365 days. 365(+) albums.

I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me

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Coma Ecliptic-Between the Buried and Me

Coma Ecliptic is the album I’ve been waiting for from Between the Buried and Me. I didn’t know it, but after hearing it for the first time, I knew this was going to be an exclamation point in an already impressive 15 year career. Coma is the album BTBAM needed to make to really cement themselves as one of, if not the best progressive band out there right now. This album more than others shows their prog rock influences were burning deepest during the writing process. BTBAM channels Queen, Pink Floyd, and even Rush at various times during Coma Ecliptic. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is clearly a big influence as there a couple moments of background choir singing in Memory Palace and Famine Wolf. Memory Palace also channels Pink Floyd to an extremely impressive extent during the “Focus on Melody..” parts of the song. My favorite part of this album is how well everything flows. My biggest issue with BTBAM has always been song length getting in the way of interest. I’ve enjoyed a lot of their releases, but I’d be lying if I said I was enthralled every second of any of their releases. With Coma Ecliptic, I can’t think of a moment where I wondered “Is this song going to end soon” which really speaks to how well balanced this album is. It’s all over the place as their fans have come to expect, but it’s never boring and always surprising. Tommy’s vocals still somehow continue to impress even more on the album, which seems impossible considering how versatile they were before this album. I’ve always liked his singing more than his screaming because he has an amazing voice, but he’s even developed his screamed vocals more. In King Redeem, Queen Serene, there’s a span midway through the song when it switches back and forth from an obvious black metal influence and Rodgers shows that he could hold his own in black metal as well. To wrap things up, I think this is Between the Buried and Me’s greatest release since Colors(which is my personal favorite, unless/until Coma takes it over) and really think this will be known as a landmark album for them. BTBAM have finally perfected the art of controlled and orchestrated musical chaos while establishing themselves as a progressive music icon. Mark my words, years from now people will look at BTBAM in the same light as Pink Floyd and Queen. I might be getting ahead of myself, but take a listen to Memory Palace, and then tell me I’m crazy for that statement. 10/10

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FIDLAR-FIDLAR

FIDLAR released their self titled debut last year, but I just recently found out about them last week. What a debut album it is too. On their facebook, it implies that FIDLAR stands for Fuck It Dog, Life's A Risk, which is the perfect name for the band. Almost every song is about drugs, beer, or skateboarding. Basically just everything most young adults love. This is definitely a party album. The first time I listened to it, I was speeding to work at 6am while blaring it. It's punk at heart, but with surf rock influences throughout. In short this is a ridiculously fun band to listen to, and if you're looking for a catchy new punk band that lives in the world of teenage skateboarding slackers who know how to party, then you've found your new favorite band. I also highly recommend checking out their music videos on youtube because their pretty hilarious(the video for Cocaine might go a bit far, but Nick Offerman is in it and it's still hilarious). My favorites were Cheap Beer, No Waves, Wake Bake Skate, and Cocaine. This album is definitely worthy of a 10/10.

[sweetums]

"… are you sure you haven’t seen that somewhere in real life before?"

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Day 365: Random Access Memories- Daft Punk

I feel like this had to be the last album just because it's generally considered to be the biggest release this year. I gotta say it's not bad. I have a place in my heart for cheesy disco songs, and this is basically new age disco. A lot of it is just electronic music with robot voices, but there's way more than that. The track that really shines is Touch, as it has some really personal and awesome lyrics. As much as I'm not too big a fan of the lyrics, Get Lucky is a pretty catchy song. You get what you expect from this album. Awesome disco dance music. If that's not your cup of tea then you can probably skip it, but every once in awhile I feel like listening to some catchy sounding disco. I wouldn't say it tops my album of the year list though. My favorites in addition to the two previously mentioned tracks are Give Life Back to Music, The Game of Love, Instant Crush, and Contact. This album is worthy of a 9/10.

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Day 364: Thriller- Michael Jackson

I had to include the best selling album of all time at some point. I enjoyed this album quite a bit. It's awesomely catchy and MJ is pretty damn good at singing. Throughout this listen I found myself dancing, singing along, and bopping my head quite a bit. It just goes to show that even metal heads can enjoy the king of pop. Trash on him all you want, but you have to admit he has some pretty awesome songs. Beat It alone is worth the listen. Some others I really enjoyed were Wanna Be Startin' Somethin, Thriller, Billie Jean, and PYT. I've never really delved in Jackson's music, and I'm not sure if I ever will because this album is good enough for me. This obviously gets a 10/10, and if you say you don't like this then I'm just going to assume you're either lying or didn't give it a full chance.

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Day 363: Sex with an X- The Vaselines

I took way too long to check this album out. My buddies have been pretty big on this album for awhile and it's easy to see why. Almost every song on here is a gem. The songs are very centered on love, whether it's being in love or falling out of love. There's also a happiness to most songs despite what the lyrics are saying. It's full of songs that will have you bopping your head long after it's over. This is just a fun album that you could listen to over and over many times before getting tired of it. I'd recommend to this to fans of alternative rock or happy sounding music in general. My favorites were Sex With An X, The Devil's Inside Me, Overweight But Over You, I Hate the 80's, Mouth to Mouth, and My God's Bigger Than Your God. This album is definitely worthy of a 10/10.

