The Top 10 Albums Of 2019
Shane
1) Motionless In White - Disguise - Simultaneously the most personal and catchiest album the band has ever made to date.
2) Crystal Lake - Helix - The heaviest album in metalcore this year yet still very diverse.
3) Of Mice & Men - EARTHANDSKY - Arguably their best album, the best songwriting the band has ever displayed.
4) The Offering - Home - The most unique and musically diverse metal album of the last half decade or more.
5) Knocked Loose - A Different Shade Of Blue - A perfect melding of hardcore and deathcore without feeling like the 500th Suicide Silence clone come along.
6) As I Lay Dying - Shaped By Fire - Returning with their signature formula of catchy riffs and choruses with crushing breakdowns.
7) Periphery - Periphery IV: Hail Stan - Told the best story of any album this year. Their most focused complete record.
8) SeeYouSpaceCowboy -The Correlation Between Entrance And Exit Wounds - Cementing themselves as the leaders of scene revival. Great melancholy melodies and pure chaos.
9) Secret Band - LP2 - The most fun and all over the place record of the year. Organized insanity.
10) Enterprise Earth - Luciferous - The best deathcore album of the year by far as well as one of the most successful breakout efforts.
Honorable Mentions
Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind
Kublai Khan - Absolute
Born Of Osiris - The Simulation
Fit For An Autopsy - The Sea Of Tragic Beasts
Carnifex - World War X
Ryan
1) The Offering - Home - The definition of what modern heavy metal should sound like. There isn't a single thing I dislike about this record.
2) Johnny Booth - Firsthand Accounts - Putting a new spin on the classic early 2000's metalcore style and doing it as well as the legends.
3) Renounced - Beauty Is A Destructive Angel - Memorable melodies, great songs, more than just a Killswitch Engage and Misery Signals revival band. This is a truly special album.
4) Crystal Lake - Helix - Contains my favorite song of the year, "Aeon" as well as a plethora of other great tracks for one of the most energetic and fun metalcore bands on the planet.
5) Periphery - Periphery IV: Hail Stan - The best vocal performance of the year in any metal genre. Feels like the bands best songs as opposed to showing off their chops on their respective instruments.
6) As I Lay Dying - Shaped By Fire - Hands down some of the catchiest songs of the year, which showcases that the band hasn't lost a step, continuing to deliver tracks that get stuck in your head.
7) Knocked Loose - A Different Shade Of Blue - Not many departures from their debut record but there didn't need to be many, the band knows what they deliver.
8) Of Mice & Men - EARTHANDSKY - Somehow manged to match or even surpass their classic records. Found a way to redefine the band and drop an outstanding album post vocalist change.
9) SeeYouSpaceCowboy - The Correlation Between Entrance And Exit Wounds - Paying homage to the little-known sub-genre of scene-grind and making one of the most raw and brutal yet beautiful and emotional releases of the year.
10) Carnifex - World War X - The third record in a row the deathcore veterans have found a way to improve and evolve their sound, something they deserve tremendous credit for.
Honorable Mentions
Fit For An Autopsy - The Sea Of Tragic Beasts
Rings Of Saturn - Gidim
Norma Jean - All Hail
Secret Band - LP2
Enterprise Earth - Luciferous