Favorite New Bands of the 2000's: Honorable Mentions

When I was forming the list of bands that formed in the 2000's, I had several other bands in mind. Eventually, I decided to shorten the list to ten bands. But that left off a lot of other deserving bands that I really enjoy. So, I put together an honorable mentions list.

In no particular order:

QUINTA ESSENTIAQuinta Essentia is a band that formed in Alabama of all places. The band combine black, death, and thrash metal into an extremely powerful and malevolent sound. It is one hell of a mix. The lyrical themes of the band deal mainly with the occult and magic. The dark themes and darker music combine into one hell of an evil sounding band. But, the musicianship is also very good. Their songs are all long, but they succeed in keeping the attention of the listener due to the intricate riffs and melodies. Quinta Essentia have been around since 2004 and have only two albums to their credit, but if they continue down the same path as their latest album, they will very quickly make a big name for themselves.

BLASPHERIANBlaspherian was briefly covered in my post on Texas black and death metal bands. Their sound is extremely raw and with some death/doom metal influences. Essentially, they sound like a combination of Immolation and Incantation. It's extremely dirty sounding and ugly. The band is focused on anti-Christian themes and evil. It's one hell of a listening experience with jagged riffs, pounding drums, and deep death growls.

VICTIMIZERVictimizer is a Danish speed/thrash metal band with some minor punk influences. The band essentially sounds like early Teutonic thrash metal bands like Destruction, Kreator, and Sodom. They sound like they would have been very much at home in the early to mid 1980's. They have a gift for killer riffs and memorable songs. They are melodic, but at the same time, very aggressive and primal. Victimizer is unfortunately on hold at the moment. Hopefully they will get back to playing thrash the way it should be played in the near future.

BLOOD TSUNAMIBlood Tsunami is a Norwegian thrash metal band. Drummer Faust is a well-known drummer in several black metal bands, such as Emperor and Aborym. Blood Tsunami plays thrash metal, as the name of their album suggests, in the vein of the German thrash metal bands mentioned in the Victimizer information. The riffs are fast and razor sharp. The vocals are delivered in a manic sneer and the songs are very memorable. Blood Tsunami is not a retro thrash metal band, much like Victimizer above, they just play thrash the way they want to play it. And the results are very impressive indeed.

TRIVIUMShut up, I kind of like Trivium. Yes, they started out as a metalcore band. Yes, they shamelessly ripped off Metallica on their third album. However, the band can write some damn infectious songs. Even if you hate the band, you have to admit that they are damn good musicians as well. This is a very talented band that unfortunately started out looking for money, and probably still is to a certain extent. So now, everything they do is met with scorn and derision. Get over it and give the band another chance.

THE ABSENCEThis band is melodic death metal in the true sense of the term. The band is not poppy like the forefathers of the genre In Flames. They are much closer in sound to Amon Amarth, another death metal band that happens to be very melodic. This is one of the better American bands to develop over the last decade. I list them as an honorable mention only because I have not been able to find more than one of their albums. It's a great album though and if the rest of their stuff sounds like it, this is one hell of a band.

LANDMINE MARATHONArizona's Landmine Marathon are a young band that borrows heavily from a sound that is more than 20 years old. The band sound like an early grind band such as England's Carcass, Bolt Thrower, or Napalm Death. The singer is one of the most aggressively powerful singers to come out in awhile, and she's female. This is a blessing and a curse of course, but the fact that she is very good at what she does means that once people look past that aspect and look at the music, they will take off.

REVOCATIONI just found out about this band last year. The band is part of the thrash revival scene, but they play technical thrash. It's quite a welcome change of pace. This has always been a bit of an underappreciated style. Groups like Anacrusis and Heathen had a hand in the formation of it. Revocation is extremely talented musically with a gift for writing catchy songs and riffs. It's technical, but not so much that it's unlistenable. This band could be huge.

NOCTURNAL FEARNocturnal Fear is a Michigan-based thrash metal band. They are a little bit of a throwback band, but they don't try to copy the Bay Area scene of the 1980's like so many other bands out there starved for attention. Nocturnal Fear's thrash roots lie across the Atlantic Ocean in Germany. Sounding like a cross between the big three bands of German thrash, Nocturnal Fear is punishing and intense. Their album covers even call to mind Sodom as they often feature graphic depictions of warfare.

