Mourning Daily Musings

Now that it’s a few days into 2013 I thought it would be a good time to bless the world with another of my “Best Of Music”! First of all, I’ll remind you that you won’t find any Beiber or Gaga or any other over marketed pop crap on this list. My music leans towards metal and the remnants of nu-metal.

That being said, it seemed for the most part that musicians thought the world was going to end in September so they didn’t try too hard this year. I didn’t purchase albums from alot of my favorite groups for this reason. Either they were too soft, too rap heavy, or just too repetitive. I expected much more with 2011 having dynamic albums from Korn, Staind, Hed Pe, The Dreaming, Cavalera Conspiracy, and Trust Company. Anyway, some of the best include:

1. Nonpoint: Nonpoint – even with membership changes this band continues to put out hit after hit. Many of the songs remind me of earlier Nonpoint songs where Elias semi-raps.

2. Slaves on Dope: Over the Influence – Finally I got to hear more music from this group (or at least the other half of it) Great music and it sounds as good as I expected it to.

3. Cradle Fallz: – Rap metal done right. If you miss the better nu-metal from the 90’s and early 2000’s then buy this album! It’s all here!

4. Stone Sour: House of Gold and Bones Part 1 – Every album from Stone Sour gets better and better. More rifts and heavier music than some of the past albums!

5. Villebillies: Appetite for Dysfunction – More variety on this one album than tons of the sucky pop albums out there. Their styles range from rock to country to rap to bluegrass to techno all on one album.

6. Project 86: Wait for the Siren – Like Nonpoint this is the first album for the band after a huge membership change as well. Great creativity on this album with the fusion of celtic music with their typical hard core rock.The only downside are there are a few too many softer songs.

7. Slash: Apocalyptic Love – I have to admit that I’m not a big Slash or Miles Kennedy fan. That being said, this is definitely one of the best albums of 2012. I was blown away with the double boom of the vocals and guitars. I almost miss hair bands….almost.

8. Julien-K: There are some REALLY great songs on this album from the former Orgy crew. It took longer for me to get into this album because it’s more techno and retro 80’s than their first album and some of the songs seem to run too long. I like the majority of the album however, but I would say get the Deluxe Edition because some of the remixes are better than the originals

Honorable Mentions:

P.O.D.: Murdered Love – There are some great songs on this album but I found myself thinking “this songs sounds like.. (RATM, Nickelback, Skindred, etc) too many times instead of thinking “this is a great P.O.D. jam.” The confusing sorta F-word from a successful Christian band for whatever their reasoning turned me off too.

Soulfly: Conquer – Don’t get me wrong this is a good album but not as creative as their older work. The draw of Soulfly is it’s unique blend of world music with heavy metal. It’s missing from most of this album making it sound like any number of metal bands. If you purchase this album buy the deluxe edition. The three extra songs are full of the usual Soulfly magic.

Taproot: Episodes — This album probably made it onto the “Worst of” for many people. But…if you can edit the songs by shortening the intros and outros and getting rid of the damn awful distracting Stephen Hawkins voice then the songs are really solid. But how the album is now it’s extremely hard to listen to.

So—if you’re in the music industry PLEASE put out some good music this year. I need it!

– Mourning Daily