If there's one thing I've learned over the years - when in doubt, see what's happening in Italy or Japan musically. The former has always had a fun metal scene in general, but never to the point where you'd think they could compete with the big boyz of America or Germany. At least when it comes to thrash anyway.

Now me, as long as the melodies are fun I don't care that much about the heaviness of the thrash band in question, but Ancient Dome go above and beyond to blend a multitude of things I appreciate in metal. They have that classic Big Four drive, but they play in modalities that will remind you at times of Megadeth when they almost turned prog-metal or early Vicious Rumors. There's also a hint of USPM in stuff like 6-minute epic D.I.E. (Droids In Exile). Nothing here that will rewrite the landscape necessarily, but these pasta-eaters know that variety is the spice of life and nothing drags on more than its supposed to. As we learned with the story of Goldilocks, sometimes being neither too hot nor too cold is just the place you want to be when you want a headbanging tour of the cosmos.

When he isn't doing film scores or working with art houses, Mr. Helpling takes his guitar experience and does stellar music on his own that reaches into some very deep spaces. He's also one half of the duo that did The Crossing back in 2010, arguably the best ambient album of the last ten years or so. But as much as I love that particular album, this latest outing is impressive in another way alltogether: it's a true bonafide "solo" effort. Everything you hear on A Sea Without Memory was done using just one guitar through some programmed pedals and recorded live to 2-track with very little processing, which is surprising when you actually sit down and let this thing wash over you and realize how much "bigger" it sounds than you'd expect.

While there are separate "songs" here, this is really an album experience in the textbook sense and when taken as such you can appreciate it to a greater degree. Definitely not a traditional "guitarist" album nor typical in the ambient / new age schema, I've come back to this musical well fairly often throughout the year....and hopefully for many more to come

While I find it ironic in a sense that a guy who hates the term "progressive rock" so publicly has become the modern spokesperson for said genre, the praise is deserved to a certain point. Other than guys like Devin Townsend or the real obvious bands like Opeth and Dream Theater, Steven Wilson is among a select few that has developed a truly lucrative career in a style of music relegated to mostly curiosity status by the majority of people out there. Not unlike today's biggest pop stars, all he has to do his snap his fingers and he could sell out an arena.

But make no mistake, To The Bone is the first album he's done since the mid 00's with Porcupine Tree that I could see headlining a major tour. Not because its the "pop meets prog" taboo that the player haters made it out to be, but because its a proggy alternative rock album with a lot of good hooks and accessibility. The pop elements are secondary, but just as prominent as anything on Deadwing or In Absentia. This isn't new territory for Wilson, but I think he's got it down to a science.

And true to form, there's a lot of variation here: the title track has a hi-tech bounce / groove going on that hearkens back to Pink Floyd circa The Wall or maybe So by Peter Gabriel, and 'The Same Asylum As Before' could have easily been a Side B number on Radiohead's The Bends, Brit-pop guitar shreddage and all. And then there's the big single 'Permanating', which is the Baroque glory of Electric Light Orchestra by the way of New Radicals and all the better for it.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your car is to put some air in the tires and get some new rims instead of going for something completely out there. To The Bone won't change any minds about the modern "prog" sound, but the great arrangements and hooks certainly don't disappoint.

Cheese this may be, but boy is it the best damn refined $50 block of gouda you'll hear this year. Tomi Malm is a producer / songwriter who has been very active in Finland, Norway and Sweden's commercial music scene for over a decade and has made some seriously good connections to some of the best session players from Los Angeles in the process. This is his first solo outing, but he's got legendary cats involved including Vinnie Colaiuta of Frank Zappa fame on drums, plus Eric Marienthal and Brandon Fields on sax.

