My Top 10 (or 20) Albums of 2009. And My Top 5 Duds.
First I will start with my honorable mentions since it was so hard getting this down to a top 10 list:
20. KMFDM - Blitz
19. Swallow the Sun - New Moon
18. Municipal Waste - Massive Aggressive
17. Rammstein - Liebe ist fur Alle da
16. Clutch - Strange Cousins From the West
15. Devildriver - Pray for Villians
14. Sybreed - The Pulse of Awakening
13. The Killer and the Star - The Killer and the Star
12. Behemoth - Evangelion
11. Slayer - World Painted Blood
Now for the not so easy to decide Top 10:
10. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
This album has all of the funkiness of QOTSA with the groove of Zeppelin. It's full of win folks.
9. Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder
I think this is the best doom metal album I have ever heard. It's yet another 'supergroup' of musicians.
8. Devin Townsend - Addicted!
This is an album that I have nothing else even close to in my collection. Heavy metal pop basically describes it.
7. Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue
This is exactly the kind of comeback album that any of us could have hoped for. No pathetic attempt at replacing Layne but still an individual sound that is distinctly AIC.
6. Hurt - Goodbye To The Machine
This album has gotten extensive listening from me. It's one of those bands I have a weakness for obviously.
5. Megadeth - Endgame
A great return to form to the old style of Megadeth. We're still trying to get the taste of "The World Needs A Hero" out of our mouths. This helps.
4. Goatwhore - Carving Out The Eyes of God
They take all of the wonderful things in black metal and mix it with all of the wonderful things about thrash metal. The results are a great headbanging album.
3. Lamb of God - Wrath
This album pretty much has it all when perfecting the Lamb of God sound. Of course 'Reclamation' is the icing on the cake here. Fucking amazing.
2. Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Yeah, most people would want to know why this is #2 like it's some sort of sacrilege. It is that amazing, I do agree. It makes me feel like I should be doing drugs to fully appreciate it.
1. Chevelle - Sci-Fi Crimes
Yeah, I'll hear a lot of shit for this one. However there are very few albums that get stuck in your head that you just feel compelled to hear over and over again. This album has gotten stuck in my head since the first time that I listened to it. They win my vote this year.
Now I bring you the top 5 duds of 2009. I know there were a lot of horrible albums made this year, however these are albums that I actually was stupid enough to anticipate the release of:
5. Mudvayne - Mudvayne
I can officially say you pulled a Staind. You were 'going back to basics' and 'getting heavier' and you made an album that sounds way too much like B-sides from your last album. Yeah, I'll listen to it once in a while but it's just not the same as the Mudvayne we all learned to love.
4. Marilyn Manson - The High End of Low
Seriously dude, give it up while you still have the chance to be a notorious has-been. You are losing more credibility by putting out three horrible albums in a row than if you would have just faded into obscurity after Holy Wood. I know that you thought a single that involved a ton of swearing would be a chart topper like back in the old days but this is just watered down played out garbage you are making for the sake of being an 'artist'. I miss the 2001 Marilyn Manson as much as everyone to be honest.
3. Dead By Sunrise - Out of Ashes
This album pisses me off. I listened to it once and decided I had no reason to listen to it anymore. It's hard to get excited or even get your hopes up for a side project by somebody from Linkin Park. I believed the hype about how this band was heavier than Linkin Park and this was music that didn't fit into their catalogue. This was whiny borderline emo shit that doesn't fit into the catalogue of anyone over the age of 13.
2. Five Finger Death Punch - War Is the Answer
I think mute is actually the answer. Your cover of 'Bad Company' is the ONLY thing that gave this album redeeming qualities to me. I have absolutely no tolerance for lyrics from the standpoint and education of a third grade bully. I tried really hard to like it too because the first album wasn't bad sans the cheesy as fuck lyrics then too.
1. Otep - Smash the Control Machine
This album makes me want to smash the heads of small children. I used to hate the whining interludes on the old albums, but the almost rap songs and poorly written music on this album makes me miss those days. At least a few good songs were stuck in between that shit back then.