Happy Halloween, here's a list of my top Werewolf anthems ("Lycanthems"?) in celebration of the monster I'm most obsessed with.

(Contains Moonspell)

Honourable mentions:
Iced Earth - Wolf (Power)
Moonspell - Wolfshade (A Werewolf Masquerade) (Gothic)
Rob Zombie - Werewolf Women Of The SS (Industrial)

1.Moonspell - Under Satanæ

2.Metallica - Metallica

3.The Vision Bleak - The Deathship Has A New Captain

4.Type O Negative - October Rust

5.Disturbed - Asylum

      View entire list ››

The decade becomes slightly less irredeemable.

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Cannibal Corpse - Torture (Death)
Xandria - Neverworld's End (Symphonic)
Asphyx - Deathhammer (Death)
Kreator - Phantom Antichrist (Thrash)
Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage (Progressive/Death)

1.Paradise Lost - Tragic Idol

2.Moonspell - Alpha Noir / Omega White

3.Marduk - Serpent Sermon

4.Mgła - With Hearts Toward None

5.Lacuna Coil - Dark Adrenaline

      View entire list ››

So far I stand by my position on this decade, it's awful and so is anyone who lived through it.

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Draconian - A Rose For The Apocalypse (Gothic/Doom)
Anaal Nathrakh - Passion (Black/Grindcore)
Taake - Noregs Vaapen (Black)

1.Primordial - Redemption At The Puritan's Hand

2.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

3.Ava Inferi - Onyx

4.Warbringer - Worlds Torn Asunder

5.Belphegor - Blood Magick Necromance

      View entire list ››

You know it's a rough year when this much Stoner crap makes it on lol. Fuck the 2010's.

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Hooded Menace - Never Cross The Dead (Death/Doom)
The Vision Bleak - Set Sail To Mystery (Gothic)
Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones (Avant-Garde/Gothic)

1.Blind Guardian - At The Edge Of Time

2.Watain - Lawless Darkness

3.Dark Fortress - Ylem

4.Helloween - 7 Sinners

5.Sodom - In War And Pieces

      View entire list ››

I never hear it brought up but I wanna throw 2009 into the Best Metal Year conversation, comparing this to the year before it's insane. I didn't even give my favourite band an honourable mention as there was already too many.

D666, Ruins, Nazxul, Razor of Occam, Pestilential Shadows... Nice year for Aussie Black Metal.

1.Behemoth - Evangelion

2.Deströyer 666 - Defiance

3.Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue

4.Heaven And Hell - The Devil You Know

5.Artillery - When Death Comes

      View entire list ››

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Warbringer - War Without End (Thrash)
Judas Priest - Nostradamus (Heavy/Symphonic)
Belphegor - Bondage Goat Zombie (Black/Death)
Deicide - Till Death Do Us Part (Death)
Testament - The Formation Of Damnation (Thrash)
Exodus - Let There Be Blood (Thrash)

1.Draconian - Turning Season Within

2.Moonspell - Night Eternal

3.Septicflesh - Communion

4.Metallica - Death Magnetic

5.Sabaton - The Art Of War

      View entire list ››

Wow... A prize for whoever can guess which genre I was obsessed with in 2007... :

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Ava Inferi - The Silhouette (Gothic)
Machine Head - The Blackening (Groove)
Rotting Christ - Theogonia (Black)
Gospel Of The Horns - Realm Of The Damned (Black/Thrash)

1.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

2.Candlemass - King Of The Grey Islands

3.Marduk - Rom 5:12

4.Mayhem - Ordo Ad Chao

5.Immolation - Shadows In The Light

      View entire list ››

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Belphegor - Pestapokalypse VI (Black/Death)
Moonspell - Memorial (Gothic)
Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death (NWOBHM)
Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea (Doom)
Panzerchrist - Battalion Beast (Black/Death)
Skinless - Trample The Weak, Hurdle The Dead (Death)

1.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

2.Solitude Aeturnus - Alone

3.Cannibal Corpse - Kill

4.Satyricon - Now, Diabolical

5.Deicide - The Stench Of Redemption

      View entire list ››

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Shining - IV - The Eerie Cold (Black)
System Of A Down - Hypnotize (Nu/Alternative)
System Of A Down - Mezmerize (Nu/Alternative)
Immolation - Harnessing Ruin (Death)
Epica - Consign To Oblivion (Symphonic)
Sabaton - Primo Victoria (Power)

1.Nile - Annihilation Of The Wicked

2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

3.Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness

4.Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell

5.Kamelot - The Black Halo

      View entire list ››

Should the number one album even qualify? I don’t know, it’s my list I can bend the rules when I want!

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Rammstein - Reise, Reise (Industrial)
Megadeth - The System Has Failed (Thrash/Heavy)
Cannibal Corpse - The Wretched Spawn (Death)

1.Anthrax - The Greater Of Two Evils

2.Motörhead - Inferno

3.Saxon - Lionheart

4.Exodus - Tempo Of The Damned

5.Behemoth - Demigod

      View entire list ››

Happy Solstice or whatever you people celebrate! Starting the year with a pretty Black Metal-heavy list.

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Moonspell - The Antidote (Gothic)
Alchemist - Austral Alien (Progressive)
KMFDM - WWIII (Industrial)
Enslaved - Below The Lights (Progressive/Black)

1.Watain - Casus Luciferi

2.Funeral Mist - Salvation

3.Machine Head - Through The Ashes Of Empires

4.Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

5.Kamelot - Epica

      View entire list ››

Crimson Thunder is a sentimental favourite for me if you thought it was weird it was so high.

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Immortal - Sons Of Northern Darkness (Black)
Primal Fear - Black Sun (Power)
System Of A Down - Steal This Album! (Alternative/Nu)

1.Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines

2.HammerFall - Crimson Thunder

3.Necrophobic - Bloodhymns

4.Lacuna Coil - Comalies

5.Deströyer 666 - Cold Steel... For An Iron Age

      View entire list ››

This is the year I basically started listening to music so I was torn between stuff I am somewhat loyal to because it was my gateway and the kind of stuff I listen to now from that year. I genuinely think this was one of the best years ever for Metal.

Congrats to Destruction who have gotten honourable mentions before but never actually made it onto the list until now.

1.Tool - Lateralus

2.System Of A Down - Toxicity

3.Sodom - M-16

4.Destruction - The Antichrist

5.Kreator - Violent Revolution

      View entire list ››

Iron Maiden have made more appearances in these than any other band so far and this is the first time they got the number one spot in one of my lists. Congratulations guys, it took 20 years but you finally did it! A career high point, no doubt.

Also includes: another poser alert!
(But I stand by it and be honest, half of us millennials probably found this music thanks to that album.)

1.Iron Maiden - Brave New World

2.Deströyer 666 - Phoenix Rising

3.Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World

4.Halford - Resurrection

5.Watain - Rabid Death's Curse

      View entire list ››

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile (Industrial)
Kamelot - The Fourth Legacy (Power/Symphonic)
Rage Against The Machine - The Battle Of Los Angeles (Alternative)
Cannibal Corpse - Bloodthirst (Death)
Static-X - Wisconsin Death Trip (Industrial/Nu)

1.Emperor - IX Equilibrium

2.Tristania - Beyond The Veil

3.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

4.Behemoth - Satanica

5.Slipknot - Slipknot

      View entire list ››