The Best of 2019

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.) Game - No One Wins (Quality Control HQ / Beach Impediment)
2.) Irreal - Fi Del Mon (La Vida Es Un Mus)
3.) Nosferatu - Solution A (La Vida Es Un Mus)
4.) Nightmare - Thirsty And Wander (Blood Sucker / 540)
5.) Asid - Pathetic Flesh (La Vida Es Un Mus)
6.) Division Of Mind - Division Of Mind (Triple B)
7.) Kohti Tuhoa - Ihmisen Kasvot (La Vida Es Un Mus)
8.) Restraining Order - The World Is Too Much (Triple B)
9.) Eyes Of The Lord - Misery Feels Like Home (Closed Casket Activities)
10.) Muro ‎- Muro En Vivo En El Festival Asfixia, Antípoda Bogotá (Fuerza Ingobernable)
11.) Judiciary - Surface Noise (Closed Casket Activities)
12.) Wild Side - Who The Hell Is WILD SIDE? (Triple B)
13.) L.O.T.I.O.N. - World Wide W.E.B. (Toxic State)
14.) Buried Dreams - 9 Reasons Not To Live (Triple B)
15.) Never Ending Game - Just Another Day (Triple B)

Honorable Mentions

Kaleidoscope - After The Futures... (Toxic State)

Fury - Failed Entertainment (Run For Cover)

Magnitude - To Whatever Fateful End (Triple B)

Wolf Whistle - Private Hell (Triple B)

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Best Metal Releases

1.) Departure Chandelier ‎- Antichrist Rise To Power (Nuclear War Now!)
2.) Blood Incantation - Hidden History Of The Human Race (Dark Descent)
3.) Gatecreeper - Deserted (Relapse)
4.) Teitanblood - The Baneful Choir (Norma Evangelium Diaboli)
5.) Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance (20 Buck Spin)
6.) Antichrist Siege Machine - Schism Preparation (Stygian Black Hand)
7.) Magic Circle - Departed Souls (20 Buck Spin)
8.) Spirit Adrift - Divided By Darkness (20 Buck Spin)
9.) Pig's Blood - A Flock Slaughtered (Stygian Black Hand)
10.) Devil Master - Satan Spits On Children Of Light (Relapse)

Honorable Mentions

Crypt Sermon - The Ruins Of Fading Light (Dark Descent)
Misþyrming - Algleymi (Norma Evangelium Diaboli)

Creeping Death - Wretched Illusions (eOne)

Darkthrone - Old Star (Peaceville)
Cerebral Rot - Odious Descent Into Decay (20 Buck Spin)

Hell Konfessor - Hell Konfessor (Klaxon)

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Best Rap / Hip-Hop Releases

1.) Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Bandana
2.) Benny The Butcher - The Plugs I Met
3.) Juice WRLD - Death Race For Love
4.) Young Thug - So Much Fun
5.) Denzel Curry - Zuu
6.) DAVE - Psychodrama
7.) Young Scooter - Trap Hero
8.) Megan Thee Stallion - Fever
9.) Westside Gunn - Flygod Is An Awesome God

10.) Future - The Wizrd

11.) Gang Starr - One Of The Best Yet

12.) Conway - Look What I Became

13.) Westside Gunn - Hitler Wears Hermes 7

14.) Peewee Longway - Blue M&M 4

15.) Little Simz - Grey Area

Honorable Mentions

Lil Peep - Everybody's Everything
03 Greedo - Still Summer In The Projects
Boogie - Everything's For Sale
Future - Save Me
DaBaby - Baby On Baby

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Best Releases In Open Competition

1.) Angel Olsen - All Mirrors (Jagjaguwar)
2.) Sturgill Simpson - Sound & Fury (Elektra)
3.) Sabrina Claudio - Truth Is (SC Entertainment)

4.) FKA twigs - MAGDALENE (Young Turks)

5.) Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror (Dais)
6.) Summer Walker - Over It (Love Renaissance / Interscope)

7.) Solange - When I Get Home (Columbia)

8.) (Sandy) Alex G - House of Sugar (Domino)

9.) Taylor Swift - Lover (Republic)
10.) Carter Tutti Void - Triumvirate (Conspiracy International)
11.) Young Guv - GUV I & II (Run For Cover)
12.) Lust For Youth - Lust For Youth (Sacred Bones)
13.) Sheer Mag - A Distant Call (Wilsuns)
14.) Whirr - Feels Like You (Self-Released)
15.) Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains (Drag City)

Honorable Mentions

Prurient - Music For Halloween Night (Hospital Productions)

Ceremony - In The Spirit World Now (Relapse)

Geography Of Hell - Sabra Shatila 1982 (Hospital Productions)

Pharmakon - Devour (Sacred Bones)
Palmistry - Afterlife (Mixpak)

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Best Hardcore / Punk EPs

1.) Hank Wood And The Hammerheads - Heads (Self-Released)
2.) Vaaska - Inocentes Condenados (Beach Impediment)
3.) Candy - Super-Stare (Relapse)
4.) Blind Authority - Death Dreams (Quality Control HQ)
5.) Skizophrenia - Undead Melodies (S.K.Z.)
6.) Ekulu - Half Alive (Triple B)
7.) Pobreza Mental - Ya No Me Pertenezco (Toxic State)
8.) Protocol - Bloodsport (11PM)
9.) Loose Nukes - Behind The Screen (Beach Impediment)
10.) Jackal - Jackal (Painkiller)

Honorable Mentions

Cochonne - Cochonne (Self-Released)
Leather Lickers - Leather Lickers (Cool Death)
Concrete Bollocks - Disasters Of War (Contra)
Rata Negra - La Hija Del Sepulturero (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Kriegshög - Paint It Black / White Out (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Armor - Some Kind Of War (11PM)

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Best Demos

1.) Rated X
2.) Heavy Discipline
3.) Sprackta
4.) Schematic
5.) Phantasia

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Best Sets
Note - I had a major medical issue this year involving my ear so going to shows was actual hell for me for most of the year. It only started to clear up in the fall which is why most of these shows were near the year's end.

1.) Massive Attack @ Mezzanine XXI / Radio City Music Hall / New York, NY (September 26th)
2.) Warthog @ The Final Brooklyn Bazaar Show / Brooklyn, NY (November 30th)
3.) Youth Of Today @ Saint Vitus / Brooklyn, NY (March 16th)
4.) Iron Age @ Hardcore Hell / Saint Vitus / Brooklyn, NY (August 9th)
5.) Mortician @ Saint Vitus / Brooklyn, NY (November 15th)