2 Months Late: Top Albums Of 2009 So Far

Last year around June/July I created a thread to post favortie albums of the mid year. I'm over 2 months late (this has been a slow year so far anyway) but I'm interested, what are your top albums so far? Here's mine:

1. Alestorm-Black Sails At Midnight
2. Stryper-Murder By Pride
3. Dream Theater-Black Clouds With Silver Linings
4. Grave Digger-Ballads Of A Hangman
5. Hammerfall-No Sacrifice, No Victory
6. Municipal Waste-Massive Aggressive
7. Novembers Doom-Into Night's Requiem Infernal
8. Primal Fear-16.6: Before The Devil Knows Your Dead
9. Heaven & Hell-The Devil You Know
10. Amorphis-Skyforger
11. Daath-The Concealers
12. Stratovarius-Polaris
13. Sirenia-The 13th Floor
14. Samael-Above
15. The Crimson Armada-Guardians

So far:

1. Metalucifer - Heavy Metal Bulldozer
2. Iron Man - I Have Returned
3. Praying Mantis - Sanctuary
4. Forsaken - After The Fall
5. Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
6. Sinister Realm - Sinister Realm
7. Ignivomous - Death Transmutation
8. Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know
9. Altar Of Oblivion - Sinews Of Anguish
10. Ultimatum - Lex Metalis
11. Teitanblood - Seven Chalices
12. Proclamation - Execration Of Cruel Bestiality
13. Church Of Misery - Houses Of The Unholy
14. Argus - Argus
15. Slough Feg - Ape Uprising
16. Spiritus Mortis - The God Behind The God
17. Memory Driven - Relative Obscurity

And there's still a lot of albums I'm looking forward to (new Pagan Altar, While Heaven Wept, Hell etc).

Over the next few years, more albums from 2009 that I'm not aware of yet will probably present themselves but here goes so far:

1. Mastodon - Crack the Skye
2. Giant Squid - The Ichthyologist
3. The Mars Volta - Octahedron
4. Kylesa - Static Tensions
5. Portugal. The Man - The Satanic Satanist
6. Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love
7. Isis - Wavering Radiant
8. Minsk - With Echoes in the Movement of Stone
9. Closure in Moscow - First Temple
10. Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound - When Sweet Sleep Returned

Still to come:

Baroness - Blue Record
The Fall of Troy - In the Unlikely Event
Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
Muse - The Resistence
Porcupine Tree - The Incident
3 - Revisions
Them Crooked Vultures - Never Deserved the Future (hopefully)

2009 has been a great year of music buying for me, but I agree it's been pretty slow as far as new stuff goes. Starting next month, there's TONS of albums coming I want though, so I have high hopes for the year overall.

I think these are the only 2009 releases I've bought so far this year. Here's how I'd rank'em:

1. Stryper - Murder By Pride
2. Johnny Lima - Livin' Out Loud
3. Heaven and Hell - The Devil You Know
4. Saxon - Into the Labyrinth
5. Great White - Rising
6. Wildstreet - s/t
7. Freakshow - s/t
8. Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings
9. Judas Priest - A Touch of Evil: Live
10. Charm City Devils - Let's Rock-N-Roll
11. The Last Vegas - Whatever Gets You Off
12. Halestorm - s/t
13. Tim "Ripper" Owens - Play My Game
14. Duff McKagan's Loaded - Sick
15. Chickenfoot - s/t

It's a pretty close race for everyone in my Top 10, and I'm sure by the time I do a "Best of 2009" post at my blog, the preference order will have changed amongst them.

so far & subject to change....

1 Beherit - Engram
2 Suffocation - Blood Oath
3 The Gathering - The West Pole
4 Asphyx - Death...The Brutal Way
5 Sathanas - Nightrealm Apocalypse
6 Obituary - Darkest Day
7 Acheron - The Final Conflict: Last Days of God
8 Fenriz' Red Planet / Nattefrost - Engangsgrill
9 Deströyer 666 - Defiance
10 Absu - Absu
11 Azarath - Praise the Beast
12 Rumpelstiltskin Grinder - Living for Death, Destroying the Rest
13 Believer - Gabriel
14 Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse
15 Doro - Fear No Evil
16 Insidious Disease - Shadowcast
17 Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave
18 God Dethroned - Passiondale
19 Samael - Above
20 FistFuck - Rock 'N' Roll Nightmare
21 Jungle Rot - What Horrors Await
22 Kreator - Hordes of Chaos
23 Archgoat - The Light-Devouring Darkness
24 Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know
25 Pestilence - Resurrection Macabre
26 Cannibal Corpse - Evisceration Plague
27 IWrestledABearOnce - It's All Happening
28 Cattle Decapitation - The Harvest Floor
29 Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
30 Brutal Truth - Evolution Through Revolution
31 Kylesa - Static Tensions
32 Dead Flesh - Returning From Decay
33 Old Man's Child - Slaves of the World
34 Sepultura - A-Lex
35 Gory Blister - Graveyard of Angels
36 Zao - Awake?
37 Job for a Cowboy - Ruination
38 DevilDriver - Pray for Villains
39 Vader - Necropolis
40 Man Must Die - No Tolerance for Imperfection
41 Dying Fetus - Descend into Depravity
42 Mortification - The Evil Addiction Destroying Machine
43 Drowning in Phemaldehyde - Blistering Corpse Abortion
44 Divine Heresy - Bringer of Plagues
45 Anaal Nathrakh - In the Constellation of the Black Widow
46 Municipal Waste - Massive Aggressive
47 Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings
48 Goreaphobia - Mortal Repulsion
49 Despised Icon - Day of Mourning
50 Stryper - Murder by Pride

