As far as the year in metal was, it had its ups and downs like any other year, but I feel like there were no truly genre defining records this year, or any album that pushed the boundaries like Rivers of Nihil did last year. There is still a lot of quality to be had, and it just might be my taste, but as you will see in this list, I think progressive metal had a massive year, with several high profile bands releasing great music, and some more underground acts showing off some marvelous writing. Anyway, let us start with some honorable mentions, then get to the 20 chosen ones. Enjoy.
Arch/Matheos - Winter Ethereal
It is Fates Warning, yet it is not Fates Warning
Atlas Pain - Tales of A Pathfinder
Nice and solid folk melodeath
Obsidian Tide - Pillars of Creation
Interesting debut from this Israel group
Let us start this list with a little... sorry, a lot of cheese. Gloryhammer is once again treating us to a cheese platter of insanely fun and goofy power metal that makes other fantasy based acts like Blind Guardian and Twilight Force look like stamp collectors. "...Terrorvortex" may not be the insane power trip as "Space 1992..." was, but it still takes us through a story that is engaging and exciting. All hail Angus McFife and his kingdom.
This is my first go around with this band since I am not that much into everything involving grind in its genre name, so I am probably not the best one to judge how good this album actually is (The reviews I have read are literally all over the place so maybe no one is). Nonetheless, "Death Atlas" impressed me with its stellar composition of black, death, prog, and also a little grind to make something really unique. The most impressive thing though is the vocal work by Travis Ryan, his range is fucking insane.
The first of many progressive acts on this list is a little group from Puerto Rico that impressed me a lot with their calm, melancholic style that seemed to hit a lot of emotional strings on me. There is certainly a lot of Dream Theater elements in here, but there is enough of a personal touch in the music to make it their own, and the execution is all around stellar for a band that is not even a decade old. Be on the look out for these guys in the future.
Well this one is a surprise. Lacuna Coil has certainly been a mixed bag for the last couple of albums, and now they finally put it all together in "Black Anima", presenting one of the band's heaviest records to date, with excellent vocal work from both Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro to boot. Don't believe me that this band has found their way again? Just listen to "Under The Surface", and just try to not listen to the rest of the record. Trust me, you will not be able to.
Science metal at its finest, Allegaeon pummel us once again with their now trademarked style of technical death metal, filled to the brim with complex drum patterns, hooky guitar riffs, and scientific language. It is truly an experience to behold what these nerds have cooked up in their studio lab every time they publish their thesis, and it rarely disappoints to engage and astound. All hail science!
Tobias Sammet knows how to make excellent ensemble pieces, he has been doing it for over two decades now after all, and "Moonglow" is not that much better than any other recent release, but everything just clicks into place here. The song writing is exquisite, the cheese is at just the right level, and the guest list might be the best we have seen from an Avantasia release. Just the fact that we finally get to hear Hansi Kürsch in one of these albums makes it all worth it.
If you had said to me at the beginning of the year that I would put a gothic rock album in my top 20, I would probably have laughed at your statement and moved along. Nothing against this type of music style, but it is very rarely I find an album of this type to be engaging and groundbreaking. Idle Hands' debut LP does not feel like a debut at all, it has a seasoned character to it that you would normally see from long time veterans, but with a lot of youthful power added. A nice surprise in an otherwise mediocre landscape.
I have always enjoyed the works of Eluveitie, but there was just something with "Ategnatos" that finally made me go "man, these guys are great". It is hard to pin point exactly what makes this album stand out from the rest, but one way to generalize it is that the songs are just fantastic folky fun. Everytime I turn it on, I have a blast listening to it, which has made me coming back to it several times.
There was a big hype train for this band back in 2016 that I completely missed out on, so I was pretty determined to not miss it again now that they would unveil their third full length effort. "Terraformer" might ultimately be a little long for my taste, but there is certainly enough quality to make it a non factor. Their unique style of jazzy progressive rock is certainly memorable enough to make you indulge yourself into its glory time and time again, losing track of time with ease.
