2000
1. Hypnosia - Extreme Hatred
2. Ritual Carnage - Every Nerve Alive
3. Desaster - Tyrants of the Netherworld
4. Macabre - Dahmer
5. Destruction - All Hell Breaks Loose
6. Iron Maiden - Brave New World
7. Deceased - Supernatural Addiction
8. Apoplexy - Monarch of Damned
9. Martyr - Warp Zone
10. Motorhead - We Are Motorhead
EDIT: could only have 20 images so left the no picture of the Martyr album because it was the lamest of the bunch. No way i was getting rid of the barbarian brothers
following radthrash's lead in posting my 2000 list here, since the truly legendary original thread is locked for all eternity.
Wainds' Best Metal Albums of 2000
Honourable Mentions
Nile - Black Seeds of Vengeance
it's a nile album so it has some filler, but they're generally very good at what they do with outstanding musicianship, and when you have songs as fantastic as 'masturbating the war god' or 'to dream of ur' you've earned a mention.
Mortuary Drape - Tolling 13 Knell
in the gnostic year of 29 i've discovered with amazement, understand if in mists of time, there was a possibility when right angle became flat, like an encephalogram. geometrical initiation, verticalisation or zombie, wandering in the planet. but now i destroy this song, this lyric and these words, i've discovered dreadfully belongs to me...... sorry, things got hazy there, where was i? this is probably their weirdest album with a bizarre magical atmosphere, wouldn't say i love it but i enjoy and admire pretty much all of it.
Morbid Angel - Gateways to Annihilation
notoriously uneven, but a genuine original which deserves a lot more love. just listen to those incredible riffs in 'summoning redemption' or 'opening of the gates'. if it was all on that level it'd be in the 6-8 range on my list at minimum.
Katharsis - 666
one of my favourite darkthrone worship albums ever. probably sounds like damning it with faint praise, but it's an itch that needs scratching from time to time.
Mortem - Decomposed by Possession
ah mortem, pride of peru and the most consistent retro death metal band of them all. not enough stands out here to warrant a top 10 ranking but it's all really fucking good. they're never not good. 'incubus: the return' is the highlight.
Virgin Steele - House of Atreus Act II
it's bloated and uneven with some absolutely incredible highs. in other words, it's a virgin steele album! this does blur together a little more than their best '90s records for me, but that may just be because it's hard to pay attention for nearly an hour and a half at the same ultra epic register. wouldn't be surprised if this rose up the rankings in the future.
The Lord Weird Slough Feg - Down Among the Deadmen
unevenness is a problem with these guys too. i think consensus has this as their second best after traveller but i only bond with it on that level intermittently. always one of the best trad bands of the '00s though.
Lykathea Aflame - Elvenefris
ooo controversial. i barely know anyone with taste who doesn't think this is gimmicky trash for hippies and enya fans, but i've had a soft spot for it for a long time and started spinning it again every so often after getting into their previous incarnation appalling spawn. there's really nothing else like it, feels like it's from its own planet.
Krisiun - Conquerors of Armageddon
too samey to go beyond honourable mention status, but sometimes you just need an unrelenting tide of infernal cascading riffs. something about the way this flows and never lets up is extremely satisfying when i'm in the right mood.
Cabal - Midian
another very old favourite. meat and potatoes chugging death-thrash, but like... one of the best fucking meat and potatoes chugging death-thrash albums ever made, courtesy of the late killjoy of necrophagia fame.
couldn't even find a HM spot for the likes of sabbat, ceremonium, sorhin, red sky, desaster, quicksand dream, moonblood, hypnosia, enslaved, sacred steel, obsecration, etc, so you can't tell me this wasn't a quality year! now onto the top ten... p.s. i'm stealing the 'favourite song' format but i'm actually linking youtubes of the songs unlike these lazy fucks.
10. Nifelheim - Servants of Darkness
Favourite song: 'The Bestial Avenger'
does any band have a better hit ratio on riffs, melodies and solos than nifelheim? they take a pretty basic bathory-derived framework, amp up the intensity and just make sure every single idea they lay down is memorable. it obviously isn't as easy as they make it sound, or everyone would be doing it.
9. Ethereal Spawn - Ablaze in Viral Flames
Favourite song: 'Archmystic'
obscure dutch melodeath demo which may be clunky but has its own off-kilter personality that makes it far more interesting than most of its contemporaries.
"Grant me wings to fly beyond the seven moons...
