17. Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty
Not often does an album title plant the hit of the hammer so firmly, and accurately, on the nail's head. Not often does a singer songwriter blend quite so many genres of music into something so unique. I'll explain the first part first, seems only logical; this album is as painful as it is beautiful. That may sound like an oversimplification, but it's true, this album is the sound of pain, of torment and turmoil, but is beautifully deliver pain. The album's sound is dark, and troubling, but its arrangements, and Wolfe's voice, are stunningly haunting. Speaking of the album's sound, I'll now explain the second part of my initial statement; this album, not just from song to song but within songs, encapsulates element of folk, drone, darkwave, goth, industrial, indie, Americana, country, doom, and electronic. Though you can hear all these styles playing off of each other, or fighting with one another, it all comes together to form this one overall and unique sound. This is Wolfe's fourth album, and it displays her continual growth and evolution as not just an experimentally talented musician but an ever improving songwriter and a singer with an enviable vocal tone and ability. These songs are not just sung, but performed and her vocals, impassioned and haunting, weave in and out of the sometimes tense and dense, and sometimes expansive and sparse soundscapes that are formed when all these musical genres collide and are filtered through Wolfe's songwriting. A painful and beautiful album.
Words by Morgan Roberts
16. Deafheaven - Sunbather
This year saw black metal making some waves, and nary a church was burned nor murder committed. No, this year the waves made were lush waves of noise, and they came courtesy of American noiseniks Deafheaven. Now, that's not to say black metal hasn't been making lush, if harsh as hell, waves of noise for some time but this year saw it (kind of) go over ground courtesy of Deafheaven's sophomore, Sunbather. The album was met with critical acclaim upon release, not just in metal circles either, and is likely to be a prominent feature of many an end of year list. So how did that all happen? With a little help from some musical genre friends. What Deafheaven have done with Sunbather is taken black metal's core elements the harsh shrieked vocals, the tremolo picking, the fast tempos, the blast beats, the distortion and the experimental song structures with the cinematic and serene scope of post-rock, the sprawling heaviness and ambience of post-metal, and the hazy, dream like high of shoegaze. Many modern black metal bands, or black metal influenced bands, experiment with other genres to adapt and evolve the sound, as most artists in any genre of music might do these days, but Deafheaven have really got the formula right and surpassed their peers. This album has noise, it has heaviness, it has viciousness, and abrasiveness, but it's stunning; there are moments of genuine tranquillity and truly beautiful melody that flow in between and alongside this albums more extreme elements, and they work perfectly. This is not just a brilliant black metal album, it's a brilliant album full stop.
Words by Morgan Roberts