New release today, Erra's Neon.

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Currently the number one metal album on iTunes' chart, Erra's Neon is the latest release from the underground metalcore act. While they've attracted a cult following, Erra rarely gets headlining tours. Neon is their newest attempt at reaching the next step.

My personal opinion is that this is the perfection of the sound the band switched to with their last release, Drift. Just as atmospheric, with little less of the chug-chug-chug of most metalcore outfits, Erra may have finally found out how to make what some call "progressive metalcore" a bit more accessible. I personally enjoy how present the bass is in the mix. Metal and hardcore both seem to forget about the instrument and put it low in the mix as an after thought. The clean vocals have always been reminiscent of post-hardcore's darling Anthony Green, and Neon is no different.

It's a little bit of a shame that we have to wait until track three to really hear some of the noodling guitar solos they are known for. In a genre more punctuated by breakdowns, Erra is a breath of fresh air when it comes to lead guitar work. But when it does happen, it is up to the standard they've put out for themselves. They seemed to have moved even further away from the djent sound of their earlier work here. I don't mind that, even if I do like djenty sounds, as I think this crisper sound is better overall for Erra. While the uncleans do hit like a truck on first listen, they stay in a mid-range throughout most of the album and it would have been nice to see them go low, as JT has been known to do live.

Overall, I gotta say this is one my favorite albums of the year so far. Every song slaps a bit, gets the head bopping along at the very least.

I was looking over some of my charts of albums recently and I thought this might be a cool idea.

If you don't know what a chart is, basically you can go here and put together a chart of up to 100 of your favorite albums to show people a quick look at your taste or whatever. I've seen people use this as favorite albums, albums that mean a lot to them but aren't necessarily their favorite, people putting custom pictures and making a list of their favorite artists, people making a chart of albums with a "theme" (food on the cover, albums about break-ups, albums of certain genres, etc.), the possibility is whatever you feel like putting together a bunch of albums/artists/anything else you can think of together to show to other people interested in them. I thought it might be a cool idea to see what other ~music users enjoy listening to.

You can also use this to show your rateyourmusic account if you have one, your last.fm, your sputnikmusic, anything pertaining to music that would be cool to look at.

Gorillaz has a new album coming out next week, is anyone else really excited?
Some of the singles already released from the album:
Humility - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5yFcdPAGv0
Sorcerez - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40xG4bMr9F4
Fireflies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCet4yrfp4o
Lake Zurich - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68JpPpSc7bs
Hollywood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgwE94KZJ7E

Of them, I think Fireflies has to be my favorite. What's yours?

What do you guys think are the best albums released so far this year? Obviously this is subjective, I'd just like to hear some of your opinions :-)

My favourites out of the ones I can remember are:

• Kids See Ghosts by Kids See Ghosts
• Egg on face. Foot in mouth. Wriggling Wriggling Wriggling. by Crywank
• Moe Moe by Moe Shop
• Little Dark Age by MGMT
• Veteran by JPEGMAFIA

Any concerts you guys plan on going to/went to within the last/next few months? Last Friday there was a Kendrick Lamar concert I went to, it was pretty fun, although there were a lot of "odd" people there. This Friday I'm going to attend a Journey/Def Leppard concert. I also plan on seeing Pouya this summer, he's an underground rapper that I like, I also want to go to an Iron Maiden concert in Germany with a close friend but I'm not sure if I should spend the money at the moment.

Are there any fans of Kanye West here? Kanye just released ye and I'm really liking it. My favourite song is probably Ghost Town, the vocals and production on that track are amazing imho. What are your thoughts?

1. brand new - the devil and god are raging inside me

post-hardcore, emo

2. nine inch nails - the downward spiral

industrial rock

3. ratboys - gn

indie rock, post-country

4. la dispute - somewhere at the bottom of the river between vega and altair

post-hardcore, screamo, spoken word

5. brand new - déjà entendu

emo, pop-punk

6. kraftwerk - radio-aktivität

prog-synth

7. this town needs guns - animals

midwest emo, math-rock

8. toe - for long tomorrow

post-rock, math-rock

9. brand new - science fiction

post-grunge, art rock

10. kraftwerk - trans europa express

prog-synth

11. american football - american football

midwest emo, math-rock

12. kent - isola

post-rock, shoegaze

13. godspeed you black emperor - f#a#infinity

post-rock, ambient

14. kraftwerk - autobahn

prog-synth, krautrock

15. godspeed you black emperor - lift your skinny fists like antennas to heaven

post-rock, drone, ambient

16. chvrches - the bones of what you believe

synthwave

17. camp cope - camp cope

indie folk

18. steve reich - music for 18 musicians

minimalism

19. weezer - pinkerton

indie rock, emo

20. now now - threads

indie rock, shoegaze

i have a rym page as well, but i rate albums on broader criteria there, so the list is a bit different

feel free to recommend stuff ^-^

Anyone have any good stuff to put on for just a chill weekend morning?

My usual go-tos are
-Salad Days and 2, Mac Demarco
-Wakin On a Pretty Daze, Kurt Vile
-Random Spotify jazz playlists
-What's Going On, Marvin Gaye
-A couple of Wilco albums

What do you guys like to play to start off a morning right?