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The Deadliest Of Harmonies (A Journey Into Melodic Death Metal)

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

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Created by Guib on 08.04.2024



Dish_dude Top 50 Albums Of 2022

1.Disillusion - Ayam
2.Aenaon - Mnemosyne
3.Wilderun - Epigone
4.Ghost - Impera
5.Panzerfaust - The Suns Of Perdition - Chapter III: The Astral Drain

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Created by dish_dude on 03.01.2024



Listening

1.Avatarium - Death, Where Is Your Sting
2.Belphegor - The Devils
3.Cabal - Magno Interitus
4.Sedimentum - Suppuration Morphogénésiaque
5.Kalmah - Kalmah

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Created by fry555 on 02.07.2023



Oldy's 2022 Albums Ranked

1.White Ward - False Light
2.Gaerea - Mirage
3.Dream Unending - Song Of Salvation
4.An Abstract Illusion - Woe
5.Voivod - Synchro Anarchy

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Created by Oldy86 on 12.06.2023



Thumbs up: +6
MSA 2022 All Write-ins

Taken around 8:30 pm GMT
There was no write-in for djent so I voted for one.
Not totally clean (trolls in last categories are kept for fun),
Thanks to the person who curated most of the write-is since yesterday, it really reduced the work to do!

PS : I cleaned the list listening to The Testament by Seventh Wonder, so I was particularly unhappy to see it in the biggest letdowns at the end

1.
2.A.A. Williams - As The Moon Rests
3.Disturbed - Divisive
4.Dog Fashion Disco - Cult Classic
5.Fleshwater - We're Not Here To Be Loved

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Created by Maxder on 28.02.2023



My Top 50 Albums Of 2022

1.An Abstract Illusion - Woe
2.White Ward - False Light
3.Gaerea - Mirage
4.Disillusion - Ayam
5.The Halo Effect - Days Of The Lost

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Created by JHK on 01.02.2023



Thumbs up: +1
Pandemonium Of Cosmological Alchemy: Top Metal Albums Of 2022

I don't know if I am just getting too old, or is it the lack of dedicated time to just sit down and listen to an album properly, without doing anything else, but I have a feeling that more and more albums sound just the same. Writing this years my top ten, or should I say top twenty five-ish list was really hard for me. Not because there was a lack of good albums, there are always some good albums, and this year, in some cases, was pure fucking brilliance. But a lot of times there were albums that I listened to a few times, and at that moment they actually sound good, but if you asked me half an hour later which songs I remembered... I would be dumbstruck to give you a proper answer.

So, let us get on with the top ten first. There were some really pleasant surprises, especially in terms of new bands and bands I discovered this year. New Horizon is a project of now ex H.E.A.T singer Eric Grönwal who in early 2022 was revealed as the new singer of Skid Row. Now, I am biased as fuck, because I am a huge fan of his voice, for me he is a brilliant power metal or hard rock singer. And this is exactly how this album sounds, power metal mixed with AOR and hard rock. The album is a collaboration with his former band mate, who plays keyboards in the mentioned H.E.A.T. It seems they wanted to delve deeper into power metal here as opposed to more hard rock style of H.E.A.T although HEAT's last album with Grönwal had pretty strong power influences. I have no idea how, why and what happened in that band so that Eric left, but simultaneously put out a project with his former band mate... and I don't really care. This album is a pure fucking masterpiece of melodic metal. Really refreshing. In terms of originality you won't hear anything especially new, but the delivery is excellent and song writing top notch.
Now I am not going to write a detailed album-by-album review here, I am way too lazy for that. Or not quite. I will just say that first four places, you could switch them in any order you want, and it would be great. Amorphis delivered another great album, Månegarm is being Månegarm, rising again to the top tier of Viking metal. What I really love about Månegarm is that they do not just write your default Viking metal songs and lyrics. Just as the previous few, this album is inspired by, and follows the story of Yngling dynasty, legendary and semi-legendary rulers from Scandinavia who, as the sagas say, claim descent from Odin himself and are progenitors of all the medieval rulers and kings from Scandinavia. At least that is what the sagas say. My point here, it is not just another default band and album riding the wave of Viking popularity, or at least it is not just that. Månegarm looks to explore history, sagas and myths of medieval Scandinavia and re-tell the Norse sagas in a modern metal format. Another band of a similar manner in the list is Ereb Altor, quite similar to Månegarm in style, modern Viking metal or pagan metal, or however you want to call it these days, heavily influenced by both black and folk metal. Just like Månegarm, most of their songs are in Swedish, rather than the English language. Which is a huge bonus if you ask me.
Between those two, there is a new In Flames album. What do you mean it is not In Flames? OK, an album that should have been In Flames, if In Flames were actually any good in the last decade or two. It might be called The Halo Effect, but it sounds like In Flames/Dark Tranquillity. Zero surprise there, since for those who are not familiar, it is literally made up of former In Flames members, with Mikkael Stanne from Dark Tranquilliy, who is also former In Flames member himself, on vocals. Great album, it sounds like In Flames, it is nothing especially original, but it is a quality album, and better than anything In Flames recorded since.. probably the Clayman if you ask me.
If there wasn't New Horizon, Stormruler would be the revelation of the year for me. I don't know what is going on in the USA, but there are quite a few really good melodic or atmospheric black metal bands in recent years coming from the US. Last year it was Stormkeep, this year it is Stormruler. As far as I know, they are not connected in any way, but similarities do not stop at having a "Storm" in their name. Fucking masterpiece of an album. If you are into atmospheric instrumental interludes that remind me of Summoning, or melodic black metal.. yes, this album is for you.
Quite as Expected, Brymir put out another quality album with their Voices in the Sky. If you are not familiar with Brymir..well, think of Ensiferum, Wintersun, maybe some Equillibrium or Kalmah. Yeah, so do I. Awesome album.
Another new band on this year's list, Fallen Sanctuary. A collaboration between members of Temperance and Serenity. Personally, I really enjoy Georg (Neuhauser, singer of Serenity and the main vocal contributor to Fallen Sanctuary) voice. His voice has a beautiful tone and colour. So I was on it from the start. Also, I am a real sucker for melodic power metal so.. makes sense that his made my list. Unsurprisingly, Septicflesh made the cut with another good album. One of the few bands that keep a high level on consistency in many years. Since Communion, they haven't put out a bad album. I really struggled to decide what album to put on number ten spot, since there was at least five or six I considered to be good enough.. in the end, I picked progressive veterans Threshold. Because it was quite a surprise how much I liked this album, it reminded me a lot of their 2004 Subsurface, and how good they used to be in their prime.

