A Year In Metal - 2019: Highlights Through The Eyes Of The MS Staff, Elites, And Official Contributors
Written by: | ScreamingSteelUS |
Published: | January 25, 2020 |
It's almost time for the Metal Storm Awards, the time of year when we open the floodgates for every peasant in the fields to express their opinion about the best albums of the year (that they have already listened to). But first, we the citizens of MS Towers get to show off our favorite stuff from 2019 and talk about how metal (or not) our year was.
Below, you'll see the representatives of Metal Storm's staff, elites, and contributors listing off their favorites from the last year in a variety of categories. Feel free to share your own comments (and rankings), but keep in mind that the opinions you see here are the correct ones.
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Staff
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Staff
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[user_id]13767[/user_id] Favorite Album: A Swarm Of The Sun - The Woods Best Home-Country Album: Goragorja - Akarma Most Played Song: Body Count's "This Is Why We Ride" Most Promising Band: Mairu Best Concert: Well, among 50 gigs attended and more than 100 bands seen, I cannot decide for one only. So, the chosen top performers would be: Cult Of Luna, Mono, Messa, Amenra, Gaerea, Sleep. Biggest Disappointment: Driving to a gig in Vienna (4,5 hours one way) for nothing. Cancelled just couple of hours prior the official beginning. Metal Moment Of 2019: And 2020?: Something totally unexpected: to attend a bunch of concerts/festivals and explore as much music as possible (2019 was pretty damn strong for me). |
[user_id]108040[/user_id] Favorite Album: Y'all don't want me to go off with a book report here, so I'll keep it short and say major shout outs to Skáphe and Wormlust, Laster, Waste Of Space Orchestra, Deathspell Omega, and Deafkids for dropping some supah hot fiyah in 2019. Best Home Country Album: For one reason or another the majority of the albums I enjoyed in 2019 were foreign. Crowhurst's III was quite an impressive American effort though. Cheers Jay. Most Played Song: It's got to be the magnificent "Self Portrait With Halo And Snake," from the aforementioned Crowhurst album. Most Promising Band: For the first time in a while, in 2019 I was more impressed by my nonmetal discoveries than many of my metal ones, especially in the alternative hip hop department. I'm beyond happy to have crossed paths with Moor Mother, Worstworldproblems, JPEGMAFIA, and Moodie Black in particular, and will be watching them all closely for the foreseeable future. Best Concert: Have A Nice Life playing all through Deathconsciousness at Roadburn 2019. Sublime in every sense of the word. Biggest Disappointment: Color me easily pleased, but really nothing I can think of. Maybe GosT canceling a show I was going to see him at in Miami, but that's pretty minor. Metal Moment Of 2019: Dancing with RaduP to the jammy psychedelic madness of Uran in the Main Stage at Roadburn. And 2020?: No Roadburn this year unfortunately but hopefully a ton of great new discoveries both metal and non. On personal levels looking to read more classic sci fi, especially Philip K Dick and Robert A Heinlein, get deeper into Thelema, and finally start on my long planned dark fantasy trilogy. |
[user_id]1423[/user_id] Favorite Album: BUS - Never Decide, with honorable mentions to Duneeater - No Gas No Good, Officium Triste - The Death Of Gaia Best Home-Country Album: Tool - Fear Inoculum Most Played Song: Tie. BUS - "I Buried Paul" or smash hit of the summer, Nanowar Of Steel - "Norwegian Reggaeton" Most Promising Band: BUS - Hellenic stoner rock/metal that has great riffs, swell grooves and can even conjure the weirdest of Syd-era Pink Floyd. Read about the album but wasn't remotely prepared for my first play through. Best Concert: None. Biggest Disappointment: Not sure if disappointment or drama, or just fucking life in general, but should be pretty obvious to anyone who has been vaguely active on the site, well, ever. Metal Moment Of 2019: Does eating Piranha count as metal? Else running into a bunch of Brazilian craft brewers and Sepultura fans at a craft beer bar in Porto and being invited to their Brasilian Barbecue to discuss futebol, metal and beer while consuming beer and meat. And 2020?: Fucking it all off for the first half of a Mid-Life Crisis Gap Year world tour and preparing to storm the craft breweries of Europe. (various destinations in Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia/Middle Earth to kick off 2021.) |
