On Spotify alone, I spent a shy under 26 days of the year listening to dozens of different genres of music, covering nearly two thousand different artists. Top that with traditional CD's (Yes, someone still buys those on occasion) blasted through my car stereo, and I'd say a fair amount of notes have echoed inside my hollow skull in 2017. But which ones stuck?
We'll start with a few honorable mentions.
First of all, I love the name of this band. Funnily enough, they actually are more...
The Stories We Tell Ourselves is the second major label (5th in total) effort from this San Antonio-based rock-metal hybrid and after the praise of 2014's self-titled effort which I really, really liked, the band has not gone unnoticed by the public eye. The new album has gathered massive critical acclaim, many "album of the year" nods and a total of three Grammy nominations for 2017 (Best Rock Album, Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song).
Socially aware bands can be a hit or miss. For me, Nothing More balances on this fine line, sometimes crossing a bit too much onto the cheesy side of healing the world or into dramatic-sounding American politics. That being said the album gets the honorable mention for a reason. It's full of powerful guitar and bass lines, catchy choruses and pretty spectacular vocal work from the 'always-shirtless-and-shoeless-for-some-odd-reason' Jonny Hawkins. Hum along, sing along and if you're into meaningful lyrics you'll probably get a bit of extra for your money.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves is the second major label (5th in total) effort from this San Antonio-based rock-metal hybrid and after the praise of 2014's self-titled effort which I really, really liked, the band has not gone unnoticed by the public eye. The new album has gathered massive critical acclaim, many "album of the year" nods and a total of three Grammy nominations for 2017 (Best Rock Album, Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song).
Socially aware bands can be a hit or miss. For me, Nothing More balances on this fine line, sometimes crossing a bit too much onto the cheesy side of healing the world or into dramatic-sounding American politics. That being said the album gets the honorable mention for a reason. It's full of powerful guitar and bass lines, catchy choruses and pretty spectacular vocal work from the 'always-shirtless-and-shoeless-for-some-odd-reason' Jonny Hawkins. Hum along, sing along and if you're into meaningful lyrics you'll probably get a bit of extra for your money.
Can someone get that Hawkins kid a pair of shoes?
AOR, or Adult Oriented Rock, is the silliest label anyone has ever given to a genre of music. Call it whatever you want, Sunbound offers that feel-good, hyper-positive 80's rock a'la Bon Jovi, Journey, Survivor and the likes. It's like a time-machine to 30 years ago. It's fun and it's silly. It's something you sing along to in your car when on a roadtrip in July. I wish it was summer.
Can a metal-head really talk about 2017 without mentioning Will To Power?
Alissa White-Gluz was probably the best thing that could've happened to Arch Enemy following, in my opinion, a lackluster album with 2012's Khaos Legions.
War Eternal in 2014 was a ferocious and energetic attack on the senses proving that the band still had some gas in the tank. Will To Power is more of the same and then some. Especially the first half of the album is full of fantastic melodic death metal anthems with blazing guitar solos and goosebump-worthy choruses. Alissa's growls are on point and then finally on Reason to Belive we get to hear her actually singing for the first time on an Arch Enemy song. I hope they'll have the guts to do this more in the future. The latter half is where Will To Power stumbles a bit and can't quite live up to the first six tracks. Luckily A Fight I Must Win brings everything to a satisfying end. Definitely a great album but I still think they can do even better.
I do have to quickly address that at the time of writing this all four members of Decapitated are, free on bail being accused of raping a female fan in Spokane, Washington. The indicent allegedly occurred in late August. I hope the matter is solved justly.
But on to Anticult... Decapitated keeps on fine tuning their blend of death metal. Songs are more straightforward than before and the band is groovier than ever. And for the most part that's a good thing! Kill the Cult includes probably the heaviest riff of the year and the song is easily the highlight of the record, followed close by Earth Scar with its Sepultura vibes. While this current, more straightforward approach is great, I can't help but to reminiscent the times of the original line-up and the bands first four studio albums. In the future I'd like to see them venture back into the more technical stuff on a few songs at least.
That's enough on the appetizers. On to the main course!
Number 5
Russian Turbo Polka Metal from Austria... WHAT?
Let's summarize; seven members, including a two man horn section and a violinist, a wild blend of music genres from folk music to dance beats, ska, punk and who knows what else and you'll get an idea of what Russkaja is all about. Add to that lead singer Georgij Makazaria's output in at least four different languages along the way, and you've got an album that you won't easily forget.
