(disclaimer: i have extremely thin knowledge regarding music and have trouble explaining why i like something besides the Vibes™️)

and i really love how from band to band it's going to be used differently with dramatic effect: as pure contrast, as balance or as "relief" from the wall of sound aspect, to mark a change of "speaker" or narrator or even as a change of tone from the "speaker" or narrator. personally if i imagine some of my favourite tracks using this as instead being pure growls or pure cleans they immediately lose a lot of depth and appeal.

some examples below:

listened to Terminal Redux by Vektor all the way through tonight finally, and that album really is such a banger. good ass bandflavor

also a song by Indricothere came on shuffle earlier and it was fantastic, which is great, i never seem to be in the right headspace to intentionally listen to new colin marston releases like they deserve but i'm glad even his side projects are great

making my cohost music year in review in ms paint

Metal(??)

• Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike and Blasphemy (both also works of Toby Driver) - indescribable. Standout tracks: all, but if I HAD to pick one, I'd say "Ocean Cumulonimbus" from Blasphemy.
• Colored Sands and Pleiades' Dust - its just good ass shit man
• all that shit by Town Portal - per last bcf, "Intimate and clever instrumental post-rock." Standout tracks: "K." from The Occident, "Rosini" from Vacuum Horror", "Mad With Power" from Chronopoly, and hell let's throw in Roko's Basilisk" from Of Violence as well.
• Outer Isolation and Terminal Redux - modern and well-considered prog thrash metal. Standout tracks: "LCD (Liquid Crystal Desease" and "Ultimate Artificer" from Terminal Redux.
• Synchronized Seasoning - okay, I said kayo dot was indescribable, but this one is more indescribable. It's overall just so fucking nerdy in a wonderful way. Read up on his website for tons of detail on all the tracks. Standout tracks: "Slundge (The Collective)", "Singleton"

Not Metal (?? Maybe??)

• They Are the Shield and Thymiatascension (both by toby driver, latter under a project name) - dreamy, mature ballads. Standout tracks: "470 Nanometers" and "Barriers Hymn", respectively
• UNSIGHTED OST - hella jazzy game ost for a hella good game. Standout track: "Scorching Steelworks"
• Spirit Beats EP - chill beats and loops but with an ridiculously good acoustic drummer. Standout track: "Icarus '88"
• Prime - prog jazz rock. Standout tracks: "Catacaustic", "Blue Steel"
• A North Facing Window - per my last bandcamp friday post, "starts listening to some 24 tone music without knowing it’s microtonal Damn This Keyboard Has Diseases". Standout tracks: "Blissed Out Fiction", "Oodaaq"
• Neon White OST - even without the game, its an album of lethal breakcore. it rules. Standout tracks: "House of Cards", "Thousand Pound Butterfly"
• Incident on 3rd - per my last bcf post, "A dirty jam room full of colorful rock-jazz fusion." Standout tracks: "Drifter", "Big Six", "La Croix Electrique"
• The Last Three Seconds - per last bcf, "Beautifully odd sci-fi- and rock-tinged trio jazz." Standout track: "Robots As Pathos / Robots As Menace"

edit to add one from my friend dominic

• Gator Tunes by Later, Alligator! - just some good ol' local punk. "Yes, I am really cool / You can tell because I'm sitting in this dirty alley, plugging at my Juul"

making my cohost music year in review in ms paint