There were not many truly great debut records this year, at least none that completely shook up the metalverse. Fortunately, we have an underground scene that delivered one really nice debut, and that is the self titled album from the Swedish group Mystik. This band gave us some nice darkened speed metal that takes you back to the finest King Diamond works, while also adding a nice female touch to the vocals. A cool end result that we will hopefully see more of in the near future.
I think it was quite given that our favourite Germans would unravel a competent release after not releasing any new material for a decade, but I was genuinely surprised that "Rammstein" was as solid and infectious as it was. It is not an album that will completely shock you, it is just good old German industrial heavy metal at its best, just as catchy and fun as always. The only downside to this album is the boring title and cover. You had 10 years to figure this shiesse out, and THIS is what you came up with? Goodness gracious...
Insomnium is on an insane roll right now, having released three straight banger albums in "Shadows of The Dying Sun", "Winter's Gate", and "Heart Like A Grave". This album continues to cement the band's legacy as one of the big guns in the melodic death metal scene, pumping out some great, emotional music that is just a wonder to behold. Seems like these guys do not know how to make a mistake, and I am all for it.
Like many others, I thought Dream Theater had reached a point in their career where they would still make serviceable music, but no more genre defining masterpieces. Well, just when you think they are done and out, they pull you back in with one hell of a display. "Distance Over Time" has a lot of the old school DT stamp over it, an album that is filled with marvelous technical skill, without any of the snooty "look at me, I can play this hard as shit thing" attitude. After the letdown that is known as "The Astonishing", it feels insanely good that this band is back on track, making awe inspiring music again.
Ever since "Esoteric Symbolism", I have been a huge fan of Teramaze and their special style of progressive metal. It is a group that try to push boundaries with every release, trying out new things to perfect their craft even further. "Are We Soldiers" is another step in the right direction, creating some truly epic moments throughout the record. It is still mind boggling to me that these guys have been around for over 25 years, and still has not gotten the recognition they deserve. Highly underrated band.
It is extremely hard to follow up such a magical debut album as "Air", but I think Astronoid did the right thing in giving us more of the same here. Sure, this self titled sophomore effort might not show any real evolution in the band's sound, and nothing in here can really match up to the highs of "Air", but just to deliver a well constructed, quality dense product of uplifting metal is mighty impressive, showing that these guys are no one album wonders. Let us see if they can make a treble in the future.
So it did not take exactly 10.000 days for this album to see the light of day, but you have to give credit to the guys that their sick obsession of perfection did eventually pay off. "Fear Inoculum" is just what a Tool album should be like, a strange journey to an unknown realm where time and space do not seem to exist, only hypnotizing patterns of string and percussion instruments are there cooperating to give an experience like no other. Was it worth the 15 year wait? I cannot answer that question because I got to know the band several years after "10.000 days", but I probably would not mind waiting that long if I knew the quality would be at this level.
It has taken its time, but I think Opeth has finally found just the right formula to pull off this new era they are in the middle of. While the previous three non-growl records have not been bad (and "Pale Communion" was even fantastic), they have missed that little extra that Opeth normally adds. I definitely would not say "In Cauda Venenum" is as good as "Blackwater Park" or "Ghost Reveries", but it has a nice mix of heavy moments and intricate musicianship that would make any prog fan happy. It certainly makes me interested in what Mr. Åkerfeldt and crew will construct in the future.
Since it was released in the beginning of the year, it seems like "Lotus" has been kind of forgotten amongst all other high profile prog releases this year, but I have not lost touch to this magnificent effort from the Swedish prog masters. Soen has always been excellent at what they are doing, but "Lotus" is on a whole different level, mixing marvelous song writing with brilliant techniques to blend cool, imaginative riffing with emotional atmosphere. This is truly prog metal candy at its sweetest, and I could gobble up a full bowl of it in no time.
A ton of people (including the entire Angry Metal Guy headquarters) raved all over Wilderun's sophomore record "Sleep At The Edge of The Earth" back in 2015, and while I enjoyed the album, I did not see why everyone went nuts over it. Well, 4 years later the unsigned (how is that even possible?) Boston group roundhouse kicked me with "Veil of Imagination", an album title that is a perfect description of the album. There is so much awesome creativity put into this 1 hour and 6 minute long epic that it is kind of hard to wrap your head around why this album was not longer. You know that you have made an awesome record when a 1+ hour run time is too short. It was insanely tough to not put it at the number 1 spot, but there was this one guy that had a say in things...
