GMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 2009

He said he'd do it Friday, and then it was gonna be Saturday. We're now on Sunday in the U.K! I wouldn't mind but this one seems to have been open a lot longer than usual.
 
Each member is an exemplar of musicianship on their respective instruments, but, it's okay, we know the bare chests excite your uncomfortably repressed homosexual urges.

nah ... you just clearly have a thing for theatrical faggotry, not "musicianship". Now go put on your kiss makeup and sing along with uncle Gene, you pansy ass little bitch.
 
.. dense can be used to describe your grasp of the English language, sweetheart.

Not a single one of their "awesome, influential" albums even comes close to an average of 4/5 on rym. And most of their albums on MA are ranging from the lower 60's to the low-mid 80's.

IMO if you like manowar, then your taste in music should automatically be questioned. And again, 4-5 guys over here circle jerk themselves to the band and all of a sudden some of you think they're great and respected? :lol: They are a joke and metalheads have been shitting on them forever, and rightfully so. bands like that are an embarrassment to metal tbh, nothing more than a stain.
 
IMO if you like manowar, then your taste in music should automatically be questioned. And again, 4-5 guys over here circle jerk themselves to the band and all of a sudden some of you think they're great and respected?
Not a single one of their "awesome, influential" albums even comes close to an average of 4/5 on rym. And most of their albums on MA are ranging from the lower 60's to the low-mid 80's.
>makes baseless accusation that I only like Manowar to ingratiate myself with a few other users on this site
>uses the opinions of people on sites that have a reputation of giving albums lower scores for completely superficial crap that no one cares about

Good job.
 
1) the chasm - farseeing the paranormal abysm
2) nokturnal mortum - voice of steel
3) while heaven wept - vast oceans lachrymose
4) varathron - stygian forces of scorn
5) altar of oblivion - sinews of anguish
6) griftegard - solemn . sacred . severe
7) procession - the cult of disease
8) absu - absu
9) bulldozer - unexpected fate
10) goreaphobia - mortal repulsion

i probably consider FARSEEING their most overrated album, but it's still great, and what else is there from 2009 that offers a more immersive and holistic experience? i prefer the arcane, emotionally charged wildness of their earlier material; they've become more calculated, repetitive and atmosphere-centric over the years and it feels like they're on autopilot at times. but this is still such a vivid journey, littered with great ideas.

nokturnal mortum's best record pushes it close, bursting with creativity itself, but it doesn't have a climactic song like 'the mission / arrival...' to push it over the edge. the while heaven wept is easily my favourite of theirs and i listen to it a lot, but it's just a big dumb glorious nonsense (and needs to be approached as such - the fates warning comparisons, while superficially very accurate, do it no favors lol) that constantly attempts to out-epic itself and mostly succeeds. not sure i respect it enough to have it any higher but it's super satisfying. the varathron is my favourite of theirs that i've heard, more of a melodeath/meloblack album but an excellent one.

then there's a trio of quality doom records, each quite different from the other. the AoO vocalist needs to stick to the great fierce singing and give up on the weak falsetto but musically it's really cool, the griftegard doesn't exactly live up to the 10/10 i gave their cover in the mixtape game but it's been growing on me a lot, 'the funeral of an age' by procession is probably my favourite tune of the year along with the aforementioned closer on FARSEEING. and then there's three cool ass albums by bands who've been knocking around a long time - particularly pleased to see bulldozer had such a fun comeback record, that one wasn't really on my radar at all before this round.

lots of stuff i could give honourable mentions to, but this is probably my weakest list to date as it is. since phylactery will probably ask me about BM/DM stuff, i like the excoriate, beherit, sammath, ketzer (a better d666 album than DEFIANCE) and blut aus nord quite a lot. if the BaN lived up to that opening riff it'd be my number 1, man. the cruciamentum's pretty cool. probably some other stuff i'm forgetting.

the countdown shall begin henceforthwithish
 
I vaguely remember listening to that Bulldozer album when it came out but forgot all about it. Listening to a bit on YouTube, sounds really good and surprisingly accurate to their later 80s output.