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Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year


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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year I guess I'll keep moving forward and do the 80's last, since I don't have enough 70's releases to do that decade. BlutAusNerd's Top 10 Albums of 2000: The Crown: Deathrace King - Insane Swedish death/thrash, melodic, but not in a way that lightens it up Decapitated: Winds of Creation - Insane and awesome tech/death, top notch musicality with great songs Deceased: Supernatural Addiction - Horror tinged death/thrash/heavy metal, catchy and macabre Electric Wizard: Dopethrone - Heavy as fuck stoner/doom masterpiece, extremely dense sound Enslaved: Mardraum - Their first great prog experiment, but they kept their dynamite riffs and pacing Mayhem: Grand Declaration of War - Awesome avant-garde black metal, deep, bizarre, and intense Novembers Doom: The Knowing - More masterful doom/death, a bit less heavy, but better written Primordial: Spirit the Earth Aflame - Black/folk metal perfection, gripping and expansive greatness Ritual Carnage: Every Nerve Alive - Brutal thrash metal from the old school, but done well in a modern way Weakling: Dead as Dreams - Tortured and ambient black metal, depressing and consuming It seems like after the initial death and black metal explosions, these lists have become more diverse, which is neither good nor bad, just an observation. Good stuff here though, from modern thrash and death metal to black and doom metal, with no two albums on this list sounding anything like each other, it looks like this decade is off to a good start.

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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year BlutAusNerd's Top 10 Albums of 2001: Absu: Tara - High speed black/thrash with some of the most insane riffs and drumming ever, relentless Church of Misery: Master of Brutality - Fun and heavy stoner/doom metal, perfectly captures old Sabbath Finntroll: Jaktens Tid - Highly entertaining folk metal, very silly and fun, but I love it Gorguts: From Wisdom to Hate - Less insane, but more controlled and still fantastic Green Carnation: Light of Day, Day of Darkness - One long and beautiful progressive/atmospheric song Hollenthon: With Vilest of Worms to Dwell - Epic and original folk/melodeath mixture, amazing songwriting My Dying Bride: The Dreadful Hours - Dreary, mournful gothic/doom metal, one of their best Opeth: Blackwater Park - Progressive metal masterpiece, melancholic atmosphere and perfect composition Sigh: Imaginary Sonicscape - Sigh's most progressive, as usual very unique and well done Virgin Black: Sombre Romantic - Strange and awesome operatic gothic metal, dark and beautiful Another varied year, with progressive and avant-garde albums actually in the majority, which is probably a first for me. I think this decade will lean more in favor of bands that were really branching out and doing their own thing, or at least more so than in the past. In any case, not too many of these albums are "typical" metal, nor do they possess much similarity to my lists of the 90's.

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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year BlutAusNerd's Top 10 Albums of 2002: Agalloch: The Mantle - More mellow than before, but also more personal and emotive, still excellent Arcturus: The Sham Mirrors - Avant-garde masterpiece, perfectly collects many elements into great songs Bathory: Nordland I - Bathory's return to viking glory, heavy, epic, and with much better clean vocals Daylight Dies: No Reply - Melancholic and sad sounding melodic death/doom metal done very well Ghoul: We Came for the Dead!!! - Fast and intense death/thrash metal, goofy and fun with great riffs Nile: In Their Darkened Shrines - Brutal, technical, and memorable death metal with Egyptian themes Opeth: Deliverance - Opeth at their darkest, yet still progressive and introspective, one of their best Primordial: Storm Before Calm - A small step down, but it's still very captivating folk/black metal Ram-Zet: Escape - Strange, heavy, avant-garde gothic metal, the techniques are diverse but flow well The Chasm: Conjuration of the Spectral Empire - More brilliant death metal, complex, melodic, and unique I'm not sure how I feel about this year, it feels like it's a bit weaker than the year before, but I'm not entirely sure why. Some of the best albums may be better than last year's best, but I don't think it was as consistent, with some of the weaker albums not being as good as last year's. A similarly diverse lineup to last year though, with entries hitting all across the subgenre spectrum.

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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year BlutAusNerd's Top 10 Albums of 2003: Akercocke: Choronzon - Excellent progressive black/death metal, complex songs and unique, evil feel Blood Red Throne: Affiliated With the Suffering - Awesome and modern riff oriented death metal assault Blut Aus Nord: The Work Which Transforms God - Unique, tortured, and mechanical/industrial black metal Forgotten Tomb: Springtime Depression - Depressing and dark black metal, very introspective and sad Leviathan: The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide - Ambient depressive black metal, but with a riff based approach Melechesh: Sphynx - Black/thrash metal with Middle Eastern melodies, instruments, and structures Runemagick: Darkness Death Doom - As the name implies, dark death/doom, heavy and foreboding Swallow the Sun: The Morning Never Came - Melodic doom/death with beautiful keyboards and melodies Watain: Casus Luciferi - Modern Swedish black metal assault, equal parts Dissection and Marduk Windir: Likferd - Viking black metal with excellent, engrossing songs, very well executed It seems like black metal was in the majority this year, although definitely in varied forms. This year is a bit less avant-garde and progressive than the years before it, but many of these are still fairly complex albums that are far from being straightforward, with a few exceptions. Again, I feel that the quality is not uniform, and I'm sure this is going to be a year that will greatly change as I explore more of the albums released in it.

