DTF's Favourite Albums of the Year (1/2)

[jingle.boy]

Updated my post to rank the top 5

[twosuitsluke]

I'm trying to listen to all the new releases over the next week or so. I'll update asap. Out of the 4 or 5 I've checked out this week Ulver was probably the nicest surprise.

Currently listening to the new Solstafir. It's ok but all a little samey, Hvit Saeng was pretty awesome though 

[Sacul]

Starting to catch up with more stuff from this year, I'd probably add new Anathema and Sufjan Stevens to my list. Give me a few weeks more to familiarize with everything

[Tomislav95]

These are the only 2017 albums I heard enough times:
1. Pain of Salvation - In the Passing Light of Day
2. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
3. Soen - Lykaia
4. Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
5. Need - Hegaiamas: A Song For Freedom
6. Anathema - The Optimist (I actually like this one, probably more than most people here)

I will update this when I relisten some albums.

[Train of Naught]

I've decided that I'll do this at the end of July, this gives everyone one last week to consider their lists and re-arrange/add/remove whatever they want as long as you do not include albums that are released in the second half of 2017, these won't count.

Me personally, Artificial Language is still at the top, but I'm not so sure whether to put Soen or Ulver at #2 right now, gonna have to make some tough decisions this week.

[twosuitsluke]

I don't think my top 3 or 4 are likely to change in the next week but the battle for #5 is definitely on.

This has reminded me that I never finished my 'Top 30 Albums of 2016' thread. I've got a really quiet day at work today so might bash out a load of posts 

[KevShmev]

Wow, I have hardly listened to any new albums this year. 

For me, the Styx and Blackfield are the ones I am loving the most.

The Roger Waters album was okay, but very little stuck with me.

I am very much looking forward to the releases very soon from both Steven Wilson and Arcade Fire.

[Architeuthis]

Agreed. Styx - The Mission is just awesome!

[lonestar]

One just got released last Friday that may be a contender for the top 5 at least for me... Prospekt- The Illuminated Sky... good lord what a beast.

[The Silent Cody]

Well from that what I've have heard ud to this time, only three albums left in my mind:

1. Decapitated - Anticult, polish tehcnical death metal band which is one of the three Polish bands still doing good not only in it's own country (rest of them are Vader and Behemoth, of course there is Riverside too, but it's a different genre). Anyway, it's a great album, aggressive, fast and sounds amazing, very technical.


2. Deep Purple - Infinite, it grabbed from the first listen, well done. I think it's their best album since Purpendicular.


3. Sepultura - Machine Messiah, well I didn't expect that I ever hear something good from from Them, but there it is. Very solid record, with a touch o progression, thrashy progression to be clear

I have to listen to new Ayreon and Saga, and I'm waiting for new Thy Art Is Murder and Arch Enemy  Hope those will not dissapoint me 

[twosuitsluke]

3. Sepultura - Machine Messiah, well I didn't expect that I ever hear something good from from Them, but there it is. Very solid record, with a touch o progression, thrashy progression to be clear

I was a fairly big Sepultura fan back in the day but the only post-Max album I've ever listened to was Roorback, about 10 years ago. That album didn't give me the desire to ever listen to anything by them again, and I haven't. Maybe I'll actually cut them some slack and give this a go.

[The Silent Cody]

3. Sepultura - Machine Messiah, well I didn't expect that I ever hear something good from from Them, but there it is. Very solid record, with a touch o progression, thrashy progression to be clear

I was a fairly big Sepultura fan back in the day but the only post-Max album I've ever listened to was Roorback, about 10 years ago. That album didn't give me the desire to ever listen to anything by them again, and I haven't. Maybe I'll actually cut them some slack and give this a go.

Give it a try, the track which was used for promotion (I Am The Enemy) is the worst song on that album. There are a lot of well aranged songs and memorable melodies as well. I'm also not a big fan of post-Max era, but Machine Messiah is definitly worth a listen.

[Train of Naught]

hello

I've been compiling the votes and aside from the obvious two favourites it's a pretty close race. I'd like everyone to check their lists one more time between now and the 30th and make adjustments if anything has changed. Similar to Evermind, I'm using the most obvious and fairly simple method of giving 5 points to the #1, 4 points to the #2 etc., in case of a tie I will give the benefit to the album that occurs on more lists. If they both occur on the same amount of lists (for example, Witherfall and Artificial Language both only occur on 2 lists and on both occasions on the #1 spot) there's not really much I can do so I'll consider them tied.

