Last Friday, we invited our readers to share with us your lists of the best metal you heard in 2010 — and this post is the place where you can do it.
To remind you what we said on Friday, there really aren’t any rules here. Your list doesn’t have to be a “Top 10” or a “Top 20” list, or any specific number. It could be a Top 2 list. And it doesn’t have to be a cross-genre list, i.e., the best of all metal you’ve heard this year. It could be the best hardcore albums you heard, or the best black metal, or the best folk metal, or the best reggae metal, or the best rap metal — except we’re still joking about the rap metal.
Basically, your list can be anything you’re comfortable sharing with us and your fellow readers. You never know. Your list might turn someone else on to music they will come to love and otherwise might have missed. Besides, since NCS is too lazy to publish its own “Best Albums” list, we need someone else to do it for us.
So, let us hear from you. Put your lists in the comments to this post so we can collect them all in one place. If you don’t have a list ready yet, no sweat, because you can come back to this post whenever you like and add your list later — or comment on the lists others have posted.
Now, here’s a preview of what we’ve got planned for you this week, which we might as well call LISTMANIA WEEK, because that’s almost all we’ll be doing — giving you lists by a variety of guest contributors of the best and/or the most listenable metal of 2010. (more after the jump . . .)
Between now and Friday, we’ll be publishing guest posts (at least one and sometimes two per day) from musicians and metal bloggers providing their lists of the best metal they heard this year and accompanying observations about the music. We’ve already seen most of them, and we can promise they’ll be worth your time. We also expect they’ll provoke some lively discussion in the comments.
In a few hours, we’ll be starting LISTMANIA WEEK with the first of a four-part post by our UK contributor Andy Synn.
We’ll also intersperse these guest contributions with some of our own regular features.
There you have it. Now, let us have it. Your lists, that is.
20 Responses to “THE BEST OF 2010: NCS READER LISTS”
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Top 10:
1 Watain – Lawless Darkness
2 Weapon – From the Devil’s Tomb
3 Thulcandra – Fallen Angel’s Dominion
4 Nightbringer – Apocalypse Sun
5 Deathspell Omega – Paracletus
6 Odem Arcarum – Outrageous Reverie above the Erosion of Barren Earth
7 Negura Bunget – Maiestrit
8 Ondskapt – Arisen from the Ashes
9 Imperium Dekadenz – Procella Vadens
10 Kalmah – 12 Gauge
Honorable mentions go to Sargeist, Nevermore, Martriden, Ihsahn and a number of other bands I can’t recall right now.
As I said before when I first saw your list, I’m a big fan of every one of these albums that I know — which makes me eager to hear the others. As you know, I’ve already sampled Weapon, which was a great find. Now I need to hear Nightbringer and Ondskapt.
Top 20:
Grave Ritual – Euphoric Hymns From the Altar of Death
Brutally Deceased – Dead Lovers’ Guide
Horrendous – Sweet Blasphemies demo
Weapon – From the Devil’s Tomb
Hellish Crossfire – Bloodrust Scythe
Gjenferdsel – Varde
Grave Miasma – Realm of Evoked Doom EP
Encoffination – Ritual Ascension Beyond Flesh
Hail of Bullets – On Divine Winds
Beyond Hell – The Sleeper Awakens
Byfrost – Black Earth
Burial Invocation – Rituals of the Grotesque EP
Cemetery Urn – The Conquered are Burned
Hooded Menace – Never Cross the Dead
Interment – Into the Crypts of Blasphemy
King of Asgard – Fi’mbulvintr
Mandatory – Adrift Beyond
The Wakedead Gathering – Tenements Of Ephemera
Winterfylleth – The Mercian Sphere
Vasaeleth – Crypt Born & Tethered To Ruin
There’s a lot of Death Metal on this list
I have a feeling this is my kind of list, based on the albums I know — Weapon, Hail of Bullets, Byfrost, Cemetery Urn, Interment, King of Asgard, Winterfylleth. Very cool to see all those names; makes me hungry to hear the rest some day.
hmm im not going to make a top X, ill just list the 2010 albums/eps/demos i liked in no particular order.
