It goes without saying that The Albatross was a beautiful mess of a record. It was raw, abrasive, passionate, and considered a flawless masterpiece in the realm of emo revival. It was also the band’s debut, and a perfect start may lead to unfathomable stress and pressure for a sophomore release to meet the expectations of the first. Luckily, Foxing managed to create a new masterpiece that goes by the name of Dealer.

Dealer is not The Albatross Part II by any means. The key difference is that Foxing now functions as one cohesive unit as opposed to an instrumental backdrop for Connor Murphy’s emotionally explosive vocal performance. While Murphy’s approach is not as aggressive in nature this time around, his overwhelming emotion is still ever present in each syllable sung.
The St. Louis quintet’s sound has matured and mellowed out by zeroing in on its post rock side entirely. This news may come as a letdown to the emo kids clutching their Albatross vinyl ever so tightly, but I promise the passion and emotion the band pours into their art is equally as present; just channeled differently.
Foxing manages to meet every expectation The Albatross set by crafting a completely different yet equally layered work of art. However, the band’s true talents come to light with their live performance. I highly recommend both Foxing LPs primarily to familiarize yourself with the material before immersing yourself in what will probably be one of the most memorable live music experiences of your life.

Formed from the remnants of the disbanded emo/math rock hybrid Grown Ups, Cloakroom is a devastatingly underrated band despite being a part of the widely adored Run For Cover roster.

The trio of factory workers hailing from Indiana apply their daily practice of heavy machinery operation into the art they create. The band’s debut full length Further Out is an album that manages to both bathe in the trending emo revival and become a gateway drug for stoner rock and sludge metal.

Lead vocalist/guitarist Doyle Martin’s reverb-drowned vocals sound as if they were recorded in a damp cave and his unique guitarwork dabbles in psychedelic rock, blues, and reverts back to pounding sludge riffs that will leave you head-banging in slow-motion. Bobby Marko serves as the backbone of the group with his groovy loud basslines, and Brian Busch thunderously pounds the drum kit with all of his might.

The shining aspect of the record is its overall structure. The first half consists of the loudest and heaviest tracks while the second half zeroes in on the more clean aspects of the band’s sound.

The placement of the album’s single “Starchild Skull” serves as one of the highlight moments of Further Out because it prevents any chance of the LP losing your attention. As the album begins to approach its halfway point, the songs begin to wind down, but “Starchild Skull” picks things back up again with its catchy hooks.

The juxtaposition of the third track “Moon Funeral” and the third-to-last track “Clean Moon” should also be taken note of. “Moon Funeral” is the most crushing song found on the record while “Clean Moon” is the same song revisited but rewritten as the LP’s softest track replacing with hard-hitting sludgey riffs with clean-distortion free guitars.

Further Out strongly concludes with the epic “Deep Sea Station” which takes every aspect of the album’s sound and meshes into one complete song. Cloakroom’s debut is perfect for anyone looking for a well-structured album to get lost in.

I recall spending the majority of the year 2010 balancing the workload of my freshman year of college with constant gigging for various projects I fronted. The genres of my musical endeavors spanned from metallic hardcore to pop punk, but all of these shows managed to have the words Free Beer! on the flyer.

Unfortunately none of these shows contained alcoholic beverages free of charge. Free Beer! was a thrash hardcore group from Mansfield, MA known throughout my area for their humorous stage antics and their desire to open literally every show even if their sound failed to fit the bill. Their live shows always proved to be hilariously entertaining especially considering frontman Mike Doolan’s absurd lyricsm exploring the themes of four loko chugging and proudly receiving fellatio at the Foxboro skate park during a rainstorm.

The band began to play less and less over time and eventually fizzled out until its drummer Tyler Kershaw announced his upcoming solo project Funeral Advantage. I was understandably expecting another nonsensical hardcore punk band upon hearing this news, but I was proven dead wrong on every imagineable level.

Funeral Advantage is not just any local music project. It is an incredible dream pop and jangle pop hybrid that has one of the strongest albums of 2015 under its belt. Body is Dead creates a lush atmosphere of endless dream pop soundscapes.

The sound Kershaw achieved could be compared to Turnover’s Peripheral Vision, but with a more cohesive flow and less redundant songwriting. Kerhaw’s vocals are ethereal, the guitar work both clean and beautiful-sounding, and incorporation of synthesizers may bring The Cure to mind at some points. The lyricism delves into dark nightmarish themes despite and its dreamy and happy sound.
Body is Dead is a beautiful work of art that you should check out especially if Peripheral Vision also graced your top albums of 2015 list.

