2019 TOP 100 ALBUMS

Let’s start with the band that get the award for the best name on the list. Transcendental psychedelic doom from Wales and translating as “Return to the Underworld” is the third part in a trilogy. It is trippy, mind altering, spacey and in places very very very heavy. Doom for those who prefer LSD to dope. The fact that the lyrics are also in welsh makes it an even more other worldly experience.

It’s actually a film soundtrack rather than a compilation so it just about gets through the eligibility criteria on essentially a technicality as the new songs outweigh the classics. What is heartening is that Stuart and co have abandoned the dance pop of “How to Solve our Human Condition” and gone back to what they are good at. Catchy bedwetting indie. Hidden towards the end, singles ‘Sister Buddha’ and ‘This Letter’ are classic Belle and Sebastian and make the record.

Not a patch on 2016’s stunning “Winter’s Gate” but is still good enough to make the list (just). Atmospheric melodeath (melodic death metal for the unfamiliar) with enough introspection to make it stand out from others melding screaming with Maiden riffs. It’s actually a more downbeat album than its predecessor and probably less accessible and immediate as well. I suspect it’s a grower and that further listens would have seen it rise in my estimations (and in placing).

Yes, them and no, I am not trolling you. This is great! Seriously!!! It’s really good. Its bubble gum pop punk, but they suddenly seem to have regained the ability to write songs. All the trying to be serious, mature and adult is gone and instead we get an album of fun, bouncy bangers. They have given up trying to be respected and instead gone back to what they are good at.

Highly emotive and full of passion, this is occult rock at its best. Satanic hymns with the same level of vim, vigour and gusto that you get from committed evangelic Christians. It has an authentic seventies feel and even though the subject matter is all primal evil, it is actually a really warm and charismatic album brimming with personality.

Subtle and utterly beautiful. It is full of lilting melodies that build towards crescendos of sound. Mogawi but with more power and bite. Just a masterclass in producing precise post-rock with an emotional heart.

Yes, it is low for Volbeat. That’s because this record is distinctly a game of two halves as it could have used some harsh editing.. Lead single ‘Last Day Under the Sun’ is poor and sounds like the Sterophonics. You could have also lost the final three tracks and ended up with a much shorter, sharper, taut and better record. However, when they are good, they are magnificent and ‘Sorry Sack of Bones’, ‘Cheapside Sloggers’ and ‘Pelvis on Fire’ are alone worth the admission prize and manage to justify their inclusion in this list.

For a band in crisis, this is a bloody good album! Finnish megalomaniac Arttu Kuismanen and producer Kane Churko play every single instrument on it as the rest of band decided that they had had enough of Arttu’s diva behaviour. For all that, it is throw away fun and had me singing along to tracks that I had never heard before. Yes its paper thin and probably has the nutritional value of a wine gum but I just really really enjoyed it.

Like Volbeat, While She Sleeps have, for their last few releases, enjoyed a Sense ticket to the upper pinnacles of my list. 2015’s “Brainwashed” is brilliant, utterly brilliant and whilst 2017’s “You Are We” was a slow burner it still had stunningly inventive moments. “SO WHAT?” is good, really good, but but just doesn’t have the memorable moments the previous three records have. I haven’t listened to debut “This is the Six” in a good couple of years but I could still sing ‘Seven Hills’ to you at the drop of the hat. I have just finished “SO WHAT?” and I don’t think I could hum you any of the tracks. It isn’t bad and deserves attention, it just suffers from following three colossal albums.

More melodic Death Metal with this record that just oozes quality. The production is luscious, the choruses are big and the riffs are soaring. It may exist in a crowded market but there is something very special about it. It is also another one where I need to put my hand up and say if I had given it more attention, it probably would have been higher. Though it does sound like Children of Bodom in places….

First album in X years is a phrase I am going to use a lot this year. There has been a twenty seven year gap between this and Exhorder’s previous release “The Law” (though not the longest lay off on this list). So if you ever wandered what a Pantera record released in 2019 would sound like, this is your answer. It’s a treasure trove of unashamed groovy thrash. Raw and raucous but also exhibiting a real swing and swagger. And yes! it sounds like Pantera because back in the early nineties Pantera “borrowed” their sound from Exhorder. Nearly thirty years later, Exhorder are back to set the record straight.

It is not easy being an overlooked genius. Tim Showalter releases yet another excellent collection of nu-country alt-rock and the world once again looks on with indifference. All of Tim’s records as Strands of Oaks have been deeply personal, but “Eraserland” takes that self-confessional style one step further. This is a rock n’ roll album about falling out of love with rock n’ roll. It is less clever and self-referential than his previous records and straighter forward in its use of wide-screen Springsteen-esque americana. It’s also a perfect balance of utter beauty and painful heartbreak. I just wish it was more than me that was bothered.

