During the heyday of the blog, I enjoyed doing the traditional retrospective at the end/start of a year. It was always interesting to look back and revisit the releases/experiences which marked the passing year and which made it so great.
Let’s start with my favorite recorded material of the past year. Since I didn’t have a chance to cover any of these on the blog, I’ll just sum up my thoughts with a few lines on each of these. So, without further ado...
Top releases of 2019 (in no particular order):
- "Potence - Le Culte Des Bourreaux" - Members of “Daïtro”, “Géraniüm”, and the insanely underrated “I Was A Cosmonaut Hero”, need I say more? Rushing between being melodic and extremely aggressive, they mix and match the best violent pieces of neo/crust and the somber tones of screamo/post-hardcore. Aurelien’s voice gets me every time.
- "Tool - Fear Inoculum" - I’ve been an avid fan ever since I first saw their music videos on a local TV station back in early 2000’s when “Lateralus” got released. The 13-year-wait since their previous recorded material and the patience needed paid off. In my mind this album is a well morphed mix of “Ænima” and “Lateralus”, yet at the same time it shines light on a completely new incarnation of the band. Marvelous and mesmerizing in all aspects.
- "Senza - Even a Worm Will Turn" - I don’t even know where to begin with this one other than saying that it is simply an amazing record and probably some of the most important and outstanding screamo material written in the last 5 or so years. Chaotic, brooding, atmospheric and explosively violent when needed, they take the best parts of bands such as “Jeromes Dream”, “Sailboats” and even some elements of “The Spirit of Versailles”, all the while adding a strong touch of their own magic. Just outstanding across the board and an absolute must.
- "Mgła - Age of Excuse" - This band has already been covered twice on this blog in the form of concert reviews and if you read those articles then you should have a pretty solid idea about my thoughts on this project. “Mgła” continues to be a remorseless beast, as this album is a perfect descendant of “Exercises In Futility” while bringing so much innovation to the table, completely removing the option of being boring or repetitive. You could zone out and focus on only one instrument at a time and be shocked with the displayed creativity. Listening to this made me feel like I re-discovered the band all over again and is one of the rare albums that I was eagerly anticipating and was genuinely excited for it to finally drop.
- "Jeromes Dream - LP" - The screamo legends are back, what more do you need to know? A perfect amalgam of the “Seeing Means More Than Safety” and “Presents” eras, while also showing signs of musical maturity and evolution. An excellent stroll down memory lane performed by some of the most influential screamo storytellers of all time, adorned with a new incarnation of sound.
Honorable mention:
- "Alcest - Spiritual Instinct" - I feel like this band is not capable of creating something less than absolutely wonderful and simply by being material with the “Alcest” tag is enough for me to feature it on this top list.
Top performances of 2019 (in no particular order):
- Jeromes Dream (Vienna/AT)
- Cult of Luna (Gothenburg/SE)
- Tool (Firenze Rocks Festival, Florence/IT)
- Ólafur Arnalds (Belgrade/RS)
- Mgła (Belgrade/RS)
The only concert from the list above which I didn’t review was “Tool”, which kinda makes me sad since it has been such a mind blowing experience. This was the second time I got to see them play live, first time being in Serbia in 2007, and I can say that the concert in Italy can easily drop into my top 10 concerts of all time. Now that “Fear Inoculum” is still fresh and a new European tour might be looming on the horizon, I’m absolutely certain that I will make an effort to catch a show wherever it may be and share my thoughts with you afterwards.
Looking back, 2019 was an excellent year for music and at moments it felt quite surreal, especially when it comes to concerts. Some of those show reviews have been the longest I have ever written and it is while writing those that I fully realized how much some of those performances moved me. Thinking about them now, especially JD and CoL, I’m tempted to write a few words about those experiences now, but the reviews have been so extensive (and exhausting) that there really is no need to say anything else. Just scroll down the page and delve into the wall of text, in case you are interested in the specifics.
The last time I did one of these retrospective posts was 2013 and it is unbelievable to me when I realize that I’m writing this one in 2020, seven years later! Back then there were more “categories” for the top whatever and I remember that it was quite difficult to make the choices, simply because the blog was way richer with content. It is my sincere hope and goal to keep writing and bring back the blog to the post count per year that it once had. To start that journey, after this post I’m planning to cover one old submission release while also currently working on the next interview. Stay tuned!
In the end, I’d just like to thank you all for still visiting and reading. It warmed my heart to see people mentioning and visiting my blog even when it was defunct and now that it is getting back on track with content, the slow and steady increase of visitors has often put a smile on my face. Thanks for sticking with me for all these years and I hope that 2020 will bring an abundance of great music, strength, inspiration, joy and wonderful experiences for all of us.
P.S. If you would like to share your top picks of 2019, feel free to leave a comment, I’d love to read about your thoughts!
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