Worst, Average or Forgettable of 2009

[TENTH DREAMER DECEIVER]

Hammerfall: No Sacrifice, No Victory
Them Crooked Vultures: S/T
Voivod: Infini
Immortal: All Shall Fail
Slayer: World Painted Blood
Alestorm: Black Sails At Midnight
Amorphis: Skyforger
Behemoth: Evangelion
Saxon: Into the Labyrinth
Grave Digger: Ballads of a Hangman

and so much more

 

[KMADD]

I think Immortal, Behemoth and Slayer put out some stellar cds this past year.

 

[poundingmetal74]

Hammerfall: No Sacrifice, No Victory
Slayer: World Painted Blood
Alestorm: Black Sails At Midnight

Hammerfall's done the same record six times now. I quite liked Threshold, but I already own Threshold. I don't need Threshold 3. Spice it up a bit guys!
Slayer might have been better if not for the Death Magnetic treatment.
Alestorm, yeah, the songs weren't quite as good as I think the gimmcik is wearing thin, especially after seeing Turisas do it better.

My own list:
Kiss: Nothing great, but not bad. Basically along the lines of their post-Detroyer 70s stuff (Same goes for Ace, not bad, not amazing)
Dream Theater: I know many liked it, but I just couldn't get into it. I liked Rite of Passage but the other six songs just didn't strike me. Their last 3 albums haven't really done a whole lot for me.
Brainstorm: After 3 stellar releases in a row, they really crapped. Weak production and the songs aren't as good.
China Blue: Considering the line up, there are a few great songs, but I feel this should have been better. Same goes for Solna, some great stuff but a lot of mediocre stuff too.

 

[carnut]

the thing I don't wan't to remember from 2009 is the Trouble gig with new vocalist Cory Clarke...sad sad sad !!

 

[Wyvern]

Hammerfall: No Sacrifice, No Victory

Saxon: Into the Labyrinth

Agree, but I'm gonna post my top list in the other thread later in the month. Both albums are on the bottom.

Alestorm: Black Sails At Midnight

Disagree, but I'm gonna post my top list in the other thread later in the month. The album is on the top.


*****************************************************************

Now personal dissapointments. Besides the aforementioned Saxon and Hammerfall:

Dream Theater coming back again with growlings vocals and a average writing.
Yngwie Malmsteen and his "Genesis" album, I feel ripped-off (my fault for not downaloaded it first).

On a less serious level of dissapointment:

Forsaken – “After The Fall”
Jorn – “Spirit Black”
Heaven & Hell – “The Devil You Know”
Crystal Viper – “Metal Nation”
Metalucifer – “Heavy Metal Bulldozer

I expected a lot more from these bands, specially HAH. I feel a level of conformism, doing the minimum instead of making the best possible effort IMO.

And finally my biggest dissapointment was not able to get on CD on time some bands I like whose albums are out there and out of reach for me

Renacer – “Hijo Del Viento”
Meliah Rage –“Masquerade”
Kiko Loureiro – “Fullblast”
Jezabel – “Mas Allá del Tiempo”
Turbo – “Strażnik Światła”
Metalforce – “Metalforce”

 

[wdiv]

Ripper Owens - Play My Game
Halford - Winter Songs (I wanted to like this...)
Yngwie - Angels of Love
TSO - Night Castle (a few good songs, but way too much filler)
Pearl Jam - Backspacer


While it's still a good album, I found the new Redemption album to be a bit of a let down from the previous two.
I also can't figure out why Crack the Skye is so highly regarded.

 

[desert_demon]

I hate to say it, but - The Devil You Know by Heaven and Hell. My expectations were probably way too high for this album, but all the slow, doomy songs just didn't do it for me. Not terrible, but just average.

 

[sixxswine]

Saxon: Into the Labyrinth, Old Wave Of Bland Heavy Metal...
Joe Perry: Have Guitar Will Travel, the worst album I have heard in a longtime...
Ripper Owens: Play My Game, great singer, great team player, not so great on his own...
TSO: Night Castle -Great live act, live is where they shine!

 

[poundingmetal74]

Joe Perry: Have Guitar Will Travel, the worst album I have heard in a longtime...
Ripper Owens: Play My Game, great singer, great team player, not so great on his own...
TSO: Night Castle -Great live act, live is where they shine!

TSO Didn't do much for me either. I'm really not into Oliva's raspy vocals for the most part, but the Savatage version of Believe just had a certain charm to it.

