Wayback Machine: Best of the 2010s (2018-19)
Featuring Denzel Curry, Hopesfall, Blood Incantation, and more.
Well, here it is at last. The final chapter in my Best of the 2010s list. 10 years, 100 records, and a 1000 potential sub-genres (just kidding). It’s been a big undertaking, but it’s also thoroughly rewarding to track my musical evolution over this formative time period. “Older and wiser,” as the often nebulous ‘they’ would say. Let’s cap it off.
2018:
Hopesfall – Arbiter
“Returning to producer Mike Watts, who worked on the band’s last two full-length albums, the soundscapes on Arbiter run the gamut of the latter Hopesfall discography: the kinetic energy of The Satellite Years (their most explosive album); the stadium-ready hooks and dynamism of A-Types (their catchiest album); and the ominous, moody atmospherics of Magnetic North (their darkest album).” (Killyourstereo)
Choice Cuts: “Tunguska” and “H.A. Wallace Space Academy”
Gunship – Dark All Day
“One cursory listen to Dark All Day’s lead single, and title track is all you need to truly understand the allure of Gunship’s ethos: dark and ominous synth warblings, guest vocalist Indiana’s sultry range bumping and grinding against guest saxophonist Tim Cappello’s bombastic flexing, and some of the most infectious and earth-shattering bass drops in recent memory.” (Medium)
Choice Cuts: “Dark All Day” and “Woken Furies”
Vein.fm – errorzone
“I didn’t think that in This Year of Our Lord, 2018, metalcore could still sound this cutting-edge, let alone this dangerous. Listen to the 56k dial-up drop in ‘Virus//Vibrance,’ the double-kick concussion of ‘End Eternal,’ or the haunting, goose-bump melodies of ‘Doomtech,’ and try to contain your innate mosh instinct. I double-dare you. Believe the hype and enter the errorzone.” (Medium)
Choice Cuts: “Doomtech” and “End Eternal”
Svalbard – It’s Hard To Have Hope
“With a sound that takes the blissful energy of Deafheaven’s blackgaze and weaponises it with the impactful and resonant ferocity of War On Women’s hardcore-punk ideology, It’s Hard To Have Hope takes issues of wage theft, violent misogyny, class privilege, feminism, “designer” pet breeds, and endemic sexual assault all to task, speaking truth to power like never before.” (Medium)
Choice Cuts: “Pro-Life” and “Revenge Porn”
Genocide Pact – Order of Torment
“On their second full-length album, Order of Torment, Washington D.C. death metal trio Genocide Pact have served up one hell of a treat. It’s essentially a straightforward, meat and potatoes affair: no entrée bullshit, all musical-fat trimmed away, leaving only a main course of heavy, grimy and thoroughly headbang-worthy death metal. It’s dense, delicious, carnivorous carbs for our collective earholes.” (Killyourstereo)
Choice Cuts: “Decimation Grid” and “Ascendancy Absolved”
Now, Now – Saved
“The acoustic plucking in ‘SGL’ is about as close to the familiar Now, Now sound as the record gets, while glorious tracks like ‘Can’t Help Myself,’ ‘Holy Water’ and the triumphant stalker-anthem ‘Window’ find the duo in control of vibrant instrumental backdrops. Dalager’s vocals are particularly central to the pervasive mood of lust, devotion and religious iconography that soaks through this album, thoroughly captivating for saints and sinners alike.” (Killyourstereo)
shame – Songs of Praise
“Sometimes, it’s ok to feel like shit. And when that particular mood strikes, the debut album from UK post-punk outfit shame might be just what you need. It may be titled Songs of Praise, but after your first cursory listen, you’ll quickly realise that the title is firmly tongue in (arse)cheek. Instead, this record is chock-full of every other emotion diametrically opposed to praise: disgust, rage, anger, hopelessness, apathy, fear, and loss.” (Killyourstereo)
Choice Cuts: “One Rizla” and “Concrete”
Funeral Chic – Superstition
