Wayback Machine: Best of the 2010s (2012-13)

Featuring Pallbearer, The Bronx, Killer Mike, Coliseum, and more.

More lists, you say? Who doesn’t love lists? (Yeah look, I know I have a problem.)

This is the second instalment of my Best of the 2010s album list, as we move on to 2012 and 2013. Hell yeah, dude.

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2012:

Converge – All We Love We Leave Behind

From the relentless momentum of opener “Aimless Arrow,” to the haunting doom melancholia of “Coral Blue” and murky morass of closer “Predatory Glow,” All We Love We Leave Behind saw Converge quantum leaping their peers yet again, raising the creative bar for metallic hardcore ever higher.

Choice Cuts: “Sadness Comes Home” and “Coral Blue”

Minus The Bear – Infinity Overhead

After the disappointing Omni (2010), Seattle indie-rockers Minus The Bear landed on a welcome return to form with their transcendent follow-up. Merging their love for sustained guitar lines and squelching synths, along with driving party tempos and silky-smooth croons, Infinity Overhead is an instant summer moodsetter.

Choice Cuts: “Lies and Eyes” and “Cold Company”

Joyce Manor – Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired

So short it might as well be an EP, this record contains all the essential DNA of Joyce Manor’s inherent genius, neatly packaged as nine tracks of ephemeral pop-punk. Even now, the bright eudaimonia of “Bride of Usher” is so addictively deceptive that it still catches me off guard.

Choice Cuts: “Bride of Usher” and “Video Killed The Radio Star”

The Menzingers – On The Impossible Past

On The Impossible Past is where The Menzingers truly came into their own, taking the Scranton quartet’s affinity for anthemic, blue-collar punk rock and making it cinematic in scope. Thirteen tracks of glorious, unashamed, beers-with-mates sing-a-longs.

Choice Cuts: “Mexican Guitars” and “Casey”

We Lost The Sea – The Quietest Place On Earth

Marked by the suicide of vocalist Chris Torpy only months after release, there’s no way you can listen to The Quietest Place On Earth without thinking about death and loss and permanence. We Lost The Sea would never be the same after this album, even if the Aussie post-metal outfit proudly charged forward into a new era in Torpy’s honour.

Choice Cuts: “With Grace”

Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music

Hip-hop has always indulged in storytelling to varying degrees, but Killer Mike’s penchant for engaging lyricism might have been the first time that I really paid attention. The picture the Atlanta MC paints across R.A.P. Music is both a vivid representation and celebration of hood life, while simultaneously functioning as a savage indictment of American exceptionalism.

Choice Cuts: “Reagan” and “Southern Fried”

Burning Love – Rotten Thing To Say

I’m a sucker for anything Chris Colohan touches, and Burning Love is no exception. Much like how Bars’s Introducing… merged the hardcore of The Hope Conspiracy, Give Up The Ghost and Suicide File with rock’n’roll of the AC/DC variety, Rotten Thing To Say takes Colohan’s viperous vitriol from Cursed and weaponizes it for radio rebellion.

Choice Cuts: “Karla” and “Pig City II”

Pallbearer – Sorrow and Extinction

Pallbearer came from relative obscurity to absolutely dominate the doom metal genre throughout the 2010s, and this record is where it all began. Strap in for gargantuan riffs, quaking bottom-end, haunting vocals, and an all-pervasive sense of gloom.

Choice Cuts: “Foreigner”

Now, Now – Threads

How this band hasn’t blown up already is beyond me. The interplay between vocalist/guitarist Cacie Dalager and bassist/backing vocalist Jess Abbott is simply sublime, carried along swiftly by drummer Bradley Hale’s expert rhythms. Criminally underrated, Threads might be one of my favourite indie-pop records ever.

Choice Cuts: “Thread” and “Wolf”

Baroness – Yellow

You know you’re in for a real treat when there’s a naked woman ritualistically sacrificing a swan on the front cover. Being the heavier (and catchier) side of Baroness’ expansive double LP, Yellow & Green, this one is my natural pick. And it’s an ambitious offering for the Savannah, Georgia sludge metal purveyors, successfully fusing their alt-metal stylings with Americana folk and rock’n’roll.