As far as passion projects, this particular brand of jazz-pop is a dying breed but done fantastically well at times. Favorites include 'Favor', where Frank Ådahl takes his gospel honed pipes to some pretty eye-popping places, and the title track where former Chicago singer Jason Scheff comes in with a killer chorus that puts his old band to shame. The ballads don't stand out to me quite as much as the uptempo cuts do, but Warren Wiebe (R.I.P.) is featured on 'Show Me A Sign' and reminds you why Celine Dion and Whitney Houston named him as their favorite singer at one point. He's up there with Steve Wonder in sheer vocal character.

Overall, this is a great record to indulge in if you are looking for classy songwriting from an older era without needless pretensions.

As their black metal roots have receded over the last ten years or so, the unconventionality that have always differentiated Enslaved from their fellow countrymen who came into their own in the early 90's becomes more and more obvious witch each successive release, with E (at least for me) being the best they've done so far in regards to blending all their different tangents together into one sound. I've liked the last few (including In Times), but this one ups the ante in subtle ways.

Their closest counterpart in the metal world as far as overall trajectory is concerned is probably Opeth, but where I feel the latter band lost their way a bit by embracing their 70's prog roots above all other aspects of their sound, what Enslaved are doing on E actually sounds best when a Hammond organ, flute or saxophone suddenly rolls in over a tremulous riff storm (such as the bangin' 'Sacred Horse' or the billowing 'Hiindsiight'). Those out of left field slices of instrumentation complement the primordial atmosphere and give you more variety than your average metal fan likely bargained for, and that goes double for some of those wordless Norwegian vocal harmonies that occasionally show themselves between bouts of snarling.

Could this end up being in that rare company of black metal albums that could help introduce more people into the genre and still hold its own against the big boys? Only time will tell, but it has certainly been one of the highlights of 2017 for me.

Classic stoner rock idioms adorn Ruby The Hatchet's sound like medals on a uniform: the arena-ready howling from a very talented Jillian Taylor, the blues / sludge inflected Zeppelin riffs, a larger than life production effort and plenty of hooks scattered 'round like ashes. That latter area in particular is something these guys have in spades that many of today's hard rock throwbacks struggle a bit with: memorability. It's why neither Elder nor Bell Witch nor even Pallbearer made my list this year: too much emphasis on the jamming and not enough thought into the songwriting. Yet here's a band as heavy as any of those three yet can put together a rollicking single like 'Killer' (complete with a goddamn Hammond organ) and make it look easy. Funny how that works.

Doom-anything and the bands that revolve tangentially around the genre in 2017 is a crowded place to be (especially if you spend any time on Bandcamp) but the best will always rise to the top. For me this year, that's Ruby The Hatchet in all their retrotastic glory. Bon apetit....

Ol' Todd Rundgren is someone who doesn't really need any introduction. He's been recording music since the late 60's and probably is involved (somewhere) in an album you know and love. He did God's work with XTC in the 80's and almost all of his solo albums and band efforts are fantastic as well.

Unlike a lot of musicians from his generation, Todd is pretty forward-thinking in regards to technology and the applications of it in today's recording processes. To that end, White Knight is something of a snapshot / retrospective of his whole career with an added edge of experimentation courtesy of some of the big players who show up on this album (Trent Reznor perhaps being the most recognizable name).

So he basically recorded and collaborated this whole thing with just his laptop and some proprietary software, and the end result is boundlessly creative even if it lacks that "in-studio" sound that some tell you is necessary to produce a truly "human" sounding album. In this case though, the goal was to experiment and bring in as many outside ideas as he could into a completely digital, cloud-based type of workflow.

You get a little bit of everything here. Daryl Hall comes in with his trademark blue-eyed soul prowess on 'Chance For Us', 'Naked & Afraid' is straight up EDM, 'This Is Not A Drill' has Joe Satriani jamming over some early 90's post-punk sounding thing and even Steely Dan's Donald Fagen shows up to make fun of Donald Trump on the snarky Hammond organ led 'Tin Foil Hat'.

While not my favorite Rundgren album overall (that honor goes to 1989's Nearly Human), this was one of the dark horses of 2017 and has the benefit of being both a fun album to go through while throwing in a lot of variety where you'd least expect it from someone approaching 70.

