Best of the Decade (2010-2019)

Yesterday I read the post-punk.com’s best-of-the-last-decade list with big interest. I quite liked their collection of music. Then I thought about how my own personal top-list of dark alternative music of the last ten years would look like, and before I realised it, I was already working on it. Here is what I came up with, 40 great releases (LP or EP) to remember. It was a pleasure to look back, reminisce and relive the 2010s.

2010

Sixth June – Everytime

Year: 2010
Country: Serbia/Germany
Genre: Synthpop, Darkwave
Best Song: Never Leave Me

From Serbia to Berlin, taking along good music

 

 

mind.in.a.box – R.E.T.R.O.

Year: 2010
Country: Austria
Genre: Electro, Synthpop
Best Song: 8 Bits

Nerdy synthpop for Nintendo nostalgics (but not only)

 

 

Anathema ‎– We’re Here Because We’re Here

Year: 2010
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Dark Rock
Best Song: Angels Walk among Us

One of the most touching songs from the pioneers of doom

 

 

Death in June – Peaceful Snow

Year: 2010
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Neofolk
Best Song: Peaceful Snow

Piano instead of guitars on this one

 

 

2011

Of the Wand and the Moon – The Lone Descent

Year: 2011
Country: Danmark
Genre: Neofolk, Industrial
Best Song: The Lone Descent

Path-breaking cult-album of the neofolk genre

 

 

The Frozen Autumn – Chirality

Year: 2011
Country: Italy
Genre: Darkwave, Synthpop
Best Song: Before the Storm

This is not an album, it is an institution!

 

 

Atari Teenage Riot ‎– Is This Hyperreal?

Year: 2011
Country: Germany
Genre: Digital Hardcore
Best Song: Collapse of History

Man, is this unhinged!

 

 

2012

She Past Away – Belirdi Gece

Year: 2012
Country: Turkey
Genre: Post-Punk
Best Song: Sanrı

The album that has changed the way we perceive darkwave

 

 

Linea Aspera – Linea Aspera

Year: 2012
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Darkwave
Best Song: Malarone

The darkwave anthems of the past decade

 

 

The Beauty of Gemina – Iscariot Blues

Year: 2012
Country: Switzerland
Genre: Darkwave
Best Song: Stairs

A clever and dark album that makes you think

 

 

Voyvoda – Изток (Iztok)

Year: 2012
Country: Bulgaria
Genre: Post-Punk, Industrial, Post-Rock
Best Song: Stefan the Vlach’s Son

A magnificent blend of post-punk, industrial and post-rock

 

 

2013

Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld – Still Smiling

Year: 2013
Country: Italy/Germany
Genre: Avantgarde
Best Song: A Quiet Life

Two legends have found each other in this decade

 

 

Ascetic – Self-Initiation

Year: 2013
Country: Australia
Genre: Post-Punk
Best Song: I Burn

One of the best albums in contemporary post-punk music

 

 

New Wave Syria – Summer

Year: 2013
Country: Slovenia
Genre: Electro
Best Song: Hipster than Hip

The Crystal Castles from Slovenia

 

 

Mogwai – Les Revenants

Year: 2013
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Soundtrack, Post-Rock
Best Song: This Messiah Needs Watching

This programme lives through its soundtrack

 

 

2014

Laibach – Spectre

Year: 2014
Country: Slovenia
Genre: Industrial
Best Song: We Are Millions and Millions Are One

Path-changing album

 

 

Vólkova – Silent Howl

Year: 2014
Country: Argentina
Genre: Industrial
Best Song: Pulsion

After all these years still in my playlist

 

 

Rome – A Passage to Rhodesia

Year: 2014
Country: Luxembourgh
Genre: Neofolk
Best Song: Hate Us and See If We Mind

The poetry of history

 

 

2015

Shad Shadows – Minor Blues

Year: 2015
Country: Italy
Genre: Darkwave
Best Song: Minor Blues

First release of the side-project of the members of Schonwald

 

 

undertheskin – undertheskin

Year: 2015
Country: Poland
Genre: Coldwave, Post-Punk
Best Song: Cold

Perfect continuation of the Polish post-punk/coldwave tradition

 

 