MISERY INDEXBaltimore's death/grind masters formed in 2001 but have already released four full-length albums, three EPs, five splits, and even a DVD. In other words, this band is quite prolific in the studio. Misery Index formed when Jason Netherton left Dying Fetus and brought many of his musical influences in. The band is fast and brutally heavy and are one of the few grind-influenced bands I listen to.

Favorite New Bands of the 2000's Pt. 10: Scar Symmetry

I know you all have been waiting with baited breath for the last post in this series. No? Whatever, it's my blog.

To recap, here are the other groups I have discussed:
Lair of the Minotaur
Swallow the Sun
Ahab
Skeletonwitch
The Black Dahlia Murder
Estuary
Arsis
Eluveitie
Trench Hell

Okay, now that that's out of the way, here's the final entry in the list of Top 10 Favorite New Bands of the 2000's: Scar Symmetry.

Scar Symmetry is a Swedish band that combines melodeath with some almost power metalesque vocals on occasion. Chief behind this is former singer Christian Alvestam, who has one of the most interesting voices in metal. The production is always very clean, allowing the listener to hear everything going on, and trust me, there's a lot of stuff happening. Sometimes it does border on sterility, but for the most part with the futuristic-sounding music and lyrical themes, that actually comes off as a good thing. The riffs are performed in a fairly basic Gothenburg style, and they are added to by lots of melodic keyboard passages. The choruses are infectious and oftentimes pop-inflected.

Alvestam delivers three types of vocals. He has some pretty deep death growls, a raspier vocal style, and some amazing clean vocals. He truly is a gifted singer. Unfortunately, he left Scar Symmetry prior to their fourth album and had to be replaced by two singers to cover the same ground Alvestam covered himself.

I have all four full-length Scar Symmetry albums and will now share some brief thoughts about each one:

SYMMETRIC IN DESIGNThe band's debut album found them fully formed. This is not terribly surprising as main songwriter Jonas Kjellgren is a veteran of bands such as Dellamorte and Carnal Forge. The band had already discovered their sound, a poppy Gothenburg style, but they were not In Flames ripoffs at all. Alvestam's vocals lead the charge backed by Kjellgren's impressive playing.

PITCH BLACK PROGRESSThis was the first album I owned by Scar Symmetry, picking it up after hearing a song on Music Choice just prior to going out on a road trip. This one immediately made me a fan of the band. It's a little bit darker than most of their other material, with more emphasis on the death metal vocals. The songs are a little tighter and catchier still. This remains my favorite Scar Symmetry album.

HOLOGRAPHIC UNIVERSEThe first time I heard this, I did not care for it much, but it definitely grew on me. It's not quite as good as the previous album, but it has what I consider to be the band's best song on it, "Quantum Leaper".

DARK MATTER DIMENSIONSThis is the first album since Alvestam left. His successors do an admirable job of replacing him, but it's just not the same. It will be interesting to see where the band goes from here. They definitely have the songwriting abilities to keep things going for awhile.

Favorite New Bands of the 2000's Pt. 9: Lair of the Minotaur

How metal can a band's name be? "Lair of the Minotaur" is just about perfect. It's haunting and malevolent. I will admit, the name is what got me to look into the band. I didn't know much about them before picking up an album. I just knew that that name absolutely fucking ruled.

Then there's the music and lyrics. This band uses a lot of metal cliches in its music, but manages to not sound cheesy. They have albums called War Metal Battle Master and The Ultimate Destroyer, yet they don't sound cliche. Their lyrics are centered around mythical battles, beasts, and warfare.

Musically, the band comes off as a thundering monster. They play a mix of doom/sludge and thrash metal. The riffs are thick as molasses, but fast and skull-crushingly heavy. The vocals are sometimes shouted, and other times screamed. This band is relentless in its ferocity. It's just a great sound.

I own three albums by Lair of the Minotaur.