In the book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, a constant thematic touchstone you see is a concept known as the Rule of 10,000 hours. The idea, of course, being that anyone who practices or dedicates to something productive for 10,000+ hours can achieve a mastery of it. Reading any interview with Adam Granduciel, the leader behind The War On Drugs, and you can tell he's at least that much time into this in regards to his recording process. Maybe more.

As a listener, it was obvious to me even few minutes into A Deeper Understanding that there's a consummate power brought about by sheer obsession and attention to detail. The arrangements are classy, lengthy statements with a lot of ebb and flow. When 'Up All Night' starts with a repetitive piano riff a'la Randy Newman, Billy Joel, you think "yeah I know how this goes'. But once that acid drenched axework comes in like greased lightning, you suddenly don't. Adam's plaintive voice isn't special in any way: the songwriting is just that good.

Still, this is a very moody, reflective record. The production is bright enough to snort a line off of, but so immaculate that its hard not to get sucked into the subtle details. A hint of trumpet here and there. A Rhodes piano lick reverberating between the verses, just out of focus but strangely present. There's a point in the second half of 11-minute centerpiece 'Thinking Of A Place' where a harmonica comes rolling in like a miniature tsunami and its just damn beautiful. Like the best thing Destroyer has never done on steroids, with some 80's college rock-styled guitar melodies near the end as interpreted by Wes Montgomery.

In short, this is an 80's styled album for people who would normally hate the 80's. This thing may be saddled with enough E Street Band nostalgia to make John Hughes blush, but it works like a charm.

Listening to prog/power-metallers Anubis Gate on Covered In Black is an experience that always feels like your perception is slightly out of step, challenging you when you least expect it and forcing you to adjust to its own "sense" of normalcy.

Background-wise, this is a concept record of sorts that deals with people who've been ****ed over and left to rot in underbelly of society and their experiences / mindsets / etc. (killers, soldiers discarded by their governments, those at the bottom of the bottom who struggle to survive). Lyrically obtuse at times like many proggy metal albums tend to be, it doesn't stay within the lines either: Dream Theater this ain't. There's weird Middle Eastern melodic progressions, other instruments that come in and out, oddly timed choruses and minor melodies that wind together into an manifold flavored stew that tastes better as you continue to eat.

The "odd" elements in question would include the inclusion of a cello solo on opening stormer 'Psychotopia', the cinematic Indian instrumentation that litters 'The New Delhi Assasination' and 'Operation Cairo" and lots of electronic music touches that rear their heads even on straightforward proggy/power metal cuts such as 'Black' or 'The Combat', which rank as the most conventional numbers even though they get by on sheer catchiness.

I suppose the bottom line is that for those of you that are looking for something off-kilter in the prog. metal world but felt the genre was out of new ideas, Covered In Black is a great reminder that there are still plenty of bands out there willing to blend the conventional and unconventional in an effective way...and even explore some pretty emotional subject matter to boot.

Out of place and out of time, the voice of Haley Fohr is really something to behold amidst the eerieness and dread that her cocktail of 70's acid folk rock, experimental chamber music and an almost David Lynchian uncannyness in regards to "pop" sensibility evokes. Still, I find her sound is a hard one to define even when she's operating in an obvious mode (she's got a bit of country and Americana at her most acoustic). To these ears, I'd say she's a rather unique force in today's musical landscape, possessing an adventurous spirit that reminds you at times of Bjork...except songs like 'Black Fly' and the synth-percolating 'Paper Bag' are wayyyyyy better than anything the Icelandic queen of weird has done since the mid 90's, maybe ever.

Thematically, this album was born out of Haley's personal experience of a close shave with death (she collapsed in her home, convulsed, vomited, etc.) and, in some ways, this album intimately captures her fear of that moment in her life where it could have all ended. This makes the overall experience a beautiful (and at times disorienting) listen, but it also means you have to be in a particularly thoughtful frame of mind where it can sink into you, much like a classic Krautrock album or something along those lines.