1. Devin Townsend - Empath
This should not come as a surprise for those of you who have been to my blog before that this album is at the very top. I am a huge Devin Townsend nerd, and have enjoyed every new release he has made ever since I started follow the madman from the early DTP days. Yet, I believe that "Empath" might be his biggest achievement as a musician. Throughout his career, we have seen Devin tackling a wide range of musical styles, like death metal, prog rock, ambient, punk, and comedy, so you would think that creating an album that more or less adds all of these influences into a singular record would be impossible. Well, Devin did it, and also managed to add even more to this crazy gumbo (disco for the win!), while still maintaining some type of cohesion throughout it all. "Empath" is as expansive as "Avengers: Endgame", literally everything is in here, and it certainly demands effort from its listener, but the final result has that perfect scientific mix of HevyDevy magic that is oh so irresistible, and just the fact that this record is not as dense as a black hole is a small miracle. There is no doubt about it, this man and this album is 50% insanity, 50% genius, 100% awesome.
To end this blurb, I will also present you my top 50 songs of the year, which I normally would present in its own post, but I did not want to speak about every single song this time around. As always, it is a clusterfuck tracks, including everything from Japanese power metal, a new type of NU-metal, EDM black metal (or whatever you call that BMTH track), long epics, short catchy bangers, songs from some previously unknown bands, and of course some tracks from regulars that I have talked to death over in this blog over the years such as Devin Townsend, Mechina, Teramaze, Demon Hunter, Overkill, Amon Amarth, and more.
50. A New Revenge - The Distance Between
49. Steve Dadaian - On Silver Shores
48. Obsidian Tide - Seven
47. The Offering - Lovesick
46. Mechina - The Archivarius Chaos Ritual
45. Avandra feat. Richard Henshall - The Narrowing of Meaning
44. Gyze - Camellia
43. Elvenking - The Misfortune of Virtue
42. Thank You Scientist - Anchor
41. Cyhra - I Am The One
40. Lacuna Coil - Under The Surface
39. Opeth - Heart In Hand
38. Mark Morton feat. Chester Bennington - Cross Off
37. Allegaeon - The Secular Age
36. Savage Messiah - The Bitter Truth
35. Demon Hunter - The Negative
34. Arch/Matheos - Wrath of The Universe
33. Eluveitie - Ambiramus
32. Galneryus - Fighting of Eternity
31. Mother of Millions - Amber
30. Mystik - Ancient Majesty
29. Insomnium - Pale Morning Star
28. Overkill - Last Man Standing
27. Amon Amarth - Shield Wall
26. Slipknot - Critical Darling
25. Battle Beast - The Hero
24. We Are The Catalyst - Innan Allt Faller
23. Swallow The Sun - Firelights
22. Leprous - Alleviate
21. HammerFall - And Yet I Smile
20. Vanden Plas - Fall From The Skies
19. Idle Hands - Give Me To The Night
18. Dream Theater - Pale Blue Dot
17. Gloryhammer - Legendary Enchanted Jetpack
16. Atlas Pain - Shahrazãd
15. Periphery - Reptile
14. Bring Me The Horizon feat. Grimes - Nihilist Blues
13. In Flames - I, The Mask
12. Within Temptation - Mad World
11. Babymetal feat. Alissa White-Gluz - Distortion
10. Source - Sinking
9. Astronoid - I Wish I Was There While The Sun Set
8. Soilwork - Arrival
7. Wilderun - The Unimaginable Zero Summer
6. Tool - 7empest
5. Devin Townsend - Hear Me
4. Soen - Covenant
3. Teramaze - From Saviour To Assassin
2. Avantasia feat. Hansi Kürsch and Jørn Lande - The Raven Child
1. Rammstein - Deutschland
A happy new year to everyone, and I will see you some time in January 2020 for my top list of the decade that we are leaving behind.
Stay metal!
Robert "Sharkruisher" Andersson
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