Albums Of 2010, Part One: BFMV, Deftones, YMA6, KIGH, Dillinger

While we're looking forward to the new albums from Bring Me The Horizon, My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Iron Maiden among others, we recap the year so far - Bullet went arena-size, Deftones returned heroically, Gaslight recaptured our hearts and Lostprophets betrayed us all.

Posted Thursday, 8 July 2010 by Ben Patashnik in

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We’re a little over halfway through 2010 and that, frankly, is terrifying. While everyone in the office is pretending not to worry about how quickly the time’s disappearing we figured it’s time to have a look back the albums that you guys have been enjoying the most, the ones that have set our ears on fire (in a good way) and what’s coming in the next few months. This is the first of a two-part feature, so make sure you check back tomorrow for the second half.

Are you excited about the second half of 2010? I mean, there are some bands like Bring Me The Horizon, My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Iron Maiden (nope, never heard of them. Are they on Twitter?) who will be dropping some musical eggs by year’s end, and it doesn’t get much bigger than that.

If you want to skip ahead, click here to read Part Two.

warped from Drop Dead on Vimeo.

But while you’re waiting for the old heroes to reveal their masterplans, think about all the new talent. In the first few months of this year a whole host of emerging bands released some staggeringly brilliant records – we’re thinking Rolo Tomassi, Devil Sold His Soul, Black Breath, Rinoa, The Flatliners - and the likes of Norma Jean, High On Fire, Parkway Drive and Daughters reminded us why they’re cult favourites. But those bands, and the future giganto-hits, we’ll talk about them tomorrow.

Oh, and before anyone wonders why we didn’t talk about 30 Seconds To Mars, ‘This Is War’ was released last year. Seriously, Echelon, as much as we love you: 30STM CAN’T be the best band to have released an album in 2010 because, well, they haven’t released an album in 2010.

Big-hitters from The Gaslight Anthem and Bullet For My Valentine have both sold a boat-load and put their authors into an even bigger league than before – Gaslight’s recent show at Brixton and the imminent BFMV arena tour prove that – but it was Deftones’ ‘Diamond Eyes’ that has been the most universally praised. A lot of old-school fans were worried that without Chi they’d move even further away from the classic Deftones of old and misfire again, but as soon as the first crushing waves of the title track hit everyone just breathed a sigh of relief. But repeat listening showed the effectively-new band, with Sergio as integral to this new sound as Chi was in the past, had come up with something powerful, beautiful and exciting all at once.

In the future, when people wonder just how You Me At Six became the biggest band in the galaxy, they’ll point to ‘Hold Me Down’ as the first time they sounded like a band ready for the big-time. ‘Take Off Your Colours’, sure, was an ace record but their second record was where they delivered on that early promise. Will the same happen for Kids In Glass Houses? Perhaps, and with ‘Dirt’ they made their intentions clear: they want to be BIG. Circa Survive’s weirdly wonderful ‘Blue Sky Noise’ (a RS office favourite, alongside Far’s stunning ‘At Night We Live’) reminded us why we missed them so much when they weren’t around.

The returns of Alkaline Trio and Against Me! didn’t exactly set the mainstream on fire but ‘This Addiction’ and ‘White Crosses’ were at least talking points. Some didn’t like Alk3’s slicker direction or AM!’s more radio-friendly output, but that didn’t stop them playing progressively bigger and bigger shows over here. And High On Fire, who opened the year in brutal fashion with the crushing ‘Snakes For The Divine’, staked their claim for being possibly the loudest trio in the world.

The Dillinger Escape Plan might be one of those bands you’ve always heard people talking about but never quite ‘got’, but when ‘Option Paralysis’ dropped earlier this year they finally confirmed what many suspected - they’re one of the most endlessly inventive bands to have emerged in the last two decades. On the opposite end of the spectrum Lostprophets’ ‘The Betrayed’ might have signalled the end of LP’s first incarnation – the next fruits of their labours will be the first time they release music away from their long-time label Visible Noise – but it managed to unite fans both old and new beneath some truly storming choruses. Speaking of choruses, 2010 was the year Four Year Strong went from being one of pop-punk’s best-kept secrets to a genuinely vast prospect – anyone who say them at Slam Dunk will attest to that.

Oh, and they also brought the wonder of beards to a new audience.

It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now from Four Year Strong on Vimeo.

Cancer Bats brought some Canadian fury to the table with ‘Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones’ while new labelmates 65daysofstatic showcased their more electronic direction on ‘We Were Exploding Anyway’, a startlingly bold shift that suggests whatever they do next it’ll be a) completely different from everything that’s gone before and b) sodding marvellous. And it may have only just landed but ‘Symptoms & Cures’, from the mighty Comeback Kid, is already shaping up to be a classic. We play it at least twice a day in RS Towers at present, and if that’s not a mark of quality then we don’t know what is.

Check back to the Rock Sound blog tomorrow, when we’ll tell you some of the classics-in-waiting you might have missed, as well as giving you a sneak preview of what’s to come.

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