All this being said, this album may be #16 on my list but it could have just as easily been #1. It has a profound, possibly sinister power that grew on me even as some of the other avant-garde stuff I jammed out to this year fell away. Go get this if you haven't already!

Like many others in 2017, I have been awed and astounded at King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's rapid (and highly quality) release schedule over the course of 2017. They're making a big splash, getting a lot of attention, and they deserve every bit of it. It's not like they are musically reinventing the wheel or anything: they sound a LOT like Motorpsycho, except with more of a Bob Welch-era Fleetwood Mac + 1970-71 Gentle Giant fixation. However, they do what they do so well that they can't help but stand out. Vocals, production, songwriting - everything's inventive, fresh sounding and very much on the money when it comes to execution. And at the end of the day, execution is the only thing that ultimately matters in an album.

Polygondwanaland is their 4th release this year, accompanied by a bold proclamation that it would forever be FREE in every sense of the word. Evidently, I could start up my own record label tomorrow, put this album on CD, and start making money off it without legal repercussions. Looking at the music industry today as a massive chessboard, its one helluva move to make as they continue to rise up in popularity.

Amidst all this rigamaroll, perhaps the least surprising thing about Polygondwanaland is that its arguably the best of the four albums they've released this year. The songs flow like a great suite on the back of Lucas Skinner's bouncy Rickenbacker basslines, undulating in a symphony of flutes, fuzz pedals and even what sounds like a Mellotron. Another standout is the skittering, almost Tool-esque 'Horology' near the tail-end of the runtime...well, Tool as interpreted by King Crimson in 1970 perhaps. Easy to love, hard to hate. Unless you hate fun or something.

Anyway, these guys are moving up in the world. Wayyy up. And I'm glad to be part of the ride at this point.

British trumpeter Yazz Ahmed has one helluva portfolio, including the likes of Radiohead, Swing Out Sister and Lee "Scratch" Perry, all respective royalty to different audiences outside of the traditional jazz world. So when she goes full hog with an Arabic scaled jazz-fusion extravaganza like La Saboteuse, you can't help but be awed at how meticulous and fluid her compositional approach can be. Her particular kinks lean towards the cinematic at times, reminding me of film noir in skittering numbers like 'The Lost Pearl' or throughout the Third Stream-esque swing that 'Organ Eternal' brings to the fore. This is an album that always feels as if its in real motion despite the variety of tracks at play here, and any jazz album that sounds like it has a pulse is certainly a point in it's favor.

This dynamic duo out of Ontario are the stuff that dreams are made of, no pun intended. I'd pit them somewhere between the classic rosters of 4AD and the better New Age sounds coming out of Windham Hill. Or to put it another way, this is a sound borne out of the unlikely pairing of the former label's most beautiful explorations (Cocteau Twins coming to mind particularly) and the most tranquil ideas of composers like Steve Roach or maybe Tim Story from the latter label.

That's not to say these ideas are always stirred up and made inseparable. On cuts such as the title track or the pulsating 'Beyond The Clouds', you get prominent bass and a dreamy, almost chillwave undercurrent that fits the calmest corners of the indie pop spectrum. Some are purely ambient spectacles, such as the sinuous 'Shadow Garden' or closer 'Rain Copy'. Beautiful in their own way, but their vaguely New Age vibe requires the right mood.

For lack of a good cheesy analogy, sometimes I think music can be like going to the ocean at the wrong time of year. If you are there to surf, you won't appreciate the beauty of the sea when the waves are barely moving. You want to ride a big wave and feel some energy, but sometimes you just gotta chill when the opportunity comes along to do so. And in the case of this fine album, 39 minutes of calm might just be what the doctor ordered at the end of a tough day.

