Alright next update, this week we'll start in on the top 10!
#14. Iced Earth – Something Wicked This Way Comes (1998) I was torn between this album, Horror Show, and Burnt Offerings, but I settled on this album for two reasons, one that this album is the perfect blend of the more power metal style of Horror Show and the thrashier, heavy metal oriented Offerings. The other reason is this being another album with a lot of nostalgia for me. The closing track The Coming Curse was another one of the first metal songs I ever heard, and at first it did absolutely nothing for me and I soon forgot it…then come February of 2011 I decide to check out this album, and damn, was I blown away.
The riffs were some of the most badass I had ever heard…and the vocals, oh my god, Matt Barlow instantly became one of my favorite vocalists by listening to this album. His range was godlike, unlike anything I had ever heard, with haunting lows and demonic highs.
I see most say that this album has a lot of filler, but I disagree, practically every song on this album I love, even weaker ones like Stand Alone can manage to get me to headbang along furiously.
And of course the last three tracks , the so called “Something Wicked Trilogy” are mind blowing in their own right, and one of my favorite ending runs in any album ever.
Amazing album, and staple of metal for anyone who listens to the genre
Recommended Tracks:
The Coming Curse, Consequences, Disciples of the Lie, Birth Of The Wicked #13. Rotting Christ – AEALO (2010) This album is really weird, It’s a mixture of melodic black metal and greek folk music. Like I said weird…but at the same time manage to be stunning.
None of the songs are particularly fast paced (the title track is probably the fastest things get on this album) but man the guitar parts are nothing short of amazing. Like the solo in Demonon Vrosis, or the melodies in Noctis Era, the guitar melodies and mid tempo, “war march” type feel of this album makes it absolutely stunning and powerful in places.
However my favorite song on this album may seem a bit odd a pick to some. It’s the final track on the album “Orders from the dead” which isn’t a song so much as a reading of a poem set to music. The poem is the poem of the same name by Diamanda Galas, and damn is it grim, with the haunting voice of its author reading it set to Rotting Christ’s music (the same mid tempo march style with amazing guitar melodies), and as the content of the poem gets darker and darker, the music grows heavier and heavier.
It’s beautiful in a way really.
If nothing else check out that one track just for the sake of hearing it once.
Recommended tracks:
Orders From The Dead, Noctis Era, Demonon Vrosis, Thou Art Lord, Fire Death and Fear. #12. Pendulum – Immersion (2010) Probably the most out of place thing on my list, but I’ll keep it short…
The music on this album is just fun, and as someone who finds most electronic music (especially a lot of Drum & Bass stuff) unappealing, this album is just fucking awesome. The songs are catchy, fun to sing along with, and it even includes guest appearances by In Flames and Steven Wilson.
I love all three of Pendulum’s albums almost equally, but this is another album that I pick out of nostalgia, since I listened to it almost non-stop throughout my entire freshman year of high school, and for better or worse I’ll always associate it with that.
If you like catchy fun music this’ll be for you, even if you don’t like electronic stuff, this is worth a listen.
Recommended tracks:
The Fountain, Crush, Witchcraft, Watercolour, Under The Waves, The Island #11. Mercenary – 11 Dreams (2004) This album just barely got cut from being in my top 10, I wanted it to be in there, but there were a couple albums that I just had to put in over this one.
That being said, this album is just plain amazing.
On this album Mercenary played a very proggy-melodeath style that went from vicious and abrasive songs like World Hate Center, to beautiful ballads like Sharpen The Edges, to the epic Firesoul. Firesoul not only being my favorite off of this album, but one of my favorite songs ever, and being the perfect cross section of this album, with the shrieking opening section, and soaring chorus parts that defy all imagnination.
The vocals on this album are just too damn good, Mikkel Sandager’s performance on this album is probably one of the greatest in metal, and probably one of the most criminally overlooked ever.
The same can pretty much be said for this album, and it’s a shame that after this album Mercenary never managed to make anything that ever came close to being as good as this album (imo, though Hours That Remain was really good, and Architect of Lies having a few really good songs on it), with their latest being one of the most disappointingly generic melodeath albums I’ve ever heard.
Recommended tracks:
Firesoul, World Hate Center, Sharpen The Edges, 11 Dreams