Comments

I've done some research into this. My findings suggest that Electronic music has the slight edge.

I never understood the hate for Kiss Land. As an early adopter, someone who jumped on House of Balloons as soon as he could and ate up the rest of his mixtape trilogy, I loved Kiss Land. It was the punchy, cohesive crystallization of all of his unfocused ideas across the mixtapes. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's not making Kiss Land 2, but I think that record's a marvel and I have no idea why so many people glossed over it at year end list time. It was my #2 of the year behind Carcass - Surgical Steel.

WOW! Definitely a hell of a list, and probably the most interesting I've seen so far. It's also the one with the most releases I've missed. There's a lot of records here that I thought had spectacular songs, but lacked consistency (Nux Vomica, why do you tease me so?). On the one hand, I'm furious that everyone keeps overlooking the new Enabler. I would put a ring on that album. On the other hand: You remembered Fluisteraars!! Keep up the great work.

If it doesnt inlcude Ascenseur Pour L’échafaud then it doesn't count, sorry.

...Presence is my favorite...

It's OK you guys, "Black Diamond" is #1. Everything is alright.

You're actually my favorite commentator. Then again you've never trolled the threads in one of my articles. to muddy the waters further, I don't think I've ever written anything too cynical on here...

Dude. Toys in the Attic.

UMMMMM.... "Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit STrong, But..." come on! "You'd better give me some pointers / cause you are the big rocket launcher and I'm just the shotgun," might be my fav lyric in their discog.

I can't think of another band that straddled the line between vicious and upbeat the way ACDC did. Maybe the Sex Pistols?

Whoa, let's not drag Grand Funk through the mud for this. That band's awesome. Personally I'd put Highway on top, but that's probably for sentimental reasons as much as anything. Good list.

That comment is WHY I wrote this list!!!

I'd love to write that list, but not immediately.

That's honestly all I've ever wanted out of these features. Love them or hate them, as long as they get people to listen to the music and think about it, I've done my job. Black Love is a hard one to start with. Honestly? Try do The Beast and work your way back. It's by far the most hook-oriented. For what it's worth, my first was Congregation, because I'm a Jesus Christ Superstar FREAK, and that cover of "The Temple" got me geeked.

HAH! True that. I very nearly tried to do a countdown of the covers and found that I could not. Based on my plays alone, I'd put "Cant Get Enough of Your Love" at one, followed by "Creep" and then... god it all just falls apart.

someone already dropped it, but for what it's worth, THE ACTUAL BEST COVER AWARD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90KVUHfXCaM Whitey Morgan and the 78's.

gotta second all Aaron's recommendations as well. Alan Averill is one of the most interesting and convincing vocalists in the entire genre. It helps that frequently his lyrics are quite poetic. Unfortunately I understand that some of his politics are a bit questionable as well, but I don't really hear them show up in his music. If you like Dawnbringer, the man behind that band, Chris Black, has another project, High Spirits, also covered here, that's incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLCiQz8kzPQ&feature=kp And along those lines there's absolutely a lot of merit in looking into a Sanf Fransisco band called The Hammers of Misfortune. their output is a bit spotty, but every album has at least one incredible song on it, and their sophomore album, The August Engine is... I mean it's spectacular. To me it's classic Iron Maiden meets early Queen with a gutter punk sensibility. It's folkloric, dramatic, progressive and just in-general perfect. It's a desert island album for me. Here's a popular song from that record https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i54uXGQO1zQ Likewise, this is barely metal, but two years ago Relapse released an album by a band called Royal Thunder, and I think that band is spectacular, swaggery, bluesy, and amazing clean vocals. Like DOWN but fronted by Tina Turner. This song's great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kAzByvFGBA There's lots of great metal with clean singing out there, and the trend is GROWING. It just needs to be exposed a little more.

Blochead, I left you a comment below with some recommendations.

blochead, If you want just amazing cleans from a great band, There is an Irish band called Darkest Era who released an album called Severance this month. It's really incredible. Here's a lyric video for the opening song. For what It's worth, it's my least favorite track on the record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7SdlW2SfAM A lot of people loved the Atlantean Kodex album from last year, and that record was all sung as well. I like Darkest Era better.

It was only a matter of time before that showed up. The best thing about that graph is the caveat that Aes would actually be SIGNIFICANTLY FURTHER OFF IF IT WERE DRAWN TO SCALE.