12. Teitanblood - The Baneful Choir
Genre: Death/Black/War Metal
Put On A Playlist With: Emperor, Portal, The Chasm, Necros Christos, Beherit, Dead Congregation
An absolutely hellish, blistering metal experience on the whole from these Spanish slayers. They are supposedly leaders in what is being dubbed "War Metal" these days, a blend of black metal, death metal and ambient that defies easy categorization. What I like about The Baneful Choir is that it has an almost infectious energy to it's depiction of a war torn hellscape on Earth, but it's the relentlessness of the production that brings the whole thing together to me in a particularly fun way.
11. Queensryche - The Verdict
Genre: Progressive Metal
Put On A Playlist With: Fates Warning, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Voivod
The third outing from a Geoff Tate-less Queensryche proves to be the best of the new era so far, blending their Mindcrime/Empire/Promised Land progressive metal sound with a modern (I'd go as far as to say commercial) oriented power metal aesthetic to great success. Every song is a winner, though the swaggering 'Light-Years', 'Inner Unrest' and epic cuts like 'Bent' and the groovy, bass-heavy 'Portrait' are SO good that it makes me wonder why they aren't topping everyone's metal list this year. Unfashionable they may be...it certainly doesn't hurt that Todd La Torre has some fantastic pipes.
10. Shmu - Vish
Genre: Avant-garde Psychedelic Popwave
Put On A Playlist With: Clarence Clarity, George Clanton, Tame Impala, Vektroid
One of my favorite band discoveries from last year have decided to also come out swinging in 2019 with Vish, and it's an even stranger yet fullfilling pop experience than the yacht rock inflected Lead Me To The Glow. Where that album embraced vaporwave trappings while standing out with new ideas, this one goes more into contemporary electronic pop territory to the extent where even I'm not quite sure what to call the end product. It's akin to what Clarence Clarity does, but from a completely different contextual set of influences, even bringing in some hip-hop vibes crossed with something that sounds like a 90's tropical house fixation with an extra helping of N64 nostalgia. There's a killer electro-R&B cut hiding in 'Shampoo' and there's a breakout EDM hit in 'So Don't Try And Stop Me' as well....so no matter what these guys do, they're damn good at it and the results speak for themselves.
Last edited by Anteater; 12-11-2019 at 08:20 PM.
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