[Zoom E]

I've never had a year where I've purchased so few new releases. 2017 is seriously lacking so far, and not much exciting on the horizon. My top three in no particular order:

Pain of Salvation - In the Passing Light of Day
Ayreon - The Source
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

[Evermind]

hello

I've been compiling the votes and aside from the obvious two favourites it's a pretty close race. I'd like everyone to check their lists one more time between now and the 30th and make adjustments if anything has changed. Similar to Evermind, I'm using the most obvious and fairly simple method of giving 5 points to the #1, 4 points to the #2 etc., in case of a tie I will give the benefit to the album that occurs on more lists. If they both occur on the same amount of lists (for example, Witherfall and Artificial Language both only occur on 2 lists and on both occasions on the #1 spot) there's not really much I can do so I'll consider them tied.

Cool beans. I've changed my list slightly right now (included the Artificial Language album and switched PoS and Need around; it's in my original post), so please consider this in your accounting.

[lordxizor]

I updated my list as well.

[home]

Awesome! I just updated my list aswell, the only relevant change for your counting is my number 5, which was Solsafir's new album and is now Lorde - Melodrama.

[Train of Naught]

I updated my list as well.

Man, judging from first impression that Manchester Orchestra album is fantastic, but (I might not have mentioned it in the OP but said it later on) I only include albums that have been released in the first half of the year, so I can't include Manchester Orchestra. Since you listed a #6 as well though, it won't be a problem since I can just move the others up one space. Very nice record though the last few songs are so huge.

included the Artificial Language album

Gonna also request everyone that has listed their albums in no particular order to do so before the 30th. If not, I will have to assume that the one on top is your #1 since there's no way of telling for sure, I hope I can avoid this as much as possible cause it takes a way a bit of validity from the results. The following users have not specified any order (yet): Parama, Zydar (somewhat, the #1 is clear and I assume the ones below take up the #2-5 accordingly, I don't think I'm gonna count the deluxe anniversary album), TAC, PuffyPat, dparrott, wolfking, RoeDent (not even sure whether to include your additions to the results as of yet as you've only mentioend that you bought 2 albums lemmeknow), Lowdz, Sir Walrus Cauliflower (though it seems pretty clear, would like a confirmation if possible), BlobVanDam, cramx3 (same deal as with Sir Walrus Cauliflower, I know 311 was your #1 so AFI is probably #2 and Rancid #3), KevShmev, Architeuthis, Zoom E.

Ended up listing not just any user with a list that had no specified order, but any occasion in which I'm not sure what to do with the data. In any case, it would be great if these people can PM me or post here what their definitive order is. Not obligatory of course, but again, it would make the results more valid.

[twosuitsluke]

Favourite albums of the year so far:

1. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
2. Odd Logic - Effigy
3. The King Blues - The Gospel Truth
4. Artificial Language - The Observer
5. Elder - Reflections of a Floating World

[Train of Naught]

Okay, I added it all up, did one re-count to make sure I didn't miss anything and then ranked them from highest to lowest. Obviously, this thread doesn't get as much reception as the end of the year list thread. Some people haven't taken the time yet to check out everything they want, some people aren't sure about their rankings, and some simply do not bother with these lists before the end of the year (or at all, for that matter). Because of this, 3 albums got a shared 10th place because a mere 2 users ranked it as their favourite of the year so far, which in my opinion counts less than an album that got nominated 4 times with a total of 8 points (I believe Soen's Lykaia had this, but if not the comparison still holds true to me). Since that is too hard to take into account with a score formula as simple as this one, I left it as it is and only used number of nominations as a means of breaking the tie. Deep Purple and Mike Oldfield were entirely tied, so they both took the #7 slot.

1. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand: 42
2. Pain of Salvation - In the Passing Light of Day: 38
3. Ayreon - The Source: 18
4. Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar: 16
5. MindMaze - Resolve: 15
6. Artificial Language - The Observer: 13
7. Deep Purple - Infinite: 11
7. Mike Oldfield - Return to Ommadawn: 11
9. Need - Hegaiamas: A Song for Freedom: 10
10. Witherfall - Nocturnes and Requiems: 10
10. Inglorious - II: 10
10. Styx - The Mission: 10

As you can see there's an enormous gap between the #2 and #3, Pain of Salvation and Mastodon are the clear standouts for the average DTFer that posted in this thread. Maybe I need to look more into that Pain of Salvation album

I'm not gonna do the end of the year thread, I'll leave that up to whoever has the most desire to. I'm sure Evermind will rank them again like last year, but if not hopefully someone else will take over. Thanks for contributing all of you. The rest of the year is looking really promising in terms of new releases, even more so than the first half of the year IMO.

[home]

Emperor of Sand deserves to be at the top  Still a bit a shame only three albums from my top 10 made it to this list, I'm probably going to check out some albums from this list tho. I've been meaning to check out Ulver for quite some time now so anyway.

Thank you Train for doing this!

[Evermind]

Huh, I didn't expect Mastodon to win.

[SoundscapeMN]

I've almost come to not expect my favorites to show up. PoS and Ulver I suppose being an exception.