On bizarre explorations from the deepest within to the endless beyond
I recover foul artifacts from another existence
and they're all the same
With elevating words I build my nexus
for my name is ArchMystic"
one of those recordings that almost feels accidental, like they're just trying to be another dark tranquillity ('punish my heaven' is covered at the end) but end up with something else entirely, in part because of their crudeness. i feel the same way about the album cover; it ought to be shit but there's something unique and compelling about it. there's a sort of early chasmy spirit here even though they don't sound much like that.
8. Corum - Not Myself
Favourite song: 'Proctology'
the RYM reviews accurately compare this to: ...and justice for all, prog-era holocaust, depressive age, thought industry, mekong delta and voivod, so approach with either caution or great excitement depending on your tastes. oh, and there's an 12 minute ballad that sounds like prog david bowie and references mario like ten times. weird as fuck.
7. Nomenmortis - How I Learn to Bleed... For the Things I Wish to Forget
Favourite song: 'Outcry of Senseless Sacrificed - Let Me Die At Last'
this slovakian death metal monster has only really been unearthed in the last half decade, but it's gathered crazy levels of hype--it's currently the highest rated metal album of all-time with under 200 ratings on RYM. i can only describe it as melodic brutal death metal; it's garnered comparisons to everyone from at the gates to demilich to impetigo. a must hear for the death metal contingent here.
6. Sons of Nihil - Sons of Nihil
Favourite song: 'The Last Glance'
a combination of the austere wanderings of ved buens ende, the oddball theatrics of arcturus, the technicality of anthems-era emperor and an opethian sense of drama, which may not appeal to a lot of people here but it really is one of the best "post-black" albums i've ever had the pleasure of discovering. yes, that is some dude's hairy belly. what can i say? they're canadian.
5. Griffar - Of Witches and Celts
Favourite song: 'Ensnared by the Scarlet Oath'
this french BM demo is a very old favourite that's always held up, essentially filtering sacramentum-styled melodic black metal through a more drawn out narrative-driven pagan/medieval BM framework. listen along with reading the unusually eloquent lyrics for peak immersion.
4. Garden of Shadows - Oracle Moon
Favourite song:'Desert Shadows'
a melodic death album that's constructed more like melodic black, with long patient mid-paced compositions which understand how to let ideas breathe and build them into climaxes in a natural way. maybe it falls off very slightly in the middle but the first 2 and last 2 are absolute gold. give it the chances it deserves, it takes a few listens to really reveal itself.
3. The Chasm - Procession to the Infraworld
Favourite song: 'Architects of the Melancholic Apocalypse'
i always slightly missed the denser more wandering structures found on their previous two records and this definitely isn't my favourite chasm like it is for some people, but at the end of the day this is my favourite metal band at their most tight and consistent. every song kicks ass aside from the 2 minute throwaway, and unlike on later records there isn't a second of it that feels algorithmic, riff-salady or needlessly repetitive.
2. Dark Moor - The Hall of Olden Dreams
Favourite song: 'Bells of Notre Dame'
coming into this i expected to be putting this 2nd, but behind the chasm. instead it's 2nd behind something else, but hell, if you're beating the chasm you have to be an all-time favourite. honestly, this is one of my most listened to metal albums of all time. the closest thing to a bad song is 'mortal sin' which is still good, but i love more songs on here than probably any other power metal album. picking a favourite was torture and could change by the week. the reason they're so good is they're... pure. it's earnestly fantastical and heart-on-sleeve at all times, there's none of the usual lame disjointed attempts at being heavy or aggro, it knows exactly what it wants to be. and of course they're very fluid songwriters with a great sense of melody, impeccable production and a ridiculously good vocalist to push the songs over the top.
1. Immolation - Close to a World Below
Favourite song: 'Close to a World Below'
sometimes you just have to concede that the consensus #1 is the actual #1. what separates immolation from every other anti-christian band is that they take this shit personally. their albums are like the climax of a rape-revenge story; they're here to infiltrate their oppressors and corrupt and defile their every value from the inside. i think if you took a devout believer and locked them in a room with this for a while it'd upset them in a way few other metal albums would. they have such an incredible presence and authorial voice, a kind of sneering yet furious contempt that's the perfect vehicle for delivering their themes, and may genuinely make this the definitive piece of anti-christian art in the 21st century. it's an overwhelming experience without a single weak point, climaxing with one of the best metal songs of all time. i'm sure they'd be delighted to be listed next to their great rivals and kindred spirits, dark moor.
guess i'll be back in this thread again with my 2001 list.
Not really lol, but the owner of this place decided it was time to step in.