[user_id]1861[/user_id] Favorite Album: Devin Townsend's Empath until The Liberation came out (yeah, that new Disillusion album) Best Home Country Album: S.U.P's Dissymmetry is good. But it was the only one I listened to anyway. Most Played Song: Most of Empath, and for the end of the year the whole The Liberation (while Empath helped me hold through difficult moments, I found in The Liberation so many echoes of the turmoil I lived it's... well...), plus Clipping's "Club Down", "The Show", and "Blood Of The Fang" Best Concert: Moodie Black + The Young Gods? Amon Amarth? Rotting Christ + Moonspell? I honestly don't know Biggest Disappointment: 2019, with all its changes in life, priorities, and stuff, was the first year since joining MS during which I didn't care about new metal albums. The thrill of discovery is gone, now I get that more from non-metal stuff I guess, as I'm threading unknown territories (for me)... Also, what BitterCOld wrote, really. Metal Moment Of 2019: scaring friends with music. They expected some extreme metal, they got Dälek instead Also, publishing my first solo book (only three short stories, but hey!) And 2020?: Dark Tranquillity in the studio, Niklas Sundin's Mitochondrial Sun, Moodie Black, and already Thy Catafalque... |
[user_id]125[/user_id] Favorite Album: Suldusk - Lunar Falls, Krezip - Sweet High, Monkey3 - Sphere, We Are The Catalyst - Ephemeral Most Promising Band: Suldusk? Best Concert: Black Mirrors were fantastic in Helsinki supporting The Vintage Caravan, Dualistic blew me away at Vivid festival in Kristiansand, Moonspell were rock solid in Tallinn, and IQ were just outstanding headliner at Midsummer Prog festival in Valkenburg Biggest Disappointment: Having seen Pure Reason Revolution at their very last show in 2011 playing The Dark Third, I saw them play the same album at a reunion show at Midsummer Prog. It was a bitter sweet experience. It was great to hear the album played live again. However, in the end the performance wasn't as good as it could've been for only half the band came back and 8 years is enough to make the band rusty. Half a year later I'm still on the fence whether the reunion was worth it. The real disappointment is not having enough time nor mind to listen to new music as much as I'd like to and have done in the past. I mean, I've not yet heard Opeth, Iamthemorning and Bent Knee - that says a lot. Metal Moment Of 2019: Quit my IT job and enrolled into arts academy. Being a full time student for the second time in my life feels great. And 2020?: Waiting for the new Green Carnation album. Hesitant about the Pure Reason Revolution one. Catching up with missed albums and trying to reprioritize what's important in my life. |
[user_id]828[/user_id] Favorite Album: Cult Of Luna - A Dawn To Fear Best Home-Country Album: Nothing UAE related this year, so will go with my best UK album: Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence Most Played Song: Hath - Worlds Within Most Promising Band: Sadly, nothing new really stood out for me this year. Lot's of good stuff, just nothing exceptional. Best Concert: Tough call between Hamferð or SikTh at Wacken and Cult Of Luna or Heilung at Brutal Assault. Biggest Disappointment: Missing the chance to catch Monolithe live in Dubai when they came here. The one damn time a doom band plays in this country & I couldn't make it Metal Moment Of 2019: Getting to travel back to Europe once again to attend metal festivals & catching up with old friends. And 2020?: Planning a return to Progpower Europe & travelling around Germany, Belgium & The Netherlands once again. |
[user_id]156842[/user_id] Favorite Album: Atlantean Kodex - The Course Of Empire. Full list of 2019's favourites over here. For non-metal, definitely Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen. Best Home-Country Album: Acid Death - Primal Energies and Order Of The Ebon Hand - VII: The Chariot. Most Played Song: Suffering Hour - "Dwell". Most Promising Band: Idle Hands, The Dark Silence Of Death & Fvneral Fvkk. Best Concert: Candlemass with Johan playing almost the entire Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, and they even made a special t-shirt, which I am waiting for to arrive in the post. And The Cure killing it on stage for nearly two and a half hours. However... Biggest Disappointment: ...they didn't play any song from Pornography. Metal Moment Of 2019: They decided to make me staff here. They should have known better judging from my avatar but what's done is done now. And 2020?: Same as last year: new My Dying Bride, please. It's finally coming! |
