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I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed it! Rock on!

My pleasure. Great work! I look forward to hearing more from you in the future and checking out some of your older material.

Thanks! Rock on!

I haven't heard much thrash metal this year but I do like some good thrash from time to time. What are some of the best thrash metal albums you heard this year?

@@deathbyunicorn Here's my favourite 15 of the year, a mix of old school thrash, prog-thrash, black-thrash and death-thrash. All excellent imho - 1 Anarchy - The Spectrum Of Human Emotion 2 Fracture - Chaos Alchemy 3 Blasteroid - Crypts Of Mind 4 Dead Tree Seeds - Toxic Thoughts 5 Chephreon - Dark Tales From The Deep Lakes 6 Morbid Saint - Swallowed By Hell 7 Torrefy - Necronomisongs 8 Refore - Illusion Of Existence 9 Anarchy - Xenotech And The Cosmic Anarchy 10 Cosmic Jaguar - El Era Del Jaguar 11 Andralls - Universal Collapse 12 The Troops Of Doom - A Mass To The Grotesque 13 Suicidal Angels - Profane Prayer 14 Holycide - Towards Idiocracy 15 Aoryst - Relics Of Time

@@petegreenfield3645 thanks! Surprisingly, I haven't heard any of those yet. I like thrash but it's not my main genre and I really focused on prog, metalcore, post-hardcore, indie/alternative/art rock, black metal, death metal, power metal, jazz fusion, hard rock and post-rock this year.

Thanks for the kind words! Rock on! I'll probably do black metal next.

Good call. I added these to the video description. I'm far too busy/lazy to do a lot of video editing to put them in the video itself but getting them into the description seems like a fair compromise: 1. Intervals - Memory Palace 2. Richard Henshall - Mu Vol. 1 (EP) 3. Syncatto - Fiction 4. The Omnific - The Law of Augmenting Returns 5. Wombat Supernova - Apewoman vs. Turbo

There's always somebody who listens to more! I should add these to the description but a mixture of laziness and thinking people won't watch the video as long if the list is there made me not do it. But I'll share the list with you here for reference: 1. Intervals - Memory Palace 2. Richard Henshall - Mu Vol. 1 (EP) 3. Syncatto - Fiction 4. The Omnific - The Law of Augmenting Returns 5. Wombat Supernova - Apewoman vs. Turbo

Oh yes thanks for the tip on that one. They weren't on my listening list until you mentioned them!

Hi Scot. I just saw your Opeth review too! Great review! I didn't think we'd ever hear a new album with growls from Opeth ever again but I'm happy we did! I know growls aren't your thing but I think Mikael is one of the best in the business of growls. I love the wacky composition style here too which is very different from everything else they've done. Really fun to listen to but not very accessible or memorable in terms of hooks for casual listeners.

​@@deathbyunicornthat's why it's good. Albums that are immediately accessible and catchy quickly become boring

@@MartinaHorvat-g3g I agree this Opeth album is good. Better than good even! I'd say it's a masterpiece! Good point about immediately accessible and catchy sometimes becoming boring. There's some truth to that but I don't think that's always the case. An example that comes to mind to me is Moving Pictures by Rush which I think is immediately accessible and catchy but never becomes boring to me cause it's also really interesting and unique.

@@deathbyunicorn I know Rush are a good band, unfortunately I'm addicted to the baritone voice so I don't like listening to them. But I agree, it's not a rule that affordable albums become boring quickly, but I think it has something to do with how developed your hearing is, someone is capable very quickly accept more complicated music

Thanks for the recommendations. Those both sound pretty cool but were not on my radar at all!

Thanks for sharing your list. I've only heard 2 of those (Frost* and Blood Incantation) and they were both in my list so I'll have to check some of those other ones out. Also I see you make your own music so I subscribed. I'm always interested in checking out and supporting independent musicians.

