Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Forum Replies

Ben, please add Alien Weaponry.

A sh*t-storm made of some of the weakest gothic metal lyrics ever:

OK, NOW my Metal Evolution band challenge is completely finished! For my stat check this time, I've included ratings of discographies of all the bands I've enjoyed before, past and present, and the one album I've reviewed from each band that I've only listened to just for this challenge and other clan challenges. BUT for the Goth Metal bands, I made sure to only include albums that are actually in The Fallen, and for the Power Metal bands, I made sure to only include albums that are actually in the Guardians. No non-metal releases, no releases from an entirely different clan, just albums in the actual clans that have those respective genres. Then I've divided all the ratings into the average ratings for each genre. I suppose I could've waited another couple weeks so I can review the soon to be released new Paradise Lost album Obsidian, but just now I had a Samuel L. Jackson-like moment in my head thinking "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!! I've had it with those g****mn delays extending my motherf***ing band challenge! I just wanna do my final stat check and get it the f*** over with." So yeah, here it is, my (hopefully) final Metal Evolution band challenge stat average rating:

Goth metal:

Tiamat (Clouds/Wildhoney era and after 1998) - 4, Type O Negative (all albums) - 4.5, Paradise Lost (all albums except Host) - 4.2, The Gathering (before 1998 plus compilation of old tracks) - 4.4, Anathema (before 1998 plus compilation of old tracks) - 4.5, - Katatonia (up to 1998) - 4.7, Theatre of Tragedy (all albums except Musique and Assembly) - 4.3, Within Temptation (Enter and The Dance) - 4.3, HIM (Venus Doom) - 4, Lacuna Coil (first three albums and two surrounding EPs) - 4.4

Total rating: 4.3

Power metal:

Blind Guardian (all albums except Legacy of the Dark Lands) - 4.6, Stratovarius - 4.6, Iced Earth (one album plus extra credit album) - 4, Kamelot (all albums except Poetry for the Poisoned) - 4.6, HammerFall - 4.7, Rhapsody of Fire - 4.7, Nightwish (all albums except Imaginaerum the Score) - 4.5, Primal Fear (one album) - 4, Sonata Arctica - 4.5, DragonForce - 4.7

Total rating: 4.5

New wave of American heavy metal:

Shadows Fall - 4.4, Lamb of God - 4.6, God Forbid - 4.2, Darkest Hour - 4.4, Killswitch Engage (one album) - 4, Unearth - 4.1, Chimaira (one album) - 4, The Black Dahlia Murder (one album) - 4.5, As I Lay Dying (one album plus extra credit album) - 4, Trivium - 4.3

Total rating: 4.2

Extra credit albums (from other bands):

Nevermore - The Politics of Ecstasy - 4.5 , Stuck Mojo - Pigwalk - 2.5

Total extra credit rating: 3.5

So apparently, I still like my power metal past slightly more than my Goth Metal and NWOAHM present, which is a little surprising for me. I must've really enjoyed my younger times of power metal, and that's probably a good reason why some of you believe I still have Guardians heart and mind, hence that clan change. However, those stats mean my Goth Metal is actually slightly higher than my New wave of American heavy metal, which is now at the low end of the band challenge "Olympic podium" and is left alone because NWOAHM is a scene full of a few different metal genre and not one in particular. Also it looks like 1998 (the last year before I was born) was quite a big changing year for the gothic metal scene with most of the bands in Goth Metal list either moving out of their brief rock sound back to metal or (temporarily or permanently) quitting metal for a softer rock sound, whether it was that year or the next. It's the rock virus 1998 (ROVID98)! Sorry if anyone thinks that little joke is in bad taste. Anyway, if there isn't anything for you to object in this final stat check, then the Metal Evolution band challenge is completely over, and I'll continue doing my Fallen Clan Challenge strategy throughout the rest of the month of May. But after I complete that clan challenge strategy and gain my 4th clan, my review challenging won't end there. I actually have one more bigger band challenge to more properly test my interests in all metal genres I've enjoyed, past and present. I'll make and post that challenge in June for anyone to try, but I won't starting doing it myself until July because I've worked so hard throughout these first 5 months of 2020 doing all these official and unofficial challenges and I feel taking a break throughout June from reviewing groups of albums. Single-album recommendation reviews would still be OK, though. Now if you'll excuse me, I have one more clan challenge strategy to go through and a clan to lock in. Onward to The Fallen!

