album, Seattle trio Helms Alee forged a sound all its own — part metal, part post-punk, part melody-driven rock, and all abandon. As a trio, the band’s personal contributions to its sophomore effort, Weatherhead, are easier to discern: the driving, effected guitar and guttural screams of Ben Verellen, the distorted low end and breathy, light-weight vocals of bassist Dana James, and the steady, pounding aggression of Hozoji Matheson-Margullis.
On top of alternately punishing and pulchritudinous riffage, Verellen and James again are paired for vocal harmonies. But this time around, they’re joined by the assertive vocals of Matheson-Margullis. James, however, takes the lead at other points, and she frequently harmonizes with Verellen’s clean vocals to produce some of the album’s most hypnotic tracks. The egalitarianism of the vocals is nearly matched by the diversity of the music — albeit music that nearly always rocks.
“Headless”
In 2002, a wild math-rock duo named Hella released a much-ballyhooed debut that sounded impossible to perform with just two members. From there, guitarist Spencer Seim and drummer Zach Hill expanded their sound (and level of complexity) with synthesizers and additional members.
Now, following a few years off to pursue other projects, Seim and Hill are back as Hella’s core, releasing their first album based around guitar and drums since Hold Your Horse Is, that 2002 debut. It’s a welcome return to original form, one that is both “accessible” and melodic despite being highly technical.
“Takao”
Formed in Taipei in 1997, Chthonic (pronounced “thonic”) plays symphonic black metal rooted in traditional Taiwanese music and folklore. Takasago Army is Chthonic’s sixth full-length album and is a concept piece about aboriginal Taiwanese tribesmen who volunteered in the Imperial Japanese Army after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Musically, it splashes elements of black, thrash, power, and melodic death metal with the emotional cries of the erhu and Freddy Lim’s piercing shrieks and guttural screams. The symphonic moments are strategically placed, showing themselves for dramatic effect and melodic accompaniment; the result is an alternately war-like and pensive atmosphere.
“Control Issues Controlling Your Mind”
Dub Trio: “Control Issues Controlling Your Mind”
When dub-rock powerhouse Dub Trio last released a full album at the start of 2008, it marked a significantly heavier direction, with chugging hardcore and sludge-metal tendencies creeping into its unparalleled blend of grooves and riffs. The trio’s newest, IV, continues that trajectory, committing the group first and foremost to metal.
Dub remains a key factor, albeit more subtly. Few tracks bear the mark of modern reggae or dub music, but individual instruments are tweaked at key moments. “Ends Justify the Means” is the band’s first venture into the wobbly bass sounds of dubstep, but palm-muted and manipulated guitar stabs make it entirely new. And “1:1.:618” is an experiment in prepared piano and improvised effects, emphasizing the unpredictable nature of this inimitable outfit.
“Mlàdek”
In 2009, heavy instrumental rock trio Russian Circles released Geneva, an album that both introduced the worming bass lines of Brian Cook (of These Arms are Snakes) and showcased the band’s balance of metallic fury and melodic beauty. Complementary strings and horns also dotted the sonic landscape, creating a superlative post-metal opus.
Empros cuts away the complementary pieces of Geneva, instead focusing on the trio’s interplay. Cook has further ingrained himself in the Russian Circles sound, allowing the galloping rhythm section just as frequently to play the lead as Mike Sullivan’s effects-heavy, overdubbed guitars. And the usual ear for dynamics is present once more, building moments of tension and release to go with the killer riffs.
“Odessa”
Begun as a solo project that highlighted guitarist Tosin Abasi’s unmistakable shredding, Animals as Leaders released its debut album in 2009, emitting progressive-metal instrumentals with tasteful ambient, electronic, and jazz undertones. Now a trio, Animals as Leaders has returned with Weightless, its first recording as an official band.
The album features more hyper-prolific finger-tapping on eight-string guitars, the instrument of choice for Abasi’s meticulously crafted material. Electronica intros and bridges play a large role, but Weightless — ironically — often is very, very heavy, more so than its predecessor, trudging into sludge territory for spells. Despite the insane technicality, there’s always an emphasis on melody and head-banging rhythms, but the music — endorsed by shred virtuoso Steve Vai — is just as suitable for those with short attention spans.