CANNIBAL MASSACREThis was actually the first album by the band that I picked up. Album is a bit of a misnomer though. This is actually a mini CD featuring only two songs: the Extended Skin Reaping Mix of the title track and "Horns of the Witch". The title track is long and does feature some meandering noise towards the end, but otherwise is doomy and gloomy, and heavier than fuck. The second track is just over a minute in length and speeds by like a rampaging minotaur should. I think.

THE ULTIMATE DESTROYERThis is the band's second full-length album. I don't yet have their first. But this album absolutely kicks ass. It's very fast, dirty, raw, and explosive. Even the few times the band slows things down, it's still thunderously heavy. There definitely appears to be a Greek monster theme going on with songs referencing the Gorgon and the Hydra. I like Greek mythology, so this is all good for me.

WAR METAL BATTLE MASTERMore of the same from the band on this album. Although, it sounds like their riffing has sharpened a little bit and the vocals seem a little more aggressive. This is the band's best album to date. The band also released its first music video off of this album for the title track. Featuring lots of blood, gore, and female nudity, it's definitely a crowd pleaser. This was the album that made me a big fan of the band.

The band also released a new album this year. I don't have it yet, but I will as soon as I find it. For now, you may see a review over at my esteemed law school colleague's blog at Full Metal Attorney:

http://fullmetalattorney.blogspot.com/2010/04/lair-of-minotaur-evil-power-2010.html

Favorite New Bands of the 2000's Pt. 8: Swallow the Sun

Today is a Swallow the Sun two-fer. The band was formed early in 2000 and plays melodic death/doom metal with an incredibly haunting atmosphere. The band features lengthy songs with beautiful sweeping melodies, heavy riffing, and deep guttural vocals. It is very slow and incredibly powerful and emotional music. These guys must be really depressed or something.

I own two albums from the band:

For a more complete discussion on The Morning Never Came, look below. This is simply a beautiful album. And I bought it not knowing anything about the band or its music.The band's third album Hope is even more melodic, without some of the heavier metal moments on it. It's still very much a death/doom album, particularly due to the singer's vocals, but it's missing a little something. Not that that makes it a bad album at all. In fact it is a very good album, just not as good as the band's debut. There are more clean vocals this time around. The track "Don't Fall Asleep (The Horror Pt. 2)" is the best track on the album and was one haunting video.The band has released two other albums and some EPs that I have not been able to find yet, but I am definitely on the lookout.

Favorite New Bands of the 2000's Pt. 7: Ahab

Funeral doom is a tough genre to get into. For one, it is extremely slow, much slower than traditional doom metal. The songs are not structured the same either. Funeral doom songs just lumber along at the same monolithic pace. The music is not very accessible at all.

That being said, Ahab is easily the most accessible funeral doom metal band. The music features slow synthesizer and guitar melodies, lumbering drums and bass, and deep, guttural vocals with the occasional chanting section. The songs are all very long, seldomly less than ten minutes. They build up a foreboding atmosphere and an impending sense of dread. This is atmospheric music. It should not be listened to in the car driving cross country or in a crowd of people. It is meant to be experienced, more than heard.

I own two albums by Ahab, which are their only two full length albums.

The Call of the Wretched Sea is a concept album about Herman Melville's Moby Dick, even featuring passages from the novel in the lyrics. I did a full review of this album earlier on this blog, so I will not go in depth here. Just click on the "ahab" label at the end of this post to find it. This is the band's better album so far as it is more raw and emotional than the following album.Ahab released The Divinity of Oceans last year. As mentioned, the band is not quite as raw on this album. The music is a little more accessible and the production is not quite as muddy so it's easier to hear what is happening in the music. It's no less depressing than their first album though. This album draws literary inspiration from Nathaniel Phillbrick's In the Heart of the Sea and Owen Chase's The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex.It's quite clear that Ahab has a thing for nautical themes and literature about whaling. We'll see if they can continue this lyrical theme on later albums. Ahab introduced me to the funeral doom metal genre. I have not checked out any further bands to this point, although I intend to do so.

