10. Ghost – Prequelle
Origin: Sweden
The Gist: After three incarnations of Papa Emeritus, Cardinal Copia takes over the sacrilegious Swedish outfit, and he and his gang of Nameless Ghouls reveal the deep influence of progressive rock on their work. The result is Prequelle, containing multi-layered opuses that work some appropriately bleak stories about plagues and medieval torture in with tender romantic pleas. Is our beloved Cardinal singing to God, Satan or some dewy young lover? That we can’t often answer the question conclusively is half of the fun.
Why It Rules: This is exactly the album we want from Ghost: bombastic and heavy cut through with some sharp pop hooks and a touch of the sentimental. All of that is captured perfectly in the vocal of the group’s leader, with a new persona — a disturbing mask that looks like it’s melting — to better match the dramatic sweep of the music. He echoes the dark fears and the small footholds of hope that mark the slow trudge to oblivion in every pealing note of his sturdy, tuneful tenor. The metaphor of the Dark Ages that he returns to throughout is a blunt force object to drive this simple message home: We’re screwed so let’s hold on to each other on the way down. –Robert Ham
Essential Tracks: “Rats”, “Dance Macabre”, “Faith”
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09. Vein – Errorzone
Origin: Massachusetts
The Gist: The first full-length from Boston five-piece Vein cements the hype about this underground band, quickly coming overground. Eleven frenzied, genre-defying songs make up an album that is marked by its astonishing drumming, almost jazz-like in its execution, playing around beats, dropping blast beats, technical flourishes and multiple time signatures — all beneath a crushing sonic assault blending metal, hardcore, groove metal and melodic death with gritty, screeching and warm vocals. The result is an aurally spellbinding collection of songs.
Why It Rules: Errorzone should be taken in its entirety as a beautiful, unrestrained metallic hardcore symphony. “Doomtech” is the album standout, and recalls early Fear Factory; but the gems that lie within are myriad. “Virus/Vibrance” kicks off the album with a punishing groove and quickly sets the tone for what it is to come. “Anesthesia” could be an old industrial song, with its fuzzed-out vocals and Emergency Alert alarm that bleeds into the furious aggression of “Demise Automation.” The cacophonous album closer, “Quitting Infinity,” ties everything together as it swings from hardcore to death to melodeath. If you put the album on repeat you will quickly lose sight of where it begins and where it ends, and that’s magical. –Mick Stingley
Essential Tracks: “Doomtech”, “Anesthesia”, “Quitting Infinity”
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08. Voivod – The Wake
Origin: Jonquière, Quebec
The Gist: Canadian thrash/prog veterans Voivod have broken all kinds of musical boundaries since their 1982 formation. On its 14th studio album, The Wake, the band continues its post-apocalyptic, sci-fi creations across eight expansive conceptual tracks. Denis “Snake” Belanger’s vocals are just as wonderfully odd as ever, yet he’s progressed his voice exponentially over the years with a more melodic delivery.
Why It Rules: Opener “Obsolete Beings” immediately grabs the listener’s attention with the band’s classic, dissonant chord progressions, rapid fire snare drum rudiments and driving rhythm section. On the 12-plus-minute epic album closer “Sonic Mycelium,” the band reintroduces the orchestral elements and shows off its diverse layers by combining various parts throughout the album and inserting them seamlessly into one track. In fact, the whole album ebbs and flows and constantly shape-shifts with dynamic results. —Kelley Simms
Essential Tracks: “Always Moving”, “Sonic Mycelium”, “The End of Dormancy”
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07. Turnstile – Time & Space
Origin: Baltimore, Maryland
The Gist: After signing to Roadrunner to release their second LP, hardcore quintet Turnstile took a sizeable step forward stylistically. Atop a foundation of 1990s NYC hardcore, Time & Space adds dive-bombing rock ‘n’ roll solos, R&B keys, vocal harmonies, and infectious melodies.
Why It Rules: Hand claps, rototoms, and other percussive add-ons bulk up the rhythm section — three members are drummers by trade — while the croons of bassist Franz Lyons, already a staple of the band’s sound, more often complement the piercing screams of vocalist Brendan Yates. That’s all before a handful of guests, including electronic mega-producer Diplo, further diversify an album that smokes through 13 tracks in 25 minutes. It’s catchy, it bangs, and most importantly, it’s downright fun. If this album doesn’t get you amped up, check your pulse. —Scott Morrow
Essential Tracks: “Generator”, “High Pressure”, “Moon”
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06. Sleep – The Sciences
Origin: San Jose, California
The Gist: Doom metal royalty Sleep return for their first album in 15 years — a hiatus that contained sparse live performances and the odd single. Metal’s most famous herbivores surprise dropped this new album on 4/20 (ok, this part is unsurprising) via Third Man Records. The Sciences is their first disc since their sixty minute single track odyssey Dopesmoker was released in 1999 — an album now considered an undisputed classic.
