Top 5 albums of the last 5 years?

Well we're halfway through the 2010s, and I was thinking about my favorite releases from this year, and that progressed to thinking about the last couple of years. That then led me to wonder about what everyone here would list.

2015; so far
Chvrches - Every Open Eye
The Tallest Man on Earth - Dark Bird is Home
James Bay - The Chaos and the Calm
Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls
Steven Wilson - Hand.Cannot.Erase.

I need to listen to the new Leprous (the Congregation) and the new Laura Marling (Short Movie) to see where they'd fit in. There's not a lot of new metal that I've heard this year that's clicked with me. It's been a better year for folk & singer/songwriter stuff. I could probably put the new Father John Misty album and an album from this quirky indie rock/pop group called Everything Everything that I've gotten into on the list too, but I'm more familiar with the other albums there as of right now.





2014:
Kayo Dot - Coffins on Io
Sharon Van Etten - Are We There?
Voyager - V
The Contortionist - Language
Fire! Orchestra - Enter

A new Kayo Dot release goes straight to the top of my list... I'm a fanboy. I would've put Opeth's Pale Communion up there too, but I never got as into it as I would've liked. And I still need to give Swans' To Be Kind more listens to allow it to sink in. I'm just now realizing how much I enjoyed their 2012 release, The Seer, after not listening to it for a really long time. The Contortionist's release made me think of Cynic, but retaining a good bit of their own identity.





2013:
Kayo Dot - Hubardo
Laura Marling - Once I Was an Eagle
Haken - The Mountain
Chvrches - The Bones of What You Believe
Protest the Hero - Volition

Climax by Beastmilk should be in there, but Holy Grail's Ride the Void just slightly edged them out. There's probably more albums from 2013 that I'm forgetting about, because this was a great year for music. Protest the Hero's Volition dominated my listening habits for a huge chunk of that year... It should be higher up there, honestly. Colin Stetson's third installment of New History Warfare was also an album I got big into that year that isn't represented on the list; his unique brand of avant-garde jazz saxophone is really captivating. And hell, I forgot about Altered State by TesseracT being released then. It deserves recognition. Another honorable mention is Darkness in a Different Light by Fates Warning, it just didn't have a lot of staying power with me outside of a few songs.





2012:
The Tallest Man on Earth - There's No Leaving Now
Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I
Swans - The Seer
Between the Buried and Me - Parallax II: Hypersleep Dialogues
Distorted Harmony - Utopia

Most of 2012 was spent listening to things that weren't new... King Crimson, Yes, Steely Dan, etc. I was discovering genre after genre; things that were old to the world but new to me. But the new releases that stuck are still with me. I still listen to all of those releases fairly regularly.





2011:
Opeth - Heritage
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Vektor - Outer Isolation
Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol 2: Judges

Bilateral by Leprous was a release that floored me, but I wasn't huge into it at the time. I had heard it once or twice before Coal came out in 2013, and revisited it and it hit me hard. Mastodon's The Hunter was a favorite of mine that year too, but the other albums listed overshadowed it. I need to get more acquainted with Arch/Matheos' Sympathetic Resonance before I put it up there with albums that I know like the back of my hand. And I wouldn't consider it one of my favorites now, but I listened to Theocracy's As the World Bleeds a lot back then.
Two albums that I discovered within the past couple of months that were released then that should be mentioned are Dwellings by Cormorant and The Human Connection by Chaos Divine. They're phenomenal records that I wish I had known since their release.





2010:
The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt
Enforcer - Diamonds
The Sword - Warp Riders
Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
Haken - Aquarius

Around 2010 I didn't listen to music quite as religiously, it was just whatever I caught on VH1 Classic back then, coupled with whatever I could find on obscure metal youtube channels. One day I stumbled upon nolifetilmetal.net, and a journey began, lol. Every album in this top 5 comes from me discovering it later, I think the only new release I had during this time was The Final Frontier by Maiden. But 13 year old me was more than happy with that one new release, I played the hell out of it.





