Co-written and edited by Brett Buchanan
As we kick off 2016, the year should be an eventful one in the year of alternative rock. Check out 10 of the most anticipated albums for the year below!
Wolfmother
Wolfmother are set to release their new album Victorious in February. The band has already released two raucous tracks from the album, “Victorious” and “City Lights“.
PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey will release her first album since 2011’s Let England Shake this spring. The album documents a “unique artistic journey which took her to Kosovo, Afghanistan and Washington, D.C,” according to a press release. She has already performed new tracks live, including “Chain of Keys” and “The Ministry of Social Affairs.”
Radiohead
In October, Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood said that the band has recorded “lots” of material for a new album and are currently sifting through the material to find the best tracks. It will be the band’s first release since 2011.
Alice In Chains
Alice In Chains were already beginning work on their new album this past summer, so a 2016 release has to be expected.
Bassist Mike Inez told Rock 103 (as transcribed by Alternative Nation) in August:
“We’ve been throwing around riffs for a new record, we’re taking it nice and slow, and we just wanted to get out of the house this summer, and just play. It’s funny, we’re still like brothers to this day.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers have completed the majority of their new album and in December were only waiting for Anthony Keidis to track vocals. Flea has called the new material “emotional” and the first single is set to be released in early February.
Deftones
In November Chino Moreno announced in an interview with BBC Radio 1 that the Deftones have finished recording their new album and were in the mixing process with an early 2016 release. Moreno also mentioned that the album has 16 tracks and will feature an appearance from Jerry Cantrell.
Soundgarden
In August Chris Cornell told Rolling Stone that Soundgarden is working on a new album. Kim Thayil said earlier in the year that the band is aiming for a 2016 release. No additional details have been confirmed.
Smashing Pumpkins
Billy Corgan has been hyping up the followup to 2014’s Monuments to an Elegy since before that album came out, originally titling the followup Day for Night and saying it’d be released in 2015. Corgan then dropped the titled and reworked the album over the summer, but there has been no update from Corgan since. Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin recently revealed that he will be getting together with Corgan early this year, so there may be news coming soon.
Nine Inch Nails
Trent Reznor made a big announcement on Twitter on December 18th: “New NIN coming in 2016. Other stuff, too.”
Reznor told Rolling Stone in July that he was in the early stages of working on new Nine Inch Nails music.
“Yeah, I’ve been messing around with some things. And I went through a period of “tour, tour, tour.” Things right after another, with scores and what I’ve been doing whilst working on Apple music here is what I call “laboratory time,” more experiments without any definite agenda. It’s not for a thing, it’s not a record I’m trying to finish in a month. It’s more just feeling around in the dark and seeing what sounds interesting. It’s nice to do that every few years to try and reinvent and discover and try to learn about yourself and what feels exciting to you as an artist.”
He also discussed rock bands no longer selling albums, “As an artist, there’s the difficult transition from realizing that where you used to sell an item that you got X amount for – those days are over. And the toothpaste is not going to go back in the tube. And people aren’t going to suddenly want to buy CDs again and feel good about overpaying for them. That’s a fact. Most of my peers have swallowed the bitter pill that I have swallowed, which is that you don’t make a lot of money selling music these days. It’s just the way it is. I don’t think that’s the way it should be, but that is the way it is. So I’m excited to accept that.”
Tool
The elusive Tool have been somewhat quietly working on a new album over the past year. They debuted a snippet of a new song entitled “Descending” at a Halloween show in Tempe, Arizona which Adam Jones later told Rolling Stone was a preview of a new track. So we are all holding out hope that 2016 is the year that we finally get a new Tool album since 2006’s 10,000 Days.