Favorite New Bands of the 2000's Pt. 6: Skeletonwitch

I have fallen a bit behind in doing these. Initially, I intended to do one per week, but I missed a week last week, so here's a second one for this week.

Skeletonwitch is quite possibly my favorite new band of the decade. They started strong and they ended strong and were active enough to end up in me buying a couple of albums. Scar Symmetry is probably the band's only real competition for this title, but their latest album was abit of a disappointment.

Skeletonwitch is a band that somehow gets lumped in with the thrash revival and people refuse to check them out. That is just plain fucking crazy. Skeletonwitch plays a brand of metal that brings together influences from old school thrash and black metal. The band sounds like a mix of Sodom, Venom, Bathory, Exodus, Slayer, and Dark Angel. But they don't sound retro at all, in fact they sound very modern despite these older influences. Part of the reason people do not like the retro-thrash movement is due to the perception of the bands not bringing anything new to the table. Skeletonwitch blends their influences and plays in a modern fashion.

I own two albums from Skeletonwitch.

The first album I owned was Beyond the Permafrost. This album was my introduction to the band and I was very impressed with the riffing, vocals, and speed of the album. The guitar solos were also very impressive. The whole thing sounded raw and energetic. Still, it was a little uneven at times and it was clear the band was not done growing.

They hit paydirt on Breathing the Fire. Skeletonwitch tightened up their sound enormously on this album. The songs were fully realized and yet retained their energy and rawness. This is an incredible album and the band is still growing. I have a feeling the best is yet to come.

Favorite New Bands of 200's Pt. 5: The Black Dahlia Murder

It took quite awhile before I was willing to check out this band. I had heard of them, quite some time ago in fact. It was while I was still working at Target in the Assets Protection department. Target carried their Miasma album. Due to the band's name and the ambiguous cover shot, I had no idea what kind of music the band played, if it was even metal. Even after hearing the band was a metalcore band, it still took awhile to bite. I was pretty much over metalcore except for a few bands and did not feel it necessary to check out another one unless there was something special about them.

That's the thing though: The Black Dahlia Murder is NOT a metalcore band. Somehow they get lumped in with the scene because they came out about the same time, toured with a lot of metalcore bands, and had kind of a metalcore image. But again, The Black Dahlia Murder's music is NOT metalcore. Instead, the band plays a style very similar to Slaughter of the Soul by At the Gates.

I own the most recent two TBDM albums. I still have not brought myself to purchasing their earlier album.

Nocturnal was the first album that I picked up by the band. The reason this one caught my eye was due to the fantastic cover art which calls to mind classic albums by Emperor, Dark Funeral, and Lord Belial. I was blown away by the band's sound. It was great to hear a band so devoted to the true melodic death metal sound. The band even has some black metal influences, sounding like a fun mix of At the Gates and Dissection. The songs are exceptionally fast, with Travor Strnads blend of blackened shrieks and death-metal growling paving the way. This album sold me on the band.

Deflorate was a little disappointing only because it's pretty much exactly the same album as Nocturnal. I still enjoyed it quite a bit, but it just did not have the same feel as their prior album. No matter, this is still a great band.

Favorite New Bands of 2000's Pt. 4: Estuary

Forming in 2002 in the metal hotbed of Cincinnati, OH, Estuary is a powerful mix of melodic death metal and thrash metal. The band has released two full length albums and a demo and is currently signed to Ibex Moon Records.

The band is similar in sound to Apophis, death metal with some very clear melodies and guitar leads, except with a little more thrash metal influences. Even the vocals are somewhat similar, despite the fact that Estuary's vocalist Zdenka Prado, is a woman. As far as female death metal vocalists go, Prado is easily one of the best, delivering her lyrics in an unending guttural roar.

The guitar work is top-notch with swirling guitar leads and solos and great riffs running throughout. The band's sound is dark and murky, the way death metal should be.

The only album I own is The Craft of Contradiction. It is an excellent representation of this band's powerful sound. They have not released anything since this 2007 album, but I hope that will change soon.

