Paylaş
The Top 75 Albums of 2007
23 Ara 2007, 06:08
Gather round, kids! It's time once again for my list of the best albums of the year. And it's going to be one hell of a long list. Last year I had trouble scrounging up enough albums to make a top 25. This year I had trouble restricting myself to 75, if not quite enough to make a top 100. I had a lot of time on my hands in the first half of the year and went on a rampage of musical discovery. My list is still dominated by metal -- particularly prog metal, this year -- but there are more appearances from other genres than in years past. Because there are so many albums on this list, it was a little difficult to rank them, and the further from the top I got, the harder it became. As such, the rankings down there are only approximate.
Along with the huge number of great releases this year, there have been quite a few disappointments as well. Arcturus is gone, and the awe-inspiring lineup of Green Carnation has parted ways; though Tchort intends to continue using the name, it won't be like it was. Royal Hunt lost their vocalist. Long-awaited albums from Wintersun, Augury, Equilibrium, Anathema, and Ásmegin are nowhere to be found. And there were a lot of great bands who released subpar efforts, as we'll soon see.
For my list, I considered full-length studio albums only. No EPs, demos, singles, live albums, or compilations are eligible. You'll see a few icons scattered throughout the list:
denotes an album that came out better than I was expecting, 
indicates an album that failed to live up to expectations, and 
is for artists who were new to me this year. As always, this list is my opinion only, and not an attempt at some sort of objective ranking. And as always, your thoughts and comments are welcome. If you know something that I've been missing out on, please let me know. And now, on to the music!
Oversights
Before I get into the actual rankings, I'd like to list a few albums that I've been meaning to try this year and just haven't gotten around to for one reason or another. There's so much to listen to that it's inevitable for a few things to get overlooked, and I figured I'd point them out here so I don't get people recommending them. I'll get to them all eventually. And I'm sure there are more that I can't remember, but here are the ones I can, in alphabetical order:
Anaal Nathrakh - Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here
Apocalyptica - Worlds Collide
Behemoth - The Apostasy
Epica - The Divine Conspiracy
Evoken - A Caress Of the Void
Mechanical Poet - Who Did It To Michelle Waters?
Nile - Ithyphallic
Slough Feg - Hardworlder
Spheric Universe Experience - Anima
I wish I could have gotten to these by the end of the year as it's likely that at least a couple of them would have made the list, but what can you do? And now for what I did manage to hear this year...
The Merely Decent
75. Teargas & Plateglass - Black Triage
Here we have a fairly good if somewhat unremarkable collection of electronic ambient music. I could be judging this album unfairly as I haven't been able to spend much time with it yet, but I did feel that it deserved to make the list, which makes it better than a ton of other stuff I've heard this year even if it does have the bottom spot.
74. Spellblast - Horns Of Silence
Isn't Spellblast the name of a Magic: the Gathering card? I feel like such a nerd for knowing that, but I guess listening to power metal makes me a nerd to begin with, so I'm guilty either way. I honestly don't listen to this album much, but it does stand out from most of the power metal being released today.
73. Megadeth - United Abominations
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Dave Mustaine is an extremely talented guy, and love him or hate him, nobody can deny his importance in the history of metal. That said, I fear he's well past his prime. A lot of people will tell you that the band hit bottom with Risk, but I actually enjoyed Risk quite a bit (I liked Metallica's Load too), whereas this simply fails to hold my interest. Dave's political bullshit certainly doesn't help, either. "Amerikhastan" wins the award for the year's most asinine song title. Megadeth was my favorite band for a long time, and it hurts to see them barely making the top 75.
72. Mechanical Poet - Creepy tales for freaky children
Mechanical Poet is a power/prog metal band that had a fantastic EP called Handmade Essence in 2003, and a superb full-length called Woodland Prattlers in 2004 which was one of my favorite albums of that year. They split up, then reformed, but without their vocalist Max Samosvat, and started billing themselves as a rock band rather than a metal one. These things had me worried, but other bands have made that transition successfully. Mechanical Poet just can't seem to manage it. The new singer can't match Samosvat's agility and style, and the new music doesn't really sound like a new style; it sounds like they took their old style and stripped away something essential. I don't know how to describe it any better than that. I was really disappointed by this, perhaps more disappointed in it than any other release this year.
71. Dark Moor - Tarot
I don't listen to much power metal anymore, but these guys do it reasonably well. "The Chariot" is a strong track and a very promising opener, but not representative of the quality of the album as a whole.
70. Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli
I've enjoyed these guys quite a bit in the past, largely because I worship Simen Hestnæs as a god, but also because I'm a sucker for symphonic black metal and I think they do it quite well, despite their silly image and their laughable lyrics and album titles. I liked Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia a lot. Death Cult Armageddon was hit-and-miss, but still had plenty of good stuff. This latest album continues the downward trend; it's all right, but it just doesn't have much on it that's really memorable. The fact that the mighty Arcturus is gone and this band continues makes me pretty depressed. Why couldn't it be the other way around?
69. Dial - Synchronized
I was pretty upset when I heard that Kristoffer Gildenlow had left Pain of Salvation. He's a very talented musician, and as he proved on Pain of Salvation's 12:5, a most capable vocalist as well. Now he's got this alternative rock project called Dial happening, and it's OK, but to be honest, I was expecting more. I don't much care for whoever the female vocalist on this album is, which is a big factor in my disappointment. It's a decent album, just not what I was hoping for.
68. Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau - Metheny Mehldau Quartet
When I'm in the mood for jazz, which admittedly is not very often, I enjoy these guys a lot. "The Sound Of Water" is an especially good song, one of the few on here that I can listen to anytime. Incidentally, if anyone has any recommendations on jazz albums that I should hear, please let me know.
67. Pagan's Mind - God's Equation
What happened here, I wonder? I listened to Celestial Entrance obsessively when it came out, and just couldn't get enough of these guys. "...of Epic Questions" is one of my most-played songs of all time. And yet God's Equation is just completely underwhelming. It's not bad, per se, but it's far below what this band is capable of. An unusual number of excellent prog metal albums came out this year, and this one can't even begin to compete.
66. Serenity - Words Untold & Dreams Unlived
More power metal! These guys kind of remind me of Sonata Arctica, only they don't have any lyrics about the lead singer's ex-girlfriends (that I know of). This one is a pretty solid album that should make power metal fans here. It might even be deserving of a more prominent spot on the list, but I haven't listened to it enough to be sure.
65. Bloody Panda - Pheromone
If nothing else, these guys win points for having an amusing band name. And unlike most other bands with amusing names that I know, this band actually has musical talent as well. They're a doom metal outfit from New York City whose lead singer is a woman with a pretty unusual approach to the job. Listen for yourself -- it's good stuff.
64. Daemonia Nymphe - Krataia Asterope
Neofolk is a genre that's pretty new to me. Before 2007, I hadn't really heard any folk music aside from Tenhi, Nest, and October Falls. This year I heard a ton of it, and this was one of the few that struck a chord with me. I do wish the vocals were better -- and I seem to make that complaint about a lot of neofolk bands -- but this is pretty good.
63. Gernotshagen - Märe aus wäldernen Hallen
This album blends black metal and folk influences and manages to handle both aspects of their sound pretty well, though I prefer the folkier stuff, and the album's production really could have used some more work. If you're not bothered by that sort of thing, you may enjoy this.
62. Sonata Arctica - Unia
Here is yet another band in decline. I was pretty excited for Unia, and the first time I put it on, I was really excited. Album opener "In Black and White" is outstanding, and so is the following song, "Paid in Full." Yet after that, the rest of the album just blends together in my mind. I can't separate one song from the next and I find that I don't really want to. It's a horrible let-down considering how powerfully the album opened. By the way, there's plenty more evidence here to support my theory that Tony Kakko has had his heart broken by every last woman in Finland.
61. Korpiklaani - Tervaskanto
The prevailing opinion when this was first released was that it was some of Korpiklaani's finest work, an outstanding folk metal album. But I'm not hearing it for some reason. Am I the only one who misses Korpiklaani's older stuff?
60. Thought Chamber - Angular Perceptions
Speaking of prog metal albums, here's another one. Not a particularly distinguished one, but it's competently done and should do the job if you're a prog junkie in need of a fix. To be fair, it is a debut release, though these are accomplished musicians. It'll be interesting to see if they mature at all on the follow-up.
59. aRCSIN - Oculus Fang
I got this because it was recommended by someone whose taste I respect, and because I just had to know what "instrumental hip-hop" (which is how it was described to me) sounds like. I wasn't really expecting to like it, but there are actually some pretty solid tracks on here. If someone more familiar with this genre happens to read this, I'd appreciate a recommendation or two so I can explore it a little further. Arcsin does some nice work with an electric guitar on the opening track "
Dreamcatcher," which may be part of the reason it managed to worm its way into my black, metal-loving heart.
58. Pain of Salvation - Scarsick
Ugh, where to begin? In The Perfect Element, Part I and Remedy Lane, these guys had two of the best prog metal albums of all time. BE had me a little worried, mostly for the ridiculousness of its concept, but that album still had tons of great material, and so I expected better than this. The first two songs do nothing for me; I don't care for Pain of Salvation's take on rap. "Cribcaged" is strong musically, but utterly robbed of whatever emotional impact it otherwise would have had by its embarrassingly bad lyrics. "America" is just obnoxious, musically and thematically. There are very, very few bands in the world that can mix politics with music and come across well, and Pain of Salvation is not among them. Luckily, things pick up a little in the later parts of the disc. "Disco Queen" is absolutely fabulous and almost makes up for the crap that came before it. "Flame to the Moth" and "Enter Rain" are excellent tracks, too. But this album should have been so much more. Instead, it joins Creepy tales for freaky children as a strong contender for disappointment of the year.
