Metal Hammer's Critics Choice 2008

[Shadowmancer]

Im reading the January issue of Metal Hammer, great magazine that is worth buying or trying to find as the case may be, free CD is always great bonus. But the Critics Choice for 2008 is in this issue. It is interesting to say the least and I can say that by the end of 2009 I will probably have listened to every single album in the list. Here is the top 20 of the 50 named.

1. Metallica - Death Magnetic
2. Opeth - Watershed
3. AC/DC - Black Ice
4. Testament - The Formation of Damnation
5. Gojira - The Way of all Flesh
6. Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God
7. Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone
8. Meshuggah - Obzen
9. Grand Magus - Iron Will
10. Children of Bodom - Blooddrunk
11. Trivium - Shogun
12. Cancer Bats - Hail Destroyer
13. Cavelera Conspiracy - Inflikted
14. Ihsahn - Angl
15. Satyricon - The Age of Nero
16. Black Stone Cherry - Folklore and Superstition
17. Airbourne - Runnin' Wild
18. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
19. The Sword - Gods of the Earth
20. Motorhead - Motorizer

with that list of twenty I have heard 7, I still need to listen to Opeths new one as well as Gogira's since I like both of their older stuff. AC/DC I just keep fogetting about because I have been busy.

As for the number one it is pretty hard to argue against Death Magnetic being the best Metal album of the year, id probably be a better judge of that if I have listened to the rest of the top 5, all of which are very high up on my list of things to listen to.

As for 6 - 20. Amon Amarth produced a brilliant album with Twilight of the Thunder God, it has that bombastic attitude that is needed for the Metal that they have come close to perfecting in my eyes. Slipknot's All Hope is Gone is probably the best they have produced as well. CoB came out with a decent album in Blooddrunk I do need to listen to more CoB to give me a greater appreciation of theit work. Trivium i have never sat down and purposely listened to Shogun and taken it all in, Ive usually put it on when I was just about to go to sleep and I fell asleep because I was tired by the middle of the first song. Both Black Stone Cherry and Motorheads albums were pretty damned good as well.

As for the entire 50 I have listened to about 11 or 12. There is one or two albums that I am surprised didn't make the list even the 50, that is Bullet for My Valentine with Scream, Aim, Fire, which I enjoyed a lot despite Matts voice being slightly fucked during the recording of the album. The other I am surprised at despite not having heard it but seen the huge number of positive reviews for it and that is Black Tide with Light From Above. Which I saw once in the breakdown of who voted for what. There is one other name that is sort of surprising in that they are not there yet not really too surprising since it isn't that great of an album and that is Guns 'N' Roses with Chinese Democracy.

Anyway what do you guys think of this years Metal Hammer Critics choice for 2008?

 

[Dragonslayer]

Hm due to my personal taste in Metal, I'd have an entirely different Top 20 list lol.

Anyway, I personally disagree strongly with Death Magnetic. First off, because the production is crap. Yeah, so who needs a limiter? But that really doesn't matter too much for me. The bigger issue I have is with the songs themselves. Now they aren't exactly "bad"... problem I have with them is that they just don't do anything for me. I can listen to any song on that album, go like "um... ok", and it's gone the next second. Nothing memorable, nothing that makes me want to listen to it again. That's why I couldn't possibly put it on Number 1. Plus, "Unforgiven III" is just a joke. What a nightmare of a song.

But I understand that the critics somehow also seem to enjoy what's popular these days... Amon Amarth as an example. Not a bad band, but they've released the third album in a row that sounds exactly the same. Every AA song is based on the exact same principles, musically. Sure, they have some nice harmonies in the choruses (though I'd prefer those with "real" singing instead of death growls, but well, that's just me lol), but guitar-wise, they handle every song in the same manner. Plus, the production sounds a bit soft for me, compared to other stuff (especially in the death metal department) - especially the drums aren't really that hard-hitting. But as you rightly point out - it has a very bombastic attitude, and I like that about AA, even if I really could do without the growl vocals hehe.

In terms of overall sound, I believe I've seldom heard anything better than Bullet For My Valentine. I don't enjoy their stuff too much (again mostly because of the vocals, I'm not too much into growls/screaming as you can tell), but sound-wise, this album is perfect. This sounds like Metal has to sound, period.

Most of the other albums on this list I haven't listened to, mostly because they are not exactly my type of genre. I did really enjoy Airbourne's "Running Wild" though - also saw the band live twice this year (at Wacken and then again in December when they visited Vienna) - very awesome live band, highly recommendable! They're really AC/DC on speed lol. So if you like AC/DC, go check out Airbourne. Same country, same kind of music, a lot more energy and drive right now of course.

I guess my number 1 album for 2008 would have to be Ayreon's "01011001". Again a very atmospheric sci-fi themed Rock Opera by "Mr Prog" himself, Arjen Lucassen... this guy is a genius, and the people he can recruit for his projects is really the who is who in Rock & Metal today. On this album, he had (among others) Jorn Lande, Daniel Gildenlöw (Pain of Salvation), Stevie Lee (Gotthard), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) and many others, and on some of his older albums he has guys like Russell Allen and even Bruce Dickinson singing... so if you have any liking whatsoever for Prog Rock, you HAVE to get this album. Of course you basically need to listen to it in one go, but if you need some "samples", check out "Age Of Shadows", the brilliant "Beneath The Waves" or "The Sixth Extinction"... simply amazing stuff.

As far as more "regular" bands are concerned, I guess my favorite album of 2008 would have to be ALMAH's second album "Fragile Equality". The band is actually a side project of Angra singer Edu Falaschi (and plays much the same style as (older) Angra), but this album has a terrific sound, very powerful, plus really consistently good songs with hardly any "filler" moments... so this album would have to be my pick for 2nd place.

However, it would have to be tied with Austria's own SERENITY, a band from the Tyrol, who released their second album "Fallen Sanctuary" this year. I enjoyed that one a lot too, sounds very much like KAMELOT songwriting-wise... so if you like those guys, check out Serenity heh. And I guess I have to mention another Rock Opera... Tobias Sammet's AVANTASIA, who released their third album this year... also with guest singers like Jorn Lande, Andre Matos, Roy Khan and even Alice Cooper... but it wasn't quite as good as their first two albums unfortunately, so it can't really make my top 3 list this year. But still a nice album - and they were AWESOME live at Wacken; I never thought I'd see the day when Avantasia would perform live - thank goodness I was there, hehe.

But as said - as far as most of the top albums on the list of Metal Hammer are concerned - most are really not my type of genre. I'm more into the "softer" metal stuff, hehe. But I'd probably listen to Children of Bodom... also saw them live this year at Wacken, they were pretty good... but then again, Alexi Laiho is just sick on the guitar. And when they played a cover of Rhianna's "Umbrella", I almost wet myself because I was laughing so hard hehe.