01-12-2017, 05:02 AM
There were so many good releases that I could not make a top 10 list, this year either. When I started looking back, I soon decided to make a playlist for all weeks of the year instead, because it would do injustice to other great albums to leave them unnoticed. So I picked a top 50 of LPs + top 10 EPs/singles. Even then there are many great releases left out.
It is so difficult to put the records in any order inside the top 10, or on the next dozens, that I was thinking of leaving even the number 1 record of 2016 undecided. However, whilst listening to whole 2016 once more through to get the categories in some order, the number 1 album of the year once again convinced me by these:
- the amount of sheer passion and beauty
- the complete and total lack of filler in the course of near 70 minutes (pay attention 'Tallica!)
- the craftmanship required to make all those 15-minute songs work without filler and hold the listener's attention and keep the dramatic structure intact and progressing. The album became much more than should be possible to make from the predefined building blocks.
- the number of layers on the album, I wonder how long this record keeps unfolding
- the number of goosebumps still induced when I play it
Thus there can be only one:
- - Moonsorrow: Jumalten Aika - -
ALBUMS 1-10
- Blood Incantation: Starspawn
- Borknagar: Winter Thrice
- Khemmis: Hunted
- Mizmor: Yodh
- Moonsorrow: Jumalten Aika
- Oranssi Pazuzu: Värähtelijä
- Spiritus Mortis: The Year Is One
- Thy Catafalque: Meta
- Vektor: Terminal Redux
- Witherscape: The Northern Sanctuary
11-20
- Abbath: Abbath
- Brant Bjork: Tao of the Devil
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Skeleton Tree
- Church Of Misery: And Then There Were None...
- Djevel: Norske Ritualer
- Insomnium: Winter's Gate
- Neurosis: Fires Within Fires
- Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool
- Saor: Guardians
- SubRosa: For This We Fought the Battle of Ages
21-30
- Anagnorisis: Peripeteia
- Ihsahn: Arktis
- Krypts: Remnants of Expansion
- Negură Bunget: ZI
- Opeth. Sorceress
- Setentia: Darkness Transcend
- Uada: Devoid of Light
- Vainaja: Verenvalaja
- Viikate: XII - Kouvostomolli
- Woven Hand: Star Treatment
31-40
- Asphyx: Incoming Death
- Kate Bush: Before the Dawn (live box set)
- Cult Of Luna & Julie Christmas: Mariner
- Death Angel: The Evil Divide
- Grey Aura: Waerachtighe Beschryvinghe Van Drie Seylagien, Ter Werelt Noyt Soo Vreemt Ghehoort
- Lasten Hautausmaa: II
- Mouth Of The Architect: Path of Eight
- Perturbator: The Uncanny Valley
- Ulcerate: Shrines of Paralysis
- Urfaust: Empty Space Meditation
41-50
- Astronoid: Air
- Baby Woodrose: Freedom
- Darkthrone: Arctic Thunder
- Grand Magus: Sword Songs
- Rïcïnn: Lïan
- Rotting Christ: Rituals
- Scum: Garden of Shadows- Steve 'n' Seagulls: Brothers in Farms
- Sumac: What One Becomes
- Thrawsunblat: Metachtonia
- Ulver: ATGCLVLSSCAP
TOP 10 EPs & SINGLES (these should not go unnoticed outside the top album list)
- Almyrkvi: Pupil of the Searing Maelstrom -EP
- Candlemass: Death Thy Lover -EP
- Grave Pleasures: Funeral Party -EP
- Hellacopters: My Mephistophelean Creed -Single
- Horrendous: Sentenced -Single
- Melvins: War Pussy -EP
- Monolord: Lord of Suffering / Die in Haze -EP
- Pallbearer: Fear and Fury -EP
- Sepulchral Curse: At the Onset of Extinction -EP
- SubRosa: Key of the Eidolon -Single
10 BIGGEST POSITIVE SURPRISES (outside the top lists):
- Anthrax: For All Kings
- Blood Ceremony: Lord of Misrule
- Gatecreeper: Sonoran Deprivation
- Graves At Sea: The Curse That Is
- Madder Mortem: Red in Tooth and Claw
- Megadeth: Dystopia
- Metallica: Hardwired... To Self-Destruct
- Suicidal Tendencies: World Gone Mad
- Vinum Sabbatum: Apparitions
- Withered: Grief Relic
10 DISAPPOINTMENTS / LETDOWNS
(I mean, these are not bad albums. Most are still good and I enjoy listening to them too, but they should've been better to meet the potential and expectations, and they should have kept the album quality consistent throughout the whole album. I could throw on any of them, like the new AA/Blues Pills/Opeth any day and enjoy them with a smile, but by their own standards they could be and should be more. The stellar disappointments were not bought and I have done my best to forget about those, except the blindly bought 40 Watt Sun, from which I somehow cannot find anything that gives me pleasure. These are the enjoyable slight letdowns from my own shelf):
- 40 Watt Sun: Wider Than the Sky
- Amon Amarth: Jomsviking
- Blues Pills: Lady in Gold
- Bölzer: Hero
- Crippled Black Phoenix: Bronze
- Gorguts: Pleiades' Dust -EP
- Lord Vicar: Gates of Flesh
- Melvins: Basses Loaded (I expected more of the concept with 6 different bassists)
- Opeth: Sorceress (had promise and potential for more from a fanboy point of view, but it still made my top 30, so it's a great album nonetheless - I have a feeling this is a transitional album between the great Pale Communion and the next album on which they perfect this next transition)
- Witchcraft: Nucleus
It is so difficult to put the records in any order inside the top 10, or on the next dozens, that I was thinking of leaving even the number 1 record of 2016 undecided. However, whilst listening to whole 2016 once more through to get the categories in some order, the number 1 album of the year once again convinced me by these:
- the amount of sheer passion and beauty
- the complete and total lack of filler in the course of near 70 minutes (pay attention 'Tallica!)