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

Terrorizer's Albums of the Decade

Two metal magazines recently released their top albums of the decade lists. With somewhat different results. Terrorizer and Decibel are pretty much the two leading metal magazines now that Metal Maniacs folded last year, an event for which I am still extremely bitter. Terrorizer has been mentioned in this blog for being a tad more devoted to extreme forms of metal. This is evident in their choices for the magazine. I agree with the Terrorizer list significantly more than the Decibel list. I don't want to repost the entire list, or even much of it at all. I would like to look at the Top 5 though. So here's Terrorizer's Top 5:

1. Electric Wizard: Dopethrone: I enjoy some good drugged out doom metal as much as the next guy, although I myself have never been stoned. That being said, it's hard for me to accept this being the album of the decade. I don't know, I haven't heard the whole thing through. I enjoy the band quite a bit, they just don't consistently hold my interest enough to consider them an elite band.

2. Celtic Frost: Monotheist: This album is heavy as fuck and twice as scary. The reunion album from Celtic Frost took everyone by surprise. It wasn't about fast distorted riffs anymore. It was about creating an atmosphere. And that atmosphere was pants-shittingly terrifying. It's too bad the band broke up again.

3. Watain: Sworn to the Dark: Watain is being hailed as the next Dissection. I personally do not agree as Dissection was one-of-a-kind to me. However, if somewhat melodic, but still cold and dark black metal is your thing, Watain is as good as any of the other bands to come about this decade. Seriously, their stuff is great.

4. Converge: Jane Doe: What IS it about this album that makes everyone go nuts over it? Seriously, I tried listening to some tracks. It's boring modern hardcore with some metal influences delivered chaotically and at totally random times. No thanks.

5. Opeth: Blackwater Park: I still don't believe this is the band's best album, but it's a hell of a good release. The progressive elements had fully ripened into a major part of the band's music by this point and were played much more convincingly. Unfortunately, after this album they would start to dominate the music.

I own 32 albums from this list. Not too bad really.

Nonmetal bands present on this list: Converge, Clutch, Lightning Bolt, Whitehouse, Melt-Banana, Tool, Rammstein, Big Business, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Between the Buried and Me, Disfear, Angels of Light, Laibach, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Porcupine Tree

Buy the issue here: http://www.terrorizer.com/decadesrow

2000's Favorite Miscellaneous Metal Albums

Some albums are hard to define. Others are simply from genres that are not very large. Here's a list of some of my favorite miscellaneous albums.

Cynic: Traced in Air: Progressive metal band ditches most thrash and death influences in triumphant return after nearly two decades.

Down: III-Over the Under: Southern metal supergroup proves to be much more than the sum of their parts.

Eluveitie: Slania: Melodic death metal mixed with Celtic folk influences forming an amazing mix of music and one of my favorite albums from 2008.

Into Eternity: The Scattering of Ashes: Crazy mix of progressive, power, and melodic death metal with one of the greatest multi-voiced singers in metal.

Lair of the Minotaur: War Metal Battle Master: Unholy combination of doom and thrash and one of the greatest band names in recent years.

Mastodon: Leviathan: Difficult to categorize band on their finest album.

Opeth: Blackwater Park: Progressive extreme metal masterpiece from Swedish giants.

Orphaned Land: Mabool: Beautiful, epic progressive Middle Eastern folk metal centered around the story of the Great Flood.

Scar Symmetry: Pitch Black Progress: Power metal and melodic death metal thrown together with one of the best metal singers to come up in a long time.

Wintersun: Wintersun: Originally founded by a former member of Ensiferum and blending melodic death, black, progressive, and folk metal seemlessly.

2000's Favorite Power Metal Albums

Helloween: Gambling with the Devil: German power metal pioneers have their strongest release in years.

Hibria: Defying the Rules: Brazilian power/speed metal that is extremely fast and extremely catchy.

Kamelot: The Black Halo: Melodic metal masterpiece from rising American band with European style.

Lost Horizon: A Flame to the Ground Beneath: Swedish power metal band on their triumphant sophomore album.

Manticora: 8 Deadly Sins: Outstanding progressive power metal from Denmark.

Nightmare: Genetic Disorder: French power metal band with an emphasis on "power".

Outworld: Outworld: Surprisingly great power/progressive metal band with only one album.

