The Fashionably Late Top 125 of 2019: Ritual Howls

Another rough year corresponded to another bumper crop of excellent music. Once again, my list is huge, because I fell in love with each of these 125 records and found it impossible to not include all of them in my fashionably late list.

I'm choosing to post my favorites in alpha order from A-Z again this year. You'll probably find some records that everyone and their fifth cousin raved about, but I hope you'll also find a few records that might be new to you, and that you'll fall in love with them as much as I have.

My thanks, as always, to the artists who created these records.

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Who: Ritual Howls

What: Rendered Armor

When: March 2019

Where: felte

Why: Detroit's version of spaghetti western twang colliding with sleek, industrial synths. With Paul Bancell's Nick Cave-esque vocals adding high drama to an already theatrical sonic palette, Rendered Armor's razor blade riffs, hulking basslines, and sinister synths make this a perfect listen for a world in a waking nightmare of unbridled chaos. One can't escape a certain sense of impending doom, a dark foreboding that draws breath in every note. Magnificently morbid, these black blues are sublime.   

[posted 4.2.20]