This post was fun to write up (I'm procrastinating writing up a research paper, lol), and I look forward to reading you guys' responses.

Kind of still feels too early for me to see what really sticks.

I think I know Star One - Victims of the Modern Age is my favourite 2010 release. But that's about it. The rest is too recent.

I hope everyone else doesn't have that feeling, lol, otherwise I put together a very useless list.

I have to gather my thoughts and get out the scratch paper but I will be back.

Hmmm, the last 5 years. I'm thinking The Electric Age and White Devil Armory from Overkill for starters, Kreator's Phantom Anti-Christ, Testament's The Dark Roots of Earth, Maiden's The Book of Souls. That's my pics.

I haven't really thought about stuff that I love that much over the last five years. I suppose five years is still fresh to me also, but if I had to go with something, it might look like this:

1. Death Angel - Relentless Retribution (2010)
2. Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown (2010)
3. Van Halen - A Different Kind of Truth (2011)
4. Corrosion of Conformity - Corrosion of Conformity (2012)
5. Keane - Strangeland (2012) tied w/ Overkill - Ironbound (2010)

2011

Blood Ceremony - Living With The Ancients
Subrosa - No Help For the Mighty Ones
Primordial - Redemption at the Puritans Hand
Porcelain Moon - As it Were, Here & There (I'm counting it as it got a proper release in 2011 after being self released in 2009)
Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage



2012

Devin Townsend Project - Epicloud
Panopticon - Kentucky
Goat - Live Ballroom Ritual
Les Discrets - Septembre Et Ses Dernieres Pensees
Orcus Chylde - Orcus Chylde



2013

Oranssi Pazuzu - Valonielu
E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr - Kometenbahn
Purson - The Circle & the Blue Door
Selim Lemouchi & His Enemies - Earth Air Spirit Water Fire
Boards of Canada - Tomorrows Harvest



2014

Triptykon - Melana Chasmata
Hail Spirit Noir - Oi Magoi
Mare Cognitum - Phobos Monolith
Saor - Aura
Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden






2015

Windhand - Griefs Infernal Flower
Ghost - Meloria
Enslaved - In Times
Ingrain - Aembers
Screaming Females - Rose Mountain



Can't believe that Jess & the Ancient Ones, Seremonia, Beastmilk or Alcest didn't make the cut!

Wurthless wrote:

I hope everyone else doesn't have that feeling, lol, otherwise I put together a very useless list.

Oh it's not so bad! I CAN come up with lists. I just don't necessarily feel like it's going to be a list I can properly stand behind.

Longevity should factor in, and there's also the fact I've not given some of these more recent albums their proper dues ie. I haven't played them enough to really get to properly know them, or even get an understanding of how I feel about them. Aside from a superficial "I remember liking this, and not this". Some of them might not stand the test of time, and some of them I might not have properly "discovered" yet, despite owning them. Happens less with more popular bands, and bands I'm a huge fan of already, since I tend to devour their albums quickly. But I still keep discovering and re-discovering albums from the previous decade I overlooked previously.

But I have some time now, so I'll try and come up with some sort of a list. It's not an exact science, and I believe the idea is to get some sort of a general idea of what everyone likes. And it's an online message board, so maybe I'm just totally overthinking it all!

LET'S DO THIS! Stay with me as I'm typing while I'm thinking.

2015

1. Saxon - Battering Ram
2. Iron Maiden - Book of Souls
3. Impellitteri - Venom
4. Devil's Train - II
5. Blind Guardian - Beyond the Red Mirror

I have very little confidence in this list. Battering Ram just came out two days ago. I haven't even played that 2nd Maiden disc (I've played the first one 10 times though!), and I've only gotten through the first 2 tracks of that 2nd disc of the Blind Guardian album. And I also really like Floor Jansen's Nightwish album. It's basically just where I expect these albums to end up in, ranking-wise.

