I’ve always held the belief that music wasn’t better in the past, people just have survivorship bias. What are your genuine favorite albums of the last few years?

Personally, I’m loving The Rime of Memory by Panopticon, Ants from Up There by Black Country, New Road, and Hellfire by Black Midi.

  •  Wren   ( @wren@sopuli.xyz ) English
    11•9 months ago

    Sleep Token - This place will become your tomb (2021) / This eden (2023)

    Grim Salvo - MILDRED (2022)

    Tame Impala - The Slow rush (2020)

    Spiritbox - Eternal blue (2021)

    Bad Omens - THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND (2022)

    Can I include EP’s? If so, Lorna Shore - … And I return to nothingness (2021)

    Black Tiger Sex Machine - Once upon a time in cyberworld (2022)

    Apashe - Renaissance (2020)

    Florence + The Machine - Dance fever (2022)

    Hozier - Unreal unearth (2023)

    I’m sure there’s more

    It’s definitely survivorship bias and likely that the barrier for entry is a lot lower now, so only ‘better’ music would be made (ie record companies doing risk assessment and deciding what would be more likely to sell) / your average person can make music now relatively easily, which I suppose technically ‘dilutes’ the overall ‘quality’ of music today - take your pick

  •  BmeBenji   ( @BmeBenji@lemm.ee ) 
    5•9 months ago

    So far, these three come to mind:

    Mammoth WVH (2021 self-titled debut)

    • Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang’s debut album in which he wrote and recorded all instruments. It’s some fantastic hard rock about not giving a shit what other people expect of you. “Mammoth” embodies the spirit of the album, while “Stone” is one of the best low-tempo, high-energy songs I’ve ever heard.

    Pawns & Kings (2022) - Alter Bridge

    • A heavy, raw, intense and politically charged album about how the new generation of humanity needs to be better if we want any sort of societal continuity. I may be playing it up but the music is kickass.

    Fortitude (2021) - Gojira

    • Most of Gojira’s music is about the doom we’re sowing by destroying the planet. This album is a stark tonal shift for them in that almost all of it is supposed to be positive and encouraging. “The Chant” is nothing but encouraging those who suffer oppression to fight on for their rights. “Into the Storm” is an anthem for fighting for political change in a world that beats everyone down for trying to challenge the status quo. This album was exactly what I needed after COVID had already gone on for a year and showed no signs of stopping.
      •  BmeBenji   ( @BmeBenji@lemm.ee ) 
        3•9 months ago

        Hoo boy what a question.

        TL;DR: I would say give at least one song from each album a try since they have a good amount of variety in their sound from one album to the next. I recommend:

        Terra Incognita: “Clone” The Link: “Remembrance” From Mars to Sirius: “The Heaviest Matter of the Universe” The Way of All Flesh: “The Art of Dying” L’Enfant Sauvage: “Planned Obsolescence” Magma: “Magma” Fortitude: “Fortitude” followed by “The Chant” (they go together)

        Otherwise, If you like heavy metal, Terra Incognita is great. “Clone” and “Blow Me Away You (Niverse)” get stuck in my head a lot. “Planned Obsolescence” from L’Enfant Sauvage (one of my favorite songs ever) is about as in-your-face “fuck off, capitalism” as a song can get.

        If you like environmentalism in music, the theme persists throughout their discography but From Mars to Sirius is chock full of it. “Ocean Planet” builds to one of my favorite lines in any song ever with a painfully dissonant melody at the very end of the song. It’s also hard to ignore “Flying Whales” with all the memes and the song is written from the perspective of whales looking down in sorrowful pity on how humanity treats their shared home, plus the song has a wonderful chorus. And I can’t not mention “Global Warming.” It might just be Gojira’s magnum opus imo. “Toxic Garbage Island” is a really cool rhythm-heavy song about treating the planet like a giant trash can with one of the most emotional finales of any song I know.

        “The Art of Dying” is an incredible song about what it means to die well. The music is incomparable, and it pairs really well with “The Way of All Flesh” which is an artistic audible rendering of the experience of actually dying - only listen to it if you plan to listen to all 17 minutes of it.

        If you need something more encouraging, “Born In Winter” has been my track of choice many a late night. “New Found” is also shockingly uplifting compared to the rest of their music.

        Truthfully, I love all of their music and I normally will turn on an album and listen to it start-to-finish. I most commonly do that with their album Magma because it’s extremely well paced musically and emotionally. While in the process of writing it, Joe and Mario Duplantier’s (vocalist/guitar and the drummer) mother died and you can definitely feel it. The album is mostly about the way that strong human emotions can feel like Magma boiling inside of you, and I think it’s extremely well conveyed. I go back and forth between thinking “Global Warming” and the entire album Magma are their greatest work.

        •  imkali   ( @imkali@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 
          2•9 months ago

          Wow, nice. I love it when people are clearly so interested in what they’re writing about.

          Sounds like I’ll start with Planned Obsolescence then, and work my way through their stuff. Thanks for such solid recommendations. :)

          •  BmeBenji   ( @BmeBenji@lemm.ee ) 
            2•8 months ago

            Hey I’m just glad more people are interested in them.

