Immortal Reviews' Top 50 Songs Of 2018

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Immortal Reviews' Top 50 Songs Of 2018

Our official Top 50 Songs of 2018 list, featuring Mike Shinoda, Travis Scott, Logic, Muse, and more!

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Immortal Reviews' Worst 50 Albums Of 2016

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Immortal Reviews' Worst 50 Albums Of 2016

You've seen the best, now check out our least favorite albums of 2016.

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3rd Quarter Of 2016 In Music - Wrap-Up

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Perhaps a bit overdue, but better late than never. Here's a summary of what we listened to in the third quarter of 2016 (July - September) and links to albums we've reviewed.

5-Star Albums (85 - 100)

4-Star Albums (65 - 84)

3-Star Albums (45 - 64)

2-Star Albums (25 - 44)

1-Star Albums (0 - 24)

  • None!

Throwback Reviews

 

Top Albums Of 2016 (so far)

  1. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
  2. AURORA - All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend
  3. Panic! At The Disco - Death Of A Bachelor
  4. Deftones - Gore
  5. Dream Theater - The Astonishing
  6. Foxes - All I Need
  7. Sin Fang - Spaceland
  8. Daughter - Not To Disappear
  9. Gojira - Magma
  10. Thrice - To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere

Top Songs Of 2016 (so far)

  1. AURORA - 'Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) (Acoustic)'
  2. Radiohead - 'True Love Waits'
  3. Deftones - 'Hearts/Wires'
  4. Radiohead - 'Daydreaming' *
  5. Panic! At The Disco - 'Emperor's New Clothes'
  6. Foxes - 'Better Love'
  7. Lacey Sturm - 'Rot'
  8. AURORA - 'Through The Eyes Of A Child'
  9. Deftones - 'Phantom Bride'
  10. Thrice - 'Black Honey'

As always, thank you so much for reading our reviews and visiting our website! If you don't want to miss out on any reviews, check out our social media: we're on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr!

Of Mice & Men - Cold World

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If something in 2016 earns the privilege of being tagged as "nu metal", you know it's going to be a disaster. Of Mice & Men have done it. 2013's Restoring Force was a powerful and emotional record, full of anger and loss. You could feel its big moments bombarding you and you'd remember them vividly.

Their fourth album Cold World is not Restoring Force. It doesn't even sound like Of Mice & Men. It's a bunch of songs that bring to question where the line is drawn between "influenced by" and "copied from". It started with the lead single 'Pain' (see our review of it here), which basically ripped off the old sounds of Slipknot, probably so that they could appease the crowds of their opening slot with them. It only gets worse.

I've never heard an album where every song sounds like a carbon copy of a different artist. I'm really not sure what they were doing here. The album starts off with 'Game Of War', which is literally just a worse version of Puscifer's 'Grand Canyon'. It's an awful intro, too - it's four minutes long and incredibly underwhelming. 'Real' features Austin Carlile singing, which is cool, if it wasn't clearly trying to be a heavier version of Minutes To Midnight-era Linkin Park. Maybe the boys spent a little too much time with them on tour in 2014... There's also the complete mess of a Limp Bizkit song with 'Relentless'. It's the most nu-metal thing to be released since nu-metal died. That is not good.

To it's credit, it's not completely horrible. Just mostly. 'Like A Ghost', the one track on the album I can actually say has some substance. Aaron Pauley's singing in the verses are a bit odd (it sounds like he's trying to imitate Marilyn Manson), but Austin Carlile screams powerfully in the background as he sings, making those powerful accentuations that made a lot of the vocals on Restoring Force so great. It's the first energy with raw energy, too, but it's a bit too late. By the time you get to this song you've already lost hope in the album. At least the interlude '+' has nice strings.

When the band isn't copying another, the tracks are just painfully average. There is absolutely nothing special in songs like 'Down The Road' and 'Away'. They're boring. They don't even have the quality of another band for fans of that particular band to enjoy. The album ends on 'Transfigured', sounding like even they gave up on this record. Where is the soul of the album? What happened?

It doesn't feel right to assign blame to any band member; after all, an album has to be a team effort. But it's hard to ignore the overwhelming presence of Aaron Pauley on the album. It feels like he took this album over. It has his sweet singing parts that featured in a few tracks on Restoring Force (most of which were really great) and gives himself a part in almost every song. It feels less like an Of Mice & Men record and more like a demo CD of a solo Pauley record. His highlights on Restoring Force were so good because they were refreshments between brutal screaming and metal tracks. Now that he's in literally every song, it's hard to enjoy his voice, which is a true shame. Of Mice & Men has Austin Carlile for a reason, and it's not to make him sing. It's to let his screams make the music stronger and more vivid. Why silence him?

Cold World feels like a step in the wrong direction. It's hard to even call it an Of Mice & Men record - it sounds like Aaron Pauley featuring a backing band and a guest screamer sometimes. It's a sad and boring record. It's nu-metal moments don't help, either. Of Mice & Men had finally found their signature sound, and after building on it for a single album, they dropped it almost completely. The only response I have to this record is a question: why?

Favorite Track: Like A Ghost

Least Favorite Tracks: Relentless, Down The Road, Transfigured, Away

Rating: 52 / 100

Of Mice & Men - 'Pain'

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After a year from on and off touring and going in and out of the studio, post-hardcore group Of Mice & Men have offered up the first single from the follow up to 2014's Restoring Force, 'Pain'. The song brings the band to a new type of metal they haven't truly treaded in before, distancing themselves from the scene hardcore and the more alternative metal sound of their last effort to an almost nu-metal sound with a modern flair.

The song begins with a frantic and effected guitar riff, before thick riffs kick in. As the riff becomes the focus of the track, vocalist Austin Carlile brutally screams to bring in the track. He mixes full on screams with dirtier growled vocals throughout the jarred choruses and verses. The instrumental doesn't really progress much past the main riff, percussionist Valentino Arteaga delivering a heavy drive complete with blast beats and double bass drum runs. Aaron Pauley's bassline imitates the heavy distortion of Phil Manansala's tuned-down riff. The bridge features a tense part with lo-fi military drums pounding as the guitars and vocals build back up to the song's heavy composition.

The music video of the track is as unsettling as that effected guitar riff. The main niche of the video is the glitchy of ballerinas doing what I can only hope is an interpretive dance, crawling tortured along an all white or black floor, their movements seeming possessed. Shot of the band performing are also dispersed throughout, though those shots kill the mood of the video. More glitchy shots of Austin Carlile are also used throughout the video, fitting in with the theme.

'Pain' feels contrived, though. The song feels just like it was taken out of the back catalogue of Slipknot. Perhaps they felt they needed to appease the crowds on the upcoming tour with Slipknot and Marilyn Manson? The song is nothing special, to be frank. The intro riff is great and had a lot of potential, but they just threw on a Slipknot riff and Austin Carlile's screaming and called it their own. It's not a bad song by any means, just... unoriginal. Another issue lies in the fact that the song pretty much sounds the same throughout its entirety. The whole intensity of the track is bargained on the riff and vocals... which sound exactly the same throughout the whole song.

If 'Pain' is to be an indicator for the rest of the album, Of Mice & Men may not have positivity heading their way. Restoring Force had a kind of poetry to it, the emotions of anger or want evident throughout every song. 'Pain' doesn't really feel like anything. The only emotion is in the title. There's nothing to it. Hopefully the album is better than this track.

Of Mice & Men's Cold World is out on Rise Records on September 9. More details are available here.

Rating: 50 / 100