Have you found any great music from any acts that have been around for no more than a decade (EDIT: let’s say their debut album is from 2013 or later)? Let’s hear 'em!
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Formed in 2017, black midi’s John L is totally my kind of shit. haha The Seussian hellscape video is amazing, too.
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Both Killer Mike and El-P are a little older than I am, but Run the Jewels debut came out in 2013. Pretty much as good as it gets for hip hop, imo.
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Cheating a touch since their debut full-length came out late 2012, but here’s Imperial Triumphant. This entire song is like “holy fucking shit”.
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I don’t think there’s been a band that has truly blown me away in well over 15 years. There’s been a handful of players of all instruments that kind of have, but the bands and songs… Not so much. Great stuff, sure. But not something I couldn’t believe I was hearing. Guitar-wise, Matteo is tops. No question. Guthrie has been around longer, but I didn’t discover him until I started playing again earlier this year. And, believe it or not, I had actually never saw or heard Shawn Lane until that point either. My old mentor mentioned him to me, but I never checked him out. I really wish I had. I feel like seeing him back when I was at the peak of my obsession with playing may very well have changed the course of my life, lol I’m far more impressed with the technical advancement in what drummers can do. Some of the staples of “Technical Brutal Death Metal” and “Brutal Technical Death Metal” (if you know, you know, haha) didn’t really exist, at least not to my knowledge in the early 2ks. I swore what I was hearing was a drum machine or Beat Detective, but turns out… Some of those dudes can actually play it for real!!!
I listen to more Hip-Hop than anything else and have for the last 10 years or so. I’ve been an El-P stan since Company Flow and have yet to not love something he’s put out. I’d heard about Killer Mike prior to RTJ but never listened. He’s amazing as well. Kendrick is the only other Hip-Hop artist in recent memory that I’m a die-hard fan of. I grew up on the “golden age” so De La, ATCQ and Wu-Tang are tops in my book, but rappers like Pharoahe Monch and his group Organized Konfusion are right up there with those. I’d say my favorite rapper overall is Aesop Rock. I think a super group with Aesop Rock, El-P and Eminem could make the best Hip-Hop record ever!! Eminem is a very close 2nd, embarrassing as that is to say, but I don’t need or want the old Em that he was known for in what’s considered his best work. I want to hear him go ape shit because someone no one has ever heard of pissed him off. That’s the Em I like. And I think that trio, since neither El-P nor Aesop need him, they could push him to be the best version of himself.
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Rap was nearly all I was into until I picked up the guitar as a teen in 1994, at which point I went as far in the other direction as possible. haha But yeah, I was mostly into the east coast guys, and for more recent stuff, aside from the dudes you mentioned, I love MF DOOM (RIP) and dig Danny Brown. Still, all guys my age or older, haven’t been blown away by any young peeps.
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How could I forget: New Zealand’s Heavy Metal Ninjas! Dropped one album in 2013 and basically disappeared, though I try to keep track of what Richie Allan is up to. Really cool shit, imo - instrumental stuff that’s like a mix of Vai and djent.
Personal fave off the record:
I grew up on the old stuff and vividly remember my cousin giving me a tape with “Pickin’ Boogers” by Biz Markie and “Fat Girl On My Jock” by Easy E. I was in Junior High School since they were basically joke songs, how could I not be a fan, lol I didn’t really know about NWA or Ice T until much later but my Big 3 NY groups have been in rotation since they debuted!!
Something I noticed years and years later was the similarities in the lore of 2 of my all time favorites: Carcass and Wu-Tang. I remember “learning” that Carcass were all medical students that worked with cadavers used their textbooks for lyrics and their own photos for album covers and they’re vegetarian and… How the hell did we find this mostly fake shit out? And with Wu, it was the implied lore because of the liner notes and those wicked photos. It was so freaking cool to talk about this stuff with other fans because none of knew anything but it all seemed plausible, hahaha.
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Big fan of Carcass, too, and they definitely had me checking the dictionary frequently. Descanting the insalubrious!? haha
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Lovebites
Awesome power metal band from Japan, these ladies kick serious ass. I hope they tour stateside soon.
Deafheaven
(debut came out in 2011 but it flew under the radar)
I had a free XM subscription in an old car I had and I was listening to LiquidMetal when this came on and changed how I viewed extreme music forever. It turned black metal into my favorite extreme metal subgenre. The second best “blackgaze” band after Alcest.
Amaranthe
(debut came out in 2011 but I saw them open for Within Temptation in 2014 and they put on a great show)
What happens when you throw power metal, melodeath, metalcore, symphonic metal, and electro/europop in a blender?
This happens and its annoyingly catchy in a way only Swedes can craft melody. Nothing super sonically groundbreaking but the summed disparate styles that should never work together like this but they do.
