Halsey – If I Can’t Have Love, I Want PowerĮternal Blue is an immersive album that challenges what heavy music, or music, can be, pulling from metalcore, nu-metal, emo, hip-hop and new wave – almost any music-lover could find something in there to latch onto. Architects – For Those That Wish to ExistĢ. Holding Absence – The Greatest Mistake of My Lifeģ.
Hayley Williams – FLOWERS for VASES / descansosĨ. Music that evinced vulnerability, frustration and everything in between, the songs from Eternal Blue will echo with us for years to come.ĩ. It wasn’t just the way Courtney LaPlante’s celebrated vocals magically kicked through normally unbreakable barriers it was the fact that the music complimented this, flowing into many an unexpected and frisson-inducing denouement. It’s hard enough to do one thing expertly, but to melt apparently contrasting rock ideas together while making it all sound graceful and unforced – that’s a special skill gifted only to the few. There are moments too numerous to list on Spiritbox’s beguiling full-length debut that initiate exactly such a reaction – borne from the cornucopia of emotions elicited by these sometimes tempestuous, sometimes delicate and occasionally brutal songs. ‘Frisson’ – a sudden and unexpected moment of excitement, causing a physical shudder or shiver, including piloerection (goosebumps). Architects – For Those That Wish To Existģ. Which, actually, makes the ongoing wait to see it in the flesh far more enjoyable than one might expect.Ĩ. Forced to digest it in the latter, When The Gloom Becomes Sound proved itself to be a record of true brilliance.
With both an aggressive fist and a magical touch with the shadowy side, Sweden's Tribulation have always been a band whose charms work both as a tremendous bolt of live energy, and in darkened solitude. In a year which came with no small amount of gloom and isolation, it was quite the thing to have a record which not only soundtracked the darkness, but made it seem like somewhere you'd actually want to spend some time. Tribulation – Where The Gloom Becomes Sound Body Void – Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earthġ.