[user_id]109472[/user_id] Favorite Album: Sabaton - The Great War; Devin Townsend - Empath Best Home-Country Album: Warforged - I: Voice; Idle Hands - Mana Most Played Song: Sabaton - "The Red Baron"; Nanowar Of Steel - "Norwegian Reggaeton"; Cellar Darling - "Death"; Avantasia - "The Book Of Shallows"; Babymetal - "Da Da Dance" Most Promising Band: Takafumi Matsubara and Rainer Landfermann (even though they've both been around for decades) Best Concert: Demons & Wizards Biggest Disappointment: Pretty much the whole year. Metal Moment Of 2019: Interviewing Mirai Kawashima of Sigh And 2020?: New reasons to live (the Violet Evergarden movies, Demons & Wizards, and Orden Ogan) |
[user_id]37247[/user_id] Favorite Album: Impossible to choose between Cult Of Luna's A Dawn To Fear and Esoteric's A Pyrrhic Existence. It was an ejoyable year overall with plenty of worthwhile and heavy contenders, but those two in particular stood out for me. Best Home-Country Album: A mix of Unus by Necronomicon (CAN), Adore by Numenorean, and Heaven That Dwells Within by Wormwitch. Some decent, but largely passable, Canadian content this year, and rather disappointing in regards to métal noir québécois specifically. Most Played Song: If it had to be limited to a strictly metal song from 2019, I'd guess a rotation of "Harvest The Stars" (Netherbird), "Ever So Bold" (Abigail Williams), and "Veiztu Hve" (Gaahls Wyrd). Most Promising Band: A few Clandestine Cuts nominees come to mind -- namely Boreal Hymn, Consilium, and Windthrow. Best Concert: Catching Cattle Decapitation in Toronto at the Opera House. Full Of Hell weren't able to make it due to their equipment being stolen, Author & Punisher wasn't there for whatever reason, and Atheist received a fairly bland reception due to a poor setlist and by-the-numbers approach, but openers Vitriol took advantage of the empty time slots to play their entire album and had a great time engaging with the audience. It turned out to be a far more intimate show than I was expecting, and Cattle Decapitation closed it out with everything they had. Biggest Disappointment: First and foremost, learning of Marcel's passing. It was such an unexpected blow, and one that maintains its presence in varying ways. In addition to that, for me personally, losing touch with this site and the community after a self-imposed years-long sabbatical that really only served to deprive me of a significant source of pride, accomplishment, and happiness. That tandem of time lost and the reminder of what I left behind as a result gnaws at me constantly. Metal Moment Of 2019: Returning to Metal Storm and finding it still intact, even with its many changes. Here's to another decade of debauchery and destruction And 2020?: Further immersing myself in my writings, whether it be reviews or my novel, and getting back to properly exploring the vast expanses of the metal scene both in the digital and physical realm. Hopefully catching some prime live content in the form of Insomnium, Cult Of Luna, and whoever else partakes in this year's Decibel Magazine Tour. |
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Elites And Official Contributors
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Elites And Official Contributors
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[user_id]1443[/user_id] Favorite Album: I can't point out just one: Mgła Age of Excuse - they never change much, but with every release they perfect their sound. Opeth In Cauda Venenum - after the infamous divorce with metal, Opeth seem to have finally found their direction. Soen Lotus - it's great to see a band that gets better and better with each release. Tool Fear Inoculum - this one is the most played album of 2019 for me. Best Home-Country Album: Mgła Age of Excuse Most Played Song: Mgła "Age of Excuse VI" Best Concert: Metallica in Prague, 18th August. It was not my first time seeing them, but it was the best one. Honourable mentions: Riverside, Vader, Flotsam And Jetsam, Overkill, Anthrax. Biggest Disappointment: Leprous Pitfalls. I did try hard, I swear. Malina was excellent, so I hoped this one would work for me too. But, after numerous attempts, I couldn't get into it. Metal Moment Of 2019: Meeting Flotsam And Jetsam's Eric A.K and Michael Gilbert after their gig in my city. And 2020: Ahab(!!!), Anthrax, Megadeth |