Sonata Arctica: Silence: Extremely melodic and fast-paced power metal from Finland.

Symphony X: The Odyssey: Epic progressive power metal album centered around Homer's The Odyssey.

Twisted Tower Dire: Crest of the Martyrs: Proof that there are some truly great traditional metal bands still out there.

2000's Favorite Melodic Death Albums

Amon Amarth: The Crusher: Tough to pick just one album from this band, but if forced, this one wins.

Apophis: I am Your Blindness: Criminally underrated German death metal band with powerful melodies.

Arsis: United in Regret: Technical melodeath band from America proves to have stunning abilities for both technicality and catchiness.

Dark Tranquillity: Character: Melodeath masters on one of their most powerful albums.

In Flames: Clayman: The last great album by the Swedish melodeath powerhouse.

Insomnium: Above the Weeping World: Heart-wrenching melodic death with doom elements from Finland.

Kalmah: They Will Return: Finnish melodic death metal speedsters inject some elements of power metal a la their countrymen Children of Bodom.

Mors Principium Est: Liberation=Termination: Finnish band massively influenced by Gothenburg style and incorporating technoesque effects.

Omnium Gatherum: The Red Shift: Finnish band that is part of a new wave of melodic death.

Skyfire: Spectral: Swedish melodeath band that mixes in elements of power and progressive metal.

2000's Favorite Death Metal Albums

Behemoth: Zos Kia Cultus (Here and Beyond): Polish purveyors of darkness begin their death metal period after playing black metal for several albums.

Bolt Thrower: Those Once Loyal: One of the most consistent death metal bands on possibly their best album.

Deicide: The Stench of Redemption: The most evil band in the U.S. is reinvigorated on this album by the inclusion of Ralph Santolla on lead guitar.

Hacavitz: Katun: Mexican death metal band proves that it's not all sunshine south of the border.

Immolation: Shadows in the Light: Pioneering brutal death metal band still has it nearly 20 years later.

Nile: In Their Darkened Shrines: Everyone's favorite Egyptian-themed death metallers on arguably, their best and heaviest album.

Nox: Ixaxaar: Sick, brutal, and heavily Satanic death metal from Netherlands.

Septicflesh: Communion: Death metal with a Greek feel and some interesting instrumentation.

Thornafire: Exacerbated Gnostic Manifestation: Chilean band mixes the best of old school death and modern death metal.

Yyrkoon: Occult Medicine: French death metal band with a tribute album to Dr. Herbert West, Lovecraft's Re-Animator.

2000's Favorite Black Metal Albums

Averse Sefira: Tetragrammatical Astygmata: Texan black metallists prove America can do the style as well as anyone.

Dark Fortress: Eidolon: German melodic black metal band breaks through and puts earlier predecessors like Dimmu Borgir to shame.

Dawn of Azazel: The Law of the Strong: New Zealanders combine black, death, and thrash metal into an extremely toxic stew that explodes out of the speakers.

Destroyer 666: Defiance: The best album of 2009, no contest.

Goatwhore: Carving Out the Eyes of God: Toxic stew of black, death, thrash, and sludge metal.

Impaled Nazarene: All that You Fear: You know what you're getting with this band: lightning fast, chaotic punk-influenced black metal.

Impiety: Formidonis Nex Cultus: Pure hellish brutality from Singapore.

Melechesh: Emissaries: Black metal from Jerusalem that takes on Sumerian/Babylonian mythology with Middle Eastern folk influences.

Primordial: To the Nameless Dead: Heart-wrenching Celtic black metal from Ireland.

Rotting Christ: Theogonia: The band with one of the most blasphemous names imaginable is surprisingly melodic and extremely good.

2000's Favorite Doom Albums

Candlemass: Candlemass: Reformation of the band with its most popular singer, for one album before band members realized they still hated him.

Coffins: Buried Death: Japanese death/doom band sounds like a heavily medicated Celtic Frost.

Grand Magus: Iron Will: The best album from 2008 is a traditional doom metal album.

Heaven and Hell: The Devil You Know: The second Black Sabbath lineup reincarnated can still bring the doom.

