As per last year, I made a list of Top 10 Song Discovery last year for a server I'm in
Brief writeup for each tracks:
Jonathan Hultén - Riverflame
Love this mix of folk and ambient, with reaffirming lines such as 'Create with joy/Dance while you can/Don't let gloom feed on your heart anymore'. Even if the world seems to be going to the shitter, we must continue to create meanings in our life
Lástima - Septiembre
Post hardcore with mix of blackened style vocals and violins. I love how the song concludes with the guitar parts interplaying with the violin. Their rooftop live performance of majority of the album from hate5six from May this year makes me appreciate the album - and the song - even more
All Men Unto Me - Sequentia
Sublime, unsettling, the sound and the spiritual theme makes me recall the work under the moniker of Lingua Ignota
Structure - Will I Deserve It
What a massive opening to a massive album. The roaring vocals, the atmosphere, the emotive guitar solo… it really sells the feeling of being crushed with the feelings of despair and hopelessness
Messa - The Dress
The song really builds up to a satisfying conclusion. Fantastic brass solo and guitar solo
Antinoë - Chaos in the Sky
The whole albums feel like something to listen with the lights off, letting it all embrace you like a warm duvet. But really, opening with the lines of 'Who the fuck are you? Who the fuck am I?' does made me turn my head after the piano intro
Moron Police - Pachinko, Pt. 1
The whole album is a joy to listen to, despite - or because of - the zany premise on how "The Devil turned me into a penny dispenser in Tokyo". The first parter to the titular song from the album is a definite highlight, with a lot of sing-able moments and lots of shifts and movements. Hell, go listen to the whole album for some prog goodness!!
Lowen - Najang Bah Divhayeh Mazandaran
Holy shit those vocals! Nina Seidi has incredible set of pipes, bringing forth this Persian tales of 'do not to go to war with the demons of Mazandaran'
La Dispute - King Park
A band that I've heard mentioned occasionally under the wave of 2000s post hardcore movements, and the sing-talking style of the vocals was a bit hard for me to get into… but wow this song narration really builds up to rising action, that is undercut with a sudden and jarring conclusion… fitting the story that is being told, on how the narrator 'Don't wanna know how it ends'