The Neimans

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  • ICE is an unfortunate showcase of America’s failed messaging to young men (Pt. 1)

    I work for the Army. Recently, we’ve been working with a group of soldiers (ranging in rank from Specialist to Sergeant First Class), who are generally respectful, if not slightly unenthused at the work we are doing. They are the perfect representation of Army culture. They have been in the Army long enough to where the stereotypical uber-masculine, hot-headed recruit attitude has been ironed out of them.

    There is a general consensus (both from my dad, an Army veteran, and several other veterans I work with) that joining the Army as an arrogant, hot-headed young man is a good thing. The Army, as an institution as a whole (barring, obviously, the times it has failed), has been known to turn those young men into positive, respectful members of society. Honor, selfless service, integrity, and respect are among the Army’s listed values, all of which should be the cornerstone of what it means to be a man. Somewhere along the way, though, these values got muddled.

    Now, America is actively recruiting and targeting those hot-headed, gun-slinging, enemy-hate young men, without ironing those qualities out of them. In fact, our government is now seeking out and encouraging those qualities for its own home-grown masked paramilitary force: ICE. It sounds dystopian, because it is. In the Army, and really any government-service occupation, a soldier is required to wear his name on his uniform. Not for ICE – these unidentifiable masked men can do whatever they like as long as they get the brown people out of our country (Did I say “brown” people? I meant “bad” people – Freudian slip I guess). Whereas the Army has protocol, the law, and its values to answer to, ICE does not. In fact, our feckless leaders go so far as to say that every one of these ICE officers have the utmost immunity.

    How did we get here? Our compassion and vigilance to uphold human rights is, I believe, our greatest strength as Americans, and thus for American men. How have we turned that around to be a weakness, as something to be shunned? I have a few theories, but that would be another post in itself, so I will save that for the future.

  • 2025 AOTY #1, Greyhaven – “Keep it Quiet”

    This year in music was truly stacked, and I had a profound connection to all ten of these albums (and a ton more that didn’t quite make the list), more so than previous years. 2026 is looking to be another stacked year: Switchfoot, Idle Threat, Haste the Day, Silent Planet, Colony House, Poppy, Blindside, Relient K (if rumors are true), and I’m sure many other surprises that aren’t even on my radar. I [im]patiently await what 2026 brings us in the realm of music.

    On to Greyhaven’s blisteringly beautiful album, “Keep it Quiet.” Greyhaven is one of my favorite bands of all time. Everything about how they create heavy music is exactly what I seek. My “perfect match,” as it were, in modern heavy music.

    I’m a “riffs” person – I generally lean towards heavy music that employs guitar riffs/motifs as the main songwriting gimmick. Less “Kublai Khan” and more “Norma Jean” (no hate to the former, just trying to describe my music taste). And Greyhaven is literally unmatched right now (except maybe by Norma Jean) in the riffs-creation realm. It boggles my mind how these guys keep doing it with every album. Match Nick’s guitar riffs to Johnny’s bass lines (one of the more innovative bass players in the scene), and you get riffing nirvana. Add Matt Guglielmo on the drums, whose expertly clean playing melds so well with the guitar/bass lines (props also to Ethan, who I think wrote the drum parts but wasn’t available to record); Add Will Putney producing, who makes the album sound immense and natural in only the way he can do it; And last but not least, add Brent’s honest, aching lyricism and vocal melodies, and you get this, my favorite album of 2025.

