Best ov Metal 2009

Not saying much other people haven't, but

YOB
Sunn 0)))
Baroness
Big Business
Bergraven
Isis
Eagle Twin
Mastodon
Bergraven
Xasthur
Khanate

my year-end list has only 3 metal albums on it. they are irritate, ten stabs of demented violence; blut aus nord, memoria vetusta II dialogue w/the stars; and cattle decaptiation, the harvest floor. love all three, feel like irritate is the class of the field but I have the scott problem - the metal sound I'm feeling most right now is an old sound. irritate has that. man I love that record to pieces.

Check out the Crucifist album, Demon-Haunted World, on Profound Lore, John. I think you might like it.

Peste Noire is the only one this year that I already know will be in my top 5. Drudkh was also very good but so overfamiliar. Absu, Asphyx and Anaal Nathrakh also solid but nowhere near career best. Quite liked Austere and Skagos, these could end up there. New Arckanum, I have to let that sink in too. Archgoat delivered too. On the whole, established bands dissappointed more than ever & I haven't really found any new blood that really impressed me this year yet.

the Funeral Mist is pretty easily my favorite metal album of the year this year. wasn't Blut Aus Nord technically 2008? That's the only thing that competes with Funeral Mist for me.

In totally fluid and not-closely-calibrated order of preference (and sorry if not all of these are truly metal enough for everybody; I actually left a few more marginal ones out, so there):

Sigh – Imaginary Soundscape (The End reissue)
Dirty Little Rabbits – Simon (The End EP)
Angus Khan – Black Leather Soul (Nickel and Dime)
Diagonal – Diagonal (Rise Above)
Thin Lizzy – Still Dangerous: Live At The Tower Theatre Philadelphia 1977 (VH1 Classic reissue)
White Wizzard – High Speed GTO (Earache EP)
Meercaz – Meercaz (Gulcher)
Sinner – Crash And Burn (Candlelight USA)
Anvil – This Is Thirteen (VH1 Classic)
Status Quo – In Search Of The Fourth Chord (Eagle)
(Various) – Heavy Metal Killers (Earache)
Steadlür – Everything Is Nothing (Roadrunner)
Elder – Elder (Meteor City ’08)
Firebird -- Grand Union (Rise Above)
The Last Vegas – Whatever Gets You Off (Eleven Seven)
Edguy – Tinnitus Sanctus (Nuclear Blast)
Cauldron – Chained To The Nite (Earache)
UFO – The Visitor (SPV)
The Pinx – Look What You Made Me Do (The Pinx)
The Answer – Everyday Demons (The End)
Saxon – Into The Labyrinth (SPV)
Dead Man – Euphoria (Crusher)
Church Of Misery – Houses Of The Unholy (Rise Above)
Fires Of Rome – You Kingdom You (The Hours)
Cross Stitched Eyes – Coranach (Alternative Tentacles EP)
Ian Gillan – One Eye To Morocco (Eagle Rock)
Cheap Trick – The Latest (cheaptrick.com)

i really need to hear this blut aus nord

Okay guys, I know the movie was really compelling and all but I just do not hear anything special in that Anvil record.

btw Siegbran I don't know if a retro sound is not your thing (couldn't blame you if so, I have no patience for neo-thrash) but that Irritate album on Bestial Burst is so great. Very VERY ancient death metal sound, atmosphere comparable to the mighty Autopsy. Not in that league of course but still really great.

which Peste Noire are you talking about btw? I got one that never quite sank in, was a huge stan of the Lorraine Rehearsal album

man i read the most ridic peste noire interview. maybe it was just the translation, but it kinda put me off buying their 'La Sanie des siècles - Panégyrique de la dégénérescence' rekkerd. which i thought was good! but that dude FAMINE kinda comes off like a racist meathead imo. not the kinda thing i wanna support, even if the product is good.

Insect Warfare (if reissues count) and L'acephale absolutely need to be in mine

I had forgotten how much I liked the Millions album earlier this year. One of the better metal-hardcore crossovers of 09.

And that Peste Noire album is cool.

Perhaps they've put all this behind them, but you might want to have a look at some of the early Peste Noir demos on Metal Archives

We're all aware.

this thread needs more ABSU.

also really enjoyed the Warbringer lp; think they're probably my favourite of the current thrash
revivalists

blut aus nord is definitely my #1. love it. my most listened-to 2009 record for sure. and I was never even a huge fan of the earlier records!

out of curiosity, just checked my top plays for the year on last.fm. like I was thinking, not much metal:
http://www.last.fm/user/mcgarnickle/charts?rangetype=year&subtype=artists

guess I'm a poser.

liked yob and baroness a bunch too. but I need to spend more time with those. and the gates of slumber. (first listen right now. rules!)

...but that Irritate album on Bestial Burst is so great. Very VERY ancient death metal sound, atmosphere comparable to the mighty Autopsy. Not in that league of course but still really great.

you like coffins, j0hn? kind of remind me of a band that just plays the slow parts in autopsy songs. really nasty production too. (in the best way, again, like autopsy.)

I'm gonna check out this irritate album.

need to listen to the new absu album some more. listened to it twice and promptly filed it away.

still, tara is one of my all-time fave metal albums to put on while driving!

PILLARS
OF MER-CY

Lazarus - The Onslaught was originally available in 2007 via CD Baby. Good old school thrash along the lines of 3 Inches Of Blood. Looks like they finally found a label, and changed their name to Lazarus A.D. Does anyone know if it's any different than the original?

yeah I do like Coffins. sometimes when I'm listening I love Coffins. but they never quite stick to my ribs, you know - I mean, this is highly subjective, but they seem a little gimmicky with their bringin-it-back styles. doing an older/we've-moved-past-that style and having it come off convincing is a tricky job I think.

hah, not sure I follow. is this a "coffins are more conceptual but irritate are just playing what they wanna play" kinda thing?

anyway, the other side of blasphemy always rings tr00 for me. but I feel ya on the "sticking to your ribs" thing re: buried death. I like it but it never clicked like blasphemy did.

I love Coffins

Here is my tentative list, more or less in order:

Baroness - Blue Record
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
God Forbid - Earthsblood
Behemoth - Evangelion
Hacride - Lazarus
Kylesa - Static Tensions
Ross the Boss - New Metal Leader
Kreator - Hordes of Chaos
Novembers Doom -Into Night's Requiem Infernal
Slough Feg - Ape Uprising
Clutch - Strange Cousins from the West
The Gates of Slumber - Hymns of Blood and Thunder
Cable - The Failed Convict
Goatwhore - Carving out the Eyes of God
Iron Age - the Sleeping Eye
Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
Eluveitie - Evocation I - The Arcane Dominion
Cauldron – Chained To The Nite
Animals As Leaders - Animals As Leaders
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster - III

Since the aforementioned foldage of Metal Edge, my review sources have dried the eff up. So so far for me it's a small but powerful list that many of you will find corny as fucc:
Spinal Tap, Back From the Dead
Mastodon, Crack the Skye
OTEP, Smash the Control Machine
Saxon, Into the Labyrinth
Boris Salvodelli & Elliott Sharp, Protoplasmic
Speed Caravan, Kalashnik Love
Sonic Youth, The Eternal (wait no maybe not)
Radio Moscow, Brain Cycles
Prohrála V Kartách, KanibaLOVE
and Cheap Trick The Latest seconded but yeah probably not on some level

Okay, listening to the new Immortal this morning, and I'm thinking that this is definitely going to bump Maylene off the list.

I booked the Coffins tour this year and I liked them live a lot more than on album. Total party-doom.

That's a really good list, Jeff. I have to buckle down and finalize mine.