The 2018 ILX Metal n' Heavy Rock Poll VOTING + CAMPAIGNING thread! NEW EXTENDED DEADLINE! Ballots due by Friday, February 15th 11.59pm PST

Cosign on the Urfaust, Shylmagoghnar and Blosse.

guys please add all your recommendations to the spotify collaborative playlist, that's the best way to get anyone to listen

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0mWZOMQIfPnXb7wuSFQsr9

I'm one of those bastards who signed up for Apple Music instead…

Re: El Efecto - you had me at maximalist prog! This is lovely.

Also, *Blosse, ffs

Yeah, the Entropia album slates right into the Oranssi/Aluk Todolo tradition of trance BM that always does very well in this poll. I definitely like it more than Voix, though maybe not as much as Occult Rock or the OP albums that I've spent time with

I recommend for anyone who likes the dancier moments on this to give a listen to The Oscillation's Wasted Space. It's one of my albums of the year, and though it's not really the same thing--this is more just a very adventurous space rock album--there are definitely some real affinities

https://youtu.be/ctko1fzjoeY

(^title track, on some sort of wild-sounding, Chrome-meets-Liquid Liquid ish, total Drugs bait)

Almost forgot to stump for Paara, a very melodic slab of atmospheric BM with lots going on but manages to stay cohesive

https://vicisolumrecords.com/album/riitti

^^ I loved this. Bits of the last track often swimming about.

Also, WOW this Khôrada album is so amazing to my ears! I don't know Agalloch or Giant Squid at all really, but if they sound anything like this, then I should. Sounds very accessible and pretty. I think that Elder fans (i.e. everyone) would find a lot to like here!

You don't know Agalloch?????? Time to immerse yourself in their entire output!

Don Anderson ex-Agalloch now in Khôrada is an academic I think?

Fully cosign on Paara as well.

You don't know Agalloch?????? Time to immerse yourself in their entire output!

Yeah, it might be time. imago: "they've got one good track"

hes talking shite

every single agalloch album is at least good

but they play it about twenty times!!!!1

Have you listened to entropia yet?

Yes. I think imago quite liked it and compared it (favourably) to Devin Townsend, but I couldn’t get into it somehow and I’ve tried a few times. Maybe it’s yet to grow on me? I like the album art.

their last album was great too. i think it made the rollout

we have 6 ballots in so far.

Voted.

I'll be voting. Every year, I am intimidate by the sheer number of albums I missed - even by bands I try to follow - and feel obliged to cram as much of it as possible to make sure nothing awesome escaped me.

Shylmagoghnar sound absolutely tremendous tbh - we're listening again now. You know how most prog metal is kind of wanky and boring? This is PROGGE ALMIGHTY

is that what's putting you off ?

My ballot is 8 records, including the decidedly non-metal AWK album. Was 2018 terrible for metal, or was I just too busy listening to Jandek and Joni Mitchell?

not good for metal imo but am belatedly finding some things

My "ballot" currently has 4 albums, only 2 of them are really metal. I have so little time for music these days. Ugh.

I think 2018 was a bit of disappointment all round in that I didn't find much in the way of absolute favourites (but still found lots to like, too much probably). Have noted down stuff to listen to mentioned upthread and will try to get voting done next couple of days

Plus there's the yearly dilemma of liking stuff that imago's nominated but can't really vote for in good conscience because they aren't metal enough

n.b. The Armed are metal a.f.

Oh yeah I'm voting for that one easy

death metal dominated the eoy lists in 2018 i think

and deafheaven were the token band on the non metal lists though it is in fact a very good album

2018 was a good metal year. I came up with a top 20 easily.

The Armed, KEN Mode, and LLNN were big highlights.

Are write-in votes acceptable? I neglected to nominate Alice in Chains.

Well they aren't remotely metal anymore but george can decide

Not ‘anymore’ metal than they were in 1992, the new record sounds exactly like their old stuff. It’s an excellent album, not metal I’d say but that also goes for a lot of hardcore-related stuff that usually does get accepted in these polls (Converge even won it one year, right?) so who am I to complain.

Fwiw, Spotify went straight to Facelift after Rainier Fog one time and I barely noticed the difference. Not sure what it is you're hearing. xp

nah the original albums were heavy and had sludgey riffs. That's gone now.

It's certainly not less of a heavy rock album than Andrew WK or Ghost. xp

but like i said it's george's call

Nearly every song has heavy guitars and sludgey riffs, u mad!

You're not mad wrt Entropia, though. The first two songs are fantastic and have a pretty unique sound with almost funk-disco grooves behind the dissonant metal guitars.

"The One You Know", "Drone", and "So Far Under" are as heavy and sludgey as any classic Seattle grunge, for a start. I almost feel like you just listened to the two ballads or something.

dissonant metal guitars.

Maybe I should say "dissonant blackgaze guitars"? Idk, trying to not make it sound like nu-metal.

Can someone kindly explain the difference between weighted and unweighted with regard to this poll?

Sund4r, go right ahead and vote for AiC

NYCNative, unweighted means that all entries have the same point amount. Not exactly sure what point amount that is, though...let me get back to you on that...

Okay, that's actually fine. I didn't know if there was a way to weight your polls a la the Pazz & Jop.

2018 was an excellent year for metal because, for the first time in eons, I kept up with new releases. Also because overt metalcoreisms and proggery (I get my avant kicks elsewhere) are only tangentially my thing so maybe it was a bad year for those two subterrains, I wouldn't know.

noone here cares for core though

Converge won the poll a few years ago?