It’s that time again folks, that time to mark the year’s best and worst. This year, as I mentioned in my last post, will feature not only my choices (and any other writer of AMR and chooses to throw in their opinions), but also links to a whole slew of other hard rock and metal sites that have featured their lists this weekend as well. We all joined forces this once, because getting out as many opinions and albums to you, our readers, is essentially why we do all of this in the first place! Anyway, enough of my rambling, here is my list and links to more at the bottom of the page.
10. The Sword - Gods of the Earth
Moody doom metal dripping with fantastic themes. Saint Vitus and Candlemass would be proud of their offspring.
9. Falconer - Among Beggars and Thieves
Matthias Blad once again shows why his voice makes Falconer the quintessential European power metal band in my eyes. They have no problem breaking out speed metal enfused power metal, and then switching gears for a melodious folk tune in their native tongue. Falconer deserves more recognition for their fantastic work, I can only hope that Matthias chooses to stay with the band and play some shows in North America to help get them out to the yearning masses.
8. Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy
This album shattered my expectations. Truly. The two singles they released I thought were crap, but once I listened to the album, I quickly realized that every single other song on this record is at the vert least better than average. Axl, as weird as he is, cannot be denied the credit he deserves. This album is great, and will likely get better the more I listen to it.
7. Warrel Dane - Praises to the War Machine
Warrel Dane is a master at turning his voice into raw emotion with maybe the only person of his style to do it better being Mikael from Opeth. Warrel not only carves out amazing gothic majesty, but the lyrics that accompany it are very carefully crafted with so many meaning and artistic imagination. This is very creative and stand out project from the Nevermore vocalist.
6. Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thundergod
Talk about being on a roll! I believe this is the third consecutive Amon Amarth album that has made it into my yearly top 10, and boy do they deserve it. Amon Amarth has to be one of the most consistent metal bands today, with their output not only being at regular intervals, but each one being as good if not better than the previous. I look for to maybe a 2009/2010 release? Come on guys, we gotta keep up tradition!
5. Avantasia - The Scarecrow
Another album that I just can’t seem to pull myself away from, despite it having been released months ago. The Scarecrow may prove to be too melodic for many modern metalheads, but I find the catchiness to be outright addictive, and Alice Cooper singing an entire song while at his best is remarkable in itself.
4. Judas Priest - Nostradamus
The British Steel boys are back, and they are truly screaming for vengeance. Halford has sounded as good as at any time in his career, and along with the rest of the band, has written an epic masterpiece that gets better every time one listens to it. This is an example of why metal became what it is today, and why it will continue to thrive on indefinitely. 2008 also marks the year I saw my first Judas Priest show, and what a magnificent show it was.
3. Opeth - Watershed
When this album first came out, I listened to it for the sake of listening to it, and thought it was good, but it never had the impact that I look for in great albums for some reason. However, recently, I have sat down and really given this album a go, and it has surprised me with it’s depth and precision (which it shouldn’t considering it’s an Opeth album). This is one of the band’s best, which goes to show that a popular band within the metal community can maintaing artistic integrity while also making a rockin’ album.
2. Protest the Hero - Fortress
You can always tell when you really enjoy an album by how many times you listen to it. Fortress was one of those albums that stayed on my ipod for most of the year, which accompanied me to work on many an occasion, This album plays a well tested game but adds on awesome bass lines, awesome vocals, and other awesomeness that turns out to be awesome. This is just a burtally catchy album seconded only by Scar Symmetry.
1. Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe
A monumental melodic death album with voracious riffs combined with feverishly catchy melodic hooks. This is the best album of 2008, by far, with wall to wall tracks that leave nothing to be desired because all expectations are met from beginning to end.
THE CRUD COVERED ALBUMS OF 2008
10. Here I Come Falling - Oh Grave, Where Is Thy Victory
Crappy metalcore that seems to focus on the failings of the genre instead of its vibrant successes.
9. The Red Shore - Consecrated
Yet another straight up example of deathcore done as, well, deathcore. Zero creativity, and zero originality. You need to have something to get people involved in an album, and The Red Shore have not discovered that.
8. Jeff Loomis - Zero Order Phase
Following the solo release of fellow Nevermore member Warrel Dane, Jeff Loomis has gone forth and released his own solo material, and it’s far from the same quality that Warrel’s produced. This is music that contains cool riffs and solos, but they are unfortunately not glued together with good songs. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you can’t compose, the final result is going to be lacking.
7. Misery Signals - Controller
Nothing really to confirm or deny with Misery Signals, this is just a bland metalcore record with no oomph. Need I say more?
6. Dragonforce - Ultra Beatdown
Dragonforce is a one trick pony. When you first hear their work, it’s very entertaining and catchy as hell. Fast riffs, soaring melodies, and epic tracks, but as soon as you pick up more of their records and see them live more than once, you quickly realize that this crazy power metal act really isn’t all that magnificent as you once thought. Ultra Beatdown is more of the same formula as all of their previous works save for a few minor twaeks here and there. Dragonforce diehards will definitely love this record, but for those of us who have broke from the bounds of this spell, this is just more of the same from good ole Dragonforce.
5. Whitechapel - This is Exile
This is a perfect ly awful example of the shitstorm of metal that has taken hold of America. How is this band popular? They simply don’t have an original bone in their body, and the riffs they do write, are repetitious even by their own standards! I am not necessarily an opponent of deathcore, but this band needs to just fade away, and fast.
4. Death Angel - Killing Season
Death Angel has kind of always been a band that has been hit or miss, and 2008’s Killing Season was definitely a miss in my book. Why? Straight up bad songwriting, that’s why. The thrash riffs were very boring and completely not worth moshing/headbanging to, and if you can’t at least produce one of these emotions from people either at a show or in their car while driving to work, it becomes an immediate failure as a thrash record.
3. Iced Earth - The Crucible of Man
Once a cherished band sitting high atop my list of favorite artists, Iced Earth has been reduced to a shell of their former selves, even with the return of long time vocalist Matt Barlow. Jon Schaffer has lost his balls, and insists of writing epic music that falls flat on it’s epic face. This should be the blueprint on how to NOT make grand music.
2. Metallica - Death Magnetic
The official release of Death Magnetic was a clunky, under produced, way too drawn out “comeback” album for Metallica, simple as that. Is it the best thing they have done in a number of years? Absolutely, and I’d even go as far as to say that the remixes various people have done to make the songs sound better produced and a bit more on point (aka shorter) have actually been with some better than average results that SHOULD have been on the official releases! However, the band felt the need to release the album as it was, and All Metal Resource is here to call them on it. Step in the right direction Metallica, but you are still in the wrong top of the year list.
1. Cryptopsy - The Unspoken King
Ahhhh yes, have we forgotten this album from earlier this year? Probably overshadowed by the monolith known as Metallica, Cryptopsy, one of the heaviest and extreme of death metal, completely took a left turn out of nowhere with the addition of vocalist Matt McGachy and a whole slew of new riffs that were painfully centered around driving the band kicking and screaming into the new age of metal. Sadness reigns in 2008 for Cryptopsy fans for sure.
CODY