Chelsea Wolfe has returned this year with her most solid release yet. Abyss is a melting pot of darkwave, synthpop, goth rock, folk, noise rock, industrial rock, heavy metal, and the result of this massive recipe is spectacular. Never before has Ms. Wolfe sounded so full and powerful.
Vocals have always proved to be the strength of any Chelsea Wolfe release. The music accompanying her has proven sufficient as a backdrop in past releases, but Chelsea’s beautifully haunting voice would always outshine all other aspects of her work.

Abyss finally provides the listener with up-to-par instrumentals. “Iron Moon” finds the artist experimenting with crushing, sludgey riffs. This shouldn’t come as any sort of huge surprise due to her recent Burzum cover and tour with Sunn O))).
Chelsea Wolfe’s fifth LP is a personal record centered in atmosphere, vast Gothic imagery, and endlessly exploring the concept of dreams. Dreams can be beautiful, but nightmares can be horrifying. Abyss explores every spectrum in this chilling epic.

Fear Fun was on constant rotation at my place of work upon its release. J. Tillman’s new persona crafted a fun collective of songs with well-written and silly lyrics. Every track was extremely catchy and well-composed. I Love You, Honeybear is Father John Misty’s sophomore release under his new moniker and it is an entirely different animal.

This time around, Misty does not try to recreate his past work with back-to-back catchy tunes that will stay in your head. The album is mostly a collection of personal yet sarcastic ballads critiquing the concept of human love and even fittingly hit shelves the week of Valentine’s Day.

I Love You, Honeybear is a concept album about Tillman’s own life and explores much darker lyrical themes than Fear Fun. The numerous profanities also prevented my coworkers and I from reliving the experiences of Fear Fun’s constant instore play, but these bold differences are what make this record stand equally as strong on its own.

Father John Misty’s writing is far more nostalgic and broad this time around. Some tracks reminded me of Pink Floyd (“When You’re Smiling and Astride Me”), others reminded me of Velvet Underground (“The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment”), and one track manages to take on on current electronic pop (“True Affection.”)

The concept love and true affection is painted as this flawless, perfect picture in our culture especially around Valentine’s Day. Tillman’s latest LP shows the dirty, ugly, and realistic truths surrounding being in love in this marvelous work of art known as I Love You, Honeybear.

I have always had a love-hate relationship with current mainstream rap. The rise of artists such as Lil Wayne or Drake have made it impossible for me to take the genre seriously. I approach its authenticity on a completely different scale than other music because its main objective appears to sacrifice well-written lyrics or any meaningful message to become a “club anthem.”

Don’t get me wrong. Take Care by Drake is an album I heavily enjoy but only because it is catchy and fun. I prefer the strong messages displayed by artists along the likes of NWA or Public Enemy and I prefer the nostalgic sound displayed by Wu Tang Clan or Tribe Called Quest.

Kendrick Lamar has restored my faith in the genre entirely.

One of my absolute favorite releases of last year was producer Flying Lotus’ LP You’re Dead. The album’s leading single “Never Catch Me” features groundbreaking verses provided by Kendrick and thus my interest for any of his future releases was beyond peaked.

The 27-year-old rapper’s sophomore Good Kid, M.A.A.D City is considered by many to be his magnum opus so expectations were at an all-time high when word hit the street that a third album was to be released in 2015. To Pimp a Butterfly not only shows Mr. Lamar meeting his expectations, but exceeding them on every level.

Flying Lotus and Thundercat (the masterminds behind “Never Catch Me”) leave their jazzy fingerprints on various points of the album’s production. The beats are groovy, the choruses are catchy, and Kendrick’s flow has never been stronger.

The most important part of this album is the strong politically-fueled message. To Pimp a Butterfly is a beautifully written narrative of black culture and the current events associated with it. The highlight track “The Blacker The Berry” shows Kendrick at his most angry delivering each verse from various perspectives on the issue.
This is just not any hip hop album. Lamar’s latest is a cultural rally that will remain a classic in years to come.

Emo is not the only genre that has made a powerful return in recent years. If anyone reading this knows me on a personal level, they recognize my unending love for the genre of shoegazing. Loveless is my favorite record ever released, and I absolutely adore the likes of Slowdive, Ride, and Chapterhouse. Shoegazing has made a similar sort of comeback thanks to likes of bands such as Nothing and Whirr (yikes) and I could not be more overjoyed at this fact.