    Every song here is notable, so it’s hard to choose just a few to highlight, but I’ll try. “Prelude: Evening Star” begins the album with a tranquil bass/guitar groove, before opening it up to a cacophony of sound at the end – the juxtaposition is really effective, especially for an album called “Keep it Quiet.” I’m actually not sure how Nick makes some of those panic chord sounds at the end. The transition to “Shatter and Burst” is so smooth, which itself is an amazing song with an absolutely killer chorus. The way it ends with the spoken word and swing groove is a top-tier songwriting choice. “Burn a Miracle” is an explosion of a song. Brent’s “shivering” voice thing at the end is so cool, and it’s over the most bombastic, catchiest riff you’ve ever heard. The time signature change from 6/8 to 4/4 in “Where the Light Leaves Us” reaches unprecedented levels of groove. “Technicolor Blues” is a somber southern-rock song with some surprising turns (like that “accidental” chord when the big chorus finally hits). “Satellite in Love” might boast my favorite riff/chorus combo on the entire album, and the way it’s played clean at the end over the clip of a refugee who’s been displaced from their home (“I’ve been here all my life… and I sure would like to stay here.”) hits me literally every time. “Diamond to Diamond,” another softer song on the record, with its build-up to that incredible bridge riff is so gratifying. Lastly, album closer “Cemetery Sun,” references the album art, where a mysterious figure is holding her arms up in reverence to the light, after clearly having been too close to it. Brent pleads at the end before the whole thing turns into static: “I burn away, I threw myself into the sun / I fell in place under the weight of everyone / Bring me back to life.”

    This is a perfect 10/10 album for me and my tastes, and this will be in heavy rotation probably until the day I die. Thanks for reading.

  • 2025 AOTY #2, The Callous Daoboys – “I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven”

    “Mathcore” as a genre has become somewhat of a meme at this point, and The Callous Daoboys understand that better than anyone. Instead of taking it too seriously, these mathcore icons are self-aware and play into the meme in a really fun way. Mathcore, an offshoot of metalcore, favors dissonance and complex rhythms as well as odd time signatures. And to those who don’t like metalcore, it probably oftentimes sounds like an unfortunate worship band mishap where one of the guitarists forgot to equip or remove a capo. But the thing that captivates me about mathcore is how it manages to turn the noise into something musical. No band since The Chariot has been able to achieve that so well, until now. “Once it gets in your ears, the paradox hopefully begins to reveal itself,” vocalist/songwriter Carson Pace says.

    “I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven” is a concept album about another kind of dissonance, the dissonance of being in a smaller touring band while also trying to make it in the “real world.” “Full Moon Guidance” jokes, “You can be a legend at a Guitar Center or an office job… but never both.” The center point of the album, “Lemon,” is a catchy acoustic/pop rock song that describes the struggles of touring in a band and being dismissed in the “real world” for following your passion and persevering through the hardships (“You saw me waiting tables and asked me if I was doing that ‘band thing’ still / I always finish what I start but I guess it’s been almost a decade of this / I know I’d never speak to you that way”).

    On the musical side, this album is unlike anything I’ve ever heard, in a really good way. The 5/4 chorus riff on “Tears on Lambo Leather” has been stuck in my head all year; the jazz-tinged ballad “Body Horror for Birds” is a surprising mid-album break from the onslaught of sound; “Idiot Temptation Force” is a goofy, catchy mathcore banger; the turn from the second verse to the breakdown/bridge on “Full Moon Guidance” gets me every time; and “Distracted by the Mona Lisa” borders on easycore (the jumpy major-key bridge guitar riff in this song is absolutely genius). Lastly, the album closer, “III. Country Song in Reverse” is a 12-minute-long genre-bending opus. The production here is amazing too – it sounds absolutely huge. Beyond this, the sounds they’ve made and incorporated into the songs, both from musical instruments and other things, are so creative.

    It’s an absolutely crazy album that got so much play from me this year. Around the time of the album’s release in May, I listened to this album almost every day to and from my long commute. It made the mundane commute traffic something to look forward to every day, and that is something to be commended.

  • 2025 AOTY #3, Thrice – “Horizons / West”

    Thrice is a band that means a lot to me personally. I started listening to them as a nascent teenager (13 I think), and they’ve been such a positive influence on my life ever since then. These four dudes – part of this 25-year-old band that can still boast it has all its original members – are some of the most humble yet most profound musicians I’ve ever come across. This album continues to show their brilliance. “Gnash” is probably their heaviest song since 2003’s The Artist in the Ambulance, “Vesper Light” is a soaring anthem about unity (much needed in the Year of Our Lord 2025), and “Albatross” might be Thrice’s catchiest song (and probably one of my favorite Thrice songs of all time).