Granted, my list was made the 1st week of May, and so my list is a bit different now.

I typically don't love to post updates per say after Midseason, just to not think too much about it, but maybe with the last 3 months of the year coming up, maybe I will do a 3/4 year list now. Especially having checked out some of the records more and more newer albums of course.

[Zydar]

Mastodon

[SoundscapeMN]

bump.

here's my albums of the Year. Some blurbs in the blog

https://allmediareviews.blogspot.com/2017/11/2016-2017-albums-of-year.html
44. Tuxedo - Fux with the Tux [EP]
43. Black Map - In Droves
42. The Ongoing Concept - Places
41. Jessie Ware - Glasshouse
40. Do Make Say Think - Stubborn Persistent Illusions
39. The Barnum Meserve - When All is Lost
38. Umphrey's McGee - Zonkey
37. Radical Face - SunnMoonnEclippse [EP]
36. Big Wreck - Grace Street
35. Capital Cities - Swimming Pool Summer [EP]
34. Blackfield - V
33. Danny Cavanagh - Monochrome
32. Tuxedo - Tuxedo II
31. Dave Kerzner - Static
30. Rachel Flowers - Listen
29. Bubblemath - Edit Peptide
28. Childish Japes - After You're Born [EP]
27. The Family Crest - Prelude to War [EP]
26. The Contortionist - Clairvoyant
25. Hotel of the Laughing Tree - Hotel Junk Box
24. Red Planet with Bill Carothers - Red Planet with Bill Carothers
23. Ramona Falls - Coils
22. Mew - Visuals
21. Timmy Sean - Weeks
20. Persefone - Aathma
19. Moonloop - Devocean
18. Umi - World of Color [EP]
17. Bend Sinister - The Other Way [EP]
16. Ulver -  The Assassination of Julius Caesar
15. Beck - Colors
14. Subterranean Masquerade - Vagabond
13. Major Parkinson - Blackbox
12. Nordic Giants - Amplify Human Vibration (Soundtrack)
11. SikTh - The Future in Whose Eyes?
10. Steven Wilson - To the Bone
9. Anakdota - Overloading
8. Godspeed You Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers
7. Anathema - The Optimist
6. Pain of Salvation - In the Passing Light of Day
5. 22 - You Are Creating: Limb 1
4. Bent Knee - Land Animal
3. Everything Everything - A Fever Dream
2. Small Leaks Sink Ships - Golden Calf
1. Mutemath - Play Dead

[Anguyen92]

This year was not as kind to me in terms of "great" albums compared to 2016.  There were plenty of "Heard it.  Like some of these songs, don't care much for the rest and I have no interest re-listening to the album."  There were plenty of albums that had really solid songs and some duds in between that makes me think, "I don't think I can feasibly put this in my fave five albums."  Here's what I got.

1. Ed Sheeran's Divide
2. Big Wreck's Grace Street
3. Queens of the Stone Age's Villians
4. Steven Wilson's To The Bone
5. Trivium's Sin and the Sentence (I only heard one listen of the full album, but I really liked what I heard)

Honorable mentions goes to Nickelback's Feed the Machine, Zac Brown Band's Welcome Home, Stone Sour's Hydrograd, Ayreon's The Source, Rise Against's Wolves, Projected's Ignite My Insanity, Starset's Vessels, and Seether's Poison The Pariah.

[Elite]

I’ll think about this

[RoeDent]

Going to rank the seven 2017 releases I've bought. Can't really see much change between now and the end of the year.

1. To the Bone - Steven Wilson
2. Grimspound - Big Big Train
3. Blackfield V - Blackfield
4. On Her Journey to the Sun - Rikard Sjoblom's Gungfly
5. The Second Brightest Star - Big Big Train
6. Sight of Day - Mostly Autumn
7. The Slow Rust of Forgotten Machinery - The Tangent

[lordxizor]

2017 is shaping up to be a little disappointing for me in terms of new music. There's plenty of stuff out there that I liked, but not a lot that I loved. I always find myself disappointed when my favorite albums from the year are all from artists that I've liked for a long time. It's so awesome to discover a new band and be blown away by their new album. Just hasn't happened for me in recent years. Still a couple months in the year to listen to stuff I may have missed earlier in the year, so there's still time to find something exciting.

[cramx3]

The first half was pretty slow but in the last month I got into new bands Sons of Apollo, VUUR, Cyhra, and I plan on getting the Dark Element's debut album on Friday.  I'll do a ranking once the year is up and I've had more time to listen to these new bands.

[RoeDent]

Going to rank the seven 2017 releases I've bought. Can't really see much change between now and the end of the year.

Well some change has happened, as seven 2017 releases has now become eight. I picked up The Big Dream by Lonely Robot (John Mitchell of Arena and Frost* fame). I'll leave ranking it until I'm more familiar with the album.