There’s… there’s only seven albums…? It can’t be!
But I’m afraid it is. You see, I have gotten more selective, you see.
Mostly because listening to so much new music repetitively meant less time listening to older stuff I love or was in the process of discovering and that’s just no bueno.
There are actually a couple more new records I listened to, but Billie Eilish and A Place to Bury Strangers — interesting to talk about and listen to though they may be — are not under the purview of this very rigorous tier list.
Behold! The List!
So svelte
So pretty.
S-Tier
Ophidian I — Desolate
Technical death metal does not get better than this. These songs all rip, front to back. Tech death is a genre that gets a lot of stick for sounding robotic and wank-tastic, and while there’s certainly some musical show-offness on display, it’s used in service to great songwriting. And there’s nothing robotic about these riffs. The melodies they manage to create from all the chaos are electrifying.
A-Tier
Lantlôs — Wildhund
Much like the new Deafheaven record, blackgaze extraordinaires Lantlôs are pivoting genres on this one. I’ve heard this album called alt-metal and that doesn’t sound quite like it’s it to me. I get more of a major-key Type O Negative style gothic metal vibe off of this. The vocal swells are impassioned and grand, the instruments are heavy, but there’s a lot of pretty-sounding melodic sequences that prevent it from sounding dour. They’re pulling the same sort of chaos-juxtaposed-by-beauty trick that they (and Deafheaven) pulled on their previous records, just in a more accessible style.
I, for one, really dig it.
Night Crowned — Hädanfärd
I don’t have much to say other than this is incredibly badass.
B-Tier
Born of Osiris — Angel or Alien
While I do like a lot of bands in the progressive metal and djent movements, Born of Osiris have never really done it for me outside a handful of songs per record. The same applies to Angel or Alien, but the highlights on this one are high enough to earn it a B from me. When their blend of pop-punk, djent, and electronic music hits right… it hits so right.
At The Gates — The Nightmare of Being
This sounds like an act putting out more of the same. Despite coming across (to me) uninspired, melodeth veterans At the Gates still can’t help being a cut above the rest even when it sounds like they’re phoning it in.
C-Tier
Crescent — Carving the Fires of Akhet
I’ve sat here for a while trying to figure out what to say about this album, and the best I got is: “meh.”
Despite having some pretty grand pretensions with beefy song lengths and ancient historical themes, the music doesn’t do it justice. Stripped of those expectations, it’s just a fine, if bloated, death metal record from a band that is trying so goddamn hard to be Nile, but isn’t willing to be — or capable of being — as buckwild and technically sharp as Nile are.
D-Tier
Underdark — Our Bodies Burned Bright on Re-Entry
I gave this one as fair of a shot as I could because I like the band’s ethos and perspective, but even on first listen I knew I didn’t like it one bit.
It’s the production job, I think. There are some neat musical ideas and themes, but the vocals are just way too high in the mix and it grated on me in a way I found supremely annoying.
That was nice and easy!
I should try underachieving more often!