A section for albums and bands that not enough people seem to know about, but really should.
The band are perhaps best known for their varying screamed vocal styles, dadaist lyrical content, and noisy, synth-infused, non-stop beat-your-head-against-the-wall grindcore, all while somehow managing to be at least a little catchy.
Gwen Stefani's Love. Angel. Music. Baby. was an unexpectedly influential pop record, and is one of the 2000's best.
Several members of New Found Glory have long been involved in hardcore side-projects, but kept NFG around presumably to make a living. The band's never so much as hinted at a hardcore background, but here they mix these sounds to surprising effect.
Sugar Ray hardly get respect. It's not difficult to understand why. They'll certainly never be considered cool, and nearly everything post-14:59 proved to be utterly tasteless and poorly conceived. None of this speaks to the quality of this record.
Nils Frykdahl's and Dan Rathbun's pre-Sleepytime Gorilla Museum experimental "rock"/performance art troupe is about as far out and varying as you'd expect from these guys.
In a late-career dose of inspired song-making, The Damned combine their disparate musical interests into a cohesive musical statement, unheard of in this fashion since The Damned's own 1982 release, Strawberries.
Come Clarity finds In Flames somewhere between the melodic death metal of Whoracle and the alternative sound of Soundtrack to Your Escape. The mixture here provides for a highly emotive and energetic set of songs.
There are few bands who can play as technical of music while still being able to write even halfway decent vocal melodies, never mind the truly top-notch vocal melodies (and harmonies!) contained herein.
Compared with Lithman's work in The Residents, I'd dare say this release is a bit more accessible, but don't let this fool you... This band isn't "normal" by any means.
Cynic's most experimental release, the 2011 EP Carbon Based Anatomy, is a stunning synergy of Cynic's many seemingly divergent musical interests.
Ideamen have created an impressive and cohesive musical statement with Schemata. Being one of the most accessible experimental/art rock groups puts them in a strange place: too left-of-center for most, too normal for others.
Dog Fashion Disco's Adultery is an incredible journey in sound and storytelling.