​@deathbyunicorn hope you enjoy any of my list that you listen to! Not all of it is rock/metal/prog but great music, regardless, IMO. And thanks for the sub and support! I haven't been able to record my music for a few years due to family obligations but it is one of my passions, for sure! Take it easy and I'll be checking out your future videos. Cheers

@@jeremysette3657 Cool. I dabble in some stuff outside rock/metal/prog from time to time. Like jazz fusion, pop, electronic and very occasionally I'll try out a hip hop, funk, classical or bluegrass album. I Googled the genres of the artists you mentioned. Most are in genres that I listen to but Leon Bridges might be a bit outside my norm if its more like soul meets country/folk like wikipedia says. Could be cool though. I'm also an amateur musician and put up some of my tracks on my channel and my bandcamp here: death-by-unicorn.bandcamp.com/album/heal-your-mind. I also find it hard to find time due to work and family obligations. Here's hoping more time will free up for us for music making in the future. If you're ever looking for a guitarist to do a remote collaboration with on a track, I'd be interested. Looks like you play keyboards right? Maybe I'll want a keyboard feature in a future track of mine one day.

​@@deathbyunicorncool man! I'll keep that in mind! I'd be happy to collaborate at some point

I hear you on that. My RUclips channel is entirely dedicated to me exploring new music in Metal, Rock and Prog. Last year I listened to over 400 new albums that came out but I still saw many other people have metal/rock/prog albums in their "best of the year" picks that I hadn't heard and where I never even heard of the artist. Before 2021, I hadn't heard of any artists I included on this Top 10 Albums of Oct 2024 list besides Devin Townsend and Frost. Hopefully some of the albums on this list sound interesting to you and you enjoy them. Of course, nobody will ever be able to hear everything but, the way I see it, I want to find as many masterpieces or near masterpieces as I can that will stay in heavy rotation for the rest of my life and continue to blow my mind every time I hear them.

Maybe I'd be more into the Tears for Fears live recordings if I saw the visuals too. Iotunn and Von Hertzen Brothers are ones I recommend you hear. Kings of Mercia's album is fine and good but just as forgettable for me as the first one. I felt the same as you about their first one. And I also love Fates Warning (maybe not as big a fan as you are but I enjoy a lot of their stuff).

Oh yes and I saw your review video as well. I still haven't heard their older stuff yet though but maybe I'll check that out if you think I'd enjoy it.

Worth a listen for curiosity's sake for sure. I don't really listen to bluegrass music cause it's not really my style but there are a couple exceptions to that like Nickel Creek and The Native Howl cause they both do it in such a different and interesting way.

Thanks for the sub! I'm already looking forward to making my year end list version of this video which I hope to post in December sometime.

Thanks! Those sound like albums I definitely want to hear! Adding them to my list.

Thanks! I just listened to Consider the Source based on your recommendation and that was some great instrumental prog rock! Tim Bowness I'm sure will be good cause he's a solid musician but Electropop isn't usually my thing. I though his album Butterly Mind from 2022 was good but it didn't make me want to go back to it much. Some of the No-man stuff he does with Steven Wilson is very good too but it never quite reaches the excellence of Porcupine Tree or Steven Wilson's solo work for me. Maybe I'll listen to House of Protection instead and I'll avoid that Charly Garcia.

Oh yes Rhythm of Time has long been my second favourite of his after Wired for Madness but might be my 3rd favourite now cause I like this newest one. Listen and Feeding the Wheel are my 4th and 5th favourites but I don't recall them being on the same level as my top 3. I might have to go back to Feeding the Wheel cause I don't remember it that well.

Aside from those he tends to have a lot of more Classical music focused albums that are still good but I don't like them as much cause I like his prog rock stuff better.

Thanks for the recommendation on Circe Link & Christian Nesmith's Arcana. I didn't hear about it until I saw you mention it and it's excellent stuff. Bent Knee might now be past their prime for me and Ben Levin's absence could be a factor but the new album is still an enjoyable listen and I think better than the last one. Tigran Hamasyan's new album is very long but it's very fascinating and he plays like no other piano player I've ever heard.

If you like Metallica and Genesis and want to get into prog metal, I'd honestly start with Dream Theater's 1999 album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. It doesn't have any of the post-hardcore stuff that it sounds like you're not sure about, it's all clean vocals and it's a concept album that flows nicely from start to finish. Post-hardcore on the other hand which I think of as separate from prog metal but related as some bands combine both is a tricky genre to get into especially if you don't like harsh screaming vocals or don't like higher pitch emo-style vocals. Do you like either of those vocal styles?

