Anyway, since I have exactly zero readers who listen to or care about metal, I thought I'd make it my business to post my top-ten albums from the past year. Let's face it -- blogs are, by their very nature, pretentious and self-absorbed, so you'll just have to excuse me for this one and chalk it up to PAC-10 refs. And I have good news -- there should be a new Dido record for 2008!
First, the gem from 2006 that I didn't hear until 2007:
Eluveitie -- Spirit: Amazing. Plus, just by listening you'd never guess there were more than six or seven members!
Second, a record that I have no idea what to do with:
War of Ages -- Fire From the Tomb: A re-recording of (mostly) material from 2005 that's marketed as a new album. If it "counts" as 2007, it's probably top 3-ish, but really, how do you figure?
Third, a couple records that surely would have made the list but they evaded my grasp:
August Burns Red -- Messengers: I'd have if if interpunk wasn't lame and out of stock.
Common Yet Forbidden -- The Strugge: I'd have it if The End Records wasn't lame and out of stock.
Fourth, some honorable mention:
Demon Hunter – Storm the Gates of Hell
Decent, but again unable to fully re-capture the disturbing-ness of Summer of Darkness.
Impending Doom – Nailed. Dead. Risen.
The problem with deathcore? Rather than combine the brutality of death metal with the energy of hardcore, they put the brutality of death metal in the no-creativity box of hardcore. Insanely brutal album but it just doesn’t take me anywhere.
Sleeping Giant – Dread Champions of the Last Days
The most unique record of 2007, but too hit-and-miss to crack the list.
xDeathstarx – We Are the Threat
Very good hardcore, but that won’t break the list this year.
And finally, the top 10 records (that I've heard and am sure they count as 2007) of 2007:
10. Remove the Veil – Another Way Home
The whole “southern-fried metal” thing is about one band away from being old already, but I still can’t listen to this and not smile!
9. Dagon – Paranormal Ichthology
Honestly not quite what I was hoping for after Secrets of the Deep, although I think most of the let-down was in the production (what happened to the drum sound?). Still a fun record that I reach for months later.
8. Seventh Star – The Undisputed Truth
I always expect Seventh Star to be average and uninspired, and then they always punish me for my unbelief. I wish they’d punish me like this again – unfortunately they broke up, but fortunately they gave us this first.
7. Deliverance – As Above – So Below
Honestly I’d lost interest in Deliverance and all things Jimmy Brown, but after the buzz around this one I gave it a chance and was more than repaid. All metal, all heavy, and still progressive but not too much. Nice work fellas, very nice work.
6. Becoming the Archetype – The Physics of Fire
One of the greatest “disappointment” albums ever. It has to be tough to follow up something as beautiful as Terminate Damnation, but although I get lost in the technicality at times there are plenty of moments of brilliance as well.
5. Nodes of Ranvier – Defined by Struggle
Let’s face it – there’s nothing here that we haven’t heard before, but let’s also admit that they make it sound GREAT! Like Seventh Star, it’s too bad they broke up, but so good that they’re ending on an excellent note.
4. My Silent Wake – The Anatomy of Melancholy
Mmmmm, the tastiest doom/death album in years. Sorry, no bonus points for the double mellow acoustic disc, but this kind of metal needs bonus points like Mike Martz needs more passing plays. Brooding, plodding, epic, masterful.
3. Immortal Souls – Winteriech
In a mediocre year this could have been #1, it easily surpasses Ice Upon the Night and is probably their best record yet. Great songs played with an unbeatable fusion of melody and aggression.
2. A Plea for Purging – A Critique of Mind and Thought
Wow did THIS band catch me off-guard. With just a little more memorability this could have topped the list. Freaking amazing debut that either shreds like metalcore has never shredded or breaks-down like metal has never broken-down. Whatever, it slays.
1. As I Lay Dying – An Ocean Between Us
As popular as they’ve become, I’ve always figured them for a middle-of-the-pack metalcore band until now. Heavy, catchy, melodic, thrashy, and by far their most interesting and engaging album, I can’t shake these songs from my head or the cd from my player. Not that I would want to!
16 comments:
Correction...you have exactly one reader who listens to or cares about metal. Me!
1) The last comment is in Portuguese.
2) I read the entire post, but I do not care about metal.
3) Time to change your background color.
Ha ha, ok Kathy, you're DEFINITELY the exception that proves the rule!
