A band like Cult of Luna never seems to disappoint, and always bring forth something new to their music.
Following this release there was the EP continuing the album's atmosphere and themes, Vertikal II.
Naturally, this album had a lot hype for myself, considering that it's Nine Inch Nails. This album brings together elements of NIN's earlier music, but in a whole different perspective. This entire album can be listened to again and again with ease, and the whole thing just grooves so well together.
There are parts of this album that seem like they could be coming right out of a fantasy video game soundtrack, which I say this keeping in mind some of the fantastic soundtracks that have been created. (I can imagine "Outro" fitting perfectly in a scene from a series such as The Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy.) The whole album is an extremely enjoyable listen, filled with a multitude of little details that add up to it's fantastic end product.
Overall a really enjoyable album, with the construction of the songs each being heavy and with a strong foundation. The mix of clean and harsh vocals on top of the atmosphere they've created which for me mirrors that of the cold winter, matched wonderfully.
As observations shows in quite a number of top album lists of the year, this one has made it's way over here as well. I apologize if you are sick of seeing it everywhere and calling it "hipster metal", but I find this to be a very enjoyable work that I can listen to again and again.
What I really love about this album is the overall atmosphere that is created and expanded upon, being very similar to that of Alcest's work (now I am a huge fan of Alcest, so I absolutely love that); they even have Neige providing spoken word vocals on "Please Remember".
This is certainly a gorgeous album; from the overall atmosphere, song structures, instrumentation, and sound of her voice. It's as if a listen through were like crushing pretty big on the music she makes.
In this album, Riverside has managed to pay tribute to 70's prog while maintaining their core sound and creating a work which is on par with their Reality Dream Trilogy. This takes a lot of ideas and influences, and brings them forward with their own unique twist.
A fantastic genre-melding experience which can easily be listened to on repeat again and again. The atmosphere of this album is leaving off where their last album Selenelion left off, which is a very unique blend of soundscapes and both clean and harsh vocals. I highly recommend listening to this and experiencing the wonderful sounds this band has created.
A massive work, spanning over 100 minutes of avant-garde beauty. This is truly an immense album which takes several listens to fully absorb, but it is worth every moment of it.
In addition to the amazing music of this album, the way it released was fantastic. I ended up getting the deluxe edition, triple-vinyl (swirl) signed by the band, hand-bound The Sword of Satan multi-chapter poem, that also came with a shirt, sticker, and pick. Beautifully packaged and worth every penny, it is overall a fantastic way to present this music.
Their darkest and heaviest album, where they now explore new and more metallic sounds. I'm actually really surprised as to how I haven't really seen this album on too many "top 10" lists, but here we are of it reaching the top of mine.
I love everything about this album, from the new turn of direction that they are going in, to their use of the brass and strings layered inside of their sound, an the overall structure of each song. This album keeps their core sound, but has a much heavier, darker, with a more metallic and percussive sound to it.
Several of these I had previously done album reviews of if you are interested, and there are still a few from here that I intend to do reviews of (in addition to what's been released so far of 2014 albums).
I was originally going to include (as I had last year), the list of albums that I had listened to in addition to my top choices so you can get a reference point from where I am choosing these. However since this past year was rather long, which is great because that means I got to listen to a ton of new music this year, it's just going to take up a ton of space where I don't think anyone would be going through it. Instead here are some runner up albums (these making the list really a top 15), as well as a few other runner ups.
15. Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork
14. Gris - À l’Âme Enflammée, l’Äme Constellée…
13. Optic - Iris In
12. Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing
11. Ihsahn - Das Seelenbrechen
Other albums to note:
Atoms for Peace - Amok | Beastmilk – Climax | Carcass - Surgical Steel | CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe | Ghost - Infestissumam | Gorguts - Colored Sands | Tim Hecker - Virgins | Karnivool - Asymmerty | Leafblade - The Kiss of Spirit and Fles | Leprous - Coal | LowCityRain - LowCityRain | Rosetta - The Anaesthete | Tomahawk - Oddfellows | Ulver - Messe I.X - VI.X
There were so many fantastic albums released in 2013, and so far there have been several amazing ones released in 2014. I know this was a bit late of a post for a "top 10" list considering it's already July, but whatever.
