ILX METAL ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2008 RESULTS (NOW COUNTING DOWN THE TOP TEN, BTW)

It is a rather great album though that I would recommend you. But you will have to wait a few more mins to see what it is/

I'll post it sooner though if someone tells me why people like Death Magnetic and Chinese Democracy.

'cause they got tons of press?

i think i know what's coming up, btw. thank ya, whiney.

I'd hope people don't like albums just because they get tons of press.

I think people like them because, despite how not "great" they are, there are enough songs that flash back to each band's former greatness. I like the Metallica way, way better than GnR, but I can see the appeal of both.

well, it just makes it that much harder to avoid them (assuming you're at all interested in the first place, of course).

xp

right-o.

You're getting impatient!

8
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61JnfCoUtRL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
5ive - Hesperus (Hydra Head) 179 Points

^^^ What an unfortunate name for a band.

huh. nice title.

xp

hah

http://www.stargate.no/main/images/5ive-album.jpg

curses.

http://www.stargate.no/main/images/5ive-album.jpg

Hilarious...

Just for that I will delay posting no 7

i have to confess, most of the voting in this poll is completely bizarre to me. i like that 5ive album but wow that's a high rating.

Well, I don't know who all voted. I know I didn't, though. (Not out of disrespect for the effort or anything, I just forgot until it was too late.)

I think maybe my poll about them last year raised their profile enough for people to check them out.
ILX does have a spacerock division though, but it's not like people only voted 5ive on its own or just with other spacerock type stuff. It obviously must have got votes across the board to place so high.
Glenn can tell you how many votes it got along with other stats and the P&J stuff mentioned earlier.

5ive (12 votes, no #1s) is the highest-ranking album in this poll that didn't even get mentined in P&J.

Shame on Pazz & Jop!

i'm listening to them now, actually. great stuff! no vocals?

more

You should check out their other albums.

check out this dude's review on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hesperus-5ive/dp/B0011F18CW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1232731539&sr=8-1

Some more shock high placings to come

and the no7 album was my no1 album.

7
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/9/5/0/195075.jpg
Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale (Season of Mist) 183 Points (2 Number One Votes)

What an album! a double cd of the best crushing psychedelic doom/death you are ever likely to hear. Always a favourite band of mine but they REALLY raised the barrier on this. Not only their best album, but album of the year for me. A high point for UK Doom/Metal and quite possibly an album people will be discovering and being blown away by for years to come. If you need to hear one track to be convinced by, check out Circle.
Now all we need is the 10LP box set of their entire output as has been promised for a few years now. ILM, check out Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale NOW! ---- pfunkboy

You suck, gr80

Hi Grady!

Esoteric got 10 votes from us, but only 1 in P&J. From this amusingly varied ballot: http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/critics/2008/685977

Anyone else got anything to say about the Esoteric album?
x-post

I'm glad someone else knew about it. A criminally underrated band. It's a shame Kerrang ignores some great bands on it's own doorstep.

Estoeric was another one I downloaded twice, thinking I'd missed something the first time because people kept raving about it. Nope, still did nothing for me. It's not a bad exercise, though. I think I did that with 6 bands this year, and although didn't warm to Esoteric, Krallice or Origin, the second time was what I needed for Evoken and Wetnurse and Septicflesh. Yay, both directly and indirectly, for Rolling Metal!

I like their first two double-disc sets, but have never made it all the way through anything they've done since. I think it's me, though - they haven't changed much over the years, just gotten better at their basic sound, but I no longer have the time or patience for epic doom.

i like the psyche/gloom aspect of this ("Circle") a lot; not too sure about the gargling at death's doorstep bit just yet, tho.

I like that esoteric album but it hasn't quite grabbed me yet. I need to give it some more time.

right now metamorphogenesis is still my fave. hearing that and corrupted's llenandose a couple years ago had a pretty big impact on my musical taste... maybe for the worse. ;-)

and maybe they haven't changed all that much over the years... but there aren't really any other bands I know that hit that same psych/doom sweet spot, so I'm somewhat grateful for that. the best of their catalog also is the best of that style, imo.

Esoteric was another one I downloaded twice, thinking I'd missed something the first time because people kept raving about it. Nope, still did nothing for me. It's not a bad exercise, though. I think I did that with 6 bands this year, and although didn't warm to Esoteric, Krallice or Origin, the second time was what I needed for Evoken and Wetnurse and Septicflesh. Yay, both directly and indirectly, for Rolling Metal!

It could just hit you one day in the future. That's happened to me many times over the years, not getting it initially then loads of plays later, something just clicks.

i like the psyche/gloom aspect of this ("Circle") a lot; not too sure about the gargling at death's doorstep bit just yet, tho.

I think vocals do put a lot of people off metal. But the growling stuff you do get used to if it suits the music.

Bands like Khanate would have been silly with clean vocals. It just wouldn't work. I do tend to hate most cookie monster vocals in death metal though. It's not a genre I could ever get into really.

I no longer have the time or patience for epic doom.

Same here. Esoteric's fine, but nothing I'd ever want to revisit.

6
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/8/8/3/188393.jpg
Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1 (Century Media) 203 Points (1 Number One Vote)

11 voters here, 11 in P&J. I don't have anything else to say about this one.

It's great.

11 ilxors voted for it, some must have something to say about it!

Apart from it's an awesome piece of psychedelic influenced black metal.

Question: how well did the Dragonforce album do on metal magazines 2008 end of year lists?

This is the one I dutifully listened to four or five times and . . meh. Is this it?

Nachtmystium or Dragonforce?

The Nachtmystium left me cold as well.

Well I have to say I really love the Nachtmystium, music is great, and unusually for a black metal band, I love the vocals. I dig it.

Yep, Nachtmystium. I know they're the legends of USBM and all, and it's not a bad album, as such, but it didn't seem near as adventurous as it was written up to be.

Actually, it was the hearty spamalot vocals that kind of killed it for me.

the hearty spamalot vocals

Amazing. I might have to rip this off.

Ned Raggett's Spam-a-lot Pi

"We're knights of the round circle..."