Me too man! A Sense Of Purpose is awesome.

Currently waiting for Deathglam by Deathstars, Death Magnetic by... yeah well, VI - Klagopsalmer by Shining, Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder by Cradle of Filth and Konkurs by Lifelover. Believe that all will please me!

N by Norther is really good and so is Blooddrunk (Children of Bodom) and even A Sense of Purpose by In Flames, which I really had given up all my hope for.

Dornenreich - In Luft geritzt

I am enjoying Dornenreich more and more.
really cool Ambient Rock.

Thronar - Unleash The Fire

Written by Guest on 09.08.2008 at 13:59

Mercenary released a tremendous album in "Architect of Lies". Definitely check that out. And "Trivmvirate" by The Monolith Deathcult is amazing.

Of course if you're an Opeth fan their new album is pretty awesome (though, not one of their best). However the album I've listened to the most this year is "Praises To The War Machine" by Warrel Dane, lead singer of Nevermore. But then I'm totally gay for him and the rest of Nevermore so my word is not to be trusted.

Praises to the war machine was ok for me nothing great, even the jeff loomis solo album was ok, i guess when both these guys come together its what makes the difference, both the albums were not even close to a nevermore album.Mercenary was good though

Anyway for me i think the good albums would have to be:

Day without dawn
Maybeshewill
Opeth
Canvas solaris
Have a nice life
Textures
Arghoslent
Eluveitie
Genghis tron
Arsis

I guess thats about it, those are some of the albums i liked.

So far the year's been going good to metal releases, thanks to satan. The top 3 so far are Opeth (Watershed), Ayreon (1011001), and Moonspell's Night Eternal or Communc (Payment of Existence).
But there's still much more to come, and I personally hope to change that list. I have good expectations for Evergrey and Amon Amarth.

Krisiun's last album Southern Storm is a MONSTER, I get stunned listening to that devastating death metal shit... it's my favourite they had released so far in their long discography. Unfortunately I didn't like the Sepultura cover, but the rest of the songs are awesome.

Ahh right, "Watershed" by Opeth is really good. To bad they had to give it flaws with the crappy cover songs.

Written by Guest on 15.08.2008 at 01:51

Krisiun's last album Southern Storm is a MONSTER, I get stunned listening to that devastating death metal shit... it's my favourite they had released so far in their long discography. Unfortunately I didn't like the Sepultura cover, but the rest of the songs are awesome.

To me it sounds like AssassiNation, but with less variation. But, I do agree that it's a monster - I fucking love it \m/

Written by Guest on 15.08.2008 at 01:51

Krisiun's last album Southern Storm is a MONSTER, I get stunned listening to that devastating death metal shit... it's my favourite they had released so far in their long discography. Unfortunately I didn't like the Sepultura cover, but the rest of the songs are awesome.

I still don't have it. I loved AssassiNation, so I must enjoy that one too.

Gama Bomb - Citizen brain

probably best thrash album this year,if you dant have it.. i truly recomend it for all thrashers here

Slipknot - All Hope is Gone. The band did a great job adding some cool solos and melodic vocals in some choruses... They're growing up

I can't stop listening to Falconer's Among Beggars and Thieves; it has to be one of my favorite albums. It definately has my vote for best power metal album of the year.

The new Pantheist promises to be something good. that one song on their myspace allready sounds amazing.

Written by Hrothdane on 02.09.2008 at 00:08

I can't stop listening to Falconer's Among Beggars and Thieves; it has to be one of my favorite albums. It definately has my vote for best power metal album of the year.

Hell YEAH! This album caught me by such surprise! Its fantastic! No fillers at all...they didnt even reach my 2008 list for album to look out for so i was completely caught out by its release...really dark horse to be honest. I love the couple of Viking songs they added in as well, gives great diversity to the album and even better since they sing it in Swedish as well. Stellar album 9/10 from me....

The great thing is that it extends beyond power metal...they started to dig into the viking metal sound again the way they used to do when the members were in "Mithotyn" - not quite to that extent but i love the folky bits they added to ABAT

Septic Flesh - Communion
Opeth - Watershed
Moonspell - Night Eternal
Equilibrium - Sagas
Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God
Evergrey - Torn
Falconer - Among Beggars and Thieves
Moonsorrow - Tulimyrsky EP
BloodBath - Unblessing the Purity EP
Swallow the Sun - Plague of Butterflies EP
Shade Empire - Zero Nexus
Pyramaze - Immortal
Jeff Loomis - Zero Order Phase (not sure when its coming out but I already heard it )
The Arcane Order - In the Wake of Collisions
Cloudscape - Global Drama (An excellent album...a real surprise for me)


Yes....I enjoyed these albums a lot. The ones below (also a lot...I know) I also enjoyed but not as much as the above albums.

