Best Music Of 2016

With the season's greetings and the year ending, let's go with the mandatory year end lists of 2016. Here at Le Mot du Melomaniaque we have reviewed more than a hundred records and this I did it all alone while having a day job and a young family.

I have a theory that those lists mostly assembled in November and December of each year are biased by the recent releases and the fact that many list makers want to get the latest albums an early praise.

Here's my final take on 2016 and it is worth as much as any other list out there. (There is no text with just links to the proper reviews.)

Record Of The Month: December 2016

With all the year end lists we kind of forgot the best records of December. Well, this one's a major release for me and it needed an highlight.

INTER ARMA - Paradise Gallows

Inter Arma - Paradise Gallows (2016, Relapse Records)

Looking back at the year that was 2016 in music, we mainly focused on albums that we received promos except for the exceptional albums that came out and that we felt were too important to be left out of our review database. The case of Inter Arma’s Paradise Gallows is interesting because we didn’t received it and I was not sure about it either. How wrong was I?

SWANS - The Glowing Man

Swans - The Glowing Man (2016, Young God Records)

Another behemoth piece of music from Swans has been released in June this year and I could not pass the fact that despite my pure enjoyment of this release and catching The Glowing Man tour in July, I deliberately procrastinated to write this review for a good six months. Frontman and band leader, Michael Gira is a generous artist that offers another double LP and lots of liner notes to his songs. As he states on his Bandcamp page, Gira will continue to make music under the Swans moniker but with different collaborators and will pull the plug to the incarnation of the band that he restarted in 2009. The conclusion of this chapter of Swans is just a way to continue into a new direction.

NATVRE'S - Wrath

Natvre’s - Wrath (2016, Argento Records)

Back in Ancient times, Greece was a strong military force and was a rich culture of Arts, sports (they invented the Olympics back when it was still admirable), discipline, philosophy, and great mariners. Nowadays, their Black Metal is one of the finest and Natvre’s first LP, Wrath, released in limited copies back in December 21st 2015 got sold out almost as soon as it hit the streets. Lately, this November the Dutch label Argento Records released Wrath on CD. It was a wise move by the label because Natvre’s is one hell of an Hellenic band.

TERRA - Mors Secundos

Terra - Mors Secundos (2016, Code666)

As everyone’s getting tired of Blackgaze, and West Coast Black Metal of the likes of Wolves In The Throne Room and Panopticon, East Coasters of Krallice are calling it their most prolific era with another record coming up in December, a little known band from Cambridge, England, Terra are following the experimental path of the later band. It is not a surprise that the record was mastered by Colin Marston (Krallice, Gorguts, Dysrhythmia, Behold… The Arctopus, Byla) and goes beyond lo-fi Black Metal with elements of Drone and Post-Rock.

NOISE TRAIL IMMERSION - Womb

Noise Trail Immersion - Womb (2016, Moment of Collapse Records/Triton’s Orbit Distribution)

Lately, here at LMdM (short for Le Mot du Melomaniaque) we have been receiving lots of Italian bands albums. Added to that, the number of Post Black Metal, Black gaze, Atmospheric Black Metal, etc. bands have been growing so fast that we don’t even care to get excited anymore. Well, that is not entirely true but you get the picture. Noise Trail Immersion was the first time we encountered the genre Black Math-Metal in our promotional mountain pile of new records that reach us everyday.

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN - Dissociation

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation (2016, Party Smasher – Cooking Vinyl)

Ever since August 2016 The Dillinger Escape Plan announced that Dissociation would be the final release of the band before an extended hiatus, that would later be confirmed as a definitive break-up, there’s an aura of knowing that it will be a precious album from the masters of Mathcore. As a fully affirmed fan of their music since the release of the self-titled EP and an over fifteen years old Calculating Infinity t-shirt would be some of the proofs of this fandom. Let’s be honest to ourselves the expectations for Dissociation are high and even the band has some apprehension knowing that Ben Weinman has always been worshipping One of Us Is The Killer as their masterpiece. Today, if it was my opinion, he would have to change his speech a bit with their most recent iteration.

NEUROSIS - Fires Within Fires

Neurosis - Fires Within Fires (2016, Neurot Recordings)

One of the most celebrated and respected Extreme Metal band Neurosis is celebrating their 30 years of existence. I’ve been an avid fan of their music since 15 or so years and I still rock a t-shirt of The Eye of Every Storm to this day. It would be an understatement to say that I was highly expecting this album. Even if Given To The Rising left me a bit cold at times and I thought that Honour Found In Decay had its moments, Fires Within Fires might be their most complete and concise album since their inception.

SORCIER DES GLACES - North

Sorcier Des Glaces - North (2016, Obscure Abhorrence Productions)

Back in the early 2000s, I was still discovering Black Metal and its most obscure bands of the second wave especially out of Norway. There was a website called American Nihilistic Underground Society whose’s musical reviews were highly influential on me and helped me to discover lesser known bands like SDG. Back then, I ordered directly from ‘’Roby’’ Sébastien Robitaille his first CD that he burned himself and printed the jacket from his computer. It was Snowland that he recorded by himself and sold almost as in the vein of tape trading back in the days. Shortly, we met at the record store he used to work for and I was a regular customer for many years after and he began to make me discover many of his favorite albums and talked a lot about his SDG project, that was on a hiatus back then, and his current project Moonlyght as well as Passages, Doom metal entry. It’s been many years since I’ve talked to Roby but I kept following his musical path because I always felt that he was carrying the essence of Black Metal.