“As the band’s own manifesto states: ‘V.I.T.O.A.: Violence Is The Only Answer.’ Opener ‘Rotten To The Core’ pitches a Disfear-aping, D-beat anthem to your earholes as the single-dread-adorned crust lovers answer to melancholy. ‘Baptized’ sounds like mid-00s Cursed playing their instruments with sledgehammers and then a wild Chris Colohan (Burning Love, Sect) appears to have a go at shredding his larynx one more time. Superstition is the act of deriving maximum pleasure from giving the least amount of fucks—and it sounds absolutely glorious.” (Medium)
Choice Cuts: “Rotten To The Core” and “Say No”
Don Broco – Technology
“On their third album, Don Broco have gone full creative beast-mode, fearlessly blending heavy riffs, dancefloor pop-funk fusion and stratospheric choruses, to make one of the most inventive, daring and undeniably-catchy rock records of the decade. Clocking in at 50 minutes, with 14 whole tracks, Technology feels like a rock revelation in our single-oriented, self-curated, playlist-dominated world.” (Hysteria)
Choice Cuts: “T-Shirt Song” and “Stay Ignorant”
The Comfort – What It Is To Be
“There’s also a noticeable progression in material here from the band’s exceptional Love EP (2016), much in the same way that contemporaries like Thrice or Crime In Stereo would end up darker, broodier and more introspective with every release. However, this heady subject matter doesn’t come as a sacrifice to accessibility or appeal, with What It Is To Be featuring some of the strongest hooks from The Comfort to date... More than simply the sum of its parts, What It Is To Be is an unashamedly holistic experience. It’s a beautiful, exhilarating, and revelatory rock record that dives deep into our subjective journey for meaning, purpose and self-discovery in every-day life.” (Hysteria)
Choice Cuts: “Die Alone” and “Dissolve”
2019:
Astronoid – S/T
“Do you think that the Internet’s seemingly unending obsession with sub-genre bifurcation and reclassification is outdated, dumb, and pretentious? Well, you better add this one to the shit-list: ‘dream thrash’. Now, despite your well-placed misgivings, in the case of Massachusetts metallers Astronoid, this one actually feels kind of—dare we say it—appropriate… Sure, it’s a little on the ostentatious side of things. Still, it’s well worth the trip.” (Hysteria)
Choice Cuts: “Water” and “A New Color”
SeeYouSpaceCowboy – The Correlation Between Entrance and Exit Wounds
“Don’t let the Cowboy Bebop reference fool you because ‘Jupiter Jazz’ this is not, my friends. While the third-wave metalcore revival (yes, that’s what we’re calling it) has had its fair share of up-and-comers, Cali crew SeeYouSpaceCowboy are our pick for 2019’s latest and greatest. A far cry from their early spaz-core grind days, ‘Late December’ is a raw, cathartic blast of affective and emotionally resonant mosh in the vein of genre mainstays like Poison The Well, Misery Signals and 7 Angels 7 Plagues. 3-2-1, let’s jam!” (Hysteria)
Choice Cuts: “The Phoenix Must Reset” and “Armed With Their Teeth”
Spirit Adrift – Divided By Darkness
“The sweet spot for any successful metal project of worth and lasting relevance most likely resides somewhere between the heydays of Black Sabbath and Metallica. While they might only be four years old, Arizonian shredders Spirit Adrift appear to have taken the above as their mission statement. One listen to the group’s third album, Divided by Darkness, and it’s abundantly clear that they’ve fucking nailed that brief.” (Hysteria)
Choice Cuts: “Hear Her” and “Tortured by Time”
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – End of Suffering
“In Buddhist theology, the concept of Nirvana (just regular spirit though, not the teenage kind) refers to an ideal of perfect peace, happiness and a state of pure enlightenment, where the self can finally be free from desire and suffering... On LP #3, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes have put all their cards on the table, fully exposed, gifting us with 12 tracks of raw, unfettered rock ’n’ roll—the perfect soundtrack for soul-searching, fighting demons and staring down the abyss.” (Hysteria)