When I give songs a listen I spend time with them. I'm not moving on until I feel like I need another song. This weekend I've had only a few discs on my platter, but I'm cheating with Saxon because I'm a Saxon-nut. The weekend included at least 5 spins of the Saxon album and it's killer shit!

And why isn't Helloween here? The new one is awesome! Damn, I'm not gonna edit it now. It's a lacking list and adding one more entry isn't going to make it much better.

2014

How do I even count this? Axxis released two separate albums, but there was also a version with both discs (which is what I got). So either Axxis is #1 or numbers 1 and 2, it doesn't matter, you choose.

1. Axxis - Kingdom of the Night - White Edition
(2. Axxis - Kingdom of the Night - Black Edition)
2/3. Gamma Ray - Empire of the Undead
3/4. Judas Priest - Redeemer of Souls
4/5. Unisonic - Light of Dawn
5/6. Uriah Heep - Outsider

Aside from the Axxis-confusion, I'm still having a hard time placing these in order, plus the omissions. And 100% guaranteed there are albums/bands that I'd love, but haven't gotten around to yet. Crusader and Noble Beast released some pretty good albums, but it's so hard to place indie stuff like that next to legends like Heep/Priest or established personal favourites for 20+ years like Axxis. Whatever, just don't take my lists too seriously! It's basically what I listened to in 2014 the most.

2013

1. Saxon - Sacrifice
2. Battle Beast - Battle Beast
3. Ayreon - The Theory of Everything
4. Helloween - Straight out of Hell
5. Timo Tolkki's Avalon - The Land of New Hope

Possibly the best Saxon album, EVER! Everything beyond the top 2 is subject to change in an instant. I'm still discovering the Ayreon album, but I love the fact it's so long and non-repetitive (hardly any repeat choruses). Might be their best!

Looking at the list... hmm... after typing out the 2014 list, I now might be overcompensating with "new" bands instead of adding personal favourites like Mystic Prophecy or Pink Cream 69. I think it'll take time to see what really sticks. But whatever, moving on:

2012

1. Threshold - March of Progress
2. Rage - 21
3. Unisonic - Unisonic
4. Mercury Tide - Killing Saw
5. Testament - Dark Roots of the Earth

What, I'm suddenly a prog metal fan?! How can this be?! Threshold is a new discovery for me, and I'm probably still riding a bit of a high, but I love this album.
If I'm completely honest, I think the proper highlight of the year for me was that Led Zeppelin live album/DVD "Celebration Day". But I wouldn't know how to rank THAT against new studio albums.

That Testament album to me felt like a bit of a disappointment after the Formation of Damnation, but in the big picture I guess not since I couldn't find even 5 albums released in 2012 I liked better. Or maybe it's on this list because I'm such a Skolnick fanboy?

2011

1. Iced Earth - Dystopia
2. Powerwolf - Blood of the Saints
3. Uriah Heep - Into the Wild
(4. Tarot - Spell of Iron MMXI)
4/5. Mystic Prophecy - Ravenlord
5/6. Saxon - Call to Arms

Again one of these awkward lists where I'm not sure whether I can count that Tarot album. It's a re-recording of an old-ass album. It's great, and ranks high for me, but I don't know if it's fair to count it here. So I added a 6th album just in case.

And what's with Uriah Heep again?! These are the 2010s, and I have Heep on my lists twice now. And Saxon again, too. There are two possible ways this could happen:

A - I'm nostalgic and don't give newcomers a chance
B - Old bands are better

But I digress, last list now:

2010

1. Star One - Victims of the Modern Age
2. Rage - Strings to a Web
3. Blaze Bayley - Promise and Terror
4/5. Avantasia - Angel of Babylon / Wicked Symphony
5/6. Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier

Star One has by far the best album released this decade so far that I know of. So good they could afford to put perfect 10/10 songs as bonus tracks.

