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Albums Of 2010, Part Two: Undiscovered Gems And Future Classics - MCR, BMTH And More

The albums you're looking forward to the most, as well as the best records from the bands you might have missed: it's all here.

Today, we’re recapping some of the bands you might have missed – the Rock Sound office favourites that fly under the radar but that we’ve absolutely loved to bits. Then, we’ll have a look at what’s coming up in the business end of 2010, which means some dudes by the names of Bring Me The Horizon, a motley bunch of chancers calling themselves My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly and a load more.

Click here to read yesterday's blog about the bigger bands' efforts - we're talking Bullet For My Valentine, Deftones, Lostprophets and more.

First up, did you hear Futures’ ‘The Holiday’ – given away free with Rock Sound, who loves you baby?! – which got them deservedly signed to a major label? A fine debut, a a signal that we’ll be hearing a lot more from these boys in the years to come. Rolo Tomassi and Devil Sold His Soul both released their second album and they were equally weird and wonderful but in completely different ways. While Rolo took the purposeful strangeness of their debut and mixed it with a newfound sense of control (and, yes, melody) DSHS knuckled down and concentrated on trying to break the sky with their epic metal; two very different albums from UK artists, but two records that confirm when it comes to inventive, emotive and brave music our own underground is currently experiencing something of a purple patch.

The staggering debut from Rinoa, a heartbreaking collection of mini-epics under the title ‘An Age Among Them’, won itself a 10/10 review and immediately cemented them as a band to not only keep an eye on but to start worshipping right bloody now. Ploughing a similar sonic furrow were Pianos Become The Teeth, another Exposure band we all fell in love with, and their brilliant ‘Old Pride’ was one of those best all-out screamo records we’d heard in years. From this side of the pond We Are The Ocean delivered on all that early promise – and then some – with ‘Cutting Our Teeth’, and it now remains to be seen if they can make that leap they keep threatening to. Special mention to the UK’s new heroes Young Guns, with the imminent ‘All Our Kings Are Dead’ – there aren’t many bands who can ride a wave of hype and actually come through with a debut that not only confirms the gushing was justified but suggests they could be bigger than even they hope.

Daughters might have been around for a while but we’d like to bet our extortionate (does extortionate mean dreadful? No?) salaries that their last, self-titled album will be the one most people remember. Aussie hardcore brutalists Parkway Drive managed to beat the living shit out of some guitars and amps well enough to accurately capture the sound of violence and called it ‘Deep Blue’, which is fine with us. Just give us a bit more breathing space between songs next time, yeah? Or else we might all have heart attacks.

On the punker side of things The Flatliners cut the ska out and presented us with ‘Cavalcade’, a truly brilliant collection that hearkened back to the glory days of Fat Wreck. Grown Ups’ ‘More Songs’ on BSM was a messy gem, all scratchy singalongs and epic choruses that sounds like summer no matter when you put it on. Keeping the power chords but replacing the smiles with a blackened blast of vicious negativity was ‘In Desolation’ by Off With Their Heads’, which we liked so much we’re sponsoring their tour later this year. Lower Than Atlantis effectively kicked the door to our office in and punched us all repeatedly while shouting “LISTEN TO OUR NEW ALBUM, IT’S CALLED ‘FAR Q’!” – okay, they didn’t, but it’s such a good record that it kinda feels like that behaviour would have been called for – so expect even better things from them.

One of the best discoveries of 2010 so far was a mob by the name of Black Breath - their ‘Heavy Breathing’ album, out on Southern Lord, was such a firestorm of death ‘n’ roll that by rights it ought to come with a health warning. Something like CAUTION: MAY CAUSE LISTENER TO KICK MOTHERFUCKERS UPSIDE THE FACE, or something. Coliseum, though, aren’t a new band but ‘House With A Curse’ sounded like the work of a new band, veering as it did towards Fugazi-ish jagged rock and away from the blistering hardcore which they made their name with. No bad thing, in our book. ‘Meridional’ by Norma Jean ripped our faces apart with such ferocity that we immediately booked them on the Rock Sound Presents… Sponsored By Fender Tour with Architects and the aforementioned Devil Sold His Soul, so that’s us putting our money where our collective mouths are.

That’s our list of the best albums of 2010 you might have missed, but there’s still so much to come…

First up is Bring Me The Horizon. We know the finishing touches are being put on what is sure to be a typically vicious album, but all indications from the studio suggest that BMTH are genuinely trying to push the boat out and create something timeless. Check out this interview we did with Oli while he was recording - all indications point to this being a thoroughly nasty - but brilliant - album.

Then you’ve got My Chemical Romance, about whose next album details are being kept firmly under wraps. Now and then they’ll say something about wanting to sound like the Ramones or about how The Black Parade was a theatrical leap too far, but we reckon whatever their fourth album sounds like it’ll be a surprise. If they stick to making it as ‘full of hate’, as Way said in a previous interview, then it could turn out very special indeed. Hell, what are we saying: it’s going to be special whatever happens, the only issue is quite how special it is.

We know the new Linkin Park album is going to be ultra-tech and space-age. We know it’s called 'A Thousand Suns'. We know it's going to be rich in theme and probably dripping with all sorts of gimmicks (an iPad / iPod app featuring a game called 8-Bit Rebellion! has already surfaced), but what we don’t know is whether it’ll be much cop. Chester’s troubles over the years have been well-documented, and arguably the point of the Dead By Sunrise side-project was to draw a line under them, and we’re hoping they not only lay to rest the nu-metal spectre but deliver on all the early promises of an imaginative, far-reaching concept-driven record.

The new Iron Maiden album sounds like Iron Maiden. What more do you need to know? It’s awesome.

Finally, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly’s newie is imminent. His first for Cooking Vinyl after leaving his major label home for the past few years is going to be, in the best possible way, a very Get Cape album. Stay tuned to Rocksound.tv for more info on this, and all the other records worth caring about for the rest of the year. And the year after. And – yes! – the one after that.