The history of UK-based Metal Hammer magazine can be traced back to 1983. At its peak, it was published in 11 different languages around the world, with a monthly circulation of over 1 million. Near death at the end of 2016 due to the collapse of its then-owner Team Rock Ltd, the publication was rescued when former owner Future Publishing re-purchased the magazine (and preserved the TeamRock name). Its Facebook page currently boasts more than 2 million likes.
We haven’t located current print or digital subscription numbers, but it seems obvious that Metal Hammer qualifies for the part of our annual LISTMANIA series in which we re-publish year-end lists by substantial print zones and “big platform” web sites, even though we haven’t included it in previous years.
This year Metal Hammer compiled a list of “The 100 Best Albums of 2017“. It appears in the magazine’s special “End of Year” edition with Rob Flynn on the cover (who apparently has totally had enough of your shit), and has also been published on-line (here) at TeamRock’s digital site. In Metal Hammer’s words, “The 100 albums listed below span the vast smorgasbord that is metal. We’ve got hardcore (Code Orange), doom (Pallbearer), thrash (Kreator), post-metal (Amenra), prog-metal (Anathema), metalcore (While She Sleeps), noise (Full Of Hell) and so so much more.”
Papa Roach, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, and AFI are on this list. So are Rebirth of Nefast, Fleurety, Tchornobog, Whoredom Rife, and The Ruins of Beverast. Zeal and Ardor is at No. 5, though it was released in 2016. Mastodon got album of the year, Myrkur is at No. 2, and Code Orange is at No. 3.
So, yeah, it’s a schizophrenic assembly of names, ranked in a way that’s hard to fathom, and provided here for your amusement, if not for your edification:
100) Hey Colossus – The Guillotine
99) Rebirth Of Nefast – Tabernaculum
98) Bokassa – Divide & Conquer
97) Forgotten Tomb – We Owe You Nothing
96) Implore – Subjugate
95) Betraying The Martyrs – The Resilient
94) The Night Flight Orchestra – Amber Galactic
93) Hallatar – No More Stars Upon The Bridge
92) R.I.P – In The Wind
91) Botanist – Collective: The Shape Of He To Come
90) Blaze Bayley – Endure And Survive
89) Arugs – From Fields Of Fire
88) Necromandus – Necromandus
87) Pagan Altar – The Room Of Shadows
86) Primus – The Desaturating Seven
85) Septicflesh – Codex Omega
84) Ufomammut – 8
83) Comeback Kid – Outsider
82) Förgjord – Uhripuu
81) Circle – Terminal
80) Helheim – Landawarijar
79) H.E.A.T – Into The Great Unknown
78) Integrity – Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume
77) Ho99o9 – United States Of Horror
76) Caligula’s Horse – In Contact
75) August Burns Red – Phantom Anthem
74) Battle Beast – Bringer Of Pain
73) Papa Roach – Crooked Teeth
72) Fleurety – The White Death
71) Cannibal Corpse – Red Before Black
70) The Haunted – Strength In Numbers
69) Nicole Sabouné – Miman
68) Ghost Bath – Starmourner
67) Sons Of Apollo – Psychotic Symphony
66) Dragonforce – Reaching Into Infinity
65) Oxbow – Thin Black Duke
64) Tchornobog – Tchornobog
63) Immolation – Atonement
62) Vuur – In This Moment We Are Free – Cities
61) Blood Command – Cult Drugs
60) Iced Earth – Incorruptible
59) Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper
58) Deep Purple – Infinite
57) Darkest Hour – Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora
56) Thy Art Is Murder – Dear Desolation
55) Akercocke – Renaissance In Extremis
54) The Bronx – V
53) Disperse – Foreword
52) The Great Discord – The Rabbit Hole
51) Mutoid Man – War Moans
50) Accept – The Rise Of Chaos
49) Whoredom Rife – Dommedagskvad
48) Alice Cooper – Paranormal
47) Here Lies Man – Here Lies Man
46) Cradle Of Filth – Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness of Decay
45) Horisont -– About Time
44) Wear Your Wounds – WYW
43) Threshold – Legends Of The Shire
42) Elder – Reflections Of A Floating World
41) AFI – AFI (The Blood Album)
40) Arch Enemy – Will To Power
39) Stray From The Path – Only Death Is Real
38) The Lurking Fear – Out Of The Voiceless Grave
37) Northlane – Mesmer
36) At The Drive-In – In.ter.a.li.a
35) Body Count – Bloodlust
34) Power Trip – Nightmare Logic
33) Full Of Hell – Trumpeting Ecstasy
32) Spectral Voice – Eroded Corridors Of Unbeing
31) Perturbator – New Model
30) The Contortionist – Clairvoyant
29) The Ruins Of Beverast – Exuvia
28) Sikth – The Future In Whose Eyes?
