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

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..."

"the knights who say Pi"

Anyway a clue for album no 5?

It's NOT Dragonforce OR Guns N Roses it's....

http://www.fraterslibertas.com/Images/Separated/pythonits.jpg

Bonnie Prince Billy wasn't nominated

Sorry, the Python references and the "it's..." made me think of that.

yeah I know

5
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/8/9/5/189598.jpg
Opeth – Watershed (Roadrunner) 212 Points (1 Number One Album)

Interesting - lots of people (me included) liked it but only one person loved it.

how many voted for it?

I continue to be of the opinion that Opeth just keeps getting better. The current incarnation of the band is really starting to gel, the keyboards playing a bigger role, Axenrot proving the naysayers wrong, and Akerfeldt's singing voice stronger than ever. Although I will admit that "Porcelain Heart" is the most ordinary Opeth song since the Deliverance album...

Opeth: 13 voters here, 9 in P&J. None of those from me.

seems strange that it didn't do better P&J wise. did pitchfork diss it or something?

dis, even.

It got mild praise from P-Fork, a polite 7.5.

Corny Pop Fuxors clearly didn't vote for it as their token metal album?

I think Watershed is a very slight step back from the heights of Ghost Reveries. It just doesn't feel quite as thrilling, despite treading very much in similar waters. Still a fantastic album though.

A band I just never got into. Best place to start?

I only got into them around the release of Ghost Reveries, then started working backwards through the catalog. I'd recommend starting with Damnation and Deliverance, two albums that really show off the bands talents and hint at the directions they'd head with the later albums. That's just me, I'll let the more long-time Opeth fans toss in their two cents.

Blackwater Park, Still Life, and My Arms, Your Hearse are good starting-off points, but you can't go wrong with any of their albums, really. Damnation is particularly great if you prefer the clean singing only.

I think Watershed was my number one album, but I don't remember. I agree that it's slightly distancing, but man, what a record. I think what did it for me is that it sounds like, for lack of a better word, "Art" to me, but it's something I can actually listen to as opposed to appreciate (unlike Philip Glass or something).

>I think Watershed is a very slight step back from the heights of Ghost Reveries. It just doesn't feel quite as thrilling, despite treading very much in similar waters.

I couldn't disagree more. I think Watershed is not only a huge improvement over Ghost Reveries (which I thought was basically a culmination of the sound they'd pursued on Blackwater Park and Deliverance, and kind of a place-holder at the same time), but it's also a major left turn - acoustic stuff, female duet vocals, jazz-funk breakdowns...I love this album. I think it's Opeth's best record, and exactly the record they needed to make in 2008. And I'm not just saying all that because Roadrunner flew me to Sweden to hear it, I swear.

As I said in my review: "After rocking out with the crushingly heavy Deep Purple-meets-death prog of Ghost Reveries, they've gone with what can only be described as a natural progression in a totally unexpected direction."

hmmm

Anyone want to know what no4 is?

give us a clue

http://tv.cream.org/images2/gaclue1.jpg

I think I have worked out the top 4, but will be offline for the rest of the night. So I will guess the order is B, T, E and HM.

And there you go. I guess I'm just holding Ghost Reveries in high regard because it was my entry point and the Opeth album I've lived with the longest.

harvey milk? earth? torche? bloodbath?

Bragonforce?

Buns N Roses?

Am I the only one that voted for Dragonforce?