obviously we, as the holy members of the skyfire message board terror squad, are missing a rather important release for the year of 2008. but with 2/3s of the year past, i am curious to see what everyone has thought of this year of metal and to espouse my own radical opinions on what has ruled. (maybe even some non-metal cds, too! sacre bleu!)
Agalloch - The White EP - a couple real gems on this one if you're into their slow doom-ish folk-ish metal. "Pantheist" and "Sowilo Rune" probably the standouts for me.
Eluvietie - Slania. Woohoo Swiss masquerading as Celts to perform folk metal. Probably one of my favorite folk metal bands now that Elvenking has, imho, kind of gone downhill ever since their debut. I was uninspired enough about Winter Wake to not have even listened to the Scythe. But Eluvietie is more melodeath-folk, and "Bloodstained Ground" got played on repeat probably far too many times for my roommate's comfort.
In Mourning - The Shrouded Divine. I really really enjoy this cd - it's got a lot of interesting rhythm and guitar work (it's progressive death in an Opeth kind of way...doesn't quite have as many switches between acoustic and distorted. In Mourning also does not have Akerfeldt's clean vocal power) and I was just really pleasantly surprised to find this band.
Raunchy - Wasteland Discotheque. I'm probably actually more impressed with this album than Deathpop Romance. Same style of industrialish metal...some really good songs in "The Bash" and "A Heavy Burden" and a wacky-but-cool cover of "Somebody's Watching Me."
Amon Amarth's Twilight of the Thunder God actually might cover a bit of new territory. It has a different feel to it than Versus the World or With Oden On Our Side - some experimentation and one well-placed DragonForce-ish solo actually make the record better. I find I enjoy about half of the songs on any given Amon Amarth cd and this one obeys that rule - "Twilight of the Thunder God", "Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags", and "The Hero" were probably my favorites.
Seventh Wonder's "Welcome To Mercy Falls" is pretty good stuff. They have some strange material - it's mostly carried by the power of its vocal lines, even though some of the guitar work is intensely technical AND melodic. It's just not...punchy, though, for some reason. You find yourself remembering the singing instead of the rockin' riffs. I like a lot of the cd but "Welcome to Mercy Falls" and "A Day Away" and "Hide and Seek" are the best.
Those are the few that have stood out so far to me (I also have a huge pile of 2007 albums that I only heard this year, but those don't count.) I also have a huge pileup of CDs that I've downloaded/bought and haven't listened to thoroughly enough yet to judge, including...: the new Haggard (sounds promising), Andromeda, Volbeat (what I've heard of this is good), Evergrey, Cloudscape, Falconer, Nettlethrone, Serenity ("Velatum" is pretty awesome), Secret Sphere (title track rules), Into Eternity, DragonForce, Royal Hunt, Tyr, Equilibrium (again, like what I've heard), Jorn, Keldian (really loved the first album, don't know why I haven't listened to the new one), Opeth, Diablo, Malpractice (what I heard of this was actually pretty boring, which is shocking considering "Deviations from the Flow"), Hollenthon, Ihsahn, In Flames, Forefather, and Brainstorm. Wow. I need to get listening.
Ones that I have been a little disappointed in..: the new Falconer hasn't sounded great, nor has Malpractice. Nothing off of CoB's "Blooddrunk" caught my ear, and I actually like Are You Dead Yet? - or at least enough of it so that I keep it in my playlists. Nothing about Ayreon's 2008 release was really as wowing as The Human Equation, though I think I may just need to give it a second chance. Sabaton's "The Art of War" was just okay, and they didn't include a heavily metal-referential final track which are the best parts of the other CDs. Xystus' Equilibrio...I listened to a lot of it and just nothing sounded really good with the symphony. No really good moments like on "Surreal."
So, what am I missing? What has been absolutely stupendous this year, and which of my opinions indicate that I have no musical taste whatsoever? :zombie:
(ps. listening to the new Metallica cd right now...i'm not sure what to think of it as I'm only on the second song. anyone else?)
Agalloch - The White EP - a couple real gems on this one if you're into their slow doom-ish folk-ish metal. "Pantheist" and "Sowilo Rune" probably the standouts for me.
Eluvietie - Slania. Woohoo Swiss masquerading as Celts to perform folk metal. Probably one of my favorite folk metal bands now that Elvenking has, imho, kind of gone downhill ever since their debut. I was uninspired enough about Winter Wake to not have even listened to the Scythe. But Eluvietie is more melodeath-folk, and "Bloodstained Ground" got played on repeat probably far too many times for my roommate's comfort.
In Mourning - The Shrouded Divine. I really really enjoy this cd - it's got a lot of interesting rhythm and guitar work (it's progressive death in an Opeth kind of way...doesn't quite have as many switches between acoustic and distorted. In Mourning also does not have Akerfeldt's clean vocal power) and I was just really pleasantly surprised to find this band.
Raunchy - Wasteland Discotheque. I'm probably actually more impressed with this album than Deathpop Romance. Same style of industrialish metal...some really good songs in "The Bash" and "A Heavy Burden" and a wacky-but-cool cover of "Somebody's Watching Me."
Amon Amarth's Twilight of the Thunder God actually might cover a bit of new territory. It has a different feel to it than Versus the World or With Oden On Our Side - some experimentation and one well-placed DragonForce-ish solo actually make the record better. I find I enjoy about half of the songs on any given Amon Amarth cd and this one obeys that rule - "Twilight of the Thunder God", "Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags", and "The Hero" were probably my favorites.
Seventh Wonder's "Welcome To Mercy Falls" is pretty good stuff. They have some strange material - it's mostly carried by the power of its vocal lines, even though some of the guitar work is intensely technical AND melodic. It's just not...punchy, though, for some reason. You find yourself remembering the singing instead of the rockin' riffs. I like a lot of the cd but "Welcome to Mercy Falls" and "A Day Away" and "Hide and Seek" are the best.
Those are the few that have stood out so far to me (I also have a huge pile of 2007 albums that I only heard this year, but those don't count.) I also have a huge pileup of CDs that I've downloaded/bought and haven't listened to thoroughly enough yet to judge, including...: the new Haggard (sounds promising), Andromeda, Volbeat (what I've heard of this is good), Evergrey, Cloudscape, Falconer, Nettlethrone, Serenity ("Velatum" is pretty awesome), Secret Sphere (title track rules), Into Eternity, DragonForce, Royal Hunt, Tyr, Equilibrium (again, like what I've heard), Jorn, Keldian (really loved the first album, don't know why I haven't listened to the new one), Opeth, Diablo, Malpractice (what I heard of this was actually pretty boring, which is shocking considering "Deviations from the Flow"), Hollenthon, Ihsahn, In Flames, Forefather, and Brainstorm. Wow. I need to get listening.
Ones that I have been a little disappointed in..: the new Falconer hasn't sounded great, nor has Malpractice. Nothing off of CoB's "Blooddrunk" caught my ear, and I actually like Are You Dead Yet? - or at least enough of it so that I keep it in my playlists. Nothing about Ayreon's 2008 release was really as wowing as The Human Equation, though I think I may just need to give it a second chance. Sabaton's "The Art of War" was just okay, and they didn't include a heavily metal-referential final track which are the best parts of the other CDs. Xystus' Equilibrio...I listened to a lot of it and just nothing sounded really good with the symphony. No really good moments like on "Surreal."
So, what am I missing? What has been absolutely stupendous this year, and which of my opinions indicate that I have no musical taste whatsoever? :zombie:
(ps. listening to the new Metallica cd right now...i'm not sure what to think of it as I'm only on the second song. anyone else?)