Half the time you're barely hanging onto what's happening when the songs go from A to Z in a heartbeat, and yet the whole thing still seems to have a weird coherence to it. Kosmopoliturbo and infact Russkaja itself is something that's fairly difficult to explain to someone. The best way is to just dive in head first and see what happens. Rocking songs like Hello Japan and Cheburaschka are probably the a good place to start. They keep the tempo up while Still in Love, the latin-infused La Musica and the beautiful closing number Send You an Angel offer something to relax to. A quick glance into the band's discography shows that they've been doing this for a decade and the older records are just as crazy and entertaining. I really hope I'll have a chance to experience the band live somewhere at some point.
Out of all the albums I listened this year, this one by far made me smile the most and for that reason alone it's has to be on the list. It may not be musically the most excellent thing and it sure as hell isn't for everyone but it's something I really cherished this year.
Number 4
Nocturnal's presence on this list is probably the hardest one to rashionably justify. Luckily I don't need to, this is a silly list of music I liked this year. And I really, really like this album.
I've been listening to a specific few synthwave artists over the last couple of years but The Midnight has stuck with me the most. I love the dark sad songs the duo creates. As a huge 80's movie fan I really like how everything sounds like it's lifted straight out of movie soundtracks. The ominous beats and synths give room for clear echoey vocal tracks and a fabolous saxophone that soars above all tracks. Overall the production is great, the songs sound big as they should and more than often the volume knob turns towards eleven when any of the tracks is playing.
On the topic of the tracks, all seven of them clock in at over five minutes yet still the whole thing feels short and I wish there was more of it. The standout moment of Nocturnal has to be River of Darkness. Perhaps because it's the most melancholic and somber song on the record. It's about longing for lost love and the extreme thoughts a person can have after such an experience. I can't say I can relate to it and it's cheesy as hell but as you can tell by the previous entries on the list, cheesyness is fine by me. Unfortunaly The Midnight has slipped one dud onto the mix. The album closer Tokyo Night Train is a train that doesn't really go anywhere. It just stays in one place for its whole duration and compared to the rest of the offering, it's a disappointment.
I've kept coming back to Nocturnal almost daily and it's only been out since mid October. It has been acting as a nice balance to my traditionally heavier music likes. And like its cover art suggests, it really fits into this dark and rainy time of year. Wish we had more neon lights in Finland though. As a genre, I think synthwave is a passing thing and it probably won't keep people's interest for years to come but for the time being, if records like this keep popping up, I'm still on board!
Number 3
You know the type of record you're a 100% sure beforehand you won't like? "Kuulematta paskaa" (shit without even hearing it) is what us Finns would say. Here's one such record.
Sure I had my power metal phase about fifteen years ago with Stratovarius and the likes but I've never really been into the more fantasy-oriented bands of the genre. I do keep myself "educated" by reading a lot of interviews and record reviews, even on bands I don't really follow. When a Finnish band called Battle Beast surfaced through an international band contest in like 2010, I sort of laughed of at their female-fronted macho metal and thought nothing much of it. After three successful records and quite a big buzz around them, Battle Beast parted ways with primus motor, guitarist Anton Kabanen in 2015. Following the lineup change they went and created something that might as well been featured on this list with the release of Bringer of Pain in February. I highly recommend you to check that one out as well. It's by far the best thing Battle Beast has ever done. This also peaked my interest in former primary composer Kabanen's newly formed, oddly named, Beast in Black.
Berserker, released in early November, turned out to be a jackpot. It's the absolute black horse of my musical year. Resorting to the power of the internet to find a frontman for his new band, Kabanen did us all a huge favor. Greek Yannis Papadopoulos (try saying that three times fast) is the absolute star of the album. His range from Halford-esque high screams to raspy shouts are astonishing and the music itself could be described as 'Battle Beast on steroids meets training montage music from something like the Rocky films'. There's everything from fast, double-bass drum headbangers (Beast in Black, Zodd the Immortal) to slower ballads (Born Again, Ghost in the Rain), all of them accompanied by some of the best guitar work I heard all year. It's even hard to write about this album without going into full on fan-girl mode and that's strange for me. It's really that good, and it's just their first one. I foresee a bright future for Beast In Black.
Number 2
There's always room for more Finnish metal. IKINÄ, signed by Sakara Records, the home to the most succesful Finnish language metal bands Mokoma and Stam1na, brought something fresh to the table in February. Fronted by two female singers, Katariina and Tuuli, the band's take on modern metal with very clear pop music influences was something that impressed me.
