Elijah’s Top 5:

Acts of Vulgar Piety, Imipolex (self-released). A powerful addition to the modern canon of nebulous metal, the Maine quartet channels the strangest depths of New England’s wilderness into a perfect sonic onslaught on the senses.

The Convalescence Agonies, Weeping Sores (I, Voidhanger). Winding themes and pounding riffs are married flawlessly with emotive cello melodies and harsh guitar noise in the first release in 6 years from this NYC duo.

Desolation Manifest, Execrari (self-released). The debut from Execrari, another extreme metal duo, is greater than the sum of its parts. If you took every trope and idiom from every one of the dizzyingly numerous subcategories of black metal, put them under a microscope and, using tweezers, assembled the best songs imaginable, Desolation Manifest could easily be the result.

Sogolo, W.I.T.C.H. (Desert Daze). The Zamrock legends set a new standard in the genre they helped build, a full 50 years after their start, with the grooviest afrobeat laying a bed beneath the catchiest heavy psychedelia you’ve heard anywhere, anytime.

Xenotaph, Fallujah (Nuclear Blast). Another pioneer upping their own game, Bay Area darlings Fallujah have also raised the bar in their latest effort, deepening the wells of emotion they themselves connected over a decade ago when they combined technical death metal with beds of ambient atmosphere. It’s brutal, but it’s beautiful.

Adriane’s Top 5:

The Africa Seven Edits, Francis Bebey (Africa Seven). I’m cheating and double-dipping with this one. Last month’s Bebey compilation Trésor Magnétique is still heavily in my rotation, in my defense, and this is a shockingly worthwhile remix EP, also in my defense. Psychemagik’s spacey, dubby opening remix of “Le Grand Soleil De Dieu” alone justifies the release, which includes four producers (five, if you count a digital bonus track) remixing some of Francis Bebey’s groundbreaking early electronic music into contemporary bangers.

Boleros Psicodélicos II, Adrian Quesada (ATO). Black Pumas’ Adrian Quesada returns with a second installation in his retro, star-studded Boleros Psicodélicos series. Emulating 60s-70s Latin ballad pop, the songs here ooze and revel in thick sentiment courtesy of guests like Angélica Garcia, Daymé Arocena, iLe, and current instrumental darlings Hermanos Gutiérrez, among many others. It may not be as surprising the second time around, but this fresh second volume shows that Boleros Psicodélicos is a series with lasting appeal.

Lotus, Little Simz (AWAL). I’ve never disliked a Little Simz album, and I’m not about to start with Lotus, her fullest production to date. The guest list here is stunning–Obongjayar, Moonchild Sanelly, Moses Sumney, Yukimi Nagano, Michael Kiwanuka, Yussef Dayes, and many more–and Simz herself is of course a force. She’s both the most compelling voice in British hip hop and so much more than such a nationally bounded label, and the soulful sonic and lyrical depth of Lotus transcends a single scene.

Sogolo, W.I.T.C.H. (Desert Daze). It makes sense that Sogolo is our first Ten Most Tenable overlap. Coming two years after Zango, the triumphant comeback from 70s-80s Zamrock legends W.I.T.C.H., Sogolo is even fuzzier and funkier than not only their last album but any of the group’s previous work. The magic seems to be in the group’s blend of original members (how does Jagari Chanda still sound so genuinely good??) and newer additions, all of whom seem to earnestly revere the W.I.T.C.H. legacy while contributing fresh new sounds.

Sunwise, Brìghde Chaimbeul (tak:til). Whatever you think about bagpipe music, shut up, because you’re wrong, and young smallpiper Brìghde Chaimbeul proves it. Sunwise puts the power of the pipes at the center by way of intense drones, archival explorations, folk themes, and more intense drones. It’s a heady and hypnotic thing that defies all expectations of tradition while at the same time showing fierce respect for the instrument’s oft-untold histories.