The Best of 2017

Celebrating new music is important. In the subculture, we are constantly faced with a chorus of people who will tell you that the genres are dead and that there is nothing good coming out anymore. This opinion alone indicts how out of touch a person can be. There is a deluge of incredible new music coming out every year and it is important to take the time to praise the work of those who contribute to the subculture's sonic archive.

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Best Hardcore / Punk LPs

1.) Impalers - Cellar Dweller (540 / Static Shock)
2.) Concealed Blade - Concealed Blade (Beach Impediment)
3.) Exit Order - Seed of Hysteria (Side Two / La Vida Es Un Mus)
4.) Lebenden Toten - Mind Parasites (Self-Released)
5.) No Warning - Torture Culture (Bad Actors)
6.) Wiccans - Sailing A Crazy Ship (Dull Tools)
7.) Culture Shock - Culture Shock (Youth Attack)
8.) Civilized - Chopping Block (Youth Attack)
9.) Sial - Sial (La Vida Es Un Mus)
10.) Patsy - LA Women (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Honorable Mentions

- Haram - When You Have Won You Have Lost (Toxic State)
- Limp Wrist - Facades (Self-Released)
- Short Days - Short Days (Destructure)
- Straightjacket Nation - Straightjacket Nation (Cool Death / La Vida Es Un Mus)

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Best Metal Releases

1.) Power Trip - Nightmare Logic (Southern Lord)
2.) Godflesh - Post Self (Avalanche Productions)
3.) Perverted Ceremony - Sabbat Of Behezaël (Nuclear War Now)
4.) Bone Awl - The Lowest Road (Klaxon)
5.) Nexul - Paradigm of Chaos (Hell's Headbangers)
6.) Midnight - Sweet Death and Ecstasy (Hell's Headbangers)
7.) G.A.T.E.S. ‎– Back From The Grave (High Society Satanic)
8.) Tetragrammacide - Primal Incinerators Of Moral Matrix (Iron Bonehead)
9.) Goatpenis - Anesthetic Vapor (Nuclear War Now)
10.) Foreseen - Grave Danger (20 Buck Spin)

Honorable Mentions

- Grinning Death's Head - Blood War (Youth Attack)
- Black Cilice - Banished From Time (Iron Bonehead)
- Ritual Knife - Hate Invocation (Fallen Empire)

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Best Rap / Hip-Hop / R&B Releases

1.) Future - HNDRXX (Freebandz)
2.) Migos - Culture (Quality Control Music)
3.) Young Thug - Beautiful Thugger Girls (YSL)
4.) Future & Young Thug - Super Slimey (Freebandz & YSL)
5.) 21 Savage / Offset / Metro Boomin - Without Warning (Slaughter Gang / Quality Control Music / Boominati Worldwide)
6.) Cardi B - Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 2 (KSR)
7.) Gucci Mane / Metro Boomin - DropTopWop (GUWOP)
8.) 21 Savage - Issa Album (Slaughter Gang)
9.) Future - Future (Freebandz)
10.) Giggs - Wamp 2 Dem (No BS)

Honorable Mentions

- Chief Keef - Thot Breaker (RBC)
- Kelela - Take Me Apart (Warp)
- Juicy J - Rubba Band Business (Taylor Gang)
- A$AP Mob - Cozy Tapes Vol. 2: Too Cozy (A$AP Worldwide)

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Best Releases In Open Competition

1.) Milk Music - Mystic 100's (Dom America)
2.) Prurient - Rainbow Mirror (Hospital Productions)
3.) Charly Bliss - Guppy (Barsuk)
4.) Bjork - Utopia (One Little Indian)
5.) Slowdive - Slowdive (Dead Oceans)
6.) Varg - Nordic Flora Series Pt. 3, Gore​-​Tex City (Northern Electronics)
7.) Tove Lo - Blue Lips (Island)
8.) Drab Majesty - The Demonstration (Dais)

9.) Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun (Sargent House)

10.) Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet (Dead Oceans)

Honorable Mentions

- Pharmakon - Contact (Sacred Bones)
- Pissed Jeans - Why Love Now (Sub Pop)
- Uniform - Wake In Fight (Sacred Bones)
- Death of Lovers - The Acrobat (Dais)

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Best Hardcore / Punk EPs

1.) Dame - Dame (Charm School)
2.) Rixe - Bapteme Du Feu (La Vida Es Un Mus)
3.) Dirty & His Fists - Dirty & His Fists (Feel It)
4.) Lebenden Toten - Static (Iron Lung)
5.) Barcelona - Un Último Ultrasonido Nació Y Murió En Barcelona (La Vida Es Un Mus)
6.) Candy - Candy Says (Triple B)
7.) Urchin - Peace Sign (Roachleg)
8.) Pollen - Fear of Another War (Brain Solvent Propaganda)
9.) Bib - Moshpit (Popwig)
10.) Aggression Pact - Instant Execution (Painkiller)

Honorable Mentions 

- Machine Gun - 10 Hardcore Tracks (Double Man)
- Ultra - Mistica Moderna (La Vida Es Un Mus)

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Best Demos

1.) Mortal War (Philadelphia, USA)
2.) Witchtrial (Washington DC / New York City, USA)
3.) Imposter (Brighton, UK)
4.) Rashōmon (Washington DC, USA)
5.) Armament (Florida, USA)

6.) Pobreza Mental (New York City, USA)

7.) Secreto Publico (Mexico City, Mexico)

8.) Bombers - Loaded Gun (Boston, USA)

9.) Public Service (Glasgow, UK)

10.) Vile Spirit (Brighton, UK)

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Best Sets of the Year

1.) Iron Age @ The Mohawk, March 25th
2.) Geography of Hell @ Warsaw, November 5th
3.) 9 Shocks Terror @ Brooklyn Bazaar, June 3rd
4.) Power Trip @ Webster Hall's Marlin Room, March 2nd
5.) Lust For Youth @ Brooklyn Bazaar, October 12th