@@deathbyunicorn I have listened to Dream Theatre and I love them, I just really don't like how most of prog metal now is just djent and stuff idk

@@foolishfool8683 Do you like Opeth, Tool, Mastodon, Leprous or Symphony X? None of them sound like djent to me. If you like Opeth and like death growls, Piah Mater and In Vain are other great bands to check out. For something like Dream Theater, try Vicinity. For something like Mastodon meets Opeth, try Anciients. If you like Leprous, try Kingcrow. If you like Symphony X, try Sunburst. If you like Tool, try Wheel and Intimate Plan.

@@foolishfool8683 I agree there's a lot of djent sounding stuff now and it can get tiring but there's lots of other stuff out there too.

@@deathbyunicorn Yeah, thanks for all the suggestions, its eaiser to be negative tbh

I just listened to that Circe Link & Christian Nesmith album and thought it was excellent. Thank you for the recommendation! I know i have to go back to hear the old Pure Reason Revolution stuff. I think if I really like the new one, I'll be even more inspired to go back to all the old stuff.

I expect Jon Anderson and Meer to be albums you'll greatly enjoy. Meer in particular. Simone Simons, I assume you'll probably find it good enough but not something to go back to again and again.

I'm not sure actually. He used to be very active and post videos regularly and also commented on many of my videos but looks like he hasn't posted a video in over a year and I haven't seen him in my comment section for a while. Hopefully he starts making content again someday!

@@deathbyunicorn major bummer!!! I liked that dude.

Happy to hear it! The funny thing is I hadn't even heard of half of the bands I mention in the video a week ago. There are lots of good sites online that list upcoming new releases and I listen to advance singles for any that look like they might be interesting to me and put my favourite 2-7 of those each week on a list of albums to listen to on Spotify/Bandcamp/RUclips or whatever streaming site they will be available on then I listen and give my first impressions. Then I learn a bunch of new favourite bands that way that I start following throughout their career and now have hundreds of bands that I'll be watching out for in the future.

There are also some great fellow RUclipsrs that recommend a lot of great music. Anything that people like Notes Reviews, Rhyme Signatures, Nathan on Shuffle, The Prog Corner, AllMediaReviewsPodcast and others like them talk about and give praise to are usually things I'll like.

Thanks for those 3 recommendations. I'll check those out and see if they're for me. King Giz is so prolific. I found from 2016's Polygondwanaland to 2021's Butterfly 3000, they could do no wrong and every release was a near masterpiece for me. In 2022 and 2023 they release so many albums though (7 albums over that 2 year period) and some weren't as high quality as what they've done before but some were amazing.

I listened to that SJS album today and it's excellent! Very beautiful music!

Thanks. I didn't agree with that either. I was surprised by that pick but always interested to hear different perspectives. It seems even people with very similar tastes in music can rank discographies completely differently.

@@deathbyunicorn Yeah, that's why I love listening to others. And Porcupine Tree is a great band.

I have to hear more stuff from Return to Forever and Ours. I'm discovering too many great bands through comments on my videos, watching other RUclips channels that I can't even keep up! Since I listened to so many albums this year, not sure if Ours will make my list even though I really enjoyed it. There's just been so much good stuff!

agreed. I always enjoy the extensive amount of new releases he talks about.

Thanks! It's much appreciated to hear that from both you and Kyle from AllMediaReviewsPodcast as I enjoy a decent amount of both of your videos. You've got some slick visuals in yours with all the bar graphs that show you really put some thought into your videos as well. As a data nerd who likes graphs and spreadsheets and a music fan, I can appreciate that! I just listen to music and write a couple sentences about each album and put it in one of my tiers but I also keep some spreadsheets too. I think you'll enjoy Coming of Age.

@@AllMediaReviewsPodcast we should try to get The Rock Music Guy on a future collaborative video together with the 3 of us (or even more people if you like) if you're both interested in that. He seems to talk more about older stuff but maybe the ELP or Queen album tier list idea we had in the past could be a good topic for us if you're both interested in talking about those bands. I'm a bit hard to schedule with a toddler at home but am interested in making it happen one day if we can do it in an evening after my son's gone to bed. Shoot me an email anytime to deathbyunicornakabrennen@gmail.com if either of you have any collaborative video ideas.

