Favorite albums from the first half of 2015

Just wondering what everyone's top albums of the year are thus far. The ones I"ve been enjoying the most are:


Ritchie Kotzen--Cannibals (far from metal, but a really top notch R&B/jazz influenced rock album that took my surprise back in January. I've easily played it more than any other album that came out this year.)

Scorpions--Return to Forever
Sweet & Lynch--Only to Rise
Armored Saint--Win Hands Down
Santa Cruz--Santa Cruz
Helloween--My God Given Right
Whitesnake--The Purple Album
FM--Heroes & Villains
Enforcer--From Beyond
Europe--War of Kings (took a while to grow on me)
Eclipse--Armageddonize
Cyanide--Lethal Dose
U.D.O.--Decadent
Raven--ExtermiNation

Mark Slaughter's Reflections in a Rear View Mirror would be towards the top if it had better production.



My biggest disappointments thus far have been:

Mortification--Realm of the Skelataur (

Nelson--Peace Out! (huge step down from the last album)

Pyramaze--Disciples of the Sun (can never remember a single song after I finishe the album)

Revolution Saints--Revolution Saints (with so much talent in this band the songs just strike me as incredibly generic)

In theory I should love the Dracula album Swing of Death--Jorn + Wig Wam seems like a no brainer to me--but the theatricality gets old quick.

Finally, I'm surprised that nothing has really grabbed me on the S.O.T.O album Inside the Vertigo. I need to give that one another chance.

Night Demon - Curse of the Damned - best of the year so far
Enforcer - From Beyond - another killer album from them
Sorcerer - In The Shadow of the Inverted Cross - if you love Tony Martin era Sabbath, you'll love this
Visigoth - The Revenant King - Excellent USPM
Venom - From The Very Depths - great album for them, lots of crushing songs with tons of groove
Armored Saint - an excellent album from them, easily their best since Symbol of Salvation
U.D.O. - Decadent - it's an U.D.O. album and sounds like it - spin and enjoy


So far this is the only disappointment:

Panzer - Send Them All to Hell - kinda boring.  I expected more considering the participants.


It's been kind of a slow year thus far, but I am looking forward to the new releases by these bands:

Saxon, Motorhead, Slayer, Ghost, Orchid, The Sword and Satan

Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.
Riverside - Love, Fear And The Time Machine
Beardfish - +4626-Comfortzone
King Crimson - Live At The Orpheum, Los Angeles.
Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls
Big Big Train - Wassail (EP)
Special Providence - Essence of Change
Gavin Harrison - Cheating The Polygraph
Laura Marling - Short Movie
Anekdoten - Until The Ghosts Are Gone
The Aristocrats - Tres Caballaros
Echolyn - I Heard You Listening

Metal stuff...

The Sword - High Country
High On Fire - Luminiferous
Armored Saint - Win Hands Down (really nice surprise)
Goatsnake - Black Age Blues - not as good as I had initially hoped, but still mostly solid.  
Ghost - Meliora (pretty good, haven't made up my mind yet)

Seremonia - Kristalliarkki
The Exploding Eyes Orchestra - I
Anters - A Gaze Into the Abyss
Crypt Sermon - Out of the Garden
Domovoyd - Domovoyd
Ghost Bath - Moonlover
Eternal Vally - Ascend to the Unknown
Screaming Females - Rose Mountain
A Forset of Stars - Beware the Sword You Cannot See
Bjork - Vulnicura

I really love some of these but my metal pick is Crypt Sermon, fantastic riffs, in fact everything about that record is fantastic.

Gruesome - Savage Land
Manilla Road - The Blessed Curse
Viking - No Child Left Behind

I've only bought three albums from this year :

U.D.O. - Decadent
Helloween - My God Given Right
Armored Saint - Win Hands Down


All three are very good and I have no qualms about them.

Scanner- The Judgement
Helloween- My God Given Right
Armored Saint- Win Hands Down
Lancer- Second Storm
Jorn Lande and Trond Hotler Present Dracula- Swing Of Death
Ghost Ship Octavius- S/T
Dommin- Rise
The Darkness- The Last Of Our Kind
Angra- Secret Garden
Serious Black- As Daylight Breaks

About 2015 new Deals

Metal
Ranger - Where Evil Dwells
Burning Point - Burning Point
Scanner- The Judgement

Hard Rock
Bonfire - Glorious
Michael Schenker's Temple Of Rock - Spirit on a Mission
Room Experience - Room Experience
The Darkness - Last of Our Kind

and some others

In no order as of yet.

