I've always held the belief that music wasn't better in the past, people just have survivorship bias. What are your genuine favorite albums of the last few years?
Personally, I'm loving The Rime of Memory by Panopticon, Ants from Up There by Black Country, New Road, and Hellfire by Black Midi.
Sleep Token - This place will become your tomb (2021) / This eden (2023)
Grim Salvo - MILDRED (2022)
Tame Impala - The Slow rush (2020)
Spiritbox - Eternal blue (2021)
Bad Omens - THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND (2022)
Can I include EP’s? If so, Lorna Shore - ... And I return to nothingness (2021)
Black Tiger Sex Machine - Once upon a time in cyberworld (2022)
Apashe - Renaissance (2020)
Florence + The Machine - Dance fever (2022)
Hozier - Unreal unearth (2023)
I’m sure there’s more
It’s definitely survivorship bias and likely that the barrier for entry is a lot lower now, so only ‘better’ music would be made (ie record companies doing risk assessment and deciding what would be more likely to sell) / your average person can make music now relatively easily, which I suppose technically ‘dilutes’ the overall ‘quality’ of music today - take your pick
I saw Lorna Shore as the warm-up for the Mega Monsters tour and I have to say whoever did the mixing for that performance is awful at their job. I had never heard any of their music before and I’m pretty sure I can still say that in all honesty. The vocals sounded like nothing but static and the instruments didn’t sound like much more than speaker feedback lol.
For someone who hasn’t found many heavy metal bands to enjoy other than Gojira, are they worth looking into?
Homie can scream like nobody's business, but that's what you're gonna get.
My path went from Gojira, to Mastodon, David Maxim Micic, and Rivers of Nihil (check out where owns know my name).
If Metal metal isnt really your thing, check out Leprous. Malina and Pitfalls both kick ass and are about as far from metal where you still get some recognizable tropes.