Baltimore’s Wildhoney is a newer band that absolutely deserves the attention of your ear drums if you are a fellow shoegazing fan. The band’s debut LP Sleep Through It is a beautiful example of shoegazing and dream pop combined in perfect harmony and could have comfortably fit on the Creation Records roster. In fact, you could have told me this release came out in 1992 and I would have believed you.

Frontwoman Lauren Shusterich’s vocals are sugary, sweet, and beautifully ethereal. Her voice does not blend into the mix but rather floats gracefully on top which works all too well with the band’s linear songwriting approach. Sleep Through It is a poppy record but the guitarwork displayed by both Joe Trainor and Marybeth Mareski add a spiraling wall of thunderously piercing noise when need be.
If you are catching wind of the shoegazing revival and are looking for a new band that takes on the art, Wildhoney is the ideal band to check out.

California’s Xibalba has laid to rest their signature slow-paced Doomy/Sludge influenced hardcore sound in favor of a more straight forward Death Metal approach for their latest LP Tierra Y Libertad.

Zeroing in on one genre may sound like a step backwards for these guys, but traveling down the road previously paved by acts such as Bolt Thrower (as heavily hinted in the album art) or Entombed have molded and shaped Xibalba into a more ferocious, agile, and destructive beast than the creature found in Hasta La Muerte.
Tierra Y Libertad is a fast-paced death metal album that annihilates everything in its path.

The biggest trend found in the pop punk scene around late 2010/early 2011 was to stop being pop punk. Title Fight paved the way into 90’s era emo nostalgia with the battalion of Basement, Daylight, Citizen, and many others marching only mere steps behind. One of these bands was Turnover.

2013 saw the official departure of pop punk for Turnover with their debut LP Magnolia. Had said release come out two or three years prior it probably would have been one of my absolute favorites but by the time it saw the light of the day I was attempting to distance myself from the gimmick for whatever reason. It is a strong release and I realize that now but I at the time it slipped right under my radar.

Peripheral Vision now has my attention. Turnover’s sophomore full length is a beautiful release showcasing the four piece finding their own sound leaps and bounds beyond their debut. It is a rebirth of sorts taking the emo nostalgia craze and blending it with the ethereal nature of dream pop.

Austin Getz softly serenades the listener with the relatable struggles of transition from adolescence to adulthood accompanied with distortion-free twinkly guitar work. Turnover no longer boldly wears their influences on their sleeve like some of their labelmates. The best way I could attempt to describe Peripheral Vision’s sound is if you took old Death Cab for Cutie and meshed it with a more fast-paced Galaxy 500 instrumentally (and even that’s a stretch).

The one small complaint I have with this album is that it is hard for me to view as one cohesive unit as opposed to a smorgasbord of similar sounding singles. The majority of the tracks start with a pretty fade in broken guitar chord leading vocal patterns that seem recycled as the album progresses and each include extremely catchy chorus. This formula shines brightest in the opening track “Cutting My Fingers Off” which was the song that made me realized I now loved this band in the first place.

Protomartyr is a Post Punk band from Detroit that deserves some attention. 2014 saw the release of their second LP titled Under Color of Unofficial Right which turned out to be easily one of my favorite releases that year. The guitars were textured with an 80’s feel, the drums were loud and pounding, the basslines were beyond funky, and the baritone vocals helped to create a dark, gloomy atmosphere.

The group wasted no time and managed to release their third album this past October. The Agent Intellect is an entirely different animal that is neither superior nor inferior to their sophomore effort. The instrumentals may create the illusion of a more optimistic and bright Protomartyr but the lyrical content has never been darker.

The opening track consists of a narrative regarding the upbringing of the devil himself. He is not depicted as a dark lord with a trident and horns engulfed in flames but rather as an innocent adolescent with potential. But it all changed when he came of age, it was nothing like simulated game. The women didn’t love him, the races all ignored him, his proclamations failed, so he screamed “Now you bend!”

Vocalist Joey Casey’s recent loss of both of his parents is a continuous theme of the record. The torment and emotional anguish of loss and speculation of death, religion, and the afterlife are scattered throughout the twelve standout tracks.
With Ceremony’s latest LP heavily influenced by the likes of Interpol and Joy Division coupled with the signing of Makthaverskan to Run For Cover Records, it’s becoming clear that Post Punk is inching its way back into the alternative music scene. For fans of the genre, the latest Protomartyr is a brilliant album brimming with emotion and deeply philosophical themes that will force one to truly ponder the meaning mortality and its limits.