57. Masterplan - Mk II
Masterplan still make pretty decent music, better than that of most power metal bands, but I think they lose a lot of their appeal without Jorn Lande. It's too bad; they were one of the better power metal bands out there. All things must end, I suppose.
56. Thunderbolt - Apocalyptic Doom
Despite the name, this isn't really doom; it's a pretty solid black metal album from this now-defunct band of church-burning jokers. I'm not familiar with any of their older stuff so I can't give a comparison for those of you who may be fans, but it's at least worth a listen.
55. Walknut - Graveforests And Their Shadows
While I'm sure it means something else, I can't help thinking that the name of this band sounds like the favorite pastime of a man who enjoys mixing sex and pain. I don't much like the thought of someone walking on my nuts, but I do like this album. It's harsh black metal that does an unusually good job of building a bleak atmosphere.
54. KromleK - Strange Rumors... Distant Tremors
Go look at this band's silly picture on MetalArchives.com, and if you know metal at all, you'll have an amusingly accurate idea of exactly what you're in for. This is pretty decent folk metal with some cheesy synths and vocals that could probably be improved. The opening of this album made me wonder if I was in for something like Turisas, but this band isn't as epic or aggressive as that one, and in my opinion, not as talented either. That's not to say that the album isn't worth a listen, though. By all means, give it a try.
53. After Forever - After Forever
Female-fronted gothic / symphonic metal used to hold more appeal for me. These days it seems like it's all I can do just to tell those bands apart frome one another. After Forever is a pretty decent one though, and I have a soft spot for them since I love Floor Jansen's work with Ayreon and Star One.
52. Naglfar - Harvest
This is a black metal album with a more melodic bent. If you like that sort of thing, well, you could definitely do worse, but you could certainly do better, too. It's a decent effort, nothing terribly special.
51. Empyrean Eclipse - Illumination Undone
The debut album from this American death metal band is pretty damn good. It's melodic, but not overly so. I probably would have rated this higher a couple of years ago, when I listened to more stuff like this. Still, it's worth a look, and you can get some full songs from their page on last.fm.
The Good, If Not Great
50. Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
It might seem a little strange to see that "better than expected" tag on an album that just barely managed to crack the top 50, but I honestly thought this album was going to be horrible. Nightwish have been declining over the years -- their last couple of albums don't even come close to Oceanborn as far as I'm concerned -- and with Tarja gone, I figured that they wouldn't really stand out anymore. But there are some surprisingly good songs here, Anette fits the band well, and Marco is doing an admirable job on his vocal performances too. It's good to see that these guys are still in the game.
49. Bola - Kroungrine
Here we have a very nice electronic album that I'm at a loss to describe, since I don't have much like it in my collection. This is IDM if last.fm's army of taggers are to be believed, but my only experience with that genre has been with bands like Helios and Xela, and Bola is considerably different than either of them, less laid-back with stronger beats and more prominent electronics. Some of it sounds like it wouldn't be out of place in a film soundtrack. Cool stuff; I hope to hear more in the future.
48. Mors Principium Est - Liberation = Termination
I discovered these guys a couple of years ago, after I'd already started becoming disinterested in most of the melodic death metal bands I used to listen to, and found them to be one of the few bands working in that style who still sounded fresh and interesting. Sadly, they seem to be dropping off a bit. Both of their preceding albums were significantly better than this one.
47. Before the Dawn - Deadlight
I'm big on vocals, so stick Lars Eric Si (of Winds fame) in a band and I'm bound to enjoy it, regardless of what they're playing. The music on this album is good, but not great; without Lars it probably wouldn't be anything too exciting.
46. Elend - A World in Their Screams
This dark neoclassical band plays music that sounds like it came off the soundtrack to a horror movie, and is a lot of fun to listen to if you're just lying in the dark sometime. Opening track "Ophis Puthôn" is exceptional, but sadly, the rest of the album doesn't live up to the same standard.
45. Alamaailman Vasarat - Maahan
I don't have any idea what the hell these guys are doing. I can't even identify most of the instruments they're playing. But whatever it is, it's definitely interesting.
44. Virgin Black - Requiem - Mezzo Forte
These guys surprised me with their fairly unique symphonic doom. It's beautiful and it's extremely well executed. Unfortunately I think it also gets a little boring after awhile, but from what I've read, I seem to be in the minority with this opinion.
43. Toroidh - Segervittring
This is solid ambient martial stuff from the prolific Henrik Nordvargr Björkk. It's a genre I've just started getting into this year, and I have to be in a certain mood to listen to it, so I don't know much that I can say about it. Sorry!
42. Civilization One - Revolution Rising
Here's another prog metal debut from a band full of accomplished musicians, kind of like Thought Chamber, except that I like this one a lot better.
41. Nightingale - White Darkness
Dan Swanö never disappoints, though to be honest, I figured that this album would come out a little higher on the list when all was said and done. It's a good album, and there are songs that I still really like, particularly "Wounded Soul." I just think it got a little old after awhile. A prog metal overload this year, perhaps, as you'll see when we get to my top ten.
40. Novembers Doom - The Novella Reservoir
I finally got around to listening to this band this year. Not nearly enough, so there's not much I can say about them, but enough to place them ahead of most of the rest of what I heard this year.
39. Dark Tranquillity - Fiction
I think Dark Tranquillity are the only one of the old "Gothenburg sound" bands that I still listen to. While most of their peers have fallen into sharp decline, these guys are still making interesting music. "Inside The Particle Storm" is my favorite song from them in quite some time.
38. Finntroll - Ur Jordens Djup
I haven't listened to Finntroll in a long time, and for some reason, the last time I tried listening to them, I didn't like them at all. This year I happened to see a review of Ur Jordens Djup in which the writer claimed that it sounded like Moonsorrow playing shorter songs, so I had to check it out, and I'm glad I did. I misjudged this band earlier. They are a fine bunch of trolls.
37. Nae'blis - Sketches Of Reality
Here is another bleak and atmspheric black metal band. "Atmospheric" is a word that's pretty overused, even (especially?) for black metal bands, but these guys actually deserve it, as do Walknut (who showed up a little while ago, for those of you who aren't reading this whole thing). The songs do require a fair amount of attention; the album has only four tracks and clocks in at over 50 minutes.
36. Kamelot - Ghost Opera
Kamelot's new album really should have been top-ten material at least. Here is a band that has gotten consistently stronger with every release in their discography. Epica was outstanding, and The Black Halo somehow managed to be even better, so the expectations for Ghost Opera were ludicrously high. I suppose it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that they weren't met, but it's a disappointment nonetheless. Don't get me wrong; this is a good album, and still towers over almost every other power metal album being made these days. But Kamelot can do better.
35. Crystal Abyss - Word of the Darkest Ages
This is pretty slick melodic/symphonic black metal that reminds me a little of Sinful's Omyt, only it's not in Russian and there are fewer vampires. I can't even remember how I heard about this band. They do seem to be relatively unknown judging by the number of listeners they have here on last.fm, but you can stream some of their songs in their entirety, so go have a listen.
34. Mind's Eye - A Gentleman's Hurricane
I don't know if 2007 has just been an unusually good year for prog metal or if it's just coincidence that I discovered so much, but either way, I'm happy. Mind's Eye -- a band I'd never heard of before -- does a fine job on this album, though I can't really say that there are any standout tracks on it.
33. Ensiferum - Victory Songs
Jari Mäenpää may be gone, but Ensiferum remains, and I was genuinely surprised by how good they still sound. Mäenpää is a hugely creative guy, and as the former lead vocalist and guitarist for Ensiferum, I assumed that he was a large part of their sound and that the band would suffer greatly for his loss. Their sound does suffer -- the new vocalist is good, but not as good, and the music shows less variety than it used to -- but they've still managed to put together an extremely respectable album here. I knew about two seconds into "Blood Is the Price of Glory" that my fears were unfounded. A very nice surprise.
32. Paradise Lost - In Requiem
These guys have been around for ages, and yet this is the first album of theirs that I've heard. If it's representative of the rest of their catalog, I'm going to have to start digging into their older stuff. This is unusually good gothic/doom metal, not quite as gloomy as something like My Dying Bride (the vocals are noticeably more energetic, for one thing), but it ought to appeal to the same kind of people.
31. Riverside - Rapid Eye Movement
I was anticipating this album pretty highly as I really enjoyed their first two albums, particularly the debut Out of Myself. This one isn't quite on the same level, unfortunately. It's a solid prog rock album, though, and it's got some good tracks. The single "02 Panic Room" is a very nice bit of work, for example. I haven't heard too many opinions from other Riverside fans, so I'm kind of curious as to whether others also found this to be a little below expectations.
30. Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
A fantastic effort from this increasingly well-known prog rock band, and a considerable improvement over Deadwing in my opinion, aside from what I'd say is a somewhat unfortunate title.
29. Atrium Carceri - Ptahil
Fans of spooky background music, take note! This is dark ambient done right. Not much else to say, really.
28. Fortid - Völuspa Part II - The Arrival of Fenris
This album took awhile to grow on me. Actually, it took most of the year. I must have listened to it ten times before I realized that I enjoyed it, which really makes me wonder what kind of nice music might be out there that I heard a few times and dismissed. Oh well. Fans of black and Viking metal will probably get into Fortid's sound pretty quickly (if you're going to get into it at all), as it should be pretty familiar. Check out the title track as a place to start.
