Top 10 albums of 2016

The real AOTY?

Another year of music is in the books, and frankly, I feel less enthusiastic than ever about the state of modern music. That's not to say that there wasn't some great new music released in 2016. I just find myself becoming less dedicated to weeding out the good from the bad with each passing year. It was all I could do to avoid putting the above album on my top 10 list this year. When a live album recorded 15 years ago and comprised exclusively of songs that were originally released 26 years ago threatens to crack your annual list of top 10 "new" albums, it's probably a sign you've lost your passion for discovering new music (even if said live album is by the greatest band in the history of recorded music).

Top 10 albums of 2015

Ween is back for 2016, fuckers!

Well shit. It's already February, huh? Seems like this annual top 10 list goes up later and later every year. At the rate I'm going, my top 10 albums of 2025 might not see the light of day until 2027. Honestly, I'm really just a music journalist in name only at this point. This is only the 12th post I've made on this blog since 2011, and four of those (including this one) are just my annual top 10 albums lists. Two of them didn't even have anything to do with music and one was just a rehash of all my old 3?aK posts, so yeah, suffice it to say that writing about music has kind of taken a backseat to damn near everything else in my life lately. That said, a bunch of labels still send me promos to check out, and Village Voice still sends me a Pazz + Jop ballot every year, so I feel obligated to at least post a top 10 list for all of you loyal Tempe Carnivore readers out there.

Like last year, I've included the points I awarded each album on my 2015 ballot. Each voter gets 100 points to distribute amongst their top 10, with no album receiving more than 30 points or less than five. Also like last year (and every single year I've published a top 10), this list is predominantly metal. Deal with it.

Top 10 albums of 2014

Spoiler alert: St. Vincent is not in my Top 10. Sorry hipsters. Maybe next year.

Well, here we are. Another year in the books and another Top 10 list of albums you've probably never heard of. There are only so many directions you can go in an introduction to one of these lists, and I feel like I've already exhausted them all, so I'll try to keep it brief. If you know me at all, then you know my list is usually dominated by heavy metal, and this list is no exception.

This year, I decided to included the points I allotted each album on my ballot for this year's Village Voice Pazz + Jop poll. Voters get 100 points to distribute amongst their top 10, with no album receiving more than 30 points or less than five. The Pazz + Jop poll is a stat geek's wet dream. You can peruse voters' individual ballots or sort albums, singles and voters by a wide array of criteria. Here are a few (debatably) interesting facts about my top 10 list:

Moodie Black - Nausea (Album Review)

Moodie Black - Nausea
Release date: May 6, 2014 (Fake Four Inc.)

When I interviewed Moodie Black MC/producer/mastermind Chris Martinez more than five years ago for a Phoenix New Times music feature, he had just started referring to his noisy, distorted and occasionally chaotic brand of hip-hop as "post-rap." He soon backed away from the label, however, opting for the less grandiose but more descriptive term "noise rap." 

"It sounded like I was a pretentious prick mostly," Martinez expained when I asked him recently why he stopped using the term. "But also because the music is what it is. I'll let the masses label it."

After listening to his latest batch of songs, I'm starting to think he was right all along. Nausea is Moodie Black's first full-length release for indie hip-hop label Fake Four Inc., and the follow-up to last year's self-titled EP that initially caught the label's attention. While Nausea is still plenty noisy, it also features the kind of epic, post-rock soundscapes favored by bands like Jesu, Explosions in the Sky and Deafheaven.

Top 10 albums of 2013

Well, here we are. We made it through the first full calendar year in the wake of Ween's untimely demise, and somehow, against all odds, the music industry managed to not only survive the year 1 A.W., but actually spew out 10 albums worth ranking in a listicle-type thingy. Putting together a year-end top 10 list almost seems quaint by today's standards. In its relatively brief existence, BuzzFeed has already ranked the relative worthiness of just about every item, person or event since the dawn of civilization, up to and including BuzzFeed lists themselves. (At least they have a sense of humor about their utter disregard for journalistic standards, I guess.)

So what's the point of adding yet another list to the shit heap? Well, this happens to be my list, containing my opinions. And my opinions are important. So much so that I usually present them as unassailable fact. Ween was the greatest musical act of all time. Slayer's Reign in Blood is the best 29 consecutive minutes in the history of recorded music. See? Those are most certainly opinions, shared by relatively few others, but I know them in my heart to be true.

