Who Decides: 2010 Albums of the Year

2010 was a bit of a down year. There wasn't that much to get excited about, but the albums that are in the top 10 are really good, sum will easily make the albums of the decade list in 8 years...if the blog is still up and running. I managed to review a few of these albums as the year wrapped up, so hopefully I won't have to talk about each album as much as I did in the past.

A couple of honorable mentions to Eluveitie with Everything Remains As It Never Was. It was a return to Slania-type folk/melodic death metal. In fact, they probably threw in more folk than before. If you liked Slania, check this one out. This is probably my favorite song off the album, but it's also the slowest.


And the God of War III EP. This thing had songs by Trivium, Killswitch Engage, Opeth, Dream Theater, and a couple others. The mentioned 4 band songs were awesome. Opeth going back to some 70's progressive feel and DT going instrumental. And what about Trivium? They kept going in the same direction that they started with Shogun. I couldn't include it because it was just an EP. But it is definitely one of the better releases this year.


10. Angelus Apatrida - Clockwork: This is retro thrash. It was between this band and another called Vindication. One sounds like Megadeth the other Testament. I went with the latter. Nothing really special here. It's classic bay area thrash with great solos and some early Testament style vocals. Like I said, solid, but definitely didn't break any new ground.


9. Pendulum - Immersion: Kind of the black sheep of the list. This band falls under the "drum & bass" genre. It's has that techno/trance/rave type feel to it at times. I found out the album from the song Self vs. Self which had In Flames on it.


To be honest it's an In Flames song on another album because the rest of the album sounds nothing like that. But that's ok. It's really not bad. It reminds me of 80's new wave at times in fact. Believe it or not, I have a soft spot for bands like Tears for Fears, Human League and the likes. Hopefully Pendulum will continue to push the lines of drum & bass to include more metal aspects.


8. Charred Walls of the Damned - Charred Walls of the Damned: I talked about their album HERE. Solid classic metal album. This is a must for Iced Earth fans as well, even if you are fans of Matt Barlow era Iced Earth.


7. As I Lay Dying - This Powerless Rise: there is nothing wrong with this album, it's just not close to being as good as their previous album. No surprises here. If you liked their last one, the same thing is going on here too. I can't complain about it.


6. Eye of the Enemy - Weight of Redemption: can't believe I never talked about this album. It is near perfect for a debut. The production is top notch. It's better than some veteran albums. Eye of the Enemy plays what I call modern thrash, think DevilDriver. The riffs are vicious and the drumming is intense. Vocals have that harder edge to them without going total death metal. There is some interesting use of techno elements, but nothing to write home about. It pops up once or twice and it doesn't take anything away from the song. This is a band to keep an eye on (no pun intended). How many bands can write an 8 minute song to close an album and make it feel like a typical 4 minute song? Not many. Just go to the 3:20 mark to hear some killer music.


5. Arcania - Sweet Angel Dust: Another new band. This band could have used the production that Eye of the Enemy had. That is probably the one downfall of this album. I reviewed it HERE.


4. Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy: This was a bit of a disappointment at first because it wasn't close to The Godless Endeavor. Plus the solo albums from Jeff Loomis and Warrell Dane made the expectations really high. Well after I listened to it, I put it away thinking "this sucks", then I revisited it a couple of weeks later and was blown away by it. It reminds me a lot of Dead Heart in a Dead World because it isn't all thrash. It has some moments that are thrash, but others are that sort of mid-tempo memorable songs. Each song has a hook that grabs you right away and doesn't let go.


3. All That Remains - For We Are Many: I didn't get a chance to review this album during the year, but here is a quick summary. Better than Overcome, but not The Fall of Ideals. It's a solid album. They took the hooks of Overcome and tried to bring in a little bit heavier feel to the album, but it didn't get all the way to The Fall of Ideals. Out of their 5 albums, it is probably their 3rd best, behind The Fall of Ideals and their debut.


2. Bullet For My Valentine - Fever: I reviewed it HERE. Did I say Nevermore had hooks, this thing is like a bait shop...that's a horrible joke, but the point is every song is great. This is a band that I truly thought I would never like, now after their last two albums, I am actually looking forward to see what they can do next.


1. Blaze Bayley - Promise and Terror: I reviewed it HERE. Great throw back to classic metal. No death metal vocals, no breakdowns, just classic heavy metal. Great album. Check out that riff at the 2:40 mark.


That's it. I have mentioned it already, but 2011 looks really good. I think it will be one of the better years for music.

