Ritual Howls "their body"

Top ten albums of 2017. #1 Ritual Howls "their body" This is the band that made me realise that i am tho goth. I love #ritualhowls . I have been playing this band non-stop since discovering them. I make myself play other albums by other bands but really I'm just thinking about Ritual Howls while i do it (don't tell my dsbm albums ok? They are already on the edge.) The band does a synthy/organic thing that makes me think of a murder-obsessed depeche mode with spaghetti western guitars. To be fair this isn't even my favorite album by them (that honor goes to the flawless "into the water") but even though this isnt my favorite album it got loads of play. That's how much i love this band. I play this while I'm in the shower, i play this while I'm sorting dishes, i play this in my car... my wife can vouch. I play this so much i think my two year old likes them too (he's got a good Draco Malfoy look going for him so it may suit him). This detroit trio look like they are pretty prolific so here's to hoping the new year brings another release!

Spotlights "seismic"

Top ten albums of 2017. #2 Spotlights "seismic" The album title says it about as good as i could. Spotlights newest release is earth shaking. It's heavy and beautiful. The band takes the formula that the band Hum started in the '90s and perfected the melancholic and beautiful sound. It's akin to modern heavy shoegaze bands like Jesu and the latter-era Lantlos. If you like those records you'll love this. I was in some bands in the early 'aughts that in my head were heading towards this sound. This is one of those albums i wished i had written. It marries my love of heavy music and sad melodic indie rock perfectly. As some novel trivia: the band is a married couple with hired on drummers. I dont know how they keep it together but here's to hoping that they do for a while longer. Hop8ng to catch them live in 2018.

Drab Majesty "the demonstration "

Top ten albums of 2017. #3 Drab Majesty "the demonstration " Earlier this year i played a goth/dark wave/indie playlist on spotify at work. A couple of the artists really resonated with me and i wrote their names down to explore later. #drabmajesty struck me as really well put together and organic sounding for an electronic outfit. There is a definite synthwave feel to this album and it's goth in the same way Depeche Mode is goth. It's dark and romantic. You know, like me. I listen to this a bunch.

Cepheide "saudade"

Top ten albums of 2017. #4 Cephiede "saudade" There is something in France that makes their black metal the highest quality. I dont know if it's the cuisine, the wine or the general disdain for all things non-french but every time i hear the tag "french black metal" my ears perk up. I dont think #cepheide break alot of ground on this new release. It doesn't necessarily reinvent anything in the black metal canon but the band has a je ne sais quoi . The production is great, the songs have those hidden black metal hooks that the initiated can find easily and the vocals shriek in torment. Their last release made my list last year and this one got a lot of play after it's release in october (a perfect month for metal releases). Most of the time i listen to this stuff is on headphones. My wife and kids dont really have an affinity for things this grim. I think that the headphone play really helps this album. I believe it benefits from undivided attention. I dont know if this album will convert your musical taste to kvlt but if you have an ear for it already you will find alot to absorb here.

Rope Sect "personae ingratae"

Top ten albums of 2017. #5 Rope Sect "personae ingratae" I've been having a goth year. Over the last few months ive begun to realise that I've actually always kind of been into goth stuff. I didn't want to be. Goth to me is sort of like being a "deadhead". If you take time to listen the music isnt terrible it's just that all the cultural stuff that it drags behind it makes you repulsed by the social tag. The Grateful Dead's "american beauty " album is actually pretty damn good (just ask Wilco) but hell... crunchy hacky-sack douchbags twirling sticks in faux naturalism makes me want to kick puppys. Goth kids create a similar revulsion in me. But fuck if i dont love the music. Rope Sect are technically more "post punk" sounding (keeping tabs on genre tags is my thing) but the macabre vibe they give off definitely feels goth. This stuff is dramatic, dark and sinister (all prerequisites to make this list apparently) and avoids any of the electronic tendencies of the genre. It creates a sweaty bleeding nihilistic version of the sound as opposed to the vampire dance club version of the goth canon (which i also like).

King Woman "created in the image of suffering"

Top ten albums of 2017. #6 King Woman "created in the image of suffering" This album was in a pretty consistent play cycle after i caught the band live. It's doomy psychedelic music with ethereal female vocals. It's a heavy ass record and while it doesn't break any new ground it is still hook heavy tripped out doom that gets the head bobbing. It really is Kristina's vocal style that elevates the music. It's aching, haunting and beautiful and dances among the murky grooves and creates a dynamic that begs repeat listens. They are formidable live too so catch them if you can.

Violet Cold "anomie"

Top ten albums of 2017. #7 Violet Cold "anomie" My bandcamp account is filled with blackgaze music. Blackgaze is a sub genre of black metal that incorporates elements of shoegaze. So yeah, it's right up my alley. Its a hot genre right now with folks and there is a glut of releases (all of which i seem to track down). Violet Cold use some cool unique instrumentation and the guitars do this staccato soaring melody thing that makes the whole thing sound grimly uplifting. It definitely stands out and i think i converted a coworker to the ethereal blackened din so now i get to listen to this at work too. I like listening to the evolution of black metal that is happening right now and i think this album pushes the stuff a little further out from the blackened center.

Slow "V Oceans"

Top ten albums of 2017. #8 Slow "V oceans" I suppose it is a forgone conclusion that my year's end list will contain at least one doom metal album. I have a voracious appetite for this stuff. There were a few releases by bands that were pretty big let downs in this genre. I was getting pretty bummed about the new crop of discs from the genre's main players. This album was recommended by my friend who lives in Switzerland. We share an academic love for metal and he has a good grasp of what i like in my molten metal stew. Slow are on the funeral end of the doom spectrum which means it's an apt moniker. Great production values and enough built tension to keep the album interesting. It might be that I've saturated myself with this stuff and that's why I'm so hard to slowly please but i returned to this album a bunch at night listening on headphones in the dark in bed as my family droned in a chorus of raspy snores (which absurdly sounds like an album i would check out). #slow

Immolation "atonement"

Top ten albums of 2017 #9 Immolation "atonement" I will forever have a soft spot for death metal. Not hardcore posing as death metal or thrashy grind metal pretending to be death metal. I love thick and juicy death metal. Immolation have been doing this shit since 1991 with nary a misstep. Their recipe for music has stayed true, it has just been built into a monstrously awesome version of what they started twenty six years ago. The vocals sound like tectonic plates grinding against each other and atonal technical guitar sweeps drip off of pummeling rhythms. Hearing this album plasters a chinful grimace on my mug and rejuvenates my adolescent love of everything this genre has to offer. You can find pretty awesome death metal albums being released all the time but there is something to be said about the perspective this band's discography offers. This album sounded really good to me this year, like catching up with a death obsessed old friend. #immolation

Dirty Projectors "s/t"

Top Ten albums of 2017. #10  Dirty Projectors "s/t" This skitchy weird album is fascinating. It's a breakup studio album that sounds like the weirdest contempory r&b album ever made. It shares alot of the production values of contemporary pop albums but with none one of the mind numbing stupid lyrical hooks. In fact this record isn't easy to listen to, it's strange and engaging. I keep going back to it and mining it's textural depths. It feels futuristic, like a record that someone would be listening to in a dingy apartment pod in "Blade Runner". This kind of music bends my mind because I wouldn't know where to begin to create anything like it. I keep thinking if Skinny Puppy made an r&b pop record it would sound like this. That's how weird it is. I dont even remember why i bought it at the now closed Record Theatre, but it has haunted me since i purchased it. I have alot of music and not a ton of time to really absorb and examine records but I've made time for this one over this past year.