Sound Obsession

To borrow from a Brent Cobb album title, the dominant musical theme for me this year was "ain't rocked in a while."  Despite auditory excursions into electro, drum & bass, and country music, my craving for guitar riffage and six-string shredding was strong, and 2025 delivered.  Long time favorites like Deftones and Ghost returned with late career highlights while the next generation of Gen Z artists inspired by Gen X sounds - Doomsday, Die Spitz, and Rocket - picked up guitars and released outstanding debut albums. These are my top ten favorite albums of 2025, in alphabetical order by artist name . . . . Client_03:   Testbed_Assembly     (Client_03, 7/4/25) Electro has roots in krautrock, funk, and the cut-up rhythms of the nascent hip-hop scene - a cyborg groove built on 808s, synthesizers, and ...

Another year done and gone, and what a great year for music.  These are my top ten favorite albums of 2024, in alphabetical order by artist name . . . . 49 Winchester:   Leavin' This Holler     (New West - 8/2/24) This six-piece country rock outfit out of southwest Virginia is one of independent roots music's greatest success stories in recent years, and one of my favorites - soundtracking many a road trip and impromptu singalong.  Comfort food embodied in music.  The title of their fifth album, Leavin’ This Holler , may as well be metaphorical as it finds the band spreading their wings and reaching for wider horizons.  Following their breakout album from 2022, Fortune Favors The Bold , here we get even more expansive compositions featuring sweeping strings and thundering choirs, finding the band in more sophisticated spaces without compromising their down home Appalachian sensibility. ...

Another year done and gone, and what a great year for music.  These are my top ten favorite albums of 2023, in alphabetical order by artist name . . . . Baroness:   Stone     (Abraxan Hymns - 9/15/23) Not so long prior to 2015’s   Purple , Baroness’ excellent fourth album in a color-coded series that concluded this year, their tour bus flipped in Bath, England, resulting in both shattered bones and band lineup.     Founder and frontman John Baizley remains as the sole original member of this Savannah, GA, sludge and progressive metal group.     2017’s   Gold & Grey   introduced fans to axe-shredder extraordinaire Gina Gleason, cementing a new and now consistent dynamic that pays dividends on Baroness’ latest LP,   Stone .     As its title implies, this one is rock solid with drums and bass locked in propulsive motorik tempo, Gleason’s soari...