Why It Rules: Sleep’s unmatched fuzz tone is as heavy and ruthless as ever on The Sciences — the most crisply produced disc the band have ever relased. This is a dirty, no-frills riff machine of an album with a few squealing vintage Matt Pike guitar solos like the robust “Marijuanaut’s Theme.” All of these tracks are an adventurous trip through drone, doom, and space rock seamlessly arranged by Pike and singer-bassist Al Cisneros. Pike and Cisneros, who have both explored different sounds outside of Sleep’s slow doom metal, bring a cleaner contemplative quality to The Sciences indicative of a couple self-aware jokesters maturing. –TJ Kliebhan
Essential Tracks: “The Sciences”, “Marijuanaut’s Theme”, “Sonic Titan”
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05. Judas Priest – Firepower
Origin: United Kingdom
The Gist: Judas Priest are one of the founding fathers of heavy metal’s sound and image. The band’s late ’70s and early ’80s catalog is rightfully worshipped, as is 1990’s Painkiller. Rob Halford’s absence for most of the ’90s into the 21st century marked a rough patch for Priest, but they’ve come back strong this decade. Founding guitarist K.K. Downing departed the band in 2011, but Richie Faulkner proved to be a worthy successor, leading to the solid Redeemer of Souls in 2014. With the announcement in February of this year that guitarist Glenn Tipton had Parkinson’s disease, there was plenty of reason to doubt the aging titans of metal once again.
Why It Rules: In interviews before Firepower dropped, the band stated they were going for more creative songwriting while bringing back some of their heavier and speedier riffs. Judas Priest came through on that promise in droves. While Tipton is no longer touring full-time with Priest, he and Faulkner deliver mightily on Firepower, which has some of the heaviest Priest riffs since Painkiller and speediest since Stained Class. Every vocal performance on Firepower by Halford feels like a time warp, with the legendary vocalist sounding identical to his ’80s self. Tracks like “Evil Never Dies” and “Flamethrower” prove Judas Priest still have some aggressive riffs left to shove in your face. —TJ Kliebhan
Essential Tracks: “Evil Never Dies”, “Flamethrower”, “No Surrender”
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04. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want
Origin: Providence, Rhode Island
The Gist: Eight years after their last release, post-hardcore experimentalists Daughters return with an LP that deconstructs their sound and reanimates it into a whole new sonic monster. Vocalist Alexis SF Marshall adds an element of Nick Cave to a delivery that already echoes Jesus Lizard’s David Yow.
Why It Rules: In the long layoff between albums, Daughters have reinvented themselves once again, as the track “City Song” immediately announces You Won’t Get What You Want as unafraid to tread new ground. Guitarist/keyboardist Nick Sadler has few contemporaries in style, with the truly unique sounds he gets out of instruments along with his frenetic fret work. “Satan in the Wait” offers more dissonance, a sludgy bass line, and a twist: a melodic passage that sounds like bells run through effects pedals, while “The Reason They Hate Me” is the most straight-ahead banger of the 10 songs. —Scott Morrow
Essential Tracks: “Satan in the Wait”, “The Flammable Man”, “Daughter”, “The Reason They Hate Me”
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03. Deafheaven – Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Origin: San Francisco, California
The Gist: This modern metal act has likely netted one of the largest crossover audiences of the 2010s thanks to 2013’s shoegaze/black metal hit Sunbather. After a drastically darker and thrash metal influenced disc, New Bermuda, Deafheaven used sobriety and maturity as the conduit for their fourth album. The two lead singles “Honeycomb” and “Canary Yellow” came with a surprisingly sunny, almost saccharine tint that seemed to indicate the band was pushing their sound in a new direction.
Why It Rules: Ordinary Corrupt Human Love has a gentle quality about it that few metal acts would even risk, with much less actually pull it off. The album has a pleasant lushness that even Sunbather lacked, and it’s is paced in a way that actually allows you to enjoy it’s soothing ambient moments before it frantically pushes the pace again. Deafheaven are a chameleon of sound-continually challenging what a metal band can sound like and questioning what metal at it’s very core needs to be and what it needs to reject. —TJ Kliebhan
Essential Tracks: “Honeycomb”, “Canary Yellow”, “Night People”
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02. Behemoth – I Loved You at Your Darkest
Origin: Poland
The Gist: According to frontman Nergal, the title of the new album from Polish extreme metal lifers Behemoth is a Bible quote attributed to none other than Jesus Christ. And on their 11th studio album, the trio goes perfectly over the top, bringing in a children’s choir and a 17-piece orchestra to drive their blasphemous point home.
Why It Rules: Amid all the grandeur and the sheer force of the band’s collective incursion throughout, a remarkable tone of restraint has crept in Behemoth’s work. The demon invocation “Bartzabel” plays out like a particularly vicious power ballad, while tracks like “Rom 5:8” and “Coagvia” pitch and yaw between a blastbeat-heavy overload and more measured passages. I Loved You At Your Darkest is another strong addition to Behemoth’s remarkable run, which has now lasted more than a quarter century. It reveals some welcome growth within a subgenre of heavy music that has often been resistant to evolution. –Robert Ham
Essential Tracks: “Bartzabel”, “Coagvia”, “Ecclesia Diabolica Catholica”, “Rom 5:8”
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01. YOB – Our Raw Heart
Origin: Oregon
The Gist: YOB is mostly the creative work of vocalist-guitarist Mike Scheidt, who had a frightening 2017 where he battled diverticulitis and nearly lost his life. Our Raw Heart is an exploration and reflection of that period of Scheidt’s life with most of this album being written from his hospital bed that year. YOB’s brand of psychedelic doom metal reached it’s highest critical praise with their last disc, Clearing the Path to Ascend, and it was unclear what direction the band would turn to next.
Why It Rules: Our Raw Heart is seeping with emotional weight, but YOB do not need wild performances or intense vocal strain to tug at your heart strings. This album is as calculated and plodding as YOB always have been, but possesses a serene almost uplifting quality that has never been present before. “Beauty in Falling Leaves” is one of the most moving tracks this year, regardless of genre — the intense ode to perseverance is perhaps YOB’s most stirring tracks. —TJ Kliebhan
Essential Tracks: “Beauty in Falling Leaves”, “The Screen”, “Original Face”
