In 2017, I did an actual BastardHead style thread/poll for non-archived albums of the year. The field was so mixed, that it wasn't worth doing again in 2018. So instead, use this thread to list your favourite non-metal albums of 2019. No rules for how many or anything like that (post 1 if you want, post 100 if you want), but all albums must NOT be on the archives.

Example: don't list Volbeat (even though they are more rock), but you can list some grind-crust that isn't on here.

Here is my top 20:

20. Conway The Machine - Look What I Became
19. Jonsi & Alex Somers - Lost & Found
18. Strand Of Oaks - Eraserland
17. Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow
16. Herzog - Me Vs. You
15. Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
14. The Menzingers - Hello Exile
13. Benny The Butcher - The Plugs I Met
12. Spielbergs - This Is Not The End
11. Ludovico Einuadi - Seven Days Walking (Day 1)
10. Vampire Weekend - Father Of The Bride
09. FKA Twigs - Magdalene
08. Frankie Lee - Stillwater
07. Thom Yorke - Anima
06. Danny Brown - uknowhatimsayin
05. Craig Finn - I Need A New War
04. Sturgill Simpson - Sound & Fury
03. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen
02. Lingua Ignota - Caligula
01. Pup - Morbid Stuff

Here is my Top-10!

1) Rammstein: Rammstein
2) Skold: Never Is Now
3) Combichrist: One Fire
4) Lindemann: F & M
5) Front Line Assembly: Wake Up The Coma
6) God Module: The Unsound
7) Dawn Of Ashes: The Crypt Injection II (Non Serviam)
8) Nachtmahr: Antithese
9) SITD: Stunde X
10) Die Sektor: Death My Darling

EDIT: I just noticed that Dawn Of Ashes are on the Archives - but the album I listed isn't metal.

Rosalie Cunningham - Rosalie Cunnigham: Non-metal album of the year for me. I love how it pays homage to a mix of 60s and 70s influences like The Beatles, ELO, and Queen among others with a snappy attitude.

Gold - Why Aren't You Laughing?: Mostly gothic rock but there are some noise rock and metallic elements in the guitar work. The atmosphere is overwhelming but still hooky. Definitely worth looking into if you dig stuff like Joy Division, Sonic Youth, and Swans.

Hexvessel - All Tree: Folk rock with a lot of psych elements. I love the rustic pagan aesthetic and the performances are so enthusiastic.

The Riven - The Riven: Really ballsy blues rock with an earthy tone that reminds me of classic Badlands. Kinda meat and potatoes but done so incredibly well, especially the vocals.

Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising: This one is just shy of my top 20 but it deserves all the hype it's gotten. The first half in particular is gorgeous pop.

There weren't too many outstanding non-metal albums I have come across but at least I managed to compile ten full length releases:

1. Weezer - Weezer (Teal Album)
2. Rammstein - Rammstein
3. Oomph! - Ritual
4. Lindemann - F & M
5. Blink-182 - Nine
6. Puddle of Mudd - Welcome to Galvania
7. Dreamcatcher - The Beginning of the End
8. The 69 Eyes - West End
9. Thank You Scientist - Terraformer
10. Band-Maid - Conqueror

The thing about this album is that I wasn't totally blown away (besides "Movies") but I liked it enough to check out her earlier stuff, in which I surprisingly found a goldmine of gloomy folk with weird abrasiveness plus the dreamy pop masterpiece Front Row Seat to Earth. I wound up seeing her live, and she sang perfectly, played guitar and keyboards. A great gig.

I really really like it, too. Movies is my favourite track on it as well.

Good Riddance - Thoughts and Prayers
Bad Religion - Age of Unreason
Strung Out - Songs of Armor and Devotion
SeeYouSpaceCowboy - The Correlation Between Entrance and Exit Wounds
Sanction - Broken in Refraction
Much the Same - Everything is Fine
Knocked Loose - A Different Shade of Blue
Strange Magic - Unfortunately
Lagwagon - Railer
Wristmeetrazor - Misery Never Forgets

tbh I really like punk and hardcore-type stuff

Easy this year, as I've been mainly filling gaps in my metal collection, so just got a few obvious ones -

1 - Hexvessel - All Tree
2 - Chelsea Wolfe - Birth of Violence
3 - Heilung - Futha
4 - Hawkwind - All Aboard the Skylark
5 - Whitesnake - Flesh & Blood

I really like this one a lot more than Hiss Spun.

Great call! How could I forget Oomph!'s album!

This one surprised me. Haven't really been impressed by them since Come Clean, and the lead single wasn't exactly the greatest, but it's a pretty solid and listenable album.

