Year in Metal: 2005

AKERCOCKE: WORDS THAT GO UNSPOKEN, DEEDS THAT GO UNDONE
London's strange progressive blackened death metal band has always had a style all their own, both musically and visually. Their scholarly take on Satanism and sexual depravity is complemented by the fact that the band wears suits when performing live and in video. Their music is extremely progressive and features a variety of different styles. The music is never boring and goes through frequent tempo changes and melodies. This is one of their best albums.

DECEASED...: AS THE WEIRD TRAVEL ON
By this time, Deceased... had eliminated most of the death metal elements that were previously present in their music. The vocals were still a little on the gruff side, but the music was now mostly in the realm of a blend between traditional metal and thrash metal. This is a true modern take on old school styles of metal and shows why Deceased... is perhaps the most unfairly underrated band in American metal.

KAMELOT: THE BLACK HALO
Kamelot's sixth album is the one that finally got the band the large following that they deserved. The Black Halo is a monumental album in Kamelot's history and truly one of the best power metal albums of the decade. It is not a terribly aggressive album, the band preferring to write powerful, melodic metal instead, but the songs are all incredibly infectious and keeps the listener coming back to hear it again. This is how melodic power metal should be.

KREATOR: ENEMY OF GOD
German thrash metal masters released yet another album of hyper-aggressive and punishingly brutal thrash. Kreator's music declined in quality in the 1990's, just like most other thrash metal bands, but that was due to their desire to experiment with styles such as industrial metal. This album was completely back in the brutal thrash style that they crafted in the 1980's. The incredible album-opening title track is an instant classic and sets the stage for the rest of the album.

NILE: ANNIHILATION OF THE WICKED
Nile's fourth album is my personal favorite. The Egyptian-themed death metal band really perfected their style on this release and found the perfect mix between their brutal style of death metal and the Egyptian-sounding musical interludes. Earlier in their career, Nile was somewhat more focused on the brutality and fast songs while later, they became more plodding and focused on the Egyptian aspects. This album combined them perfectly.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Arch Enemy: Doomsday Machine
Candlemass: Candlemass
Dark Tranquillity: Character
God Forbid: IV-Constitution of Treason
Hypocrisy: Virus
Judas Priest: Angel of Retribution
Meshuggah: Catch Thirty-Three
Opeth: Ghost Reveries
Scar Symmetry: Symmetric in Design

BANDS THAT FORMED IN 2005:
Ihsahn