2015 has been an
awesome year for metal (again, like I said last year, it was a great year for
full lengths…not so much for EP’s)…not quite as good as 2014 or 2012, but
definitely up there with 2013. 2016 is
shaping up to be pretty awesome as well.
If you don’t see one of your favorite full lengths on this monster list,
keep in mind that the point of this list is to put a lot of stuff that you guys
haven’t heard before or didn’t give a chance this year, and remember that this year
was pretty damn good for LP’s. Anyways,
I hope you enjoy the list!
EP OF THE YEAR
5 Honorable Mentions
I, Valiance – Reject
of Humanity
Genre: Progressive Deathcore
Preview: “The Pillars of Ruin”
Devils of Loudun –
Entering Oblivion
Genre: Melodic / Symphonic Death Metal
Falling Through The
Center of the Earth – The Science of Perception
Genre: Progressive / Technical Deathcore
Haunted Shores –
Viscera
Genre: Progressive Metal / Instrumental
Tortuous Inception –
Headfirst into Oblivion
Genre: Technical / Brutal Death / Slam
Top 15 EP’s of 2015
15. Ominous Ruin – Exiled
Genre: Brutal / Technical Death Metal
14. Gravemind – The Hateful One
Genre: Deathcore
The riffs in that
preview song, holy shit. These Aussies
play a blistering version of deathcore that’s sure to tantalize fans of TAIM.
13. Cryptopsy – The
Book of Suffering – Tome I
Genre: Technical Death Metal
12. Blame – Dark Eyes
Genre: Technical Deathcore
11. Andy Rive – Acclimation
Genre: Progressive Metalcore
10. Analepsy –
Dehumanization by Supremacy
Genre: Brutal Death Metal / Slam
9. Dawn of Leviathan – Emergence
Genre: Symphonic Deathcore
8. Petrychor – Apocalyptic Witchcraft
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Listen: “Apocalyptic Witchcraft”
All these
feelings…what a journey.
7. Assemble The Chariots – World Architects
Genre: Progressive / Symphonic Death Metal/Deathcore
Sounds like Fallujah
meets all the best parts of Born of Osiris.
6. Delusions of Grandeur – Gravis
Genre: Progressive Deathcore
5. Sanzu – Painless
Genre: Progressive Death Metal/Deathcore
Think of what would happen
if Black Crown Initiate and Gojira had a baby, and it played groovy-as-hell
death metal – that’s Sanzu in a nutshell.
4. SikTh – Opacities
Genre: Progressive / Math Metal
Preview: “Philistine Philosphies”
These guys’
triumphant return was just as good as Extol’s last year. They’re called some of the masters/pioneers
of their genre for a reason.
3. Ne Obliviscaris – Hiraeth
Genre: Progressive / Symphonic Black Metal
The best band in the
world right now has done it again with this 3-track EP of previously unreleased
songs.
2. Ne Obliviscaris – Sarabande to Nihil
Genre: Progressive / Symphonic Black Metal
Yeah, I really,
REALLY like Ne Obliviscaris.
1. Entheos - Primal
Genre: Progressive Death Metal/Deathcore
Outside of Ne Obliviscaris, was there really any other
choice for the top EP of 2015? No other
group came out with an EP as fresh-sounding as Entheos in 2015. Plus, if it means Animosity is back together, I'm all for it!
LP OF THE YEAR
15-ish Honorable Mentions
Antlion – The
Prescient
Genre: Technical / Progressive Metal
XisforEyes – Convoluted Enlightenment
Genre:
Symphonic Deathcore
No Consequence – Vimana
Genre:
Progressive / Technical / Math Metal
Preview:
“Our Time Has
Come”
Dark Sermon – The Oracle
Genre:
Blackened Deathcore
Preview:
“Starve”
Exocrine – Unreal Existence
Genre:
Technical Death Metal
Preview:
“World
In Fire”
Ur Draugr – With Hunger Undying
Genre:
Atmospheric / Blackened Death Metal
Preview:
“Cult
of the Greatwurm”
Arkaik – Lucid Dawn
Genre:
Technical Death Metal
Preview:
“That Which Lies
Hidden”
Pomegranate Tiger
Genre:
Progressive / Instrumental Metal
Preview:
“Cyclic”
Frontierer – Orange Mathematics
Genre:
Mathcore
Preview:
“Bleak”
Ouroboros – Emanations
Genre:
Progressive / Symphonic Death Metal
Preview:
“Scion”
Mycelia – Obey
Genre:
Technical / Progressive Metalcore
Preview:
“Sean
in the Snail Shell”
Voices from the Fuselage – Odyssey: The Destroyer of Worlds
Genre:
Progressive / Melodic Metal
Preview: “A Principle God”
Ashe O’Hara, formerly of Tesseract,
doing maybe some of his best work ever.
The instrumentals aren’t nearly as interesting as the vocals and lyrics,
though.