    Lyrically, this is another certified Dustin Kensrue masterpiece, using the “Horizons / West” and sunset motif throughout the album. Just the way this dude paints a picture with his cautious optimism gets me every time. On “Distant Suns:” “Can you see? The arc will bend towards justice / Just as gravity is bending light towards all of us / The arc is long, so we carry on.” I LOVE that about Dustin, and I love the message of that song (and ultimately all his songs). “Vesper Light” is another favorite of mine, rebuking those who seek to divide (“They speak of sacred light for hours / Then wrap themselves in gloom / They preach the beauty of the flowers / Then curse them as they bloom”) and calling for unity when the light seems to be fading (“When the sun is gathered / Lift your sacred songs / Make the darkness scatter / Till we tread the dawn / Stand atop the barricade / Unbent and unafraid, and sing / Stand in solidarity with all humanity, and sing / Stand in golden vesper light / Under the western sky… and sing.” What an album, and what a band. Forever grateful for these dudes.

  • 2025 AOTY #4, Silverstein – “Antibloom” and “Pink Moon”

    A double album from emo/post-hardcore luminaries Silverstein, Antibloom / Pink Moon came out of nowhere for me. I’ve tried to get into Silverstein in the past, but it had never clicked with me. So when I started “Antibloom” in my drab cubicle way back in May, I was expecting a similar experience. Upon the first song, “Mercy Mercy” I literally had to stop the mundane cubicle task I was doing and take it in, and that happened several times until the album was over. That song has such a huge chorus, incredible flow, and crescendo to the final part. It sets off the pre-apocalyptic feel of the album, in the music and the lyrics: “You waged the war to take in the view / Now we raise a toast to the age of decay / And I will slip quietly into my grave.” “Confession” is one of the catchiest songs of the year, and it’s followed by “A Little Fight,” a song that sounds playful and catchy until you find that it’s a song about a tragic suicide. That juxtaposition is continued several times throughout this album, to great effect.

    “Skin & Bones” is my favorite of this album (and possibly of this year), a song about the death of Shane’s close friend. This one weirdly ends up being the most hopeful of these songs. Shane’s close friend was a huge LOTR fan, and this song weaves LOTR themes into its message as well (including paraphrasing some of Sam’s speech from The Two Towers). The bridge of this song (“And as I reread this tattered book / I won’t weep when I get to the end / I’ll turn to the first page and read it again / These are the passages that made us who we are”) is easily one of my favorite music moments of the year. “Cherry Coke” is a mournful closer to part one of the album, another one of my favorites.

    Part two, “Pink Moon” doesn’t hit as hard as “Antibloom,” but it’s still fantastic. “Drain the Blood” is one of my favorites, an off-kilter song condemning AI usage in the music industry. “Widowmaker” feels like a sister song to “Skin & Bones” from part one, with its themes of existentialism. “Dying Game” is another fantastic closer in the vein of “Cherry Coke.”

  • 2025 AOTY #5, Colony House – “77”

    Colony House is a band I’ve been a huge fan of since their first album “When I Was Younger” (one of my favorite shirts is from their 10-year anniversary tour of that album that says “I have loved Colony House since When I Was Younger”). That is still probably my favorite Colony House album, but it’s hard to beat that alt-rock masterpiece. This album is a great return-to-form to that alt-rock sound with Caleb Chapman’s wonderfully introspective lyricism and his brother Will’s sparse but incredibly tasteful drum parts.

    “Atomic” was easily my most-played song this year, and it’s my favorite of the album. It is unbelievably catchy and I found it stuck in my head so often throughout the year. In it, Caleb admits in his wonderfully honest way that he’s not been living his life like the miracle that it is: “It makes me wonder if I’m a good man if it takes something atomic to blow my heart to bits so I can feel again. It makes me wonder if I’ve got time to come alive.” With my two kids who are growing as fast as they are, I relate to this one so much. It’s easy to get in the flow and mundanity of everything and forget the absolute miracle they are, and the example they set of the wonder they experience every day.

