KERRANG! Albums Of The Year 2003

http://www.metalbite.com/toprank.asp?year=2003

1. Opeth Damnation 2003
2. Dimmu Borgir Death Cult Armageddon 2003
3. Soilwork Figure Number Five 2003
4. Zyklon Aeon 2003
5. Aborted Goremageddon 2003
6. Yattering Genocide 2003
7. Katatonia Viva Emptiness 2003
8. Devin Townsend Band, The Accelerated Evolution 2003
9. Strapping Young Lad SYL 2003
10. Stratovarius Elements Pt.1 2003
11. Astriaal Renascent Misanthropy 2003
12. Provenance, The Still At Arms Length 2003
13. Old Man's Child In Defiance Of Existence 2003
14. Darkthrone Hate Them 2003
15. Edge Of Sanity Crimson II 2003
16. Defaced, The Karma In Black 2003
17. Nightrage Sweet Vengeance 2003
18. Children Of Bodom Hate Crew Deathroll 2003
19. Andromeda II=I 2003
20. Haunted, The One Kill Wonder 2003
21. Naglfar Sheol 2003
22. Dissection Live Legacy 2003
23. Enslaved Below The Lights 2003
24. Arkhon Infaustus Filth Catalyst 2003
25. Marduk World Funeral 2003
26. Evergrey Recreation Day 2003
27. Kamelot Epica 2003
28. Anaal Nathrakh When Fire Rains Down From The Sky, Mankind Will Reap As It Has Sown 2003
29. Nevermore Enemies Of Reality 2003
30. Septic Flesh Sumerian Daemons 2003
31. Masterplan Masterplan 2003
32. Cradle Of Filth Damnation And A Day 2003
33. Arch Enemy Anthems Of Rebellion 2003
34. Gathering, The Souvenirs 2003
35. Kovenant, The SETI 2003
36. Metallica St. Anger 2003

to Cave In - Jupiter [released in 2000] as this is one of the finest rock albums this decade, an astonishing production and atmospheric rock sonics.

the new one didn't work: shorter songs, production was too structured radio rock n roll, trying for the Foo Fighters market.

Cave In have stated the forthcoming album will be more harder and experimental and less songs structured.

Nick, surely Bell X1 was the worst you heard?

Frantically stuffing their heads up their own asses in an attempt to get "inspired" to write the next record?

The British music magazines are going the same way as it's political parties, they're all converging in the centre. It's horrible.

And to suggest that the Joke's album is in some way inferior to the Alakaline Trio, fuckin' Rancid and the absolutely devoid-o'-merit Distillers makes me want to choke up a pitcher's worth of bile and mail it to the editors in question.

Does anyone really think that Metallica or Korn deseve to be in that rundown? If you want something that actually reflects what's been *great* in metal this year, wait for Terrorizer's next month (I hope - I don't have anything do do with that mag, you understand).

If it had been anyone but them it would have been much better rated.

It's pathetic, around their 5th album they were in there every week, pages and pages of it and even though I was a fan I got sick of it.

Now their target audience has shifted...

Andy Gill has done his best to ruin every album I've ever heard where he's been at the controls.

Metallica should be in there. The album is very, very good. Almost as good a 'comeback' as Killing Joke, maybe better.

Um, I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one (some of the best *riffs* of the year I'll grant you, but songs? Hmm...)

what, like NME?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

what exactly is so indie-rock about the list? akercocke's in there for christ's sake!! i'd suggest, in all seriousness, it has more to do with bands defined as 'indie-rock' becoming more 'rock' than a move on the magazine's part. and also that every band in that list belongs, without question, in a weekly rock/metal magazine.

PLUS Kerrang's editor is a Post-Hardcore fan rather than Metal.

i'll grant you those bands don't instantly scream 'Kerrang!' - they're in the list because the majority of the office and freelancers love those records, which is surely the best reason to have them in a top 50. Kerrang has also covered all those artists in depth with reviews, features, etc, all year.

However one general observation - End of Year Issues in all Magazines - are not what they were like in the 80s and early 90s.

There would be far more analysis/ overviews/ opinions of trends/ pros and cons etc.

