Blink-182 “Nine”

Growing up in the 90s, Blink-182 was inescapable, as much as I tried to avoid them. They became commercially huge just before I started listening to just classic rock music and avoiding everything else. It would take over a decade for me to start going back to 90s music and embracing it as a fantastic decade of music. Most of that feeling goes towards my sentimentality over the late 90s pop rock music that vividly brings back memories of my childhood. I mean who above the age of 20 doesn’t remember hearing All the Small Things almost everywhere at some point in their lives?

Ex Hex “It’s Real”

It’s been over two years. I think it’s time I start writing again, just to see where this goes. I’m going to choose to review Ex Hex‘s second album It’s Real, released earlier this year, to be the album that I choose for my long awaited (by me and I guess no one else) return to reviewing albums because it will probably end up being my favourite album of the year. Yes, I just admitted that, right away, and now everyone knows this will be a positive review, but I hope you’ll continue to read. There are a few more things I’d like to say. Oh yah, and don’t try just scrolling down to see the number rating I gave the album. I don’t do that anymore.

My Top Albums of 2018

 

Another year has passed. This time I wrote no reviews and I apologize for thinking I can just come in like this and share my opinion of what my favourite albums were this year, but it’s something I look forward to every year. I actually hope to find time in 2019 to get back into writing, which is more than I could say last year. I’m just hoping to be able to manage my time a little better in 2019. Once I can manage that I think I’ll be writing a lot more often than once a year.

That being said, just like last year I’ll probably be writing a lot more than average about each album since I never got a chance to initially review them. This year’s top ten albums were easy to determine, it was the order to put most of them in that proved to be a big challenge, but that’s always a great problem to have considering most years I have an eleventh or twelfth album that it kills me to leave out.

Before we get right into it, it wouldn’t be a Top Ten list if I didn’t plug in my past lists, which you can access by clicking here. Also I’m inclined to remind you this is just my opinion. I’m very aware that there are some choices, positions and all around neglected albums that will boggle many people. Also the songs that I’ll be attaching to each album will be my favourite song from each album, as opposed to simply being the album’s “highlight.”

My Top Albums of 2017

I’m back, just temporarily for now. Yes, I really don’t review much these days because of time restraints, but the future still holds many albums to be reviewed by me. When that will happen is something I couldn’t tell you right now. Could be in a few months, could be next year, but I still wanted to get my top 10 list written for the year of 2017 because it’s one of the main things I look forward to every year.

This year I’m probably going to be writing more about each album than most years, due to the fact that I never actually wrote initial reviews for any of them, except for one. As well as another I started but never finished. Therefore I’ll do less talking here and start with the list!

But of course, please check out my previous yearly top 10 lists here.

And remember, this is only my opinion, so don’t be an ass. I would however love to hear what your favourite albums were so please feel free to share! Each ranking will be accompanied by a video of my favourite song from the respective album as well. In past years I’d include the “album highlight” for each album, which isn’t always necessarily my favourite, but I decided to change that this year.

Big Wreck “Grace Street”

Big Wreck‘s early classics, most particularly The Oaf and That Song, were a huge staple on the radio when I was young. The latter especially stuck in my head as a kid. It’s easily one of the best all around rock songs to have come out in the 90’s. Some years ago, around the time of Big Wreck’s reunion, I decided to get more in to the band, starting from the beginning of course. I was met with a bit of disappointment. Well I wasn’t so disappointed as I was underwhelmed. This kind of cooled down my desire to get more in to the band. That is, until late last year when One Good Piece of Me from their then upcoming (now just over a month old) album Grace Street started playing on the radio.

A Breach of Silence “Secrets”

Secrets is the name of the upcoming third album by A Breach of Silence. I must be doing something right because for the third time I was asked to review it. Whether or not I am doing something right, you can bet the band is doing plenty. The transition between their first album Dead or Alive and their second album The Darkest Road saw the band transition from being a pure and simple metalcore band, cliché’s and all, to a band making songs with a bit more substance. That told me I could only expect great things from Secrets.

Sages “Sleepwalker”

What do you call metalcore music that doesn’t really have a lot of screaming at all? Sages certainly aren’t a metalcore band, but this thought occurs to me when I listen to their album Sleepwalker. I mean, just like any subgenre, metalcore has meant many different things for many different bands and has evolved (really for the worst) the way other genres evolve.

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes “Modern Ruin”

Frank Carter is hitting veteran status in the English punk scene. It’s been over a decade since he debuted with Gallows in 2005 before leaving the band in 2011. I’ve never been a faithful of the hardcore punk scene, so I must admit to being unfamiliar with Frank Carter. Needless to say his current band Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes flew under my radar before their recently released second album Modern Ruin was given to me for review.

Sound & Shape “Peasants”

I remember late 2014, around the time I got Sound & Shape‘s Bad Actors album for review. That was a time I was actually getting a few extremely worthwhile independent albums, specifically by the bands Black Map and Suburban Myth. All three of these bands showed potential to be major recording acts, and had (and likely still have) a much better and more professional sound than most independent bands I’ve ever reviewed. One of these bands, Black Map, has since been signed to eOne‘s label. I don’t typically pick favourites among indie bands, but Sound & Shape’s Bad Actors is probably the album I found to be the best out of the three, which is why I was thrilled when they asked me to review their upcoming EP Peasants.

My Top 10 Albums of 2016

2016 has proven to be a year to forget in respect to my reviews. The amount of albums I accepted and committed to reviewing completely overwhelmed me to the point of practically hiding myself and only coming out every once in a while. This includes writing reviews for the other two great sites that I love writing for. I’ve accepted considerably less albums to review this year and really just stuck with reviewing what I wanted to review, and for all of those emails that I never responded to and to the one or two reviews that I never wrote, I sincerely apologize and I hope that 2017 will bring me back to my old self.

That being said, 2016 was perhaps the best year in a long time for new albums, and as I so love to do every year, I want to talk about my top ten album picks of 2016. There are surely a lot of great independent albums that I passed up that could deserve mentions, and even a major release or two that could have stood a chance. For instance, had I listened to Kaleo‘s A/B in full I’m sure it would probably be on this list, considering how great everything I’ve heard from it is, but I haven’t heard the full album and thus can’t really assess it. But here are the ten picks that I know are great.

And please check out my past top 10 lists here.