Joe Perry was also horribly mediocre live. Most I spoke to at the show (myself included) were very disappointed. If not for Toys in the Attic, it would have a complete disappointment, especially since he played a godawful version of Dream On.

Owens, I kinda liked. Nothing amazing, but I liked it much better than beyond Fear. I really liked the song Starting Over. A few others were good as well.

H&H: I felt it was really mediocre back in the spring when it came out, but over time I've grown to enjoy it. A few filler songs (Atom and Evil comes to mind) but there are some great tracks like Double the Pain and my personal favorite Follow the Tears.

Truth be told I had very low expectations for Halford as well. His second solo record sucked and if you're not The Screaming Santas, nobody should be attempting to "metalize" an entire album's worth of Christmas tunes.

 

[Wyvern]

I forgot maybe because I'm not gonna even bother to acquire them, but yes both Halford and Owens albums were horrible, great dissapointments for 2009 indeed.

I like Ruben NWOBlandHM moniker

 

[Up&Away]

Queensryche - American Soldier (QR just needs to stop, sell the band name to Mindcrime and call it a day)

Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know (I expecting more of a heavy hitter from this version of BS...it missed)

Machines of Grace - ST (drivel)

Bloodbound - Tabula Rasa (Urban needs to move on...didn't I read rumors of Pyramaze somewhere?)

Brainstorm - Memorial Roots (damn...what happened?)

Tim Owens - Play My Game (Tim brings it vocals-wise...but the music itself is performed 3rd rate at best...the song writing didn't help any either)

Jorn - Spirit Black (He has a ton of stuff that kicks my ass...Lonely Are the Brave was great...SB was a letdown...looking forward to the new Masterplan)

 

[wdiv]

Yeah, the Machines of Grace album was disappointing.

 

[ElectricWiz]

Some observations here I agree with:

Saxon - Labyrinth - After a BUNCH of great ones this was average.
Ripper Owens - Pretty lame. Expected a lot from him after his great albums with Iced Earth, but apparently John is the talented one. The Yngwie record is not so great either. Fine, but just that...fine.

Gotta disagree on the Slayer record. Very good, that.

 

[labrekk]

Hammerfall: No Sacrifice, No Victory
Voivod: Infini
Saxon: Into the Labyrinth
Grave Digger: Ballads of a Hangman

I liked that new Hammerfall disc quite a bit. I thought that the arrival of Pontus Norgren on guitar brought a bit of difference in these neew songs.

Yes, the Saxon is not as good as their last 3 or 4 discs, but it's still in my top 15 or 20 of 2009. Another damn fine record for Biff and co.

The Voivod on the other side was really disappointing, as were the 2 previous ones...

The Grave Digger was good for me, better than the previous one, but still far from the great The Last Supper...

 

[labrekk]

the thing I don't wan't to remember from 2009 is the Trouble gig with new vocalist Cory Clarke...sad sad sad !!

Yes, Cory Clarke singing for the mighty Trouble is a total failure. I'm sure he'll ruin the next studio album and it's a damn shame...

 

[labrekk]

I hate to say it, but - The Devil You Know by Heaven and Hell. My expectations were probably way too high for this album, but all the slow, doomy songs just didn't do it for me. Not terrible, but just average.

I beg to differ. I also had a hard time with the slow pace of the album at first, but then it all clicked and The Devil You Know might be my fave disc of 2009 when I find the time to compile a best-of. And I now think that Atom & Evil is a very good song, even though my faves remain Bible Black and Double The Pain.

 

[carnut]

Queensryche - American Soldier (QR just needs to stop, sell the band name to Mindcrime and call it a day)

Got to disagree on this one. I think it's the best they done in 15 years or so. Although it isn't very "heavy" maybe, the songwriting and production of this album is awesome. Tate still remains one of my favorit vocalists.

 

[poundingmetal74]

Got to disagree on this one. I think it's the best they done in 15 years or so. Although it isn't very "heavy" maybe, the songwriting and production of this album is awesome. Tate still remains one of my favorit vocalists.

Agreed. Compared to say Mindcrime, A.S. was disappointing, but compared to their last 4-5 albums, American Soldier was very good.

 

[Up&Away]

but compared to their last 4-5 albums, American Soldier was very good.

Considering that the last 4 - 5 albums are garbage...that's not saying much.

 

[wdiv]

Considering that the last 4 - 5 albums are garbage...that's not saying much.

I thought O:M2 was pretty good throughout. Tribe had a few good tunes, but not enough to carry the album. Not much worthwhile on HITNF or Q2K (or Take Cover, if we can even count that as a QR album).