27. Root - Daemon Viam Invenient
I think Root are headed in the right direction again with this album. I wasn't the biggest fan of Madness of the Graves, although it did give the world "The Last Gate (The Story of Demons)," which is wonderfully useful for frightening small children... and adults, for that matter. Daemon Viam Invenient is an improvement, I'd say, although I haven't spent as much time with it as I ought to.
26. Bereavement - The Advent Of Loss
Here we've got progressive death metal reminiscent of Opeth, and apparently being made in the United States, which I thought was pretty surprising. I don't think I know any other American bands who sound like this. A most impressive effort, and well worth hearing.
The Runners-Up
25. Nest - Trail Of The Unwary
Finally, another album from these guys! Nest play an extremely soothing brand of ambient / neofolk music; metal fans may know them from their collaboration with Agalloch a few years back. This album is a bit darker than their last, but is every bit as good, and if you can get your hands on the special edition, there's a whole second disc full of the band's early demos and a few other goodies.
24. Circus Maximus - Isolate
Not too long ago, had someone asked me to describe Circus Maximus, I would have said that they sound similar to Pagan's Mind, only not as good (though with vocals that are less likely to scare people off). Now a couple of years have passed, and this band has moved way up in my charts, while Pagan's Mind has taken a huge slide. It's funny the way things work. This is very strong material, and if they can keep it up, this band may have a very bright future. That said, "Arrival of Love" wins the award for the most absurdly cheesy melody of the year. Every time I hear it, I have to stop and ask myself whether I should laugh or cringe. I end up picking one about as often as the other. But that's just one complaint on an otherwise worthy album, so don't let it deter you.
23. Le Grand Guignol - The Great Maddening
It may not be an established genre, but "circus metal" comes pretty close to the mark for this bizarre album. It sounds something like a cross between Unexpect and Arcturus's La Masquerade Infernale. It's not as good as either, but still, how often do you hear something that can be compared to those singular bands? If you like weird music, you must check this out.
22. Svarrogh - Balkan Renaissance
I guess these guys are a black metal band, according to last.fm, but there's no metal on this album, just my favorite neofolk of the year. Why do so many metal bands seem to be so good at this sort of thing? No doubt someone who knows more about music could tell me.
21. Vintersorg - Solens rötter
Vintersorg's last album wasn't all that great in my opinion, so Solens Rötter came as a very pleasant surprise. It sounds a bit more like the old Vintersorg we all love (or hate). The folky elements in his music are better and more prevalent, the songs are less hit-and-miss, and best of all, all the lyrics are in Swedish so I can't understand what the fuck he's saying.
20. Mael Mórdha - Gealtacht Mael Mórdha
This is great folky doom from Ireland that took me awhile to get into for some reason. I can't really think of anyone to compare them to, and I suck at describing music, so you'll just have to hear this album for yourself. "Atlas of Sorrow" and "Curse Of The Bard" are particularly good.
19. Nahemah - The Second Philosophy
Progressive death metal, or melodic death metal, or whatever you want to call it, doesn't sound this good very often. Apparently these guys released their debut album about six years ago, then went silent until now. I've heard their debut, and it's not bad, but it's nothing like this excellent piece of work. The Second Philosophy is brooding, melodic, and filled with all kinds of interesting ideas. Fans of bands like Novembre or Opeth will doubtless find plenty to enjoy here.
18. Liholesie - Videniya
I'm honestly not sure what year this was released, as I saw it on a few year-end lists in 2006. The band says that it came out in "Winter 2007," so I suppose it might have just leaked onto the Internet in late 2006, or maybe it actually was released in December or something, and the band includes that as part of Winter 2007. Whatever the case, this is too good to leave off my list, so here it is. This is an outstanding dark ambient release that manages to be subtle enough to leave on in the background, yet interesting enough to listen to intently, a hard balance to achieve.
17. Therion - Gothic Kabbalah
Therion is back with another double album, their thirteenth if I remember correctly, and it's pretty impressive how strong they still are. This one is a bit different from their previous works. Gone are the growls that made a few reappearances on Lemuria and Sirius B. Gothic Kabbalah takes a bit of a different vocal approach, sounding almost like power metal at times. Therion have always been a bit inconsistent with their songwriting, but when they get it right, they can be pretty amazing. In particular, "Son of the Staves of Time" easily stands among the best songs the band have recorded in their long and storied history.
16. Samael - Solar Soul
I didn't like this album the first time I heard it, or the second time. I think it was just the vocals that put me off. I'm glad I stuck with it, though. Of the few examples of industrial metal I've heard, this is one of the best. Think something similar to Cypher by ...and Oceans, only less repetitive.
15. Senmuth - [Various albums]
This is the only entry on my list that's not for a particular album. Senmuth is a one-man project from Russia, and the guy is insanely prolific. He has released at least ten albums this year that I know of, and every one of them is very good. His stuff is all instrumental, but it varies quite a bit aside from that. He does industrial, ambient, doom, and probably more genres whose names and descriptions I don't know. This guy deserves some kind of special award for the sheer volume of good work that he manages to put out.
14. Behold... the Arctopus - Skullgrid
The full-length release from this fabulously talented trio has been a long time coming, and it was worth the wait. This is extremely technical instrumental metal, and nobody does it better. Don't be scared away even if you don't normally go for this sort of stuff. There are lots of bands out there labeled "technical" and most of them bore me to tears. Behold... the Arctopus are something else entirely.
13. Novembre - The Blue
I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Novembre were coming out with another album this year. There had been such a long silence prior to the release of last year's Materia that I assumed we'd be doomed to wait through another one. Instead, only a year later, we've got The Blue, and I'm liking it a lot. Nothing tops Novembrine Waltz as far as I'm concerned, but it's great to see these guys still going strong after so many years. Recommended for fans of Agalloch or Katatonia, or just doomy stuff in general.
12. Turisas - The Varangian Way
This album kicked my ass! 2004's Battle Metal was a great album in its way, sounding like something halfway between Ensiferum and Bal-Sagoth, but I thought it was too inconsistent for my liking. I'd pick and choose a few songs from it and rarely listen to the whole thing. Add to that a number of lineup problems -- their guitarist was paralyzed in a car accident, among other things -- and I was curious about this album, but not terribly hopeful. Happily, I think it's actually a stronger effort than Battle Metal, a ridiculously epic and entertaining bit of good old Viking metal.
11. Winds - Prominence And Demise
Here's another album that I've been awaiting for years, and I'm happy to say that this one does not disappoint. Not too much, anyway. Winds are still a very respectable outfit whose members hail from some of the finest metal bands out there, and I really enjoy their neoclassical approach to the genre. But I still like Reflections of the I better than anything they've done since.
The Top Ten
10. Russell Allen & Jorn Lande - The Revenge
Russell Allen (of Symphony X) and Jorn Lande (formerly of Masterplan) are two of my favorite vocalists, so to have them collaborating on another album is almost too good to be true. The music is consistently good prog metal. Not great (not usually), but the vocal performances from these two tremendous performers are enough to lift the album into my top ten for the year. Lande is positively superb on Master Of Sorrow, and Allen follows it up with the equally great Will You Follow. I wish the whole album were as strong as those two tracks; this album could have grabbed a much higher spot. Not that #10 isn't respectable or anything, especially in such a great year.
9. Ulver - Shadows of the Sun
Ulver's neverending metamorphosis continues on Shadows of the Sun, and the band's creativity shows no sign of running dry. This time around, the guys have given us something more on the ambient side, with plenty of string arrangements behind the electronics. Compared to 2005's Blood Inside, I'd say it's more relaxing, more subdued, and more consistent -- sometimes to the point of seeming repetitive, which put me off at first, but I came to love this album after giving it a few more listens. The general consensus among the few Ulver fans I know seems to be that this is a step up from Blood Inside, but I always have a lot of trouble comparing one Ulver album to another. They're all so different, but they're almost always wonderful experiences, and this album is no exception.
8. Swallow the Sun - Hope
It took me a long time to realize how good this album is, probably because I never gave their last one as much time as I probably should have. Thankfully I had an opportunity to see them play live a few months ago, and their performance impressed me quite a bit, so I started giving the album a little more play time. And this is damn fine doom metal, the best I've heard this year, with plenty of crushing riffs and atmospheric interludes, guttural growls and beautiful clean vocals. The highlights for me come in the middle of the album, with the haunting "Don't Fall Asleep (Horror Pt. 2) and the awesome "The Justice of Suffering," featuring a superlative guest appearance by Katatonia's Jonas Renkse.
7. DarkWater - Calling The Earth To Witness
Thank you, Amazon.com! Most of the time its recommendation system gives me nothing but old Dream Theater and Blind Guardian albums, but every once in awhile, there's some brilliant band waiting to be found in there, and Darkwater is definitely one such. This is the band's debut album, and it already shows them to be among prog metal's most talented and promising new acts. Their mostly lengthy compositions stay engaging throughout. I suppose I'd say they sound a bit like Circus Maximus if I had to compare them to anyone. Check out "The Play - Part II" or "Tallest Tree" for a taste of what this band can do.
6. Moonsorrow - V: Havitetty
How many bands could release an hour-long album comprising only two songs and have it be so uniformly enthralling? Not many! Moonsorrow's latest is a definite masterpiece, stronger than 2005's Verisäkeet in my opinion, possibly even on the same level as the phenomenal Voimasta ja kunniasta and Kivenkantaja. If you like your folk metal dark and heavy, you won't do much better than this.
