Top 20 Albums
Well, what a year it’s been for the beast known as metal. There have been many highs and lows, triumphs and tragedies and most of all, some cracking music that really shows the world-beating power of metal in the 21st century. It also means that next year – with expected albums from Iron Maiden, Soulfly, Fear Factory, Ihsahn, Rob Zombie and, fingers crossed, Anthrax – is shaping up to be even better.
Anyway, as is the trend for the end of the year, here are my top 20 albums from the last twelve months. As with my movies list, the criteria is I have to have actually heard it; Gallows had some good reviews this year, but as I haven’t heard it I haven’t included it (although if somebody wants to send it to me I would certainly appreciate it). You may agree, disagree or not even care, but please feel free to leave feedback, and here we go:
20. Lamb of God ‘Wrath’ – Rapidly working their way up the metal hierarchy without compromise, Virginia’s Lamb of God proved their worthiness by bagging the support slot on Metallica’s ‘World Magnetic’ tour and releasing their fifth studio album to rapturous applause. At a point in their career where most bands would start to soften their sound and move towards mainstream acceptance, LOG have done the opposite and gone more brutal, minimising the groovier overtones of previous album ‘Sacrament’ and going straight for the jugular with a full-on metal attack. Just listen to the short, sharp, shock of ‘Contractor’ for proof.
19. Neverborne ‘In Absence of Fear EP’ – Alright, it may not be a full album but this debut EP by London-based metallers Neverborne deserves to be on this list, such is the strength of their material and the promise of greater things to come. Combining the muscle of American metalcore and the harsh melodies of Swedish death metal, Neverborne have actually written songs that stay in your head as opposed to just having a solid production and a few throwaway riffs. If you were disappointed by recent effort by Killswitch Engage or In Flames, this is definitely one to get hold of and the forthcoming full-length debut promises to be something great.
18. Clutch ‘Strange Cousins from the West’ – Darker and bluesier than previous albums but still undeniably Clutch, ‘Strange Cousins…’ is one of those albums that needs to be played a few times to sink in. You may argue that if an album needs to be played a few times to be appreciated then it can’t be that great, but Clutch have never been a band to make songs for instant gratification (or hit singles, if you like), and this album, while not drastically different from previous album ‘From Beale Street to Oblivion’, does benefit from having a few different influences that aren’t immediately obvious.
17. Napalm Death ‘Time Waits for No Slave’ – Returning with an album of acoustic folk ballads was never going to be a wise move for these Brummie legends, so it’s just as well they didn’t do it! You know what to expect from a Napalm Death album and they don’t mind giving it to you – in spades. Schizo riffing, blast beats, socio-political diatribes and Barney Greenway growling over the top of it all. Still brilliant, still relevant and still played with a fury and passion that belies the bands near thirty-year history, Napalm are still the final word in extreme metal…
16. Hatebreed ‘Hatebreed’ – …Although this lot may be up for challenging them. Hardcore heroes Hatebreed returned with their self-titled fifth studio album and pretty much blew away everybody with how furious yet catchy they could be. Showing off a more metallic edge than previous albums, songs like ‘In Ashes They Shall Reap’ and ‘Merciless Tide’ immediately became moshpit favourites and, as with Lamb of God, if they carry on in this vein, Hatebreed could soon be sharing stages with some of the bigger names from the metal spectrum.
15. Judas Priest ‘A Touch of Evil: Live’ – After releasing their most ambitious album yet – the concept double-album ‘Nostradamus’ – last year, it was likely that British metal legends Judas Priest would record some kind of live document to follow it up. Foregoing the obvious and releasing a full live set with all the hits included, the band instead opted to release this collection of rarely played album tracks with a few newies thrown in, all recorded over the last two world tours. Including ‘Dissident Aggressor’ from 1977’s ‘Sin After Sin’ and a handful of tracks from 1990’s ‘Painkiller’, as well as a few more underrated classics, this was really a ‘for the fans’ album and showed that although they’re rapidly approaching their sixties, Judas Priest still have the live intensity of old and can match the power of those pesky kids.
14. Saxon ‘Into the Labyrinth’ – All hail the old school! NWOBHM stalwarts Saxon continued a run of high quality albums with this stormer released back in January. Although there are few surprises from Saxon these days, songs about demon barbers, Egyptian kings and the power of rock n’roll played with such conviction can never fail, and these purveyors of amped-up trad metal can still pull it off with style.
