GMD Poll: Top 10 Metal Albums of 2003

[Vegard Pompey]

I feel like I'm not really qualified to rank this year although I will anyway because it's fun to participate and someone needs to fly the power metal flag, the flag of punishment if you will. Gonna try to check out some of the more notable albums of this year I haven't heard over the week, if anyone whose taste I even slightly respect would like me to listen to any album in particular let me know.

 

[Phylactery]

I'm not sure if you respect my tastes, but I think you'd like the Hail album if you haven't already listened to it, since it's been on quite a few lists.

Also:
Epheles - Le Dernier Pardon
Orodruin - Epicurean Mass

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I respect your taste quite a lot although you are much more of a black metal-head than I am. I will check out those albums.

 

[Phylactery]

Same to you, I definely need to check out more of that power metal that you recommend. I do really like the genre, I just don't have as much time for it as my beloved black and death metal.

Sometimes I just find it easier to throw on stuff I'm already familiar with rather than try to explore and disect new stuff. And that holds me back from investing in more new stuff.

 

[The Ozzman]

Sometimes I just find it easier to throw on stuff I'm already familiar with rather than try to explore and disect new stuff. And that holds me back from investing in more new stuff.

This or I want to explore stuff from artists I like already that I don't have. It's probably why I only own a handful of black metal albums even though I like 90% of everything I've heard.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Sometimes I just find it easier to throw on stuff I'm already familiar with rather than try to explore and disect new stuff. And that holds me back from investing in more new stuff.

I'm like this too. I know there are people with the capacity to discover new music on a daily basis (I follow some folks on RYM with literally several thousands of ratings) but I just want to find albums I like and listen to them over and over until I know them inside and out. There's still tons of essential stuff I've not even heard once; the traditional metal canon is the only one I've anywhere near fully explored, and yet I only heard an album like Slough Feg's Traveller for the first time last week.

 

[Phylactery]

Same. I'd much rather know fewer albums inside out, than listen to more stuff but not know it in as much depth.

I still listen to my absolute favourite records on a semi regular basis.
I must have listened to FaFtS, Deathcult and Hell Awaits a hundred times, and I never get tired of them.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

That's pretty much how I feel with Vitus and the Obsessed, but I still really love finding new, awesome bands.

 

[rms]

dun get how Obsessed is on the same tier as Vitus mannnnnn

 

[alex76]

Almost thoroughly out of the mainstream by this point, metal had managed to pass through the nu-metal phase and was heading into -core territory. More substantial metal though was being created in Europe. Also of note, the stirrings of metal which overtly hearken back to previous forms of metal (even into the 70s) were ready to sprout.

1. God Dethroned - Into the Lungs of Hell
2. Summon - And the Blood Runs Black
3. The Lord Weird Slough Feg - Traveller
4. Ogre - Dawn of the Proto-Man
5. Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja
6. Agent Steel - Order of the Illuminati
7. Morbid Angel - Heretic
8. Doomsword - Let Battle Commence
9. Sabbat - Karmagmassacre
10. Watain - Casus Luciferi

Honorable mentions:

Orodruin
Dragonforce

 

[CiG]

Ogre - Dawn of the Proto-Man

 

[Funerary_Doom]

To be honest, this is the year that helped get me into a lot of extreme metal. This was really hard for me to do because a lot of these tracks took me down memory lane and were extremely nostalgic.

10. Darkthrone - Hate Them
9. King Diamond - The Puppet Master
8. Darkspace - Dark Space I
7. Enslaved - Below the Lights
6. Drudkh - Forgotten Legends
5. Nocternity - Onyx
4. Asmegin - Hin Vordene Sod & So
3. Skyforger - Thunderforge
2. Lumsk - Asmund Fraegdegjevar
1. Watain - Casus Luciferi

Honorable Mentions:
Melechesh - Sphynx
Root - Madness of the Graves
Morrigan - Celts
Reverend Bizarre - Harbringer of Metal (this was en EP so I guess it doesn't count)

You need to make 2004 or 2009! So many good albums came then! I tend to get a lot of stuff confused like all my 2000's was confused

 

[Master_Yoda77]

Yeah, I've never listened to that Ogre album but it probably would be on my list if so.

 

[CiG]

Yeah, I've never listened to that Ogre album but it probably would be on my list if so.

I'm surprised man, that album specifically is Schmidt as fuck.

 

[CiG]

Skyforger - Thunderforge

Enslaved - Below the Lights

Fuck yeah dude, I almost included these gems myself. Killer list too.

 

[Funerary_Doom]

I have that Ogre album but need to relisten to it. I think I got that recently. Someone on this board posted on it about some sale and I have a ton of Ogre from that sale. I remember people raving about it a ton.

And that Traveller album has my favorite Slough Feg track ( Vargr Theme) but I think on a whole that album wasn't as strong.

 

[Funerary_Doom]

Fuck yeah dude, I almost included these gems myself. Killer list too.

Yeah man! That Skyforger is a classic and Below the Lights got tons of replay!

 

[Master_Yoda77]

As a whole that Slough Feg is damn near perfect.

 

[CiG]

Musically Atavism is better for me, but the whole concept side of it makes up for that.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Exactly the opposite bro.