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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year 2000 1. Halford - Resurrection 2. Rapture - Futile 3. Rivendell - The Ancient Glory 4. Novembers Doom - The Knowing 5. Helloween - The Dark Ride 6. Lacuna Coil - Halflife 7. Shape of Despair - Shades of... 8. Cradle Of Filth - Midian 9. Nocturnus - Ethereal Tomb 10. Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World

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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year 2001: 1. Lacuna Coil - Unleashed Memories 2. Lacrimas Profundere - Burning: A Wish 3. Amorphis - Am Uinversum 4. Annihilator - Carnival Diablos 5. My Dying Bride - The Dreadful Hours 6. Borknagar - Empiricism 7. Angra - Rebirth 8. Cathedral - Endtyme 9. Katatonia - Last Fair Deal Gone Down 10. Arch Enemy - Wages of Sin

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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year 2002: 1. Novembers Doom - To Welcome the Fade 2. Amon Amarth - Versus the World 3. Paradise Lost - Symbol of Life 4. Daylight Dies - No Reply 5. Funeral - In Fields of Pestilent Grief 6. Mourning Beloveth - The Sullen Sulcus 7. Rapture - Songs for the Withering 8. Lacuna Coil - Comalise 9. Hammerfall - Crimson Thunder 10. Sentenced - The Cold White Light Honorable Mention: My Dying Bride - The Voice of the Wretched Cathedral - The VIIth Coming Flowing Tears - Serpentine In Flames - Reroute to Remain Angra - Hunters & Prey Xasthur - Nocturnal Poisoning

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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year 2003: 1. Amorphis - Far from the Sun 2. Nevermore - Enemies of Reality 3. Soilwork - Figure Number Five 4. In Flames - Reroute to Remain 5. Cradle Of Filth - Damnation and a Day 6. Poisonblack - Escapexstacy 7. Dark Tranquillity - Damage Done 8. Blind Guardian - A Night at the Opera 9. Draconian - Where Lovers Mourn 10. Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me

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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year

As bandmates, it's interesting to note that NTNR and I have had this many shared top 10 picks per year: 1990: 3 1991: 2 1992: 1 1993: 2 1994: 1 1995: 2 1996: 0 1997: 1 (inconsistent years though) 1998: 0 1999: 1 2000: 1 2001: 1 2002: 1 2003: 0
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! We just rock!
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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year 2004: 1. Mar de Grises - The Tatterdemalion Express 2. My Dying Bride - Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light 3. Morgion - Cloaked by Ages, Crowned in Earth 4. Angra - Temple of Shadows 5. Within Temptation - The Silent Force 6. Fall of the Leafe - Volvere 7. Cannibal Corpse - The Wretched Spawn 8. In Flames - Soundtrack To Your Escape 9. Orphaned Land - Mabool 10. Rammstein - Reise, Reise

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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year

2004: 1. Mar de Grises - The Tatterdemalion Express 2. My Dying Bride - Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light 3. In Flames - Soundtrack To Your Escape 4. Morgion - Cloaked by Ages, Crowned in Earth 5. Angra - Temple of Shadows 6. Within Temptation - The Silent Force 7. Cannibal Corpse - The Wretched Spawn 8. Fall of the Leafe - Volvere 9. Orphaned Land - Mabool 10. Rammstein - Reise, Reise
Wow, we might make is up to 2 or 3 common picks in this year, I'll have to get it together and post it to see.
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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year 2005: 1. Dark Tranquillity - Character 2. Fall of the Leafe - Vantage 3. Cathedral - The Garden of Unearthly Delights 4. Mourning Beloveth - A Murderous Circle 5. Swallow the Sun - The Ghosts of Loss 6. Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell 7. King's X - Ogre Tones 8. Tristania - Ashes 9. After Forever - Remagine 10. Candlemass - Candlemass

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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year

2005: 1. Dark Tranquillity - Character
Actually, I listened through this album recently and I'm planning on getting some of the songs. At first glance, I'd still say I prefer Damage Done so far. And Fiction was overrated as all get out.
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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year 2006: 1. Paradise Lost - Paradise Lost 2. Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death 3. Amon Amarth - With Oden on Our Side 4. Process of Guilt - Renounce 5. Theatre Of Tragedy - Storm 6. Moonspell - Memorial 7. Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance 8. Daylight Dies - Dismantling Devotion 9. Angra - Aurora Consurgens 10. My Dying Bride - A Line of Deathless Kings Honorable Mention: Draconian - The Burning Halo Blind Guardian - A Twist in the Myth Cannibal Corpse - Kill Dismember - The God that Never Was Stolen Babies - There Be Squabbles Ahead Hammerfall - Threshold (After I finish my 2000's list I'm going to post my 80's list!)

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Re: Top 10 Albums of Any Given Year

I'm the other way around. I thought Damage Done had a couple of good songs but Character blew it away. It's easily the best DT album out there.
I'll have to get back to you on this when I give it a second listen.
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