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

as we approach the top 20... to compare and contrast with Terrorizer top 20 albums of 2008

01. ENSLAVED - Vertebrae (Indie Recordings)
02. CYNIC - Traced In Air (Season Of Mist)
03. NACHTMYSTIUM - Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1 (Candlelight)
04. GOJIRA - The Way Of All Flesh (Listenable)
05. TORCHE - Meanderthal (Hydra Head)
06. MESHUGGAH - ObZen (Nuclear Blast)
07. OPETH - Watershed (Roadrunner)
08. METALLICA - Death Magnetic (Warner)
09. BLOODBATH - The Fathomless Mastery (Peaceville)
10. ESOTERIC - The Maniacal Vale (Season Of Mist)
11. EARTH - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull (Southern Lord)
12. AC/DC - Black Ice (Sony)
13. ASVA - What You Don't Know Is Frontier (Southern Lord)
14. HAIL OF BULLETS - ...Of Frost And War (Metal Blade)
15. SEPTICFLESH - Communion (Season Of Mist)
16. DARKTHRONE - Dark Thrones And Black Flags (Peaceville)
17. LEVIATHAN - Massive Conspiracy Against All Life (Moribund)
18. GRAND MAGUS - Iron Will (Rise Above)
19. HARVEY MILK - Life... The Best Game In Town (Hydra Head)
20. SATYRICON - The Age Of Nero (Roadrunner)

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Coffins - Buried Death (20 Buck Spin) 111 Points

I shall post no 21 in about 30 mins after i have a cuppa tea.

dj martian some of those albums are still to come. But not telling you who or what position any of them are in. Will not spoil the tension!

Not that surprised - I liked the Amon Amarth, but didn't get caught by it. I wouldn't have even heard it if it wasn't talked about so enthusiastically by some posters, as it is not my usual cup of tea.

Glad to see Ocean do so well.

-bunch of x-posts

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Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday (Temporary Residence) 118 Points (2 Number One Votes)

and now over to Glenn for some stats...

It was I who picked Hammers of Misfortune for #1. I've never heard anything by them prior to these albums, but they just fulfill this love I have for 70s rock bands with long songs with lots of great passages (I like to refer to them as Songs with Parts), that are like epic journeys. Songs by bands like Rush, Boston, Kansas, and Yes. But the weird thing is that I am not a big fan of any of those bands other than one or two songs each, and HoM doesn't really sound like any one of them in particular. Anyway, I surprised myself by voting for them. All year I figured I'd be telling everyone that Nachtmystium did the best metal album of the year. :)

Songs by bands like Rush, Boston, Kansas, and Yes. But the weird thing is that I am not a big fan of any of those bands other than one or two songs each

heh neither am I, but i dig the Hammers Of Misfortune album.

Here's the stats recap of 50-21 (Rank - Points - Total Votes - #1 Votes - Artist - Album):

50 - 48 - 3 - 0 - Racebannon - Acid or Blood
50 - 48 - 3 - 1 - Zebulon Pike - Intransience
48 - 50 - 4 - 0 - Blue Sabbath Black Cheer - Untitled
48 - 50 - 3 - 0 - Gnaw Their Tongues - An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood
47 - 52 - 5 - 0 - Bison B.C. - Quiet Earth
45 - 54 - 4 - 0 - Nadja - Desire In Uneasiness
45 - 54 - 4 - 0 - Withered - Folie Circulaire
43 - 55 - 4 - 0 - Metallica - Death Magnetic
43 - 55 - 6 - 0 - Unearthly Trance - Electrocution
42 - 59 - 4 - 1 - Blood Ceremony - Blood Ceremony
41 - 60 - 4 - 1 - Disfear - Live the Storm
40 - 61 - 4 - 0 - Marnie Stern - This Is It And I Am It And You Are It
39 - 62 - 5 - 0 - Darkspace - III
38 - 63 - 6 - 0 - Intronaut - Prehistoricisms
37 - 66 - 5 - 0 - Jex Thoth - Jex Thoth
36 - 68 - 6 - 0 - Genghis Tron - Board Up the House
35 - 70 - 5 - 0 - Witch - Paralyzed
34 - 71 - 3 - 1 - Hammers of Misfortune - Fields/Church of Broken Glass
33 - 72 - 6 - 0 - Ascend - Ample Fire Within
32 - 78 - 6 - 0 - Jesu - Why Are We Not Perfect
31 - 81 - 6 - 0 - Moonspell - Night Eternal
30 - 83 - 6 - 0 - The Gates of Slumber - Conqueror
28 - 88 - 7 - 0 - Earthless - Live at Roadburn
28 - 88 - 8 - 0 - UFOmammut - Idolum
26 - 89 - 6 - 0 - Moss - Sub Templum
26 - 89 - 5 - 0 - Wetnurse - Invisible City
25 - 98 - 5 - 1 - The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
24 - 100 - 6 - 0 - Ocean - Pantheon of the Lesser
23 - 109 - 8 - 0 - Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God
22 - 111 - 8 - 0 - Coffins - Buried Death
21 - 118 - 7 - 2 - Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday

And I'll start the top 20 countdown.........