- the craftmanship required to make all those 15-minute songs work without filler and hold the listener's attention and keep the dramatic structure intact and progressing. The album became much more than should be possible to make from the predefined building blocks.
- the number of layers on the album, I wonder how long this record keeps unfolding
- the number of goosebumps still induced when I play it
Thus there can be only one:
- - Moonsorrow: Jumalten Aika - -
ALBUMS 1-10
- Blood Incantation: Starspawn
- Borknagar: Winter Thrice
- Khemmis: Hunted
- Mizmor: Yodh
- Moonsorrow: Jumalten Aika
- Oranssi Pazuzu: Värähtelijä
- Spiritus Mortis: The Year Is One
- Thy Catafalque: Meta
- Vektor: Terminal Redux
- Witherscape: The Northern Sanctuary
11-20
- Abbath: Abbath
- Brant Bjork: Tao of the Devil
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Skeleton Tree
- Church Of Misery: And Then There Were None...
- Djevel: Norske Ritualer
- Insomnium: Winter's Gate
- Neurosis: Fires Within Fires
- Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool
- Saor: Guardians
- SubRosa: For This We Fought the Battle of Ages
21-30
- Anagnorisis: Peripeteia
- Ihsahn: Arktis
- Krypts: Remnants of Expansion
- Negură Bunget: ZI
- Opeth. Sorceress
- Setentia: Darkness Transcend
- Uada: Devoid of Light
- Vainaja: Verenvalaja
- Viikate: XII - Kouvostomolli
- Woven Hand: Star Treatment
31-40
- Asphyx: Incoming Death
- Kate Bush: Before the Dawn (live box set)
- Cult Of Luna & Julie Christmas: Mariner
- Death Angel: The Evil Divide
- Grey Aura: Waerachtighe Beschryvinghe Van Drie Seylagien, Ter Werelt Noyt Soo Vreemt Ghehoort
- Lasten Hautausmaa: II
- Mouth Of The Architect: Path of Eight
- Perturbator: The Uncanny Valley
- Ulcerate: Shrines of Paralysis
- Urfaust: Empty Space Meditation
41-50
- Astronoid: Air
- Baby Woodrose: Freedom
- Darkthrone: Arctic Thunder
- Grand Magus: Sword Songs
- Rïcïnn: Lïan
- Rotting Christ: Rituals
- Scum: Garden of Shadows- Steve 'n' Seagulls: Brothers in Farms
- Sumac: What One Becomes
- Thrawsunblat: Metachtonia
- Ulver: ATGCLVLSSCAP
TOP 10 EPs & SINGLES (these should not go unnoticed outside the top album list)
- Almyrkvi: Pupil of the Searing Maelstrom -EP
- Candlemass: Death Thy Lover -EP
- Grave Pleasures: Funeral Party -EP
- Hellacopters: My Mephistophelean Creed -Single
- Horrendous: Sentenced -Single
- Melvins: War Pussy -EP
- Monolord: Lord of Suffering / Die in Haze -EP
- Pallbearer: Fear and Fury -EP
- Sepulchral Curse: At the Onset of Extinction -EP
- SubRosa: Key of the Eidolon -Single
10 BIGGEST POSITIVE SURPRISES (outside the top lists):
- Anthrax: For All Kings
- Blood Ceremony: Lord of Misrule
- Gatecreeper: Sonoran Deprivation
- Graves At Sea: The Curse That Is
- Madder Mortem: Red in Tooth and Claw
- Megadeth: Dystopia
- Metallica: Hardwired... To Self-Destruct
- Suicidal Tendencies: World Gone Mad
- Vinum Sabbatum: Apparitions
- Withered: Grief Relic
10 DISAPPOINTMENTS / LETDOWNS
(I mean, these are not bad albums. Most are still good and I enjoy listening to them too, but they should've been better to meet the potential and expectations, and they should have kept the album quality consistent throughout the whole album. I could throw on any of them, like the new AA/Blues Pills/Opeth any day and enjoy them with a smile, but by their own standards they could be and should be more. The stellar disappointments were not bought and I have done my best to forget about those, except the blindly bought 40 Watt Sun, from which I somehow cannot find anything that gives me pleasure. These are the enjoyable slight letdowns from my own shelf):
- 40 Watt Sun: Wider Than the Sky
- Amon Amarth: Jomsviking
- Blues Pills: Lady in Gold
- Bölzer: Hero
- Crippled Black Phoenix: Bronze
- Gorguts: Pleiades' Dust -EP
- Lord Vicar: Gates of Flesh
- Melvins: Basses Loaded (I expected more of the concept with 6 different bassists)
- Opeth: Sorceress (had promise and potential for more from a fanboy point of view, but it still made my top 30, so it's a great album nonetheless - I have a feeling this is a transitional album between the great Pale Communion and the next album on which they perfect this next transition)
- Witchcraft: Nucleus
-Heavy user-