Black Sabbath-The Devil You Know
Chickenfoot-s/t
Spinal Tap-Back from the Dead
Sepultura-A-Lex
Les Claypool-Of Fungi and Foe

My ten in the order that they were released this year except for AIC and PT

Woe Of Tyrants -
Inevitable End - The Serpents Inception
Alice In Chains - Black Gives way to Blue ( Releases Sept 29th)
Maylene -III
Eluveitie - Evocation
Doomenicus - Sacred
Thy Will Be Done - Ancient of Days
Porcupine Tree - ( The new album releases Sept 15th)
Forsaken - After The Fall
A Hill To Die Upon
Ecthirion -

+ - DarkWoods
- Ansgar
- Soteria

Stryper-Murder By Pride
Municipal Waste-Massive Agressive
Heaven And Hell-The Devil You Know
Warbringer-Waking into Nightmares
Tenet-Sovereign
Believer-Gabriel

SUFFOCATION - Blood Oath
PESTILENCE - Resurrection Macabre
TENET - Sovereign (some really cheesy songs on here, but pretty great in spots)

In No Order.....


Grave Digger - Ballads of a Hangman
Mortification - the evil addiction destroying machine
Holy Dragons - Iron Mind
Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know
Seventh Angel - The Dust of Years
Stryper - Murder by Pride
Sepultura - A-Lex
Ultimatum - Lex Metalis
Saga - The Human Condition
Iron Maiden - Flight 666: The Original Soundtrack
Lady Sovereign - Jigsaw
Sathanas - Nightrealm Apocalypse
Believer - Gabriel
God Forbid - Earthsblood
Thresher - Here I Am
Saxon - Into The Labyrinth
Astra - The Weirding


Still have the new Meliah Rage and Saint coming later in the year, among others......

Only NEW 2009 release I've purchased (and absolutely love it BTW) is:

IMPENDING DOOM - The Serpent Servant

Seems odd that Stryper is getting so much Love! ( I have never liked Michael Sweet though - his vocals are more suited for top 40 rock than heavy metal IMO) I bought the new album and it is OK - The Boston cover is the best song however IMO.

Why so much Love? I am pretty sure mc666 will agree with me on this.

Quote :

Why so much Love?

Because it's good music.

In no specific order as of yet.

Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know
Asphyx - Death...The Brutal Way
Gravehill - Rites of the Pentagram
Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
Goreaphobia - Mortal Repulsion
Pestilence - Resurrection Macabre
Believer - Gabriel
Acheron - The Final Conflict: Last Days of GodVader - Necropolis
Primal Fear - 16:6
Herman Frank - Loyal to None
Tribulation - The Horror
Grave Digger - Ballads Of A Hangman

Some of my favorites so far.
in no order:



Mastodon - Crack The Skye
Forsaken - After The Fall
maudlin Of The Well - Part The Second
Tortoise - Beacons of Ancestorship
Clutch - Strange Cousins From The West
Devin Townsend Project - Ki
Believer - Gabriel
Zao - Awake?
Giant Squid - The Ichthyologist
Obscura - Cosmogenesis

Grave Digger-Ballads Of A Hangman
Primal Fear-16:6
Crescent Shield-The Stars Of Never Seen
Saxon-Into The Labyrinth
Believer-Gabriel
Chickenfoot-S/T
Stryper-Murder By Pride
Hammerfall-No Sacrifice No Victory

325ad wrote:

Why so much Love? I am pretty sure mc666 will agree with me on this.

Not so sure this time.He's a big fan boy.Just take another look at his list

Thrasher73 wrote:

325ad wrote:

Why so much Love? I am pretty sure mc666 will agree with me on this.

Not so sure this time.He's a big fan boy.Just take another look at his list

I higly doubt it, he's mentioned liking Stryper in the past.

Haven't had the money for many purchases so far this year, but of the few I've picked up...

Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know
Mastodon - Crack The Skye
Wino - Punctuated Equilibrium
Yob - The Great Cessation
Radio Moscow - Brain Cycles

Michael Sweet is one of my all time favorite clean singers. his voice is both melodic & powerful. i could hear him going top 40 radio rock, or something even heavier than Stryper. he's that good.

mc666 wrote:

Michael Sweet is one of my all time favorite clean singers. his voice is both melodic & powerful. i could hear him going top 40 radio rock, or something even heavier than Stryper. he's that good.

I stand corrected than MC, but I still think he sucks when it comes to singing metal, he is too whiny! That said I do have respect for him and what he has accomplished over the years and was deeply sorry to hear of his loss of his wife Kyle.

Oddly enough he does sound surprisingly alot like Brad Delp.

SpectreFate wrote:

Quote :

Why so much Love?

Because it's good music.

Yup. I'm not even a Stryper fan, that was my first Stryper album, but I took a chance just to try something new and I really liked it. I highly doubt it's going to place THAT high on my list after next month's releases though, but it's still really good.

So far:
Sacrifice - The Ones I Condemn
Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know
Artillery - When Death Comes

My stand out this year in no order
Heaven and Hell- The Devil you Know
Sol Asunder - Mechanize
Chimaira - The Infection
tim Ripper Owen - Play My Game
Arkaea - Years In Darkness
Ex Deo - Romulus
Burning Human - Resurection Through Fire
Lion's Share - Dark Hours
Chickenfoot
There are several comming out in the next few months that I have high hopes for and I have a few that I bought recently that I am just not familiar enough with to decide to add or not