14. “Saturate Me” by Riverside: Album Love, Fear and the Time Machine

The most purely prog track on the new Riverside album, just effortlessly done without ever sounding derivative or neo- or like anyone else in prog today, and probably the heaviest track on the album. And besides — this track just kicks *epic* ass live.

13.  “Discovery One” by Eschar:  Album Nova

A mighty track from the first album by Eschar, post-metal that is imaginative and heavy and melodic all at once, and performed with confident aplomb. Unfortunately it seems as if the videos of the Nova tracks have been removed.  For a taster, here is a live version of “Monolith” from the same album.

12. “The Drifter” by Klone: Album Here Comes the Sun

This is a beautiful album, rich and atmospheric, and I could have chosen a number of tracks from it. The video is worth watching for the drum playthrough.  All the members are great musicians.

11.  “A7bsence”  by Blindead : Album Blindead Live at Radio Gdańsk

Yeah it’s a live album, and yeah it came out in 2014, but I couldn’t get hold of it until late that year so I rolled it over into this year. This is blazing atmospheric doom metal, and features Piotr Grudziński on this amazing track.

10. “Quiet Americans” by Shearwater:  Album Jet Plane and Oxbow (out 2016)

This song is a single from an album to be released in January, and it is an absolute stunner. I’m wary of Shearwater because I tend to find them inconsistent: I love a couple of their albums and do not like others. But I pre-ordered the new album on the strength of this one track.

9.  “Nebulous” by Klone: Album Here Comes the Sun

The second track from the album by the French band Klone.  An enormously lush and beautiful song that really took me by storm early in the year. Huge melody, subtly great instrumentation, and soaring chorus. Soul-filling stuff, this.

8. “Apotheosis” by Killing Joke: Album Pylon 

The second track from this behemoth of an album, chugging industrial post-punk par excellence.  These guys still have it.