Favorite Albums

Best of 2023

Recent Ratings

Haken - Fauna
Haken
Fauna
76
Sep 15
Soreption - Jord
Soreption
Jord
75
Sep 15

Pinned Review

Thurisaz - Live & Acoustic
100
To tell you the main idea of my review in a few words, this is the ultimate music experience.

Thurisaz, a band who mainly plays doom and death metal, decided to go acoustic twice in their hometown. That was in late '14, and that was because their style included some heavy songs but some softer ones too, which were their greatest successes (e.g. Endless...). These songs were a side of their character they wanted to express in these lives, never aiming to release a DVD out of it but well, they ... read more

Recent Reviews

Magic Dance - Vanishings
97
I seriously believe this is the most underrated album of all time. It is perfect for what it is, and it has a theme that almost everyone can relate to. I bet Magic Dance/Jon Siejka went through a tough break-up with his first love. His inspiration and emotion portrayed through Vanishings feel 100% real, and I love every second of the album. It sounds like a late 80s or 90s album but evolved into a 2010s one with better production quality. The lyrics hit right in the heart and the melodies and ... read more
BlackBraid - Blackbraid II
97
Starting with their first release in the summer of 2022, Blackbraid (or "Sgah'gahsowáh", or Jon Krieger, a solo artist rooting from the Adirondack Mountains of New York) made a great number of fans, including me, and gave us a new kind of "indigenous" metal, let's call it the Blackbraid metal.

So, the Blackbraid metal decided to evolve early, not even one year ago, and this was both a pleasant and upsetting event for the fans. We were waiting patiently to see what ... read more

Frozen Dawn - The Decline of the Enlightened Gods
86
This album deserves more love and it's one of my 2023 favourites. It's melodic black metal at its finest, and you can understand it is *that good* at tracks 4 and 5, Frozen Kings and Wanderer of Times. Great riffs, great drumming, great vocals. Also, the final track which is a Necrophobic cover couldn't be bad - it's Necrophobic tier in a Frozen Dawn - manner.

Something else that is noteworthy is the beautiful cover art; which is actually a Mariusz Lewandowski painting (Lewandowski, 1960-2022, ... read more

Hellripper - Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags
83
A fun, playful and ingenious one-man black-speed metal project. Sometimes it reaches the peak of the genre; opening track and album-titled song are absolute bangers.
Insomnium - Anno 1696
77
Insomnium's 2023 album is better than what I expected it to be, and there are some very interesting parts there like the song Godforsaken with Johanna Kurkela or White Christ with Sakis Tolis.

*Having witnessed their live performance at Release Festival, I was not satisfied though, and I think these guys need some time to improve their live performances.

Shoutbox

7mo
Hey friend, finally back and just finished my top 50 records of 2022. Wanted to have some time to live with some of the records that dropped late in the year Have a look if u wish :)
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/edgarratesmusic/list/108532/2022s-best-records/
7mo
tipota bro mou ;)
9mo
Haha it's OK... lmk if u ever check any of them lol
9mo
Good day my friend. I came to recommend an album, I'm not sure if you'll like it but I figured it might be close to your taste.

Asobi Seksu - Citrus
10mo
Yeah it's understandable if you read it that way, as for Monster I definitely agree with you, but everything before to end was fantastic so I can't hold it down too much, it's not like it's the worst thing ever. As for AoT I'm just gonna see how the anime concludes although I'm really didn't like the second half of season 4 part 2. With Cowboy Bebop, I guess it's either you love it or hate it type of show, I personally like it since I could kinda relate to the characters situation of being stuck in time an all that and just letting the days pass by and all the characters are charming as well and it's episodic nature is what I missed from modern cartoons and honestly I think it's the best format to tell very creative stories (probably why i loved Spongebob and Tom and Jerry so much as a kid)
10mo
●Violet Evergarden
●Legend of the Galactic Heroes
●Attack on Titan (excluding the ending)
●Cowboy Bebop
●Ping Pong The Animation
●Parasyte (kinda)
●Monster
●Hunter x Hunter (kinda)
●Welcome to the N-H-K

Those are the anime on the list that I feel used the medium of anime in a distinct and creative way although I still have to update half of the list and the scores but yeah.
10mo
Yeah I can see what you're saying, but don't take my lists too seriously, I don't really update that much when it comes to shows, I'm more consistent in updating my lists when it comes to manga and I think you misread what I said. I said that anime stories can be subpar "In General" meaning the average amount, this is not saying that the best stories aren't there or have no potential, anime is a medium in the end of the day not a genre so it's always gonna have that immense potential and yes again I do agree that there are anime that reaches those heights it's just rare to find those shows which is why I said "in general," but I will list the shows that I feel did reaches their potential and in a way surpass their genre to give you an idea of what I'm into.
10mo
Wow I don't hear often that people don't care much about animation and want the story to be good, usually it's a mix of both. I wouldn't call myself snobbish but it's very distracting for me when the animation isn't consistent, or is just low quality and if the music and voice acting is just doing the bare minimum, although it's probably like that usually because I don't really have the time to watch shows in general so I guess subconsciously I want my time to be respected, which is probably why I'm reading a lot of digital manga these days.

One of the best fantasy stories though? That's a bold statement especially for anime, I personally enjoy anime a lot but it's stories can be subpar in general so idk if can take your word for it or not, but regardless I will watch the show and thanks for giving me the watch order.
10mo
Well I checked out the song and it sounds nice but yeah you're right, a song like this would require me to immerse myself into the show to really fall in love with it. I planned on watching Fate/Zero since I heard constantly how good the animation is.

What do you think about the show in general?

About

Hi! My music taste is better than yours.

...No hard feelings!

My fav band is Ne Obliviscaris for now, but I'm not sure if that helps. You can see Nujabes albums in my top ratings, as well as Aimer or My Chemical Romance.

Around the Web

Rating Distribution

90-99
 
13

80-89
 
62

70-79
 
68

60-69
 
27

50-59
 
10

40-49
 
2

30-39
 
1

20-29
 
1

10-19
 
1

0-9
 

Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement

Recent Lists

Updated 7mo agoRanked
So, after choosing myself which 100 albums to review here on AOTY, I decided to ask 100 different people for their personal recommendations. I want ONE recommendation per person, and I want it to be ...
Updated 10mo agoRanked 1
Member since June 27, 2022

September Playlist