*The Best Albums of 2015* - Post your favorites

Okay, since we're only a couple weeks away from the end of 2015 it's that time of year to share our favorite releases.  

From a list of about 25 potential titles I tried to condense it down to 10 but ended up having to go with 15.  

Shawn's "Top 15 of '15"

1. Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.
2. Perfect Beings - Perfect Beings II
3. Riverside - Love, Fear And The Time Machine
4. Anekdoten - Until All The Ghosts Are Gone
5. Beardfish - +4626-Comfortzone
6. Earthside - A Dream In Static
7. Laura Marling - Short Movie
8. Kamasi Washington - The Epic
9. Enslaved - In Times
10. Special Providence - Essence Of Change
11. Abigail's Ghost - Black Plastic Sun
12. Panzerballett - Breaking Brain
13. Kylver - The Mountain Ghost
14. Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls
15. Elder - Lore

Honorable mentions (close but not quite)

David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock
Jeff Lynne's ELO - Alone In The Universe
The Tangent - A Spark In The Aether

I didn't even buy enough 2015 releases to make a top 10, much less a top 15. So here's my Top 3:

Raven - ExtermiNation
Queensryche - Condition Human
Stryper - Fallen

I've only bought 6 2015 releases this far. Rating them top to bottom :

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

Chastain - We Bleed Metal
Gruesome - Savage Land
Manilla Road - The Blessed Curse
Skeletal Remains - Condemned to Misery
Unbreakable Hatred - Ruins

Here's my top 10.

Impellitteri - Venom
Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls
Queensryche - Condition Human
Raven - ExtermiNation
Saxon - Battering Ram
Trixter - Human Era
Stryper - Fallen
Helloween - My God-Given Right
Armored Saint - Win Hands Down
W.A.S.P. - Golgotha

I didn't include Whitesnake's "Purple" album b/c I wanted to keep it to all new studio albums. I know they were re arrangements and such and that I am splitting hairs; but that's just how I feel.

Teramaze - Her Halo
Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls
Queensryche - Condition Human
Worldview - The Chosen Few
Stryper - Fallen
W.A.S.P. - Golgotha

Here goes:

1. Crypt Sermon - Out Of The Garden
2. Sorcerer - In The Shadow Of The Inverted Cross
3. Visigoth - The Revenant King
4. Night Demon - Curse Of The Damned
5. Ram - Svbversvm
6. Magic Circle - Journey Blind
7. Clutch - Psychic Warfare
8. Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud
9. Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
10. Christian Mistress - To Your Death
11. Enforcer - From Beyond
12. Valkyrie - Shadows
13. Armored Saint - Win Hands Down
14. Paradise Lost - The Plague Within
15. Black Star Riders - The Killer Instinct
16. Panopticon - Autumn Eternal
17. Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls
18. Enslaved - In Times
19. Raven - Extermination
20. Horrendous - Anareta

1. Ritchie Kotzen--Cannibals
2. W.A.S.P.—Golgotha
3. Santa Cruz--Santa Cruz
4. Scorpions--Return to Forever
5. Iron Maiden—Book of Souls
6. Eclipse--Armageddonize
7. Helloween--My God Given Right
8. Whitesnake--The Purple Album
9. Sweet & Lynch--Only to Rise
10. Armored Saint--Win Hands Down
11. Raven--ExtermiNation
12. Queensryche—Condition Human
13. Trixter—Human Era
14. S.O.T.O.--Inside the Vertigo
15. Europe--War of Kings
16. Revolution Saints--Revolution Saints
17. Mark Slaughter--Reflections in a Rear View Mirror
18. Cyanide--Lethal Dose
19. Hardcore Superstar--HCSS
20. FM--Heroes & Villains

1. Armored Saint - Win Hands Down
2. Iron Maiden - Book of Souls
3. Art of Anarchy - s/t
4. Motorhead - Bad Magic
5. Night Demon - Curse of the Damned
6. Ugly Kid Joe - Uglier Than They Used Ta Be
7. Whitesnake - The Purple Album
8. Slayer - Repentless
9. Alice Cooper - Hollywood Vampires
10. Scott Weiland & the Wildabouts - Blaster

Honorable mentions:
Motor Sister, Horrisont, Raven, Uncle Acid, The Fearless Fly, Christian Mistress, Black Star Riders, Orchid

Boring/Disappointing:
WASP, Queensryche, Riverside, Atomic B*tchwax, Noel Gallagher

Bad:
Danzig, Hardcore Superstar, Night Flight Orchestra

Here is my Top 10...

