Hear and There's Top 10 albums of 2017

2017 may not have been quite the sparkling musical vintage that 2016 was, but there were still plenty of excellent albums to grab the attention of everyone. Here are the top 10 albums from Here & There:

10. Pallbearer - Heartless

The Arkansas doom metallers followed up Foundations of Burden with their most consistently excellent effort yet.

9. Lionize - Nuclear Soul

The Maryland quartet give us another soulful, hard rocking album that provided a strong follow up to Jetpack Soundtrack, led superbly by Chris Brooks as always.

8. All Them Witches - Sleeping Through the War

The Nashville psychedelic rockers went from strength to strength in 2017, and Sleeping Through the War summed this up perfectly with its blend of heavy blues and psychedelic rock.

7. Samsara Blues Experiment - One With the Universe

The Berlin kings of the blues jam brought us another album heavy on riffs, atmosphere, and great songs.

6. The National - Sleep Well Beast

Matt Berninger and his distinctive baritone leads the National's 7th album superbly as always, while both pairs of brothers create their usual warm and wonderful melancholic sound that is synonymous with the band.

5. Unsane - Sterilize

A beautifully ugly cacophony, and a return to form for the noisy NYC power trio.

4. Slowdive - Slowdive

Picking up pretty much where Souvlaki left off in the mid 90s, the shoegazers returned with a gem of an album, all gloriously expansive synths and lush guitars. A welcome return.

3. Elder - Reflections of a Floating World

Were it not for the fact that Enslaved and Converge both had excellent new albums waiting for release this year, this would otherwise have won my album of the year title. While not quite a continuation of Lore, Reflections of a Floating World takes its predecessors blueprint and builds on it in a palatable way that makes them ready for a wider audience.

2. Enslaved - E

Another slight re-plot of their musical trajectory, with gambles that largely pay off, from Bergen, Norway's favourite musical sons. The use of a saxophone for the first time ever on an Enslaved album in particular was beautifully done.

1. Converge - The Dusk in Us

Converge continue to rewrite the rulebook of hardcore, pushing the envelope and the boundaries as often as they did on Jane Doe and with the same level of quality of music as a result. Hands down my album of the year.

Honourable mentions:

Power Trip - Nightmare Logic
Colour Haze - In Her Garden
Iron Reagan - Crossover Ministry
Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me
The Menzingers - After the Party

Biggest let down:

Code Orange - Forever. Perfectly good musically, but the clean vocals were horrendous.

Best gig of the year:

A tie between Insomnium at Mama Roux's and All Them Witches at the Institute.

Colour Haze - In Her Garden

Artist: Colour Haze
Album: In Her Garden
Year: 2017
Rating: 81/100

Colour Haze have, in their 23 years of existence, swiftly become the masters of their craft. The Bavarian stoner rock trio are simply content with doing as they please, and with a back catalogue as extensive and as fluid as theirs, that's very much to be expected. In Her Garden is their 12th studio release, arriving after several European tour dates, including a showing at Desertfest in Antwerp.

Within the album itself, we get the usual Colour Haze fare; drawn out, hypnotic jams that only have a few sparse vocal melodies; or even better, none at all. It's not quite as drawn out, expansive or trippy as their fellow Germans Samsara Blues Experiment, but then they don't need to be. Colour Haze's musicianship has always been exceptional, and it's no different on In Her Garden. The listener is treated to the odd passage of Hammond B3 organ, acoustic guitar and even a bit of brass and some strings.

While some of the more drawn out moments of In Her Garden occasionally end up crossing over into the territory of being a bit boring (the evil twin of hypnotic), there's still plenty here to sustain the interest of the listener. It's not quite in the territory of their more consistent records, but there's still enough to like about this one for it to be a worthwhile listen, and a good introduction to Colour Haze.

Track listing

1. Into Her Garden
2. Black Lilly
3. Magnolia
4. Arbores
5. Sdg
6. Lavatera
7. Islands
8. Sdg II
9. Labyrinthe
10. Lotus
11. Sdg III
12. Skydancer
13. Skydance

Power Trip - Nightmare Logic

Artist: Power Trip
Album: Nightmare Logic
Year: 2017
Rating: 83/100

Texan thrash metallers Power Trip come across as one of those bands that seem to slip quietly under everybody's radar despite countless gigs in support of higher profile artists. Their second full length album, Nightmare Logic, again released on Southern Lord (the go to label these days), enables the Dallas quintet to step out of the shadows of their peers.

While there is an abundance of palm-muted guitars, screamed vocals from Riley Gale and plenty of double kick drums to be found on Nightmare Logic, it's all done in a way that's difficult not to enjoy. Despite there being only 8 tracks, all of which clock in at between 3 and 5 minutes (Iron Reagan they ain't), there's nothing convoluted or overdone here, and tracks such as "Firing Squad", "Waiting Around to Die" and "If Not Us Then Who" are absolute rippers. If you like the riffs of Exodus with the energy of the Cro-Mags, this is right up your street.

If there is a criticism to be found of Nightmare Logic, it's that Power Trip's sound doesn't seem quite as expansive as its production indicates. The whole thing feels like it was recorded in a banqueting hall. Other than that, though, Power Trip are a band more people need to be talking about, and the promise of a spring tour of the UK in support of Trivium will hopefully get them the audience they deserve. An enjoyable little beast.

Track listing

1. Soul Sacrifice
2. Executioner's Tax (Swing of the Axe)
3. Firing Squad
4. Nightmare Logic
5. Waiting Around to Die
6. Ruination
7. If Not Us Then Who
8. Crucifixation