Again a bit of confusion whether Avantasia released one or two albums. They were released separate. But yes, if it's one, Maiden makes the top 5. I can't say I loved the Maiden album immediately, and I was about to omit it, but it's still actually very very good. And especially the last 4 tracks are amazing. The best 4 songs to finish off a Maiden album ever! I've been a little too hard on it, maybe because I hold them to such high standards. A Matter of Life and Death I felt was the best album of their careers.

I used to have a favourite of the two Avantasia albums. I think it was Angel of Babylon. But now I kind of think of them as one album.

Done! This was kind of fun. And now I feel like revisiting a lot of albums.

2010
Early Man- Death Potion

2011
Theocracy-As the World Bleeds

2012
Shadows Fall- Fire From the Sky

2013
Death Angel- The Dream calls for Blood

2014
Sanctuary- The Year the Sun Died

2015
So far a tie between Armored Saint and Queensryche

2015 (so far)

1. Steven Wilson - Hand Cannot Erase
2. Perfect Beings - Perfect Beings II
3. Riverside - Love, Fear And The Time Machine
4. Anekdoten - Until The Ghosts Are Gone
5. Beardfish - +4626-Comfortzone


2014  

1. Opeth - Pale Communion
2. Perfect Beings - Perfect Beings I
3. IQ - The Road of Bones
4. Orange Goblin - Back From The Abyss
5. Triptykon - Melana Chasmata


2013  

1. Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing
2. Riverside - Shrine of New Generation Slaves
3. Big Big Train - English Electric Part 2
4. Purson - The Circle And The Blue Door
5. Haken - The Mountain / Deep Purple - Now What?! (tie)

2012

1. Storm Corrosion - s/t
2. Big Big Train - English Electric Part 1
3. Beardfish - The Void
4. Rush - Clockwork Angels
5. Ian Anderson - TAAB 2

2011

1. Opeth - Heritage
2. Steven Wilson - Grace For Drowning
3. Haken - Visions
4. Riverside - Memories In My Head (EP)
5. Laura Marling - A Creature i Don't Know

2010

1. Opeth - In Live Concert At Royal Albert Hall
2. Porcupine Tree - Anesthetize: Live in Tillburg
3. Haken - Aquarius
4. Big Big Train - Far Skies Deep Time
5. The Sword - Warp Riders

Iron Maiden - Book of Souls wouldn't make any list of mine. It's a long, monotonous, laborious album. I don't get the hype and definitely don't understand how people are saying it's their best album ever or that it's a masterpiece. I love Maiden, but to me this is just more of the same we've been getting for a decade now.

ultmetal wrote:

Iron Maiden - Book of Souls wouldn't make any list of mine. It's a long, monotonous, laborious album. I don't get the hype and definitely don't understand how people are saying it's their best album ever or that it's a masterpiece. I love Maiden, but to me this is just more of the same we've been getting for a decade now.

It's definitely not their best album and it's not a masterpiece.  It probably also won't make my top 5 (though would probably land in the top 20 somewhere if I'm able to come up with that many).  

However, I do like most of the album and I've also enjoyed a good bit of the material they've done in the last decade.

AMORPHIS
GUNSHIP
SACRAL RAGE
CRADLE OF FILTH
ROCKA ROLLAS

Something like that so far

2015
Armored Saint - Win Hands Down
W.A.S.P. - Golgotha
Helloween - My God-Given Right
U.D.O. - Decadent
Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls

2014
Overkill - White Devil Armory
Ace Frehley - Space Invader
Loudness - The Sun Will Rise Again
Sanctuary - The Year The Sun Died
Primal Fear - Delivering The Black

2013
Vicious Rumors - Electric Punishment
Havok - Unnatural Selection
Metal Church - Generation Nothing
Artillery - Legions
Death Angel - The Dream Calls For Blood

2012
Overkill - The Electric Age
KISS - Monster
Loudness - 2012
Flotsam & Jetsam - Ugly Noise
Rage - 21

2011
Vicious Rumors - Razorback Killers
Megadeth - Thirteen
Artillery - My Blood
Iced Earth -Dystopia
Anthrax - Worship Music

ultmetal wrote:

Iron Maiden - Book of Souls wouldn't make any list of mine. It's a long, monotonous, laborious album. I don't get the hype and definitely don't understand how people are saying it's their best album ever or that it's a masterpiece. I love Maiden, but to me this is just more of the same we've been getting for a decade now.

