Hey Folks! It’s me… Again!

I’m coming back once more to explore the depths of a genre that arguably did not begin where you all thought it did! Yeah yeah… Alright, maybe Left Hand Path, Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious, Like An Ever Flowing Stream & The Red In The Sky Is Ours aren’t exactly the sound you would expect, but they were certainly a sign of something incredible that was about to happen. The birth of Melodic Death Metal!

Most of you, them, us… Would agree that Melodic Death metal really appeared in the form of Carcass’s 1993 album Heartwork. Even though some shades of what would become staples of the genre were heard before, this one would truly be the first album to be called as such. Mixing OSDM with more classic heavy metal styled riffs & melodies, our beloved genre (along with Thrash) would become for a lot of our teenage selves, a gateway into the more extreme bowels of metal’s subgenres. I would argue that it’s an almost obligatory step in the grand metalhead’s journey. Ah, how amazing it was to first taste the somewhat delicate sound of melodeath before rattling our ears with the obscenities & nonsensical wankery of grindcore, brutal tech-death, dissonant death and post metal… Rrrrright.

As you have become accustomed to by now, I will attempt to honour the genre by listing the absolute best Melodic Death metal albums to be ever released throughout the years. And I will do so starting with a few albums that are arguably not Melodic Death metal… Because I can and I did, hah! F*ck you! Along the way, you might stumble upon some strange & unorthodox choices mixing a plethora of other genres as well and that’s ok. Truly. Take it easy, don’t hyperventilate over it and just go with the flow. The main goal here is to help people who don’t know much about melodeath discover it and where it came from. I also want to push forward some less known jewels amongst highly praised landmarks of the style and sprinkle a bit of my personality along the way because that’s always fun. The albums will be ordered in years of release and there will be no other restriction or specific rules.

I hope you have a blast going through my list and that it brings you joy and a slight tingle on your nostalgia strings. Though, if it pisses you off, if I forgot your absolute favourite album of all goddamn time or if you think I’m an idiot, well… Just remember that I’m right, always and forever, thank you. Regardless It will be a pleasure for me to hear your recommendations or discuss anything related to melodeath below. Cheers & have fun!

-Guib-

Note: Albums with a 🇨🇦 are from my country (Canada) and albums with a ★ are my personal favourites.

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Last Updated: April 19th, 2024

1.Entombed - Left Hand Path

2.Carcass - Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious

3.Dismember - Like An Ever Flowing Stream

4.At The Gates - The Red In The Sky Is Ours

5.Carcass - Heartwork

      View entire list ››

Good day folks! T'day, I just wanted to share the best of what Canada has to offer when it comes to Metal, eh. It seems a lot of people don't yet know that Canada's a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the heavy stuff and I'll show you just how much!

The main goal here is to help people discover the history of Canadian Metal through time and amazing releases. To do so, I'll be listing a single album per band and order the list by year of release from oldest to newest then I'll identify the genre for each of them. Note that the albums chosen aren't necessarily the best of each band but my personal favorites and in my humble opinion, good points of entry into a band's discography. I will try to fill each gaps in years over time and add new bands as I discover them. (So this list is permanently under construction).

Also, as always in my lists, releases with a ''★'' are the ones I believe you shouldn't miss because of their impact, uniqueness or just because they are my favourites.

There is a lot of different styles, I did my best to diversify so there should be something interesting for everyone!

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To my fellow Canadians, if you have recommendations or wanna point out obvious albums I might have missed, please feel free to let me know. To everyone else, I hope you'll like this virtual musical trip to the great white north! Enjoy. Oh and you're really all welcome to suggest albums.

- Guib -

Last Update: April 15th, 2024

1.Moxy - Moxy

2.Triumph - Just A Game

3.Rush - Moving Pictures

4.April Wine - The Nature Of The Beast

5.D.O.A. - Hardcore '81

      View entire list ››

Almost all album titles fall in one of two categories: The album shares the title with one of its songs (the title track) or, alternatively, the album title is independent from the songs (no title track).

However, there are examples of songs that have a central link to the album title without sharing the same name. In these cases, certain lyrics from the song were chosen as the album title.

This (alphabetical) list shows the names of these “hidden title tracks” and the central lyrics that gave the name to the corresponding album.

Please feel free to suggest more of your favorite metal/hard rock examples of these “hidden title tracks”.