I tend to keep track of albums I've listened to throughout the year, but I can't find too many non metal on my list this time round. For now, my top five or so would be

Miranda Lambert - Wildcard
Aaron Lewis - State I'm In
Jimmy Eat World - Surviving
blink-182 - Nine
Bad Religion - Age of Unreason

I agree, I think she needed to do something different this time out - however I don't like it as much as Pain is Beauty, that's the gold standard for me.

Same. Well, probably tied with Abyss for me.

The only one I've listened to is the new Russian Circles album so I'll have to say that. It's worth listening to btw.

It's very good, however, Being released the same time as the new Pelican has blended them together for me.

I do sort of agree with that but I think it lead to me ignore Pelican and listening to Russian Circles.

What do you think of Pelican being on the archives and Russian Circles not?

just an approximate off the top of my head selection. I should start using RYM more to keep track of my jams.

The Crooked, Yet Fabulous Onion - Atrium of Flesh (Vastmeadow Anthems I)
Swans - Leaving Meaning. (really not on anyone else's list?)
3776 - Saijiki
Kitty - ROSE GOLD
Kooba Tercu - Kharrüb
DJINN - DJINN
Flying Lotus - Flamagra
Lingua Ignota - Caligula
Spinifex - Soufifex
black midi - Schlagenheim

Fuck yes.

I had the opposite thing happen wrt Pelician and Russian Circles, found myself listening to Pelican way more. The new Russian Circles just kinda sounds by the numbers. The Pelican album is very diverse and memorable.

Here’s a preliminary nonmetal list. There’s still a bunch to catch up on though.


1. Örnatorpet - Vid Himinsenda
2. Malfet - The Way to Avalon
3. Halberdier - To Return Victorious
4. Kehro - Urdiala
5. Nameless King - Sovereignless Souls
6. Jess by the Lake - Under the Red Light Shine
7. Mycologia - Assorted Mushrooms of New England
8. Rog - Avalan
9. Guild of Lore - Storm Haven
10. Fief - V
11. Hole Dweller - Flies the Coop
12. Diplodocus - Slow and Heavy
13. Rome - The Dublin Sessions
14. Osi and the Jupiter - Nordlige Rúnaskog
15. Earthencloak - Pipe Smoke and Faery Magick
16. Örnatorpet - Humber fran snokulla
17. Hedge Wizard - More True Than Time Thought
18. Bellkeeper - The First Flame of Lordran
19. Replicant - A Taste of Midnight
20. Chaucerian Myth - Chaucerian Legends: The Epic of Beileag

It's a head-scratcher for sure.

The new Wolfbrigade album "The Enemy: Reality" is a true scorcher. Lots of classic crust/d-beat riffing but also some genuine rocking moments and big touches of "Wolverine Blues"-era Entombed and Motorhead.

Only bad thing is that they released it in a digipack (shame!).

I haven't heard this album, but are you upset that they never released it on vinyl, or do you just hate digipacks because they get damaged so easily compared to jewel cases?

The second reason - I totally PREFER jewel cases and the previous one (also released on Southern Lord) was released in jewel case so I do not understand why they went with a digipack this time. I hoped they would release a Japanese jewel case version but alas - no go.

But I still encourage people to hear the album.

Ten 2019 favorites by the ladies (not sure how to number them yet),

Ioanna Gika - Thalassa: Unlike her Sargent House sisters, she ain't as goth as Chelsea, as heavy as Emma Ruth, or as psycho as Lingua, but I really dug this sort of 'This Mortal Coil meets 90's Bjork' thing she has going on here. Gorgeous at times.

Long Beard - Means to Me: Dreampop but with barely any pop. A lot of these songs don't even to seem to have a chorus, just a constant flow. It seemed boring at first but she keeps adding layers to her stuff until the album gets all hypnotic. Terrible moniker; googling her is a pain.

Hatchie - Keepsake: Shoegaze pop that's really vibrant and catchy. Her lyrics are very basic lovelorn stuff for the most part, but her voice itself really suits the music well. Love the electro-elements in "Stay With Me".

Jay Som - Anak Ko: Not as cool as Everybody Works, but the flow is great and it's still pretty eclectic and unpredictable. I like how she switches gears and goes on long instrumental passages for the hell of it. When you play most of the instruments, why not?

Chelsea Wolfe - Birth of Violence: It's mellow and folky, but not a regressive move. Her earlier creep folk had a more intimate sound; this stuff is sprawling and wide open. I don't play it much, but when I do I'm always thinking "DAMN this is good."

