Surprises 2008

Toxic holocaust - ...an overdose of death -> never heard of this band before and this was one heck of a way to be introduced. Thrash metal with punk delivery and a black metal attitude? Kick ass!

sam wrote:

Toxic holocaust - ...an overdose of death -> never heard of this band before and this was one heck of a way to be introduced. Thrash metal with punk delivery and a black metal attitude? Kick ass!

Oh Yeah,this is in my top 10 for 08.Great Release.I love the vocal similarities to Roger Martinez on Human Sacrifice.

Well i love two relases this year

Main Line Riders - "Shoot in the Dark"
This one was relased in 2007 , but i bought this year and i love it, great glam/punk metal here, glam never die.

Grave Robber- "Be Afraid"
Horror Punk, very very funny record

To me, the biggest surprise is that veteran heavy metal/hard rock acts like AC/DC, Metallica, and Guns n Roses all released solid albums and have sold in incredible numbers, also that for whatever reason veteran hard rock/metal bands seem to have resurged in popularity again or at least in the public conscience.

maybe this due to VH1 Classics airing classic videos and concerts, or Rockband and Guitar Hero, I don't know. But it is nice to see that our music keeps picking up new fans and getting older fans reinterested.

Like others, I was really impressed with Death Magnetic. I went from hating them after Load to loving them now.

Grave Robber took me by suprise. I'm not much into punk but this CD is just awesome.

I figured I'd like Alestorm, but that they'd be a novelty at best. I love CMR and it is one of the most fun albums this year (not quite equal to Grave Robber, but still fun).

I knew Scarecrow would be enjoyable but it turned out to be one of my favorite albums EVER.

Black Tide was another great suprise. I figured it would be just O.K. and it was only a little over $10 plus my Wal-Mart employee discount. Turned out to be a good gamble.

Another for me:
Once Dead-Visions of Hell(I wasnt expecting much especially after Ult left and a metalcore sreamer was in but this is a good album.Great guitar work)

DallasBlack wrote:

Like others, I was really impressed with Death Magnetic. I went from hating them after Load to loving them now.

Grave Robber took me by suprise. I'm not much into punk but this CD is just awesome.

I figured I'd like Alestorm, but that they'd be a novelty at best. I love CMR and it is one of the most fun albums this year (not quite equal to Grave Robber, but still fun).

I knew Scarecrow would be enjoyable but it turned out to be one of my favorite albums EVER.

Black Tide was another great suprise. I figured it would be just O.K. and it was only a little over $10 plus my Wal-Mart employee discount. Turned out to be a good gamble.

I hate Death Magnetic and will never listen to it again.

If anyone wants to take this turd off my hands, PM me.

tohostudios wrote:

DallasBlack wrote:

Like others, I was really impressed with Death Magnetic. I went from hating them after Load to loving them now.

Grave Robber took me by suprise. I'm not much into punk but this CD is just awesome.

I figured I'd like Alestorm, but that they'd be a novelty at best. I love CMR and it is one of the most fun albums this year (not quite equal to Grave Robber, but still fun).

I knew Scarecrow would be enjoyable but it turned out to be one of my favorite albums EVER.

Black Tide was another great suprise. I figured it would be just O.K. and it was only a little over $10 plus my Wal-Mart employee discount. Turned out to be a good gamble.

I hate Death Magnetic and will never listen to it again.

If anyone wants to take this turd off my hands, PM me.

I guess I should have said "like most people" instead of "like others". I know there are a number of people who don't like it. However, I like it and that's all that really matters.

DallasBlack wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

DallasBlack wrote:

Like others, I was really impressed with Death Magnetic. I went from hating them after Load to loving them now.

Grave Robber took me by suprise. I'm not much into punk but this CD is just awesome.

I figured I'd like Alestorm, but that they'd be a novelty at best. I love CMR and it is one of the most fun albums this year (not quite equal to Grave Robber, but still fun).

I knew Scarecrow would be enjoyable but it turned out to be one of my favorite albums EVER.

Black Tide was another great suprise. I figured it would be just O.K. and it was only a little over $10 plus my Wal-Mart employee discount. Turned out to be a good gamble.

I hate Death Magnetic and will never listen to it again.

If anyone wants to take this turd off my hands, PM me.

I guess I should have said "like most people" instead of "like others". I know there are a number of people who don't like it. However, I like it and that's all that really matters.

And I'm still trying to sell my copy.

Jesse James Dupree and Dixie Inc.-Rev it up and go go

I was secretly expecting a wimpy country rock album.

Becoming The Archetype-Dichotomy: I was really not looking to get this album due to me getting bored with the last two. I thought that if they'd do more clean vocals I'd enjoy it better. When I was at Mardel I saw the demo CD so I gave it a listen. While they haven't uped the clean vocals, they have accented the brutal death metal with sypmhonic sounds (though not overbearing like Dimmu Borigir-not that DB isn't good). I would need to give this a full spin but this may be a contender for my top 30 list (I decided with the volume of new releases this year, 20 wouldn't be enough).

that "chinese democracy" actually was released.

dirtracin1 wrote:

that "chinese democracy" actually was released.

I'm 'surprised' by how much i like Chinese Democracy. It's obviously a ludicrous, over-blown monstrosity of an album, but you can't deny it's energy and desire to entertain. There's about 150 million ideas simultaneously fighting for top billing; and for that i salute you, Axl.. you ugly, botoxed, ginger half-wit.


I was also surprised by how little the latest Iced Earth did for me. When heavy metal is boring; you're doing it wrong.

Demain - building an empire

I had never heard of this before but it was sent to me in a package from SPV. I'm digging this a LOT. It sort of reminds me a bit of Devin Townsend's "terria".

DallasBlack wrote:

Black Tide was another great suprise. I figured it would be just O.K. and it was only a little over $10 plus my Wal-Mart employee discount. Turned out to be a good gamble.

forgot about that one, it was a very good disc. had a great retro vibe to it.

The guy never seems to run out of material. Last year he made a concept album based on Martin Luther (a project that involved quite a lot of research on Neal's part). I figured that with his large album input he'd take a break. But imagine my suprise when at Virgin, I found a new album. A last minute addition to my list for best of 2008 (along with Suspyre- When Time Fades...).

Meshuggah - (ob)Zen

who knew that palm muting 4 different dissent chords and playing out of tune jazz solos over them could actually be...entertaining.

probably far away from what we worship but ... alast day i'm enjoying this one


and it's simply amazing. can't stop listening it. i'm deep into this album. it's fantastic as JF's previous release from 2005.

sorry guys

tar 'n' feather time!

So far the biggest surprise for me has been Stormwarrior - "Heading Northe". I had absolutely no expectations and it just grabbed me by the balls from the first listen.

Blown away by: Whitesnake, Metal Church
Pleasantly suprised by: Metallica, Dokken, AC/DC
Was what I expected: Tesla