The Soft Moon – Deeper

Year: 2015
Country: USA
Genre: Post-Punk
Best Song: Wasting

Perhaps the most influential album for contemporary post-punk music

 

 

IAMX – Metanoia

Year: 2015
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Synthpop
Best Song: North Star

Basically the sountrack for How to Get Away with Murder

 

 

2016

Alles – Culture

Year: 2016
Country: Poland
Genre: Industrial
Best Song: Kultura

Something never heard before

 

 

Ash Code – Posthuman

Year: 2016
Country: Italy
Genre: Darkwave, Post-Punk
Best Song: Posthuman

Second release of one of Italy’s best post-punk bands

 

 

Dade City Days

Year: 2016
Country: Italy
Genre: Shoegaze, Dreampop
Best Song: Fernweh

Back to the 90s

 

 

2017

Velvet Kills – Mischievous Urges

Year: 2017
Country: Portugal
Genre: Darkwave, Post-Punk
Best Song: Faster Speed Faster

Debut of the lovely couple Susana and Harris

 

 

Get Your Gun ‎– Doubt Is My Rope Back To You

Year: 2017
Country: Denmark
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Dark Rock
Best Song: You’re Nothing

To name their style would be easy if “Nick Cave” were a genre

 

 

Paradox Obscur – Artifact

Year: 2017
Country: Greece
Genre: Darkwave
Best Song: A Different Hum

Moving tunes and powerful voices

 

 

The Underground Youth ‎– What Kind Of Dystopian Hellhole Is This?

Year: 2017
Country: United Kingdom/Germany
Genre: Post-Punk, Shoegaze
Best Song: Alice

Another one that has moved to Berlin

 

 

2018

Monowelt – The Last Cup of Sorrow

Year: 2018
Country: Germany
Genre: Darkwave
Best Song: Worlds Collapse

Second and last release by the project that has spawned the solo-careers of Daria Leere and Marta Raya

 

 

Marta Raya – Hidden Emotions

Year: 2018
Country: Germany
Genre: Darkwave
Best Song: The Sadness of Gaia

One of the brightest stars of contemporary darkwave music

 

 

Soft Riot – The Outsider in the Mirror

Year: 2018
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Synthpop
Best Song: The Eyes on the Walls

Cool, colourful, crazy – and above all eccentric

 

 

Dark Lake Whispers – Karagöl

Year: 2018
Country: Turkey
Genre: Post-Punk
Best Song: Karagöl

Formidable debut of the mysterious masked duo from Izmir

 

 

European Ghost – Collection of Shadows

Year: 2018
Country: Italy
Genre: Post-Punk, Darkwave
Best Song: Suspended in the Void

Even better than their debut

 

 

Dear Deer – Chew-Chew

Year: 2018
Country: France
Genre: Noise-Rock, Post-Punk
Best Song: Straciła

Crazy French/Italian duo with a great live atmosphere

 

 

Metal Disco – Vade Mecum

Year: 2018
Country: Greece
Genre: Darkwave
Best Song: Vade Mecum

Side-project of Paradox Obscur mastermind Toxic Razor with several collaborations

 

 

Xeno and Oaklander – Hypnos

Year: 2018
Country: USA
Genre: Minimal Wave
Best Song: Insomnia

Minimal wave’s not dead

 

 

2019

Ice Ages – Nullify

Year: 2019
Country: Austria
Genre: Industrial
Best Song: Empty Shrine

Eleven years since the last release were worth the wait

 

 

Bestial Mouths – Inshroudss

Year: 2019
Country: Germany
Genre: Industrial
Best Song: Withiin

When Dead Can Dance meets Laibach

 

 

Nao Katafuchi – Stahlgrau

Year: 2019
Country: Japan/Germany
Genre: Darkwave
Best Song: Inishie

Veeery dark darkwave

 

 


Deus Faust – What I Saw

This album – our own – is not part of the competition. However, please let us use this chance to promote our debut once again. Our second release is almost done!

Year: 2018
Country: Slovakia/USA
Genre: Darkwave
Best Song: Vampyres Like Us

 

 

What great music that was released in the 2010s! For a list of the best songs of 2019, please click on the picture below.


Don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube show The Wave of Things, in case you haven’t done so yet 😉

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