Nachtmystium – Addicts Black Meddle II
Ihsahn – After
Archspire – All Shall Align [EP]
Enslaved – Axioma Ethica Odini
Radiance – The Burning Sun
Alkahest – Demo
1349 – Demonoir
Alcest – Écailles de Lune
Rings of Saturn – Embryonic Anomaly
Triptykon – Eparistera Daimones/Shatter [EP]
Drudkh – Handful of Stars
Atheist – Jupiter
Watain – Lawless Darkness
Agalloch – Marrow of the Spirit
Winterfylleth – The Mercian Sphere
Celeste – Morte(s) Nee(s)
Lantlôs – .Neon ( probably my favorite album of the year! )
Soilwork – The Panic Broadcast
Deathspell Omega – Paracletus
Decrepit Birth – Polarity
Woe – Quietly, Undramatically
Les Discrets – Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées
Anathema – We are here because we are here
Forest Silence – Winter Ritual
Heretoir/Thränenkind Split – Wiedersehen – unsere Hoffnung
The Last Days – When the Tomorrow is a Grey day
Unleashed – As Yggdrasil Trembles
More proof of what a strong year 2010 has been for break-out black metal, and of the stylistic variety with which the genre is filled.
Just discovered “Celeste” (thanks to Anders) this weekend, I’ve only had time to give it the briefest of listens, but so far sounds quite interesting. Occupying some space between black metal and post-rock. Their whole discography is available for free from the record company:
http://www.denovali.com/celeste/ (warning page will start streaming music automatically)
Living Sacrifice-The Infinite Order
Carnifex-Hell Chose Me
I Declare War-Malevolence
Impending Doom-There Will Be Violence
The Acacia Strain-Wormwood
Whitechapel-A New Era of Corruption
Tony Danza….-Danza 3…
Oceano-Contagion
The Contortionist-Exoplanet
Stick to Your Guns-The Hope Division
Deftones-Diamond Eyes
Intronaut-Valley of Smoke
Within the Ruins-Invade
Soulfly-Omen
Fear Factory-Mechanize
Norma Jean-Meridional
Monument to Thieves- ST
Man, another nice list — and a few items on it I wasn’t expecting from you (e.g., Deftones and Intronaut).
I will just edit my 1st post on the other news post to make it full of metal bands
Top 10 albums of 2010
1. Kvelertak – Kvelertak
2. Periphery – Periphery (Instrumental)
3. As I Lay Dying – The Powerless Rise
4. Hour Of Penance – Paradogma
5. First Blood – Silence Is Betrayal
6. Immersed – In The Ire Of Creation
7. The Contortionist – Exoplanet
8. Veil Of Maya – [id]
9. Fleshwrought – Dementia / Dyslexia
10. Son Of Aurelius – The Farthest Reaches
Top 5 Eps of 2010
1. Tesseract – Concealing Fate
2. Elitist – Caves
3. Centuries Apart – Malachi
4. Structures – All Of The Above
5. Volumes – The Concept Of Dreaming
1. Kvelertak / Kvelertak
2. Cloudkicker / Beacons
3. Keep Of Kalessin / Reptilian
4. Ghost / Opus Eponymous
5. Radiance / The Burning Sun
6. Exodus / Exhibit B: The Human Condition
7. Periphery / Periphery
8. Forbidden / Omega Wave
9. Watain / Lawless Darkness
10. Hail Of Bullets / On Divine Winds
11. Solution .45 / For Aeons Past
12. Barren Earth / Curse Of The Red River
13. Doomshine / The Piper At The Gates Of Doom
14. Soilwork / The Panic Broadcast
15. Triptykon / Epistaria Diamones
16. Enslaved / Axioma Ethica Odini
17. Iron Thrones / The Wretched Sun
18. In Vain / Mantra
19. Wretched / Beyond The Gate
20. In Mourning / Monolith
Yet again, a list that makes me think I ought to listen to everything on it that I don’t know, based on the inclusion of all the albums I do know and think are among the year’s best. The ones I haven’t heard that now go on my list: Doomshine, Iron Thrones, In Vain, Triptykon (I need to give this band a second chance). All the others: aces.