It's no coincidence that the people who claim that all music has equal merit and individual taste in music is subjective tend to have the shittiest taste in music. Ultimately, that's why I became a music journalist. Some music is simply superior to other music, and the world needs me (and others like me) to sort it all out for them. Therefore, it is with great pride that I perform my civic duty and unveil my list of the 10 best albums of 2013. Consider this list your definitive, one-stop shop for the best music of 2013, and feel free to leave me a note of thanks in the comments below.

Top 10 albums of 2012

Well, I've run out of excuses for the absence of my "best albums of 2012" list. It's been 2013 for damn-near two weeks now, so I can't exactly say that I'm waiting for a last-second release to blow my mind. In truth, I've just been lazy in 2012: lazy about writing and lazy about seeking out new music. That's what happens when you're your own editor and you don't give yourself any deadlines or pay yourself jack shit. Suddenly, there are a lot of things more appealing than cranking out another blog post that might get read by 100 people (10 who came here willingly and 90 more who inadvertently stumbled their way here Googling cover art for metal bands).

So yeah, I admit it. I've been a lazy journalist this year, to the point that when I got an email from the Village Voice asking for my annual contribution to their Pazz & Jop poll, I worried that I'd even be able to come up with 10 albums worth ranking. Thanks to some 11th-hour cramming on iTunes and Spotify, that turned out not to be the case. After all was said and done, I still had to make some tough choices. Quality albums by the likes of Meshuggah, Brother Ali, The Sword, Fen, Testament, Goatwhore and Japandroids all narrowly missed the cut.

My list is pretty heavy on the heavy again this year. What can I say? I'm a metalhead, damnit. If you were expecting a paean to the brilliant artistry of Frank Ocean, you've stumbled onto the wrong blog. So for better or worse, here are my 10 favorite albums of 2012. If you love my picks or hate them, please leave a comment below. We journalists (professional or otherwise) thrive on internet comments, even those of the "ur writing is teh suck, plz die soon" variety.

Baroness - Yellow & Green (Album Review)

Baroness - Yellow & Green

Release date: July 17, 2012 (Relapse Records)

It's been a while since I've heard an album that I felt compelled to write about. In fact, I haven't posted a new album review since October of last year, when I boldly declared that Elder's Dead Roots Stirring was the best hard rock/metal album I'd heard in half a decade. Well, either my standards are rapidly diminishing, or we may be on the cusp of the next great era of heavy music, because as much as I loved Elder's album last year, I love the new Baroness double album, Yellow & Green, even more.

Funny thing is, I can still stand behind my Elder proclamation, because Yellow & Green is decidedly and unrepentantly not metal, and it only sporadically qualifies as hard rock. With the amount of buzz this album has already generated, I'm hardly the first person to make that distinction, but if it seems as if every critic and blogger is preoccupied with what this album isn't, it's probably because it's so hard to put into words what, precisely, it is.

Top 10 albums of 2011

Well, it's that time of year again. Music critics around the world are revealing their Top 10 (or for the really ambitious, Top 25) albums of the past year, while angry, anonymous internet commenters are ripping them to shreds for being too mainstream, too obscure, too hipster, too hip-hop, too trendy, too nerdy, too old-school, too new-school or some other petty grievance. It never ceases to amaze me how so many people take it as a personal affront every time you pick 10 things and rank them, but hey, that's what we're here for. Some people make lists, and some people bitch about them. I'm happy to be in the former camp.

In my case, you could justifiably label my Top 10 as "too metal." It's no secret that I'm a metalhead first and foremost, but it's hardly the only style of music I listen to. Over the years, I've shown plenty of love to non-metal releases in my year-end Top 10 lists, but this year just seemed to be a really good year for metal (or maybe just a down year for hip-hop, indie rock, etc.). Outside of a pair of country albums, this list is all metal. Hell, even the two country acts on my list have metal albums to their credit.

But you know what? So be it. Maybe I'm just getting old and set in my ways, but these are the 10 albums that moved me the most this year. Throwing in a token nod to Fleet Foxes, White Denim or the Black Keys just didn't seem right in a year that featured so many great heavy releases. So feel free to leave a comment below lambasting my picks. I've developed some thivk skin over the past few years, and it just wouldn't feel like a proper Top 10 list without disgruntled commentary.

Elder - Dead Roots Stirring (Album Review)

Elder - Dead Roots Stirring
Release date: October 25, 2011 (Meteor City Records)

Every once in a great while, an album comes along that almost leaves you lost for words. I say "almost," of course, because here I am, sitting down to write a review of one such album, and sure enough, I've managed to produce a few dozen words already, but I'm still trying to figure out how to effectively communicate how much I fucking love the new Elder record.

