The midpoint of the year comes just after the summer solstice, which is the longest day of them all. That means the most sunshine, and metaphorically the most optimism. I'm not sure it works that way, but let's go with that for a minute. If we're being optimistic, there is still music out there overcoming out general sense of ennui, which is a harder and harder task with each passing year. That segues us nicely into...
THE GOOD
Chris C: For most of these six months, I've been lamenting the lack of albums that have made me care, thinking this could be the worst year in a downward trend. But a funny thing has happened, as a couple unexpected albums have dropped into my lap, and a couple of others have gotten better as I've listened to them more. I'm not saying the roster of good ones is remarkable or historic, but it's more satisfying than I would have told you just a month ago. My old stalwarts Avantasia put out a record that disappointed me some when it came out, but that I like much more now. It isn't one of their absolute best, but it does what I want. W.E.T. might have put out the best uplifting album in several years, so that was a wonderful step up from their last one. Then there's the surprise of A-Z, who I not only didn't care about when they put out their first record, but who added a guitarist/songwriter I have personal animosity toward, and yet the record is damn good. I've bene listening to those three a ton, as well as the three good songs from the Ghost album. We'll get to that in a moment.
D:M: You know, I feel like I haven't said this in a while at the mid-year point, but there's been a fair amount of good so far this year. To that point that I already have nine albums that I would feel pretty good about putting on some manner of year-end list. (And possibly one more, the new Helm's Deep album, which I'm listening to as I write this. It's cheeky as hell, but also very smooth and catchy in that old-school Judas Priest way that so many bands try and fail to emulate.) It's also been a satisfying mix of the new and and the familiar - newcomers to my ears like Dunes and Tayne have given me a lot to think about, while old friends Arch Enemy and Lacuna Coil both submitted strong efforts. I want to single out Year of the Cobra. I kept going back to their album from February, and I couldn't figure out why, until it finally fit me - they are, in many ways, a grunge band. Which is a) a sound near and dear to my heart, and b) a sound that after thirty years of dormancy, deserves another chance..
THE BAD
Chris C: Not yet. First, let's just say that the worst album of the year, bar none, is from The Darkness. Any album with a song about literally trying not to shit the bed is too stupid to exist. Steven Wilson wrote an album about the immense feeling of awe and wonder you get from seeing Earth from outer space... and turned that into the most boring thing you've ever heard. I also continue to be utterly flummoxed by why people think Spiritbox is a good band. I didn't even get all the way through their album without needing to turn it off. And then there's a 'pop' artist named Ethel Cain who put out a record called "Perverts", which is a modern update of how insulting Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" was. I'm not sure either can rightfully be called music.
D.M: I have a feeling you're going to have Ghost's album under the "Disappointing" category, but I'm going to drop it here. It's just bad. I suppose 'bad' is generally reserved for albums of low expectations that are of poor quality, while 'disappointing' is more for bands that didn't meet a high standard, but the first word I think of when I think of the new Ghost album is 'bad.' It's a captive animal - humbled, de-clawed and muzzled, a shadow of its wild relatives.
THE DISAPPOINTING
Chris C: This is the biggest category of the year. It starts with Ghost, who have three amazing song on their album, and the rest is as bland as the rubber masks Tobias wears to distract from how absurd Ghost has become. Dream Theater's big reunion was paint-by-numbers, not as good as most of the 'dark' period where they weren't themselves, and doubly disappointing for how it memory-holed the fact that many fans didn't like what they were doing before they split apart. Katatonia's album might be the most disappointing of them all. They went from putting out an AOTY winner to one that I barely got through enough times to write a review. I guess I was the only one who wanted them not to be a sad-ass dirge band anymore. Also disappointing were the Killswitch Engage album, and Avatarium not knowing what to do with their sound. I could go on, but let's save some space.
D.M: This is where I start to get sad. This year in particular, it feels like there a lot of musicians in this category for whom a rebound may not be possible. Their disappointing efforts this year are representative of more than a misstep. Warbringer leads the list. After this many years and this many albums, they may really be done as a creative concern, and may never regain their spark. Misfire, borne from the ashes of Diamond Plate, the same. Bumblefoot, who I adore in many of his guest appearances on other albums, released a milquetoast guitar record of no particular inspiration. Spiders remain a one-hit wonder. Volbeat...well, your review more or less said it all. I would have liked to see a more legit album from Red Fang than a compendium of previously unreleased material. There's nothing wrong with it, it's fine as it is, but that always feels like a band that's trying to get out of their record deal. The list goes on.
WHAT'S NEXT
Chris C: The big deal is, of course, the upcoming Halestorm album. The two singles so far have both been very different, but in a great way. I'm still a bit wary overall, but nothing else has my attention the way they do. In fact, I'm struggling to come up with anything else confirmed for the rest of the year I know I'm excited to hear. I know I saw a mention last year of a new Dark Element album, but nothing has come of that yet. Just going by the usual schedule, I wouldn't be shocked if a new Soen album arrived in the fall. Otherwise, I'm really not sure my focus on nostalgia is going to be turned around and focused on the future again anytime soon.
D.M:I, too, am looking forward to Halestorm. That's the biggest release in the near future that I'm concerned with. I'm curious to see if this grunge thing becomes a real revival or not. Year of the Cobra is great, but they're not alone - Pyres and Benthic both sounded like the radio station that played on my middle school bus (Z Rock, 102.3, RIP,) they just weren't great albums like YotC was. The nostalgic in me is hopeful that maybe more bands will pick up that gem and see what they can do with it. And I'm also, if I'm being honest, hopeful that we'll get some honest-to-goodness protest music. There's enough going on to merit some, as we well know.
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