Best Of 2019 Lists - The Guardians Edition

Daniel
Daniel
The Fallen The Horde The North The Pit
First Post December 21, 2019 09:01 AM
Post #1637

Post you clan-specific top 10 lists for 2019 here.

Xephyr
Xephyr
The Guardians The Infinite The North
December 23, 2019 05:59 PM
Post #1680

As said in my other post from this year, it's a great time to be a Power Metal fan. There were also a ton of great straight up heavy metal releases this year too, so here's my Top 10:

1. Avantasia – Moonglow 

2. Twilight Force – Dawn of the Dragonstar 

3. Elvenking – Reader of the Runes – Divination 

4. Gloryhammer – Legends From Beyond the Galactic Terrorvortex

5. Turilli/Lione Rhapsody – Zero Gravity 

6. Lunar Shadow – The Smokeless Fires 

7. Galneryus – Into The Purgatory 

8. Tyr – Hel 

9. Beast in Black – From Hell with Love 

10. Steel Prophet – The God Machine 

Sonny
Sonny
The Fallen The Horde The North The Pit
December 23, 2019 10:27 PM
Post #1683

My Guardians related year end list is all traditional heavy metal as I don't much care for power and symphonic metal, my limited experience of both this year being largely negative.

#1 Spirit Adrift - Divided by Darkness

#2 Angel Witch - Angel of Light

#3 Smoulder - Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring

#4 The Lord Weird Slough Feg - New Organon

#5 Sanhedrin - The Poisoner

#6 Grand Magus - Wolf God

#7 Midnight Priest - Aggressive Hauntings

#8 Bloody Hammers - The Summoning

#9 The Ossuary - Southern Funeral

#10 War Cloud - State of Shock

Shadowdoom9 (Andi)
Shadowdoom9 (Andi)
The Gateway The Infinite The Revolution The Sphere
December 23, 2019 11:35 PM
Post #1687
DragonForce - Extreme Power Metal - #1!!
Xephyr
Xephyr
The Guardians The Infinite The North
December 24, 2019 02:39 PM
Post #1692
Extremely interesting to see a Guardians list devoid of Power Metal, I missed most of these! Spirit Adrift and Smoulder were great this year, I couldn't get into Angel Witch for whatever reason. Lunar Shadow was the only straight up Heavy Metal release to really wow me this year. 
Sonny
Sonny
The Fallen The Horde The North The Pit
December 24, 2019 04:36 PM
Post #1693

Yeah Xephyr, I really can't get into power metal. I do like some early Iced Earth though, so maybe you could rec me an album or two that may change my mind!

That said, there has been some great classic metal out this year - it's great to see young bands still wanting to play this style of metal.

Xephyr
Xephyr
The Guardians The Infinite The North
December 24, 2019 05:49 PM
Post #1695

I'm gonna take a risk and rec Elvenking's Reader of the Runes. It's still very much Power Metal with a ton of folk thrown in there, but it has the most serious and heaviest riffs of all the albums on my list. It even has some harsh vocals and tremolo picking on "Malefica Doctrine", so it's more varied than other Power Metal albums. It's still very much fantasy DnD metal though, so if that's going to be a sticking point for you then I'll just have to take the L here. 

Ben
Ben
The Fallen The Horde The North The Pit
December 24, 2019 08:38 PM
Post #1696

I'll take you up on that recommendation Xephyr. I really WANT to like Power Metal, as there's so much out there to get my teeth into, but I struggle with it. Will give this a fair go.

Sonny
Sonny
The Fallen The Horde The North The Pit
December 25, 2019 09:53 PM
Post #1706

Thanks, Xephyr. That Elvenking album ain't too bad. I particularly like the folk influence and the vocals are nowhere near as OTT as most power metal I've heard - a real sticking point for me usually. I'm interested enough to check out some of their previous albums anyway. Cheers!