Every year, like clockwork, we get asked “Heavy Blog, we know you posted your Top 50 albums of the year, and even had wicked cool guest spots (with So Hideous, Rivers of Nihil, and WRVTH this year!), but what about your personal lists? We want to see what makes up the aggregate list!”
Well, the wait is over, friends! Below, you can find our staff’s individually listed Top 10 Albums of 2015! Note that these are merely top 10 lists and do not take into account that over 300 albums were submitted and aggregated to comprise our Top 50 list!
David Aleksov
- Ontal – Entropia
- Acronym – June
- Joey Bada$$ – B4.DA.$$
- Intronaut – The Direction Of Last Things
- Kerridge – Always Offended Never Ashamed
- UVB – Life
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress
- Lakker – Tundra
- Tempel – The Moon Lit Our Path
- Shapednoise – Different Selves
Kit Brown
- Rivers of Nihil – Monarchy
- Periphery – Juggernaut
- Sumac – The Deal
- Leprous – The Congregation
- Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
- Cult Leader – Lightless Walk
- Thy Art Is Murder – Holy War
- Intronaut – The Direction of Last Things
- We Lost the Sea – Departure Songs
- Mutoid Man – Bleeder
Ryan Castrati
- Fit for An Autopsy – Absolute Hope Absolute Hell
- Dance Gavin Dance – Instant Gratification
- Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
- Good Tiger – A Head Full of Moonlight
- Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
- Periphery – Juggernaut Alpha
- Native Construct – Quiet World
- Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Multi-Love
- Mutemath – Vitals
- Counterparts – Tragedy Will Find Us
Nick Cusworth
- The Dear Hunter – Act IV
- Jaga Jazzist – Starfire
- Colin Stetson & Sarah Neufeld – Never were the way she was
- Tangled Thoughts of Leaving – Yield to Despair
- Dreadnought – Bridging Realms
- Monobody – Monobody
- Caspian – Dust and Disquiet
- Kamasi Washington – The Epic
- Pomegranate Tiger – Boundless
- Wrvth – Wrvth
Karlo Doroc
- Arcane – Known / Learned
- Steven Wilson – Hand. Cannot. Erase
- Psycroptic – Psycroptic
- TesseracT – Polaris
- Alkaloid – The Malkuth Grimoire
- Teramaze – Her Halo
- Eidola – Degeneraterra
- Good Tiger – A Head Full of Moonlight
- Caligula’s Horse – Bloom
- Gods of Eden – From the End of Heaven
William France
- Intronaut – The Direction of Last Things
- WRVTH – WRVTH
- Rolo Tomassi – Greivances
- Hope Drone – Cloak of Ash
- Native Construct – Quiet World
- A Secret Death – Epilogue
- Jaga Jazzist – Starfire
- We Lost the Sea – Departure Songs
- Tangled Thoughts of Leaving – Yield to Despair
- Chaos Divine – Colliding Skies
Kyle Gaddo
- Kubbi – Ember
- Good Tiger – A Head Full of Moonlight
- Leprous – The Congregation
- In Each Hand A Cutlass – The Kraken
- Ghost – Meliora
- Soilwork – The Ride Majestic
- Earthside – A Dream in Static
- Periphery – Juggernaut: Alpha
- Native Construct – Quiet World
- Pomegranate Tiger – Boundless
Simon Handmaker
- Eidola – Degeneraterra
- WRVTH – WRVTH
- Fit For An Autopsy – Absolute Hope Absolute Hell
- CZARFACE – Every Hero Needs A Villain
- Ghost – Meliora
- Arkaik – Lucid Dawn
- Intronaut – The Direction Of Last Things
- Behold! The Monolith – Architects of the Void
- Panopticon – Autumn Eternal
- Shahmen – All In The Circle
Ahmed Hasan
- Native Construct – Quiet World
- Gods of Eden – From the End of Heaven
- Gorod – A Maze of Recycled Creeds
- Agent Fresco – Destrier
- Leprous – The Congregation
- Alkaloid – The Malkuth Grimoire
- Our Oceans – Our Oceans
- Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
- Jaga Jazzist – Starfire
- Jamie xx – In Colour
Aly Hassab El Naby
- Between the Buried and Me – Coma Ecliptic
- Enslaved – In Times
- Leprous – The Congregation
- Rivers of Nihil – Monarchy
- Gazpacho – Molok
- Intronaut – The Direction of Last Things
- Barren Earth – On Lonely Towers
- Arcturus – Arctuarian
- Rosetta – Quintessential Ephemera
- Minsk – The Crash and the Draw
Colin Kauffman
- Agent Fresco – Destrier
- Soilwork – The Ride Majestic
- Sikth – Opacities
- Arcturus – Arcturian
- WRVTH – WRVTH
- Solution .45 – Nightmares In The Waking State
- Leprous – The Congregation
- Dreadnought – Bridging Realms
- Alkaloid – The Malkuth Grimoire
- Cryptopsy – The Book of Suffering Tome 1
Eden Kupermintz:
- Dreadnought – Bridging Realms
- A Swarm of the Sun – The Rifts
- Arcane – Known / Learned
- Elder – Lore
- Alkaloid – The Malkuth Grimoire
- Tempel – The Moon Lit Our Path
- Arcturus – Arcturian
- Soilwork – The Ride Majestic
- Of Modern Architecture – Wilderness
- Gods of Eden – From the End of Heaven
Matt Maclennan
- Murdock – Dead Lung
- Cult Leader – Lightless Walk
- Frontierer – Orange Mathematics
- KEN mode – Success
- Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
- The Black Dahlia Murder – Abysmal
- Bleak – We Deserve Our Failures
- The Armed – Untitled
- Dr Dre – Compton
- Maruta – Remain Dystopian
Scott Murphy
- Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
- Kamasi Washington – The Epic
- William Basinski – Cascade
- Colin Stetson & Sarah Neufeld – Never Were the Way She Was
- Prurient – Frozen Niagara Falls
- Young Fathers – White Men Are Black Men Too
- Mastery – Valis
- Lightning Bolt – Fantasy Empire
- Shopping – Why Choose?