Choice Cuts: “Take My Bones Away” and “Eula”

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Misery Signals – Absent Light

Despite being the weakest and least consistent record in their otherwise phenomenal discography, I still have a soft spot for Absent Light. Even with its flaws, the record still manages to balance everything that makes Misery Signals the masters of progressive metalcore: melodic sensibilities, crushing heaviness, impassioned lyricism, and thematic exploration through the juxtaposition of light and darkness.

Choice Cuts: “Lost Relics” and “Ursa Minor”

Pure Love – Anthems

As a precursor to his tenure with the formidable Rattlesnakes, Pure Love showed us what Frank Carter was truly capable of as a songwriter and Springsteen-esque troubadour. Featuring production from Gil Norton and backed by partner-in-crime guitarist Jim Carroll (ex-The Hope Conspiracy, Suicide File), Anthems delivered on its moniker with an alternative folk-meets-garage rock sound destined for stadium stages and summer festivals.

Choice Cuts: “Handsome Devil’s Club” and “Bury My Bones”

Old Wounds – From Where We Came Is Where We’ll Rest

Metalcore isn’t a dirty word, but Old Wounds do their utmost to make it feel that way. With shotgun bursts of hardcore punk, spastic grind and concrete beatdowns, From Where We Came Is Where We’ll Rest made the genre feel dangerous again, all sound-tracked by vocalist and Davey Havok look-a-like Kevin Iavaroni’s snarling shriek.

Choice Cuts: “Disbelieve” and “Bleak”

Violent Soho – Hungry Ghost

For Mansfield’s finest, Hungry Ghost is the record that turned it all around. After slogging it out both domestically and abroad for the better part of a decade, ARIA Award winners Violent Soho finally nailed the formula on their Gold-certified third album: Take the Gen-X boredom and angst of 90s grunge and repackage it for the apathetic millennial masses. The end result? A mighty slab of radio-ready “chunes”.

Choice Cuts: “Dope Calypso” and “In The Aisle”

The Bronx – IV

L.A. punk rockers The Bronx took a break from their mariachi exploits to get back to the business and dropped my favourite record of their entire catalogue in the process. IV is pitch-perfect party rock: up-tempo, catchy, bittersweet, strangely insightful, and—perhaps most importantly—F U N.

Choice Cuts: “Youth Wasted” and “Along For The Ride”

Power Trip – Manifest Decimation

Riffs.

(RIP Riley Gale.)

Choice Cuts: “Crossbreaker” and “Heretic’s Fork”

We Set Sail – Rivals

Brisbane’s We Set Sail really—and I mean really—love samples. Like, a whole lot. But fortunately for them, so do I, which is what makes Rivals so enjoyable. The record mashes together Midwest sad-boy emo with sweeping post-rock textures, littering them with introspective samples perfect for pondering life’s great mysteries and its inevitable disappointments.

Choice Cuts: “Minimalism as an Art Form”

Run The Jewels – RTJ

The dynamic duo of producer Jaime “El-P” Meline and rapper/MC Michael “Killer Mike” Render makes for some insane energy when their respective powers combine as Run The Jewels. On their eponymous debut, the beats are intricate and spacey, while the bars flow thick, fast and deadly, making for a whirlwind half-hour of power.

Choice Cuts: “36” Chain” and “DDFH”

Coliseum – Sister Faith

On this record, Louisville trio Coliseum demonstrate that punk rock doesn’t always have to be full throttle, in your face, dripping piss and vinegar. Sometimes, you need to chill and brood along with those quieter moments, contemplating your life, savouring the bitter kiss of resignation and denial. One listen to Sister Faith, and you’ll be an evangelist for the dark punk gospel.

Choice Cuts: “Black Magic Punks” and “Under the Blood of the Moon”

Balance and Composure – The Things We Think We’re Missing

A sophomore slump this is not. On LP #2, Balance and Composure smashed it out of the park with a dense and intricate follow-up to Separation. In his now-infamous review for Pitchfork, writer Ian Cohen described “Reflection” as “a total irony-free zone, four cathartic minutes of gorgeous, weapons-grade embarrassment rock that squarely hits the button when you realize that incapacitating teen angst is still an accessible nuclear option.” And truer words have never been spoken.

Choice Cuts: “Parachutes” and “When I Come Undone”

You can find all these tracks on the TPD Best of the 2010s playlist.