Tuesday 30 December 2008

Top Death Metal Albums from 2008

Ok death metal fans and fans of the more aggressive side of metal here is the list that you will be more interested in. In reverse order...

50. Children Of Bodom - Blooddrunk.
Enjoyable and typical Bodom.

49. Stigma - When Midnight Strikes
Ultra melodic deathcore. Surprised myself by liking this. For fans of Black Dahlia Murder and Darkest Hour.

48. Norther- N.
Melodic Bodom style. What can i say I like it.

47. Visceral Damage - Icons of Massive Murder
Raw and semi-technical death with hints of melody and always cool riffing.

46. Martriden - The Unsettling Dark.
Unsettling dark is right..very brooding and heavy with dark atmosphere.

45. Cyaegha - Steps of Descent.
Groovy death with great riffs.

44. Destinity - The Inside.
Melodic death/thrash with some black parts but cool enough.

43. Resurrection - Mistaken for Dead
Old school punishing US death metal from Florida with mid paced Morbid Angelish sick grooves.

42. Death Heaven - Viral Apocalypse.
Heavy and chunky death grooves.

41. Hollenthon - Opus_Magnum.
Epic and dark with grand feel.

40. Dead Shape Figure - The Grand Karoshi.
Intricate death with cool riffs.

39. The Scourger - Dark Invitation To Armageddon.
Good quality melodic death/thrash metal with killer riffs

38. Apocalyptic Visions - Leave None Living.
Great death metal with a unique feel.

37. Casketgarden - Incompleteness In Absence.
At the Gates worship melodic death. Pretty good.

36. Infinitum - Behold_Eradication.
Catchy as a bad rash old school Deicide worship but miles better.

35. The Rotted - Get Dead or Die Trying
Formerly Gorrotted, these London bad bots changed the name and became a much more skilful band and not so joky. Some great songs and huge production here.

34. Myndsnare - Conditioned Human
Death worship from India of all places. Not perfect but a pretty great effort for a band from India just starting out.

33. Sympathy - Anagogic Tyranny
Thrashy and semi technical death with sweet riffs all over the place with sizzling leadwork.

32. Evocation - Dead Calm Chaos
Out of nowhere comes a great band aping the almighty Amon Amarth and also plenty of old school Swedish Death flavour. Realy enjoyable.

31. Demiurg - The Hate Chamber.
Classic old school stompathon. Dan Swano involved so you are guaranteed quality.

30. Vomit The Hate - Of Ignorance And Self Destruction.
Necrophagist copy band. Copying the best is a start at least.

29. Origin - Antithesis.
Hyperblast damnation unavoidable. Warp speed merchants return to lay waste once more. Most people are bored by them but somehow I love them and totally get the speed fixation.

28. Terminal Function - Measuring the Abstract
Good disk but a few influences I am not so fond of personally like the annoying vocals. Still they play super well of that there is little doubt.

27. Deny The Urge - Blackbox Of Human Sorrow.
Interesting mix of death and melodic thrash with great riffs.

26. Jack Slater - Blut Macht Frei.
German cinical death merchants with chunky and very cool semi tech riffs.

25. Hateform - Dominance.
Groovy and choppy death/thrash with sizzling solos.

24. Braindrill - Apocalytic Feasting.
Super brutal and super fast braindrilling delivered on a plate.

23. Kalmah - For the revolution.
Loved almost all Kalmah disks and this is no exception. Solid and melodic effort from them this time with soem great guitar/keys interplay with a very heavy sound as well.

22. Defloration - Necrotic Nightmares.
Groove based Cannibal Corpse worship with monstrous sound. The word HEAVY was invented for these guys.

21. Volturyon - Blood Cure.
A surprise. Heavy and groovy death with great riffs and sound.

20. Beneath The Massacre - Dystopia
Hyper brutal death with technical riffs. No prisoners taken!

19. Codeon - Source.
Technical death/thrash which has great sound but could have even been better than it is but still good.

18. Neptune - Acts Of Supremacy.
Top quality unknown melodic death. Perhaps the best melodeath release of the year for me.

17. Prey For Nothing - Violence Divine.
Unexpected classy death grooves from Israel with hi tech level riffing without being over the top and with massive production.

16. Coldworker - Rotting Paradise.
Ultra heavy and brutal death warmachine with thundering riffs heavy enough to move mountains.

15. Carnophage - Deformed Future-Genetic Nightmare.
Technical and fast death with very clean precise production.

14. Neuraxis - The Thin Line Between.
Technical and catchy midpaced death grooves with solid tempos and sound.

13. Eluveitie - Slania.
Folky melodic death masterpiece sometimes aping Dark Tranquility.

12. Equilibrium - Sagas.
Majestic folky viking black with huge melodies. Really enjoyable.

11. Subconscious - All Things Are Equal In Death.
Top notch and best Death worship disk from the deep underground.

10. Hieronymus Bosch - Equivoke
Melodic, free flowing midpaced technical death with nice riffs and unobtrusive vocals.

9. The Faceless - Planetary Duality
More brutal and mature but somehow not as good as previous CD. Still some amazing chops.

8. Revocation - Empire of the Obscene.
Technical death thrash with hi tech level and great whirling riffs.

7. Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God.
Viking killing machine. Grand chest beating melodies from the Swedish horde but somehow not quite as good as last CD though it got better after repeated plays.

6. Arsis - We are the Nightmare.
Technical wizardry on the fretboard from these guys much better than United in Regret IMO.

5. Stigmatized - Becoming Unique.
Mix of Obituary and Death with great vox and riffs. Just the perfect mix between technicality and catchiness.

4. Psycroptic - Ob(Servant).
Technical death mastery this time slightly more relaxed allowing the music room to breathe. The production could have been better

3. Severed Savior - Servile Insurrection.
Superb and slick death mastery with hi technical level and a huge sound.

2. Deeds of Flesh - Of What's to Come.
High precision level, state of the art brutal death with amazing riffs. Easily their best album ever.

and to the number one and this year there was no real clear wide margin winner but if I have to I will give it to Decrepit Birth for improvement sakes alone considering their previous disk was a piece of shit and their new one on another level altogether.

1. Decrepit Birth - Diminishing Between Worlds.
Jaw dropping technical death with melody as well as great solos -what more could you want!

It was a solid year for death metal overall and there were enough great releases to keep everyone happy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Antithesis on 29? :(
And where is Intestine Baalism?