Alustrium – A Tunnel to Eden
Genre:
Melodic Death Metal
Preview:
“A Tunnel to Eden”
Thy Art Is Murder – Holy War
Genre:
Deathcore
Preview:
“Emptiness”
This album is good, but the hooks simply
doesn’t hold up like those in “Hate” did.
I Chaos – Masterbleeder
Genre:
Technical Death Metal
Preview:
“Waking Hell”
This band is one of the unsung masters of
writing groovy tech death riffs.
Top 40 LP’s of 2015
The order of these albums is up for some
debate, outside of the top 6-10…
40. Ending Tyranny – Evolution of Deceit
Genre:
Technical Deathcore
Preview:
“The
Stench of Repression”
39.
Singularity – Singularity
Genre: Technical Death Metal
Technically a 2014
album, but who cares? I just heard about
this album this year, but this album fucking rules, and they deserve some
attention for it.
38. Bermuda – Use Your Burdens
Genre: Deathcore
I enjoyed this album
way more than I ever expected to…it seems almost like 2015’s answer to
Humanity’s Last Breath’s incredible debut album, albeit not as good.
37. Lost Soul – Atlantis: The New Beginning
Genre: Technical Death Metal
These guys sound like
a mixture between Fleshgod Apocalypse and Behemoth, and if that doesn’t get
your nipples in a tizzy, I don’t know what will.
36.
Deafheaven – New Bermuda
Genre:
Post Black Metal / Atmospheric Black Metal
Preview:
“Luna”
I didn’t enjoy “Sunbather”, but this album
really got me. I hope this band keeps
pushing the boundaries of the black metal genre like this.
35. Irreversible Mechanism – Infinite Fields
Genre: Technical Death Metal
LYLE FUCKING COOPER,
EVERYBODY.
34. Hate Eternal – Infernus
Genre: Death Metal
33. Intervals – The Shape of Colour
Genre: Instrumental / Progressive Metal
One of my favorite
instrumental albums ever. The riffs in
that preview song are just unfuckwithable.
32. Alkaloid – The Malkuth Grimoire
Genre: Technical / Progressive Death Metal
Preview: “Carbon Phrases”’
Holy mother of god this album was good…it should probably be higher on my list, but there were so
many other great albums this year.
Hannes Grossman and Christian Muenzner both collaborated on this baby,
and you can tell. With a pedigree like
that, how could it possibly be bad?
31. Sylosis – Dormant Heart
Genre: Progressive Thrash Metal
Their
best since “Edge of the Earth”.
30.5
Ingested – The Architect of Extinction
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
I
know “30.5” is cheating, but this baby is a late add to the list because I
totally forgot about this album when I made up my list of potential contenders
a few weeks back…I suck at keeping track of releases. This is right about where I would’ve slotted
it.
30. Chaos Divine – Colliding Skies
Genre: Progressive Metal
This
album was 2015’s analog to Being’s “Anthropocene”. Absolutely beautiful, epic progressive metal.
29. The Raven Autarchy – The Obscene Deliverance
Genre: Technical Deathcore
The
main reason this is so high on the list is almost entirely because of the
preview song….that intro riff, I think, is one of the slickest I heard all
year.
28. Leviathan – Scar Sighted
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
This
album is a masterpiece of black metal.
If you like black metal, you need this in your collection.
27. Between the Buried and Me – Coma Ecliptic
Genre: Progressive Metal
This
album didn’t hook me anywhere near the way Future Sequence did, but BTBAM has
earned a spot this high on the list, well, because they’re BTBAM.
26. Tesseract – Polaris
Genre: Progressive Metal
Preview:
“Phoenix”
Again,
not as good as Tesseract’s last album, at least in my opinion…I just prefer
Ashe as their vocalist I guess!
25. Continuum – The Hypothesis
Genre: Technical Death Metal
Unique
Leader didn’t have too many great albums this year, considering they basically
dominated last year’s list, but this album was pretty fucking awesome.
24. Fit for an Autopsy – Absolute Hope. Absolute Hell.
Genre: Deathcore
Best
straight-up deathcore album of the year…we’ll have to see where the best
technical deathcore album of the year falls…
23. The Ritual Aura – Laniakea
Genre: Technical / Progressive Death Metal
If
you’ve never heard them, prepare to have your skull blown clear open. Riffs and shredding for days.
22. Entities – Novalis
Genre: Progressive Deathcore / Groove
Rest
in peace, spacecore. :(
21. Kardashev – Peripety
Genre: Progressive / Atmospheric Death Metal
Since
2015 wasn’t a Fallujah year, we got this instead…and god damn, did Kardashev
deliver the vibes.
20. August Burns Red – Found in Faraway Places
Genre: Technical Metalcore
In
my opinion, their best album ever. The
hooks on “Blackwood”, “Martyr”, “Identity”, “Ghosts”, and a bunch of other
tracks are some of the best their guitarist has written in his career.
19. Northlane – Node
Genre: Progressive Metalcore
Northlane’s
best album, and it isn’t even close (sorry, Adrian fans). On “Node”, Northlane took their grasp of
atmosphere and capturing emotion to a whole other level.
