And So I Watch You From Afar are as joyous as their name is ridiculous.

Like an energy drink being shoved into your soul. Like the world’s happiest mosh-pit. Like punching god in the face after climbing Mt. Everest. The ebullient drubbing produced by ASIWYFA has no musical comparison, just impossible physical feats that barely glimpse the improbability of this color-strewn noise.

Math-rock, post-rock, the labels don’t really matter. What the Belfast quartet has always done is extolled the brilliance of heavy music. Heavy music, albeit, with gratuitous major chords, chain-gang vocals and playfulness encoded in its very DNA. And this sort of inspiring insanity is exactly what landed them here.

Two of their albums, 2013's All Hail Bright Futures and 2017’s The Endless Shimmering made the list, along with Heirs cut “Animal Ghosts.” Read our blurbs below, listen to our interview with ASIWYFA founder Rory Friers and hear why we think they’re the best of the 10s.

“I’m a huge believer still in the idea of an album and the feeling of you get to know it really intimately and it becomes a companion and a friend.”

— Rory Friers