5. Threshold - Dead Reckoning
I don't know how it is that I managed not to hear this band until this year, since apparently they've been active and well-known for quite some time, and their old vocalist was Damian Wilson, who I know from Star One, my favorite of Arjen Lucassen's many projects. Whatever the reason, though, I found them this year, and that's good enough for me. Once you shake the feeling that you've heard the vocalist before -- I think he reminds me of the guy from REO Speedwagon, but I can't be sure -- this is some of the best prog metal you're likely to hear this year. Slipstream kicks things off with high energy and catchy melodies, and the album doesn't let up. Pilot in the Sky of Dreams is one of the best songs of the year. Oh, and Dan Swanö makes a guest appearance, but really, is there even a metal band out there that hasn't had Dan Swanö show up once or twice? (Not that I mind.)
4. Dalriada - Kikelet
Where the hell did these guys come from? At a time when I've been struggling to find folk metal that I really like, Hungary's Dalriada hit home with some of the best I've heard in years. The band has a female singer with a very pleasant voice which, thankfully, is distinctive enough to set her apart from all the other women in metal that I can call to mind. They've got a male vocalist too, and while he's not as good, their voices go extremely well together. There's not a weak song on the whole album, and it's lost none of its charm through many listens. Not as dark as Moonsorrow, not as bouncy as Korpiklaani, Dalriada have a sound that's all their own. I'm really looking forward to hearing more from these guys in the future.
3. Sieges Even - Paramount
These guys were another Amazon.com recommendation, surprisingly. Though I've heard their name before, this band was new to me this year, and now I'm kicking myself for not finding out about them sooner. This is prog rock at its best, with gorgeous melodies, great drumwork, and an excellent vocal performance (very important to me). There are only a few weak spots. "Eyes Wide Open" seemed pretty forgettable to me, and "Mounting Castles in the Blood Red Sky," a mostly instrumental piece featuring Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, doesn't quite work. The music just doesn't suit it as well as it should. Generally speaking, political or historical voiceovers in a song just irritate me (see Fear Factory's "Timelessness," or even better, Darkwood's "Conquer We Shall" for a few counterexamples). Still, this is first-rate material here, not to be missed.
2. Symphony X - Paradise Lost
Much anticipated and well overdue, this ass-kicker of an album makes it abundantly clear that Symphony X are still at the top of their game, with killer songwriting and virtuoso performances all around. Michael Romeo effortlessly pulls off shit with his guitar that would make lesser men weep with frustration. Russell Allen's vocals are stronger than ever, if you can believe that. And for my money, Jason Rullo is perhaps the most interesting drummer in metal. Unfortunately there's no monstrous epic the likes of "The Odyssey" on this disc, though album closer "Revelation (Divus Pennae ex Tragoedia)" does revisit some themes from "The Divine Wings of Tragedy," as is evident from its name. And while I love the band's aggressive side, I wish they'd do a few more neoclassical-style songs, like the absolutely stunning title track. Had there been one or two more standouts on this album, it would have been the best release of the year. As it is, it comes pretty damn close.
1. Devin Townsend - Ziltoid The Omniscient
This latest release from Hevy Devy isn't perfect, and I don't think it quite stands with the top couple of albums from last year, but I'm still comfortable giving it top honors for 2007. Musically, it's an outstanding fusion of the heaviness of Strapping Young Lad and the charm and diversity that makes the stuff released under his own name, in my opinion, so much more interesting. Townsend's wonderfully bizarre sense of humor permeates the whole album, about an extradimensional guitar hero who comes to Earth in search of the ultimate cup of coffee, and destroys the planet when he doesn't get his way. And while it does weaken a little towards the end, it's my favorite work of his in a long time, at least since Terria.
Other Awards
Song of the Year: Symphony X - "Paradise Lost"
This is the side of Symphony X that I like best, because it really showcases how talented the entire band is. The guitar-driven stuff is great too --Set the World on Fire (The Lie of Lies) is an absolute killer of an opener -- but Michael Pinnella is such an outstanding keyboardist, and it's nice to hear him take a more central role sometimes. This is the sort of song that most prog metal bands can't pull off half so well, with songwriting that is really beautiful and not just technical or complex. And this particular song has arguably one of Russell Allen's finest vocal performances to date, which is what really clinches it for me as the song of the year. If you can listen to him sing this song and not be amazed, then I'm sorry, but something inside of you is broken. I really wish the band would do this more often.
EP / Demo of the Year: October Falls - The Streams of the End
The last thing I heard from October Falls was the beautiful, minimalistic EP Tuoni, which was acoustic guitar and not much else. On The Streams of the End, October Falls uses that same distinctive acoustic guitar sound, but they throw drums and distortion and black metal vocals into the mix as well, and the result is a fabulous EP reminiscent of early Agalloch or Ulver's Bergtatt. Supposedly there's a full-length in this same kind of style coming, and if it's this good, then it could enjoy a place of prominence on my year-end list in 2008.
Live Album / Compilation of the Year: Tenhi - Folk Aesthetic
One of the first folk bands I ever heard, and still among my favorites, Tenhi gifted us this year with a three-disc compilation of songs written over the course of the last ten years. There are rare tracks from their demos, alternate versions of known songs, and a lot of stuff that has never seen a release until now. There wasn't much in the way of competition in this category this year, but had there been, it would have had to be fierce indeed to take the honors from Tenhi. This is a glorious compilation with a wealth of great material that all good-hearted folk fans will want to have.
Closing
Finally done! I sure hope somebody gets something out of this, because it's taken me all day to write the goddamn thing and I think my hands are about to break off. Let me know if you discover anything interesting in my list, or if you know something that you think I missed. Thanks a lot for reading, and happy holidays to all.
Along with the huge number of great releases this year, there have been quite a few disappointments as well. Arcturus is gone, and the awe-inspiring lineup of Green Carnation has parted ways; though Tchort intends to continue using the name, it won't be like it was. Royal Hunt lost their vocalist. Long-awaited albums from Wintersun, Augury, Equilibrium, Anathema, and Ásmegin are nowhere to be found. And there were a lot of great bands who released subpar efforts, as we'll soon see.
For my list, I considered full-length studio albums only. No EPs, demos, singles, live albums, or compilations are eligible. You'll see a few icons scattered throughout the list:
denotes an album that came out better than I was expecting, indicates an album that failed to live up to expectations, and is for artists who were new to me this year. As always, this list is my opinion only, and not an attempt at some sort of objective ranking. And as always, your thoughts and comments are welcome. If you know something that I've been missing out on, please let me know. And now, on to the music!Oversights
Before I get into the actual rankings, I'd like to list a few albums that I've been meaning to try this year and just haven't gotten around to for one reason or another. There's so much to listen to that it's inevitable for a few things to get overlooked, and I figured I'd point them out here so I don't get people recommending them. I'll get to them all eventually. And I'm sure there are more that I can't remember, but here are the ones I can, in alphabetical order:
Anaal Nathrakh - Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here
Apocalyptica - Worlds Collide
Behemoth - The Apostasy
Epica - The Divine Conspiracy
Evoken - A Caress Of the Void
Mechanical Poet - Who Did It To Michelle Waters?
Nile - Ithyphallic
Slough Feg - Hardworlder
Spheric Universe Experience - Anima
I wish I could have gotten to these by the end of the year as it's likely that at least a couple of them would have made the list, but what can you do? And now for what I did manage to hear this year...
The Merely Decent
75. Teargas & Plateglass - Black Triage
Here we have a fairly good if somewhat unremarkable collection of electronic ambient music. I could be judging this album unfairly as I haven't been able to spend much time with it yet, but I did feel that it deserved to make the list, which makes it better than a ton of other stuff I've heard this year even if it does have the bottom spot.
74. Spellblast - Horns Of Silence
Isn't Spellblast the name of a Magic: the Gathering card? I feel like such a nerd for knowing that, but I guess listening to power metal makes me a nerd to begin with, so I'm guilty either way. I honestly don't listen to this album much, but it does stand out from most of the power metal being released today.
73. Megadeth - United Abominations
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Dave Mustaine is an extremely talented guy, and love him or hate him, nobody can deny his importance in the history of metal. That said, I fear he's well past his prime. A lot of people will tell you that the band hit bottom with Risk, but I actually enjoyed Risk quite a bit (I liked Metallica's Load too), whereas this simply fails to hold my interest. Dave's political bullshit certainly doesn't help, either. "Amerikhastan" wins the award for the year's most asinine song title. Megadeth was my favorite band for a long time, and it hurts to see them barely making the top 75.
72. Mechanical Poet - Creepy tales for freaky children
Mechanical Poet is a power/prog metal band that had a fantastic EP called Handmade Essence in 2003, and a superb full-length called Woodland Prattlers in 2004 which was one of my favorite albums of that year. They split up, then reformed, but without their vocalist Max Samosvat, and started billing themselves as a rock band rather than a metal one. These things had me worried, but other bands have made that transition successfully. Mechanical Poet just can't seem to manage it. The new singer can't match Samosvat's agility and style, and the new music doesn't really sound like a new style; it sounds like they took their old style and stripped away something essential. I don't know how to describe it any better than that. I was really disappointed by this, perhaps more disappointed in it than any other release this year.
71. Dark Moor - Tarot
I don't listen to much power metal anymore, but these guys do it reasonably well. "The Chariot" is a strong track and a very promising opener, but not representative of the quality of the album as a whole.
70. Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli
I've enjoyed these guys quite a bit in the past, largely because I worship Simen Hestnæs as a god, but also because I'm a sucker for symphonic black metal and I think they do it quite well, despite their silly image and their laughable lyrics and album titles. I liked Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia a lot. Death Cult Armageddon was hit-and-miss, but still had plenty of good stuff. This latest album continues the downward trend; it's all right, but it just doesn't have much on it that's really memorable. The fact that the mighty Arcturus is gone and this band continues makes me pretty depressed. Why couldn't it be the other way around?
69. Dial - Synchronized
I was pretty upset when I heard that Kristoffer Gildenlow had left Pain of Salvation. He's a very talented musician, and as he proved on Pain of Salvation's 12:5, a most capable vocalist as well. Now he's got this alternative rock project called Dial happening, and it's OK, but to be honest, I was expecting more. I don't much care for whoever the female vocalist on this album is, which is a big factor in my disappointment. It's a decent album, just not what I was hoping for.
68. Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau - Metheny Mehldau Quartet
When I'm in the mood for jazz, which admittedly is not very often, I enjoy these guys a lot. "The Sound Of Water" is an especially good song, one of the few on here that I can listen to anytime. Incidentally, if anyone has any recommendations on jazz albums that I should hear, please let me know.
67. Pagan's Mind - God's Equation
What happened here, I wonder? I listened to Celestial Entrance obsessively when it came out, and just couldn't get enough of these guys. "...of Epic Questions" is one of my most-played songs of all time. And yet God's Equation is just completely underwhelming. It's not bad, per se, but it's far below what this band is capable of. An unusual number of excellent prog metal albums came out this year, and this one can't even begin to compete.
66. Serenity - Words Untold & Dreams Unlived
More power metal! These guys kind of remind me of Sonata Arctica, only they don't have any lyrics about the lead singer's ex-girlfriends (that I know of). This one is a pretty solid album that should make power metal fans here. It might even be deserving of a more prominent spot on the list, but I haven't listened to it enough to be sure.
65. Bloody Panda - Pheromone
If nothing else, these guys win points for having an amusing band name. And unlike most other bands with amusing names that I know, this band actually has musical talent as well. They're a doom metal outfit from New York City whose lead singer is a woman with a pretty unusual approach to the job. Listen for yourself -- it's good stuff.
64. Daemonia Nymphe - Krataia Asterope
Neofolk is a genre that's pretty new to me. Before 2007, I hadn't really heard any folk music aside from Tenhi, Nest, and October Falls. This year I heard a ton of it, and this was one of the few that struck a chord with me. I do wish the vocals were better -- and I seem to make that complaint about a lot of neofolk bands -- but this is pretty good.
63. Gernotshagen - Märe aus wäldernen Hallen
This album blends black metal and folk influences and manages to handle both aspects of their sound pretty well, though I prefer the folkier stuff, and the album's production really could have used some more work. If you're not bothered by that sort of thing, you may enjoy this.
62. Sonata Arctica - Unia
Here is yet another band in decline. I was pretty excited for Unia, and the first time I put it on, I was really excited. Album opener "In Black and White" is outstanding, and so is the following song, "Paid in Full." Yet after that, the rest of the album just blends together in my mind. I can't separate one song from the next and I find that I don't really want to. It's a horrible let-down considering how powerfully the album opened. By the way, there's plenty more evidence here to support my theory that Tony Kakko has had his heart broken by every last woman in Finland.
61. Korpiklaani - Tervaskanto
The prevailing opinion when this was first released was that it was some of Korpiklaani's finest work, an outstanding folk metal album. But I'm not hearing it for some reason. Am I the only one who misses Korpiklaani's older stuff?
60. Thought Chamber - Angular Perceptions
Speaking of prog metal albums, here's another one. Not a particularly distinguished one, but it's competently done and should do the job if you're a prog junkie in need of a fix. To be fair, it is a debut release, though these are accomplished musicians. It'll be interesting to see if they mature at all on the follow-up.
59. aRCSIN - Oculus Fang
I got this because it was recommended by someone whose taste I respect, and because I just had to know what "instrumental hip-hop" (which is how it was described to me) sounds like. I wasn't really expecting to like it, but there are actually some pretty solid tracks on here. If someone more familiar with this genre happens to read this, I'd appreciate a recommendation or two so I can explore it a little further. Arcsin does some nice work with an electric guitar on the opening track "
Dreamcatcher," which may be part of the reason it managed to worm its way into my black, metal-loving heart.58. Pain of Salvation - Scarsick
Ugh, where to begin? In The Perfect Element, Part I and Remedy Lane, these guys had two of the best prog metal albums of all time. BE had me a little worried, mostly for the ridiculousness of its concept, but that album still had tons of great material, and so I expected better than this. The first two songs do nothing for me; I don't care for Pain of Salvation's take on rap. "Cribcaged" is strong musically, but utterly robbed of whatever emotional impact it otherwise would have had by its embarrassingly bad lyrics. "
America" is just obnoxious, musically and thematically. There are very, very few bands in the world that can mix politics with music and come across well, and Pain of Salvation is not among them. Luckily, things pick up a little in the later parts of the disc. "Disco Queen" is absolutely fabulous and almost makes up for the crap that came before it. "Flame to the Moth" and "Enter Rain" are excellent tracks, too. But this album should have been so much more. Instead, it joins Creepy tales for freaky children as a strong contender for disappointment of the year.57. Masterplan - Mk II
Masterplan still make pretty decent music, better than that of most power metal bands, but I think they lose a lot of their appeal without Jorn Lande. It's too bad; they were one of the better power metal bands out there. All things must end, I suppose.
56. Thunderbolt - Apocalyptic Doom
Despite the name, this isn't really doom; it's a pretty solid black metal album from this now-defunct band of church-burning jokers. I'm not familiar with any of their older stuff so I can't give a comparison for those of you who may be fans, but it's at least worth a listen.
55. Walknut - Graveforests And Their Shadows
While I'm sure it means something else, I can't help thinking that the name of this band sounds like the favorite pastime of a man who enjoys mixing sex and pain. I don't much like the thought of someone walking on my nuts, but I do like this album. It's harsh black metal that does an unusually good job of building a bleak atmosphere.
54. KromleK - Strange Rumors... Distant Tremors
Go look at this band's silly picture on MetalArchives.com, and if you know metal at all, you'll have an amusingly accurate idea of exactly what you're in for. This is pretty decent folk metal with some cheesy synths and vocals that could probably be improved. The opening of this album made me wonder if I was in for something like Turisas, but this band isn't as epic or aggressive as that one, and in my opinion, not as talented either. That's not to say that the album isn't worth a listen, though. By all means, give it a try.
53. After Forever - After Forever
Female-fronted gothic / symphonic metal used to hold more appeal for me. These days it seems like it's all I can do just to tell those bands apart frome one another. After Forever is a pretty decent one though, and I have a soft spot for them since I love Floor Jansen's work with Ayreon and Star One.
52. Naglfar - Harvest
This is a black metal album with a more melodic bent. If you like that sort of thing, well, you could definitely do worse, but you could certainly do better, too. It's a decent effort, nothing terribly special.
51. Empyrean Eclipse - Illumination Undone
The debut album from this American death metal band is pretty damn good. It's melodic, but not overly so. I probably would have rated this higher a couple of years ago, when I listened to more stuff like this. Still, it's worth a look, and you can get some full songs from their page on last.fm.
The Good, If Not Great
50. Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
It might seem a little strange to see that "better than expected" tag on an album that just barely managed to crack the top 50, but I honestly thought this album was going to be horrible. Nightwish have been declining over the years -- their last couple of albums don't even come close to Oceanborn as far as I'm concerned -- and with Tarja gone, I figured that they wouldn't really stand out anymore. But there are some surprisingly good songs here, Anette fits the band well, and Marco is doing an admirable job on his vocal performances too. It's good to see that these guys are still in the game.
49. Bola - Kroungrine
Here we have a very nice electronic album that I'm at a loss to describe, since I don't have much like it in my collection. This is IDM if last.fm's army of taggers are to be believed, but my only experience with that genre has been with bands like Helios and Xela, and Bola is considerably different than either of them, less laid-back with stronger beats and more prominent electronics. Some of it sounds like it wouldn't be out of place in a film soundtrack. Cool stuff; I hope to hear more in the future.
48. Mors Principium Est - Liberation = Termination
I discovered these guys a couple of years ago, after I'd already started becoming disinterested in most of the melodic death metal bands I used to listen to, and found them to be one of the few bands working in that style who still sounded fresh and interesting. Sadly, they seem to be dropping off a bit. Both of their preceding albums were significantly better than this one.
47. Before the Dawn - Deadlight
I'm big on vocals, so stick Lars Eric Si (of Winds fame) in a band and I'm bound to enjoy it, regardless of what they're playing. The music on this album is good, but not great; without Lars it probably wouldn't be anything too exciting.
46. Elend - A World in Their Screams
This dark neoclassical band plays music that sounds like it came off the soundtrack to a horror movie, and is a lot of fun to listen to if you're just lying in the dark sometime. Opening track "Ophis Puthôn" is exceptional, but sadly, the rest of the album doesn't live up to the same standard.
45. Alamaailman Vasarat - Maahan
I don't have any idea what the hell these guys are doing. I can't even identify most of the instruments they're playing. But whatever it is, it's definitely interesting.