It'd be easy to write this Boston-based trio off as just another in a long line of Sabbath worshipping stoner metal bands, and admittedly, that alone is usually enough to impress me. Indeed, Elder's 2008 self-titled debut landed them squarely in that category, earning the band comparisons to stoner rock luminaries Sleep and Kyuss. But on Dead Roots Stirring, Elder not only avoid the dreaded "sophomore slump" that befalls so many bands that put out such a promising debut, they make stoner rock seem as fresh and viable a genre as it's been in decades.

Anthrax - Worship Music (Album Review)

Anthrax - Worship Music
Release date: September 13, 2011 (Megaforce Records)

If anyone had any questions about the pecking order among the Big Four thrash metal bands, the lineup at the Big 4 Festival this past April in Indio, Calif. should've cleared up any doubts. Anthrax was relegated to a 4 p.m. time slot, hitting the stage in the late afternoon sun as fans were still filing into the massive Empire Polo Grounds for the historic festival. They also played the shortest set of the day.

Not that there's anything wrong with being the fourth most popular band in the greatest genre of music ever created. I'm sure Testament, Overkill, Death Angel, Flotsam and Jetsam or Nuclear Assault would've killed for that gig. Anthrax have certainly earned their spot in the Big Four, but they've always played the role of comedic foil to their much more serious brethren in Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica. While the latter bands wore denim and spiked leather and wrote songs about war, plagues, death and the occult, Anthrax sported board shorts and Adidas and took their lyrical inspiration from comic books and Stephen King novels. Let's face it, the Not Man wasn't exactly Vic Rattlehead, and you'd never catch Slayer rapping about Pop-Tarts® and stickball.

Hank3 - Attention Deficit Domination, Cattle Callin and Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown (Album Reviews)

Hank3 performing live (photo by Cindy Knoener)

Hank3 - Attention Deficit Domination, Cattle Callin and Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown
Release date: September 6, 2011 (Hank3 Records/Megaforce Records)

What prompts an artist to release four albums' worth of material on the same day? Workaholism? Devotion? Ambition? Greed? Batshit lunacy?

Whatever the motivation, Shelton Hank Williams -- aka Hank Williams III, aka Hank3 -- apparently has a lot to get off his chest after a tumultuous 15-year stint with Curb Records. In a press release preceding this multi-album, multi-genre release, Hank3 explains his motivation thusly:

"I wanted to flood the market and do everything different. I wanted to come out of the gate strong. I'm opening up the mind a little bit and bringing some different styles together."

While it's certainly understandable that Hank3 is eager to make the most of his newfound artistic freedom, he's asking an awful lot of both his fans and music critics by dumping nearly four and a half hours of music on us at once. It's a lot to absorb, but as a member of both of the aforementioned groups, I'm happy to take on the challenge.

40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room (Album Review)

40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room
Release date: July 19, 2011 (Metal Blade Records / Cyclone Empire)

I feel obliged to admit right out of the gate that, prior to reading the press materials for British trio 40 Watt Sun's debut album, The Inside Room, I'd never even heard of singer/guitarist Patrick Walker's former band, Warning. After listening to what Walker has accomplished with 40 Watt Sun, it's safe to say that Warning is a band I will be checking out in the very near future.

On The Inside Room, 40 Watt Sun prove that heavy music can be just as haunting, melancholy and heart-wrenching as folk, shoegaze, indie rock or any other genre those adjectives are more frequently applied to. Actually, the only thing keeping this from being a straightforward folk album is the presence of distorted electric guitars.

Fair to Midland - Arrows & Anchors (Album Review)

Fair to Midland - Arrows & Anchors
Release date: July 12, 2011 (E1 Music)

Fair to Midland are an anomaly in the world of progressive rock. They make smart, complex and compelling music while somehow managing to avoid the inherent pretension that runs rampant throughout the prog rock genre. They're musically gifted, but they're not above letting their hair down and just rocking out when the urge strikes.

The Atomic Bitchwax - The Local Fuzz (Album Review)

The Atomic Bitchwax - The Local Fuzz
Release date: June 28, 2011 (Tee Pee Records)

Sometimes, the mark of great music isn't so much that it demands your undivided attention, but that it simply makes whatever else you happen to be doing that much more enjoyable (or, in some cases, slightly more tolerable). By those standards, the Atomic Bitchwax might have a legitimate "Album of the Year" candidate in The Local Fuzz.

