Max's Top 30: A Year of Metal, Pop Punk & Everything In-between

Brace yourself.

When making my list, I went back and forth over how to rank albums that I felt had an impact on me this past year. I considered the importance of each release and how it influenced or changed it's relative genre or scene. I judged the musicianship, songwriting and lyricism that each album was made of but ultimately, the albums that made my list are the ones that I've listened to the most – the ones with staying power. I've listened to this pile of songs an ungodly amount, and it's only fair that their playability is a testament to my enjoyment this year. I present to you my top 30 albums of the year.

Top Albums, Shows and Songs of 2013

When I’m old, fat and (hopefully) happy, I will probably look back at 2013 as a pivotal blip in my life, where I lost one of the most important things to me—something I had been planning my entire adult existence around for some eight years—and was suddenly forced to forge a new path on a new map. Opposite directions, graduation, crumbling, cynicism, and the renouncing of my faith in what I thought was my home. Yes, more downs than ups this time around, but if everything was perfect, I’d never feel anything (the balance will allow). To my beautiful lady, supportive family and the following bands, albums and shows that consistently found a way to lift me up from wherever I had fallen this year, I am forever thankful.

Album Review: Touche Amore - Is Survived By

Album Rating: A

Brutal. Melodic. Cathartic. These words can be applied to any one of Touche Amore's short bursts of hardcore that span a handful of splits and two previous full-lengths. With Is Survived By, the band blows their back catalog out of the water, up over the mountains and out of the atmosphere in thirty minutes of raw emotional expression. Touche Amore have positioned themselves as one of the most vital bands in the genre with not only the best music of their career, but also the best album of the year thus far.

Artist of the Day: Touche Amore

Whether you like it or not, Touche Amore is one of the leaders of the new post-hardcore scene. They carry a torch for a new generation of emotion-fused anthems alongside bands like La Dispute and Defeater in a sea that once held such acts as Thursday and Glassjaw. The band keeps picking up speed, regularly drawing piles of stage divers at hardcore festivals and on no-barrier stages throughout the United States and abroad. Touche Amore's pulverizing sound treads territory between a traditional hardcore band and screamo, but with an accessible aesthetic that is neither clean nor harsh. As the band gears up to release its forthcoming third album Is Survived By, we've got some first impressions to share of what is sure to be one of the best albums of the year.

Album Review: Pianos Become The Teeth/Touché Amoré - Split

Album Review: A

Just barely past the first week of the new year, Touché Amoré and Pianos Become The Teeth came together to release the best music of their careers. Whereas Pianos Become The Teeth build upon their last release The Lack Long After by experimenting with cleaner vocals, Touché Amoré's side clocks in at a whopping 4 minutes and 8 seconds, nearly double the length of any of their previous songs. The split features the signature raw emotion that both bands focus so passionately on, then take it even further. There's no doubt that Touché and Pianos are some of the hottest bands in the post-hardcore scene right now, with this split acting as an example of just how they continue to push their own limits.

Album Review: Touché Amoré – Parting the Sea between Brightness and Me

Though we may be losing Kyle Minton, who will make a post or two more before moving on to other things, we have another Kyle joining us. He's already shown his excellent writing skills (as seen below), and we are very happy to have him with us here.


Touché Amoré, a post-hardcore group hailing from Los Angeles, presents us with their second LP in Parting the Sea between Brightness and Me. The album undoubtedly maintains the band’s core sound, consisting of short, abrasive songs full of dark, pensive lyrics. However, the band shows greater maturity on Parting the Sea… with a more dynamic sound that will surely garner Touché Amoré much deserved attention from new fans. The album was recorded live with Ed Rose (The Get Up Kids, Emery, The Spill Canvas) at Black Lodge Studios and is slated to be released on June 7^th through Deathwish, Inc.