FORTERESSE - Thèmes pour la Rébellion

Forteresse - Thèmes pour la Rébellion (2016, Sepulchral Productions)

The legendary band of Québécois Black Metal, or as they described it in their mother tongue Métal Noir québécois, Forteresse has already a wide fanbase and is probably one of the most well known Black Metal acts from Québec. As a side note, it is also my home and place of birth but I must add that I am not in touch in any way with the band and I got this promo by the usual daily promo emails. Nonetheless, it was one of the releases I was most excited to receive since there was a long wait and high expectations for Thèmes pour la Rébellion.

LIVE BURIAL - Forced Back to Life

Live Burial - Forced Back to Life (2016, Dunkelheit Produktionen)

Straight outta UK, the old-school Death Metal revivalists of Live Burial are throwing riffs and blasts like it was the best era of Death Metal, some purists would say. The promo people noted Death/Doom  Metal as the genre of this record but I would be more into the categorization of old-school Death Metal à la Horrendous, Sarpanitum, and even Vektor for the old-school touches.

PLEBEIAN GRANDSTAND - False Highs, True Lows

Plebeian Grandstand - False Highs, True Lows (2016, Throatruiner Records)

Dissonant Black Metal from Toulouse, France that sounds really evil and poisonous might be the right definition when someone wants to put a label on Plebeian Grandstand’s latest album False Highs, True Lows. Leaving behind their Hardcore edge to a more asymetric Black Metal as well as being often compared to their compatriots of Deathspell Omega. This critic would prefer to call them the heirs of the contemporary Mayhem (circa Ordo Ad Chao, Esoteric Warfare).

THRÄNENKIND - King Apathy

Thränenkind - King Apathy (2016, Lifeforce Records)

German Hardcore/Black Metalers of Thränenkind have made a solid first record back in 2013 with The Elk. A record I must admit having never heard before getting completely moved by King Apathy lately. The Elk, is solid and has a lot more of instrumental parts that makes it a moodier record with many Blackgaze passages. It is far less edgier than the Hardcore riffing that has King Apathy. So far, I can’t seem to find a flaw in this record and I pretty much like everything about it and how it is perfectly dosed.

TAMÁS KÁTAI - Slower Structures

Tamás Kátai – Slower Strutures (2016, GS Productions)

While being one of the most interesting permutators of contemporary Metal under his moniker Thy Catafalque, Hungarian musician Tamás Kátai recently released a new album under his name. As the subtitle of Slower Structures notes : 13 Compositions for Piano, Violon, Contrabass, and Electronics. This is a minimalist release that leaves great space for airy compositions and introspective music.

HYPERION - Seraphical Euphony

Hyperion - Seraphical Euphony (2016, Black Lion Productions)

There have been so many copy cats of Dissection since the band released its masterpiece in Storm Of The Light’s Bane that the subgenre of Melodic Black Metal could have been named Jon Nödtveidt. Being compared once again to those Swedish musicians is probably just another walk in the park for Hyperion but they managed to do it so right that they elevated the Dissection heritage to another level.

VEKTOR - Terminal Redux

Vektor - Terminal Redux (2016, Earache)

For all I knew before listening to this near-masterpiece was that Vektor’s logo was very similar to Voïvod's, aka one of my favorite band of all-time. So with that out of the way, and the fact that both bands are playing progressive music with a background of space explorations in their imagery, I would stop the similarities between both bands. Even if Vektor has some kind of debt towards Voïvod, they pay them good for the inspiration but are apart from each other. Both being masters in their own subgenre. 

SXUPERION - Cosmic Void

Sxuperion – Cosmic Void (2016, Bloody Mountain Records)

After a very solid split album with Verräter released last year, one man band Sxuperion is now releasing Cosmic Void an offering of five songs of pure contempt for humanity and its immature presence in the whole universe.

MANTAR - Ode To The Flame

Mantar – Ode To The Flame (2016, Nuclear Blast)

If you are new to this blog you should know that I am a fan of Black, Doom, and Hardcore but not very much about the label Nuclear Blast. The main reason is that their productions sound too professional (or too clean if you prefer) for some Metal genres. But, Mantar’s Ode To The Flame is the example of a great album done incredibly right.

ASTRAL PATH - An Oath To The Void

Astral Path – An Oath To The Void (2016, Avantgarde Music)

The Canadian duo of Justin Bourdeau (vocals, guitar, drums) and Ana Dujakovic (bass, synth) of Astral Path recently released their debut album titled An Oath To The Void. Sometimes when a new band is formed and they release a new album we critics tend to say made up sentences like this is a promising first album and other banalities of the genre.