Crescenet -- yep. Somehow spam comments take on a whole new level of fascination when they're in different languages.
Jered -- You know that time is coming . . . SOON. Still, despite the massive turd that was the Fiesta Bowl, they DID have a great season -- beat Saxet and Little Brother, won the B12 -- and weren't playing for the marbles so the loss doesn't hurt as badly as the TT game, to be honest.
Finally -- to whomever voted for Hannah Montana in the poll . . . I don't even know what to say.
Ross,
Which hurts more:
1) Statue of Liberty on a 2-point conversion in overtime?
2) Complete annihilation by an underdog?
This might be a full post in the near future, but here you go:
1) Thanks for asking and bringing up one of my most painful sports moments. That feels great.
2) WV is a very very good team and played a great game. The championship wasn't on the line. Unfortunately, EVEN OU loses sometimes.
Last year KILLED -- because the opponent really was NOT terribly worthy (outcome notwithstanding) and it was a complete no-win situation no matter how it turned out -- and then it turned out to be the game of the century and the worst possible outcome -- even a blowout by BSU (heh) wouldn't have been as bad in hindsight. That was one of the most painful loses in a LONG time -- perhaps only TGOWWDNS (bonus points if you know what that is) is more painful.
RE: TGOWWDNS
I'm guessing that the Trojans were the opponent, but I'll have to think on a guess for the acronym's parts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw4_4H83Pok
My Best Guess
The
Game
Oklahoma
Wistfully
Wasted,
Defeat
Not
Superiority
Your effort is noble Jered, and you're close (right track, anyway). Think along the lines of "The Village".
OK, Ross, I got it. I figured it was the 2005 Orange Bowl before I even searched. Google didn't help me at all. Well, it did. It got me to a bunch of Sooner forums where TGOWWDNS was used, but it was never spelled out. And now, knowing the meaning, naturally it wouldn't be spelled out.
My main question is this: how in the world did someone from Oklahoma figure out not to end a sentence with a preposition? That is the sort of insight up with which we should put.
Do I put some sort of hex to actually spell it out? Yours would be only the 2nd known place where someone could enter TGOWWDNS and find out that it means ... no, even I, hooked horns and all, cannot do that.
For the off-topic record:
One must be careful when taking a left turn out of the Stonybrook parkinglot onto Fern Valley/Hurstbourne Rd while the roads are wet. For even if one has 300+lbs of cinderblock in one's truckbed one's truck's rear-end can lose traction and thusly send one flying side-to-side in a vain effort of regaining control of one's vehicle. And one can feel one's heartbeat for some time afterwards.
Dang, dude! You would have been like the 3rd Life Pointe related accident! Glad you made it out "alive".
It all happened right infront of someone (Her name begins with an A) as well. I had to check over my shoulder into my blindspot to make sure she wasn't next to me as I let my truck slide into the righthand lane. That would have been uber-bad for all parties involved.
Well I know I'm a little late now - and to bring it back around to the most important part of this post, THE MUSIC! just catching up on all my blog reading but how can you forget that I truly am a fan of metal!!?? So now you have 2 readers who care about metal!!! Your best post yet!
3. You three fans of metal that read your blog.
I agree with this post with a few exceptions.
First I would have definitely placed Sleeping Giant and August Burns Red in the top ten. I probably would drop Nodes Of Ranvier from the list.
Also I would switch the top 2. As I Lay Dying is my favorite band. They have been my favorite since "Frail Words Collapse". I remember the sense of excitement I had when I first heard them. I was blown away and the CD lived in my car CD Player for almost 2 years. Other discs had to rent out play time. This brings me to A Plea For Purging. I have the same feeling about this album as I did with As I Lay Dying. It can only mean good things. A Plea For Purging ever so slightly edges out "Oceans..."
That just another opinion. Keep up the good work. Heres to Metal in 2008!
Cool, thanks for stopping by bro.
As I Lay Dying has never been my favorite band (Crimson Moonlight!!!), but after a few months, I still play Ocean more than Critique. Any of the top 3 were #1 worthy IMO, however.
And, if Messengers was as good as Thrillseeker (and all reports say that it is -- I finally ordered it yesterday!) it surely would have been top 5-ish. Obviously I dug the Nodes more than you did, but I'm also from South Dakota so maybe they got an extra point or two there!
Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting, maybe a couple more metal posts will come through!
Sweet...I look forward to it.
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