44. Virgin Black - Requiem - Mezzo Forte
These guys surprised me with their fairly unique symphonic doom. It's beautiful and it's extremely well executed. Unfortunately I think it also gets a little boring after awhile, but from what I've read, I seem to be in the minority with this opinion.
43. Toroidh - Segervittring
This is solid ambient martial stuff from the prolific Henrik Nordvargr Björkk. It's a genre I've just started getting into this year, and I have to be in a certain mood to listen to it, so I don't know much that I can say about it. Sorry!
42. Civilization One - Revolution Rising
Here's another prog metal debut from a band full of accomplished musicians, kind of like Thought Chamber, except that I like this one a lot better.
41. Nightingale - White Darkness
Dan Swanö never disappoints, though to be honest, I figured that this album would come out a little higher on the list when all was said and done. It's a good album, and there are songs that I still really like, particularly "Wounded Soul." I just think it got a little old after awhile. A prog metal overload this year, perhaps, as you'll see when we get to my top ten.
40. Novembers Doom - The Novella Reservoir
I finally got around to listening to this band this year. Not nearly enough, so there's not much I can say about them, but enough to place them ahead of most of the rest of what I heard this year.
39. Dark Tranquillity - Fiction
I think Dark Tranquillity are the only one of the old "Gothenburg sound" bands that I still listen to. While most of their peers have fallen into sharp decline, these guys are still making interesting music. "
Inside The Particle Storm" is my favorite song from them in quite some time.38. Finntroll - Ur Jordens Djup
I haven't listened to Finntroll in a long time, and for some reason, the last time I tried listening to them, I didn't like them at all. This year I happened to see a review of Ur Jordens Djup in which the writer claimed that it sounded like Moonsorrow playing shorter songs, so I had to check it out, and I'm glad I did. I misjudged this band earlier. They are a fine bunch of trolls.
37. Nae'blis - Sketches Of Reality
Here is another bleak and atmspheric black metal band. "Atmospheric" is a word that's pretty overused, even (especially?) for black metal bands, but these guys actually deserve it, as do Walknut (who showed up a little while ago, for those of you who aren't reading this whole thing). The songs do require a fair amount of attention; the album has only four tracks and clocks in at over 50 minutes.
36. Kamelot - Ghost Opera
Kamelot's new album really should have been top-ten material at least. Here is a band that has gotten consistently stronger with every release in their discography. Epica was outstanding, and The Black Halo somehow managed to be even better, so the expectations for Ghost Opera were ludicrously high. I suppose it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that they weren't met, but it's a disappointment nonetheless. Don't get me wrong; this is a good album, and still towers over almost every other power metal album being made these days. But Kamelot can do better.
35. Crystal Abyss - Word of the Darkest Ages
This is pretty slick melodic/symphonic black metal that reminds me a little of Sinful's Omyt, only it's not in Russian and there are fewer vampires. I can't even remember how I heard about this band. They do seem to be relatively unknown judging by the number of listeners they have here on last.fm, but you can stream some of their songs in their entirety, so go have a listen.
34. Mind's Eye - A Gentleman's Hurricane
I don't know if 2007 has just been an unusually good year for prog metal or if it's just coincidence that I discovered so much, but either way, I'm happy. Mind's Eye -- a band I'd never heard of before -- does a fine job on this album, though I can't really say that there are any standout tracks on it.
33. Ensiferum - Victory Songs
Jari Mäenpää may be gone, but Ensiferum remains, and I was genuinely surprised by how good they still sound. Mäenpää is a hugely creative guy, and as the former lead vocalist and guitarist for Ensiferum, I assumed that he was a large part of their sound and that the band would suffer greatly for his loss. Their sound does suffer -- the new vocalist is good, but not as good, and the music shows less variety than it used to -- but they've still managed to put together an extremely respectable album here. I knew about two seconds into "
Blood Is the Price of Glory" that my fears were unfounded. A very nice surprise.32. Paradise Lost - In Requiem
These guys have been around for ages, and yet this is the first album of theirs that I've heard. If it's representative of the rest of their catalog, I'm going to have to start digging into their older stuff. This is unusually good gothic/doom metal, not quite as gloomy as something like My Dying Bride (the vocals are noticeably more energetic, for one thing), but it ought to appeal to the same kind of people.
31. Riverside - Rapid Eye Movement
I was anticipating this album pretty highly as I really enjoyed their first two albums, particularly the debut Out of Myself. This one isn't quite on the same level, unfortunately. It's a solid prog rock album, though, and it's got some good tracks. The single "
02 Panic Room" is a very nice bit of work, for example. I haven't heard too many opinions from other Riverside fans, so I'm kind of curious as to whether others also found this to be a little below expectations.30. Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
A fantastic effort from this increasingly well-known prog rock band, and a considerable improvement over Deadwing in my opinion, aside from what I'd say is a somewhat unfortunate title.
29. Atrium Carceri - Ptahil
Fans of spooky background music, take note! This is dark ambient done right. Not much else to say, really.
28. Fortid - Völuspa Part II - The Arrival of Fenris
This album took awhile to grow on me. Actually, it took most of the year. I must have listened to it ten times before I realized that I enjoyed it, which really makes me wonder what kind of nice music might be out there that I heard a few times and dismissed. Oh well. Fans of black and Viking metal will probably get into Fortid's sound pretty quickly (if you're going to get into it at all), as it should be pretty familiar. Check out the title track as a place to start.
27. Root - Daemon Viam Invenient
I think Root are headed in the right direction again with this album. I wasn't the biggest fan of Madness of the Graves, although it did give the world "The Last Gate (The Story of Demons)," which is wonderfully useful for frightening small children... and adults, for that matter. Daemon Viam Invenient is an improvement, I'd say, although I haven't spent as much time with it as I ought to.
26. Bereavement - The Advent Of Loss
Here we've got progressive death metal reminiscent of Opeth, and apparently being made in the United States, which I thought was pretty surprising. I don't think I know any other American bands who sound like this. A most impressive effort, and well worth hearing.
The Runners-Up
25. Nest - Trail Of The Unwary
Finally, another album from these guys! Nest play an extremely soothing brand of ambient / neofolk music; metal fans may know them from their collaboration with Agalloch a few years back. This album is a bit darker than their last, but is every bit as good, and if you can get your hands on the special edition, there's a whole second disc full of the band's early demos and a few other goodies.
24. Circus Maximus - Isolate
Not too long ago, had someone asked me to describe Circus Maximus, I would have said that they sound similar to Pagan's Mind, only not as good (though with vocals that are less likely to scare people off). Now a couple of years have passed, and this band has moved way up in my charts, while Pagan's Mind has taken a huge slide. It's funny the way things work. This is very strong material, and if they can keep it up, this band may have a very bright future. That said, "Arrival of Love" wins the award for the most absurdly cheesy melody of the year. Every time I hear it, I have to stop and ask myself whether I should laugh or cringe. I end up picking one about as often as the other. But that's just one complaint on an otherwise worthy album, so don't let it deter you.
23. Le Grand Guignol - The Great Maddening
It may not be an established genre, but "circus metal" comes pretty close to the mark for this bizarre album. It sounds something like a cross between Unexpect and Arcturus's La Masquerade Infernale. It's not as good as either, but still, how often do you hear something that can be compared to those singular bands? If you like weird music, you must check this out.
22. Svarrogh - Balkan Renaissance
I guess these guys are a black metal band, according to last.fm, but there's no metal on this album, just my favorite neofolk of the year. Why do so many metal bands seem to be so good at this sort of thing? No doubt someone who knows more about music could tell me.
21. Vintersorg - Solens rötter
Vintersorg's last album wasn't all that great in my opinion, so Solens Rötter came as a very pleasant surprise. It sounds a bit more like the old Vintersorg we all love (or hate). The folky elements in his music are better and more prevalent, the songs are less hit-and-miss, and best of all, all the lyrics are in Swedish so I can't understand what the fuck he's saying.
20. Mael Mórdha - Gealtacht Mael Mórdha
This is great folky doom from Ireland that took me awhile to get into for some reason. I can't really think of anyone to compare them to, and I suck at describing music, so you'll just have to hear this album for yourself. "Atlas of Sorrow" and "Curse Of The Bard" are particularly good.
19. Nahemah - The Second Philosophy
Progressive death metal, or melodic death metal, or whatever you want to call it, doesn't sound this good very often. Apparently these guys released their debut album about six years ago, then went silent until now. I've heard their debut, and it's not bad, but it's nothing like this excellent piece of work. The Second Philosophy is brooding, melodic, and filled with all kinds of interesting ideas. Fans of bands like Novembre or Opeth will doubtless find plenty to enjoy here.
18. Liholesie - Videniya
I'm honestly not sure what year this was released, as I saw it on a few year-end lists in 2006. The band says that it came out in "Winter 2007," so I suppose it might have just leaked onto the Internet in late 2006, or maybe it actually was released in December or something, and the band includes that as part of Winter 2007. Whatever the case, this is too good to leave off my list, so here it is. This is an outstanding dark ambient release that manages to be subtle enough to leave on in the background, yet interesting enough to listen to intently, a hard balance to achieve.
17. Therion - Gothic Kabbalah
Therion is back with another double album, their thirteenth if I remember correctly, and it's pretty impressive how strong they still are. This one is a bit different from their previous works. Gone are the growls that made a few reappearances on Lemuria and Sirius B. Gothic Kabbalah takes a bit of a different vocal approach, sounding almost like power metal at times. Therion have always been a bit inconsistent with their songwriting, but when they get it right, they can be pretty amazing. In particular, "Son of the Staves of Time" easily stands among the best songs the band have recorded in their long and storied history.