1. Saffire - For the Greater Good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB_pWGNa-V0
2. Pillar - One Love Revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVBmPzxnWHA
3. Tremonti - Cauterize
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azbe5ookaC4
4. Like A Storm - Awaken The Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQLQDVJHcXk
5. Sons of Texas - Baptized In The Rio Grande
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o43DT1IAA0k
6. Swiss Lips - S/t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Zk02FOvMU
7. Trivium - Silence in the Snow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbiUt-R4EMs
8. Crystal Ball - Liferider
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvDhl3Qyhe4
9. Burn Halo - Wolves of War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxUUsn3qQok
10. Pro-Pain - Voice of Rebellion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6TS6pg7wFc

Almost made it...

A Life Divided - Human
Evergrey - Hymns for the Broken
Daniel Johns - Talk
Orden Ogan - Ravenhead

Dracula - Swing of Death (so catchy and melodic, with Jorn's voice in full effect)

Blind Guardian - Beyond the Red Mirror (Their best since NIME for me)

Impellitteri - Venom (Two metal gods in one band! Here's hoping they continue to make it stick)

Gloryhammer - Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards (I like cheesy power metal, and they do it very well)

Stryper - Fallen


I've picked up others, but they are still being digested.

In no order...

Tsjuder - Antiliv
Coathanger Abortion - Observations of Humanity
Stray From The Path - Subliminal Criminals
Gutalax - Shit Happens
Putridity - Ignominous Attonement
Fallbrawl - Chaos Reigns
Razorrape - Orgy in Guts
Butcher Babies - Take it Like a Man
The Afternoon Gentlemen - The Afternoon Gentlemen
Drain of Impurity - Into the Cold Crypts of Dead Planet
Intestinal Disgorge - Lurking in the Void Between Dreams
Bowel Stew - Debridement
Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love
Gutted Alive - Consumed by Carnage
F*ck The Facts - Desire Will Rot
Phyllomedusa - Inguinal Recency a Ologn Viren Mirth
Syphillic - Hereatt Heen Trance
5 Stabbed 4 Corpses - Gambling for Gore
Fear Factory - Genexus
Screwrot - Deranged Genesis
Hymen Holocaust - Kissed by the Dead...Touched by the Deformed
George Kollias - Invictus
Cumbeast - Groovy Massacre
Iwrestledabearonce - Hail Mary
Encephalcentesis - So Kawaii
Abominable Putridity - The Anomaliers of Artificial Origin
Gangrenectomy - Abhorrent Necrotic Harvester of Dismembered Human Flesh
Traumatomy - Monolith of Absolute Suffering
The Dark Prison Massacre - A Blood Clot Ejaculation
Slayer - Repentless

Also I like the Danzig album, but it's a covers album, so I didn't count it.

The older I get the less point I see in rating music when it all depends on my mood, but these are all fantastic and released this year  

Ingrain - Aembers
Ghost - Meliora
The Exploding Eyes Orchestra - Drawing Down the West
Zuriaake - Gu Yan
Laura Marling - Short Movie
Seremonia - Kristalliarkki
Bjork -Vulnicura
Inquinamentum - Void
Dreadnought - Bridging Realms
Laura Stevenson - Cocksure
Crypt Sermon - Into the Garden
Enslaved - In Times
Witchwood - Litanies From the Woods
Ninkharsag - The Blood of Celestial Kings
Screaming Females - Rose Mountain
Panopticon - Autumn Eternal
Windhand - Griefs Eternal Flower
Christian Mistress - To Your Death
Der Weg Einer Freiheit - Stellar
Downfall of Nur - Umbras De Barbagia
Ghost Bath - Moonlover
Noun - Throw Your Body on the Gears and Stop the Machine with your Blood.
Avoid the Light - Spleen

At time of writing the recent Uncle Acid & Jess & the Ancient ones are not doing a lot for me, this may change though

Welcome back Monty....

No Order...