“The Grand Experiment”
Doomtree: “The Grand Experiment”
Moving from a high-school clique to a crew and record label was a natural transition for the Minneapolis-based Doomtree collective. The label’s foundation was built on the wings of impassioned, down-to-earth MCs P.O.S and Sims, hybrid rapper/songstress Dessa, multifaceted instrumentalist Paper Tiger, and nostalgic storyteller Cecil Otter, but the seven-member collective soon demonstrated its cohesiveness as a group.
No Kings is Doomtree’s third studio album, and though it maintains a playful demeanor, it’s the most diverse and mature of the three. From track to track, the different flavors and personalities of each member come through in their own ways. “Bolt Cutter,” the album’s second single, features four MCs and a spate of production values, shifting from a minimalist tom beat and bass line to electro-hop synths to piano and acoustic-guitar melodies — before it all layers together and adds a deep electronic groove.
“Build No System”
As the new solo moniker of Santa Cruz grind veteran and multi-instrumentalist Matt Widener, Liberteer has delivered a maiden opus that might truly justify using the words “grindcore” and “opera” in the same breath.
It’s an epic and unorthodox debut — one that plays essentially as one continuous song while marrying D-beat crust to horns, flutes, banjos, and marching snares.
“Do Not Look Down”
As Meshuggah‘s first album since ObZen crushed listeners in 2008, Koloss contains many moments that break from or are rare within the band’s 25-year history.
Throughout the 10 tracks, the band combines its breakneck pacing and menacing atmospheres to register on a deeper, more visceral level. There are more differences in tempo and riff range — including an expanded and higher palette for the low-end melodies. On the surface, it may sound like a musical mismatch, but the shifting expressions only make it more engaging.
“8-Circuit Model”
Matt Chamberlain: “8-Circuit Model”
Marked by influences from Ennio Morricone, Nine Inch Nails, krautrock, and general groove oddities, the latest from Matt Chamberlain — the multi-talented drummer, Critters Buggin alumnus, and backing muscle for a billion big names — is one of the most deeply buried gems of 2012.
“Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”
Father John Misty: “Hollywood Forever Cemetary Sings”
After departing Fleet Foxes and ditching former alias J. Tillman, singer-songwriter Josh Tillman has emerged as a new man — Father John Misty — to revisit 1960s and ’70s folk-rock traditions while teetering between heartfelt, playful, and slightly bawdy.
As a forceful “debut,” Fear Fun makes it hard to imagine him again as anything other than a front-man.
“Dark Steering”
Following his conceptual Shobaleader album of space-R&B fusion, electro/bass maestro Squarepusher uses Ufabulum to unite that album’s audiovisual glam and the breaks, acid squelches, and stutters of a more “traditional” Squarepusher sound.
The result is stunning live (and in YouTube videos), where the audio syncs perfectly to the intricate monochrome light show that toured with the album.
“Don’t Die”
On RAP Music, Atlanta rap veteran Killer Mike — a self-proclaimed “pan-Africanist gangster rapper, civic leader, and activist” — teams with acclaimed producer/rapper El-P for an album of “rebellious African people’s music.”
Though still hardcore, RAP Music is more reflective of Mike Render the sociopolitical lyricist. “Reagan” is one of the most fiery tracks, addressing the former president’s “war on drugs” and how it disproportionately targeted African Americans while actually making black neighborhoods more drug-infested.
“Tougher Colder Killer” (f. Killer Mike & Despot)
El-P: “Tougher Colder Killer” f. Killer Mike & Despot
After another five-year wait between albums, “El Producto” returns with slow BPM rates, fat synths, and a faster rhyming style. Most of those rhymes are infused with a dark sense of humor, but the real star of the show is his mix of boom-bap beats, bass bombinations, and sci-fi sounds.
“Zero Dark Thirty”
Aesop Rock: “Zero Dark Thirty”
Indie-rap standout Aesop Rock presents another motley blend of allusions, metaphors, and symbols, this time with heavy lyrical themes. Handling the production himself, Aesop imbues the album with a rock slant, fusing his beats with prickly urgency and throbbing grooves.
“Gethsemane”
Drone-doom duo Om has spent nearly 10 years combining drone and sludge with chant cadences and Eastern motifs and philosophy.
