load/reload/skom not listed because they're uniformly trash.
I own City of Evil, but I never really got into them after that. I have a good friend who is a huge fan. The Stage was his AOTY in 2016.
The Stage is really good, and I'd say it's pretty different from the rest of their albums. Much more in the vein of progressive metal then metalcore. Not sure about it being AOTY material though when there was Atrocity Exhibition, ATCQ's final album, Blackstar, Moon Shaped Pool, Blonde, etc.
No, I completely agree. The Stage as an AOTY pick had me scratching my head, as 2016 was, IMO, the best year of the 2010s. It was STACKED with excellent albums. My AOTY from 2016 was, and still is, Atrocity Exhibition by Danny Brown.
ANY order is one I don't argue with. For me, Loud City Song remains my favorite of hers (and my favorite album of the '10s) because it changed my life and shaped music tastes nearly singlehandedly to this day. She is so special to me in that every one of Julia's albums has a time and place.
That's just awesome. I'm such a huge fan of hers. Aviary, HYIMW, and LCS were all in my top 50 of the 2010s (Aviary being my #3 and HYIMW at my #8). I've see her live in person (one of the best and more intimate shows I've been to), and live virtually earlier this year. I cannot wait to see what she creates next.
I would bump up great annihilator to #1 and then the top 6 or 7 are pretty interchangeable to me in any order. they're all fantastic (although those longer latter-period ones are hard to get through just on an endurance level). i'd've thrown in a swans are dead and maybe die tur ist zu somewhere.
It’s hard for me to rank the Swans discography, since there are distinct phases of the band, the earlier atonal dirges which morphed into Children of God, only to reinvent themselves with White Light, climaxing with Soundtracks, then a third phase starting with My Father Will Guide Me. They’re such different phases, idk how to compare Soundtracks to To Be Kind.
Indeed! With all the iterations of Swans, they have a truly unique discography. I discovered Swans in the early 2010s, so I guess I'm partial to that iteration a bit more.
Yeah, same for me, I’d probably put To Be Kind and The Seer at the top, and My Father would be up high too, but Leaving Meaning really did nothing for me. I’d also rank Soundtracks, Great Annihilator, Children of God and White Light up there too. If you included live albums, idk how you’d beat Public Castration Is A Good Idea. Huh, what do you know, I guess I can rank them, lol.