The decade in albums, part 5

75. Moonsorrow, Verisakeet (2005)

5 huge tracks delivering the most epic, blackened folk metal you could ever imagine, sprinkled with mesmerizing interludes of crackling wood and crowing birds. It all flows so organically.

74. Sine Nomine, This Machine is Malfunctioning (2003)

Grind is something I usually hate. It sounds to me like short, cold exercises in calculated speed, with horrible vocals screamed indiscernibly over the music. Sine Nomine proved grind could be more. Instead of quick songs, they play lengthy grind that incorporates elements of screamo, making for a much more pleasant sounding grindcore.

73. Future of the Left, Travels with Myself and Another (2009)

A hard rock dance album. These angry songs are witty and funny musings on all things stupid and banal, while also being really catchy. "Arming Eritrea" is a hard hitting anthem that immediately establishes the album as real force of drunken power.

72. Boris, ...At Last -Feedbacker- (2003)

Boris drone metal masterpieces is one of the many genres of heavy, loud music they've managed to successfully navigate over their many years. I don't know how they manage to be so consistent while never sitting still stylistically, but they really pull it off.

71. Majority Rule, Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Heavy hardcore punk/screamo with dual vocalists with very scary voices. They play expressive violence that has been heavily influential since its release.

70. Dillinger Four, Situationist Comedy (2002)

Dillinger Four's pop punk masterpiece is perfect all the way through, but it's opener "Noble Stabbings!" is their magnum opus, a two minute to remind everyone that punk can be simultaneously powerful, rebellious, and and fun as hell.

69. Lucero, Lucero (2001)

Lucero's brand of alt-country has never changed, so it makes sense that their debut was their best. Perfectly realized ballads of loss, love, guitars, bar fights and road trips. There's an inherent sadness in Ben Nichol's drawl that makes this album a staggering work of honest emotion.

68. Desaparecidos, Read Music/Speak Spanish (2002)

Conor Oberst briefly put off another Bright Eyes album to make an angry indie emo album about the banality and stupidity of the middle class and suburban nightmare. It's amazingly on point and surprisingly heartfelt, and proves that maybe Oberst's talents really belong in a heavier outfit.

67. The Lawrence Arms, The Greatest Story Ever Told (2003)

Drunken pop punk from Chicago featuring two vocalists who both write at varying degrees of quality. Most of this album is amazing dark pop punk, while a few songs are actually terrible. Luckily those goods songs are seriously good.

66. L'Antietam, Arthur Carr (2007)

Harcore infused screamo from a few really young guys who shouuld not be able to write as well as they do. Short songs that pack enough build and emotion to get your heart pumping.

65. Botch, We are Romans (2000)

Released on New Years Day, 2000, this has remained one of the most important and influential metalcore releases ever made. Members from this went on to create such amazing bands as Blood Brothers, Pretty Girls Make Graves, and Minus the Bear.

64. The Spectacle, Rope or Guillotine (2004)

Briliant crust-punk from Norway.These songs are long, loud, and crushing. Anarchy is stupid, but these guys make it sound so good. I got to play with this group. Their live show was hauntingly good.

63. Mount Eerie, Wind's Poem (2009)

Phil Evrum's "black metal" album is totally not a black metal album, it just features layered, distorted guitar playing. It's a dark, lo-fi masterpiece similar to The Glow, Pt 2, but recorded much deeper in that cave of his. The result is even more moving than his Microphones output.

62. Morrisey, You are the Quarry (2004)

All comeback albums need to be this good. Morrisey's brand of pop is as good as his work immediately following the Smiths on this record.

61. The National, Boxer (2007)

A haunting, dark rock record. The vocalists brings to mind Ian Cutis if Curtis was in a band that sounded really good was able to actually evoke emotion, like Boxer does so amazingly well. This record is quiet for the most part, making the few explosions even more powerful. Fucking "Apartment Story", right?