2010 So Far

It's July 1st, the year is half over. It's amazing how fast time flies when you spend 75% of it in an office with nowhere to go, except for the occasional times when court drags me away. That's why I like going to court: change of scenery. I do love going to court though, for a number of reasons.

Well it's been a fairly good year for metal releases. There have been a few mind-fucking releases and a few bands making extremely strong comebacks. There have been a few disappointments as well, but we won't dwell on those. What am I saying? Of course we will.

Let's start with the disappointments, because I'm a pessimist.

CARNIFEX: HELL CHOSE ME
I heard a lot of good things about how this band was changing and they would not be a stereotypical deathcore band anymore. All lies.

ELUVEITIE: EVERYTHING REMAINS AS IT NEVER WAS
They basically rewrote the same album as last time. That album was great, so I expected great things from their follow-up. It's disappointing when a band fails to do anything different. Still a good album though.

ARMORED SAINT: LA RAZA
The long-anticipated return of Armored Saint found the band mostly playing modern rock instead of the power/thrash of their glory years. A shame to waste John Bush's outstanding vocals on this.

EXODUS: EXHIBIT B-THE HUMAN CONDITION
All the press lead people to believe this was a return to form and the band was putting other long-standing thrash acts to shame. It's a very good album, but nothing like it was hyped to be. More monotonous grooving riffs than thrash riffs.

Now, for the Top 10 of 2010 So Far

10. UNLEASHED: AS YGGDRASIL TREMBLES
Unleashed prove that they still have the same intensity and power as ever. The band is one of the most consistent groups in extreme metal, and almost certainly the most consistent in Swedish death metal. Only Dismember may have something to say about that, but they didn't release an album this year, yet anyway.

9. MISERY INDEX: HEIRS TO THIEVERY
Absolutely lethal death/grind that takes no prisoners and crushes the opposition. This band can do no wrong.

8. DARKTHRONE: CIRCLE THE WAGONS
The always-changing sound of Darkthrone has added some traditional metal influences and pulled it off brilliantly. They no longer resemble the black metal band they were in the 1990's, but even that may have been a facade. The true Darkthrone is always fluctuating.

7. HIGH ON FIRE: SNAKES FOR THE DIVINE
Yet another high-quality release from this stoner/thrash/doom metal band. This one may just be enough to push the band into some sort of mainstream recognition, a la Mastodon.

6. ORPHANED LAND: THE NEVER-ENDING WAY OF ORWARRIOR
It takes years for Orphaned Land to release albums, yet each album is worth the wait. This is a deeply emotional, incredible album. It is epic in length, scope, and sound.

5. IMMOLATION: MAJESTY AND DECAY
Immolation has never put out a bad album. Each album is more twisted and sinister than the last. This is no exception. Immolation is easily the best band still going from the early days of New York death metal, and yes, that includes Suffocation.

4. OVERKILL: IRONBOUND
From the best death metal going strong to the best thrash metal still going strong. Overkill has laid waste to all of their contemporaries from the early thrash metal days. They also have never put out a bad album, but this is easily their best in two decades. It is seriously that good.

3. ROTTING CHRIST: AEALO
Another amazingly consistent band. This album is not quite as strong as their previous album and does get bogged down at the end, but the rest is more of the face-melting gothic black metal the band has become known for.

2. WARBEAST: KRUSH THE ENEMY
Warbeast is a new band made up of veterans of the late 1980's Texas thrash metal scene and they put together one unholy, filthy, and violent take on thrash metal. This is an incredibly strong release from former members of underground thrash greats Rigor Mortis and Gammacide.

1. TRIPTYKON: EPARISTERA DAIMONES
This had Album of the Year written all over it from the cover art to the first sinister notes. A complete mindfuck of an album. It's extremely dark and cold. It's an amazing comeback for Tom G. Warrior. It will take an absolutely devastating album to unseat this this year.

Of course the big metal news this year occurred outside the recording studio. In the span of a few weeks we lost Peter Steele of Type O Negative and Ronnie James Dio. Metal will not be the same without them.