Kyle J. Kohner checks in with his own list of the best albums of the year. The first part includes ALCEST, Patriarchy, slowthai, Rico Nasty & Kenny Beats, Danny Brown, Tōth, Richard Dawson, Kim Gordon, Weyes Blood, Deliluh, Chasms, Better Oblivion Community Center, Chemical Brothers, Billie Eilish and Mount…

Clockwise from top left: L’Acéphale, Nile, Opeth, Lingua Ignota, Swallow The Sun, Alcest, Car Bomb, Liturgy, Idle Hands and Inter Arma. Well, we’ve made it to the end of the road to hell. These are the best slabs of heavy goodness I heard this year. Sometimes you have to…

While Deafheaven popularized blackened shoegaze, France’s Alcest planted the stylistic seeds. Stéphane “Neige” Paut has spent the past two decades refining his amalgamation of palpable beauty and harrowing melancholy. His creative journey reached a crucial milestone with 2016’s immaculate opus Kodama, which suddenly put Alcest at the forefront of…