Mike DeMaria's Top 5 Albums of the Decade
Mike DeMaria plays guitar in Philadelphia-based heavy metal band Alustrium.
Closure in Moscow - Pink Lemonade (2014)
The first time I heard Pink Lemonade, I didn’t know what to make of it. A close friend of mine had suggested I check it out on my train ride home from work, and my first impression of it was “hey, this has a handful of incredible songs, but I think there’s a little filler in some areas”. After continual repeat listens, basically once a day for the following few months, I began to peel back all of the carefully constructed layers and gained a whole new appreciation for the piece, rendering my previous statement asinine and unfounded. From the more subtle instrumental layers sitting in the back of the mix, to the foreshadowing and reprisal of motifs (both lyrically and melodically) sprinkled throughout, Pink Lemonade is permeated by a masterful sense of songwriting and has a compellingly introspective narrative that keeps me coming back again and again. It’s not just an album, it’s a journey.
Between the Buried and Me - Future Sequence (2014)
Between the Buried and Me is one of my favorite bands for a number of reasons, but the main one has to be how well they’re able to blend a variety of different influences and tonalities into a single song while still maintaining cohesion. Future Sequence wholly embodies this and crystallizes it to perfection. I’ll never forget the first time I listened to Future Sequence; I was in my car driving home from College with an ear-to-ear smile slapped across my big, dumb face. It’s the pinnacle of everything I love about BTBAM to the nth degree and, moreover, a watershed moment for progressive metal.
The Reign of Kindo - Play with Fire (2013)
I came across The Reign of Kindo back in high school when I was randomly browsing YouTube one night and fell in love with their unique sound almost immediately. They’re this broadly appealing jazz infused rock band with pop tendencies and a horn section. Crazy, right? When Play With Fire first came out, I thought an act of sorcery had been conducted to release an album with every song being catchier than the last one and proceeded to force this record upon all of my metal friends to varying degrees of success. From memorable melodies that you’ll be singing all day to the dance-inducing latin sections, Play with Fire will always be a mainstay in my regular music rotation.
Conjurer - Mire (2018)
Conjurer’s Mire is the album equivalent of trying a new kind of food that becomes your favorite meal for the next year and half. The album is incredible, there’s no doubt about that, but for whatever reason it was exactly the kind of album that I needed when I first heard it. My usual day-to-day musical diet consists of music that is typically very fast, technical, and complex. Mire was a punch to the face reminder to slow things down and to focus on mood and atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong though, there’s no shortage of crushingly earth-shattering riffs throughout the record. I’ve been singing this band’s praises since I first came across them, and Mire cements Conjurer for me as one of the most exciting metal bands to keep an eye out for in the coming years.
Metallica - Hardwired (2016)
If you’re reading this, you’re either a friend of mine to some degree or a complete stranger that has somehow found the previous entries interesting enough to keep reading. If you find yourself in the second camp, here’s the only thing you need to know about me: I.fucking.love.Metallica. The old school era, the 90’s era, the modern era, (almost) all of it. Hardwired…To Self-Destruct feels like a career spanning album in that there’s songs throughout the record that could be picked up and dropped into previous records throughout their entire discography that would fit in without a problem. I think that’s why Hardwired has stuck with me so much; it feels like a love letter to the history of Metallica. Unlike the other albums on this list, it’s hard for me to say that there aren’t a few weak songs on this one. That being said, the strength of the rest of the songs greatly outweighs those shortcomings and makes Hardwired a blast to listen to.