Gruesome - Savage Land
Cut Up - Forensic Nightmares
Morgoth - Ungod
Venom - From The Very Depths
No Return - Fearless Walk to Rise
Encyrcle - Encyrcle
Raven - ExtermiNation
Ruthless - They Rise
UDO - Decadent
Sotajumala - Raunioissa
Unleashed - Dawn Of The Nine

I've only bought a handful of '15 releases thus far but I particularly like Raven's "Extermination" and Whitesnake's "Purple Album."

Lurideath wrote:

Morgoth - Ungod

I've heard great things about this; I plan on picking it up on my next CD haul.

Crypt Sermon - Out Of The Garden
Armored Saint - Win Hands Down
Night Demon - Curse Of The Damned
Raven - Extermination
Black Star Riders - The Killer Instinct
Visigoth - The Revenant King
Sorcerer - In The Shadow Of The Inverted Cross

I'm looking forward to new cds from Windhand, Christian Mistress, Saxon, Pentagram, Iron Maiden, and Black Trip.

Napalm Death - Apex Predator/Easy Meat

Viking- No Child Left Behind
Angelus Apatrida- Hidden Evolution

Had no idea Viking released a new album. I am sooooo out of the loop.

Armored Saint Wins Hands Down for me.

The Viking album isn't very good in my opinion. C level at best!

Is it sad that I actually had to pull up the wiki article on releases for 2015 to recall what came out?

I've bought a LOT this year, but most of it was collected works-style box sets for artists I was curious about (speaking of, the Grobschnitt set is both awesome and hilarious in equal measure if you're into prog with a sense of humor).

So far this year, the only new album releases I've picked up have been:

Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful
Whitesnake - The Purple Album
Faith No More - Sol Invictus

I really enjoyed the Nightwish and it seems a return to form after a couple of "fluffy" albums over the past few years.

The Purple Album is good fun, but the utterly smashed mastering is a bit of a drag because you can tell they put a lot of work into those rearrangements. I like it and it'll get play, but it was a disappointment sonically.

The less said about the new FNM, the better. I can't get past the first two tracks. The damn thing just sounds like another Fantomas album, which is fine because I like Fantomas, but it feels really lame to have FNM just become another Mike Patton vehicle instead of the mix of different personalities and tastes which made their older stuff so interesting to spin.

Paradise Lost - The Plague Within
Crypt Sermon - Out Of The Garden

Haven't heard a lot more than that...but those are the ones I came away really liking. The Armored Saint sounded like the songs weren't finished.

Checking out the new Enslaved album In Times and I might be adding it to my list. Good stuff.

So far I picked up UDO, raven, helloween, whitesnake and venom.

Also have Iron Savior and enforcer on the way.

nice and busy first half. All of these releases are amazing, with special mentions to UDO (as always) and helloween.

the latter is definitely a grower.

Still need to pick up armored Saint and scanner. Not sure about scanner though. Any recommendations?

Also forgot Europe and Sweet & Lynch. Both are very good cds.

That Sweet & Lynch came out strong, but got cold real quick. It's really a case of Michael trying to inject life into George's boring riffs. There's a reason George's best work is in Dokken.

If I had to choose a top 10, this is how it would look:

Art Of Anarchy - Art Of Anarchy
Coal Chamber - Rivals
Great Discord, The - Duende
Moonspell - Extinct
Night Flight Orchestra, The - Skyline Whispers
Paradise Lost - The Plague Within
Pro-Pain - Voice Of Rebellion
Sirenia - The Seventh Life Path
Subterranean Masquerade - The Great Bazaar
Therapy? - Disquiet

Steven Wilson - Hand Cannot Erase
The Aristocrats - Culture Clash live
The Aristocrats - Tres Caballeros
Whitesnake - The Purple Album

I'm way behind on new music this year, but top album of the year so far for me is Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Fantastic concert too!