1.Son of Aurelius – The Farthest Reaches
2.Ludicra – The Tenant
3.Watain – Lawless Darkness
4.Demonic Resurrection – The Return to Darkness
5.Thou – Summit
6.Ghost – Opus Eponymous
7.Black Label Society – Order of the Black
8.Hour of Penance – Paradogma
9.Eluveitie – Everything Remains as it Never Was
10.Carach Angren – Death Came Through a Phantom Ship
Some great variety in this list — and this is the second list I’ve seen in the last 24 hours (the other one we’ll be posting tomorrow) that includes Carach Angren. Very interesting . . .
I tried to include my favorite standouts in their respective genres as well as stuff that I’ve had a blast listening to this year. I’ll leave it to readers to ponder which ones are which 😉
Top Metal Albums of 2010:
Inquisition – Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm – Far and Away my #1
Blasphemophagher – From Chaos, Obscurity and Desolation
Bastard Priest – Under the Hammer of Destruction
Vaseleth – Crypt Born and Tethered to Ruin – these 3 are pretty much all tied for the #2 spot
Best of the Reast:
Hail of Bullets – On Divine Winds – better than I first thought
Electric Wizard – Black Masses – much better than I originally thought
Briton Rites – For Mircalla – played it a lot this year clean vocals and all
Force of Darkness – Darkness Revelation
Brutally Deceased – Dead Lovers Guide
Encoffination – Ritual Ascension Beyond Flesh
Decrepitaph – Beyond the Cursed Tombs
Acid Witch – Stoned
Denouncement Pyre – World Cremation
The Royal Arch Blaspheme – S/T
Devastator – Nocturnal Slut
Diaboli – Invocation
Angrepp – Warfare
Vomitor – Devil’s Poison
Grave Desecrator – Insult
Setherial – Ekpyrosis
Father Befouled – Morbid Destitution of Covenant
Truppensturm – Salute to the Iron Emperors
Black Witchery – Inferno of Sacred Destruction
Witchrist – Beheaded Ouroboros
Diocletian – War of All Against All
Countess – Burning Scripture
Ondskapt – Arisen From the Ashes
Hellish Crossfire – Bloodrust Scythe
Weapon – From the Devil’s Tomb
Maniac Butcher – Masakr
Otargos – No God No Satan
Triptykon – Eparistera Daimones
Top EP’s demos and splits:
Innumerable Forms – Dark Worship
Horrendous – Sweet Blasphemies
Hell Spirit/Nocturnal Graves split – The Gravespirit Sessions
Burial Invocation – Rituals of the Grotesque
Kerasphorous – Cloven Hoofs at the Holocaust Dawn
Pseudogod – Triumphus Serpentis Magni
Perversor – Demon Metal
Miasmal – S/T
Can’t believe I left off Nocturnal Blood – Devastated Graves – The Morbid Celebration, it should be in the top 10 at least if not top 5
Wow. Thanks for doing this. Second “best of” list I’ve seen today with Inquisition on it. Vaseleth is another band I’ve been meaning to check out. Time to do it. Same for Ondskapt and Setherial. But Blasphemographer, Bastard Priest, and Noctural Blood are all brand new names to me (as are most of your also-rans). I feel like I’ve been living under a rock.
Antichrist, you cheeseball, I cant believe you started posting over here. I also cant believe I left Innumerable Forms, Bastard Priest, and Miasmal off my list. I could probably double my original list at this point.