Scar Symmetry, Communic (their new album is not as good as Waves imo), Draconian, Iced Earth (could have been better), Saint Deamon, Demians, Warrel Dane, Stormlord, Kiuas, Alestorm, Belphegor. There's more but I either havent listened to any of it or only once.

Keep of Kalessin's new album was a major disappointment. Hollenthon...I havent listened to their new album enough. Ayreon's new album but decent...nothing special.

Now I just have to actually buy all these albums. I already bought Septic Flesh's Communion, Equilibrium's Sagas and I currently have Amon Amarth's Thunder God pre-ordered.

Here's my current top 15, which continuously changes:

1. Biomechanical - Cannibalised
2. Brain Drill - Apocalyptic Feasting
3. The Sword - Gods of the Earth
4. Destruction - D.E.V.O.U.T.I.O.N.
5. Decrepit Birth - Diminishing Between Worlds
6. Hate Eternal - Fury and Flames
7. Krisiun - Southern Storm
8. Darkspace - Dark Space III
9. Warbringer - War Without End
10. Cripple Bastards - Variante Alla Morte
11. Bonded by Blood - Feed the Weak
12. Cavalera Conspiracy - Inflikted
13. Behexen - My Soul for His Glory
14. The Monolith Deathcult - Trivmvirate
15. Dismember - Dismember

Pretty good year for thrash so far, when compared to recent years

The Monolith Deathcult - Trivmvirate is a killer album... its epic and yet so brutal! one of my favs for the year!

Volbeat - Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood, is really great

I can now add Bloodbath's The Fathomless Mastery to my large list. Awesome album!

Can't seem to distinguish between last year and this year very much so mistakes may follow. Some include off the top of my head:

Indie/Experimental/Shoegaze/Industrial/Ambient/Noise:
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing (excellent if very NME style indie experimental).
To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie - The Patron (Shoegaze/indie-noise, very pleasant)
Have A Nice Life - Deathconsciousness (More of less the same as above)
Pyramids - Pyramids (Fucking brilliant, almost unclassifiable experimental sounds, has a Blut aus Nord remix)
Sleep Research Facility - Nostromo (Supreme dark ambient based on the first 7 minutes of the film 'Alien')
ZandoZ Corp. - Suffocating Egos (excellent and intelligent industrial/electro)
Skullflower - Desire For A Holy War (Uncompromising noise)
Skullflower - IIIrd Gatekeeper (Seminal, influential noise rock)
Sutcliffe Jugend - Pigdaddy (Uncompromising power electronics)

Drone
Methadrone - Sterility (More subtle ambient drone than previous effort)
Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull (Relaxing southern post-rock)
Asva - What You Don't Know Is Frontier (Excellent drone)
Moss - Sub Templum (same as above)
Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer (Re-issue of O' Malley's best ever album)
Nadja - Desire In Uneasiness (Unique non-abrasive ambient drone)

All other metal
Darkspace - Darkspace III (More melodic than previous effort yet brilliant ambient black metal)
Coldworld - Melancholie (Very nice melancholic black metal)
A Forest Of Stars - A Forest Of Stars (Atmospheric black metal, UK style)
Leviathan - Massive Conspiracy Against All Life (hugely complex, impenetrable modern black metal)
Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game In Town (Wicked sludge/stoner metal)
Meshuggah - ObZen (Post thrash veteran's quality release)
Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale (Benchmark setting funeral doom, truly one of the best of the genre)
Mourning Beloveth - A Disease for the Ages (Epic and varied Doom metal with good use of clean vocals)
Kalisia - Cybion (God-damn long and eagery awaited full length from progressive melodic deathsers that brought us the Skies demo)
Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery (Old meets new death metal onslaught)
Septic Flesh - Communion (Progressive death metal that proves neo-classicism isn't gay)
CrystalMoors - Antiqvam Exqvirite Matrem (Exceptionally well produced and epic pagan black/death metal)
Lair of the Minotaur - War Metal Battle Master (Crushing Sludge/Thrash metal)

Septicflesh-Communion
Toxic Holocaust-An overdose of death...
Eluveitie-Slania
Equilibrum-Sagas
Hail of Bullets-Of Frost and War
Origin-Antithesis
Bonded by Blood-Feed the Beast

Septic Flesh - Communion
The Monolith Deathcult - Trvimvirate
Lord Belial - Black Curse
Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery
Kalmah - For The Revolution
Alghazanth - Wreath of Thevetat
Amon Amarh - Twilight Of The Thundergod

My this year's top 7 as of now:

1. Opeth - Watershed
I listen to Opeth since Wacken this year (good 5 weeks now) and started with Watershed. I know it's not supposed to be their masterpiece but this album doesn't leave me alone. It's versatile and deep as an ocean. I love it.

