GMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 1998

[HamburgerBoy]

Aside from Chambers of Dis, those are my top 3 from the album as well. Nothing run-of-the-mill about those songs.

 

[Omni]

I am not a Chasm fanboy. Procession... and Farseeing... didn't even make my 2000 or 2009 lists. But Deathcult for Eternity is a legitimately excellent work that creates an environment all its own. I can't think of another death metal album that has the atmosphere DFE has. If anything, it's underrated elsewhere and getting the acknowledgement it deserves here. On the other hand, Formulas Fatal to the Flesh is a fairly run-of-the-mill death metal album that if anything, is on the dry side. I definitely think it's getting a boost because of band-name recognition.

And thanks for the heads up on GBK.

Formulas Fatal to the Flesh is the only later Morbid Angel album that gets consistent praise here. How do you account for this anomaly if name recognition is the reason why? It's probably more popular here than Covenant if I had to guess.

 

[Satanstoenail]

It's overrated because he doesn't like Morbid Angel.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Formulas Fatal to the Flesh is the only later Morbid Angel album that gets consistent praise here. How do you account for this anomaly if name recognition is the reason why? It's probably more popular here than Covenant if I had to guess.

Because sub-consciously people feel like they have to pick one of the later Morbid Angel albums to praise, so they pick the least sucky one. Or they just have less than stellar taste.

 

[Omni]

Because sub-consciously people feel like they have to pick one of the later Morbid Angel albums to praise, so they pick the least sucky one. Or they just have less than stellar taste.

If you say so. I find it suspect that Morbid Angel would be the benefactor of this subconscious need while countless other bands are ignored. Not that many of your arguments about why people enjoy music that you don't like hold up to scrutiny.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Daily reminder that high metal IQ individuals listen to Velvet Cacoon

 

[CiG]

Because sub-consciously people feel like they have to pick one of the later Morbid Angel albums to praise, so they pick the least sucky one. Or they just have less than stellar taste.

I'd suggest you give the 'Venom Award' to yourself but oddly enough you seem to be the only person in here overrating the fuck out of your opinion on metal.

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

Because sub-consciously people feel like they have to pick one of the later Morbid Angel albums to praise, so they pick the least sucky one. Or they just have less than stellar taste.

So, people have ulterior motives for liking shit that you don't happen to be so fond of?
You and HamburgerBoy: Not So Different.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I don't consider the in-crowd phenomenon to be an ulterior motive in the sense that it's a conscious conspiracy of taste, just that it's a fairly typical social quirk that most non-autistic humans have.

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

I guess I'll never be in-crowd, then.

 

[CiG]

Man, I'm gradually going through the 1998 albums I didn't include that I like and the list I made and I'm thinking I'm going to scrap the whole thing and redo it...

The whole thing just feels off to me.

 

[no country for old wainds]

omni sure as fuck won't lol

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

Man, I'm gradually going through the 1998 albums I didn't include that I like and the list I made and I'm thinking I'm going to scrap the whole thing and redo it...

The whole thing just feels off to me.

I've definitely improved my process compared to the first poll I did, the 1992 one, which wasn't even ranked.

What I do is I browse the RYM chart and list every album I've heard in a notepad file. This is not a 100% perfect system, because RYM occasionally gets the years wrong. For example, last poll, for 2005, I forgot to give any re-listens to Nokturnal Mortum - Weltanschaaung, because, even though I remember it being mention that it should be considered a separate album from the Ukrainian version released in 2004, I neglected to update my notepad file accordingly, and that's what I was going off of. It might have actually made my list if not for that oversight.

I also make a Spotify playlist of stuff I'd like to check out before making my list. If it's not on Spotify, but it's still something I'd really like to hear, I look for it on Youtube. That's why I always wait till the end to post my top ten.

The again, your own rule is that only albums you own can qualify. That's commendable, but not something I would want to impose upon myself, because I don't buy albums as often ever since I started using Spotify, but I'm always expanding upon my musical knowledge. I've told myself that I ought to track down the albums I don't have on my list whenever I can. At least, I should own everything that makes my #1 spot for each given year, but I almost always do in those cases.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

If you say so. I find it suspect that Morbid Angel would be the benefactor of this subconscious need while countless other bands are ignored. Not that many of your arguments about why people enjoy music that you don't like hold up to scrutiny.

