Top 10 Metal Albums of 2016

[CiG]

I liked the Tarot album more near the beginning of 2016, but it fell off for me right away compared to The Warrior's Spell.

For me it has been the opposite, simply because I was already very familiar with the material on The Warrior's Spell compilation in the form of owning the individual cassette EPs whereas Reflections has grown on me quite nicely. I just didn't include any Tarot because I'm not so convinced anymore that it is metal enough to belong.

 

[Krow]

1. Eternal Champion - The Armor of Ire
2. Ghoul - Dungeon Bastards
3. Darkthrone - Arctic Thunder
4. Tarot - Reflections
5. Sumerlands - s/t
6. High Spirits - Motivator
7. Destroyer 666 - Wildfire
8. Lord Vicar - The Gates of Flesh
9. Crowbar - The Serpent Only Lies
10. Tygers of Pan Tang - s/t

I feel like I missed a black metal somewhere but I'll need to look through my shit later.

For me, Sumerlands, High Spirits, Crowbar, and Tygers have all fallen off a lot.

Panphage would be on my list now and Wildfire would probably be #2 actually.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

Definitely that Sumerlands album, but fuck that High Spirits is still the best thing they've ever done.

 

[no country for old wainds]

both are boring tho

 

[The Butt]

What I heard from Legacies Unchain was rippin'. I loved it.

 

[Satanstoenail]

There was once a time when I liked Korn enough to write my name as "KonЯad," which is just so hilariously cringeworthy in retrospect.

I feel like I’ve been outjumpdafuckup’d. My chin braid is no match for that handle.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

both are boring tho

Edgey. We got Ozzman 2.0 over here.

 

[no country for old wainds]

my dreams of being out crowd are finally realised

 

[The Ozzman]

my dreams of being out crowd are finally realised

You're not allowed to be out crowd

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Sumerlands is nu-incrowd

 

[Omni]

Nu-in-crowd must mean wannabe in-crowd like Yoda only, because myself, @no country for old wainds, @Slayed Necros, @Manic Ferocity, @Anom@nder Rake, and literally all of the true in-crowd think that Sumerlands is boring and/or garbage. Dodens Gay thinks that it's crap too.

High Spirits is better, but kinda boring too.

 

[CiG]

I've found that Starspawn hasn't held up since its release for me. Still good though obviously.

 

[no country for old wainds]

'spiral infinite' was a cool song on the sumerlands, basically the more uptempo that album got the better it was. too much pedestrian arena metal on the whole though and i don't think swanson's vocals suit it too well.

high spirits are just too commercial 'n homogenous 'n formulaic for me in general.

i never got very into that blood incantation either but it was pretty cool.

 

[Omni]

Yeah, I liked "Spiral Infinite" the most because it was the only song that stood out from the rest of the album, even though Phil Swanson sings "spiral infinity" during the song so I think that either he or the title was incorrect.

The album was massively hyped on every metal site that I went to last year, but it's mostly samey and mediocre and the vocals and lyrics are kinda awful too. It basically sounds like something you'd hear on a current rock station.

Actually, the fact that @The Ozzman doesn't like it seems weird in retrospect. I guess because Yoda also likes it so he can't listen to it.

 

[CiG]

What I appreciate about High Spirits in general is that they don't pretend to be some retro high art true metal project like Sumerlands seemed to pass itself off as, with its larger-than-life vocal style layered with reverb and framed by mediocre metalrock. It knows it's switch-your-mind-off hard rock/heavy metal and I like it when a band isn't trying to lie to me about its intentions.

High Spirits are not pretentious.

 

[CiG]

Oh and my pick for best track on Sumerlands is "Lost My Mind."

 

[HamburgerBoy]

There's at least one song on that Blood Incantation album that sounds literally like late 90s Death, just with a gimmick production. Total nu-incrowd death metal.

 

[Omni]

I love that we've arrived at the point where we needed to invent a new type of in-crowd designation.

 

[CiG]

Yeah explain.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Omni pretty much said it already

Nu-in-crowd must mean wannabe in-crowd like Yoda only, because myself, @no country for old wainds, @Slayed Necros, @Manic Ferocity, @Anom@nder Rake, and literally all of the true in-crowd think that Sumerlands is boring and/or garbage. Dodens Gay thinks that it's crap too.

High Spirits is better, but kinda boring too.

After many years of internet elitism and taste-formation, the in-crowd bands have now been disseminated enough through the metal conscience for younger people to pay tribute to the surface aesthetics of the true in-crowd, without possessing whatever imagined genuineness of spirit existed. It's in-crowd fashion, not in-crowd religion.