2. Haggard - Tales of Ithiria
I hate that they turned away from historical themes. Especially as the "story" behind this album is much poorer than I had expected from Asis. Still there's much Haggard in this Album and I especially like how they stylistically turned back to their old work a little. ToI is as perfectly produced as Eppur si muove, but has much deeper arrangements and gives the more room to the classic part of Haggard.

3. Mercenary - Architect of lies
I still mourn the loss of Kral to the band. But this second iteration of a new Mercenary is much more pleasing than "The hours that Remain" was. Rene is a great addition to the band and the return of a screaming voice to their music only adds to it's diversity. I've slowly grown in to their new hardcore'ish style and learned to love it. This album took me a while to get into but the new songs just kick ass on stage. Seen them three times this year, recommend that to anyone who gets the chance

4. Warrel Dane - Praises to the war Machine
Unlike it's title would imply and the work we are used to from Nevermore, this is no Album of social criticism and reflection of humankind. Also the music is completely incomparable to anything Warrel did before. But readers of his Blog were warned and as an old gothic fan I like his approach to a self-reflected album from the heart. Where the music is simple and cleanly arranged, Warrels voice makes up for it all the more. Even the cover songs touch me (patterns does somehow not get me, but Lucretia is aaaawesome!). This man slowly works his way up my list of people to meet in my life.

5. Communic - Payment of Existence
No "Conspiracy in Mind" and no "Waves of visual Decay". Another new Communic. But somehow I like their albums most in the order they appeared. The first the best, this the least. It is a great album, but after the soft, more melodic WoVD I kinda expected more progression this time. Instead they chose to get more melodic. Also the songs on this album sound very alike on the first few listens. But Communic never failed to surprise me. Maybe in a year I get back to this one and THEN it hits me in the face. Happened before

6. Children Of Bodom - Blooddrunk
I like this album. No discussion. As many people I talked to about it, as many different opinions I got. As for me, I like the kind of music they play now and I appreciate them trying to leave the old "against everything" image behind. Blooddrunk is much more mature than the last albums before and although there's no special song I would mention, the album works as a whole for me. And I also like how they appear on stage now. They didn't insult a single fan during the last two concerts I've seen and appeared like a true metal band for the first time. Good work, good show. Hope to see more of that.

7. Avantasia - The Scarecrow
Good Album, Tobias should just have released it under a new name, not Avantasia. Like this everyone, me included compares it to the old Avantasia which was just off the top power metal and much more straightforward than The Scarecrow. Therefore it's all the way down on this list.

yet unrated: Metallica - Death Magnetic
I've only given DM a short time to make an impression yet. Then Watershed hit me again From what I've heard (and remembered) I can't really derive an opinion yet but it seems to me they tried to reissue as many of their 80's elements as possible. Some songs sound like being randomly pasted together and sometimes I had the feeling of having heard one or another passage in a different pitch somewhere else. Also lyrically and vocally DM doesn't really make an impression. Sometimes you get a feeling as if the songs would work better without singing at all. Also just using as many foreign words as possible doesn't work as a good songtext. I like to think my english is pretty good for a german but some of these songs cannot be enjoyed without a dictionary close by. As I said, I'm not sure where to put it yet.

Finally heard enough to come up with a bit of a rough list...

1 Malveillance - L'appel du Neant / Le Froid du Nord

Might not really count since it's just a compilation with a few new/unreleased tracks but this has been holding my attention more than any other 2008 release. It really creates a weird combination of nihilism and irreverence with no shortage of black metal Ramones covers, not to mention the pink underwear self portrait that graces the packaging. If black metal is dying and this is the sort of band that is killing it we might not be at a complete loss.

2 Geimhre - Noidagh
3 Arghoslent - Hornets Of The Pogrom
4 Uno Actu - Hors Des Chemins De La Raison
5 Slavigrom - Kraj Temny
6 Realm Of Chaos - Stench Of Death

So far only one thumbs down for me:

Eugenik - Schlachtenhall

This one seems to loose all the aggression of its predecessor while focusing entirely on the heavy folk metal epic/reminiscent/contemplative type of track that was never their strong point and too often done better by too many other bands. It makes you revisit Tag Des Raben and realize it hasn't stood up that well over these few years, placed in the context of this EP suddenly it seems the moments of thrashy victory are overwhelmed by mid-paced rocky mediocrity.

The rest of what I've been listening to was nothing terrible but nothing has caught me enough to make a "best of" list just yet...

