#13
2009 - Gorilla Zoe - Echo
Album: Don't Feed Da Animals
There was a time where I listened to a lot of rap music. Somewhere along the way, things like Nelly, Three 6 Mafia and Soulja Boy happened, and it became less about the message and more about the... well, whatever it is about now. There are still plenty of good rappers with good flow, but the market is so saturated with auto-tune, collaborations and songs about legitimately nothing/the same things that it's difficult to weed through the BS to find goodness. In 2009 the pendulum was swinging and Gorilla Zoe had the right voice and message to really reach out and smack me in the face when I needed it the most. I listened to a lot of T.I. and Slim Thug at the time as well, but Zoe was the one to climb the countdown and drop in at #13. You don't see a lot of rap/r&B/hip hop in my wheelhouse any more, but it doesn't cheapen the fact that this is still a fantastic song and Michele Andereck can eat it.
2010 - Haste the Day - White as Snow
Album: Attack of the Wolf King
2010 was such an interestingly eclectic mix of songs (as usual) but when the metal came, it came with a vengeance. "White as Snow" is more of a ballad than anything else that Haste the Day has written, which makes it even more of a special song. The preposterously heavy breakdown almost seems out of place as it drives hammers into your skull, but it makes the song complete in ways that I never could have imagined for HtD. This album got so much play with songs like "Wake Up The Sun" and "The Quiet, Deadly Ticking" that I thought Haste was a band that could do just about anything. Sadly, they broke up after this record and spent several years in hiding before crowdfunding their 2015 record (i)Coward(/i). As far as I'm concerned, they're still one of the best ever to lace it up in the metalcore world, and this record is further proof that they could do just about whatever they wanted and make it great.
2011 - Red - Feed the Machine
Album: Until We Have Faces
Hey, it's Red again. The band was about to reach their transitional phase with guitarist Jasen Rauch leaving the band, but Until We Have Faces opened up with 4 straight crushers, led by "Feed the Machine". The record came out early in the year and fortunately I had headphones, because I was babysitting a toddler at the time. There's only so much headbanging you can do around a 4 month old. "Faceless" and "Lie To Me" were my other favorite songs, but the band has slid backwards since this in my opinion. Seems like this is a good part of the countdown for catchy metal tracks though, huh?
2012 - Veil of Maya - Punisher
Album: Eclipse
Speaking of which... here's Veil of Maya. I've never thought of them as the greatest djent act on the planet, but every record they put out has a song or two that really bangs. "Punisher" isn't the greatest song in the world, and it probably would've been a little lower on the countdown if not for the little spoken word part before the breakdown kicks in. If you can take someone mocking metal music and turn it into PART OF THE SONG, that's pretty freaking metal in my book. I feel like the band is somewhat shackled by Marc Okubo's need to be the alpha and omega in guitar work, but he's a damned fine guitarist and can do whatever he wants in that regard. The boys haven't made it back to the countdown now that they've started leaning on cleaner vocals, but I'm sure there's a place for them if they ever want to really kick it again.
2013 - The Mowgli's - San Francisco
Album: Waiting for the Dawn
Oh, The Mowgli's. As far as debut singles go, you can't do it much better than "San Francisco". It's catchy, upbeat and fun, has sing-a-long vocals and a lovely message weaved throughout. Unfortunately the band is only as deep as this song, and therefor hasn't really done a ton to build off of its success. They're really nothing but marshmallows and fluff otherwise, which is nice but only in so many doses. I distinctly remember dancing around the kitchen with my mom while we were cooking dinner one night to this one, which is a great memory.
2014 - Beartooth - Beaten In Lips
Album: Disgusting
Beartooth very quickly went from Caleb Shomo's new project to a king in the metal scene. They have a distinctly more hardcore oriented sound than Attack Attack did, and Shomo himself pours every ounce of himself and his angst into their songs. "Beaten In Lips", "In Between", "The Lines", "Sick and Disgusting"... it just goes on and on with this record. As a child who had a difficult childhood and holds a lot of hurt feelings into adulthood, "Beaten In Lips" was the natural jam for me to latch onto. Beartooth just barely missed out in 2015 but are poised for another run whenever they get to finshing their next record. Columbus, represent!
2015 - Passion Pit - Lifted Up (1985)
Album: Kindred
A surprising choice for one of my favorite records of 2015, Kindred showed that Passion Pit still knows how to make catchy music and still continues to confuse me as to why I love his music so much. His first two records did not end up making it onto the countdown (although "Take a Walk" just missed in 2012), but when he finally touched down it was all the way up at #13. The line "I'm so tired, I fight so hard and come back beaten" had a massive resonance with me, especially in a song that sounds so frilly and fun if you're not paying attention. Maybe that's what I like about Passion Pit so much. Anyways, his most recent album didn't quite percolate like I thought it would, similar to a lot of great J1 artists who released music in 2017.
2016 - Mad Anthony - Sad Songs (ft Steve Wethington)
Album: Mad Anthology, Pt 2
Speaking of surprises, I had never even heard of or listened to Mad Anthony (the band) before I was on my honeymoon in 2016. We were flipping through the radio stations and landed on a station playing newer rock, and the DJ announced that the next song was from Mad Anthony. I thought to myself, wouldn't it be interesting if that was something local, considering we were staying at a state park that is centered around the original General "Mad" Anthony Wayne? Sure enough, it was a local band from Cincinnati, who were a) fantastic and b) in the middle of the most prolific recording project I had ever encountered. A song per week for an entire year, culminating in the band's great "Anthology". The band followed through and have been releasing the Anthology part by part this year, and man they did a fantastic job.
Of course the ultimate irony is that I was obviously not sad and had no reason to listen to sad songs, but this just happened to be the song that caught me at the time. Music it just that sometimes. Lol
2017 - Greeley Estates - Calling All The Hopeless
Album: Calling All The Hopeless
I don't listen to 88.7 Radio U as much as I did when I was younger or even as much as I did 4 or 5 years ago, but if I ever go a long period without listening, I always tune back in and find a song like "Calling All The Hopeless". The message is obviously relevant to someone who has had suicidal thoughts most of his life, and I am ever grateful to find another song to battle those feelings with. What a great crusher of a tune. It seems like 13 is just a hard rock and metal number for J1. Haha.
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