Death metal is the favorite genre of music of many people on this forum. Many people identify Morbid Angel deeply with the genre of death metal; they’re probably neck and neck with Death as being most synonymous with the genre. Therefore, people may have added subconscious incentive to protect a band that has a demigod status within the depths of their psyche.

So, people have ulterior motives for liking shit that you don't happen to be so fond of?

It’s only one possible explanation. Another is that they were impressed by the album cover, ambient tracks (oh! how exotic!), and alliteration and decided it was ok settle with regards to the death metal.

 

[Vilden]

i hope all the people into epic or folky metal are checking out aeternus before doing your lists, if you don't know them already. probably my favourite of all the folk-tinged metal bands off the top of my head, and pretty accessible, it's always been weird to me that they're so unknown. i would've thought a lot of people here would like their '98 album in particular.

Yeah it's one of those albums I've known about for along time but for some reason never checked out, atleast for real. Your description makes me believe it would make my list if I was more familiar with it. We'll se if I can be bothered to check it out.

“Malediction Murder”, “Falcula” and “The Aphelion Deserts” are my current faves. “The Knell and the World” has all but lost the impact it used to have for me. I don’t find its melodies as expressive or engaging as most of the other songs.

The album definitely does suffer from having too many songs that are strectched out for too long, but that’s become less of a problem for me as of late.

I can see not liking The Knell and the World the most, it's kind of the level 1 song for the album (I still think it is their best though) but I've never gotten why alot of people are in love with Falcula. I think it is one of the more boring songs on the album.

 

[CiG]

@Serjeant Grumbles My method is terrible by comparison.

I go through RYM's list, then what I've already rated on my RYM account (usually this is useless since I only rate tapes on there and the vast majority of my collection is still CD and vinyl) and from there I make a huge post here and save it and then slowly shuffle the order based on memory/instinct, then I post it.

After that I slowly listen to everything including what was excluded to make sure my instincts formed a good list and it has worked every time so far, but this time I feel really unsatisfied with my list.

I probably need a better method than that. Either way, hopefully I can get around to doing a new list before the deadline, I'm busy as fuck too.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Invocation of the Continual One and Covenant of Death are my two favorite songs from Formulas. Best Tucker album imo.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I had to check out Formulas to see what all the fuss is about. I'm not even a big fan of classic Morbid Angel but this is kicking my ass. So weird and adventurous without going into tech death territory. I was hooked from that fucked up solo in Heaving Earth.

This year just gets better with every album I listen to.

 

[CiG]

Revised, refined, rearranged... 1998!

1. Solstice - New Dark Age
2. Solitude Aeturnus - Adagio
3. Bolt Thrower - Mercenary
4. Gorguts - Obscura
5. Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding
6. Grave Digger - Knights of the Cross
7. Sacred Steel - Wargods of Metal
8. Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle-Earth
9. Nile - Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka
10. Wind of the Black Mountains - Sing Thou Unholy Servants

Honourable mentions:

While Heaven Wept - Sorrow of the Angels
Dead - V.I.P.
Rot - Sociopathic Behaviour
Rhapsody - Symphony of Enchanted Lands
Order From Chaos - An Ending in Fire
Cannibal Corpse - Gallery of Suicide
HammerFall - Legacy of Kings
Grief - Torso
Nifelheim - Devil's Force
Running Wild - The Rivalry
Amon Amarth - Once Sent from the Golden Halls
Necrophagia - Holocausto de la Morte
Nightstick - Ultimatum
Aura Noir - Deep Tracts of Hell
Rotting - Crushed
Pegazus - Wings of Destiny
Dawn of Winter - In the Valley of Tears
Anal Blast - Vaginal Vampire
Rok - This is Satanik
Dreaming - Tý Volœý

 

[Phylactery]

That Wind of the Black Mountains is 1996 according to MA.

You’re one of the very few people I’ve seen even mention them! Pretty cool band.