16. Samael - Solar Soul
I didn't like this album the first time I heard it, or the second time. I think it was just the vocals that put me off. I'm glad I stuck with it, though. Of the few examples of industrial metal I've heard, this is one of the best. Think something similar to Cypher by ...and Oceans, only less repetitive.
15. Senmuth - [Various albums]
This is the only entry on my list that's not for a particular album. Senmuth is a one-man project from Russia, and the guy is insanely prolific. He has released at least ten albums this year that I know of, and every one of them is very good. His stuff is all instrumental, but it varies quite a bit aside from that. He does industrial, ambient, doom, and probably more genres whose names and descriptions I don't know. This guy deserves some kind of special award for the sheer volume of good work that he manages to put out.
14. Behold... the Arctopus - Skullgrid
The full-length release from this fabulously talented trio has been a long time coming, and it was worth the wait. This is extremely technical instrumental metal, and nobody does it better. Don't be scared away even if you don't normally go for this sort of stuff. There are lots of bands out there labeled "technical" and most of them bore me to tears. Behold... the Arctopus are something else entirely.
13. Novembre - The Blue
I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Novembre were coming out with another album this year. There had been such a long silence prior to the release of last year's Materia that I assumed we'd be doomed to wait through another one. Instead, only a year later, we've got The Blue, and I'm liking it a lot. Nothing tops Novembrine Waltz as far as I'm concerned, but it's great to see these guys still going strong after so many years. Recommended for fans of Agalloch or Katatonia, or just doomy stuff in general.
12. Turisas - The Varangian Way
This album kicked my ass! 2004's Battle Metal was a great album in its way, sounding like something halfway between Ensiferum and Bal-Sagoth, but I thought it was too inconsistent for my liking. I'd pick and choose a few songs from it and rarely listen to the whole thing. Add to that a number of lineup problems -- their guitarist was paralyzed in a car accident, among other things -- and I was curious about this album, but not terribly hopeful. Happily, I think it's actually a stronger effort than Battle Metal, a ridiculously epic and entertaining bit of good old Viking metal.
11. Winds - Prominence And Demise
Here's another album that I've been awaiting for years, and I'm happy to say that this one does not disappoint. Not too much, anyway. Winds are still a very respectable outfit whose members hail from some of the finest metal bands out there, and I really enjoy their neoclassical approach to the genre. But I still like Reflections of the I better than anything they've done since.
The Top Ten
10. Russell Allen & Jorn Lande - The Revenge
Russell Allen (of Symphony X) and Jorn Lande (formerly of Masterplan) are two of my favorite vocalists, so to have them collaborating on another album is almost too good to be true. The music is consistently good prog metal. Not great (not usually), but the vocal performances from these two tremendous performers are enough to lift the album into my top ten for the year. Lande is positively superb on Master Of Sorrow, and Allen follows it up with the equally great Will You Follow. I wish the whole album were as strong as those two tracks; this album could have grabbed a much higher spot. Not that #10 isn't respectable or anything, especially in such a great year.
9. Ulver - Shadows of the Sun
Ulver's neverending metamorphosis continues on Shadows of the Sun, and the band's creativity shows no sign of running dry. This time around, the guys have given us something more on the ambient side, with plenty of string arrangements behind the electronics. Compared to 2005's Blood Inside, I'd say it's more relaxing, more subdued, and more consistent -- sometimes to the point of seeming repetitive, which put me off at first, but I came to love this album after giving it a few more listens. The general consensus among the few Ulver fans I know seems to be that this is a step up from Blood Inside, but I always have a lot of trouble comparing one Ulver album to another. They're all so different, but they're almost always wonderful experiences, and this album is no exception.
8. Swallow the Sun - Hope
It took me a long time to realize how good this album is, probably because I never gave their last one as much time as I probably should have. Thankfully I had an opportunity to see them play live a few months ago, and their performance impressed me quite a bit, so I started giving the album a little more play time. And this is damn fine doom metal, the best I've heard this year, with plenty of crushing riffs and atmospheric interludes, guttural growls and beautiful clean vocals. The highlights for me come in the middle of the album, with the haunting "
Don't Fall Asleep (Horror Pt. 2) and the awesome "The Justice of Suffering," featuring a superlative guest appearance by Katatonia's Jonas Renkse.7. DarkWater - Calling The Earth To Witness
Thank you, Amazon.com! Most of the time its recommendation system gives me nothing but old Dream Theater and Blind Guardian albums, but every once in awhile, there's some brilliant band waiting to be found in there, and Darkwater is definitely one such. This is the band's debut album, and it already shows them to be among prog metal's most talented and promising new acts. Their mostly lengthy compositions stay engaging throughout. I suppose I'd say they sound a bit like Circus Maximus if I had to compare them to anyone. Check out "The Play - Part II" or "Tallest Tree" for a taste of what this band can do.
6. Moonsorrow - V: Havitetty
How many bands could release an hour-long album comprising only two songs and have it be so uniformly enthralling? Not many! Moonsorrow's latest is a definite masterpiece, stronger than 2005's Verisäkeet in my opinion, possibly even on the same level as the phenomenal Voimasta ja kunniasta and Kivenkantaja. If you like your folk metal dark and heavy, you won't do much better than this.
5. Threshold - Dead Reckoning
I don't know how it is that I managed not to hear this band until this year, since apparently they've been active and well-known for quite some time, and their old vocalist was Damian Wilson, who I know from Star One, my favorite of Arjen Lucassen's many projects. Whatever the reason, though, I found them this year, and that's good enough for me. Once you shake the feeling that you've heard the vocalist before -- I think he reminds me of the guy from REO Speedwagon, but I can't be sure -- this is some of the best prog metal you're likely to hear this year. Slipstream kicks things off with high energy and catchy melodies, and the album doesn't let up. Pilot in the Sky of Dreams is one of the best songs of the year. Oh, and Dan Swanö makes a guest appearance, but really, is there even a metal band out there that hasn't had Dan Swanö show up once or twice? (Not that I mind.)
4. Dalriada - Kikelet
Where the hell did these guys come from? At a time when I've been struggling to find folk metal that I really like, Hungary's Dalriada hit home with some of the best I've heard in years. The band has a female singer with a very pleasant voice which, thankfully, is distinctive enough to set her apart from all the other women in metal that I can call to mind. They've got a male vocalist too, and while he's not as good, their voices go extremely well together. There's not a weak song on the whole album, and it's lost none of its charm through many listens. Not as dark as Moonsorrow, not as bouncy as Korpiklaani, Dalriada have a sound that's all their own. I'm really looking forward to hearing more from these guys in the future.
3. Sieges Even - Paramount
These guys were another Amazon.com recommendation, surprisingly. Though I've heard their name before, this band was new to me this year, and now I'm kicking myself for not finding out about them sooner. This is prog rock at its best, with gorgeous melodies, great drumwork, and an excellent vocal performance (very important to me). There are only a few weak spots. "Eyes Wide Open" seemed pretty forgettable to me, and "Mounting Castles in the Blood Red Sky," a mostly instrumental piece featuring Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, doesn't quite work. The music just doesn't suit it as well as it should. Generally speaking, political or historical voiceovers in a song just irritate me (see Fear Factory's "Timelessness," or even better, Darkwood's "
Conquer We Shall" for a few counterexamples). Still, this is first-rate material here, not to be missed.2. Symphony X - Paradise Lost
Much anticipated and well overdue, this ass-kicker of an album makes it abundantly clear that Symphony X are still at the top of their game, with killer songwriting and virtuoso performances all around. Michael Romeo effortlessly pulls off shit with his guitar that would make lesser men weep with frustration. Russell Allen's vocals are stronger than ever, if you can believe that. And for my money, Jason Rullo is perhaps the most interesting drummer in metal. Unfortunately there's no monstrous epic the likes of "The Odyssey" on this disc, though album closer "
Revelation (Divus Pennae ex Tragoedia)" does revisit some themes from "The Divine Wings of Tragedy," as is evident from its name. And while I love the band's aggressive side, I wish they'd do a few more neoclassical-style songs, like the absolutely stunning title track. Had there been one or two more standouts on this album, it would have been the best release of the year. As it is, it comes pretty damn close.1. Devin Townsend - Ziltoid The Omniscient
This latest release from Hevy Devy isn't perfect, and I don't think it quite stands with the top couple of albums from last year, but I'm still comfortable giving it top honors for 2007. Musically, it's an outstanding fusion of the heaviness of Strapping Young Lad and the charm and diversity that makes the stuff released under his own name, in my opinion, so much more interesting. Townsend's wonderfully bizarre sense of humor permeates the whole album, about an extradimensional guitar hero who comes to Earth in search of the ultimate cup of coffee, and destroys the planet when he doesn't get his way. And while it does weaken a little towards the end, it's my favorite work of his in a long time, at least since Terria.