Denmark's favorite alternative rock export have always been a fascinating group to follow since they first made a big splash in the indie world with 2003's Frengers, an early highwater mark for people wondering what the best elements of Live, Radiohead and Johnny Hates Jazz might sound like if you sprinkled in some protein powder and set to Blend. From that point onward, Mew's trajectory has seen them bounce back and forth across the wide spectrum of their sound between abject weirdness and a soaring, Eurovision-tinted sense of melodicism.

Fourteen years later however, I think they've finally done a record that hits that balance they've always strived for with Visuals, a record that fundamentally sees them embracing their 80's synth pop roots moreso than on anything they've done up until this point. Their overt experimental tendencies (the calling card of founding guitarist Bo Madsen, who left the band before this album's recording) are mostly smoothed out here in favor of flexing their considerable hookcrafting muscles. Hell, we even get some synthwave elements of all things on '85 Videos', which is as a good a single as they've ever done in their 20+ years together. Fans will be torn over the more radio friendly direction: is this a simplification compared to previous ambitions or a needed refinement? Probably a bit of both, but even a proghead like me can appreciate a touch of levity. Plus there's a friggin free jazz sax solo at the end of 'Carry Me To Safety', so you can't be mad for long at the shift in direction.

European to a T and a fairly breezy listening experience overall, this was a pleasant surprise this year and a reminder of just how good this particular aesthetic can be when executed with flair and a sense of fun attached.

A soulful, snarky Southern hip-hop opus if there ever was one, Big K.R.I.T. (AKA Justin Scott) has been a busy boy for the last decade, putting out some stellar mixtapes amidst interesting but mixed bags in regards to his official LPs. That's not to say there isn't a lot to like there, but the more spontaneous approach on collections such as 4Eva N A Day back in 2012 demonstrate a surprising elasticity that even some of the biggest players in the game don't have. Plus that whole Southern drawl of his is a big plus.

So in respect to brevity, this album is a double album and it is, frankly, the best I've heard in hip-hop in what feels like forever. Is it a game changer like some people believe To Pimp A Butterfly was? Jury's out on that one, but this album has a particularly fascinating progression from track to track where the material seems to get more and more interesting the deeper you go, especially some of the especially gospel-tinged bangers on side 2 ('Keep The Devil Off', 'The Light') and so on and so forth. There is production here you will get lost in, reminding me at times of the swampy swing the boys over at Cunninlynguists love to dabble in. The structure is likely intentional, with Side 1 being more typical and Side 2 being more exploratory of what make Big K.R.I.T. tick behind all the bluster.

Perhaps the highest point on the overall proceedings is the one-two punch centerpiece of 'Get Away' and the instrumental "title track" of sorts 'Justin Scott'. The former is a soulful banger tinged with a deep sense of desperation and the latter is a synth-laden orchestral instrumental that really captures Justin's aspirations without a single verse. And that, my friends, is the sign of a good hip-hop album: when you don't need to rap at all to communicate the soul.

If there's one thing I really got out of this album as I digested and dissected it my first go-around, it was the certainty that the late 80's Paisley Underground movement and Germany's early to mid 70's classic Krautrock era all pulled from the same well of inspiration. Drugged out rhythms, a rickety marriage of spazzy vocals and avant-garde production to the repetitive, occasionally jazz-based instrumentation (sax and flute especially) and lush underpinnings of classic fusion groups. All of these elements can be disparate, but Crown Larks weave a difficult web into something both beautiful and shockingly cohesive. In fact, the work here at times sounds like a sister album to the classic Y by The Pop Group, though the choice of dialect between the two is fundamentally different.

The short and sweet of it is that at the end of the day I like experimental records to justify their existence to me, and Population does just that in spades. My criteria with all music is pretty simple: a good smooth jazz record validates its reason to be if it has some great melodies / production or captures a specific vibe. A great Third Stream album needs to balance its modal and classic tendencies well to really work, etc. etc. No matter what genre or style you go for, there are things to look for and I know what works and doesn't.

That one works fellas. Very very well. Give it a whirl if you feel deprived of strangeness and want a shot in the arm.

