Decibel's Albums of the Decade

I had been warming up to Decibel. I really was. This list almost single-handedly killed that change in stance. I wrote last year that Decibel is really a magazine for hipsters under the guise of a metal magazine. This list proves what lead me to that conclusion. Look, I don't give a fuck if you like a band and want to give it some publicity and whatever, but don't fucking call it a Best Metal list and include a bunch of noise rock and hardcore and shit. If you want to call it a Best Extreme Music list, fine, fucking do that, and then you can include whatever releases you want. But metal is a style of music, it has limits and boundaries. Many of these releases on this list, in fact, nearly one third of them, do not fit in with the definition of metal, existing more on the hardcore or hard rock side of things. As I said, do not call it a metal list and then include bands from other styles to take up nearly one-third of the spots. The problem with doing it that way is you leave off a lot of truly deserving metal albums.

As with Terrorizer, let's look at the Top 5, which only actually includes three metal bands, one of which I cannot stand.

1. Converge: Jane Doe: Again, what the hell is it about this band that has everyone fawning all over them? To call this the Best Metal Album of the Decade is an absolute travesty.

2. Cave In: Jupiter: Cave In are a horribly boring, uninteresting progressive hardcore band. Next.

3. Opeth: Blackwater Park: See my discussion about this album on the Terrorizer post. This is a legitimate pick. It's at least a good metal album.

4. Isis: Oceanic: As I have mentioned several times, I find Isis really boring. At least this is a metal album, sort of.

5. Mastodon: Remission: I don't understand. This is the other problem with this list, the writers seem particularly interested in seeking out the underground releases, or the less well-known ones. How did this one far outrank Leviathan? This one is not as mainstream accessible, that's how. Despite the fact that Leviathan is the far superior album.

Non-metal bands present: Battle of Mice, Coalesce, The Paper Chase, Psyopus, Drowningman, System of a Down, Fucked Up, Hatebreed, Converge (every album this band released this decade is on this godforsaken list), Deftones, Disfear, Jesu, At the Drive-In, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Between the Buried and Me, Shellac, Andrew W.K., Fugazi, Tragedy, Melt-Banana, Queens of the Stone Age, Cave In

I own 23 of the albums from this list, many of which are the same as on Terrorizer's.

Buy the issue here: http://store.decibelmagazine.com/collections/holiday-specials/products/top-100-albums-of-the-decade-special-issue