Too much of an ambient song to fit in a band like Paradise Lost. Their worst tune EVER!!!

One of the most killer Metallica covers you would ever hear. When progressive death goes thrash!

You want some Paradise Lost-influenced symphonic power metal? Well you got it:

Upon reviewing Icon, I can now see how much of an impact Paradise Lost made in and out of the gothic metal scene. It is one of the greatest gothic doom albums I've ever heard and the band's best album tied with Draconian Times! Here's an epic song from Icon (that's right, another track of the day in The Fallen thread):

Need I say anything here?

I'll say that I agree with you Daniel. "Blackened" is one of those heavier songs that just doesn't fit right when making an acoustic version. However, Between the Buried and Me's tech-death cover of "Blackened" is totally kick-A and guaranteed to grind this acoustic re-recording to dust.

Excellent metal knowledge, Daniel! Of course, death-doom was born when Autopsy released their debut album a year before Paradise Lost released theirs. However, despite the doom influences, Autopsy is more into the death metal side of death-doom. Perhaps I was thinking too much of the doom side that I’m more comfortable with. Type O Negative had their gothic metal sound throughout their career, and the time between the recording and release of their debut Slow Deep and Hard is long and a bit confusing. It was released a few months after Paradise Lost’s Gothic in 1991, yet it was originally recorded as a demo under their original name Repulsion, sometime before Lost Paradise in 1989.

Also recorded and released at around the same time as Lost Paradise was Celtic Frost’s Vanity/Nemesis which is also an early example of gothic metal, though mixed with thrash influences similar to Slow Deep and Hard. That’s actually an interesting mix of genres to be honest, don’t know why that barely caught on. Celtic Frost’s first two full albums To Mega Therion and Into the Pandemonium are probably the very earliest albums to use symphonic elements in metal. But that’s more apparent in the latter album, with the former only using a French horn in a few tracks and inspiring the name of Therion, a band that started off as death metal before being one of the first bands to be fully symphonic metal.

Therion’s symphonic metal sound, partly inspired by Into the Pandemonium and possibly Paradise Lost’s Gothic, is what inspired many power metal bands to focus less on speed and more on symphonic, such as Rhapsody of Fire and Nightwish, though the latter band started as an acoustic folk project instead of speedy power metal. Even though bands like Helloween and DragonForce still focus more on speed, the symphonic influences of other power metal bands is what gives that genre the epic feel it deserves. That’s why I talked about power metal there, but that was a funny misunderstanding my statement caused. “Paradise Lost influenced power metal?” Lol no! If you want Paradise Lost-influenced symphonic power metal, try listening to Nightwish’s “Rest Calm”.

In conclusion, Paradise Lost may be considered a pioneering influential force of death-doom, gothic metal, and a small bit of symphonic metal, but there a few other bands responsible for creating their respective genres. We got a lot more bands to thank for all those metal styles....

I won't lie, the title track of Paradise Lost's Gothic is THE beginning of many genres; the prominence of death-doom, gothic metal, symphonic metal, and operatic female vocals in metal. It has inspired many bands to expand those genres. Imagine what the metal world would be without this album, especially this song. Without them, those genres wouldn't exist or be forgotten; death-doom would fade away, gothic metal wouldn't be a thing, symphony and metal wouldn't coexist with each other, and metal would entirely be male. On top of that, power metal would remain part of speed metal which loses its epic appeal and wouldn't get me interested in DragonForce, the one band that got me interested in metal. And even with my metal taste starting elsewhere, I would be stuck in The Horde, The Infinite, and The Revolution forever. Fearing an alternate universe without Paradise Lost, I say we have to be profusely grateful for a band like them, especially if you love the genres that album spawned. So enjoy this amazing song and give Paradise Lost a massive "Thank you"!

With Queen's trademark "stomp-stomp-clap" beat infringed wrongly into the overly trance-ified "That Song", this is a new low in the metal community and shall be deemed "that song you gotta avoid at all costs".

