Top albums of 2015

[MetalAges]

Curious to hear what everyone's top albums of 2015 are, in order or not. Also, If you are up for it, I would love to share some on the magazine side of the site which I am about to officially relaunch (also complete new design!).

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Man I am never good at remembering what I got in a given year!

Some that will appear on my top 2015 for sure are:

Ghost - Meliora
Eclipse - Armageddonize
Braindance - Master of Disguise
Symphony X - Underworld
Magnus Karlsson's Freefall - Kingdom of Rock
Praying Mantis - Legacy
Kamelot - Haven
Joel Hoekstra's 13 - Dying to Live
Gloryhammer - Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards
Riverside - Love, Fear An The Time Machine
Wulfhook - The Impaler

Special mentions:

Queensryche - Condition Human (cool album, liked it a lot, but not more than the other 10)
The Darkness - Last of Our Kind (if the whole album were as good as the first three songs, it would have been in my top 5)

A band I discovered this year but this was a 2014 release:

Perturbator - Dangerous Days (Dark Synth - like 80s thriller/horror soundtrack stuff)

 

[Draehl]

We just posted them in the stickied Metal 2015 thread. It's kind of all-purpose though- I'd be cool running with this one instead.

Edit: Might as well.

Top 10

1) Akhlys - The Dreaming I
2) Mgła - Exercises In Futility
3) Midnight Odyssey - Shards of Silver Fade
4) Spectral Lore - Gnosis (it' an EP but it's so long I'm counting it)
5) Nocternity - Harps Of The Ancient Temples
6) Serpent's Lair - Circumambulating the Stillborn
7) Abyssal - Antikatastaseis
8) Hæthen - Shaped By Aeolian Winds
9) Utstøtt - Hjørungavågr
10) Drowning the Light - From The Abyss

Akhlys - The Dreaming I: AOTY for me easily. This grabbed my attention right away and has gotten better with each listen, which is a rare combination as it's normally one or the other. It's completely thick in atmosphere and really takes you on a journey, but doesn't pull any punches in the heaviness or vocals department. Simply amazing both for passive and active listening. I didn't like Nightbringer before, but after taking in this more accessible album and re-listening you really do 'get' his songwriting style. Favorite Track: Consummation

Honorable Mentions/Non-Metal

Clutch, Draug, Mad Max Fury Road Soundtrack, Obsequiea, Misþyrming, Elder, Panopticon, Magister Templi, Desolate Shrine, Macabre Omen, Sulphur Aeon, Forgotten Kingdoms, Magic Circle, Khemmis, Shrine of Insanabilis, Ozric Tentacles

 

[no country for old wainds]

i'm too anal to do a half-arsed ordered list and too preoccupied to do a fully-arsed one, so i'll prob just wait til a bunch of lists have been posted and then name stuff i liked that hasn't already been mentioned.

 

[The Ozzman]

I got like 4 more albums since I posted my list in the other thread so this will do nicely.

Sulphur Aeon - Gateways to the Antisphere
Alkaloid - The Malkuth Grimoire
Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls
Nile - What Should Not Be Unearthed
Horrendous - Anareta
Saxon - Battering Ram
Amorphis - Under the Red Cloud
Jungle Rot - Order Shall Prevail
Armored Saint - Win Hands Down
Act of Defiance - Birth and the Burial

 

[Krow]

Let's see what I've got....

Khemmis - Absolution
Sword and sorcery themed doom metal with some sludgey parts.

Clutch - Psychic Warfare
If you don't know Clutch yet, hard rockin' stonery metal.

Magister Templi - Into Duat
Epic heavy/doom metal, with an Egyptian flare for this album

Legion of Andromeda - Iron Scorn
Absolutely devastatingly heavy industrialized death doom

Under the Church - Rabid Armageddon
The guys from Nirvana 2002 form a new band and release an album, as good as expected and maybe better

Hooded Menace - Darkness Drips Forth
Big meaty death doom with a better grasp on doom metal than most bands in the genre

Satan - Atom by Atom
High energy punky traditional metal.

Christian Mistress - To Your Death
New nwobhm, third album. Much better than third second album, picks up where the debut left off

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Simply put, the best stoner doom band there is right now.

Desecresy - Stoic Death
The bands second best album to date. Massive Finnish death metal

Tyranny - Aeons in Tectonic Interment
One of the very few funeral doom bands I like. This will shake the windows in your house.

Revenge - Behold. Total. Rejection.
Chaotic Black Death insanity. Their best album IMO.

