Staff Picks of 2008

[TheTechnogoat]

Welcome to UltimateMetal.com’s Staff Picks of 2008! It’s been a great year for metal, and we have plenty to say about it. Below you will find our individual staff picks – organized alphabetically by first name – with links to the corresponding reviews and commentaries underneath.

Agree with our choices? Disagree? What’s on your Best of 2008 list? We want to know what you think!

Adam McAuley a.k.a. Victim of Deception

Opeth - Watershed
Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
Metallica - Death Magnetic
Textures - Silhouettes
Sculptured - Embodiment

Jack Deming a.k.a. TheTechnogoat

1. Moonsorrow - Tulimyrsky
2. Enslaved - Vertabrae
3. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
4. Equilibrium - Sagas
5. Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery
6. Opeth - Watershed
7. Eluveitie - Slania
8. Yann Tiersen - Tabarly
9. Cat Power - Jukebox
10. Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy

Jason Jordan a.k.a. circus_brimstone

1. Gojira - The Way of All Flesh
2. Genghis Tron - Board up the House
3. Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery
4. Burst - Lazarus Bird
5. Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
6. The Photographic - Pictures of a Changing World
7. Nachtmystium - Assassins - Black Meddle Part I
8. Meshuggah - ObZen
9. Arghoslent - Hornets of the Pogrom
10. Psycroptic - Ob(Servant)
Honorable Mention: Enslaved - Vertebrae

Paddy Walsh a.k.a. Bleakest Harvest

Opeth - Watershed
Meshuggah - ObZen
Portishead - Third
Diagonal - Diagonal
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
Steve Wilson - Insurgentes
Bauhaus - Go Away White
Virus - The Black Flux
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
Asva - What You Don't Know is Frontier

Russell Garwood a.k.a. Russell

Bardoseneticcube + Noises Of Russia - New Orthodox Line
Between The Buried And Me – Colors*
Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery
Falconer - Among Beggars And Thieves
Opeth - Watershed
Sigh – Hangman’s Hymn*
The Berzerker - The Reawakening
The Sin: Decay - Rehabilitation
Whourkr – Concrete
Woods of Ypres - Woods III

Honourable mention:
Herrschaft – Tesla

*Technically late 2007, but I only picked them up this year…

Ryan Starr a.k.a. genocide roach

This year was a disappointment for extreme metal, especially death metal. However, there were some gems out there, and I think I've made a solid list. Lets hope next year is better (and it should be with new releases from Orphaned Land, Thyrfing, Augury, and Borknagar)

Eluveitie- Slania
Nightbringer- Death and the Black Work
Esoteric- The Maniacal Vale
Alestorm- Captain Morgan's Revenge
Mouth of the Architect- Quietly
Todesbonden- Sleep Now, Quiet Forest
Draconian- Turning Season Within
Isole - Bliss Of Solitude
Ihashn- Angl
Enslaved- Vertebrae

 

[Det Som Engang Var]

Ctrl+F4 Warrel Dane=Not found

Thread reaks of fail.

 

[Victim of Deception]

I'm thinking of switching my Textures pick for Enslaved's Vertebrae which seems promising.

 

[Alteredmindeath]

good list Victim

 

[Victim of Deception]

Cynic - Traced in Air is another album that I would expect to make it to my best of choices in little time, as there are still many great albums this year I need to hear yet.

 

[BloodSword]

The Maniacal Vale, is the best metal album of the year. In terms of, composition of doom/metal, chord progressions and flat-out brilliant guitar playing along with crushing brutality, nothing else comes close. But hey, that's just me.

 

[Victim of Deception]

Another album that seems to be absent from these lists, but needs to be mentioned is Testament's The Formation of Damnation perhaps.

 

[Bleakest Harvest]

Cynic - Traced in Air is another album that I would expect to make it to my best of choices in little time, as there are still many great albums this year I need to hear yet.

This didn't quite blow me away as I had hoped, being a huge fan of Focus. The vocals just didn't cut it, those high pitched vocoder vox grated big time. Musically it was brilliant though, just a shame about the vocals, which is what kept it off my list anyway.

The Maniacal Vale

Another disappointment for me, as their previous two releases are some of my all-time favourite doom releases. I had high hopes for this after Subconscious Dissolution..., but the production let it down imo (the vocals were a bit too low in the mix and failed to create that overwhelming, suffocating feeling of previous albums). Still a good album, but noticeably less memorable than its predecessors.

Testament's The Formation of Damnation

A good album, and I enjoyed it, but not a patch on The Gathering imo.

The above three albums were some of my most anticipated albums for '08, and since they failed to live up to expectations it made the year a bit of a let down for me metal-wise. Virus's Black Flux nearly made up for it though, bloody brilliant album yet barely talked about.

 

[Victim of Deception]

Equilibrium's Sagas and Hollenthon's Opus Magnum round out my top 10 list regardless.

 

[genocide roach]

This didn't quite blow me away as I had hoped, being a huge fan of Focus. The vocals just didn't cut it, those high pitched vocoder vox grated big time. Musically it was brilliant though, just a shame about the vocals, which is what kept it off my list anyway.

Another disappointment for me, as their previous two releases are some of my all-time favourite doom releases. I had high hopes for this after Subconscious Dissolution..., but the production let it down imo (the vocals were a bit too low in the mix and failed to create that overwhelming, suffocating feeling of previous albums). Still a good album, but noticeably less memorable than its predecessors.

A good album, and I enjoyed it, but not a patch on The Gathering imo.

The above three albums were some of my most anticipated albums for '08, and since they failed to live up to expectations it made the year a bit of a let down for me metal-wise. Virus's Black Flux nearly made up for it though, bloody brilliant album yet barely talked about.

i think alot of stuff made the list this year because there was a lack of amazing releases. i'll admit that alot of the ones in my list are great but not lifechanging. like i said before, 08 sucked for metal...
~gR~

 

[voodoo]

Ctrl+F4 Warrel Dane=Not found

Thread reaks of fail.

Why, because someone's opinion differs from yours?

 

[leadbender]

I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion. Mine is that '08 was a great year for metal. Here's my top ten.

1. Woods of Ypres - Woods III: Deepest Roots Darkest Blues
2. Nachtmystium - Black Meddle Part 1
3. Gojira - The Way of All Flesh
4. Enslaved - Vertebrae
5. Dismember - Dismember
6. Utlagr - 1066: Blood and Thunder in Hastings
7. Keep of Kalessin - Kolossus
8. Testament - The Formation of Damnation
9. The Gates Of Slumber - Conquoror
10. Coffins - Buried Death

 

[Addicted]

2008 was great.

1. Enslaved - Vertebrae
2. God Is An Astronaut - God Is An Astronaut
3. Meshuggah -obZen
4. Cynic - Traced In Air
5. Burst - Lazarus Bird
6. Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe
7. Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
8. Metallica - Death Magnetic
9. Opeth - Watershed
10. Textures - Silhouettes