I don't really recall how I came across One Hundred Thousand's inaugural album The Forms in Which They Appear, but I can say that I've somehow never seen this band get the recognition it deserves in metal media. That first LP, released five years ago, was a strong prog piece, with the towering track "Type … Continue reading Review: One Hundred Thousand – Zodiac
Top Albums 2020 – #1
Original article here. This was a choice that emerged out of much deliberation. There were a number of factors telling me not to pick this for the number one spot - Rise Radiant is certainly not my favorite, or even among the top end of my ranking of Caligula's Horse's (what an awkward possessive) discography; … Continue reading Top Albums 2020 – #1
Top Albums 2020 – Runners Up
Here are a number of albums I considered for this year's top ten list that didn't make the cut but that I feel are worth mentioning. I've listed them in alphabetical order, by artist. Alio Die - Eleusian Sources Italian ambient producer Stefano Musso is up there with Steve Roach for long and prolific musical … Continue reading Top Albums 2020 – Runners Up
Top Albums 2020 – #2
Speaking of albums I didn't expect this past year, this new Make Them Suffer LP, How to Survive a Funeral, really blew me away with its cutting edge riffs, consistent writing, and all around no-holds-barred approach to metalcore. I talked about it in this post over the summer. After 2017's Worlds Apart, which constituted a … Continue reading Top Albums 2020 – #2
Top Albums 2020 – #3
Coming off the heels of 2018's masterful Stranger Fruit, Swiss avant-garde black metal act and brainchild of one Manuel Gagneux Zeal & Ardor is back with a new EP, coming in at six songs, seventeen minutes in length. I didn't expect new music this soon, and I don't think the bad expected to be making … Continue reading Top Albums 2020 – #3
Top Albums 2020 – #4
The pandemic obviously brought with it a myriad of surprises, but one that I particularly didn't see coming (though, surprises, of course, are inherently unforeseeable, I would like to tentatively posit that some are more unforeseeable than others) was the release of two new entries in the Ghosts series of ambient works by famous industrial … Continue reading Top Albums 2020 – #4
Top Albums 2020 – #5
Original article here. The main album I listened to during the early part of the summer (but also one I've continued listening to since), Trivium's What the Dead Men Say, I'll confidently opine, is their best work since 2017's The Sin and the Sentence, which is their best work since 2011's In Waves, which is … Continue reading Top Albums 2020 – #5
Top Albums 2020 – #6
Run the Jewels - the hip-hop supergroup (can a duo be a supergroup) consisting of Atlanta's Killer Mike and Brooklyn's El-P, the latter of whom also has a dominant hand in the musical production of their output, have had pretty much zero misses in their rampage throughout the American rap scene over the latter half … Continue reading Top Albums 2020 – #6
Top Albums 2020 – #7
German producer Pantha du Prince came through with what was one of my favorite ambient albums of 2020, and perhaps the one I returned to the most in terms of brute listening time. Conference of Trees, despite its minimalist album artwork, boasts a staggering variety (but not miscellany) of sounds, instruments, and ideas, which all … Continue reading Top Albums 2020 – #7
Top Albums 2020 – #8
Original article here. Talking about Haken's Virus in my initial short review, I said that I likely wouldn't be coming back to it very often, citing desultory songwriting - ranging too far into the realms of prog music - and the particularly esoteric approach to concept-album that this band delivers, which creates quite the steep … Continue reading Top Albums 2020 – #8
Sonic Thorns 