Dan's Top 10 of 2016

10. David Bowie - Blackstar

A beautiful goodbye from the last great pop artist. Moody and dark, but still hopeful and well-wishing. After listening, you see fully how he knew his time was coming to a close and he wanted to give a proper farewell before moving on. We won't see another quite like Bowie for some time. Track highlight: Lazarus

9. Gojira - Magma

The French metalheads came back with a further evolution of their tried-and-true elephants-marching riffs and grooves. It's got a bit more clean singing that is usual for Gojira, but it works. Well. Track highlight: Silveria

8. Opeth - Sorceress

Post Opeth's exit as the gods of melodic death metal and becoming 70s prog come again, they have been a bit hit-or-miss on their albums. Not so with Sorceress. This is the first album since then that made me go "hey, now I get why they did this" and got my head bobbing. The tracks are tight and flow well into each other, and show a bit more "spirit" (for lack of a better word) that harkens back to the halcyon days of Blackwater Park and Ghost Reveries. Track highlight: title track.

7. Zeal And Ardor - Devil Is Fine

Electro-black metal mixed with southern gospel? Seems insane, but not only does it work, it works way too well. A one-man project, Zeal And Ardor are a pure expression of what a musician can do even without a band to back them up. Unafraid and undaunted. Seems the artist pulled it back and is re-releasing it in February 2017, but I heard it this year so whatever. It's awesome. Track highlight: Blood In The River

6. Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression

In the year we lost Iggy's long time confidant and friend, David Bowie, we got one last glimpse of Pop through that lens. While Post Pop doesn't officially involve the Thin White Duke, it can easily be mistaken to have. It's like Iggy ignored everything he has done for 25-plus years and made the sequel to the Bowie-backed duo of Lust For Life and The Idiot. Pulling in half of the great Queens Of The Stone Age and the equally-excellent Matt Helders of the Arctic Monkeys, it is the capstone on a great career for Pop. Track highlight: Paraguay

5. Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep Of Reason

Meshuggah is Meshuggah. No other band truly sounds like them. I can't pinpoint it, exactly, but there is something special about this album. Something that just makes you think "no way" as it continues to up the ante of what is possible in extreme music. Track highlight: Clockworks

4. Metallica - Hardwired...To Self-Destruct

This album has no expectation. Metallica hasn't made a good album in a long time (and that last good album will forever be argued by metal nerds to oblivion...to me, it was Load, but to many it was ...And Justice For All). In the last 20 years, we have gotten a symphonic greatest hits album, a double record of covers, the travesty that was St. Anger, and the soulless Death Magnetic. Yet, against all odds, Metallica released the best music they have made since the Black Album. James and co. took everything worthwhile they have ever done and used it all as influence to make something new, good, and probably lasting. It was hard to choose just one standout track. Just listen to the entire first disc, Confusion, Here Comes Revenge, and definitely don't miss Spit Out The Bone (the heaviest track they have made since Dyer's Eve). Track highlight: Dream No More

3. Cult Of Luna & Julie Christmas - Mariner

This one...it's hard to find the proper words for. Do you miss the band Isis? This is absolutely progressive post-metal with a mix of male growl and the beautiful clean vocals of Ms. Christmas. It all works. It all fits. It's not an album of songs. It's a set of movements making up a complete album. Track highlight: just listen to the whole album

2. Whores. - Gold

It's like someone distilled a drunken bar brawl into an album. Sometimes plodding, sometimes furious, always hard and unrelenting. It's full of snark that reminds me of Mclusky. It's like the energy of 90s pop-punk got turned into a yelled 35 minute anthem with a backing of deeply distorted guitar work. You will mosh to this album. Alone. In your living room. Turn it way up. Track highlight: I See You Are Also Wearing A Black T-Shirt

1. Nine Inch Nails - Not The Actual Events

This 20 minute, 5 track EP came out just before Christmas, and I have had it on repeat since I got reliable internet. It's blatantly inaccessible. Trent Reznor invited Atticus Ross and his wife fully into the NIN-fold, and created this...thing. It's mechanical, literally, plodding with a backdrop of noise right out of the mid-90s industrial boom. It's Broken. It's Year Zero. It's an album that stares directly into the abyss, and invites you to take a peak. It is the soundtrack to the apocalypse. It's also the appropriate soundtrack of 2016, the good and the bad. Track highlight: Burning Bright (Field On Fire)