Feeling further demotivated by the truth, Goku leaves for Kyushu to reconcile with an old lover, only to discover that she has moved on with another man. Ben Jessey spends all his time playing video games, watching TV, watching movies, watching football aka soccer (which I guess counts as watching TV) or writing about those things. The insane virtuosity, the unique approach to tech death and prog/power, and the fun, memorable songs make Ionic a serious candidate for the best Record o’ the Year in 2022.

Blue Harvest" sees Chris taking on the role of Luke and casts Lois as Princess Leia, which somehow manages to be even more problematic than in the original movie. For those who know the blog, you’ll know that I have always been a big fan of The Black Dahlia Murder. With songs like “On the Dark Waters,” “When the Gods Come,” and “War,” however, Halo shows itself to be loaded with the same kind of excellent songwriting and solid material that has made the band one of metal premiere’s acts for 30 years. Rather playing a kind of death metal that focuses on the technicality of the music, Ayam is an album that hits the listener right in the feels—what Peter Lindgren once described as “death metal with feeling.I listen to death metal because the music rules; but since most lyrics are trash that dudes are writing in the studio, I skip them. But for me, there’s no point in rehashing a debate about production on the debut album from a self-released artist. So much of the culture exported from Japan feels extreme; almost baroque in its weirdness or its mashup of styles and influences, and ICDD is no exception. Alternatively, Peter gets Death to send him back to his youth for one night to enjoy being single again. I particular enjoy Memorial’s fast paced tracks and the introduction of the Iron Maiden-style guitar harmonies that litter the album.

The nice thing about carrying USB devices like my phone, GPS, camera, and headlamp is that I just need one battery pack to charge them. Shout-out to the Felipe Andreoli for what has to be my favorite bass performance of the year by a longshot. All Heads Are Gonna Roll—despite its Swenglish title 3—delivers the kind of decapitating death metal that the world—by which I mean me—has missed in the 12 years that the pride of Karlstad has been missing in action.

Bass-driven, The Police-referencing, awkward vaguely moralistic lyrics, but with that slight underlying sadness that shows up on everything these guys has ever done? Seen by movie critics as a copy of Top Gun, Best Guy was a box-office failure in Japan, earning ¥230 million.

But what starts out as a Gorjira as interpreted by Gorod riff, gives way to Javi Perera’s cleans, his affective range—in addition to his actual range—sets the whole song on its head.

I would also like to especially thank our dedicated editing staff, headed up by—but certainly not limited to— Steel Druhm as well as Sentynel, whose steadfast dedication to keeping the site running warms my heart. I saw hikers using it at the bottom of the Grand Canyon this year, and they were raving about how cool it was keeping them. If this record were a tasty alcoholic beverage it would be made of pineapple juice, coconut milk, and rum. At 53 minutes, I decided, that “The Place Where I Belong” just mars the whole a little too much to put it higher up the list.