1.40 Watt Sun - Wider Than The Sky

2.A Forest Of Stars - A Shadowplay For Yesterdays

3.Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops

4.Agalloch - The Mantle

5.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

      View entire list ››

1.The Black Dahlia Murder - Nocturnal

2.Between The Buried And Me - Colors

3.The Black Dahlia Murder - Everblack

4.Heaven Shall Burn - Veto

5.Between The Buried And Me - The Great Misdirect

      View entire list ››

1.Lunatic Gods - Vlnobytie

2.Enslaved - RIITIIR

3.Borknagar - Urd

4.In Mourning - The Weight Of Oceans

5.Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage

      View entire list ››

To give you a sense of how much I hate Deathcore, the only Suicide Silence album I find to be passable is their self-titled. Even with better bands I still don't like their albums. For example, I like some songs by like Veil of Maya, but I only really liked entire albums after they changed style away from deathcore to something more like Periphery. That being said, there is a few deathcore albums I legitimately liked. Overall these bands are going to be on the lighter end of the genre, because the more extreme deathcore-ish bands that I like tend to actually be deathgrind, such as Benighted. I do find the oldschool deathcore bands like Despised Icon and The Red Chord to be okay, but I haven't really listened to them enough to see if they have albums I like as a whole. The bands who stood out enough to get me to listen to album tend to have experimental aspects that drew me in, these aspects typically make them less extreme by conventional standards as there is more to them than just shear brutality. Here they are are.

1.All Shall Perish - Awaken The Dreamers

2.Bring Me The Horizon - Count Your Blessings

3.Whitechapel - Mark Of The Blade

4.Betraying The Martyrs - Breathe In Life

5.Slice The Cake - Odyssey To The West

      View entire list ››

Will be updated constantly as I remember albums/have time to add them! if more than one album per year- runner up. If none, then i picked none for that year.

1.The Agonist - The Eye of Providence

2.Queensrÿche - Condition Hüman

3.Arch Enemy - War Eternal

4.Marty Friedman - Inferno

5.Conquering Dystopia - Conquering Dystopia

      View entire list ››

My personal best 10 albums from 2012!

1.Sabaton - Carolus Rex

2.Kamelot - Silverthorn

3.Wintersun - Time I

4.DragonForce - The Power Within

5.Eluveitie - Helvetios

      View entire list ››

I haven't been able to listen to all of this years top albums (As voted on by MS Users ) but, I tried dammit. This year was a bit disappointing as other years have had many more 9's and so on. Still a lot of great to really good releases either way.

1.Seven Kingdoms - The Fire Is Mine

2.Overkill - The Electric Age

3.Agua De Annique - Everything Is Changing

4.Sabaton - Carolus Rex

5.Arjen Anthony Lucassen - Lost In The New Real

      View entire list ››

Because I reached the word limit on the previous list, and don't want to lose my quite excellent in-depth descriptions. Those without descriptions are from my other list.

1.Sylosis - Monolith

2.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

3.In The Silence - A Fair Dream Gone Mad

4.Abigail Williams - Becoming

5.Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Area 52

      View entire list ››

Favorite Albums Of All Time!(Mine not yours)

1.Kamelot - The Black Halo

2.Kamelot - Epica

3.Within Temptation - The Unforgiving

4.Nightwish - Oceanborn

5.Kamelot - Ghost Opera

      View entire list ››

Unordered
Last Update: July 12th

1.Ancestors - In Dreams And Time

2.Akphaezya - Anthology IV: The Tragedy Of Nerak

3.Dark Empire - From Refuge To Ruin

4.Dawn Of Demise - Rejoice In Vengeance

5.Miseration - Tragedy Has Spoken

      View entire list ››

(Currently updating this list) *** This list is all the albums that I listened to from 2012. Order: Best to worst.

1.Periphery - Periphery II: This Time It's Personal

2.Gorod - A Perfect Absolution

3.The Faceless - Autotheism

4.Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage

5.Dethklok - Dethalbum III

      View entire list ››

Welcome to Lkoturnindrin's obligatory rating system of 2012. There will be only one voice of reason, mine. And since I have loads of albums to review, that will be all.

Re-edits in process

1.Christian Mistress - Possession

2.Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora's Piñata

3.High On Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis

4.Pharaoh - Bury The Light

5.Ram-Zet - Freaks In Wonderland

      View entire list ››

One of likely hundreds of these, more for self-enjoyment (or something) above anything, but if it helps someone find a good album/albums they wouldn't've otherwise heard I'll be happy.

1.Sylosis - Monolith

2.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

3.In The Silence - A Fair Dream Gone Mad

4.Abigail Williams - Becoming

5.Enslaved - RIITIIR

      View entire list ››