    “What’s It Gonna Take” is another great one, grieving the state of American politics: “Another gun in the hallway / Another school on the TV / Another war on religion / Put your money where your mouth is, for everybody’s sake / Before we blow the whole world up, what’s it gonna take?” Caleb describes a near-death experience and references a vision he had after the death of his younger sister in the wonderful outro to “Telephone Pole:” “Days turn to years and weave a tapestry / Stretched to the heavens and as far as I can see / All the shapes and colors blurred and undefined / Until I step away and watch them come to life.” Ugh, it’s so good.

    The rest of these tracks are amazing too: “OK OK OK OK” and “Ready to Go” recall the fun, lighthearted tracks from their “Only the Lonely” era, while the final two tracks “Highwire” and “77” are more what I come to Colony House for, but it’s all good.

  • 2025 AOTY #6, Dying Wish – “Flesh Stays Together”

    Dying Wish is quickly becoming one of my favorite heavy bands. Seeing them play Furnace Fest in 2024 kind of made me pay attention to them more – it was such a tight, energetic performance, and probably one of my favorite sets that year. So I was definitely paying attention when they released this album this year, and I was not disappointed.

    Backed by Will Putney’s amazing production (a genius in my mind, this dude almost never makes a bad sounding album), this album sounds so immense and so… natural. In a time where the “Bad Omens-core” is the popular sound in heavy music, I really appreciate Will Putney’s naturalistic, minimalist approach to recording and producing albums.

    The songs here are incredible too. Opener “I Don’t Belong Anywhere” is an explosion of a song, and it’s followed by probably my favorite of the album, “A Curse Upon Iron,” with its clever dynamics and really affecting anti-war message: “Cast the blame on your guiltless neighbor / Every finger pointed is a bullet / Another forgotten casualty / The curse of iron branded on our souls… faith in gold has cursed us all.” “Heaven Departs” is another favorite of mine, mourning humanity’s dwindling chances of salvation. This one has an absolutely amazing chorus and buildup to a really haunting outro. I could gush about all 10 of these songs, as they all have something really great to offer.

    It’s another dark, difficult album, which maybe keeps it from being higher on my list. It’s similar in theme to The Acacia Strain’s album this year, but doesn’t go as far as that album does.

  • 2025 AOTY #7, The Acacia Strain – “You Are Safe from God Here”

    The Acacia Strain has been a band I respect but don’t love. This album, though, makes it to my #7 spot. It’s about a dystopian future where “humanity tries to escape an omnipresent being run amok.” It’s a cool story, but I wouldn’t recommend it to the “uninitiated” due to its misanthropic views and general miserableness. It’s a tough work to sift through, as there’s almost no optimism offered here. MOURNING STAR begins with “Stand in the ashes of a thousand dead souls / And ask the ghosts if life was of consequence.” Elsewhere, “God and the Devil are one and the same / All the demons are here and we’ve given them names.” I think my favorite is WORLD GONE COLD, where the protagonist mourns the loss of a loved one: “Heaven only feels so far because of this weight on my chest / This feels worse than dying / I watched you die…”

    It’s a tough album, because although it is a concept album about a dystopian future, it’s obviously meant to parallel our actual world. All the grief, pain, greed, and misery in the world, it’s kind of a miracle we don’t collapse under our own weight. I think the thesis of the album is that if God allows such things to happen, he must be held responsible for it as well. Probably the line that hit the hardest was on ACOLYTE OF THE ONE: “The earth is a worm-eaten corpse – we love it just because it exists.” And I think that just sums up this whole album. While I don’t come to the same conclusions about God or humanity, I do empathize with it.

    Musically, it’s just as dour. Low-tuned guitars, fuzzy bass, immense drums. I love the way this thing is mixed, and I think Matt Guglielmo is becoming one of my favorite heavy drummers (he will appear again on this list later).