High on Fire: Death is this Communion: Sludgy, dirty doom with thrash metal influences from a former member of Sleep.

Novembers Doom: The Novella Reservoir: Sullen, dreary doom metal from Chicago giants.

Reverend Bizarre: II-Crush the Insects: Trad doom throwbacks speed things up early then revert to agonizingly slow, long dirges.

Swallow the Sun: The Morning Never Came: Eerily beautiful but leaves the listener with a sense of dread and hopeless isolation.

Syrach: Days of Wrath: Norwegian doom metal that is catchy, haunting, and terrifying.

The Gates of Slumber: Conqueror: Great traditional doom metal that sounds like Sabbath and Candlemass in a blender.

2000's Favorite Thrash Albums

I have been somewhat busy trying to put together some lists of my favorite metal albums in various subgenres. Here is the first list: thrash metal. These are in alphabetical order, not any sort of hierarchy.

Atomizer: The Only Weapon of Choice-13 Odes to Power, Decimation, and Conquest: Australian war metal band on their catchiest, most memorable album.

Deceased...: As the Weird Travel On: Great traditional metal/thrash metal album by a band that not enough people know about.

Destroyer 666: Cold Steel...For an Iron Age: The best album of the decade, without a doubt.

Devastator: Nuclear Proliferation: Blackened thrash that steamrolls over the listener with ruthless efficiency.

Holy Moses: Agony of Death: The Queen of Thrash is back on the band's strongest album in years.

Hyades: And the Worst is Yet to Come: Relatively unknown Italian thrashers prove to be far better at retro thrash than the recent retro thrash scene in America.

Nocturnal Breed: Fields of Rot: Norwegian thrashers prove that there's more to their home country's metal scene than just black metal.

Nocturnal Fear: Code of Violence: American thrashers influenced by 1980's German thrash bands, a different type of retro thrash.

Razor of Occam: Homage to Martyrs: Side project of members of Destroyer 666 armed with brutal blackened thrash.

Victimizer: The Final Assault: Danish thrashers assault listeners with uncompromising, brutal metal.

MSN Top 100 Metal Albums of the Decade

There's something about the end of the year/decade that brings out the listmaker in people. I should know, I do it too. But whereas my taste in music is unimpeachable, other people put together horrible lists of bad music. Which brings us to MSN, and if there is any other source that has more expertise in metal than MSN, I don't wanna know about it. Or maybe I do, I dunno, whichever choice is funnier.

So, MSN put together this list and there are some pretty decent choices here, some weird choices, typical choices, and awful ones. I won't go through the whole list because there's 100 albums, but let's put them into nifty categories:

WEIRD CHOICES
-Annihilation Time
-Intronaut
-Spawn of Possession
-Megadeth: Endgame: This one is brand new. I don't think it's good enough to make this kind of list, so this is odd.
-Dragon Force
-Obscura
-Brain Drill
-The Sword

STANDARD CHOICES
-Slayer
-Gojira
-Pantera
-Isis
-Meshuggah
-Mastodon: Leviathan (the #1 album, no big surprise here)
-Metallica

GOOD CHOICES
-Wolf
-Bolt Thrower
-Prostitue Disfigurement
-Strapping Young Lad
-Confessor
-Behemoth
-Psycroptic
-Lair of the Minotaur
-The Gates of Slumber

BAD CHOICES
-Dir En Grey
-Blessed by a Broken Heart: Awful band blending metalcore and hair metal into one horrible mess.
-Sunn O)))
-Slipknot: duh
-Job for a Cowboy
-Rob Zombie: Educated Horses: This was the album that caused me to stop listening to Rob Zombie, also NFM.
-Rammstein
-Deftones (sigh, why is it that every metal writer loves this damn album?)

This is the best such list I have seen so far, other than mine. There's a lot of bands that have not appeared on these types of lists on this one. There are a few of the choices I can't stand such as Sunn O))), Deftones, and Isis, but it is made up for by the unusual choices. Not bad, still not as good as mine though.

