Well, they’re right about one thing — at least if one were to take this list seriously — punk is pretty much a meaningless signifier at this point, nearly entirely colonized by cornball critic lauding and promo cycles... pretty sad. Anyway, I got in trouble for thinking the new Daughters is cheesy already here (I…

Somehow I doubt the veracity of Treznor’s story. I think Cruz is more of Skinny Puppy guy (early albums only though).

Regardless of whether this movie is puerile or anti-social or trolling, the MPAA is a hypocritical, out-moded shit organization. The fact that they have as much clout with theaters that they do should upset everyone. EVERYONE! EVERYWHERE! Or not. . . . But they’re awful.

So many cafe/coffee shops around where I live seem dialed into weird 90s alt rock and pop. I don’t get it. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but the music I grew up hating is not what I want to hear in coffee shops. I want to hear whatever annoying shit the teenagers like now! Maybe it’s not cool to like annoying shit.…

Oh nice, I didn’t know that. Thanks. I dunno if you’ve heard Grave Upheaval, but they’re really interesting, off-putting, DM... they got shoehorned into the Portal/Abyssal thing but are way more... murky? I guess.

hey, no problem. I don’t have any emotions riding on discussions like these, when it really comes down to taste; although as I’ve written in regards to this list, I can get testy when it doesn’t do justice to a genre.

Anicon are pretty good. I’ve never gotten into many of the NYC pseudo-bm bands much; some of that feeling may come from the idea that most good bm is inherently not an urban music, and generally taps into a spirit that isn’t American (not hard rules, just a general feeling). I respect their level of musicianship and…

Oh yeah, I miss that too. I actually forgot about that. Heller and my tastes didn’t coincide much but he had an honest love for the music and the comments weren’t taken over by weird blowhards trying to tell everyone that they shouldn’t have opinions about opinions. 

he’s easily triggered by people who use words like “mainstream” and don’t like Thou or something else no one gives a shit about. I like his energy. 

Ritual Necromancy is pretty good from what I heard. DD generally releases good to great dm. 20buckspin had dm albums I enjoyed more from this year like the Ghastly and Extremity and Ulthar (all of which are different, but just seem more consistent). I dunno. A lot of people dig Tomb Mold, and I’m ready to chock that…

I wouldn’t know honestly, but I’ll take your word on it. I mean I doubt anyone probably comes here for insights into music, which makes it doubly weird they made a best of a niche music list here.

you’re kinda obsessed with me. I like it. Keep going.

ha, I’m ok with that.

Chaos Echoes never really fully cohered with me until the collaboration with Mats Gustafsson. I’m not a huge instrumental metal fan though. 

It’s a sad but common gripe that this site has a lot of stuff written by people whose level of expertise is now only skin deep. No one would accept this from a hip-hop or country list, but here we are with metal. Just leave it alone already, guys.

yeah, it’s kind of amazing when neither of these guys would be in anyone’s estimation a metal expert. Not that we need experts, but these kind of lists are almost always at the mercy of the promo cycle and critic circles. Fans are almost always better at recommending metal because they actually dig deep.

But that would mean Dowd and Anthony would actually listen to a lot of metal. 

Tomb Mold has a lot of elements that I normally like, but comes off as sort of boring and lacking in personality. 

It’s a plainly boring and expected list. Anthony is obviously a hardcore/pop punk dude who dabbles in metal. Dowd and I just don’t share tastes. But the whole thing seems crowd sourced from the comments of a Stereogum article. I mean I don’t expect a NWNforum level of deep dive from this place, but at the same time…

Well, at least I’m not being “that guy” as a lot of these comments have already been made by “that guy” this time; and they’re largely right: this is a boring list made up of the exact same picks we’re all likely to see from Pitchfork, Stereogum, etc. It also displays a distinct lack of reference and knowledge of the…