Metal's Best Ever Year?
What's your vote for best ever year for metal?
I'll go with 1986. More than half of my top ten albums from that year are 5 star, stone-cold classics in my book.
Anyway, here it is:
#1 Slayer - Reign in Blood
#2 Metallica - Master of Puppets
#3 Dark Angel - Darkness Descends
#4 Kreator - Pleasure to Kill
#5 Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
#6 Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?
#7 Whiplash - Power and Pain
#8 Exumer - Possessed by Fire
#9 Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time
#10 Saint Vitus - Born Too Late
Then just outside the top ten are albums from Motorhead, Possessed, Manilla Road and Paul Chain.
What a year!
Can't argue with 1986 being the actual best year of metal. There are so many great years of metal but the best metal year for me is 2005. That year has a lot of my favorites!
Anyway, here's my best of 2005:
#10: August Burns Red - Thrill Seeker
#9: The Ocean - Aeolian
#8: Parkway Drive - Killing With a Smile
#7: Gojira - From Mars to Sirius
#6: Darkest Hour - Undoing Ruin
#5: God Forbid - IV (Constitution of Treason)
#4: Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor
#3: Meshuggah - Catch Thirtythree
#2: Between the Buried and Me - Alaska
Honorable mentions: Nightrage - Descent Into Chaos, HIM - Dark Light (despite the latter being more rock than metal)
And finally, #1: Trivium - Ascendancy
1986 was indeed an absolutely cracking year for thrash metal, but I'm not sure I can call it my favourite year without any death or black metal releases. With this in mind, my favourite year would have to lie somewhere between 1991 and 1995.
1991 is unquestionably a massive year for death metal...
- Death - Human
- Atheist - Unquestionable Presence
- Dismember - Like an Ever Flowing Stream
- Autopsy - Mental Funeral
- Carcass - Necroticism
- Entombed - Clandestine
- Morbid Angel - Blessed Are the Sick
- Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten
- Pestilence - Testimony of the Ancients
- Immolation - Dawn of Possession
1994 is unquestionably a massive year for black metal...
- Burzum - Hvis lyset tar oss
- Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
- Mayhem - De mysteriis dom Sathanas
- Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
- Enslaved - Vikingligr veldi / Frost
- Satyricon - Dark Medieval Times / The Shadowthrone
- Samael - Ceremony of Opposites
- Gorgoroth - Pentagram
But I think 1995 deserves my accolade due to the way metal music expanded its horizons. There were so many groundbreaking albums in all my favourite genres that were equally as pioneering as they were quality. All the below albums created (or perfected) entirely new sounds that would inspire countless bands in the years to come.
- Death - Symbolic
- Ulver - Bergtatt
- Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
- My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark River
- The Gathering - Mandylion
- At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
- Ved Buens Ende... - Written in Waters
- Fear Factory - Demanufacture
- Skepticism - Stormcrowfleet
- Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve
- Opeth - Orchid
Update on my 2005 list because of discovering and rediscovering other great metal albums from that year:
#10: Arch Enemy - Doomsday Machine
#9: Dark Tranquillity - Character
#8: God Forbid - IV (Constitution of Treason)
#7: Gojira - From Mars to Sirius
#6: Bullet for My Valentine - The Poison
#5: Between the Buried and Me - Alaska
#4: Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor
#3: Meshuggah - Catch Thirtythree
#2: Protest the Hero - Kezia
Honorable mentions: August Burns Red - Thrill Seeker, Parkway Drive - Killing With a Smile, Nightrage - Descent Into Chaos, Darkest Hour - Undoing Ruin
And finally, #1: Trivium - Ascendancy
Update on my 2005 list, but with a different twist! I was inspired by Ben's "anniversary section" idea (15 years today) to update my list to the top 4 albums per clan.
And yes I know, I've included The Horde, not The Guardians. Since The Guardians has a huge array of power metal bands from my earlier epic metal taste, it would cause some unfair competition against my other clans in which most of them suit my current heavier modern era. Hence replacing The Guardians with my former clan The Horde! Anyway, here's my best of 2005 for each of those clans (plus I'm ranking the clans themselves):
Clan #4: The Horde
4. Children of Bodom - Are You Dead Yet?
3. Scar Symmetry - Symmetric in Design
2. Arch Enemy - Doomsday Machine
1. Dark Tranquillity - Character
Clan #3: The Fallen
4. The Ocean - Aeolian
3. Paradise Lost - Paradise Lost
2. Charon - Songs for the Sinners
1. Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell
Clan #2: The Infinite
4. Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor
3. Meshuggah - Catch Thirty-Three
2. Gojira - From Mars to Sirius
1. Between the Buried and Me - Alaska
Clan #1: The Revolution
4. God Forbid - IV: Constitution of Treason
3. Demon Hunter - The Triptych
2. Bullet for My Valentine - The Poison
1. Trivium - Ascendancy