1. Discordance Axis – The Inalienable Dreamless
Grindcore redefined. It’s difficult to get into Discordance Axis because it’s so brazenly intense yet subtle. The music itself is, yes, for the most part discordant, but its shifting and bassless dynamics create an atmosphere. Jon Chang’s high shrieks and low growls emit some of the most beautiful poetry ever graced upon modern music. The inimitable Dave Witte’s blast beats and creative fills drive this beast home. Every guitar part on this record is comprehensible, clear, and avant-garde for this genre. It’s funny this is called the Inalienable Dreamless, for it is the exact opposite. “Ghosts have no shadows, they must conspire for even one. Yearning for a solid heart, I feel an angel present.”
2. Pg. 99 – Document #8
2001. Where were you? I was 11 and picking my nose. Pg. 99 was the redefinition of hardcore/emo aesthetics, with a member list as sparse as 4 and often inflating to over 11 in the live setting. The seven tracks on this (technically) LP are more than music; they represent a call to arms, a fuck not given and, most importantly, a dedication to craft I’ve never experienced anywhere else. “Punk rock should mean freedom, liking and accepting anything that you like. Playing whatever you want as sloppy as you want, as long as it’s good and it has passion.” I will never grow tired of this album.
3. Converge – Jane Doe
Converge’s magnum opus. It’s simultaneously the most aggressive, streamlined, yet otherworldly chaotic record ever committed to tape. It sparked a metalcore and graphic design revolution with its heavily xeroxed pages of its protagonist, and it’s an articulate display of a band going for the jugular every second of its running time.
4. Thursday – Full Collapse
While War All the Time found Thursday refining their sound and really impacting the musical landscape, Full Collapse is the record that started it all. Sung/screamed vocals combine with a mixture of guitar-driven styles, evoking hardcore punk and chaotic emotional bands of the 90s. It has some of the most memorable Thursday tracks (Understanding in a Car Crash, I Am the Killer… The list goes on) and it was one of my first albums I actually owned.
5. Isis – Oceanic
Shoegaze + post-rock + sludge metal + cool concept about death in the waters + the most glorious highs and heavy lows recorded to a console = Isis’ grand opus Oceanic. This is the one that launched a billion imitators. Go listen to it.
6. Modest Mouse – The Moon and Antarctica
The best Modest Mouse album this decade. Funny how some bands hit their peak once they get big. A lamentation on life, death, and the afterlife, Moon and Antarctica find Modest Mouse trading in some of their trailer-park sensibilities for a more streamlined and listener friendly approach. It’s an emotional gamut. If you, like myself, are looking for your important albums to immerse you and awe you, then look no further than this album.
7. At the Drive-In – Relationship of Command
Before Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Lavala started slugging out psychedelic prog in The Mars Volta and Jim Ward fronted Sparta, At the Drive-In dominated the post-hardcore/emo spectrum for a good part of the 1990s. Relationship of Command, the quintet’s first record for a major label and last as a band, is an explosive mixture of varying styles, from traditional Mexican dirges to bongo passages, all sewn together by intricate post-punk guitar play (courtesy of Rodriguez and Ward) and incendiary lyrics provided by Bixler. The album holds a special place in my heart and warrants at least one listen. It’s a shame these guys keep refusing to reunite.
8. Pig Destroyer – Terrifyer
This record, along with Discordance Axis’, heightened the bar of grindcore. Thrash, gallops, blasts, and beautiful lyrics combine to form the most haunting and disturbing album I’ve ever heard. It isn’t the gore that’ll get you, it’s the psychology. JR Hayes knows this, and he works his charm through a wall of beautiful noise.
9. Cursed – III: Architects of Troubled Sleep
The Toronto natives in Cursed have been crowned as the angriest and most pissed-off people in hardcore. While there may be other contenders, this could totally be true. III is angry, volatile, and seeped in grime. It’s also technically complex and lyrically brilliant. Chris Calohan’s incendiary anti-everything sentiments explode into the listener’s ears along a soundtrack of heavily layered guitars and bass, turning into a sludge you’ll listen to over and over again.
10. Envy – A Dead Sinking Story
I can’t think of the proper words to describe the impact this album’s had on me. Think of a cross between Thursday, Portraits of Past, Explosions in the Sky, and Slint. It’s an interesting concoction, but absolutely epic. This one is a breathtaker, and I haven’t heard much else that gives me as many chills.
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