Saturday, January 31, 2015

End of the Year Episode

This episode will air on Saturday, February 7th, 2015 from noon to 6pm Eastern (USA).  Please note the date and time as this is not my regularly scheduled episode time for Rage and Frustration.

Writing from the beginning of 2015, last year looks pretty good.  I went to the Between the Buried and Me tour (twice), which I feel is the best top-to-bottom line up I've ever seen.  (There have been better individual bands, but The Kindred, Intronaut, deafheaven, and BTBAM all brought it).  I went to my first Metal Festival (The Gilead Fest in Oshkosh, WI).  I met many amazing people who share my love of music (and especially my love of heavy, intense music).  I also had a lot of fun finding new music and running the show.  I think I even have a handful of regulars who check out the show at least most Mondays.  Before I get to my best-of list, here is how I chose which albums to consider. For my Rage and Frustration list, albums had to meet the following criteria:

  • released in 2014
  • Creative Commons licensed
  • something I would play on the show
That's it!  I checked out albums with 20+ tracks and albums that are essentially one long track.  I checked out LPs, EPs, and singles.  All told, I checked out over 1000 tracks.  175 distinct albums made the cut for final consideration.  (there were a few others, but several were deleted after first listen).  I listened to every album in its entirety at least once straight through.  According to iTunes, the music under consideration takes up 3.4 days of time to listen to...I'm pretty sure that's 24 hour days.  As I listened, I rated each track on a scale of 1-5 (using iTunes, set to accept half stars).  I then averaged the star ratings to give me an overall album rating.  I then put all this in a spreadsheet and sorted by rating to give a top 25.  In the case of ties (in the top 25...below that, I've left them alone), I've gone back to listen to the tied albums and chose an order for them.

I also wanted to throw out some albums in no particular order that I feel are notable, but are not CC licensed.  In no particular order, some of the best albums this year include:
  • Run the Jewels 2 (yes, I know its hip hop, but have you listened?)
  • Sea of Bones - The Earth Wants Us Dead (immense)
  • Oozing Wound - Earth Suck (Retrash was good, but this is on a whole other level)
  • Thou - Heathen (It deserves the hype.  By far their best work in my opinion)
  • Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden (no sophomore slump here)
  • Agalloch - The Serpent and the Sphere (hits my musical sweet spot)
  • Bastard Sapling - Instinct is Forever (regardless of licensing, this is my #1 for the year - amazing...and I saw them live at Gilead)
  • Alraune - The Process of Self-Immolation (Gilead brought it in 2014)
  • Panopticon - Roads to the North
Let me know what you think.  And now, on with the show...

Yi by Santa Marta Golden from El Fallo Humano  CC - BY - NC - SA 0:00
And now, some music to finish out the hour:

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