My Top 10 Amazon Affiliate Links to Albums Released This Year

10. toe. – The Future Is Now EP
I like to refer to them as a less grumpy Don Caballero, but they’re good (and different) enough to have their own identity. Best quote about this album, from Amazon reviewer Tyler:

I don’t know what the hell the drummer is doing with that snare, but it sounds like benny greb had a baby with the greek god of rhythm.

09. Meshuggah – Koloss
Their previous, obZen, was a whopper, so it was going to be hard to follow that up with something as good. But I think they did it. I’ve never heard a band able to encomplicate (my word) a simple riff like these guys.

08. mouse on the keys – Machinic Phylum
This is only three songs but it’s a drummer and two piano players. They seem to pack a lot into a few minutes so the brevity works as an asset. Another snare-happy drummer.

07. Torche – Harmonicraft
I’ve never been into any sludge/doom, but I can like some material from a safe distance. Torche breaks the mold a little bit by infusing putting some sugar into their weed, which is my way of saying they mix pop with stoner rock.

06. August Burns Red – Sleddin’ Hill: A Holiday Album
You actually can make a instru-metal album of Christmas songs. You can. And it even has its reflective moments in between the bombast. Just think of Gary Hoey and Mannheim Steamroller’s respective tour buses crashing into each other and you have an idea.

05. Search the City – 2012 demos
I like few things more than a power pop band with a singer who can sing instead of whine in key. STC came back from hiatus with a new singer that sounded suspiciously like their older one. He sounds excellent on record but anything can happen in the studio. So can he do it live? Yes.

04. Demon Hunter – True Defiance
Beard!

03. Further Seems Forever – Penny Black
So they reform with their original vocalist, Chris Carrabba, and put out their best album since their first one, with Chris Carrabba. Ta-da!

02. Converge – All We Love We Leave Behind
I’m sort of late to the game with Converge, which is a shame since I saw them live a bunch of times when I lived in New England. I just didn’t quite “get it”. Maybe listening to and finally “getting” Melt-Banana—a band that is somehow very similar if you’re familiar with them—a year or so ago helped things, but the fact that this album is arguably one of their best doesn’t hurt, either.

01. Flyleaf – New Horizons
This is vocalist Lacey’s swan song album, which is kind of a shame because she’s just hitting the stride nicely. The related consequence of this is that, if you’re all dudes in a band with an attractive female lead with a distinctive, powerful voice, you’re all going to be playing collective second fiddle, forever. Such will be the case with their new singer, but the member shift might spotlight their songwriting more, come next release.

Special mention goes to Uverworld’s The One (no Amazon link!), Anberlin’s Vital, and Death’s Vivus!, all of which may place somewhere on this list but I’m too lazy to figure it all out.