I just did my review. Here's a summary of it:

Love them or hate them, Amaranthe is one of the most diverse Swedish metal bands, and not totally in the progressive sense. I'm one of those people who love the band, and I've been listening to them for 3 years now. They sure know how to trance-ify melodeath and power metal, and have toured all over Europe and America. Many metal purists accuse them of "ruining metal", but really they just wanna help bring metal and harsh vocals to the masses, no matter the mainstream cost. And even though this album isn't as perfect as their previous two albums, Massive Addictive can be hailed a successful breakthrough in trance metal! The album is both heavier and trance-ier than the previous two, with some songs having more metal than trance and vice versa. A few of the more electronic songs are a dreadful foreshadowing of the overpowering trance infecting their later albums, but the songs I love the best in the album are when the trance and metal are in perfect balance. There are also two or three clean-sung ballads. Oh yeah, we can't forget the unique vocal trio of new harsh vocalist Henrik Englund, the power metal-esque Jake E. Lundberg, and the angelic Elize Ryd. Overall, Massive Addictive is a strong album, though not as perfectly strong as their previous two albums, and Amaranthe continue finding more uniqueness for their sound. Even though I'm an extreme metalhead, I wouldn't recommend it to other fans of that kind. As long as people stay open-minded, anyone who is a fan of pop/dance/rock/metal would love this. Those fans would almost never want those 41 minutes refunded!

4.5/5

A coronavirus song parody about when the virus started hitting my country and my initial thoughts of anxiety:

Trivium Coronavirus parody - Viral Storm (Brave This Storm)
======================= 

Have you heard news of a plague so viral?
It's a catastrophe, a downward spiral
With death it's sinking tiny sickening teeth into
A crashing tide that would eliminate all of you 

What would you think if someone spits in your drink?
Wrong choice then nothing would spare you from your brink
You're equally at fault; ignoring the viral assault
Not right, it's so vicious, the villainous storm of all 

I know what we're hiding from
I know what we're hiding from 

The plague keeps crashing over
They pummel us over and over
I don't think we can make this viral storm 

Should we go quietly?
Accept that all is lost?
I don't think we can make this viral storm 

[First Solo] 

Slay us away with our lungs in decay
The plague will soon claim us all as his prey
We're pulled away after the virus has been set free
I'm wide awake to see the plague become blackening 

Lock us away for our apathy and crimes
We're isolated ones losing our time
The virus will consume everything we once knew
Make it or break it, we're still stuck in our rooms 

I know what we're hiding from
I know what we're hiding from 

The plague keeps crashing over
They pummel us over and over
I don't think we can make this viral storm 

Should we go quietly?
Accept that all is lost?
I don't think we can make this viral storm 

AS DEADLY AS POSSIBLE!
VIRUS!!
WE'RE ALL STUCK IN OUR HOMES!
VIRUS!! 

OUR LANDS ARE DEVOURED WHOLE!
VIRUS!!
IS THERE HOPE FOR OUR WORLD?!
VIRUS!! 

[Second Solo] 

The plague keeps crashing over
They pummel us over and over
I don't think we can make this viral storm 

Should we go quietly?
Accept that all is lost?
I don't think we can make this viral storm 

The plague keeps crashing over
They pummel us over and over
I don't think we can make this viral storm 

Should we go quietly?
Accept that all is lost?
I don't think we can make this viral storm

I already did a review of this album, so here's my summary:

Imagination can be fascinating, whether you imagine your own sci-fi/fantasy storytelling world or a world closer to reality. Imagination is important when you create classic albums, especially ones that give the metal genre grace. The 1995 Blind Guardian album Imaginations From the Other Side is what really masters metal imagination, using large amounts of references in music and lyrics in a compact structure, like this band always does. The album is filled with atmospheric epics, speedier songs with blazing aggression, and great ballads of spirited glory that are greater than the previous album's totally overrated "The Bard's Song (In the Forest)". I agree with Blind Guardian fans (on or off) that Imaginations From the Other Side is one of the greatest Blind Guardian albums. Although it's a great flawless album, it seems more connected to Somewhere Far Beyond and doesn't break down as many power metal boundaries as Nightfall in Middle-Earth. I don't mind this album taking a few risks, and those risks are very small and really paid off. Imaginations From the Other Side is an essential album for power metal fans that I would recommend along with Nightfall in Middle-Earth. This is for both old and new fans of Blind Guardian. See you on the other side of imagination!