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Day 362: Snakes for the Divine- High On Fire

It's a good thing I waited for Snakes For the Divine because I got the vinyl for Christmas. Snakes already has one of the coolest looking covers in my collection, and it also has one of the best sounds. This is the High on Fire record that I'd give to anyone who was interested in checking them out. It's definitely their most rockin' album. It was my favorite for awhile and is one hell of a good album to watch hockey to. From the epic opener Snakes for the Divine to the epic closer Holy Flames of the Fire Spitter, this is one of High on Fire's shining moments. It's also got one of my favorite HOF riffs on How Dark We Pray. I can't give it justice by just explaining it, you have to listen to this if you haven't heard it before. Especially if you're a metal fan. This album definitely deserves a 10/10.

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Day 361: Singin' The Blues- BB King

This was a last second album and I decided on BB King to throw some variety in there. I think one of the biggest criticisms I have of this year long musical challenge is that I listened to more metal, which isn't a bad thing but I kind of wanted to open up to more music. Anyway the title is pretty accurate. It's just BB King singing the blues. Every other title has the word blues in it and/or is about love problems. It was still a pretty good listen though. It's kind of like Hank Williams or Johnny Cash if they were really good at guitar. My favorites were Please Love Me, You Upset Me Baby, Woke Up This Morning, and You Know I Love You. This album deserves an 8/10. It's nothing too amazing, but it's just a good listen. Could definitely see this hitting home if I was having relationship troubles.

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Day 360: Agony Defined- Noisem

Here's another band that was on quite a few year end lists, and their actually opening for the spring Decibel Magazine Tour with Gorguts, Black Dahlia Murder, and Carcass. The craziest thing about this is everyone in the band is aged 15-20. You hear that and then listen to the album and wonder how the hell that is possible. This album sounds like a bunch of seasoned death and thrash veterans that have been playing for their entire life. This is another band that makes me excited for the future of death metal because they've got a real old school feel to them. The music and solos have a mostly thrash feel, but the vocals scream old school death metal. I'd have to say my favorites were Voices in the Morgue, Mortuary, Severed, Split From the Inside Out, and Agony Defined. This album is definitely worthy of a 10/10 and needs to be heard by anyone who is a fan of thrash and death metal.

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Day 359: Tommy- The Who

I decided to listen to Tommy on Christmas  because I heard the Tommy Christmas song in a liquor store on Christmas Eve and it reminded me that I had yet to listen to Tommy. I just read the full synopsis of Tommy as I had no idea what it was from the album. I remember enjoying it quite a bit but I was sleepy and kind of drunk while listening to it. It definitely needs another listen from me, but I do remember liking it. Some of my favorites were The Acid Queen, Pinball Wizard, Tommy Can You Hear Me?, Sally Simpson, and We're Not Gonna Take It. I definitely need to relisten to this, but right now it gets a 8/10.

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Day 358: We Wish You a Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year-Various Artists

Now for the Christmas album for the metal fan that hates hair metal. This is a compilation album of a bunch of metal musicians getting together and recording Christmas songs together. There are only about 3 songs I liked on the album, but it's the most metal Christmas album ever. You get to here Lemmy sing Run Run Rudolph, and Dio dominate God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen with Tony Iommi. That rendition of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen should be everywhere because it's perfect. The lyrics sound like something Dio would come up with on his own, and Iommi just perfects the main riff. It's probably going to replace Christmas at the Zoo as my favorite Christmas song ever. Alice Cooper makes Santa Claus is Coming to Town his with creepy gutiarwork by John 5. Chuck Billy and Scott Ian turn in the most extreme Christmas song on the album with Silent Night. Dez Fafara's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is another awesomely extreme rendition. I'd say about half this album is pretty awesome, while the rest is lacking a bit. Depending on your knowledge of metal you may love this whole thing though. I'm going to give it a 8/10 and say it's a must have for those for love metal and Christmas.

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Day 357: A Twisted Christmas- Twisted Sister

I'd admittedly not a big Twisted Sister fan, or hair metal fan for that matter. That being said I do have a huge amount of respect for Dee Snider for his role in fighting censorship in the biggest fuck you way possible. Dee Snider is just an all around awesome dude from what I know. This album is as cheesy as it sounds, but definitely on purpose. Oh Come All Ye Faithful is literally just We're Not Gonna Take It (music video and all ). Twisted Sister does this with many of the songs. Let It Snow has riffs from Children of the Grave, Deck The Halls has riffs from the boys are back in town, and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus has riffs from You've Got Another Thing Comin'. This isn't just a Christmas record, it's also a very well done celebration of metal. While these aspects of the album were pretty cool, I wasn't too into this album, but it is a Christmas album so that's to be expected. I'm going to give this a 7/10 based on awesomeness alone. Definitely worth owning if you're a fan of metal and/or Christmas.