I checked out the latest Willow album after our roundtable and was very impressed with that. Don't know as much about Dirty Loops, Jazzkamikaze or The Reign of Kindo but now I'll have to look out for those. Thanks for the tips!

@@deathbyunicorn Highly recommend this Jazzkamikaze album that was gone from streaming for quite a while: Supersonic Revolutions ruclips.net/p/OLAK5uy_lKUxHrFnEV2as-Ovc3tnr0MNh4NxXrCxI

Interesting picks. I heard the EP by The Radicant and enjoyed it. I only listened to 1 track from the Al Di Meola album so far and enjoyed that too so I'll plan to listen to the whole album tomorrow. Never heard of the other 2. Don't usually like slam but maybe I'll give that a shot. African prog metal sounds interesting though.

Thanks! If you like any progressive metal, progressive rock, metalcore or post-hardcore, this list will have something you'll enjoy for sure. I know some fans of older music don't like a lot of the newer metal that has harsh vocals so there's a bit of that on my list that you'd have to be ready for and open to but there's also a lot on my list that doesn't have any harsh vocals. I do listen to a lot of new music every week to be able to put lists like these together (over 200 albums this year already). That's the main motivation of my channel: helping people find new music they'll love. So I'm very glad to hear anyone appreciating all that listening I've been doing!

@@deathbyunicorn Have already been listening to Izz and and am a fan! Yeah, I'm not a big fan of a lot of modern music. Cooking monster vocals turn me off and a lot of prog metal sounds soulless; just being able to play instruments a thousand notes per second doesn't necessarily make good music. But you give so much good info on each release I should be able to pick and choose. Thanks again!

@@therockrollsoapbox6075 Izz is a great choice to start with cause they sound the most like a 1970s band out of any on my list.

Thanks for sharing! It's interesting to hear the back story. I'm glad they were able to do something during covid. It would have been interesting to hear them go outside of their comfort zone and try to make an album of original music remotely. Turning to Crime is still good and worth a listen for fans of Deep Purple. For me, since it's just covers and it's just good, it's just not something I'll go back to much when compared to the rest of their output which I'd consider very good to excellent to near masterpiece in quality.

Mate, a remotely written and recorded new original material album? Was never going to happen. Why change a very successful formula that has worked well since 1968? 21 studio albums up to that point. No one in Purple turns up with a completed/written song, all of their original material comes from a live jam session of all members (everyone feeds off the energy of each other, their words, not mine), I’ve met them a few times, really nice guys! Even today they record all together, every Deep Purple studio album is actually a recording of a ‘live’ group session. It’s not like a lot of bands where each member might record separately, then put it together later. I suppose that’s part of who Purple are, they play live on stage and play live in the studio too. Turning to Crime was less about making an album for the public, but more about keeping active during Covid. Fair to say they’ve earned the right to keep doing it their way after 56 years. Cheers from Oz,

@@johnnewman366 yes they are legends so have earned the right to do it their way for sure.

Thanks for the recommendation of Ours and some other albums to dive into!

Great picks. We have some overlap!

All great. I think you'll like them all. The only one there that I didn't love immediately was One More Night by Red Handed Denial. It doesn't give a complete picture of the variety on the album but no one song does. It's one of the more pop-sounding tracks that is more vocal centric and doesn't showcase their instrumental chops as much but it's grown on me cause it's so catchy and the vocals are so good.

Awesome. I like that one a lot too. I still need to check out their earlier work. Have you heard their debut album and, if so, do you think it's as good as Manifesto?

@@deathbyunicorn Personally I prefer the newer album, but the debut album is strong, the production just isn;t as clean. Keep up the good work man!

@@brian6556 thanks!

Maybe I'll have to give We Ascend a second listen. I only listened once so far. Never heard Weather Systems either. Thanks for the tip!

Same here. It's a bit on the "pop" side for my usual taste but the songs are all really catchy and enjoyable and they have some fun guitar riffs that keep it more musically interesting than most poppy hard rock.

I considered putting Alcest on this list but they just fell short of it for me. I think Judas Priest's release was from March rather than June but I do love it and would certainly put it on the list. I haven't listened to Wormwood and Cistvaen so I'll have to keep my eyes and ears open for those ones. Thanks for the suggestions.

Thanks for the suggestion. I did list the artists in the description if you want to see the names but not the timestamps. I was definitely too lazy for that this time!

