LISTMANIA 2019: PITCHFORK’S LIST OF THE BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2019

 LISTMANIA 2019  5 Responses »
Dec 262019
 

 

Pitchfork obviously qualifies for the part of our year-end LISTMANIA series devoted to re-publishing lists by “big platform” cross-genre music sites. Founded in 1995 by recent high school graduate Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis, it has been based in Chicago since 1999 and has been owned by the Conde Nast conglomerate since 2015. From its humble beginnings, it now boasts an audience of more than 7 million monthly unique visitors.

It’s fair to say that most of those visitors aren’t metalheads. The site’s reputation historically was closely associated with independent underground music, and in the last 10 years their Album of the Year award has gone to Kendrick Lamar three times, as well as other hip-hop artists. This year it went to Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell!.  But as you see, Pitchfork also publishes a list of the year’s best metal. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA: PITCHFORK’S LIST OF “THE BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2018”

 LISTMANIA 2018  9 Responses »
Dec 202018
 

 

The last time our year-end LISTMANIA series included a “Best Metal” list by Pitchfork was in 2015. I can’t remember why I didn’t include their list in the following two years, but most likely because I just didn’t notice it. This year, my comrade DGR alerted me to the publication of their list of “The Best Metal Albums of 2018“, and so here we are.

Pitchfork obviously qualifies for the part of our series devoted to re-publishing lists by “big platform” cross-genre music sites. Founded in 1995 by recent high school graduate Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis, it has been based in Chicago since 1999 and has been owned by the Conde Nast conglomerate since 2015. From its humble beginnings, it now boasts an audience of more than 7 million monthly unique visitors.

It’s fair to say that most of those visitors aren’t metalheads. The site’s reputation historically was closely associated with independent underground music, and in the last 10 years their Album of the Year award has gone to Kendrick Lamar three times, as well as other hip-hop artists. This year it went to Japanese-American artist Mitski. But, as you see, Pitchfork also publishes a list of the year’s best metal. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2015: PITCHFORK’S LIST OF THE BEST METAL ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

 LISTMANIA 2015  13 Responses »
Dec 222015
 

Pitchfork-Best metal Albums

 

We’re well into our own putrid site’s lists of the year’s best metal, but yesterday we got the last of the “big platform” metal lists I’ve been waiting on, and so I’m interrupting our own roll-out to bring it your way.

This one is a Top 25 list (with honorable mentions as well) prepared by Brandon Stosuy, the chief metal writer for Pitchfork. Pitchfork is a Chicago-based online music magazine, which proclaims that it is “the most trusted voice in music, celebrating and exploring emerging artists and established pioneers across all genres”. The site also claims an audience of more than 7 million unique visitors per month.

In October of this year, Pitchfork was acquired by Condé Nast, which also owns more than 20 other magazines or online brands, including Bon Apetit, The New Yorker, GQ, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Golf Digest. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2014: PITCHFORK’S LIST OF THE BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2014

 LISTMANIA 2014  19 Responses »
Dec 292014
 

 

For the last month we’ve been rolling out a multitude of year-end lists written for our site by musicians, fans, fellow bloggers, and our own humble staff, but we’re still keeping an eye open for lists that appear at what I’ve been calling “big platform” web sites, i.e., entertainment portals with big audiences that don’t cater only to metalheads. Today, Pitchfork unveiled its list of “The Best Metal Albums of 2014”.

It’s actually a collection of multiple lists, leading off with a personal Top 25 compiled by Pitchfork writer Brandon Stosuy (author of the “Show No Mercy” column), followed by separate selections by other Pitchfork metal contributors, including Kim Kelly, Zoe Camp, Grayson Currin, Jason Heller, and Andy O’Connor, as well as David Castillo of Brooklyn’s Saint Vitus bar.

After the jump, you’ll see Stosuy’s Top 25, and by following this link you can read his thoughts about each selection and listen to sample songs; the additional lists contributed by the other Pitchfork metal writers can be found at the same place.

As for the list itself, it includes many names that have been appearing, well, everywhere (e.g., YOB, Pallbearer, and Godflesh), but it also includes some names that, although deserving, will likely appeal to a much narrower slice of listeners (e.g., Thantifaxath, Teitanblood, Krieg, and Diocletian). But perhaps the biggest surprise — and a welcome one — is the album that landed in the No. 1 spot. Continue reading »