20-16




20) Trap Them - Crown Feral

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The current state of metalcore is quite upsetting for someone like myself that considers the subgenre to be one of the best under the metal umbrella. Fortunately for me, Trap Them show just how great metalcore can be when you leave the cheesy soaring cleans behind and stick to writing straight up gnarly guitar riffs and absolutely brutal breakdowns. If you aren't a fan of metal music you should probably stay away from this, but if you consider yourself a metalhead and haven't given this a spin, do so as soon as possible.




19) Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial

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Teens of Denial is the album you hate hipsters for loving. Car Seat Headrest is a grown man making lo-fi emo power pop songs about trivial issues. And yet, somehow he manages to make it work out. Good luck making it more than two or three tracks deep without tapping your foot and singing along to tracks like Fill in the Blank & Destroyed by Hippie Powers. This is Will Toledo's lightning in a bottle moment, maturing his sound slightly while still remaining more entertaining than ever.




18) Touché Amoré - Stage Four

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Touche Amore managed to couple their most diverse album with their most emotional offering on Stage Four. The basis of the album's story telling is the unfortunate passing of the mother of one of the band members which leads to a real tear jerking experience. Despite the tragedy, the band manage to come into this album stronger than ever before with some fantastic post-hardcore that makes this album quite easily the best in their discography so far.




17) Rail Yard Ghosts - Hiraeth

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In what was easily one of the most ambitious efforts of 2016, folk-punk act Rail Yard Ghosts pieced together a 90+ minute concept double album that was just as full of skits as it was music. While that may initially make this a difficult album to get into, the payoff is remarkable. The story is incredibly interesting, the range of music played varies from folk-punk, to traditional folk, to crust-punk-folk, and the spoken word bits that pop up throughout the project are absolutely wonderful.




16) Death Grips - Bottomless Pit

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This album, much like everything else Death Grips have released, is ****ing fantastic. There's a blend of in-your-face loud, abrasive synths, drum beats, and when accompanied with MC Ride's vocals... well you already know just how brilliant it is. It may not be able to touch the quality of TMS and Exmilitary, but it's yet another solid addition to hip-hop's favourite experimental trio's discography.

15-11




15) The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation

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Leave it to Dillinger of all bands to go out of the game with their most complete and awe inspiring release. They have been a long time favourite of mine and on Dissociation they say farewell in such a fashion that I don't think any fan could be disappointed. There is plenty of risks taken all over the project, and yet they still manage to combine some of their most melodic work with some of their heaviest and most chaotic. From the spastic opener Limerent Death to the electronic Fugue, there is no shortage of variety on the band's latest release. I truly believe DEP were a band that improved with nearly every project they released, and they capped it off with a mesmerizing finale.




14) Modern Baseball - Holy Ghost

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The little emo kid inside of me will always enjoy newly released poppy tunes like you find on Holy Ghost. Modern Baseball seem to specialize in that. Much like their last album, Holy Ghost is filled with well crafted pop punk tracks that embrace every emo cliche around while remaining oh so self-aware. The smooth transitions between tracks and the sub-30 minute run time make this album one of the easiest listens of 2016, while still remaining catchy and fun. I will Paypal $100 to anyone that can make it through Mass without singing along to what is easily the catchiest track of the year.




13) Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä

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If I was rating these albums on unique listening experiences, Oranssi Pazuzu would certainly have cracked the top 5. Psychedelic rock, atmo-black metal, space rock, what doesn't this album have? To be quite honest, not much. This thing takes you on a true voyage from start to finish and makes the most of its 70 minute run-time. There isn't much justice that be done to this album by simply talking about it. If you're a fan of adventurous and unique extreme metal then I would highly recommend picking this up.