Morbosidad - Profana La Cruz Del Nazareno
Neo Inferno 262 - Hacking The Holy Code
Njiqahdda - Ints Nji Verfatu
Urfaust - Drei Rituale Jenseits Des Kosmos
Sombres Forêts - Royaume de Glace

updating mine from just;

5ive - "Hesperus"

to now include:

Hail of Bullets - "of Frost and War"
Scott Kelly - "The Wake"
Leviathan - "Massive Conspiracy..."
Lair of the Minotaur - "War Metal Battle Master"
Nachtmystium - "Assassins"

and my leading pick (at present) for album of the year:

Esoteric - "The Maniacal Vale"


Still some albums to be replaced, too. Enslaved's will be good.

Other stuff I haven't given enough attention to but will probably end up on my final list. Maybe.

Wildildlife - Six
Wonderfully freaky, wacky psychedelic noise rock without being too extreme or alienating. This WILL be a fave of this year I think.

The Monolith Deathcult - Trivmvirate
Still not entirely sure if I like this so called "industrial" death metal release. It certainly has a something about it, just not sure if that something is my taste.

Wrath of the Weak - Alogon
Pretty impenetrable ambient/noise black metal. Good just not sure how good.

Birchville Cat Motel - Gunpowder Temple Of Heaven
I haven't had time to absorb this yet but I'm prety sure it'll be genius. 40 minute drone/noisefest from the masters. What's not to like?

A Silver Mt. Zion - 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
Not listened to much yet but sounds quite good.

Arghoslent - Hornets of the Pogrom
Played it safe with this one, still very good dirty death/thrash with some great melodic leads.

The Rotted - Get Dead or Die Trying
Damn this is some good death. Far more melodic and groovy that Gorerotted and actually better too.

Psycroptic - Ob(Servant)
Surprised no one's mentioned this yet. More quality tech death from the Aussie's.

Behexen - My Soul For His Glory
Enjoyable, throw away black metal. Gets boring pretty fast but good in a pinch.

Merzbow - Here
Really not his best effort but it is Merzbow at the end of the day. Should give this another whirl.

Burning Star Core - Challenger
How could I forget this >.< I love this!

Venetian Snares - Detrimentalist
Hello? Venetian Snares? Of course it'll be good.

Igorrr - Moisissure
More awesome breakcore/metal/rock/ambient from this comparitively new artist. The word "masterpiece" is thrown around a lot where this is concerned.

Janvs - Vega
Not out yet. I really liked last year's 'FVLGVRES', a great slice of atmospheric, memorable black metal. I'm sure 'Vega' will be the same.

Mgla - Groza
Extremely competant, well produced black metal with a good emphasis on songwriting and atmosphere.

Transcending Bizarre? - The Serpent's Manifolds
To be honest I was a little disappointed with this one, especially after 'The Four Scissors' was one of my all time fave albums. Just not as out-there and avant garde. Still way better than Arcturus though.

Navicon Torture Technologies - VTERVS
Downloading this at the moment. From what I've heard will be as fucked up and brilliant as ever.

Prometheus Burning - Retribution
Same as above. I'll stop now.

Written by Guest on 10.09.2008 at 13:11

The Monolith Deathcult - Trivmvirate
Still not entirely sure if I like this so called "industrial" death metal release. It certainly has a something about it, just not sure if that something is my taste.

Psycroptic - Ob(Servant)
Surprised no one's mentioned this yet. More quality tech death from the Aussie's.

yeh the monolith deathcult album is def a contender for album of the year! one of the best!

psycroptic's new one disappointed me somewhat... the vocals just weren't brutal enough IMO...

Written by BurbotsRevenge on 11.09.2008 at 14:12

Written by Guest on 10.09.2008 at 13:11

The Monolith Deathcult - Trivmvirate
Still not entirely sure if I like this so called "industrial" death metal release. It certainly has a something about it, just not sure if that something is my taste.

Psycroptic - Ob(Servant)
Surprised no one's mentioned this yet. More quality tech death from the Aussie's.

yeh the monolith deathcult album is def a contender for album of the year! one of the best!

psycroptic's new one disappointed me somewhat... the vocals just weren't brutal enough IMO...

A lot of people have complained about the vocals, I really don't see the problem though. They're pretty varied and I think the slightly higher pitched growl works with the music.

Written by Guest on 11.09.2008 at 14:19
A lot of people have complained about the vocals, I really don't see the problem though. They're pretty varied and I think the slightly higher pitched growl works with the music.

I think it's just hard to measure up to the performance on Scepter Of The Ancients. Take away the vocals and even that album isn't all that special; I for one lost interest in this band after the switch and giving Symbols Of Failure a few listens. It's amazing how one unique element can distract you from other elements that are comparatively mediocre.