Decade's Best Lists

Well since 2009 is almost over, a bunch of sites have been running their best albums of the decade lists. Earlier in the summer I ran one in conjunction with MetalSucks in which I disagreed vehemently with most of their picks, going so far as to question the metal-ness of most of their picks. That's because I'm an asshole and an elitist. So there. My #1 pick was the godly Destroyer 666: Cold Steel...For an Iron Age. So who can we make fun of today?

The Onion

Nothing says metal quite like The Onion. No sirree. For some reason The Onion started a metal blog last summer. It's actually not terrible, but kind of hard to stomach based on the rest of the content on the page. Their list wasn't ranked but here it is:

Agoraphobic Nosebleed: Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope
Amon Amarth: Twilight of the Thunder God
Anaal Nathrakh: The Codex Necro
Baroness: Blue Record
Blut Aus Nord: The Work Which Transforms God
Boris: Pink
Converge: Jane Doe
Deftones: White Pony
The Dillinger Escape Plan: Ire Works
Earthless: Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky
Electric Wizard: Dopethrone
Goatwhore: Carving Out the Eyes of God
Harvey Milk: Life...The Best Game in Town
High on Fire: Blessed Black Wings
Isis: Oceanic
The Mars Volta: Frances the Mute
Mastodon: Leviathan
Melechesh: Djinn
The Melvins: (A) Senile Animal
Meshuggah: Catch Thirty-Three
Opeth: Watershed
Orthrelm: OV
Pelican: The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw
Pig Destroyer: Phantom Limb
Queens of the Stone Age: Songs for the Deaf
Skeletonwitch: Breathing the Fire
Slayer: Christ Illusion
Sleep: Dopesmoker
The Sword: Age of Winters
System of a Down: Toxicity

Well, so there it is. I take it back, that's a pretty terrible list. There's a lot of hipsterish shit (Pelican, Isis), a whole lot of non-metal albums (Deftones, System of a Down, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Fucking Mars Fucking Volta?), mainstream metal bands that seemingly everyone names (Amon Amarth, Opeth, Slayer, Meshuggah, Mastodon), and then the surprises (Melechesh, Sleep, Skeletonwitch, High on Fire, Electric Wizard). So there you have it: a waste of space. On the internet no less. It's not easy to actually waste space on the internet.

Noisecreep

Noisecreep listed 10 albums. I'm not overly familiar with this particular blog, but I'll find something to bitch about anyway:

10. Nachtmystium: Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1
9. Mastodon: Crack the Skye
8. Between the Buried and Me: Colors
7. Lamb of God: As the Palaces Burn
6. Killswitch Engage: Alive or Just Breathing
5. Sleep: Dopesmoker
4. Isis: Oceanic
3. Opeth: Blackwater Park
2. Deftones: White Pony
1. Converge: Jane Doe

Ugh. Okay that one's even worse. Seriously? Converge? Deftones? What the fuck is it about the motherfucking Deftones that everyone likes? I owned the album once. Never understood why I bought it, hated it from the beginning and promptly got rid of it. But for some reason a bunch of metal writers are all over their nuts. It's disgusting. Everything else is typical for metal writers, no one has any originality.

Metallattorney

As you may recall, I did a top 21. Here was my list:

21. Opeth: Blackwater Park
20. Into Eternity: The Scattering of Ashes
19. Scar Symmetry: Pitch Black Progress
18. Behemoth: Demigod
17. Amorphis: Silent Waters
16. Grand Magus: Iron Will
15, Ahab: The Call of the Wretched Sea
14. Skeletonwitch: Beyond the Permafrost
13. Thornafire: Exacerbated Gnostic Manifestation
12. Melechesh: Emissaries
11. Wintersun: Wintersun
10. Naglfar: Pariah
9. Insomnium: Above the Weeping World
8. Kamelot: The Black Halo
7. Rotting Christ: Theogonia
6. Symphony X: The Odyssey
5. Behemoth: Zos Kia Cultus
4. Amon Amarth: The Crusher
3. Swallow the Sun: The Morning Never Came
2. Immolation: Shadows in the Light
1. Destroyer 666: Cold Steel...For an Iron Age

Of course, my lists are impeccable so no one can argue against them. Take that.