Moonlight is exactly the kind of low key gem you expect to find on Bandcamp with enough browsing around: instrumental hip-hop isn't exactly a high profile genre to begin with, and the jazzier, almost vaporwave avenues are even less prominent than that. Enter Vanilla, a bedroom producer / beatmaker from the U.K. who has a marvelous knack for said style. Creative and liberal use of samples aside, he's got a very chill compositional sense rivaled by the best beat producers in the hip-hop world, and that's not light praise. I'm as picky with my beats as I am with my mocha-latttecinno-machiato-double-shots-with-caramel at the local hipter coffeehouse I frequent.

These 19 tracks are really meant to just wash over you and carry you to the top of Mt. Everest and back, but I love the melodies in 'The Love' and the 7-minute piano drenched 'Visions', which is worth the purchase of this album in and of itself. But hey, there's something for everyone here. Relax and enjoy the ride...

Although this bunch hails from Scotland, it is very very evident even from the first few minutes of this remarkable little album called Gargoyles that this is a band that truly captures the best aspects of the spirit of early 70's British jazz rock, especially the whimsical greatness coming out of the Canterbury Scene through the first half of the decade or so. But as in the case with a lot of innovative young bands, Big Hogg also evoke the power of the jazz American brass-rock sound as well, particularly that of Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears and early War, especially on the horn-section laden moody 'Star Of The Show'.

My favorite song is undoubtedly centerpiece number 'The Beast' though, where the Canterbury stylings collide fully with a knack for hooky songcraft reminiscent on the Chicago Transit Authority self-titled from 1969 and becomes something new in the process. The best part is hearing vocalist Sophie Sexon bring the full weight of her femme fatale charisma to the mic with flair as a ripping guitar solo erupts in the second half against that parping horn section interplay. Brilliant stuff.

I've always had a soft spot for that charming, vaguely romantic wryness of the 70's jazz-rock sound in general, but as there are so few bands that can still pull it off its especially refreshing to get an album like this in 2017. Don't miss it lads and lassies. :)

Check them out on bandcamp - https://bighogg.bandcamp.com/track/the-beast

Probably the best "indie pop" anything record I've run across in years, Teen Daze is the brainchild of singer-songwriter Jamison Isaak as an avenue to explore more expansive sounds. The ideas present here, a sort of mono no aware distillation of the idea of seeking solace from the pain of the world through nature and the primordial - is a compelling one. Or at the very least, it is a typical concept made compellingly new again through a combination of dreamy pop and experimental yet still soothing ambient instrumentals. The album barely cracks the 40 minute mark, but it manages to keep a substantial balance between the vocal and ambient cuts to give you a sense of ebb and flow as you go along.

The two strongest vocal cuts here, opener 'Cycle' and the shimmering 'Lost' showcase a penchant for strong melodic progression and perhaps a strong sense of empathy as well. It's the kind of stuff that can connect with you when your guard is down. No ripping guitar solos here: synths and a mix of acoustics is the name of the game and the overall effect is sublime.

The last three minutes of the record, closing track 'Breath', is perhaps the best track of all despite its simplicity. Just one great synth wash coming in and out like the Pacific tide. No special variations, no tricks...just the digital recreation of falling into a trance. Or maybe just a deep sleep. Either way, it sold me and catapulted the whole album right over nearly everyone else.

Adherents to the jazzier, up past midnight side of the neo-soul sound, Moonchild are masters of mood here and carry their twilight torches with a certain breed of quiet confidence. I've been aware of them a few years, but it is with 2nd full length Voyager where I feel like they've coalesced into something like a top drawer artist. The production is amazing subtle at times, complete with woodwinds and breezy Rhodes. At times, it seems like they are purposely evoking the dreamiest moments on those classic early acid-jazz Jamiroquai records or D'Angelo's debut, yet still sounding unlike them in some definitive respects. That's a hard line to walk and doesn't leave a massive amount of room for variation...but sometimes focus on one specific aesthetic is what makes the music work.