18. Gorod – Recycled Creeds
Genre: Technical Death Metal
17.5
Gods of Eden – From The End of Heaven
Genre: Technical / Melodic / Progressive Death Metal
Another
late add, because I accidentally deleted these guys from my list of potential
album of the year contenders. This album
blew my mind almost immediately upon hearing it, because they sound like what
would happen if Persefone added Across The Sun’s clean vocalist, and they had a
baby with Scar Symmetry, then that band concentrated a little less on shredding
and atmosphere and a LOT more on melody.
Since I think Persefone’s “Spiritual Migration” is one of the best
melodic death metal albums of all time, this album belongs right up near the
top of my list as well.
17. Psycroptic – Psycroptic
Genre: Technical Death Metal
Psycroptic
should rename themselves Riffbot 3000 or something, because this album is
insane. Easily their best since
“Scepter”, and they’ve had some great ones.
Even if you’ve never liked Psycroptic before, I strongly suggest you
give this one a chance.
16. Lamb of God – Sturm Und Drang
Genre: Heavy Metal (?)
I’m
sorry, but if you didn’t like Lamb of God’s album from this year, you weren’t
listening to it. I think this is
probably their best album since “Ashes of the Wake”. You might've given up on LOG, but TRUST ME, come back.
15. Abiotic – Casuistry
Genre: Technical Death Metal / Deathcore
This
band took a quantum leap forward from their last full length, and nowhere is it
more obvious than on that preview song.
14. Novelists – Souvenirs
Genre: Progressive Metalcore
Best
metalcore album of the year right here (kind of dumb lyrics notwithstanding).
13. Good Tiger – A Head Full of Moonlight
Genre: Progressive Metal
Imagine
what would happen if The Safety Fire had the mighty Alex Rudinger on
drums. Now, stop imagining and hit that
preview.
12. Dance Gavin Dance – Instant Gratification
Genre: Progressive Rock / Post Hardcore
I
know, I’m as surprised as you are. I
strongly suggest giving this album a chance, if you haven’t already.
11. A Night in Texas – The God Delusion
Genre: Technical Deathcore / Death Metal
Here
we go…the technical deathcore album of the year, and for my money, nobody else
was even close. Insanely evil lyrics,
and wickedly technical and catchy riffs.
You can’t play the genre much better than this.
10. Periphery – Juggernaut
Genre: Progressive Metal
With
this, Periphery have proven that they belong in the discussion among metal’s
best writers. Juggernaut is an absolute
fucking epic.
9. The Black Dahlia Murder – Abysmal
Genre: Death Metal
Preview: “Re-Faced”
Dahlia
will never, ever make a bad album. Ever.
8. Wrvth – Wrvth
Genre: Blackened / Atmospheric Death Metal (?)
Fallujah
would be so proud of the vibes on this album.
One of the most unique, lush-sounding albums you’ll hear.
7. A Loathing Requiem – Acolytes Eternal
Genre: Technical Death Metal
When
the hell is technical death metal CATCHY?
How often do you find the riffs getting stuck in your head? Well, for me, this album was stuck in my head
on a nearly weekly basis since it came out.
6. Cattle Decapitation – The Anthropocene
Extinction
Genre: Technical Death Metal
The
last two Cattle Decap albums have been the best of their careers – this one won
MetalSucks’ Readers’ Poll album of the year for a reason.
5. VOLA – Inmazes
Genre: Progressive Rock / Metal / WHAT
What
the fuck did I just listen to? IT WAS
AMAZING. This album sounded like
absolutely nothing else this year, nor anything else that I’ve ever heard.
4. Caligulas Horse – Bloom
Genre: Progressive Metal / Rock
It
really says something about how good Caligula’s Horse’s last full length was,
that this album, which I didn’t enjoy nearly as much, is still this high on my
album of the year list. These guys are
THAT talented.
3. Intronaut – The Direction of Last Things
Genre: Progressive Metal / Sludge / Groove
Preview: "Fast Worms"
I
never liked Intronaut before this album, but TDoLT is an absolute
masterpiece. Do NOT make the mistake of
skipping out on this baby.
2. Eidola – Degeneraterra
Genre: Progressive Metal / Rock / Post Hardcore
Another
album that isn’t getting NEARLY enough attention this year. It should be on EVERYBODY’S year end
lists. Incredibly interesting
compositions, thought-provoking lyrics that evoke profound themes over the entire
album, and BEAUTIFUL singing. Think Mars
Volta meets Coheed and Cambria, with some Protest the Hero. Degeneraterra is one of my favorite albums
ever, and it would take number 1 this year, if it weren’t for…
1. Rivers of Nihil – Monarchy
Genre: Progressive Death Metal
Album of the year,
song of the year, riffs of the year, atmosphere of the year, everything of the
year. EVERYTHING about this album is
perfect – there’s even some of my favorite guitar tones of all time on here.