@@deathbyunicorn Yes you did! Don't know how I missed that. Gotta say, you have some eclectic tastes for rather obscure stuff. Very interesting.

@@therockrollsoapbox6075 I'll take that as a compliment. Thanks! I just watched your Dream Theater video cause I'm a big Dream Theater fan and figured I'd give you a subscribe. Looks like you like a lot of bands that I love such as: Rush, Pink Floyd, Queen, Queensryche, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin. But yes I also like a lot of obscure stuff too. I've been trying to keep up with a lot of new stuff as it comes out so I can find the gems so you can probably find a lot of great stuff you'll like on my channel.

@@deathbyunicorn Yeah, I've started my channel with the bands I love the most and have huge collections. I own more music by DT than any other band; but I wouldn't call them my favorite. I like tons of music. But not like you; I mean I've never even heard of any of the bands you cited on your top albums of June. I'm older than you (58) and I feel I'm ignorant of a lot of music from last 20 years so your channel is helpful in finding new music. Will definitely be checking out more of your vids.

I mentioned Dave Foster Band in my "Albums coming in June 2024" video for sure. I may have also mentioned them when they released Glimmer in 2023 but I don't recall for sure. I heard the Pure Reason Revolution single and liked it. Haven't heard those others yet. I've been maintaining my 2024 list as the year goes but there's a lot of releases that are really close in quality so some of the ordering is a bit of a toss up and sometimes I just pick whichever band I like more if the albums are otherwise equal. Do you have a date set for the midseason zoom vid?

@@deathbyunicorn I thought we were going to try and do the Zoom on Monday Evening July 15th? I forget, but I'm not working on Tuesday the 16th, so that was 1 reason why. 1 of those 2 days. I dunno, we probably should figure it out soon and talk to the others.

All worth hearing. I'm pretty curious to hear more Pepe Deluxe. I think it's a good thing when the music is fascinating but you're not too sure about it. Usually that type of music grows on me. I felt a bit like that with HMLTD's The Worm and most music by Mr Bungle which is crazy but really fun. Maybe I should try Queen of the Wave next.

I still have yet to check out older stuff by Barock Project. I don't know Judgment Day but do know Apocalyptica. That would've been cool to see The Kind City and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. I feel like I'd enjoy that show. I didn't realize they had a Bubblemath connection. I love Bubblemath!

Thanks for sharing those 5! I had 3 of them on the list already but I didn't have Sunburst. I just checked out the single, Hollow Lies, and now they're on my list cause I enjoyed that. I'm not as sure about listening to the Anvil album. I listened to the single, Feed Your Fantasy, and the main riff sounds like a slower version of Woman by Wolfmother and it was giving me really cheesy vibes. I don't know much other stuff by them though so maybe they're good?

@@deathbyunicorn Anvil used to be better in the olden days (Metal on Metal) and when they got their resurgence with their documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil. I mean it is very cheesy quasi-thrash stuff and they seem to put out the same record every single time but still an enjoyable romp. Here's one that took me by surprise today: Ætheria Conscientia - The Blossoming

@@FranticDav Ætheria Conscientia's going on my list too. I checked out 1 song and sounds like some great progressive atmospheric black metal.

Replacire is solid techdeath. I don't like all techdeath generally but I like all albums The Faceless put out and Replacire scratched that itch. Nice Marillion connection there with Dave Foster Band! The Kind City sounds cool. Just listened to 1 song. I'll have to check out that album. Great underground gem there. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the tip. I see it has Derek Sherinian and Simon Phillips who I enjoy so I'll check it out.

Fair enough. I don't think they would appeal to everybody. Is it the vocals that you can't get into or the instrumental side/composition? I think for many people, the vocals will take some warming up to before it clicks.

@@deathbyunicorn that's a good question. Over the past 2 years I've moved into finding instrumental versions of bands like periphery as an example and have been listening more to groups like Intervals and Buckethead mostly because I'm a guitar guy and am trying let those influences sink in. I can't do that with some bands because the vocals are so much apart of the songs they feel empty without them. Metallica being one of those examples.

@@YOUCANTDOTHATONTELEVISION Nice. Animals as Leaders and Intervals are my favourite instrumental bands.