Other Awards
Song of the Year: Symphony X - "
Paradise Lost"This is the side of Symphony X that I like best, because it really showcases how talented the entire band is. The guitar-driven stuff is great too --
Set the World on Fire (The Lie of Lies) is an absolute killer of an opener -- but Michael Pinnella is such an outstanding keyboardist, and it's nice to hear him take a more central role sometimes. This is the sort of song that most prog metal bands can't pull off half so well, with songwriting that is really beautiful and not just technical or complex. And this particular song has arguably one of Russell Allen's finest vocal performances to date, which is what really clinches it for me as the song of the year. If you can listen to him sing this song and not be amazed, then I'm sorry, but something inside of you is broken. I really wish the band would do this more often.EP / Demo of the Year: October Falls - The Streams of the End
The last thing I heard from October Falls was the beautiful, minimalistic EP Tuoni, which was acoustic guitar and not much else. On The Streams of the End, October Falls uses that same distinctive acoustic guitar sound, but they throw drums and distortion and black metal vocals into the mix as well, and the result is a fabulous EP reminiscent of early Agalloch or Ulver's Bergtatt. Supposedly there's a full-length in this same kind of style coming, and if it's this good, then it could enjoy a place of prominence on my year-end list in 2008.
Live Album / Compilation of the Year: Tenhi - Folk Aesthetic
One of the first folk bands I ever heard, and still among my favorites, Tenhi gifted us this year with a three-disc compilation of songs written over the course of the last ten years. There are rare tracks from their demos, alternate versions of known songs, and a lot of stuff that has never seen a release until now. There wasn't much in the way of competition in this category this year, but had there been, it would have had to be fierce indeed to take the honors from Tenhi. This is a glorious compilation with a wealth of great material that all good-hearted folk fans will want to have.
Closing
Finally done! I sure hope somebody gets something out of this, because it's taken me all day to write the goddamn thing and I think my hands are about to break off. Let me know if you discover anything interesting in my list, or if you know something that you think I missed. Thanks a lot for reading, and happy holidays to all.
Kabul Edilen Sunumlar
Metal EducationYorumlar
-
r1Co şunu yazdı:
first of, I just needed to comment because of the amount of work you've put into it, I hate it when my ridiculously long albums get like 3 comments nowadays, but it seems to be a trend, so here's to ya.
Then a couple of things I've noticed,
- I'm gonna be reading this journal some more in the future to check out some of the bands myself as well, unfortunately I haven't been able to discover as much new stuff as I would like to, but it will come, so thnx for this ^^
- Yes you should check out paradise lost more :> and since you liked In Requiem, you should at least hear their previous 'Paradise Lost' and their magnum opus (for me) 'Draconian Times', after that 'Icon', 'One Second' and 'Symbol of Life' also seem pretty mandatory, and the rest will be hit or miss (take in mind that the first two releases sound completely different from the rest, especially the vocals, also 'Host' is pretty much an odd (Depeche Mode-like) release. 'Shades of God' features the ultimate PL song 'As I die' but I can't really seem to get into the rest of that album
- as for Riverside, I thought the album was great, just not _THAT_ great, so I guess I got a little dissapointed as well, I still list it in my top 20 though, probably 10 as well
- I love arrival of love actually :D I agree it is by far the cheesiest of melodies, but I love it for it, it gets my 80's hair metal mood on and makes me wanna listen to Whitesnake :D. I actually turned 2 of my classmates onto Circus Maxiumus through that song, one also commented (he's also a whitesnake fan like me, when they're performing here this year I will attend with that guy) that it sounds like a Coverdale impersonation, and I guess it kind of does and it sounds great, hail 80's metal vibe :>
- I thought TOF - The Trinity was by far the best song on Gothic Kaballah, didn't care to much for the rest sadly, eventhough Son of the Staves of time is definetly worthy, gotta love Mats Leven though, so sad that he left :(
- Hell yes for Jonas' vocal appearance on StS, I've listening to that song sooo much this year, mostly on my surround system, avctually so often there that I didn't spam it enough on last fm ;p
- oh and thank you for that DarkWater recommendation, that album rocks indeed, deserved top 10 notation
I'm not too fond of your top 3 though, but I guess it's still all about taste, and that's a positive thing, respect!
I'm also missing the following releases (why? because I've included them in my list, so dunno if you just didn't like these or MAYBE you've never heard of them):
Alcest - Souvenirs d'un autre monde (french solo project of Neige, pretty much a black metal foundation but this latest effort has got nothing to do with black metal anymore, the vocals first of all are all clean, angelic almost, and the guitars remind of 80's darkwave/shoegaze music every now and then, yet it still sound pretty unique, you should definetly try it I think)
Ghost Brigade - Guided by Fire > the surpise of the year for me, never heard of this band, but I found about them when I found a sticker on their new album which said For fans of Katatonia, Neurosis (which latest I'm also missing from your list ;p) and Opeth, personally I would replace Opeth by Swallow the Sun (they even use the same keyboard player; Aleksi Munter) and describe the music as compact almost catchy songs (around 4/5/6 minutes ech song) but still quite a lot of variety. There are some truely remarkable riffs on this record which the mentioned bands above could be very jealous of I guess. The vocals are when harsh very reminding of Neurosis and when melancholic more reminding of Katatonia or new StS clean vocals (sparsely used) and the songs are just rocking with a lot of that finnish melody, awesome stuff!
- I know you did listen to Machine Head's 'The blackening' so I guess you either didn't like it or forgot about it, it might be the same reason (the modern/metalcore-y sound, dunno how else to describe it) why you didn't like the new Nightrage album, both some of my favourite releases this year, but I guess you already knew that :)
- I recommend 'Sybreed - Anatares' to you as well, eventhough the sound might be a hit or miss, it's some kind of groovy (courtesy of Scarve/Soilwork drummer Dirk Verbeuren) futuristic melodic death metal meets fear factory-esque metal. They also take a lot of stuff from Strapping young lad I guess, you might like it I think
- some other releases I included in my list which you didn't include in yours (I think you know about these so you probably just didn't like these):
Amorphis - Silent Waters
Shining - V - Halmstad
Antimatter - Leaving Eden
- last but definetly not least, I see no sign of the new primordial?? The pagan epic masters should be in every self respecting yearlist and I can't imagine you not liking that album so I guess you just haven't heard it yet (or maybe never heard anything from them), do it now! let the masters of pagan/irish folk hypnotize you (and also try 'The Gathering Wilderness' which for me was even more hypnotizing, note that you're not gonna get it after just one listen)
Hail to Ulver, Moonsorrow, Mind's Eye, DarkWater, Swallow the Sun, Winds, October Falls and some other stuff from your list! cheers and I hope you this comment will be of use as well :) -
SpHaeR şunu yazdı:
Quite an extensive list, it must have taken a while to compile. I agree on the number one. Have a look at my (far less extensive) top albums from 2007 journal. :-) It also rates Turisas' and Ulver's release very high. You might want to check out Det Vilde Kor by Lumsk.
-
disastercasper şunu yazdı:
Wow, nice top 10. I will check out Allen/Lande and Winds, they sound nice.
-
OmegaDragon şunu yazdı:
Well, that's a very long and detailed list :P Props for listening to so much music and making such a fine list (though it's not in agreement with my own list, but why should it?)
For example, I really like Scarsick. Disco Queen is awesome. When they played it live, they used disco lights etc. Very funny.
Some more 2007 metal recommendations:
Immolation - Shadows in the Light
Death metal, a bit technical. Their artist page has a video for one the best tracks imo, World Agony. -
Blood_Vortex şunu yazdı:
Wow, I hardly listened to 50 albums of 2007 =/
Gotta try Dalriada, haven't heard of them before.
Don't know if I should give Vintersorg another try, his avantgarde stuff really put me off. I liked the earlier releases though.
Btw, no Primordial? Heathen! -
lord_ahriman şunu yazdı:
Damn, your journals are always so rich and informative Keep up the good work. As always, I'm going to listen to some bands from here in the near future.
Have you tried In Vain's album The Latter Rain perhaps? With a little bit of luck you'll like it :) -
Blood_Vortex şunu yazdı:
I just noticed you don't have Amorphis on the list as well (my #1 album this year) !
-
Phoenix-5 şunu yazdı:
You have a lot of albums here that I do not know. Many I need to check out. I blame your brother for this.
Anyway, if you are willing to listen to more Novembers Doom (and by what Sam tells me, you are willing to give anything a try) To Welcome the Fade and The Pale Haunt Departure are probably the strongest Novembers Doom albums. It took me a long time to warm up to Paul Kuhr's vocals, but once I did this band took off for me.
For me, Riverside was much further up the list. One of my favorite releases of the year.
Evoken's A Caress of the Void is again Evoken at their best. The sooner you listen to it, the sooner you'll want to kill yourself...twice. -
WaYNe-ROONeY şunu yazdı:
You forgot the album of the year in my opinion ;D Machine Head - The Blackening !
-
SmasherDevourer şunu yazdı:
Thanks a lot for all the comments so far, guys, and for the recommendations. Especially r1Co -- that list of yours is going to keep me busy for quite awhile! I'll add all the albums you all have mentioned to my to do list.
I have heard the new Machine Head and the new Amorphis, and I didn't particularly care for either of them. I didn't like Alcest's Le Secret either, but I'll give their new one a chance sometime, since I've heard almost nothing but praise for it. Primordial is one of those bands I've been meaning to look into forever, as I'm pretty sure The Gathering Wilderness is in Metal Education's must-have list, but somehow I never have. Shame on me, I know.
The rest of what you guys have mentioned so far is unfamiliar to me, so I guess I've got a lot of stuff to look into now. Thanks again!
I didn't listen to nearly as much music last year as I did this year, and once the year was over, I started discovering all kinds of 2006 releases that I'd missed out on, including a few that surely would have made my top ten. I tried to do better this year, and yet I seem to be just as far behind. The more I listen to, the more I realize how utterly impossible it is to keep up with everything that's happening. That's good, though; it ensures that things will never get boring. :)