Tirades of Truth: Bullet for My Valentine - Fever

I've already done reviews of Arcania, Blaze Bayley, and Charred Walls of the Damned, so here is the next in line.

Back in May I talked a little about the new Bullet for My Valentine album, Fever. It was mainly because their lead track, Your Betrayal. But as the year comes to a close it's obvious to me that this is a great metal album.

Their last album Scream, Aim, Fire was great as well. In fact, when they started talking about the follow up they said it wouldn't be as "thrashy" as Scream, Aim, Fire. I believe they said it would be more rock oriented. Well, Fever is far from rock.

The one place you see a difference is the vocals. There aren't as many screams or growls, but BfMV was never known for the screams. There are still plenty of thrash moments in Your Betrayal and The Last Fight. I would say the material is a lot catchier than anything they have ever done. Every song is memorable from the get go. Every song has that hook that you look for, that sing along chorus (Your Betrayal), that memorable riff (Alone), or memorable drum pattern (Begging for Mercy). The music goes from thrash to groove/mid paced metal to ballads.

The title track is pretty good as well. The song has that sort of dirty 80's glam rock feel to it. Seriously, I could have easily have seen Poison doing this song because of the lyrics. The difference between Poison and BfMV is that BfMV has a heavier guitar sound.


The one thing that left a somewhat bad taste in my mouth was the song, Bittersweet Memories. Not that it's a ballad, I have no problem that. It's just that it reminds me so much of Forever and Always off of Scream, Aim, Fire.

There is absolutely no filler on this album. There was always a couple of songs I would skip off their last one, but this one is a play straight through album. Add onto it that every song is memorable, you have a winner.

From start to finish this is one of the most complete albums of the year and will place very high on my Top 10 list this year.

Music Non Stop: Bullet for My Valentine...they did it again

I have talked before about how I didn't want to like this band because I thought they were just another emo band. Their last release Scream, Aim, Fire was a solid album with tons of catchy songs and great musicianship.

Their latest, Fever, is really good. Is it as good as Scream, Aim, Fire? Probably not, but it is still a really good album. They cut back on the amount of screaming vocals in favor of the clean singing. But it's not as bad as Trivium's The Crusade .

I also mentioned their first single, The Last Fight, and how it definitely wasn't a rock song. It caught my attention in a big way. Here is the video;

So that isn't the best song for me. Right now it is Your Betrayal. This song is very catchy. The intro, the chorus, everything. I had a student who heard about 15 seconds of this song proclaim it was "a great song". Here is the video for this one;

So does that put this album #1? I don't think so, but I wouldn't be surprised if it made it into the top 5 again.

Music Non Stop: 2010 albums...Bullet For My Valentine

So still a slow year. I have been listening to more 2010 albums and still am not that impressed. I am looking for to As I Lay Dying's new one, The Powerless Rise. Hopefully, something will be released so we can get a sample of things to come.

Despite my knocking of Deadlock last week, I am still hopeful something will come out this year from these guys.

But this post is about Bullet For My Valentine. This is a band I didn't want to like, not unlike As I Lay Dying. The first song I heard was Tears Don't Fall. I passed it off as some metalcore emo song. I didn't pay too much attention to it. When they released Scream, Aim, Fire I thought it was a horrible title and didn't want to like it. But when it was all said and done, Scream, Aim, Fire made my top 10 (top 5 actually). Just to say who the others were All That Remains, Testament, Trivium, and Metallica. That's pretty good company.

So last year, I read an article saying they were going into more of a rock feel for this album, since the last one had more thrash elements to it. I was kind of disappointed, but whatever right? Well, they released their first single/video for their new album Fever, The Last Fight.

I'm not sure I hear too many rock influences, maybe it's the lack of screaming vocals? It sounds pretty good and now they are on my radar.

As I am typing this up, I am listening to a new band Amaranthe. They caught my eye because there was a band called Amaran that was great female fronted thrash (imagine Nevermore with a female singer, not operatic either). So anyway, this is some catchy metal...ironically kind of like Deadlock. I would say they have more power metal influence mixed in with death metal vocals. Deadlock is more melodic death metal with female vocals mixed in. I will definitely be looking for this album.

*UPDATE* ok, so I have listened to the EP (thank you Youtube). It's hard to nail down this band into one genre. As I said, there are melodic death metal influences, some power metal, and some good ole' thrash metal. The 3 vocalists brings back memories of old Into Eternity. I hear some nice vocal harmonies like Into Eternity. Very good. I would still compare them to Deadlock because a normal range female is rare in metal.