Orchid- Sign of the Witch
My Silent Wake- Damnatio Memoriae
Nightwish- Endless Forms Most Beautiful
Steven Wilson- Hand Cannot Erase
Hatchet - Fear Beyond Lunacy
High On Fire - Luminiferous
Seedy Jesus- Seedy Jesus
Warren Haynes- Ashes & Dust
Stryper- Fallen
Druid-Druid
Armored Saint- Win Hands Down
Saxon- Battering Ram
Tau Cross- Tau Cross
Windhand- Grief's Eternal Flower
Mondo Drag- Mondo Drag
Goatsnake-Black Age Blues
Kylesa- Exhausting Fire
Psycroptic- Psycroptic
Monolord- Vaenir
Leviathan- Scar Sighted
Saturndust- Saturndust

I didn't buy as much music this year as others. My top 5 of the year are as follows:

5. Motorhead - Bad Magic
4. Queensryche - Condition Human
3. Stryper - Fallen
2. Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful
1. Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls

Disappointments: Slayer and Scorpions

James B wrote:

Druid-Druid

Forgot that one. Great record!

S.D. wrote:

2. Perfect Beings - Perfect Beings II
4. Anekdoten - Until All The Ghosts Are Gone
5. Beardfish - +4626-Comfortzone
6. Earthside - A Dream In Static
9. Enslaved - In Times
10. Special Providence - Essence Of Change
11. Abigail's Ghost - Black Plastic Sun
12. Panzerballett - Breaking Brain
13. Kylver - The Mountain Ghost
15. Elder - Lore

Thanks Shaun, these were all new to me and I like them for various reasons.

James B. wrote:

S.D. wrote:

2. Perfect Beings - Perfect Beings II
4. Anekdoten - Until All The Ghosts Are Gone
5. Beardfish - +4626-Comfortzone
6. Earthside - A Dream In Static
9. Enslaved - In Times
10. Special Providence - Essence Of Change
11. Abigail's Ghost - Black Plastic Sun
12. Panzerballett - Breaking Brain
13. Kylver - The Mountain Ghost
15. Elder - Lore

Thanks Shaun, these were all new to me and I like them for various reasons.

I can't believe how little music I buy these days, especially new music.

1. The Answer - Raise A Little Hell
2, Backyard Babies - 4x4
3. WASP - Golgotha
4. Michael Monroe - Blackout States
5. The Crunch - Brand New Brand
6. Biters - Electric Blood

MC666 - Good to see you around!

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Dracula - Swing of Death (so catchy and melodic, with Jorn's voice in full effect)

Blind Guardian - Beyond the Red Mirror (Their best since NIME for me)

Diviner - Fallen Empires (What I think Dio could be putting out if he was born 30-40 years later)

Impellitteri - Venom (Two metal gods in one band! Here's hoping they continue to make it stick)

Gloryhammer - Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards (I like cheesy power metal, and they do it very well)

Stryper - Fallen


I've picked up others, but they are still being digested.

Had to make an amendment at #3:

Diviner - Fallen Empires  (Very good, and reminds me of a modern Dio)

1. Wulfhook - The Impaler
2. Chastain - We Bleed Metal
3. Paradise Lost - The Plague Within
4. Ram - Svbversvm
5. House Of Lords - Indestructible
6. Crypt Sermon - Out Of The Garden
7. Sorcerer - In The Shadow Of The Inverted Cross
8. Europe - War Of Kings
9. Entrails - Obliteration
10. Gruesome - Savage Land

Apex Predator / Easy Meat - Napalm Death
Luminiferous - High On Fire
Book Of Souls - Iron Maiden
Repentless - Slayer
What Should Not Be Unearthed - Nile

Ahhh too soon! I don't know. Not enough time.

Right now I'd pick maybe Saxon or Devil's Train. I guess I'll take Devil's Train because I've played it more. It's kind of straight forward and simple, so there is the danger of it falling off any top lists after a few years pass. But it is heavy metal in the exact style that I like. And it had the benefit of being released early in the year. And I'm a big Liapakis fanboy.



Links to the other videos from the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFQT-cDc-eo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFv6PN36bsY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_6uiOkYFCk

Who the hell does 4 videos for a heavy metal album nowadays anyway? Some of them also look pretty slick, so I'd like to see the cost of shooting them vs the number of albums they actually sold!  

But whatever, I doubt it's about money with this band which is basically a fun side project for everyone involved.

Can't wait for Mystic Prophecy in 2016!