On its second album with Emil Amos of Grails, beautiful string passages team with sitar, tabla, and guest vocals to build some of Om’s best songs.
“Gran Bazaar”
Italian trio Guano Padano steeps in the traditions of Italian-western cinema, applying surf rock and 1950s and ’60s rock ’n’ roll to the music of America’s South and Southwest. Bits of gypsy, jazz, and oriental styles also dot the landscape, as each song is a journey to a new land.
“Plumage”
Early last year, quirk-rock trio Menomena streamlined down to a duo. The band’s future seemed uncertain, but Moms — arguably its best yet — is a magnificent resurrection, channeling classic Menomena tropes into a flurry of melodies, harmonies, and timbres.
“2-Bit Blues”
With the aid of an old sampler, fast-fingered DJ/turntablist Kid Koala sets his sights on the blues, twisting and folding recordings onto themselves and foregoing sequencing software to perform the tracks in real time (with cuts added over the top).
“Aimless Arrow”
Following a release that loaded up on guest stars, Salem’s metalcore vets send their friends home for the explosive All We Love We Leave Behind, another album of high-speed riffs and gut-wrenching emotion.
“Great Round Burn”
After a transformation to singer-songwriter, guitar phenom Kaki King returns to her instrumental roots with her first vocal-free LP since 2004. It’s much more than a rehash or a collection of melodies; Glow marries the best of her developed songcraft with melodic beauty and multi-layered accents.
“Fuck Your Stuff”
Last year finally saw the solo return of P.O.S, the punk-spirited rapper/producer and co-founder of the Doomtree hip-hop collective. We Don’t Even Live Here, an anarchy-themed rap record, has plenty of rock to go around, but squiggly synths and electronics help create an electro-rap hybrid.
“In the Branches”
The Casket Lottery: “In the Branches”
Following a lengthy hiatus, indie-rock trio The Casket Lottery morphed into a quintet with a keyboardist and second guitarist. The band’s first full-length in 10 years is a dynamic rock record, with sing-along-ready lyrics built into its multiple-vocalist approach.
“Ruthless”
Activist MC Sole’s first official solo album since 2005 reflects a greater songwriting sensibility, continuing the electronically based, hook-laden approach that appeared on 2011’s Hello, Cruel World. His anti-capitalist rhymes have never felt so buoyant, propelled by arpeggiated synth melodies and bounding bass lines.
“Oddfellows”
Putting the “rock” back in “rock super-group,” Tomahawk makes a mighty return with Oddfellows, a “re-launch” of a band whose last album (Anonymous in 2007) was an aggressive interpretation and expansion of Native American motifs. Pugilistic riffs are front and center once more, but Patton expands the band’s range with “heavy pop” vocals — including some downright cooing — for soaring choruses.
“Pearl”
Just an “EP,” this two-song release from cello-metal trio Grayceon hits nearly 30 minutes’ worth of tension, release, and riffs. Jackie Perez-Gratz’s transformative cello syncs with Max Doyle’s deep guitar licks and Zack Farwell’s double-bass and tom-heavy drumming; meanwhile, Gratz’s and Doyle’s vocals alternate between delicate and brutal, giving “Pearl” a warmth to pair with the sheer metal aggression.
“Paul Baloff”
With the help of a cadre of collaborators, MC Ill Bill brings his powerhouse flow and boom-bap arrangements to The Grimy Awards — an album that serves as equal parts biography and wake-up call for a new generation. And with the backing of New York producing legends like Large Professor and Pete Rock, The Grimy Awards strikes a balance between style and substance that makes the album worthy of revisiting.
“Nothing’s Funny”
The Dillinger Escape Plan: “Nothing’s Funny”
Influenced by old punk and hardcore albums and devoid of full-blown sonic excursions, The Dillinger Escape Plan’s fifth full-length album is, if there is such a thing, a “straightforward” affair. Raging, intricate blasts of metalcore mayhem still rule One of Us is the Killer, but with only one “radio-friendly” track, no epic piano jams, and most songs under four minutes, it’s pure adrenaline — and still adventurous as all get out.