5/5

My Metal Evolution band challenge is completely finished! For my stat check, I've included ratings of entire discographies of all the bands I've enjoyed before, past and present, and the one album I've reviewed from each band that I've only listened to just for this challenge and other clan challenges. Then I've divided all the ratings into the average ratings for each genre. So here it is, my Metal Evolution band challenge stat average rating:

Goth metal:

Tiamat - 3.9, Type O Negative - 4.5, Therion (one album) - 4, The Gathering - 4.4, Anathema - 4.5, - Katatonia - 3.5, Theatre of Tragedy - 4.3, Within Temptation - 4, HIM - 4, Lacuna Coil - 4.1

Total rating: 4.1

Power metal:

Blind Guardian - 4.5, Stratovarius - 4.6, Iced Earth (one album plus extra credit album) - 4, Kamelot - 4.5, HammerFall - 4.7, Rhapsody of Fire - 4.7, Nightwish - 4.4, Primal Fear (one album) - 4, Sonata Arctica - 4.5, DragonForce - 4.7

Total rating: 4.4

New wave of American heavy metal:

Shadows Fall - 4.4, Lamb of God - 4.6, God Forbid - 4.2, Darkest Hour - 4.4, Killswitch Engage (one album) - 4, Unearth - 4.1, Chimaira (one album) - 4, The Black Dahlia Murder (one album) - 4.5, As I Lay Dying (one album) - 3.5, Trivium - 4.3

Total rating: 4.2

Extra credit albums (from other bands):

Nevermore - The Politics of Ecstasy - 4.5 , Stuck Mojo - Pigwalk - 2.5

Total extra credit rating: 3.5

So apparently, I like my power metal past slightly more than my Goth Metal and NWOAHM present, which is a little surprising for me. I must've really enjoyed my younger times of power metal, and that's probably a good reason why some of you believe I still have Guardians heart and mind, hence that clan change. However, those stats mean my Goth Metal is at the low end of the band challenge "Olympic podium". But you know what?! I don't care what my band challenge outcome is! I came this far in my clan challenge quest for my 4th clan, and I'm at the last leg of this journey. I can finish this thing! So starting tomorrow, I'm gonna spend the month of May doing my Fallen Clan Challenge strategy; review a couple albums from a band I've already stopped listening to in a challenge, review all albums from a few bands I still enjoy in a challenge, then after taking a break, spend the last week of May doing the Modern Era challenge. It's been an epic ambitious adventure so far as much as Frodo's quest to destroy the One Ring (OK that comparison is a bit too much, but you get the point), and it's time for the last part of my clan challenge saga. The Fallen, I'm coming for ya!

Quoted from Wikipedia: '"The Ones We Leave Behind" is about "running over" people to succeed in life and the song also gave a powerful message and a whole new meaning in the wake of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.' Yes, this sure is a fitting song for this global outbreak. Once again, stay safe everyone!

This is gonna be one hail of an interesting ride through Wildhoney-inspired experimental progressive metal. I’ll listen to and review that motW album tomorrow...

A victorious anthem from Swedish prog-power metallers Seventh Wonder. Sweet recommendation for fans of Kamelot and Threshold!

You play My Dying Bride at 1.5 speed? Please reconsider joining The Fallen! 

Lol. I will still join The Fallen because my interest for gothic/death-doom (and a bit of sludge) is expanding, most other Fallen bands I listen to are slightly faster enough to keep the tempo unedited, and I'm still planning on getting it as my 4th clan using my Fallen Gothic Metal Clan Challenge strategy, which I'll start on Friday. Soon I'll do a final stat check on my Metal Evolution Band Challenge sometime within the next few days, so please keep an eye out for that!

Once again, even though they’re both great grade-A albums, I actually prefer The Light at the End of the World, same reasons as in the previous round: some of the best doom classics with death growls, slightly darker/heavier atmosphere, and more serious lyrics, and also there aren’t any of the abrupt cuts and bizarre interludes Type O Negative keep having in World Coming Down. And even though I like to do the “blasphemous” thing of speeding up My Dying Bride albums by 1.5x faster, The Light at the End of the World is still enjoyable, edited or not. I’ll add in my vote along with yours, Daniel:

World Coming Down - 1

The Light at the End of the World - 1

Since this did not get updated for about 3 weeks, I declare October Rust the winner, two to one! So for part 2, let's take Type O Negative further into the tournament and make things a little more challenging. Welcome to part 2; same genre, different year, 1999! Which of the following gothic doom albums has the greater edge? Choose one and explain the reason!

