Too Soon? Max Frank’s Best of 2016… So Far

I started out this year concerned that it was going to be a down year for metal, and for music in general. All of these pretty good albums were coming out, but nothing that was truly kicking my ass and making me believe that we were gonna have a good year.

Yet the last month has proved me dead-as-fuck wrong, with the release of one masterpiece and two really great albums. Yet we’re just getting started, with confirmed, anticipated, and potential releases from The Dillinger Escape Plan, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, Mastodon, Nails, Meek is Murder, Weekend Nachos, and loads more. There are usually ebbs and flows between when the hivemind of bands all make great albums – for me the last landmark years were 2012 and 2006 — and I think 2016 is fast shaping up to be one of those ebbs.

Here are some of my favorites thus far:

Agoraphobic Nosebleed – Arc (Relapse)
The Armed – Unanticipated (No Rest Til Ruin)
David Bowie – Black Star (ISO)
John Carpenter – Lost Themes II (Sacred Bones)
Gorguts – Pleiades’ Dust (Season of Mist)
Guerilla Toss – Eraser Stargazer (DFA)
Kvelertak – Nattesferd (Roadrunner)
Magrudergrind – II (Relapse)
Moon Tooth – Chromaparagon (Self-Released)
Sumac – What One Becomes (Thrill Jockey)
Vektor – Terminal Redux (Earache)