2021

I'm also considering "the book 2" for this placement on the list because they basically came out as two parts of the same thing, but even without taking the second one into account, this album is perfect. The project Yoasobi came sort of out of nowhere, at least I didn't knew neither of both musicians, and the concept of the album is to transform short narrative stories into music, and they manage to do that perfectly. The songs are stupidly catchy, "Yoru ni kakeru" got immensely viral also and I remember getting surprised about what story the lyrics were telling behind such an upbeat tune, and overall I think is a flawless work, it even moved me to start learning some japanese.
My favorite song from the album is "Ano yume o nazotte".

VOLA perfected its own formula here but in my opinion it's just a step below Applause and Inmazes. Solid from start to finish, I can't decide which but for sure one the first three songs is the best in their entire discography. Still, I have to say that the rap part in These Black Claws feel kinda out of place and it depends on the day if I like it or not.

This is ERRA on full display of its power. It's a good album, if you want some synths you have Snowblood and Scorpion Hymn, if you want some Meshuggah straight from Chaosphere, you have Gungrave, if you want some 10.000 days Tool, you have House of Glass. And if you want ERRA, well, you have this album.
But, I have to say that Neon was much better than this one as a whole, and despite having some highpoints, the lows here are lower than in Neon or Drift.
Fav songs: Vanish Canvas, House Of Glass, and Eidolon (play Warframe hehe)

Imperial is the logic follow up from Lotus, heavier but concise, it has a clear message to give you, and it that sense, this album is even more important now that it was in 2021, extremely contemporary. Yet, despite the first 5 songs being tremendously good, the last 3 are a bittersweet omen of what would start to happen with Soen in terms of sound. The vocal performance in Lumerian is fantastic, with an almost harsh scream from Joel we never heard before, but in Fortune the performance is underwhelming, I honestly don't like his singing there.

I discovered Architects with this release and I think it has lots of bangers, what else can I say. Still, I can see why many felt dissappointed because the previous albums from this band, afaik, are much more prog and overall heavy, but I have not dig that much in their discography to make an statement about that regard. This review may or may not change with the passing of time, but when I listened to this album again after the new one released I found out I liked it a bit more, maybe because the production or overall sound doesn't feel so tiresome. Black Lungs, Goliath, Dead Butterflies and Meteor are my faves.

This album is probably better than what it seems judging by this ranking but I have just not listened to it enough, so it's staying here for now.