The last time I blogged about a 'best of the year' list was 2008. And usually what happens after such a list, is that you find things you hadn't been able to hear yet that you end up listening to for a good part of the next year. So, to pick up where I left off, in no particular order. . .
2008/2009:
Black Elk - Always A Six, Never A Nine
Book of Black Earth - Horoskopus
Callisto - Providence
Celan - Halo
Cobalt - Gin
Inire - Born the Wicked the Fallen
Julian Plenti - Julien Plenti is Skyscraper
Minsk - With Echoes in the Movement of Stone
A Storm of Light - Forgive Us Our Trespasses
Crippled Black Phoenix - Night Raider/The Resurrectionists
Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King
Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Kellermensch - Kellermensch
Diablo Blvd. - The Greater God
Doomriders - Darkness Come Alive
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Carina Round - Things You Should Know
Kowloon Walled City - Gambling on the Richter Scale
Armed For the Apocalypse - Defeat
2010:
The Black Keys - Brothers
Clan Edison - Clan Edison
Daughters - Daughters
Deftones - Diamond Eyes
Jonsi - Go
Murder by Death - Good Morning, Magpie
Massive Attack - Heligoland
The Ocean - Heliocentric/Anthropocentric
Ihsahn - After
My Education - Sunrise
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Souvenir's Young America - The Name of the Snake
Kvelertak - Kvelertak
Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
Grinderman - Grinderman 2
Man's Gin - Smiling Dogs
US Christmas - Run Thick in the Night
Harvestman/US Christmas/Minsk split - Hawkwind Triad
Venomin James - Crowe Valley Blues
M. Ostermeier - Chance Reconstruction
Alain Johannes - Spark
Mogwai - Special Moves
Julie Christmas - The Bad Wife
Rosetta - A Determinism of Morality
Black Breath - Heavy Breathing
Coliseum - House With A Curse
Dark Fortress - Ylem
Toundra - II
Fields Of Locust - Subtopia
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Social Network
Clint Mansell - Black Swan
Daft Punk - Tron Legacy
Hans Zimmer - Inception
The Red Sparowes - The Truth is Excrutiating, But Therin Lies the Answer
Deadhorse - We Can Create Our Own World
Florence and the Machine - Between Two Lungs
Zed - Feed the Lie
Samantha Crain - You (Understood)
Ladder Devils/Fight Amp/Kowloon Walled City - Lose Lose Lose
Horn of the Rhino - Weight of Coronation
Amiina - Puzzle
Deathspell Omega - Paracletus
East of the Wall - Ressentiment
The Chariot - Long Live
So, there you go. As fluid as these lists are for someone like me, this is what I would narrow it down to right now. I may write more extensively about some of these later, although you will probably find better descriptions elsewhere on the series of tubes.
