Music That I Happened To Listen To In 2016: The Review

2016 Releases

Rotting Christ - Rituals

February 12th

Hellenic Black Metal!

Finally started listening to this group in-depth this last year, especially after 2013's Katá Ton Daímona Eautoú,
 and they're so far on my shortlist of black metal bands I can tolerate and listen to.

 Prong - X - No Absolutes

March 31st

Like 2014's Ruining Lives, I didn't really listen to this one all that much, nor can I tell the difference between the two.
I stopped paying attention after Carved Into Stone, and most fans (what few there are) just listen to Cleansing and not much else. Ironically, I plan on seeing them live in a few months, if I can drag a few others along.

Fun Fact: this was released on my birthday, even though I had no idea at the time.

Jeff Williams - RWBY Vol. 3

May 3rd

As you'll soon notice, these end-of-year lists for music feature quite a bit of repetition.

The best RWBY soundtrack since the first one, though, and I could tell that from watching the show itself.
One of my personal highlights from 2016 was seeing the Jeff Williams band live in concert,
and meeting them for autographs the next day at RTX. Not too shabby.

Hatebreed - The Concrete Confessional

May 13th

Finally got back into Hatebreed, coincidentally not long after they dropped this album. I was unimpressed with 2013's The Divinity Of Purpose, and moved on to other genres since then. Glad to know they still got it, though, and that they didn't need to change lineups (just record labels) to move forward.

Death Angel - The Evil Divide

May 27th 

Hey Hey We're Death Angel!

Twelve Foot Ninja - Outlier

August 26th

Favorite album of 2016. Hands down. I certainly appreciated that they were able to outdo the somewhat luckluster Silent Machine, without necessarily needing to repeat themselves or "return to their roots." They progressed in the best way possible, while maintaining their Australian blend of tongue-in-cheek humor.

Also not the only crowdfunded release I listened to this year, or in the last few years.

Devin Townsend Project - Transcendence

 September 9th

Eeeeeehhh......

I'm probably not holding on to this band much longer. Moving on...

Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep Of Reason

October 7th 

whoops how did that get there

Destrage - A Means To No End

October 21st

Love ya', Destrage, but uh......yeah. Not quite Are You Kidding Me? No. Not that I hate it, nor am I bored.
Just that nothing's sunk its hooks in me yet, which means it might go the way of certain other albums on this list.

Testament - Brotherhood Of The Snake

October 28th

Hey Hey We're Testament!

Metallica - Hardwired To Self-Destruct

November 18th

In response to wildly popular claims that Hardwired...To Self-Destruct! is a "good" Metallica album,
or their return to form after so long, I will say that as a leading expert on the band that this is patently untrue.
They are wrong. These people are crazy.

The thing is, with the "Big Four" thrash metal bands in particular, there's been a not-so-recent trend to revisit their glory days and hopefully reel back in former fans who long since walked away, if not fool the unsuspecting younger crowd who are none the wiser. Not that they'd pay attention to such an old-school style of what they have perceived to be "heavy metal" anyway. With Slayer and Megadeth, these efforts have led to disastrous if not somewhat laughable results, but with Metallica, Anthrax, and a few others, it's only led to boring "retro" albums. They aren't as daring as the aforementioned, opting instead to play it safe and familiar, so their works are the least interesting of the selection. Most of these bands at least experimented and branched out in 1990's, for their own sake and to appeal to new fans who could care less for the nuances of the 80's, but that was when the fan-turnover began for them, and most kids moved on to what was hip and happening (Hint: it wasn't Master Of Puppets anymore).

Anyway, it was disappointing when their peers did it, and now even more so that Metallica fell into that trap, essentially becoming no more tantalizing than modern-day AC/DC, though without a template like Back In Black to work with. Had they merely aped their own Black album, they might have had my attention. But Hardwired is a record of nothing-riffs, nothing-lyrics, and nothing-rhythms. Which is sad, because what originally propelled Metallica far beyond their competition was their solid foundation of memorable guitar leads, sing-along vocals, and grooves you can't help but move to. Other bands had technicality, aggression, or levity; Metallica dominated them with good songwriting, which is absent on this release. I can't even tell if they were trying to appeal to one demographic or another, if they wanted to construct something that would be easier to perform live than their older material, or if this is literally the best they could come up with creatively when they returned to the studio after nearly a decade.

I tried, I really tried with this one, but all it served was to remind me why I stick to the "classics" after all these years: all the best rock and metal was written in the 70s and 80s, and everyone's either been ripping those bands off shamelessly, or crafting hollow imitations of their own past glories. At least it gave me newfound respect for Death Magnetic, and even that one is still largely forgettable, save for a handful of moments where a decent lick shines through the debris of mindless chugging. The production value has finally been brought back to acceptable levels since then, but now there is nothing to latch on to as a favorite part, let alone whole songs. All of which are far longer than need be, but that would be the one thing they've kept consistent after all these decades. That's about the highest compliment I can pay this album.

2015 Releases

Fear Factory - Genexus

August 7th

While Fear Factory has historically been one of my all-time favorite bands, I had always limited by enjoyment of their material to their "classical" lineup era; that is, everything from the incomparable Demanufacture up to Archetype, sans Dino Cazares (Soul of a New Machine is a lousy old-school death metal record, and Transgression was just awful).
There were remixes here and there, but obviously this was a pitifully small selection of tracks. Still, I was upset that in the re-introduction of Cazares to the band, that the entire rhythm section was fired for seemingly no reason at all. There was a lengthy court battle and everything over the rights to the name of the band itself, all of which left a bad taste in my mouth and almost led to me writing the band off forever.

One day last year, purely out of boredom I decided to sample this post-reunion set of albums that they had been steadily releasing since 2010. Color me surprised, they were really fucking good, and the latest Genexus is no exception. My Fear Factory collection had doubled overnight, and I left my sour feelings over the personal and legal disputes behind. It's not too different from separating an artist from their otherwise objectionable political views, for the sake of enjoying the art itself. And now, there's even unsubstantiated rumors of a reunion of that founding lineup, which would be very interesting to say the least if it ever came to fruition. I mean, if the Misfits of all bands can do it, why not Fear Factory?

2014 Releases

Sworn Enemy - Living On Borrowed Time

May 13th

Traded the prog-rock and traditional metal for hardcore punk this last year, and Sworn Enemy has always been one of my favorites since my teenage years. A few steps behind Hatebreed perhaps, in terms of raw talent and the value and impact of the songs themselves, but a cut above the rest regardless. It was pleasant to find that they were still alive and kicking after all these years of neglect, despite lineup changes that left the iconic vocalist the only remaining original member.
 Still, they haven't gone in a fundamentally different direction since the last time I listened to them regularly, and I think that's a good thing.

Unearth - Watchers Of Rule

October 28th

Same thing as above, even though Unearth should be applauded for keeping the band itself intact after all these years, especially after the mid-2000s metalcore trend fizzled out in favor of the more modern deathcore and djent scenes. That's more than I can say about most of those bands (looking at you, Chimaira). To be honest, Unearth was not only one of the few of those groups that I liked (and I hated metalcore back in the day), but they were also one of a handful that played in a style more similar to thrash metal or crossover, than their more pop & emo oriented colleagues.
And like Sworn Enemy, they've remained "true" after all this time.