I haven't heard a lot of new music for this year because I use up pretty much all of my downloading bandwidth on anime torrents. So I'm just going to put in order the ones I've gotten this year, some of which are not very good.
1. Between the Buried and Me - Colors
This is everything I want out of a great metal album. Insanely technical metal instrumentals combined with moments of serene beauty. Although that might sound like Opeth, this doesn't. The instrumentals are more like Dream Theater (when they could really play back in 1994 or so) but heavier and more intricate. The vocals are a good mix of brutal hardcore and catchy, almost beatlesque stuff.
2. Radiohead - In Rainbows
I've heard a couple Radiohead songs in the past, and enjoyed them, but this is the first time I've actually gotten one of their albums. It's simple, great songwriting. Not much else to say.
3. Lahto - Shadows of What We Were
A great release of densely harmonic ambient stuff. This is Tyke's best album thus far. It's free, too.
4. Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
I actually think this is their best album since Signify. Still has the relatively new infusion in this band of metal, which one might want to attribute to Steven Wilson working with Opeth in the past (but really, SW has loved metal for a long time before then), but also features some of the return to form of their more trippy, melodic stuff in the past.
5. Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone
It's not their best album, but it does have some great songs. It's Natural to Be Afraid is possibly my favorite song by the band, and the later songs have a great use of piano mixed into the more typical EitS sound.
6. Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos
Fairly solid, still not as good as their older stuff. Highlights are mainly the opening and closing epic, which feature some of the bands best technical instrumental work in a long time, and Repentance, which is a great mix of beautiful vocal melodies, a great guitar solo, and excellent harmonized stuff at the end.
7. Symphony X - Paradise Lost
Not bad. Nothing really outstanding about it, either. It lacks the sprawling epic scale of albums like Divine Wings of Tragedy and V: The New Mythology, and the guitar solos don't really strike me as being very interesting, either. I rated this being only slightly above average.
8. Pain of Salvation - Scarsick
I'll probably dislike this album the more I listen to it. It has some really dreadfully bad material on it, like the title track, America, and Disco Queen. On the other hand, there are a few songs I like from it, like Cribcaged and Flame to the Moth.
9. The Flower Kings - The Sum of No Evil
Don't get this. It's pretty bad, the most formulaic and boring prog rock I've heard from this band. Their other albums are much better.
That's all I've gotten this year, actually. These are some other releases that I want eventually (listed in order of priority):
Ulver - Shadows of the Sun
Caspian - Four Trees
Neurosis - Given to the Rising
Port Royal - Afraid to Dance
Blackfield - Blackfield II
The Deer Hunter - Act 2: The Meaning of, And All Things Regarding Ms. Leading
The Pax Cecilia - Blessed Are the Bonds
The Recieving End of Sirens - The Earth Sings Mi Fa La
This Will Destroy You - This Will Destroy You
65daysofstatic - The Destruction of Small Ideas
Do Make Say Think - You, You're a History in Rust
Pelican - City of Echoes
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell
Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
Oceansize - Frames
Planet X - Quantum
Sonata Arctica - Unia
Morse, Neal - Sola Scriptura
Rush - Snakes and Arrows
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Topic: Is it too early to start doing top records of 2007 lists? (Read 77083 times)