Tomorrow (Later today UK time)

Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday (Important Records) 118 Points (2 Number One Votes)

I think this was on Temporary Residence, if I recall correctly.

The year's other Grails album (sadly not nominated) was on Important.

Ahh yes. You are right. Not only do I own it and all the other Grails albums, I voted for it too. It just said on the site i checked that it was on Important. Oh well, if john justen sees this maybe he will change it if he has the time.

fixed

And now we enter the top twenty..

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Sunn 0))) - Domkirke (Southern Lord} 123 Points

I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't heard Domkirke yet. Will remedy this today.

the top 20 has kicked off in fine style

Domkirke = great.
Must check that Moss album. The Masonic Temple-like cover looks promising.

I had to start this countdown the week P&J was announced eh?
CURSES

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Cynic - Traced in Air (Season of Mist) 126 Points

2 for 2 in the top 20 so far that I've still yet to hear.

Me too!

Not a Sunn fan, but I'll try to hear the Cynic.

The Sunn 0))) is terrific.

I liked Sunn live, but all of their albums have bored the piss out of me. What about this one will make me think otherwise?

there's not much you'll like about this one if you didn't like anything previously, i'd say. i'm a bit the reverse. love the records (particularly 'black one'), and was a little bit underwhelmed by the live show...

I think I don't have a good enough, or loud enough, soundsystem to play records like the Sunn catalog. Live, the volume made their music truly visceral; on record, I can't quite replicate that "gut feeling."

Just did an interview with Paul Masvidal of Cynic for next week's OC Weekly. Thoughtful guy!

A large % of what SunnO))) do is tightly tied in with the live performance and the 'spiritual' concept of the group. I.e. they started as essentially a covers band - an Earth tribute group - which was then gradually developed into a devotional gesture towards some of the key aspects of heavy metal itself, hence the robes and the mock stern nodding and all the palaaver.

So you don't often get the sense of this on record but on this one, the fact that it's live from Bergen Cathedral and they get to bust loose on the church organ and Atilla does some weird hybrid Gregorian chant/Yat Kha throat singing (along with the awesome packaging).

And at the end of the day what does it say about the liberality of Norwegian society.

"Hey, we've got Atilla Csihar on the phone. Him and Gregg and Steven want to play live in the cathedral."
"Atilla from Mayhem? That weird Satanist/nihilist/whateverthefuck group that burned all those churches down a few miles away?"
"The very same padre."
"Well, I haven't got a problem if you haven't. But tell him he can't have the 24th - we've got the Prurient and Christian Death double header that night."

I still think that after seeing them live (which gives the albums an extra resonance) you can't beat the Boris collab 'Altar' but that's probably because it's almost song based and a lot more conventional in some ways.

And as if by magik: SunnO))) have just announced live dates. I don't know how to put links in on here.

Just copy/paste the link and it'll automatically convert to HTML.

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Asva - What You Don't Know Is Frontier (Southern Records) 126 Points (1 Number One vote)

Terrific album, a real step up from their last excellent album, recommend this thoroughly to any fan of Sunn 0))) . This could easily have been my no1 album and wasn't far away from being so. Check this out if you haven't already. Especially the vinyl version which has terrific packaging --- pfunkboy

My Asva blurb: if you stand at Sunn O))) and face towards Altar, your ass is pointing towards Asva.

They're the butt of that joke.

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Leviathan - Massive Conspiracy Against All Life (Moribund Records)
128 Points

I haven't heard Leviathan but that sleeve art is most momentous.

the sleeve art alone makes this thread a must read. it wouldn't be nearly as interesting without the awesome cover art, that is.

the asva album is just glorious.

but I don't really associate what they do with what sunn o)))) do, really. there's a doomy element in there, certainly, but they have this vast, beautiful, elegant quality that's more in line with, say, eyvind kang or latter-day earth (which is a very different beast from the one that inspired sunn o)))'s crushing low-frequency abuse).

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Krallice - Krallice (Profound Lore) 137 Points

another gem...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I VOTED IN THE 2008 ILX ALBUMS & TRAX POLL AND I LIKED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ballots due TODAY)

last chance to get your votes in that poll. Please vote.

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Caïna - Temporary Antennae (Profound Lore) 140 Points

Good placing for Krallice! I don't recall much chat on rolling metal 08 (which I think I read most of even if I didn't post a great deal)

Anyone wish to help out with blurbs for the top 10 albums?

Good placing for Krallice! I don't recall much chat on rolling metal 08

Yeah, there was a good amount of Krallice talk scattered around.

There was? Well that's good too!

There was enough Krallice talk that I redownloaded the album after having given up on it the first time. But I didn't like it any better the second time, either. I just kept wanting it to sound more like Leviathan, and eventually I remembered I could spent the time listening to Leviathan more, instead.

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Melvins - Nude With Boots (Ipecac) 141 Points

A bit of a shock coming up at No 13. One of the (so i thought) front runners for no1 didn't do as well as expected. It's fans on the rolling metal thread failed to turn up I suppose.

But lets build some suspense :)

I have a feeling I know what it is, but guessing now might make me a meanderthal neanderthal.