            Thinking about “Planned Obsolescence” reminds me that another of Gojira’s greatest skills is in writing endings. Plenty of songs have great endings, and every single album ends with something emotionally memorable. It’s probably why I love listening to all of their albums start-to-finish. There’s a great sense of completion and closure to all of them.

            Terra Incognita’s “1990 Quadrillions De Tonnes” (the weight of the Sun) is layered with the sounds of people screaming as the Earth burns. The Link’s “Dawn” is a dark naturalist instrumental. From Mars To Sirius’ ending… well you should just listen to it. “The Way of All Flesh” I already mentioned. L’Enfant Sauvage’s “The Fall” is about as dark as the entire album gets. Magma’s “Lowlands” into “Liberation” tears my soul to shreds. And Fortitude’s “Grind” is the heaviest, most depressing sarcastic call to inaction to follow all of the encouragement that came before it, reminding the listener that the world is not easily fixed.

            Damn I think I really love this band more than I thought I did lol

  •  jjjalljs   ( @jjjalljs@ttrpg.network ) 
    4•9 months ago

    I pretty regularly pick up new music.

    Fun machine

    https://batboymusic.bandcamp.com/album/fun-machine

    I guess this is pop punk rock? It has a lot of lines in it I think about a lot. “Ask me again how it’s going even though you know it isn’t going anywhere”. “I don’t want you to romanticize falling the fuck apart”.

    The dark path to the light

    https://wolvennest.bandcamp.com/album/the-dark-path-to-the-light

    This is some good witchy shit. The last track is so menacing I love it.

  •  Philote   ( @Philote@lemmy.ml ) 
    4•9 months ago

    Doom Scroll - Immoral Compass

    Mr Gnome - The day you flew away

    Jonathan Wilson - Eat the worm

    Viagra Boys - Cave world

    Wet leg - Wet leg

    Chet Faker - Hotel surrender

    Igorrr - spirituality and distortion

    Amigo the Devil- yours until the war is over

    Out of orbit - OOO

    I could go on.

    •  Notyou   ( @Notyou@sopuli.xyz ) 
      2•9 months ago

      Amigo the Devil- yours until the war is over

      Thanks for letting know about this. Last album I knew he dropped was Born Against. I’ll definitely look into this. I saw him open for Drokkick Murphy’s. It was a great show.

  •  Montagge   ( @Montagge@lemmy.zip ) 
    4•8 months ago

    What the Dead Men Say - Trivium

    Lamb of God - Lamb of God

    Omens - Lamb of God

    Abyss - Unleash the Archers

    Violence Unimagined - Cannibal Corpse

    Fortitude - Gojira

    Zeit - Rammstein

    Modern Primitive - Sceptic Flesh

  •  harsh3466   ( @harsh3466@lemmy.ml ) 
    3•9 months ago

    My current favorite albums are:

    • Allison Russel - The Returner (2023)
    • Black Eyes Peas - ELEVATION (2022)
    • Run The Jewels - RTJ4 (2020)
    • Descartes A Kant - After Destruction (2023)
    • Tommy McLain - I Ran Down Every Dream (2022)
    •  Che Banana   ( @The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org ) 
      3•9 months ago

      soooo many terrible one hit wonders…and you had to sit through so much talking, commercials and garbage to catch one good song on the radio.

      I love it now I can catch a good tune (one of the reasons I’m on the fediverse) and then go explore the band & music associated to it and plunk it in a Playlist.

  •  kellenoffdagrid❓️   ( @kellenoffdagrid@lemmy.sdf.org ) 
    3•8 months ago

    Here’s a few I’ve enjoyed in recent memory:

    • Koyo - Would You Miss It?
    • Militarie Gun - Life Under The Gun
    • Tigers Jaw - I Won’t Care How You Remember Me
    • Yard Act - Where’s My Utopia?
    • Vacation Manor - Vacation Manor
    • Hotline TNT - Cartwheel

    The Koyo album is great if you like punk/hardcore/emo, same with the Militarie Gun one. Tigers Jaw has been one of my favorites for a while, and this album is one of their best imo; great band if you like indie rock/emo. Yard Act’s a British rock band with post-punk influences, you might like them if you enjoy that signature dry British humor in combination with some social commentary. Vacation Manor is a more laid-back indie rock band with more classic Americana/Springsteen influences, I can’t recommend them enough for people who have a sweet spot for classic rock. Lastly, Hotline TNT’s album is worth a listen for people who enjoy shoegaze and indie rock, they have a really great DIY sound with just enough polish to tie the album together and keep it accessible. The 2020’s have been a damn good year for music, at least as far as the bands I’ve been keeping up with.

    Edit: added Tigers Jaw, I couldn’t leave them out

  •  hemko   ( @hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English
    2•9 months ago

    I’d probably have to go with Nightwish Human :||: Nature

    It’s a very solid album, but to be honest I’m not sure if I’ve even listened to any other album in full from past couple years

  •  ɐɥO   ( @Oha@lemmy.ohaa.xyz ) 
    2•9 months ago

    My fav album of the 2020’s would probably be Saviors by Green day. I however dont look at the release date of the album Im currently listening too often so It gets pretty hard to make a good list.