The 2015 Finale!
It’s here! It’s finally here! Our top albums of the year list for you to argue over! I know you guys have been dying to get to this episode, so I’ll refrain form further exclamations and let you get into it! (Also, I hope you just read all that with the intended sarcasm.)
- Cattle Decapitation – The Anthropocene Extinction (Metal Blade)
- Soilwork – The Ride Majestic (Nuclear Blast)
- Enabler – Fail to Feel Safe (Century Media)
- Mutoid Man – Bleeder (Sargent House)
- Pronostic – An Atomic Decision
- Royal Thunder – Crooked Doors (Relapse)
- Amorphis – Under the Red Cloud (Nuclear Blast)
- Enshine – Singularity (Rain Without End)
- Byzantine – To Release is to Resolve
- Dead Empires – Secret Snakes / Silent Serpents
- Tempel – The Moon Lit Our Path (Prosthetic)
- Chaos Divine – Colliding Skies (Firestarter)
- Whorion – The Reign of the 7th Sector (Inverse)
- Periphery – Juggernaut: Alpha & Omega (Sumerian)
- InAeona – Force Rise The Sun (Prosthetic)
- Lamb of God – VII: Sturm Und Drang (Epic)
- Wild Throne – Harvest of Darkness (Roadrunner)
- Secrets of the Sky – Pathway (Metal Blade)
- Caligula’s Horse – Bloom (Inside Out)
- The Crinn – Shadowbreather
Out of the 25 or so albums I actually listened to and bought this year, these were my favourites.
Amorphis – Under The Red Cloud
Chaos Divine – Colliding Skies
Enshine – Singularity
Der Weg Einer Freiheit – Stellar
We Lost The Sea – Departure Songs
Enslaved – In Times
Love the podcast. All the best for 2016.
Even though we don’t have a ton of albums that overlap in our lists this year, I can agree that you have some great stuff on your list. Certainly some of the lack of overlap just has to do with the fact that I didn’t listen to as much as you guys did. In fact, I can’t really disagree with much of anything on your list. Cattle Decap was my number 2 album, and I can’t disagree with Soilwork even though I did not listen to their latest album. I can recognize that Soilwork has had a solid career in which they continue to put out good music even if I haven’t been able to keep up with it all.
A couple of albums that made your lists that just missed mine were Tempel and Royal Thunder. Both were very good albums that just missed the cut for me. It starts to be like splitting hairs to determine the difference between the 19th best album of the year and the 22nd best album.
Maybe the only album on your list that disappointed me was Byzantine. I loved their self titled album from a couple of years ago, but To Release Is To Resolve just never sunk in with me. It is enjoyable while I am listening to it and I like the different vocal stylings, but the album never made a lasting impression on me.
What were the albums on each of your lists that didn’t overlap? Were Faith No More and Gorod on Nick’s list? (they were both on mine). Did Brian have Paradise Lost? Anyone have Intronaut?
My runner-ups were:
Axis, Old Wounds, Faith No More, Gorod, and Intronaut
-n
My other 5s that didn’t crossover were Scumguts and Harm’s Way. (InAeona Nick did not give a 5, but obviously it was on the list). The three 4s that would have rounded out my 25 would be Enslaved, Horrendous and…well, I don’t know. There are 9 others I could have picked from. lol