12) Vektor - Terminal Redux

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As far as I'm concerned, Vektor are one of, if not the most talented modern thrash acts. They blend break neck speed riffs, alien-esque ugly wretched vocals, and some very progressive and technical instrumentation in a way that I've never quite heard before. On Terminal Redux, they return after a 5 year absence and deliver a sci-fi adventure that might just be my new favourite release of theirs. The use of guest performers who provide soulful, choir-like vocals on the opening and closing tracks as well as the slower paced, cleaner passages both work perfectly when contrasting the brazing guitar shredding and ruthless drum beats. If you needed an album to show you how alive and well thrash metal currently is, you can find it here.




11) Zao - The Well-Intentioned Virus

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As I said earlier, properly constructed metalcore is just the bees' knees, as shown by one of the genres most talented groups, Zao. Despite their ever-evolving line-up and 7 year hiatus, the American metal act shot back this year with one of their best releases so far. The sludgy production, the hammering intensity, and the perfectly executed melodic moments all lead to this being one of the best metal albums of the year and yet another fantastic addition to the band's discography. Regardless of whether you're a Converge fan, a Trivium fan, or a Pierce the Veil fan (pussy), you need to hear this album for the track Observed/Observer alone.

Originally Posted by Qwertyy (Post 1784375) Alright listen, I'm typically of the belief that nobody (except for maybe TH) needs more than one journal,.

10-6




10) Regina Spektor - Remember Us to Life

http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com/sit...?itok=QepI9qHV

2016 was the year I fell in love with Russian singer-songwriter sensation Regina Spektor. From her quirky lyrics to her beautiful voice, she never fails to impress throughout her very diverse catalogue of releases. On her newest record Remember Us to Life Regina pens some of the best songs of the year with tracks like Small Bill$ and Older and Taller. The combination of lovely melodies and intricate piano work make this an essential listen for any music fan.




9) Entropia - Ufonaut

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Blackgaze has seemingly become the "hipster metal genre" over the last few years. Fortunately for those of us black metal fans that enjoy both the raw traditional Norwegian styling and the newly christened 'hipster' approach, Entropia gave us this gem. Ufonaut sees the dynamic Polish group combine elements of psychedelic black metal, sludge metal, progressive metal, and so much more over the span of just 40 minutes. It feels beautiful in it's delivery, while still so cacophonous and dissonant. A truly remarkable addition to what was a great year for black metal.




8) Swain - The Long Dark Blue

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This release totally came out of nowhere and ended up crawling it's way higher and higher up my list. I think it's worth mentioning that I've never been much of a grunge fan, and because of that I went into the album not expecting all that much excitement. While the grunge elements are undeniable and there are a few moments of straight up Nirvana worship on this thing, the album also hosts a ton of other influences and creates a sound of it's own. From the hardcore punk roots shown on tracks like Punk Rock Messed You Up, to the very Creep-like Never Clean My Room, the Dutch 4-piece Swain manage to weave together one of 2016's most compelling punk albums.




7) Preoccupations - Preoccupations

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Viet Cong reinvented themselves in 2016, changing their stage name to Preoccupations due to reasons that aren't all that worth discussing. Despite the name change however, they remained very true to their brooding, depressing post-punk sound. If you weren't a fan of the debut, this one probably won't win you over. If you enjoyed what they presented on their first album though, this album is exactly what you should have been hoping for as a follow-up. Just one listen to the opening track Anxiety or a dive into the 11 minute cut Memory will assure you of that.




6) Oathbreaker - Rheia

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On their newest full-length album Rheia, Belgium based black metal outfit Oathbreaker push their crust punk influence to the side as they truly give way to a much more atmospheric blackgaze approach. There are just as many moments of clean vocals, acoustic guitar, and beautiful passages as there is black metal chaos. While Oathbreaker failed to push any higher than #6 this year, this album certainly would have been a contender for #1 on any other occasion. Not only should any fan of atmo-black and/or blackgaze check this out, but I would also recommend to anyone looking to get into extreme metal. This is far from the heaviest black metal album you'll hear this year, and because the production stays closer to the tidy side of things than the colder raw style you'd normally associate with the genre, it makes for a rather easy listen.