13. Kiss ‘Sonic Boom’ – Judas Priest? Saxon? And now Kiss? Is it 1988 again? American glam rockers Kiss returned in typically flamboyant style with a re-energised line-up and an album chocked full of great songs. Looking at what made Kiss albums appeal to fans in the past, the band put together eleven tracks of sheer anthemic goodness that take the best of the band’s history and put it all on one album. Even the bonus disc of re-recorded classics (a practice that I’m not too fond of) sounded brilliant.
12. Candlemass ‘Death Magic Doom’ – It’s all in the title, really. Swedish doom legends Candlemass followed up the rather rushed ‘King of the Grey Islands’ (rush-recorded with vocalist Robert Lowe after previous singer Messiah Marcolin left the band – again!) with this epic return to form. Fusing their Sabbath worship with a greater sense of dynamics and a crushing production, tracks like ‘Hammer of Doom’ and ‘The Bleeding Baroness’ were awesome in their scope and made Candlemass sound like a cohesive unit once again. Play very loud!
11. Mastodon ‘Crack the Skye’ – Virtually creating a musical sub-genre of their own, Mastodon followed-up 2006’s ‘Blood Mountain’ with this epic piece of pseudo-progressive metal. Bringing in even more diverse influences than before – certain band members have confessed to listening to Frank Zappa every day – the album is a trippy, yet focused tour-de-force of off-kilter time changes and vocal hooks that will still resonate in your head for days after listening, bringing to mind the best works of Neurosis, Hawkwind, the aforementioned Frank Zappa and even some of the more epic Metallica tunes. An important album from an important band.
10. Katatonia ‘Night is the New Day’ – Slipping under the radar slightly, Sweden’s Katatonia released their eighth full-length studio album in November and immediately reminded why this band are so highly revered in metal circles. Fusing the best elements of death metal, doom and prog rock, the band have produced a rich, melancholy soundscape that flows from beautiful progressive passages to edgy metal riffing that deserves to played in full, rather than cherry-picking tracks. With obvious nods to Opeth and Paradise Lost, this could (should?) see Katatonia reaching out from the underground and reaping some of the rewards their hard work should be earning them.
9. Devildriver ‘Pray for Villains’ – Isn’t it marvellous when a band who really ought to be bigger finally start getting the recognition they deserve? 2009 was definitely Devildriver’s year, as frontman Dez Fafara’s past in nu-metal loons Coal Chamber was finally laid to rest and Devildriver stepped up to the plate and delivered an album that was as brutal as anything they’ve done so far, yet had the melodic hooks that the band had hinted at on previous albums. The title track, ‘Back With a Vengeance’, ‘Fate Stepped In’, ‘Resurrection Blvd.’, ‘Another Night in London’…the list of new moshpit anthems goes on, and Devildriver are definitely leading the charge. Can’t wait for the next one!
8. Slayer ‘World Painted Blood’ – Following on from the disappointing ‘Christ Illusion’, Slayer released their eleventh studio album in November and showed that they could still make albums that, although maybe not as consistently brilliant as their glory days, could still compete for sheer intensity and heaviness. There’s nothing here that reinvents the wheel, but unlike ‘Christ…’, it doesn’t sound so flat and uninspired, and although they’ll probably never make another ‘Reign in Blood’ or ‘Seasons in the Abyss’, this is the most ‘Slayer’ album they’ve released for some time.
7. Iron Maiden ‘Flight 666’ – Does the world need another Iron Maiden live album? Hell yeah! One look at the track listing is enough to make the most cynical gumby weep into his pint, as the 80’s glory days are relived through tracks like ‘Moonchild’, ‘Powerslave’, Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and ‘Heaven Can Wait’. Of course, the ubiquitous ‘Run to the Hills’, ‘The Trooper’ and ‘Number of the Beast’ are still there, but had they not been then people would have gone ‘where’s the hits?’ It may have worked for Judas Priest on their latest live opus, but the Maiden are a slightly different beast and wouldn’t have got away with it. Like Priest, a full set from one gig may have been better as you would have a flavour of the whole event, but being handpicked from different gigs, at least the songs all have a high energy level throughout. With a sound this tight, maybe their next album should be recorded from the stage…
6. Firebird ‘Grand Union’ – A very different band from his previous two outfits, former Napalm Death/Carcass guitarist Bill Steer put together Firebird in the late 90’s as a blues-based power trio and have been busying themselves ever since releasing a handful of cracking albums. ‘Grand Union’ is their fifth release and, quite frankly, is a stormer. Comparable to classic blues/rock bands such as Cream, Free and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Firebird not only know how to pen classic riffs and solid, thumping rhythms but can make each song as catchy as hell and make headbanging compulsory. And Steer’s vocals sound uncannily like Maiden-era Paul Di’Anno, so good stuff all round.
