Year in Review: The Best Albums of 2016

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Timothy Nguyen
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Album: All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us
Artist: Architects
Label: Epitaph
Released: May 21

British metalcore act Architects released their seventh studio effort and furthers the boundaries of the ever-stagnant genre. Heavy, technical and absolutely raw – the album draws on all the strengths of their previous Lost Forever // Lost Together before concluding on the ending track, Memento Mori, perhaps their most emotionally captivating song they’ve put out.

Unfortunately, main songwriter and lead guitarist Tom Searle passed away from cancer two months following the release leaving the fate of the band to be held up in the air.

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Album: Magma
Artist: Gojira
Label: Roadrunner
Released: June 17

French metalheads Gojira launched their sixth studio album Magma – a breath of fresh air in comparison to their earlier works with the use of clean vocals and a more atmospheric sound.

The album in itself is extremely accessible to veterans of the scene to listeners looking for their first metal album. Although stripped down and raw compared to most mainstream metal of today, Magma evokes a flurry of emotions from therapeutic to aggression in perhaps their tightest release to date.

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Album: Bad Vibrations
Artist: A Day to Remember
Label: Epitaph
Released: September 2

Having had legal troubles with their original label, Victory Records, A Day to Remember chose to self-release Bad Vibrations to warm appraisal for fans of the scene.

Known for their amalgamation of metalcore and pop-punk, listeners will find themselves moshing to a breakdown one second and then singing at the top of their lungs to a catchy chorus.

While recording this record, frontman Jeremy Mckinnon stated that he “took a step back” in regards to producing and worked more so as a band – fortunately for us, we’re able to hear the best out of every instrumentalist in this record.

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Album: Revolution Radio
Artist: Green Day
Label: Reprise
Released: October 7

Green Day has always made punk-rock accessible be it from their first mainstream success Dookie or if you’re a millennial, American Idiot.

Following the poor reception to their triple releases of Uno!, Dos! And Tre!, the Oakland rockers have found their niche again, drawing from their strongest works and arguably putting out their greatest release in a decade.

Lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong stated that the album represents the current state of violence and culture in the United States, and what an appropriate time to have been released around the abysmal 2016 election.

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Album: The Stage
Artist: Avenged Sevenfold
Label: Capitol
Released: October 28

Teasing fans since March, Avenged Sevenfold released their album to a live stream VR performance on social media.

The album itself features new drummer Brooks Wackerman (ex-Tenacious D, Bad Religion) and treads into progressive territory and astoundingly presents it in their arguably their most inspired and diverse album since City of Evil.

The Stage in itself is a concept album drawing from topics of AI to the self-destruction of society inspired by science contemporaries such as Carl Sagan and Elon Musk. Final track Exist features a 15-minute epic featuring a speech by science-extraordinaire Neil Degrasse Tyson.