Top 10 List Fuck-Up #1: Leaving Out Kylesa

Albums of the year lists are really difficult to make. And not because it takes time to dig up all the releases and think through each record you enjoyed. That part is fun. The process of whittling down all the best releases of a given year into a list of ten albums, however, is painstaking and always results in regrets. Count leaving Kylesa's Spiral Shadow off my list as that first huge regret.

Yeah... slap me. This one ruled.

I'd given Spiral Shadow a healthy number of spins by the time I started my list, and felt comfortable leaving it off at the time... but not until the last few weeks did it dawn on me how fucking genius Phillip Cope and Laura Pleasants fourth effort together was. Give me the proverbial dunce cap, cause I definitely deserve it. The delivery of each crushing riff varies throughout the album, and the amalgam of the twin-drum assault only adds to the dynamism of what is certainly a tried-and-true album. Spiral Shadow progressively builds around the title track featured near the end of the record, which features one of the most stupidly epic riffs you'll ever come across. Plain and simple, Spiral Shadow is another linchpin in Kylesa's coat, and possibly their best release yet. And I'm sorry it took me this long to finally give it the press it deserves.

- Jack