Samoista soluista is full of up-beat music that's just plain fun to listen to. The band is clearly also having a lot of fun, both on the record and live. They do their own thing and don't bow down to anyone. The songs themselves could be described as hybrids of metal music and the type of Finnish pop music that's more commonly heard on the radio. The hooks are there for both metal heads and friends of more "mainstream" music. IKINÄ takes cues from traditional Finnish rock and pop music, combining to it elements from bands like System of a Down and their label mates Stam1na. Memorable moments include the "saucy" video track Magic Mike, a powerhouse of a song in Jalat Kantaa and my most listened song of 2017, the one minute-long blast of energy Bileet that became my Friday anthem for the year. I'm actually happy Spotify doesn't tell how many times I've listened it through. It's probably in the hundreds...
Despite the catchy music, IKINÄ might be the hardest band on this list to recommend. The lyrical content is the weak point of Samoista Soluista. Don't get me wrong; the choruses are catchy and it's interesting to hear the female angle for a change but the lyrics suffer from being too self-centered. They're about relationships, the heat of the moment, being horny, partying etc. I'm probably not the target audience for many of the song topics but I hope that in the future they'd filter out the most "pop-ish" influences on the lyrical side. Keep the catchy choruses guys and girls but sing about something else!
Regardless, the fact is that Samoista Soluista is number two on my list. IKINÄ does so much right already on their first go that I personally can't fault them too much for the lyrical side. They're one the most original bands to emerge to the Finnish scene in a long time. Their music has that inexplainable lure and that means they're onto something. They are hard to like but even harder not to.
Number 1
Dare to challenge Antonio Vivaldi? Wintersun mastermind Jari Mäenpää did. Comparing this 2017 journey through the four seasons to its nearly 300-year-old Italian counterpart is probably pointless. As impressive and important as Vivaldi's work is to history and the world, the 54 minutes on this record are by far the most impressive thing I heard this year.
I
"From the shadows of old we rise,
awaken from the dark"
Like Vivaldi's epic, this one also begins with spring. Awaken From the Dark Slumber (Spring) starts dark and heavy, depicting how the darkness of winter has killed everything and there seems to be no hope. There's no stopping spring though and as the creatures crawl into the sunlight both the tone of the vocals and the song itself change. Kingdoms rise, warriors ride, choirs are blazing in the background and everything sounds MASSIVE. What's most astonishing with The Forest Seasons is how you're completely immersed in the music, it's like being sucked to a different world, one filled with legends and stories. And they achieve this from the very first notes. It's a portal to somewhere else.
II
"I saw the lakes that shimmer,
I heard the clanging of the wild rivers,
You are the voice that carries throughout the land"
The second track, The Forest That Weeps (Summer) is the shortest of the four, clocking in at a mere 12 minutes and 18 seconds. Maybe a reference to the Finnish summer? The tempo is slower this time around and you can hear influences of oriental music throughout the song. Closer to the end of the song things get absolutely massive along with the aid of a 16-piece male choir consisting of members of world-class Finnish metal bands. It's like you're listening to a glorious metal soundtrack to a big budget fantasy movie. The Forest That Weeps is my least favorite of the four tracks but even it is goddamn fantastic.
III
"I am the hunter of pain, the bringger of rain,
I am death, I am eternal darkness"
Autumn is bleak. Eternal darkness (Autumn) is a perfect representation of the season. In its heaviness it's both beautiful and depressing. Mäenpää on lead vocals delivers a spine-chilling interpretation of death itself, coming to claim back the land and its habitants. This is the heaviest song on the album and also the heaviest song Wintersun has ever recorded. A softer middle section and a sharp guitar solo add a needed dynamic to the song after the halfway point. After this the band goes full on Dimmu Borgir black metal epicness and the as the song begins its ascend towards its climax I still get goosebumps; every. single. time.How much bigger can a song get? We'll probably need to wait for the next Wintersun album to be able to answer that.
IV
"There was so much I wanted to say,
Do I have reason anymore to stay?"
Snow covers everything and the world once again has slipped into darkness. Loneliness (Winter) is probably one of the best metal ballads of all time. We're treated with the best vocal performance of Jari Mäenpää's career along with a song that can make grown men cry. It's the best song on the album. It's the best song of the year. Listen to it, now please.
Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments which albums you'd rate highest for 2017!
Happy new year!
-Henssa
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