Helms Alee - Weatherhead (Album Review)

Helms Alee - Weatherhead
Release date: June 21, 2011 (Hydra Head Records)

After four or five spins of Helms Alee's sophomore album, Weatherhead, I found myself thinking "Man, it's too bad Kurt Cobain isn't around to hear this." After all, Cobain was never shy about name-dropping the Pixies and the Melvins as two of his biggest musical influences, and those two bands' legacies are alive and well on Helms Alee's latest release. Hell, if Kim Deal and Buzz Osbourne had a torrid, drug-fueled love affair and spawned three illegitimate children, odds are good they would grow up to sound quite a bit like Helms Alee.

Jesu - Heart Ache & Dethroned (Album Review)

Jesu - Heart Ache & Dethroned
Release date: November 16, 2010 (Hydra Head Records)

Justin K. Broadrick is more than capable of releasing a masterpiece. Godflesh's Streetcleaner and Jesu's Conqueror spring to mind immediately, to say nothing of the former band's criminally underrated swan song, Hymns, a near-perfect transitional album that closed the Godflesh chapter of Broadrick's career and set the tone for the future with the aptly named closing track, "Jesu." Despite these lofty achievements, what really makes Broadrick such an amazing artist is that, even when he makes an album that is not up to his usual standards of excellence (like, say, Us and Them), there are still those moments of brilliance (like, say, "Witchhunt") that keep you coming back for more.

BrokeNCYDE - Will Never Die (Album Review)

BrokeNCYDE - Will Never Die
Release date: November 9, 2010 (BreakSilence Recordings/Suburban Noize Records)

Every once in a great while, a work of art is produced that is so unique, so forward-thinking, so ahead of its time and so groundbreaking that it forces you to reevaluate everything you thought you knew about a particular medium. In the world of film, for example, that game-changing work of art is Tommy Wiseau's cinematic masterpiece, The Room. When it comes to music, it might very well be the latest album from BrokeNCYDE, Will Never Die.

Arson Anthem - Insecurity Notoriety (Album Review)

Arson Anthem - Insecurity Notoriety
Release date: October 12, 2010 (Housecore Records)

The first thing that came to mind while listening to Arson Anthem's debut full-length album is that all these so-called "metalcore" bands out there right now should be forced to sit down and listen to this album on a continuous loop for about a week. Calling Arson Anthem a metalcore band might seem like a misnomer, but only because the term has been bastardized by a bunch of 20-something emo kids in eyeliner and white belts. If metalcore, as the name implies, is supposed to be a hybrid of heavy metal and hardcore punk, then Arson Anthem do it better than pretty much any band out there right now.

The Showdown - Blood in the Gears (Album Review)

The Showdown - Blood in the Gears
Release date: August 24, 2010 (Solid State Records)

My biggest beef with mainstream Christian music - be it rock, pop, rap or metal - is that all too often, it just feels like a blatant cash-in attempt. Pick a flavor-of-the-day style of music that's popular with "kids these days," write some vaguely uplifting lyrics (you don't want to come off as too Christian, lest you lose that coveted crossover appeal with the heathens), and voila, the shit flies off the shelves at Christian bookstores and Wal-Marts across the country. South Park creators (and fellow CU alums) Trey Parker and Matt Stone already skewered this phenomenon better than I ever could, so I'll keep it succinct. The majority of Christian musicians just seem fake to me. It's not so much that I doubt the sincerity of their faith as much as their passion for the music they play.

Thank God, then, that none of this applies to the Showdown. On their fourth album, Blood in the Gears, the Nashville-based Christian metal band proves to be the exception to the rule, cranking out 10 metal anthems that vary wildly in style but share a common sincerity that only a true, lifelong love of heavy metal could produce.

Torche - Songs for Singles (Album Review)

Torche - Songs for Singles
Release date: September 21, 2010 (Hydra Head Records)

When the biggest complaint you can come up with about a particular album is that it's over way too quickly, that's usually a sign that it's a really good fucking album. Such is the case with Songs for Singles, the latest release from Florida "doom pop" trio Torche. It's the band's first release (outside of one song on a 2009 split single with Boris) without founding guitarist Juan Montoya, but the band hasn't lost any of their signature heft.

At eight songs and barely more than 20 minutes, this EP is a maddeningly brief followup to Torche's exceptional 2008 full-length Meanderthal, which itself was barely more than 35 minutes long. Despite its brevity, however, Songs still offers memorable moments aplenty. It's very much in the same vein as Meanderthal, featuring short, fuzzy bursts of metallic pop rock. Anyone hoping for a return to the sludgier sound of the band's earlier work should probably move on, or just stick to the recent eight-disc Floor box set.