Sturgill Simpson
he’s loosely part of the new wave of “outlaw” country performers of the 2010s that reject the bland pop country stylings that have kept the genre hostage since Garth Brooks and Shania Twain were printing money for Nashville in the 90s.
This album is one I keep coming back to. It reminds me of the country version of what ZZ Top did with Eliminator fusing blues rock with synth pop. Still hugely disappointed that the world shut down like 2 days before I was supposed to see the tour date for this album.
MadGibbs
(or whatever the collab between legendary hip hop producer Madlib and Gary Indiana rapper Freddie Gibbs is called)
They’ve been making a planned trilogy of albums since 2014. Two are released and one more to come. A real breath of fresh air in the mumble rap era. Madlib’s amazing soul beats and Freddie is the first post 50 Cent gangsta rapper that doesn’t feel like a parody of the genre.
@Riffdiculous DOOM passing was the whipped cream dog turd on top of the year that was 2020.
At least we got this towards the end of his time on Earth.
Moonlight Sorcery
Epic/Melodic Black Metal from Finland, awesome neoclassical soloing. Reminds me of a black metal version of early Children of Bodom. I just discovered them like a month ago and they reignited me listening to new music. Refreshing fantasy lyrics in a genre that lyrically became a parody of itself long ago.
Panopticon
(breaking the criteria a bit with this one but this album onward is almost like a rebirth for this artist)
black metal meets bluegrass complete with covers of traditional coal miner unionization anthems. As someone that lives in Appalachia this one is very near and dear to me.
Paysage D’Hiver
(this is another technicality he’s been releasing demos since the later 90s but his first proper album came out in 2020)
What does being trapped on a snowy mountain alone in the dark surrounded by fantastical beasts sound like? This, it sounds like this. Top tier atmospheric black metal.
Oliver Anthony
No. 1 on the charts with no label support, with a song with real lyrics about real issues, causing a massive shit storm and backlash from said industry. I welcome the coming death of the music industry as we know it once the middle man is cut out.
I look forward to seeing where his career goes he set off a nuclear bomb on the gatekeepers of the music industry.
He’s already made instrument makers of resonator guitars a lot of money since they are like sold out everywhere.
Edit: I knew I could think of more if I tried.
Thulcandra
Necrolord album covers: check
Icy riffs a la 90s swedish melodic blackened death metal bands: check
Production that doesn’t sound like it was a recorded on a fisher price kids toy: check
A pity they don’t tour more often because Steffen Kummerer is busy in Obscura.
Jason Isbell
sure he’s been doing his thing since mid 00s with the Drive By-Truckers where he wrote several masterclasses in songwriting like “Outfit” and “Decoration Day”
Southeastern in 2013 and onward was like a whole new level after he got clean. I don’t even know how to put into words the level of songwriter he is. Hearing “Elephant” for the first time is like hearing Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt” for the first time, absolutely devastating.
He’s no slouch at guitar either. Absolutely unfair for someone to have this much talent.
Молчат Дома (Molchat Doma)
Belarusian post punk band.
I’m a huge fan of 80s artists like Depeche Mode and New Order so this band ticks all the boxes. Saw them live earlier this year and they are a very good live band as well. Этажи(Etazhi) is a fantastic album. Lots of usage of classic synthesizer sounds abound, minimoog, 808s, etc.
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Carcass wrote the best song about heartbreak of the 2010s in a way only Carcass can.
Always love the ones you hurt
Passion killer with no time to mourn
Cold comfort that your heart is torn
I wish you hell - sealed with a kiss
Tenderized twelve ounces of flesh
Love is a void a wound in the chest
Never open your heart worn on your sleeve
Sweet affection lip service to the bereaved
I am no ones property
In no others do I trust
For there is no true love
Only varying degrees of lust
Coronary deceased
Pitiless piety
Despicable cardiology
A rapture in purulence
Solid cast heart, metallic annealed
In surgical
Steal your heart your true soulmate
The best vengeance is living well
Love is a bitch it maims to please
I’ll see you again once more down on your knees
We all wear the culled bull’s feather
Senseless wittols of mistrust
For there is no true love
Only varying degrees of lust
Myocardiam depletes
Detestible pathology
Seventy two beats per minute desist
Ruptured in purulence
Solid cast heart, metallic annealed
In surgical steel
Exiled on maim street
Don’t tell me that you want
Don’t tell me that you need
Don’t tell me that you love
Don’t tell me that you care
Don’t fool yourself
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Music to make you sick! That’s just brilliant shit right there!!
MF Doom might be to rap what Buckethead is to guitar music… Might have to think about that for a bit but it seems right lol
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Medical horror in metal is always scarier than xyz edgelord occult, fantasy, gore lyrics.
I’m still partially traumatized from Metallica’s One as a kid.
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I just discovered Jimmy Herring; I love that guy’s playing/music!