5. Cannibal Corpse ‘Evisceration Plague’ – Carrying on where astounding last album ‘Kill’ left off, Cannibal Corpse are now over twenty years into their career and show no signs of letting up. With song titles such as ‘Skewered from Ear to Ear’, ‘Priests of Sodom’ and ‘Shatter Their Bones’ you know where they’re coming from, and the blast beats, schizo riffing, demented solos and George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher’s bowels-of-Satan vocals are still there, all wrapped up in Morbid Angel/Hate Eternal man Eric Rutan’s heavy production. Not overly ambitious in the progression department, but who wants it to be? It’s Cannibal Corpse, it’s death metal and it’s bloody great.
4. Heaven & Hell ‘The Devil You Know’ – Resurrecting the Dio-era line-up of Black Sabbath under a new name was always an exciting prospect, and even though the musical pedigree of this band is beyond question, there was still the question of whether any new material would be able to stand up against the audio goodness of Black Sabbath’s ‘Heaven & Hell’, ‘Mob Rules’ and ‘Dehumanizer’ albums. Well, it did – and then some. As heavy as you would expect, everybody involved seemed to have upped their game – Tony Iommi, a man known more for his riffs than his solos, was all over the fretboard with the sort of hand action only usually displayed by teenage boys on a promise, Ronnie James Dio sang like a man possessed, Geezer Butler showed why he is so highly regarded by bass players the world over and Vinnie Appice neatly underpins everything in his own unique style. Lead single ‘Bible Black’ was easily one of the catchiest slabs of doom in recent memory, and as long as the band members can all get along this time around, then the prospect of another original Sabbath line-up reunion will just have to wait.
3. Megadeth ‘Endgame’ – One of the most anticipated releases of the year, Dave Mustaine and his band of merry men were under a fair bit of pressure to top what they achieved with 2007’s excellent ‘United Abominations’ – and they only went and bloody did it! ‘Endgame’ can justifiably claim to be one of Megadeth’s best albums; not just since the so-called ‘glory days’, but ever. First single ‘Head Crusher’ showcased how well new(ish) guitarist Chris Broderick and Mustaine have gelled as players, whilst the title track could be one of the most venomous political rants Mustaine has penned. All wrapped up in metal maestro Andy Sneap’s streamlined production, Megadeth – unlike certain other metal giants who seem to make metal albums that sound a little too contrived – have shown that they’ve still got what it takes to lead the pack.
2. Paradise Lost ‘Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us’ – Having now seemingly gotten their experimental tendencies out of their system, Halifax doomsters Paradise Lost are continuing down the raw, metallic path they started with 2005’s self-titled album and carried on with 2007’s ‘In Requiem’. More brutal than either of those albums, some of the songs nod back towards their gothic death metal days, although some of the rich melodies and snaking riffs do echo the glories of their ‘Draconian Times’ album from 1995. Now using seven-string guitars, the overall sound is a lot heavier than previous efforts and Nick Holmes’ vocals just get better with each album. Check out the title track for one of the year’s best singles and a future PL classic that encompasses everything that the band are about nowadays. Put quite simply, it’s brilliant.
1. The Resurrection Sorrow ‘Hour of the Wolf’ – Well, this one crept up on me, I don’t mind admitting. The Resurrection Sorrow hail from New York and feature former members of Malstrom and Murphy’s Law, although that doesn’t really prepare you for what’s on offer here. Taking the heavy doom approach of Cathedral and melding it to the swagger of ‘Deliverance’-era COC with a touch of classic Metallica, TRS quite proudly admit that they aren’t offering up anything original, but what they are doing is playing heavy and catchy metal anthems without compromise and without any pretentions to anything else. Opening track ‘Resurrect the Sorrow’ lays out the template for the rest of the album, and each track offers up a different take on anthemic heavy metal without repetition, with the rocking ‘Soul of the Soulless’ and the instrumental ‘Shadow of a Vampire’ being obvious standouts. Stripped of the excesses that such albums can lose themselves in, only one song exceeds the five minute mark meaning that the song never outstays its welcome, and swiftly moves onto the next before you get a chance to get too familiar with it. Roll on album number two!