Ben, please add the new Trivium album What the Dead Men Say.

Here's a metalcore concept album about the fall of future civilization that seems kinda appropriate for the situation right now, that shows what would happen if the world ends up collapsing in the coronavirus. Fortunately the virus is currently in the process of being controlled out, but it just seemed like sh*t was about to go down on us last month when I was writing my review for this album that I'm referring to, God Forbid's IV: Constitution of Treason.

After sharing a song by Arch Enemy from the Johan Liiva era, I decided to share another song from the band, this time when they had Angela Gossow as lead vocalist. I think when they started having a female vocalist is what made the band more successful because of this unique piece of the melodeath puzzle.

I revisited Nightwish for their new album Human Nature. Most of the metal songs were great, and even though it's often a bit too symphonic, there are a few epic symphonic moments as well. The first and last parts of the half-hour 8-track symphony "All the Works of Nature Which Adorn the World" were the only parts of the suite that I like. At least I think it's better than when Blind Guardian went completely orchestral for their album Legacy of the Dark Lands.

Ben, I took some time to think of your comment about a slogan that would fit better with the site's inclusive aspect, and I just came up with I think is a better but slightly cliche slogan. I was in a "teaming with autism" webinar the other day (I have autism), and I was put into a group where we came up with a team name and logo with a "United We Stand Divided We Fall" kind of theme. Hence my idea to make this better slogan, "United We Stand for Metal"! The new slogan is in an edited version of the first post above.

I'm also not a fan of genres like country, hip-hop, or R&B, but if that's what some of my friends in the outside world are into, I'll go with it. And the band that I like from that small list of "favorite bands" is Blind Guardian, which was from my earlier epic metal taste, but I might come back to listening to that band someday, now that I'm in The Guardians. Thanks again for that clan change, Ben!

A coronavirus song parody about the situation in my country and what we should do there:

DragonForce Coronavirus parody - Through the Virus and Plague
=======================

On a warm Asian morning, in the time before the light
A virus of death internally reigns, invisible from sight
When the virus is coming down, then the times are tough all right
The storm of evil sickness falls around the world tonight

Striking hard, infecting many people, the world ain’t safe no more
The scattered souls all over the beach will be wasted on the shores
It’s a blackening plague, for heaven’s sake, don’t stay, we have to go
Before the pain, we’ll find our way back home

So now we’re finally home free
We're safe before the viral storm
Close the doors and windows now, our lives shall carry on
Everyday at sundown, everyday at moonlight
Protecting our hearts and all our souls

So far away we wait for the day
For the virus to be wasted and gone
We feel the pain of a thousand lives lost in a matter of days
Through the virus and the plague we carry on

As a new day is dawning
And you’re back home with a sigh
You should watch your hands, 20 seconds or more
Don’t touch your nose, mouth, ears, or eyes
Running home from the mid-morning light
With the virus in your heart
You’re banished far away from our falling land
To a hospital so far

It’s no darkened dream, can you believe?
We still don’t wanna die
And there’s no way we'll ever be free tonight

And when you think it’s all a dream, you face the dark reality
All alone in isolation, time has come and gone
Stuck inside, the virus won’t find, stuck at home for your life
Day after day this misery will go on

So far away we wait for the day
For the virus to be wasted and gone
We feel the pain of a thousand lives lost in a matter of days
Through the virus and the plague we carry on

[Whoa-oh Choir]

[Solo showdown]

Now here we stand as we’re washing our hands
We cleaned so hard now can we understand?
I wish this sickening curse can just possibly end
For freedom of every man

So far away we wait for the day
For the virus to be wasted and gone
We feel the pain of a thousand lives lost in a matter of days
Through the virus and the plague we carry on

Testing out some cross-clan posting, this is for The Sphere members. Two industrial metal classics released in 1992! Which one has the greater edge? Choose one and explain the reason!

Even though I'm out of The Horde now, I'm still gonna make occasional throwbacks to my melodeath times, like this killer Arch Enemy classic:

Advice against the virus:

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling a bit anxious and delusional from the coronavirus pandemic, losing some sense of what's real and fake in the news. This is a well-fit song for the situation happening to me and others:

An utterly amazing 37 minute single-track ambient sludge/doom metal excursion from this Washington-based grindcore outfit.