[user_id]32468[/user_id] Favorite Album: I'm still trying to process albums that came out in 2014 Best Home-Country Album: N/A Most Played Song: "U Wear It Well" - RuPaul Most Promising Band: N/A Best Concert: Seeing Harm's Way a fourth time feels like a privilege. Favourite bands come and go, disband or disappoint, but not them. Biggest Disappointment: I still haven't been able to forgive Rammstein for what they did to me after 2005 Metal Moment Of 2019: Moving from one continent to another, then moving from a city to another, then getting married, in the space of three weeks And 2020?: Looking forward to befriending the squirrels and crows of my neighbourhood. |
[user_id]115992[/user_id] Favorite Album: Cult Of Luna - A Dawn To Fear, and it's a bit sad how little competition it had. Best Home-Country Album: It was a toss-up between Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence and Bat For Lashes - Lost Girls, until a last-minute discovery of Sermon gave me something from the UK to be truly excited about in the form of Birth Of The Marvellous. Most Played Song: Periphery - Reptile Most Promising Band: Bees Made Honey In The Vein Tree were the coolest discovery for me this year. Also very excited to see where next Abigail Williams and Schammasch now go following their records this year. Best Concert: Either Mastodon in January with Scott Kelly, or Cult Of Luna in November. As an event, ArcTanGent was brilliant, and stoked to go to the 2020 edition. Biggest Disappointment: Either Fallujah - Undying Light or Leprous - Pitfalls. Metal Moment Of 2019: Either playing my first gig as a metal musician, playing my first gig doing metal vocals, or playing a song I wrote live for the first time (three separate gigs). And 2020?: Making my first appearance on Spotify, which should happen soon, and going to Roadburn and ArcTanGent festivals. Also buzzing for a new Sylosis album and concert. Outside of metal, looking forward to going to New Zealand for the first time in the spring. |
[user_id]137742[/user_id] Favorite Album: Lingua Ignota - Caligula and Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated among others, but strictly metal it has to be Wilderun - Veil Of Imagination Best Home-Country Album: Sur Austru - Meteahna Timpurilor Most Played Song: Caroline Polachek - "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings", Carly Rae Jepsen - "Party For One" and Sharon Van Etten - "Seventeen" Most Promising Band: Definitely Idle Hands Best Concert: My first Roadburn, which included Sleep doing Holy Mountain in full as well as Have A Nice Life doing Deathconciousness in full, but also a bunch of other great performances I don't have the space to name; other than Roadburn, I have to mention The Cure and Dead Can Dance. Biggest Disappointment: Dan Gilroy following Nightcrawler up with Velvet Buzzsaw. Metal Moment Of 2019: Either Bloodbath under heavy rains or carefully moshing to Birds In Row because I was holding merch in my jacket. Or maybe entering the photo pit for the first time with media creds. And 2020?: Another Roadburn obviously, at least a hundred more reviews, and hopefully finally interviewing Post Malone. |
[user_id]179355[/user_id] Favorite Album: Numenorean - Adore & Exulansis - Sequestered Sympathy Best Home-Country Album: Disillusion - The Liberation, closely followed by Downfall Of Gaia - Ethic Of Radical Finitude Most Played Song: Japanische Kampfhörspiele - "Kaputt" (just 2:23 minutes to guarantee several passes before I even had the first cup of morning coffee) Most Promising Band: Exulansis & Eternal Storm Best Concert: Sick Midsummer Festival in Scharnstein, Austria - beautiful scenery, really good food, laid-back atmosphere and Nocte Obducta + Bethlehem. Biggest Disappointment: Unanimated - Empty promises in lieu of a new album. Metal Moment Of 2019: Surviving a potentially fatal disease was the most "metal" thing I ever did. And 2020?: New Igorrr, My Dying Bride, Dark Tranquillity, Hypocrisy... ...but I'd trade anything for a real reunion of Eucharist. |
[user_id]40573[/user_id] Favorite Album: Fen - The Dead Light Best Home-Country Album: Spotlights - Love & Decay Most Played Song: Alcest - "Sapphire" Most Promising Band: Cartographs Best Concert: Tool on Halloween night. Biggest Disappointment: The end of one of my favorite post metal bands, Dirge Metal Moment Of 2019: Helping Disillusion fund their new album. I made some new friends, got a lot of great merchandise and I felt I was with the band every step of the way. And 2020?: New Lantlôs. My most anticipated album in half a decade. |
| Written on 25.01.2020 by I'm the reviewer, and that means my opinion is correct. |
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