Choice Cuts: “Tyrant Lizard King” and “Crowbar”
Johnny Booth – Firsthand Accounts
“Alright, real talk for a quick minute. If there were any justice in this bat-shit insane world, then Long Island quintet Johnny Booth would be fucking huge. Their second full-length album Firsthand Accounts is undeniably 2019’s metalcore AOTY. But look, please don’t mistake our zeal here for music journo hyperbole. Quality riffs? Check. Chunky bass tone? Yep. Punchy percussion? Totally. Bone-breaking heaviness? Indeed. Sneaky melodies? You bet. Captivating vocal performances? Abso-fucking-lutely. Trust us, DO NOT SLEEP ON THIS.” (Hysteria)
Choice Cuts: “Asymmetrical” and “Pneumonia Knife”
Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race
“Just when you thought death metal couldn’t get any grimmer, uglier or more up its own arse with weirdness, along comes Colorado outfit Blood Incantation to fuck up your day in just the right way. As soon as we saw the artwork for their second album, Hidden History of the Human Race, featuring a 70s sci-fi aesthetic from renowned artist Bruce Pennington, we knew we were in for a cosmic mindfuck of stellar proportions.” (Hysteria)
Choice Cuts: “Slave Species of the Gods” and “Inner Paths (to Outer Space)”
She Cries Wolf – Liar
Across eleven scorching tracks, She Cries Wolf meld punk-rock aesthetics, concussive breakdown sections and brooding atmospherics into a potent, visceral, and relentless record. Vocalist Luke Harriss has always had tough stories to tell, and much like the band’s discography to date, fans won’t find any happy endings here. With raw, confessional lyrics that sear with emotional honesty and frustration, Liar is the soundtrack to screaming for truth and escapism—and the ruin that awaits those brave enough to find it.
Choice Cuts: “Genesis Flood” and “Magdalene”
Sleep Token – Sundowning
“With the release of their debut full-length album Sundowning, the masked, anonymous collective known as Sleep Token have captivated audiences with one of the most polarising and audacious pop-metal releases of 2019. ‘Higher’ is less a pre-release single and more of an immersive auditory experience, finding the group squarely in the nexus of crossover appeal. In less than six minutes, the listener is exposed to frontman Vessel’s subdued and gut-wrenching vocal delivery, plaintive guitar leads, shimmering synth lines and booming, progressive percussion—all before a gargantuan closing breakdown drops in, sounding less like shameless djent worship and more like continental drift speed up for the destruction of human ears.” (Hysteria)
Choice Cuts: “The Offering” and “Dark Signs”
He Is Legend – White Bat
“Always ones for anything goth-adjacent, on ‘Boogiewoman,’ the band take their well-honed aesthetic dimensions and crank the seduction up to 11. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the devil himself getting a hard-on at the start, right before the quartet kick down the barn door with thundering drums, off-kilter chugs and a stomping Pantera-style groove. It’s heavy; it’s catchy, and goddammit if it isn’t sexy as hell to boot.” (Hysteria)
Choice Cuts: “Boogiewoman” and “White Bat”
Denzel Curry – ZUU
Carol City MC Denzel Curry is a busy guy. Between dropping stellar full-length projects like 2016’s Imperial and 2018’s dark and moody TA13OO, the Florida rapper found time to not only feature on one of the most incendiary Like A Version’s ever, but also dust off another whole studio album. Not surprisingly, ZUU finds Curry in peak form with dazzling wordplay and rapid-fire flows over the top of monstrous hooks and intricate beat-scapes.
Choice Cuts: “Ricky” and “Speedboat”
You can find all these tracks on the TPD Best of the 2010s playlist.