I keep meaning to listen to this one: I'm not a big grindcore fan, so I don't normally  go for Pig Destroyer, but this one always sounds fascinating to me.

And RIP Pete Steele indeed! I think that was the first Type O song I ever heard, while out drinking at a club at University.

Agreed with both points, Tymell!

I'm not a big grindcore fan which is why The Horde is now becoming a less suitable clan for me. Even with that 37-minute ambient sludge/doom metal track, I still won't go for that band because they have like the second-most offensive metal band name, behind A.C.

"I Don't Wanna Be Me" was also the first Type O Negative song I've fully listened to because of Trivium's cover of that song.

The Type O Negative song I chose for the Track of The Day Fallen Edition was "I Don't Wanna Be Me", mostly because Trivium did a cover of that song which I've shared below. Once again, RIP Peter Steele and Type O Negative...

RIP Peter Steele and Type O Negative. The dream is dead since exactly 10 years before today, but at least the music will live on. And it's on my mom's birthday (please don't ask about her age).

A brilliant metalcore/mathcore offering! 5/5. Cheers for that, Daniel!

Update on my list (it's been a couple months):

Classic oldies:

1990: Paradise Lost - Lost Paradise

1991: Meshuggah - Contradictions Collapse

1992: Edge of Sanity - Unorthodox

1993: My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans

1994: Tiamat - Wildhoney

1995: At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul

1996: Katatonia - Brave Murder Day

1997: In Flames - Whoracle

Old-school but newer:

1998: Meshuggah - Chaosphere

1999: Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black

2000: In Flames - Clayman

2001: Gojira - Terra Incognita

2002: Shadows Fall - The Art of Balance

2003: Darkest Hour - Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation

2004: Mastodon - Leviathan

2005: Protest the Hero - Kezia

Higher original quality:

2006: Persefone - Core

2007: Between the Buried and Me - Colors

2008: In Mourning - Shrouded Divine

2009: August Burns Red - Constellations

2010: Underoath - Ø (Disambiguation)

2011: Trivium - In Waves

2012: Between the Buried and Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence

2013: Persefone - Spiritual Migration

New and improved:

2014: Ne Obliviscaris - Citadel

2015: Bullet for My Valentine - Venom

2016: Vektor - Terminal Redux

2017: Septicflesh - Codex Omega

2018: Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

2019: DragonForce - Extreme Power Metal (NOT in my current playlist, but I loved it so much that it just had to be in the list)

2020 (so far): My Dying Bride - The Ghost of Orion

2020 albums I'm looking forward to getting:

Trivium - What the Dead Men Say

Katatonia - City Burials

Lamb of God (self-titled album)

Paradise Lost - Obsidian

Make Them Suffer - How to Survive a Funeral

Update on my list (it's been a couple months):

#30: Katatonia - Brave Murder Day (1996)

#29: Protest the Hero - Kezia (2005)

#28: In Mourning - Shrouded Divine (2008)

#27: The Ocean - Pelagial (2013)

#26: Vektor - Black Future (2009)

#25: Parkway Drive - Horizons (2007)

#24: Septicflesh - Codex Omega (2017)

#23: Paradise Lost - Draconian Times (1995)

#22: Before the Dawn - Rise of the Phoenix (2012)

#21: Nightrage - Sweet Vengeance (2003)

#20: Underoath - Lost in the Sound of Separation (2008)

#19: In Flames - The Jester Race (1996)

#18: Mastodon - Leviathan (2004)

#17: August Burns Red - Constellations (2009)

#16: Tiamat - Wildhoney (1994)

#15: Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I (2012)

#14: Persefone - Spiritual Migration (2013)

#13: Cynic - Focus (1993)

#12: At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul (1995)

#11: The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity (1999)

#10: Meshuggah - Catch Thirtythree (2005)

#9: Darkest Hour - Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation (2003)

#8: Amaranthe - Amaranthe (2011)

#7: Bullet for My Valentine - The Poison (2005)

#6: Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage (2012)

#5: Between the Buried and Me - Colors (2007)

#4: Nevermore - Dead Heart in a Dead World (2000)

#3: All That Remains - Overcome (2008)

#2: Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake (2004)

#1: Trivium - In Waves (2011)

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

Well that was too easy. At that rate, Slaughter of the Soul would remain on top, so I declare Slaughter of the Soul the winner of part 1, three to none!