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Day 356: Exhumed/Iron Reagan Split & Teratogenesis- Revocation

For this day I decided to do 2 EPs. You can argue it's not an album but I don't care because I'm glad I did these EPs. The first is an extremely awesome Exhumed/Iron Reagan split. Exhumed's Gravewalker might be my favorite song released by them this year(with Sickened, The Beginning After the End, and Coins Upon on the Eyes fighting for that title as well). The Exhumed half of the album ends with an awesomely intense cover of Minor Threat's Ready to Fight(I really need to check out more punk). Admittedly I liked the Exhumed half way more, but the IR side is just as fun. The highlight of Iron Reagan's side is Gave Up on Giving a Fuck, which has an awesome sing along spirit to it. Special shout out to Holy Water Makes Me Wet for being possibly the funniest song title of the year. I loved this so much that I bought it on vinyl. It's definitely worthy of a 10/10. The 2nd ep is arguably an album considering that it's 4 songs and 20 minutes long. Revocation prove year after year that they belong at the front of the thrash revival that's been happening recently. Bands like Toxic Holocaust, Municipal Waste and Revocation are bringing awesome tunes, fun times, and classic metal albums back to a genre that really kind of went away after the mid 90's. I'd argue that these 3 bands could be a Big Three of sorts. Their not exactly having the same kind of commercial success, but their definitely showing us that thrash is not dead. I need to give this EP a few more listens, but my first reaction is that it was awesome. It's got a bit of that old school feel to it at times. My favorites were Spurn the Outstretched Hand and Bound by Desire. This is worthy of a 9/10. The content source will include a stream of the IR/Exhumed Split, while you can google Teratogenesis and download it for free from Scion A/V because they awesomely release metal EPs for free.

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Day 355: Vol. 4- Black Sabbath

I don't know why I waited this long to listen to Vol. 4, but this album made me realize how truly awesome Sabbath is. For some reason I thought this would suck. I have no idea why because it's almost impossible for Sabbath to suck with Ozzy or Dio singing (depending on your reaction to 13 or Dio in  Sabbath in general). I knew by the first riff that this was the same Sabbath from all the other albums I listened to. By Supernaut I was convinced that Sabbath have to actually try to release a shitty album, and that belief was confirmed after I read the wiki page for Vol 4 and found out that they were high on coke for basically the entire recording, but yet it's still amazing. The whole album is pretty awesome but my favorites were Supernaut and Laguna Sunrise. This album is worthy of a 9/10.

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Day 354: Endless Night- Take Over and Destroy

This was another album I found on a year end list. I had high expectations for this album because of the description it was given and the awesome cover art. It's not bad, but it didn't grasp me like I hoped it would. I thought that this would take more than one listen to get into after my first listen, and I can tell that's true as I'm revisiting it now and am picking up on really awesome things I didn't grasp the first listen. For one thing there's a strong black metal influence that's hidden behind it's combo of other genres. This is definitely an album that I need to revisit in the future. For right now it gets an 8/10. I'd recommend fans of extreme metal to check it out because it mixes quite a few of those genres to create one awesome sounding album.

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Day 353: Fulton Hill- Alabama Thunderpussy

I'm going to be honest, there was about a 2-3 day period where I could not remember what album I did on this day. That's not to say this is a terrible and forgettable album (how can you forget about a band named Alabama Thunderpussy?), but it's definitely not the greatest. There's a lot of really cool parts on it, mostly the stoner metal gutiar throughout. The vocals kind of remind me of Matt Pike singing southern rock, and while that may sound fucking awesome for some reason I wasn't a big fan of the vocals in most of the songs. Maybe I chose the wrong album to start on ATP, but I got this album from one of the relapse bundles. Relistening to some of the songs during this review, I can remember that some of the songs were pretty cool which makes me think this might just be an album that needs to grow on you, or that ATP has a few real gems in their discography. Either way for some reason I wasn't really blown away too much so I'm going to give this a 6.5/10. 

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Day 352: Death Metal Christmas Hellish Renditions of Christmas Classics- J.J. Hrubovcak

One of the coolest releases this year had to be JJ Hrubovcak's death metal Christmas album. Yes I said that, a death metal Christmas album. A legit one too, where Christmas songs are rewritten to fit death metal. It may sound gimmicky and corny, but it was done perfectly. The music itself is pretty awesome and the rewriting of the lyrics is pretty fuckin' sweet as well.  The most hilarious part about this is that he was actually able to leave some lyrics in there. To get the full experience of how awesome this is I recommend going to www.deathmetalchristmas.com (yes that's the actual website for it) and reading the lyrics side by side. By far the coolest track on the album for me was the Nutcracker cover. It starts out playing the original Nutcracker tune and then continues to play it but with a death metal style. This is definitely something that every death metal fan should (I even ordered the physical copy from the bandcamp), and even just fans of Christmas music. It's hilarious, awesome, and done perfectly. Definitely worthy of a 10/10.