The best songs here are clear as day, and that's saying something in an album at this level of consistency: '6am' sounds like a lost vocal number from the Samurai Champloo anime OST. It has a cloying, almost nostalgic melody running through it that defies description and reason. It's an early high point, matched later only perhaps by the most upbeat cut here 'The List', which rides on a bouncy piano / horn section combination to near perfection.

Whilst perhaps just a bit "too" samey aesthetically from start to finish for some people, Moonchild made that into a strength on these songs and created a fabulous lounge album in the process. And hey, you can always cherrypick and slide the best songs here into your next jazzy hip-hop, R&B, etc. mix at your GF's place and watch those clothes fly off.

Still my favorite among all the artists out there who identify as part of the whole "synthwave" genre, dynamic duo The Midnight made a storm last year with the fabulous Endless Summer, an album that felt very much of the late 80's but somehow very out of time as well. I loved that one, but I think this EP might be in a class of its own altogether. This one throws out ear hooks like Jack Dempsey with Shiva arms. Carrying a saxophone. There's a lot of saxophone.

Tyler Lyle, being the vocalist and primary melody maker here, remains an intriguing element that elevates the music above most of The Midnight's peers. He's not a typical 80's music sounding frontman. He's got a very plaintive, almost Southern Gothic sensibility to his delivery. Like someone from 2000's alt-country scene suddenly transplanted into the lead singer's position of a Tears For Fears cover band who might've shown up as the opener in Lost Boys. His closest cousin (in a sense) might be Bruce Hornsby...but Hornsby never did sleek, at times nightmarishly lyrical EDM-as-it-might-have-been-in-1989.

There's only seven tracks here, but all of them work very well. My favorites would be the sinuous opener 'Shadows', the almost-AOR of 'River Of Darkness' and the vibrant Nikki Flores duet of 'Light Years', the last of which would have been perfect on the Stranger Things 2 soundtrack and has a killer melodic progression.

All in all, this album was pure gold and it almost makes you want to go back to the 80's....almost.

The Breathing Effect are another band I've grown fond of over the past few years but whose overall approach is a hard one to box in. If pressed, I suppose the easiest way to define the fluidity of The Fisherman Abides is an album that sounds like The Flaming Lips doing Bitches Brew. This is an old school fusion record as interpreted by our millennial generation that loves the more experimental side of 90's and early 00's rock and the whole chillwave sound that showed up right after that. You get the sense these guys are well versed in subverting all things jazzy and vaguely commercial, as those yacht rock Rhodes keys at the beginning of 'Water Static (Blinding Phoenix)' indicate, though it quickly morphs into a nearly avant-garde exercise in sound manipulation, complete with some classic tension-and-release post rock dynamics.

Of the main two players here, Harry Terrell is particularly awesome on the skins. He's got massive dexterity, able to convey Steely Dan level precision in tripped out soundscapes that remind me more of Swans circa 1991 or so. And that's just how great the dichotomy here is: this is the kind of album that will sound completely different depending on the person listening. There's just that much variability here, and it's fantastic.

So for those looking for a little jazz in your math-rock with an extra dash of creativity, this comes with my highest recommendations. At the very least, you might be surprised.

What a bag of goodies this one is folks. It's that stone cold classic that never emerged from 4AD in their heyday. Or, at least, that was my first impression when I got this almost a year ago. The brain trust here and lead vocalist Andrew Clinco is better known as a session drummer in L.A. with various other bands, but here he takes lead as an androgynous vampiric persona known as Deb Demure, with a voice that sits somewhere between Roland Orzabel (Tears For Fears) and his idol Robert Smith. Does it work? Splendidly.

