Full Lengths:
10. Defeated Sanity - Chapters of Repugnance:
Heavier than ever. Brutal Death Metal at its finest.
9. America Addio - Cotton Kingdom:
Spastic Electropop; autotune for miles; beautiful, vivid lyrics; all tastefully woven into each other making a near damn perfect album.
8. The Ascent of Everest - From This Vantage:
Orchestral Post-Rock. Huge, consuming soundscapes and crushing crescendos.
7. Blackbird Blackbird - Summer Heart:
Chillwave done right. Not over produced. Not boring. Just an honest, feel-good album.
6. Sed Non Satiata - s/t:
A big dividing line with Screamo for many is the lyrical content. Some love it, and some fucking hate it. I am part of the former group, and though this release is sung in French, you can still feel every ounce of emotion in every word. And the guitars are nothing less than destructive.
5. Shigeto - Full Circle:
Words can hardly describe this release. It feels like nostalgia as music. An essential for any fans of Ambient, Glitch, or IDM.
4. Envy - Recitation:
Envy are monolithic. They have never once disappointed me with even a single track across their 6 albums and 5 or so EPs. And then of course all their splits... This album is not an exception. Perfect.
3. The Saddest Landscape - You Will Not Survive:
It was hard for me to put this album ahead of Recitation. Ultimately, I decided to because while Envy has created near, if not fully, flawless albums for almost a decade and a half, this was the first release by the Saddest Landscape where I felt that they just put everything into the right place. They've really been coming up strong with all their recent releases. Perfect.
2. Crystal Castles - s/t 2010:
Maybe the number two spot is a bit high for Crystal Castles' newest release, but then again, listening to both of their albums back to back, there is a certain unbridled sense of emotion that goes into everyone of their songs. It's near impossible for me to describe, but it's there. I swear.
1. Baths - Cerulean:
I have fallen asleep to this album practically every night since I heard it in June. It's a masterpiece. I don't know what else to say about it, really. Make sure you get the real version of the album, if you check it out. Most of my friends have a bootleg copy and it sounds like shit. Perfect.
EPs:
5. Shigeto - Semi Circle:
Shigeto dabbling with glitchy madness. Super unique and innovative sounds. A producer to continue watching out for.
4. Sister Crayon - Enter Into Holy (Or)ders:
Very atmospheric Dream-Pop. Their lyrics slice into your soul and let it spill out. Listening to it is rewarding, and finishing it is redeeming. It's easy to get caught in a cycle of listening to this EP 10 times over before you ever consider not listening to it another time.
3. Have A Nice Life - Time of Land:
This is a flawless, sincere, release bursting with a bleak, hard-to-understand radiance. Perfect.
2. Deafheaven - Demo:
The first Black Metal release to really really convince me that BM can be, and IS, worth my time. Highly Post-Rock influenced. One of the most emotionally charged releases of the year. This shit could move mountains.
1. The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die - Formlessness:
The pinnacle of Midwestern style Emo. Amazingly creative guitar work, intricately placed drums, and some of the best lyrics I have ever heard. No review I can write will do this EP a favor. Probably my very favorite release of 2010.
Honorable Mentions:
Adebisi Shank - This Is The Second Album of A Band Called Adebisi Shank:
Even better than their first release. A solid performance that rarely comes up short.
Domination Through Impurity - Masochist:
Brutal Technical Death Metal. In a lot of ways, an extremely contrived genre. But not here. These guys know how to do what they want to do without sounding like the rest of the crowd. Killer slams, amazing riffs. check it.
In Her Own Words - Brand New Me:
I hate pop-punk/easycore/etc. I fucking love this EP.
Listen to it.
Memoryhouse - The Years:
Rivaling Sister Crayon as my favorite Dream-Pop act of the year. The strong songs are really strong, but there's one or two empty, more boring tracks on this release, which isn't acceptable on an EP.
Pretty Lights - Spilling Over Every Side:
Funky-Ass Electronic. Wonderfully fun.
Sleep In - Carnival:
Another ELHR act. Another perfect ELHR act.
Wormed - Quasineutrality:
Brutal Technical Death Metal. Again, they do what they do well, but like Masochist, it just hardly missed the mark when stacked up against Defeated Sanity's newest release.
I turned your text color up two shades, bro, it was killing me.
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