    An album that’s not for everyone, and it’s not even an album I expect to listen to that many more times. But it affected me so much that I included it here.

  • 2025 AOTY #8, Spiritbox – “Tsunami Sea”

    I’ve enjoyed Spiritbox since their breakout 2022 album “Eternal Blue,” but they’ve never quite reached “top 10” status for me, until this album. Some of these songs were some of my most-played of the year, namely “Ride the Wave,” “Deep End,” and “Black Rainbow.” I love the ocean motif used throughout. A lot of the songs are intended to invoke what it was like for Courtney growing up on Vancouver Island (kind of a remote haven largely disconnected from the world). The music similarly invokes kind of an eerie, watery vibe. I love when music and lyrics work in tandem to put the listener in a specific time and place. It’s almost a concept album, though I don’t know if I’d fully classify it as that.

    Several of these songs (the ones already mentioned) are some of my favorites of the year, but there are a couple that are kind of skippable to me (the title track and “Keep Sweet”). That’s what brings this one down to #8 for me. Otherwise, this is a fantastic album that I listened to all year, due to it releasing way back in March.

  • 2025 AOTY #9, Demon Hunter – “There Was a Light Here”

    I have a mixed history with Demon Hunter. They were one of my “gateway” bands that got me into heavier music, way back in 2007 after Storm the Gates of Hell came out. I remember going to their website and playing the song samples they had from that album over and over, and it just blew my mind. My mom didn’t like it at all, but I’m forever grateful for her eventually letting me get that CD at the Christian bookstore. That album literally changed my life and my music trajectory from then on (it’s still one of my favorite DH albums).

    However, at around the time of the True Defiance album (“I Am a Stone” from that album became by far their most popular song, which will become important later), I began to notice a trend both lyrically and musically I didn’t like. It started to become less vulnerable and more finger-pointy. I think Ryan Clark’s lyrics have always had a tinge of the latter, but it became their main thing after that. Music made for “Don’t tread on me” dude-bros at the gym. Which is fine if that’s your thing, but I started to realize that wasn’t for me. So I looked elsewhere for a while for my heavy Christian bands (in the process discovering some of my favorite bands of all time: Norma Jean, The Chariot, The Devil Wears Prada, etc.).

    Along comes this album, “There Was a Light Here,” kind of shirking everything they’ve been about since “I Am a Stone” blew up on streaming. This album is vulnerable, honest, questioning, and doubting at times – all the things I thought had been missing from their output for the past 15 years. Written in the wake of his mother’s death, these songs have an aching vulnerability that hit me really hard. On the somber title track, Ryan Clark admits, “I am no longer a stone / I can’t walk into the shadows alone / Take my soul to where the waters atone / Bring me home.”

    The theme of this album – “There Was a Light Here” – is such a beautiful way to think about and grieve the passing of a loved one. Again on the title track: “You may never find the place you’re looking for / You may never see her face again this side of Heaven’s door / But when the night is at its darkest, in the quiet of your heart, you will know: / There was a light here.” Another favorite of mine is “Overwhelming Closure,” in which Ryan admits, “I spent a lifetime praying… I can’t believe what I don’t know.” And then on “Sorrow Light the Way:” “I just watched my mother die, so forgive me if I haven’t the want for this weight / I’ve been suffering in silence, waiting for the calming break of day.” There are so many other good lines throughout this album.

    There are some minor musical quibbles that keep this from being higher. I don’t need to hear a chorus six or seven times in one song – a lot of these songs would hit harder if they didn’t beat you over the head with the chorus (this has been an issue for them again since True Defiance). I’ve also fallen out of love with guitar solos, and thankfully there are fewer here, but they still occasionally act as the climax of a song, where in my opinion a bridge or riffing section would have worked better.

    Also, I am fully aware this is now just “dad metal” (DH has been for a while) but I’m into it, at least in this form. I hope they continue on this trajectory.