Top Ten Albums of 2016, by David Bax
10. Insomnium – Winter’s Gate
9. Trap Them – Crown Feral
8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
7. Kvelertak – Nattesferd
6. Nails – You Will Never Be One of Us
5. Inter Arma – Paradise Gallows
4. Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas – Mariner
3. The Body & Full of Hell – One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache
2. Chance the Rapper – Coloring Book
1. Bon Iver – 22, A Million
Maybe it’s that the genre as a whole just fits my post-election mood but I had a hard time finding non-metal albums to put on my list this year. It could also be that some of this year’s most highly praised albums (Radiohead, Frank Ocean) left me mostly cold. Still, I was able to reserve my #2 and #1 picks for hope and beauty, respectively. Honorable mentions include albums by Mitski, Astronoid, Michael Kiwanuka, Anohni and Eight Bells. Dishonorable mention goes to Avenged Sevenfold for making an album that’s not very good to begin with and then having the gall to stretch it out to 73 goddamn minutes. And rest in peace to David Bowie, Leonard Cohen and Phife Dawg, who all left behind some great new music this year.