I could probably come up with more. Plenty of albums I really liked this year.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

my favs

1. Black Breath – Slaves Beyond Death
2. Akhlys – The Dreaming I
3. Misþyrming – Söngvar Elds Og Óreiðu
4. Sarpanitum – Blessed Be My Brothers
5. Adversarial – Death, Endless Nothing and the Black Knife of Nihilism
6. Blaze of Perdition – Near Death Revelations
7. Hæthen - Shaped by Aeolian Winds
8. Spectral Lore - Gnosis
9. Triumvir Foul – Triumvir Foul
10. Downfall of Nur – Umbras de Barbagia

 

[Baroque]

Here's my top 10 in order:

1) Vhol - Deeper Than Sky
2) Symphony X - Underworld
3) Skeletal Remains - Condemned to Misery
4) Hatchet - Fear Beyond Lunacy
5) Sycamyre - Sycamyre
6) Gama Bomb - Untouchable Glory
7) Vampire - Cimmerian Shade
8) Black Breath - Slaves Beyond Death
9) Mendel - Oblivion
10) Ufomammut - Ecate

And the honorable mentions:

Black Fast - Terms of Surrender
Gorod - A Maze of Recycled Creeds
Sadist - Hyaena
Chapel of Disease - The Mysterious Ways of Repetitive Art
Velaraas - The Gilded Age
Leprous - The Congregation
Satyrasis - ...Of The Dead
Dystopian - A Renaissance of Thought
Exarsis - The Human Project
Droid - Disconnected

 

[Onder]

New nwobhm, third album. Much better than third second album, picks up where the debut left off

I actually liked the second one, I should probably check this out.

The guys from Nirvana 2002 form a new band and release an album, as good as expected and maybe better

I didn't know about this, thanks.

 

[CiG]

Pretty much in order.

1. Ironsword - None But The Brave
2. Nocternity - Harps Of The Ancient Temples
3. Deathhammer - Evil Power
4. Manilla Road - The Blessed Curse
5. Iron Kobra - Might & Magic
6. Macabre Omen - Gods Of War-At War
7. Black Force - Spirit Of Ancient Writings
8. Nekro Drunkz - Absolute Filth
9. Inculter - Persisting Devolution
10. Dr. Shrinker - Contorted Dioramic Palette

 

[The Ozzman]

Black Fast - Terms of Surrender

Yeah that's been underrated this year

 

[EspaDa]

5. Iron Kobra - Might & Magic

How's that one? I only listened to Battlesword EP.

Can anyone give me a brief opinion on the new Baroness album? I don't know whether it's worth checking, Chlorine & Wine was a decent song.

 

[CiG]

How's that one? I only listened to Battlesword EP.

Well besides the fact that it made it into my top 5 of last year, hahaha, it's fucking brilliant. It's raw and old school Speed/Power Metal. I do think the Battlesword EP is their best material (perhaps) but this one is pure magic man.

Here, try it out!

 

[EspaDa]

@CASSETTEISGOD That was great man. Which Grand Magus album do you recommend to start with?

 

[CiG]

@CASSETTEISGOD That was great man. Which Grand Magus album do you recommend to start with?

Holy shit what a question. My gut wants to go with Hammer Of The North and that's where my beer goes so it must be right, right?

Personally, I think the further away they moved from the Stoner style (debut, little bit of the sophomore) the better they got. Shit, their latest album gets consistently spun in my house man.



Pure beer drinking, headbanging no bullshit Heavy Metal!

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

I'd start with Monument if i were you, @EspaDa.

 

[CiG]

The 70's throwback sound is cool and all, but they sound a little dime-a-dozen here in my opinion.

 

[J.]

Iron Will or the debut

 

[CiG]

The debut is ridiculously average.

But Iron Will is a solid as fuck choice.

 

[SweptbackFlame]

Personally, These for me:

1. Halestorm - Into the Wildlife
2. ORDEN OGAN - Ravenhead
3. Keep Of Kalessin - Epistemology
4. Act of Defiance - Birth and the Burial
5. Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful
6. Symphony X - Underworld
7. Helloween - My God Given Right
8. Devil You Know - They Bleed Red
9. Breaking Benjamin - Dark Before Dawn
10. Periphery - Juggernaut: Alpha & Omega

Honorable mentions:

Shinedown - Threat to Survival
Disturbed - Immortalized
Gorgoroth - Instinctus Bestialis
Galneryus - Under the Force of Courage

I think there are some that I haven't listened to yet, but I'm meaning to get to them at some point.

 

[Krow]

Personally didn't like Grand Magus' last album. The Hunt is galloping sword drawn fucking battle metal and awesome. I've played it a ton since it came out. Iron Will is great too. I like stoner stuff and theirs is fairly lame. Stick to the trad side