There is a lot of Black Metal on this list so it is almost bizarre that we have had to go twelve records before we get some. This is a love letter to Behemoth from Canada (Even though Necromonicon were in existence long before the polish giants of the genre and also just for clarity this is not the German thrash Necromonicon this is the Canadian Blackened variety). It is heavy, black and pendulous, big in both its sound and also its ambition.

So you wait around for Black Metal on this list and then like buses a couple turn up at the same time. This is polish stadium sized Black, one of my favourite acts at the Damnation Festival. This swims against the tide by doing Black Metal with slick production and up-tuned guitars. Probably not as good as it could be (hence it’s relatively lowly placing). It still feels like Black Metal on steroids.

Here we go, the biggest gap between releases on this list. Acid Reign’s previous album to this was released in 1990, a whopping twenty nine years (I bought it. At the time, it had a nice bright pink cover, it wasn’t very good (though I loved it back then)). Old thrash bands don’t die, they just reform a couple of decades later with less hair, more weight and, in the main, a much more heightened ability to play their instruments. This is great. Balls to the wall and foot to the floor thrash from men of a certain age who really should know better. It is unashamedly up-tempo and in many many ways is the album that “Obnoxious” should have been.

Half welsh and half Australian, she reminds me of early Lilly Allen in both her directness and her casual vulgarity. This album is great because under its sweet melodies and beautiful subtle tunes, it has a venomous heart. The lyrics are strident, barbed and full of righteous anger. This is a raging protest album, wrapped up in fragile songs. The music seems harmless and melodious but the lyrics cut to the heart and scream injustice. A fascinating juxtaposing record.

Grindcore is Death Metal’s noisy and more socially impaired cousin. Death Metal may be offensive and uncouth, but at least it is house trained. Grindcore however will happily poop all over the furniture and then write its own name (spelt wrong) in the resulting mess. Full of Hell are anarchic modern day torch bearers for grindcore and one of “Weeping Choir’s” virtues is how close it skates to pure noise. It is an exhilarating and invigorating listen. Difficult in places and definitely not easy, it is one of those records that rewards repeat listens.

It may seem that I am the patron saint of extreme metal, but there is still an indie kid trapped inside me (like in Get Out). Whilst predominately locked away, every now again he will influence my tastes. It is also his ongoing influence that keeps The Beta Band as one of my all-time bands. Until the inevitable reunion (please please please please) I have Steve Mason solo albums to keep me going. “About the light”, is actually (shock horror) a positive album. After a couple of records full of political discourse and treaties on the end of civilisation, Steve has actually produced a personal and upbeat collection about his life and loves. There are still traces of the melancholic here (this is Steve Mason after all) but there is also a twinkles of playfulness and charm that actually makes it an uplifting experience.

By far the most accessible album so far from these hotly tipped UK thrashers. It has big melodic tunes that manage to stay just on the right side of cheesy. This is very polished and less aggressive than usual but boy does it have songs. The choruses soar and the power chords resonate all over the place. If you like your metal highly melodious and smooth then please do check it out.

In any other year, I would be exclaiming that this record would keep us going until we get a new Tool album to feast upon. However this year, we do have a brand spanking new Tool release and (spoiler) it will turn up later (though how high is the question). So let’s look at this on its own merits. It’s full of angular forthright riffs and soaring vocals. The songwriting is also excellent, there is so much in here. The tracks unfurl in front of your eyes and then heads off in unexpected directions. I have listened to it numerous times and some of the shift in tempo and style still surprise me. It is a supremely confident and self-assured record which leaves you with real excitement about what they will do next.

This album really pleasantly surprised me. I was expecting uninspired formulaic deathcore. Instead I got a layered complex record with plenty of shades of light and dark. There is smorgasbord of varied genre reference points and unexpectedly this melting pot of varied influences actually worked. Each track feels like it comes from a different band but rather than come across as stilted, this variety actually takes the form of evolution. Not a band I expected to include but I bow to the fact they have created such an intriguing album.

Talking about originality and variety, here comes a record which is essentially the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s do the songs of King Crimson. New York Arty indie meets Prog. It’s eccentric, eclectic and brimming with energy. You really have no idea where each track is going, let alone the actually album. It skitters all over the place and the only constant is the husky and alluring Karen O-esque vocals of Courtney Swain. You come out of it wondering what the heck you have just listened to, but desperate to dive straight back in again.