“Shoulder Gorilla”
Comprised of singer/guitarist Ryan Hunter (Envy on the Coast), bassist Michael Sadis (The Rivalry), and drummer Billy Rymer (The Dillinger Escape Plan), NK is one of those rare projects that combine familiar and new elements in unique, indescribable ways. The group’s debut album is a mash of Deftones-style groove riffs, heavy hip hop, shoegaze, post-punk, and soulful down-tempo jams, topped by Hunter’s alternate croons and weirdo half-raps.
“I Won’t Forget”
When Norway’s Shining released Blackjazz in 2010, it marked more than a bold new direction in progressive metal — it was the final phase of transformation of a former acoustic jazz outfit that had delved into classical melodies, prog rock, and synth-driven industrial madness.
One One One, the latest from Shining songwriter Jørgen Munkeby, isn’t another shock to the system; instead it refines and streamlines, pairing more rock-’n’-roll grooves, blazing tempos, and traditional song structures with the brutality. The tracks here are all “ones” — each a singularly digestible piece, each a miniature masterpiece of metallic, fist-pumping avant-rock.
(Matador, 6/4/13)
“My God Is the Sun”
Queens of the Stone Age: “My God Is the Sun”
The first new QOTSA in six years is vintage Josh Homme and co., with alternately slinky and classic rock-’n’-roll riffs topped by Homme’s wavy, reverberated vocals that shift in and out of falsetto. But the album’s style quickly expands from there, and it’s not just due to high-profile guest appearances.
Just as on its predecessors, …Like Clockwork benefits from a wide and unique palette of guitar tones — best exemplified by the alien-harmony effects on the slinky, stomping “Smooth Sailing.” They also soup up the hard-charging moments, which, despite a few down-tempo jams, are plentiful. With all told, …Like Clockwork is a welcome return.
Honorable Mentions
Bei Bei & Shawn Lee: Into the Wind (Ubiquity, 1/26/10)
Jaga Jazzist: One-Armed Bandit (Ninja Tune, 2/23/10)
Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma (Warp, 5/4/10)
Tim Fite: Under the Table Tennis (5/18/10)
The Bad Plus: Never Stop (E1 , 9/14/10)
Wires Under Tension: Light Science (Western Vinyl, 2/8/11)
Pitom: Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes (Tzadik, 2/22/11)
Colin Stetson: New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges (Constellation, 2/22/11)
DeVotchKa: 100 Lovers (Anti-, 3/1/11)
Stateless: Matilda (Ninja Tune, 3/1/11)
Sole & The Skyrider Band: Hello, Cruel World (Fake Four, 7/19/11)
Mister Heavenly: Out of Love (Sub Pop, 8/16/11)
Flash Bang Grenada: 10 Haters (Hellfyre Club / Alpha Pup, 8/23/11)
Boom Bip: Zig Zaj (Lex, 9/27/11)
DJ Shadow: The Less You Know, the Better (Verve /Universal, 10/4/11)
Tom Waits: Bad as Me (Anti-, 10/18/11)
Dirty Ghosts: Metal Moon (Last Gang, 2/21/12)
Sigh: In Somniphobia (Candlelight, 3/13/12)
Jherek Bischoff: Composed (Brassland, 6/5/12)
The Hives: Lex Hives (Disques Hives, 6/5/12)
Old Man Gloom: NO (Hydra Head, 6/26/12)
Anywhere: s/t (ATP Recordings, 7/24/12)
Ty Segall: Twins (Drag City, 10/9/12)
Why?: Mumps, Etc. (Anticon, 10/9/12)
Between the Buried and Me: The Parallax II: Future Sequence (Metal Blade, 10/9/12)
Brokeback: Brokeback and the Black Rock (Thrill Jockey, 1/22/13)
The Bronx: (IV) (White Drugs / ATO, 2/5/13)
Helen Money: Arriving Angels (Profound Lore, 2/5/13)
Shai Hulud: Reach Beyond the Sun (Metal Blade, 2/19/13)
Dan Friel: Total Folklore (Thrill Jockey, 2/19/13)
Rotting Christ: Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy (Season of Mist, 3/5/13)
How to Destroy Angels: Welcome Oblivion (Columbia, 3/5/13)
And So I Watch You from Afar: All Hail Bright Futures (Sargent House, 3/19/13)
Kvelertak: Meir (Roadrunner, 3/26/13)
Finntroll: Blodsvept (Century Media, 4/2/13)