Yeah it's not on my top list either, it's not as tedious of a listen as say "A Matter of Life and Death" was, it has some great moments, but honestly i'd prefer listening to "No Prayer For the Dying" and both Blaze albums over that one.

Vexer6 wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

Iron Maiden - Book of Souls wouldn't make any list of mine. It's a long, monotonous, laborious album. I don't get the hype and definitely don't understand how people are saying it's their best album ever or that it's a masterpiece. I love Maiden, but to me this is just more of the same we've been getting for a decade now.

Yeah it's not on my top list either, it's not as tedious of a listen as say "A Matter of Life and Death" was, it has some great moments, but honestly i'd prefer listening to "No Prayer For the Dying" and both Blaze albums over that one.

You and me both.

TOP 5 of 2014
1. Savage Wizdom - A New Beginning
2. Ted Nugent - Shut Up & Jam
3. Ace Frehley - Space Invader
4. Sanctuary - The Year the Sun Died
5. Overkill - White Devil Armor

TOP 5 of 2013
1. Accu§er - Diabolic
2. Saxon - Sacrifice
3. Warbringer - IV: Empires Collapse
4. Deep Purple - Now What?!
5. Death Angel - The Dream Calls for Blood

TOP 5 of 2012:
1. Overkill - The Electric Age
2. Kreator - Phantom Antichrist
3. 3 Inches of Blood - Long Live Heavy Metal
4. InnerSiege - Kingdom of Shadows
5. Pÿlon - Harrowing of Hell

TOP 5 of 2011:
1. Accu§er - Dependent Domination
2. Havok - Time is Up
3. Anvil - Juggernaut of Justice
4. Vektor - Outer Isolation
5. Anthrax - Worship Music

TOP 5 of 2010:
1. Accept - Blood of the Nations
2. Overkill - Ironbound
3. Raven - Walk through Fire
4. Armored Saint - La Raza
5. Jackyl - When Moonshine & Dynamite Collide

TOP 5 of 2009:
1. Ace Frehley - Anomaly
2. Hirax – El Rostro De La Muerte
3. At War – Infidel
4. KISS - Sonic Boom
5. Kreator – Hordes of Chaos

I'm not convinced that 5 good albums have been released in the last 5 years, in any genre.

That's a hell of a bold statement, lol. Nothing of any genre?

Temple of Blood wrote:

I'm not convinced that 5 good albums have been released in the last 5 years, in any genre.

That's not true at all.

That's because there's only been GREAT albums!?

Subjective opinions. We all have them.

You guys have so much more indepth knowledge than I. So, here is my weakass list:

1 - Helix - Bastard of the Blues
2 - Armored Saint - Win Hands Down
3 - Powermad - Infinite
4 - WASP - Golgotha
5 - Saxon - Sacrifice

2011

Vicious Rumors - Razorback Killers
Widow - Life's Blood
Orchid - Capricorn
Portrait - Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae
Cauldron - Burning Fortune

2012

Overkill - The Electric Age
Testament - Dark Roots of Earth
Gypsyhawk - Revelry & Resilience
Accept - Stalingrad
Van Halen - A Different Kind of Truth

2013

Enforcer - Death By Fire
Night Demon - Night Demon
Satan - Life Sentence
Saxon - Sacrifice
Orchid - The Mouth Of Madness

2014

Grand Magus - Triumph And Power
Overkill - White Devil Armory
Judas Priest - Redeemer Of Souls
Orange Goblin - Back From The Abyss
Stone Dagger - The Siege of Jerusalem

2015

Enforcer - From Beyond
Night Demon - Curse of the Damned
Satan - Atom By Atom
Visigoth - The Revenant King
Armored Saint - Win Hands Down