- Oneohtrix Point Never – Garden of Delete
Jimmy Rowe
- Leprous – The Congregation
- Between the Buried And Me – Coma Ecliptic
- Agent Fresco – Destrier
- Native Construct – Quiet World
- Intronaut – The Direction of Last Things
- Hanging Garden – Blackout / Whiteout
- Coheed and Cambria – The Color Before The Sun
- An Autumn For Crippled Children – The Long Goodbye
- Teramaze – Her Halo
- Sikth – Opacities
Spencer Snitil
- We Lost The Sea – Departure Songs
- Intronaut – The Direction Of Last Things
- Cult Leader – Lightless Walk
- Northlane – Node
- Rivers Of Nihil – Monarchy
- Tigran Hamasyan – Mockroot
- Entheos – Primal
- Leprous – The Congregation
- Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving – Yield To Despair
- Periphery – Juggernaut
Jake Tiernan
- Bosse De Nage – All Fours
- Leviathan – Scar Sighted
- Envy – Athiest’s Cornea
- The Mountain Goats – Beat the Champ
- Wildhoney – Sleep Through It
- Drug Church – Hit Your Head
- Royal Thunder – Crooked Doors
- The Armed – Untitled
- Ostraca – Deathless
- Bandit – PLAYFASTORDIE
Noyan Tokgozoglu:
- August Burns Red – Found in Far Away Places
- Keep of Kalessin – Epistemology
- Native Construct – Quiet World
- Sikth – Opacities
- Arcturus – Arcturian
- WRVTH – WRVTH
- Trivium – Silence in the Snow
- Gods of Eden – From the End of Heaven
- Enslaved – In Times
- Good Tiger – A Head Full of Moonlight
Mark Valentino
- Cult Leader – Lightless Walk
- Caspian – Dust and Disquiet
- Intronaut – The Direction Of Last Things
- We Lost The Sea – Departure Songs
- Deafheaven – New Bermuda
- Mutoid Man – Bleeder
- So Hideous – Laurestine
- Vattnet Viskar – Settler
- Envy – Atheist’s Cornea
- Glasir – Unborn
Andrew Westlake
- Teramaze – Her Halo
- James Norbert Ivanyi – The Matter Circumvention
- Intronaut – The Direction of Last Things
- Good Tiger – A Head Full of Moonlight
- Kardashev – Peripety
- Our Oceans – Our Oceans
- Native Construct – Quiet World
- Earthside – A Dream in Static
- Pomegranate Tiger – Boundless
- Agent Fresco – Destrier
Dan Wieten
- Counterparts – Tragedy Will Find Us
- Periphery – Juggernaut Alpha
- Soilwork – The Ride Majestic
- Maruta – Remain Dystopian
- Frontierer – Orange Mathematics
- Vattnet Viskar – Settler
- The Last Ten Seconds Of Life – Soulless Hymns
- Mastery – Valis
- Eidola – Degeneraterra
- Native Construct – Quiet World
Elizabeth Wood
- Deafheaven – New Bermuda
- Settler – Vattnet Viskar
- Sannhet – Revisionist
- The Ocean/Mono – Transcendental
- Good Tiger – A Head Full of Moonlight
- Fight Amp – Constantly Off
- Caligula’s Horse – Bloom
- Pomegranate Tiger – Boundless
- TesseracT – Polaris
- Steven Wilson – Hand. Cannot. Erase.
Note that this only scratches the surfaces of our choices! Each of us submitted 50 albums for the aggregate list, so you can imagine the variety that was involved with our selections! But even our Top 10 picks are pretty telling of both our personal tastes and just how many different albums were compiled to comprise our Top 50 list!
Fun fact: William is the only person to have “correctly” chosen Heavy Blog’s #1 two years running! Last year, it was Job for a Cowboy‘s Sun Eater and this year it was Intronaut‘s The Direction of Last Things! Will he give us a threepeat in 2016? Stay tuned!
-HB