Some haunting synth patches on instrumental opener 'Induction' sets the tone well before a haunting guitar motif marks the beginning of 'Dot In The Sky', a catchy slab of gloom, doom and paranoia that would have been my pick for lead single if such a thing had any real meaning in 2017. That synth counterpoint melody that weaves in around the halfway mark is pure brilliance, but there's quite a few mountain peaks on this record without many valleys. The reverberating, almost chant-like vocal layering on 'Not Just A Name', the strangely upbeat 'Too Soon To Tell' that sounds like something from early Joy Division, that rising industrial wall of noise as the second half of closer 'Behind The Wall' goes on....there are so many great moments like this across every song that give you a real appreciation to just how much Mr. Clinco has immersed himself in his music in order to create such an authentic, vibrant recreation of this particular golden age of synth-pop.

One thing I find interesting about The Demonstration is it's lyrical preoccupation with the idea of death betraying the expectations we have in life, but at the same time embracing the idea that there's something beyond this life where people who have been separated can be together again. For an album that is so wrapped up in the dark sounds of this music's nihilistic forefathers, the idea that there's some kind of hope buried within the dark eyeliner and grave soil is rather fascinating and extra icing on the cake for me. Check it out!

The chillest album of the year by a long country mile, equal parts Surf's Up as it is Dark Side Of The Moon and a whole lot more. The culprit behind this delectable set, Dave Hartley, is better known as the bassist in The War On Drugs. But in the case of 2017, he has one-upped his parent band in some respects, especially when it comes to crafting pure ear-candy that seems to draw on every ounce of nostalgia I could possibly have for the late 60's through the early 80's. Swooning synths straight out of Smokey Robinson's Quiet Storm sessions breeze by here and there alongside his Brian Wilson-esque (and quite massive) sounding vocal harmonies, but variety is the spice of life: we get a Brazillian MBP flavour on 'Moonbathin', doo-wop on closer 'Human Hearts' and even a taste of yacht rock-gone-shoegaze with the ghostly 'Fear Of Flying'.

Somewhere on a lonely beach in south Cali, David Lynch is sipping one of his weird drinks and playing this album on repeat while he contemplates his next masterpiece for the silver screen. Take it for a swim.

U.S. Power Metal is my favorite overall "style" of metal. It's one of metal as a genre's foundations at this point, powerful and massive and infinitely melodic but indulging in the heaviness of early thrash, NWOBHM while still being able to incorporate the more elaborate structures of progressive rock. Few bands have the vocal chops or the nuance to pull this style off well. But just when all hope was lost, Australia birthed a dark horse to little fanfare this year - A World Awakens, the sophomore release from Damnations Day.

Their first album a few years ago, Invisible The Dead, wasn't anything special so I get the lack of hype....but this album is such a massive step up. Yuge. Ginormous in every respect. The vocals from Mark Kennedy here rival Geoff Tate, Midnight and Rob Halford in their respective primes. He's an overwhelming force that could make even reading off the phone book sound like a titanic event, maybe one of a handful of frontmen in the metal world today who can sing at that level. That's not light praise coming from these fingers!

The songs are pretty good too, with a strong sense of variety from track to track and a balanced production style to match. Kinda earthy, with the guitars neither too high or too low in the mix. The orchestral indulgences on 'Into Black' are pretty nice, reminding me of 'Silent Lucidity' from Queensryche's Empire (probably intentional), though I think third track 'Colours Of Darkness' actually one-ups the prog-metal kings at their own game. It starts off mid-tempo but builds to a soaring climax in its final minute that'll drop your jaw. For fans of speed and melodic thrashiness, opening cut 'The Witness' and the speedy 'The Idol Counterfeit' are both pretty stellar. The latter is particularly interesting, if for nothing else that it's got a fun Iron Maiden meets mid 90's post-grunge chord progression.

This is one of those albums that probably wouldn't be able to get away with this particular style under normal circumstances. USPM and Alter Bridge-styled proggy grunge aren't normally the friendliest of bedfellows, but Damnations Day were determined to make it work and it pays off way more often than you'd ever expect it to. Hell, it's actually pretty fun. And fun is a hard thing to find sometimes.