Ah my beloved In Flames return with studio album number thirteen. A record that see’s them inch even further away from their now dim and distant melodic death roots. These days they trade exclusively in slick commercial metal of a Linkin park variety. For what it is, it is very good. The choruses are catchy, the guitars are big and the whole thing feels accessible and inviting. It is as underground as a flyover but it is still highly enjoyable because it has songs. Big spanking sing along-able songs. And that is good enough for me.

If you are planning a Black Mass or some form of paganistic ritual then this is so the soundtrack for you. This is as retro as you can get and you could very easily persuade people that it is a long lost recording from some underground mid-seventies cult act. It is rich in texture and completely reverential of its subject matter. Yes it owes a hell of a lot to Ghost in its ability to articulate its unashamed devotion to Blue Oyster Cult. However any points it loses for a lack of originality, it picks up again for being such a riveting and entertaining listen.

Kyuss should have been huge. They took Soundgarden’s Sabbath obsessed brand of grunge and slowed it down. It no longer sounded hurried and agitated, it now sounded laid back and stoned. There was the sound of burnt out mid west America, isolated and overlooked. It was anthems for a youth with nothing more to do than smoke weed, listen to metal and wait for adulthood to arrive. After varied reunion attempts (without guitarist Josh Homme who is far too busy selling out and being commercial), John Garcia has finally made a record that captures the spirit of his former glories. This album has a swagger, an attitude and a fire in its belly. It is full of spacey reverberating riffs and tracks to drive along deserted highways to. For the first time in decades John Garcia feels like he means it.

God loves a trier. Heart of Coward are in the unenviable position of having been a next big thing that never actually made it. They came close in 2015 with an excellent album and a number of high profile tour and festival slots. But then vocalist Jamie Graham jumped ship and it looked like they were scuppered. However, four years later they have dusted themselves off, recruited a new frontman (Kaan Tasan) and decided to give it one last shot. “The Disconnect” is an ambitious and high voltage collection of tracks that see’s the band go for the jugular. Slightly more commercial and polished than before, it starts at hundred miles an hour and just accelerates. It is that unstoppable energy that makes the record so appealing. It is relentless and wears its heart firmly on the sleeve. This is undoubtedly Heart of Coward’s last shot and boy are they trying to make it count.

So far most of the doom metal on this list has been on the lighter, more playful side of the fence. This is traditional, old skool doom at its best. Colossal jet black riffs crash down like waves, accompanying haunting vocals that scream of the injustices of organised religion. It is dark, atmospheric, foreboding and enticing. You feel yourself drawn in by the mesmerising slabs of guitar that are hypnotic in the momentum and their depth. As a debut release this is both ambitious and also highly impressive. It left me hungry for more, which is always a good sign.

One of the most intriguing records on this list. A unique and very intriguing collaboration between Mancunian Post Rockers Pijn and up and coming Black Metallers Conjurer. It was originally meant to be a exclusive commissioned piece of work performed at 2018 Arctangent Festival. However, it has taken on a life of its own and they entered the studio together earlier on in the year to record their very very distinct amalgamation. It is quite hard to put your finger on actually what this is. Three of its four tracks are each nearly ten minutes in length (the other one, ‘Endeavour’, is a simply a two minute musical interlude) and they unfurl in a melee of different styles and tempos. You feel that you are on a musical journey as it disarms you atmospheric low key acoustica and then pummels you with savage guitar riffs. There is just so much here in its brief thirty minute lifespan that you have to give it multiple listens to take it all. Exhilarating, baffling and, in places, extraordinary.

Well this is a first. We have a band getting two entries on the list and it is none other than drone metal uberlords Sunn O))). One of the most incredible and absorbing live acts on the planet (Manchester Live review here), you feel as well as hear them. In fact, their reverberations are so powerful that they managed to total my friend’s glasses by vibrating all the screws out of their fittings. This is the companion album to April’s Life Metal (keep your eyes out for it on the list) and it consists of four improvised meditations on life, the universe and everything, each in a different key (C, G, E and A for those who those things matter). It’s classic Sunn O))) in that it is low, slow and rumbling but it also has an organic earthy feel to it. There is a stark beauty to its minimalism and you can lose yourself in the four tracks. Devastatingly simple in its approach, the tracks stay with you much longer than one held chord played in one key has a right to.

French metal has never been healthier by cornering the market in doing something different with our distinctly conservative genre. The Great Old Ones are both obsessed with and make music inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. What we get is a highly atmospheric and theatrical take on Black Metal, with complicated tracks that shift from sinister under-played melodies to big bold distorted guitars. The whole thing has an air of the macabre and the menacing about it. It results in a fascinating album that unfolds more like an audio novel than a communal garden record. It draws you into their ominous world. The question is will you get out again….