Instead with NME/ Kerrang you have useless "fun" articles with pictures of bands in Santa hats etc.

and in boring oldies mags like Mojo and Uncut - you just get albums/ singles lists and nothing else.

http://www.rocklist.net/kerrang.html

You're high.

and in boring oldies mags like Mojo and Uncut - you just get albums/ singles lists and nothing else.

a lot of that old-skool analysis can be found in the Kerrang! Yearbook. i know what you mean, though - i remember when the xmas MMs and NMEs would last forever... I particularly loved MM's month-by-month analyses, with the news stories retold and the phenomena explored and excerpts from pertinent reviews each month.

dj martian - has anybody put the locust or racebannon in their end of year lists? : - (

I would be surprised if they haven't, Doomie, but... Well, I hated the Locust album, and the Racebannon record isn't nearly as good as the Rapider Than Horsepower, but I would've thought peeps like Catherine Yates or David Macnamee would've stuck one or other in there. it is a shame that its only top 10s and not top 20s this year...

i don't have anything against those albums on kerrang's list. it's just when i think of kerrang i think of iron maiden not mark lanegan. my idea of the magazine is obviously hopelessly outdated. wait, i lied. The Darkness! number one album of the year in the u.k.'s most venerable metal tabloid? ick. uck. that's just a fucking joke and a half.

eh, whatever. so you're complaining that we cover Mark Lanegan AND The Darkness? all I can say is, its no conspiracy. if you were to scrawl a venn diagram that took in every writer's favourite bands, the darkness would honestly and truthfully appear in most of them. people at Kerrang! - myself included - just love that record, and feel no need to apologise for doing so.

Even three or four years ago NME did good, in-depth roundups of the year in music and that - there was one where John Mulvey and Steve Sutherland took sides ("it's all great" v "it's all shit") which was quality reading even if I didn't agree with either of them that much. It's *really* disappointing this year. Maybe everyone's just decided to ignore the calendar.

What are Rapider Than Horsepower like Stevie?

michael anderson's side-project, released a two-album concept thingummy, the first one, last year's Stage Fright Stage Fright, is the keeper (secretly canadian) - a mix of early pixies/danielson familles off kilter weirdness, blood brothers splurge, and a flavour of afrobeat rhythmic fluidity that recalls Remain In Light-era Talking Heads.

stevie, why does phil alexander no longer appear on radio 1 rockshow. is it because he is too busy doing mojo and/ or kerrang have set up their own radio station - so clash in interests or something else?

I honestly don't know, though running Mojo and overseeing Kerrang! is a pretty full plate; i remember a friend working at the bbc said that she forsaw a point when both Emap and Auntie Beeb would be in direct competition, but i appear on BBC Radio 6 pretty often and no one seems to mind me namechecking Mojo or Kerrang! when i'm on there... though i'm just a freelancer and Phil is a big-time Emap type.

Stevie, it's cool. i was under the wrong impression that kerrang was still primarily metal mag. it's my fault for not keeping up. i didn't realize that it was more of a general interest zine now. and like i said, i have no problem with the list. it's not any more boring than any other list out there. i just hate that darkness album. but hey, different strokes, right?

definitely! and on that note, has anyone actually heard the Different Darkness EP? and can someone please inform them that the pun doesn't work with this band?

That Rapider Than Horsepower thing sounds good. If those comparisons are accurate Scott, I'd love to see how a line was traced from Racebannon to *that* (if at all)...

Because metal fans stay loyal even when their band starts to sound like The Cranberries meets Portishead? It making the list regardless of not being metal in any shape or form is hardly a surprise though, I can't think of any The Gathering album since "Almost A Dance" that did NOT make the major rock/metal mags' top 10 lists. (note: i really liked "Souvenirs"!).

well, yeah, i guess. would the same sort of thing have happened 10 or 15 years ago? Or am I selling metal fans of the past short? Or maybe metal bands are just better now at changing their sound organically, whereas in the past it might just have been seen as a dilution or a ploy of some sort(cuz sometimes it was a dilution or a ploy of some sort). I think people are more willing to grow along with the bands that they like, whereas in the past they might have been more dismissive(You know,"bah, pop shit!") I could be wrong. And there is the distinct possibility that when i say "metal fans" i really mean "me".

Hmm not a really coherent argument, but I'm in a hurry...