Angel Olsen - All Mirrors: I'm not sure if it's Angel or the orchestra that's doing it for me. This album gets all bombastic and I dig it. Addsome shredding guitars and we'd have one of the strangest symphonic metal albums ever.

Sasami - Sasami: I've played this album the most out of any of these albums. Really dig the noise/dream/shoegazy journey here. Lyrically it's more depressing relationship deals, but everything works regardless. Glad she left Cherry Glazerr.

Bat For Lashes - Lost Girls: The retro 80's thing wears thin over time, but it's a lot of fun for awhile. The instrumental is great, like a lost track from The Cure's Head on the Door. Even when it gets old, I love her voice enough to get through it all.

Bent Knee - You Know What They Mean: Sure it's a band, but Courtney is kinda front and center with that voice. It's such a powerhouse, and she knows it. The music is frequently heavy and almost always bonkers. Love this thing.

FKA twigs - Magdalene: For a bit I was questioning the hype, but once "Sad Day" arrived I was sold, and by "Fallen Alien" I was floored.


Weyes Blood I mentioned before, really dig Titanic Rising, though the first half is so good that the later songs suffer after "Movies".
I should start listening to new shit by non-metal/punk dudes someday, but the stuff I grew up on was 98% male vocals, so I've been enjoying this ride as more female voices are heard with less industry obstruction.

I seem to be one of the only people that didn't bite on the Angel Olsen. I am going to keep listening to it, but besides Tonight and Chance, nothing really grabbed me. I did really like the Bat For Lashes, but I agree what you said about it. I like The Bride much, much more. That one was so cinematic and huge.

Non-metal favorites of 2019

1 Tropical Fuck Storm - Braindrops
2 Acid Carousel - Another Everything
3 Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
4 Hexvessel - All Tree
5 Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
6 Pod Cast - Saving Throw
7 Danny Brown - uknowhatimsayin?
8 Corpse Flower
9 Zorn - Hardcore Zorn
10 Omar Souleyman - Shlon

Agreed - The Bride was great, and the (really quite unsubtle) musical references to her other albums make the whole lot tie together in very satisfying manner. The new one for me hasn't quite 'gelled' yet.

Didn't listen to many of them this year. The one I liked a lot is Yerûšelem "The Sublime".

Whirr - Feels Like You
DIIV - Deceiver
Knocked Loose - A Different Shade of Blue
Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

that's all I can think of for now

Hmmm, The Bride is the only BfL album I haven't heard yet. I'm quite a fan of her first three albums, but when The Bride came out and got seriously polarizing reviews, I never gave it a chance for some reason. I'll be checking it out this week as I've likely been missing out, plus I'm going to see her live early next year for the first time.

Really good one. Also one of my favourite cover arts of the year. I'd like to have a painting of it without the band name/album name at the bottom on my wall.

That will be a tricky one since I'll include it in my AOTY poll (https://forum.metal-archives.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=125960).

1. Yugen Blakrok - Anima Mysterium
2. Sulfate - Sulfate
3. Clickbait - Hypernormalisation

That's about all I've got, although I liked a few others that are metal-related but not on the Archives. Real Slam Poetry - Laughing Through the Tears is an album of poetry delivered in an extreme metal style, pretty funny.


That poll is only for bands on the Archives. I'm in a similar boat as one of my favourites of the year was Into Orbit - Kinesis but they're not added and probably won't be as they lean a bit more towards their rock side rather than their metal side.

I Don't think it's going to make it, dude. They are usually pretty strict about not including albums not on the archive.

As of now, in absolutely no order-

1) DaBaby- Baby On Baby
2) DaBaby- Kirk
3) Denzel Curry- ZUU
4) Billie Eilish- Where we all fall asleep, where do we go?
5) Tool- Fear Inoculum
6) Northlane- Alien
7) Kublai Khan TX- Absolute
8) Dealer- Soul Burn
9) The Contortionist- Our Bones
10) Spite- The Root of All Evil (borderline non-metal, I would argue metal, but idk)
11) Varials- In Darkness
12) SeeYouSpaceCowboy- Songs for the Firing Squad

I'd name the new Ice Ages but well it's actually on M-A

I just looked that up, and I'm a little surprised they are on here. I haven't heard any of the older stuff that maybe qualified them.

I love these lists, such an awesome way to find new music you would've never bothered with, much less knew about. Thanks for everyone and anyone that posts here!



Yeah, I found a similar issue with the new Earth album. Undoubtedly not metal, but on MA because of earlier work. No way I'd put them on my top 10 metal albums list either, so it sort of just gets... left out . Oh well haha... everyone, check out the new Earth album

It's only the Summoning connection, really. They aren't metal.