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.

Belfegore: "Belfegore"

Glimmering in the darkness of the mid-eighties

Throughout the gothic rock scene's height of popularity in the 80s Belfegore, a three-piece from Germany, stands out now as one of the seemingly forgotten gems, and a testament to the era's sound outside of the UK. Belfegore's career was short-lived, however, and in the few years they were active they produced only a few releases, most notable of which is arguably their self-titled album from 1984. Nowadays the album is widely available, partially because of Elektra's wide production and distribution of the album back then.

Lamia Hyde and the Southern Witches: "Conjuring Lamia"

A band that gives bad music a worse name

Lamia Hyde and the Southern Witches is, in itself, a rather awful band name. With a biography that pretentiously lists their style as dark, hypnotic music with a touch of inspiration from black metal, mythology and horror films, hopes that their debut demo Conjuring Lamia can be anything other than dreadful are slim. However, one must have an open mind.

Postscrypt: "Foreplay to Auralgasm"

Gothic mardi gras, lacking in personality and character

Upon listening you will find Postscrypt lurking in their own dark fantasies in some obscure part of the mind. In this ungodly place the band experiments with a variety of elements, ranging from blast beats, deep baritone vocals, symphonic instrumentation, throaty screams and sections of a somewhat gothic nature. No one element is particularly dominant, making "Foreplay to Auralgasm" a release hard to pinpoint exactly. The frequent gusts of prominent melody and the darkly romantic lyrical concepts that lie at the core of Postscrypt's musical universe tends to pull them toward an 80s gothic vibe, put they never fully submerge in those waters.