Honorable Mentions
50-46
45-41
40-36
35-31
30-26
25-21
20-16
15-11

10

Towers – Full Circle

Philadelphia “represent.” Towers plays such a frantic, layered, and progressive type of mathcore/screamo what have you that they stand head and shoulders above the pack. Full Circle stays so rough and aggressive but, by some grace of god, does it without being repetitive or making the listener lose interest. Not many bands can pull that off anymore and, honestly, every genre has been getting the “prog” sticker slapped onto it this year but Full Circle is probably the only album in this one that rightly progresses. Absolutely awesome live too.

09

Kylesa – Static Tensions

I hate sludge/stoner metal. I find it to be the dullest, most uninteresting trend in music that I could possibly imagine. It is essentially my musical kryptonite. Kylesa is the only band that has even a hint of sludge that I can get into, and I guess it says something that they are so highly ranked despite that. I guess I am into it because the sludge bits, which are actually interesting, are balanced well with the hardcore bits. I like my bits in perfect harmony.

08

The Antlers – Hospice

This is the most soul crushingly depressing album ever made. Hospice is seasonal affective disorder in musical form. You better make sure you surround yourself with colorful stuffed animals and good memories, because this CD will devastate you. It is also one of the most brilliant albums released in this decade. There is a lot of slowcore influence here, and the concept of the album makes For Emma, Forever Ago and Domestica both seem like they were about about skipping through dandelions and holding hands, but you will find yourself absolutely floored if you are brave enough to face the devastating loneliness and depression that Peter Silberman so easily evokes with his fantastic orchestration and songwriting. Top 10 of 2009 and the potential to go down as a classic.

07

Kalisia – Cybion

Someone has finally done it. If you know me, and you knew anything about this album, you knew this was going to be on the list whether it sucked or not. Thankfully, it doesn’t suck no matter what your definition of suck is. This is what cyberpunk would be if it were a musical genre. I don’t even know how to recommend this to somebody. Listening to each of the tracks individually or skipping around probably won’t do too much for you, but taken as one single track/concept it is mind blowing. This is a sci-fi epic. The story is surprisingly interesting and the musical ability is just over the top. Prog-metal at its finest, and the fact I can listen to it while I read Neuromancer for the hundredth time doesn’t hurt either. Somehow they are unsigned too, which effectively makes them the best unsigned band in known reality.

06

IWrestledABearOnce – It’s All Happening

Suck on it Username: xJimCorex. The band that I get the most shit in the history of getting shit for liking- and I own a HORSE the band t-shirt. I get ragged on for being entertained by iwrestledabearonce so often that I can’t even mention music on a message board that will remain nameless without somebody referencing my enjoyment of them as a way to negate my opinion. I would rather listen to a girl doing squeals and ridiculous drum machine breakdowns than 20 minutes of the same riff being drilled into my head until I don’t even want to do drugs anymore, or some limey stripped down glorified glitch DJ making noises you can “totally dance to while drinking a Pabst” or whatever people consider to be acceptable. I will defend this band to the grave. Note; I said I will defend this BAND to the grave, their image and fan base are everything that is wrong with this world and can in no way be defended logically. Still, suck it Username: xJimCorex.