TONEwood's Top 10 Non-Metal Albums of 2017

They say variety is the spice of life. For years heavy metal has been my go-to music style, and to this day it remains the style that I consume the most of. But even if heavy metal has numerous very different subgenres, there always manages to sneak a bunch of very un-metal albums into my consciousness. These are the Top 10 non-metal albums from 2017 according to the Gospel of TONE.

2016 Top 10 - Part II: The Non-Metal Part

Here is the second Top 10 for 2016 - The non-metal part. Again, there has been several worthy contenders, and some must be left out. After all, there's not much sense in the end of the year list if you're not forced to make some choices. And in 2016, these choices are as follows:

Bombino: "Azel"

Another wide-brushed stroke of rocking desert tunes from the Tuareg darling

As a bluesy sandstorm of Tuareg folk rock sweaps across the land in the form of bands like Terakaft, Tinariwen and Tamikrest, few bands stand out like Bombino. The style has become synonymous with the virtually untapped and largely ignored potential of the African music scene, with Grammy-award winning group Tinariwen being the prime example. Bombino, however, didn't exactly go by unnoticed when his first internationally released album Agadez came out in 2011. Attracting the attention of, among many others, Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys fame, it culminated in the 2013 album Nomad which Auerbach himself produced. Through Nonesuch Records the album received incredible reviews from international critics and fans alike. Now Bombino, also known by his common name Goumar Almoctar - or Omara Moctar, returns with Azel.