Few more things and few albums that I want to mention. I was never huge fan of Parkway Drive, but they grew on me with years, and I kind of fell for them over the time, even though I did not really liked them for years when I first hear them. Well, this album, who probably most of the old and more metalcore fans will not like.. to me was a fucking masterpiece. They quite moved away from the old PWD sound and… well I really enjoyed this one. Sakis Tolis put out another Rotting Ch… I mean solo album masterpiece. Blind Guardian put out the best album since 2010, but I am still kind of divided on it. I like it but at the same time it lacks that something to make it really memorable. As I said maybe I am just too old, haven’t listened to it enough times, or need to play it without doing anything else to really let it sink in. Not great, not terrible but quite solid. I could say the same thing about Evergrey, Therion and few other bands on the list.. Few of the other albums that were quite close to be in top 10, and are definitely worth mentioning are Bucovina’s new album. Also Finnish folk black metal one woman project Vermilia put another good album. Yes, I really do enjoy bands that sing in their native languages, in spite of me not understand shit. Or maybe because of it. After a long wait, Battlelore returned with a new album called “The Return of the Shadow”, of course it is another Tolkien themed album, and of course, I love the shit out of it.

In the end there was a lot of other albums that I consider to be good, especially some really big bands like Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Behemoth also released some new stuff this year. And while none of it was particularly band, I do like most of it, none was either really deserving of the place in the top tier. Not great, not terrible as the meme would say.

1.New Horizon - Gate Of The Gods
2.Månegarm - Ynglingaättens Öde
3.Amorphis - Halo
4.The Halo Effect - Days Of The Lost
5.Ereb Altor - Vargtimman

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Created by RhaegarTargaryen on 21.01.2023



Top 2022

Every category (Best, Very Good...) in no particular order...

1.
2.
3.Disillusion - Ayam
4.An Abstract Illusion - Woe
5.Aenaon - Mnemosyne

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Created by hippified on 06.01.2023



Top 20 Metal Albums Of 2022

Better late than never! I tried to be thorough and listened to anything I thought I might be remotely interested in order to create this list.

1.An Abstract Illusion - Woe
2.Blind Guardian - The God Machine
3.Wilderun - Epigone
4.Brymir - Voices In The Sky
5.Immolation - Acts Of God

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Created by GhostOfPerdition on 06.01.2023



Top Albums 2022

Well, here I put my personal top with which to me have been the best albums of 2022. They are not all they are, but if they all are.

1.Exocrine - The Hybrid Suns
2.Allegaeon - Damnum
3.Tómarúm - Ash In Realms Of Stone Icons
4.Lorna Shore - Pain Remains
5.Inexorum - Equinox Vigil

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Created by kam1kaze on 29.12.2022



Thumbs up: +2
Top 25 Albums Of 2022

1.An Abstract Illusion - Woe
2.Gaerea - Mirage
3.Andy Gillion - Arcade Metal
4.Early Moods - Early Moods
5.Sadness (USA) - Tortuga

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Created by Gothic Metalhead on 29.12.2022



Thumbs up: +1
My Must Listen Albums

1.Agalloch - Pale Folklore
2.Agalloch - The Mantle
3.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain
4.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea
5.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

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Created by P3YM4N on 12.12.2022



Top 10 Prog Metal of 2022

2022 was a great year for Prog Metal.
A lot of fine albums.

1.Disillusion - Ayam
2.An Abstract Illusion - Woe
3.Aeternam - Heir Of The Rising Sun
4.Brymir - Voices In The Sky
5.Persefone - Metanoia

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Created by foxpolaris on 03.12.2022



Artwork: Folk Metal Albums

This is a list of (celtic/medieval/extreme) folk metal albums (in alphabetical order) based on their artwork. It includes iconic cover art from classic albums as well as fascinating work from more recent releases.
There is a saying that "you should not judge a book by its cover", which is of course also true in the case of music albums. However, the artwork can complement the production and give a visual introduction to the musical theme and atmosphere. More than for any other kind of music, this may be true for metal.

(Updated 19.02.2023)

1.Arkona - Гой, Роде, Гой!
2.Brymir - Voices In The Sky
3.Cnoc An Tursa - The Giants Of Auld
4.Eluveitie - Helvetios
5.Eluveitie - Slania

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Created by Plattner on 29.10.2022



Éomer's Album Top 45 Of 2022

All 2022 released studio albums I listened to in 2022, ranked from best to worst.

1.Vermilia - Ruska
2.Septicflesh - Modern Primitive
3.Wolfheart - King Of The North
4.Blackbraid - Blackbraid I
5.Kvaen - The Great Below

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Created by Éomer Éadig on 18.09.2022