27) Prophets Of Rage – Prophets Of Rage
26) Trivium – The Sin And The Sentence
25) Royal Thunder – Wick
24) Amenra – Mass VI
23) Employed To Serve – The Warmth Of A Dying
22) Satyricon – Deep Calleth Upon Deep
21) Sólstafir – Berdreyminn
20) The Obsessed – Sacred
19) Ulver – The Assassination Of Julius Caesar
18) Kreator – Gods Of Violence
17) Creeper – Eternity, In Your Arms
16) Leprous – Malina
15) Anathema – The Optimist
14) Marilyn Manson – Heaven Upside Down
13) Pallbearer – Heartless
12) The Black Dahlia Murder – Nightbringers
11) Wolves In The Throne Room – Thrice Woven
10) Converge – The Dusk In Us
9) Paradise Lost – Medusa
8) While She Sleeps – You Are We
7) Chelsea Wolfe – Hiss Spun
6) Grave Pleasures – Motherblood
5) Zeal & Ardor – Devil Is Fine
4) Enslaved – E
3) Code Orange – Forever
2) Myrkur – Mareridt
1) Mastodon – Emperor Of Sand
31 Responses to “LISTMANIA 2017: METAL HAMMER’S LIST OF “THE 100 BEST ALBUMS OF 2017””
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This certainly is a list of 100 albums
I couldn’t agree more. 🙂
I actually liked the new Mastodon, but there’s no way it’s the album of the year.
I love early Deep Purple, but I’d never given any post-Blackmore albums of theirs a listen. I tried to listen to Infinity and I don’t think I could make it through a single track. The lyrics are so cringle-inducing that they ruined any enjoyment I could have wrought from the instrumental performances.
I love early Deep Purple too, and had no idea anything was still being recorded under that name. I will spare myself listening to it.
Much of my time is spent sequestered from society, but when did AFI become metal?
Well, let me look at my calendar… ah, there it is… that happened in the month of Never. 🙂
AFI are certainly not metal. Fun fact though: they did start out as a legit DIY band and played lots of small venues on mixed bills with hardcore bands. They two times I’ve seen them in the PNW they opened for Trial/ Botch and Sick of it All, respectively.
Even more fun fact: they made Terrorizer’s top albums of the year in 1999 and 2000, actually coming 13th in 1999!
http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/terroris.htm#99
FYI, Terrorizer is about extreme music, not only metal… And for the people wondering about AFI, what about Chelsea Wolf??
The good news is R.I.P did indeed do a new album this year…which I honestly did not know about. The bad news is it was not “In the Wind” because that came out in 2016.
The rest of this list is indeed a hodge-podge of good, bad and what the fuck. Good to see Rebirth Of Nefast, Spectral Voice, The Ruins Of Beverast, and the like on here, but that top ten is cringe worthy
What ? No Gorguts ?
You somehow managed to beat Andy to the punch. Congratulations!
Thank you for your service.
Not a bad list content wise, but the ranking is truly horrific. How anyone could have Arch Enemy above Immolation, as well as that POS Anathema record that high on their list is way beyond me. Threshold, too, needs to be way up front as it’s simply better than almost all of the other content listed. But, alas, that’s just my view and I respect peoples’ opinions.
I’m not a big fan of this list but I do love how they gave a space to Helheim’s Landawarijar. That’s something I should probably do.
The fact Cannibal ends up in 71 and Immolation 63 renders this invalid. Completely and totally trash. Completely blasphemous and wow, Who are these people? Myrkur are hardly metal and Marilyn Manson? That’s what? Not metal. (Insert this is not metal meme)
I mean, Mareridt has pretty strong dark/neofolk overtones, but there’s also a whole bunch of traditionally black and doom metal songs on it as well. I don’t think it’s inappropriate for a list of this kind, even if I don’t think it was quite that good (although I did really like it).
The problem with a ‘top 100’ list is that you’re not forced to actually make any difficult, critcal decisions about whether certain albums deserve to be on an end-of-year list at all. It’s just a list of every notable album this year, and given the lack of any exegesis about the decision-making-process for each album, all that’s left to bicker about is whether any given album should have been higher or lower up the list. Same goes for top 50s. They’re not really a critical evaluation of the cream of this year’s crop, they’re just a collection of pretty much every album ordered in a somewhat arbitrary fashion.
That said, putting Marilyn Manson and Arch Enemy above Bell Witch is indefensible, and Emperor of Sand was far from the best album of the year. That pick was presumably just a crowd-pleaser because Mastodon are a popular band.
Not only did Bell Witch rank just below Deep Purple (which is hilarious) Ulver’s record is synth pop and has 0% metal on it. I’m wondering if they even listened to it?
Rob Flynn can go…
Immolation is 63 and Mastodon is No. 1~? Seriously?!
It’s a serious math problem, down the rabbit hole and out near the asteroid belt.
Wow… Papa Roach.
The old “100 best albums we heard about this year” list.
There is a very solid top 20 list hidden deep inside this abomination.
Who, in 2017, is still listening to machine head? Theyve been pumping out the same collection of songs since at least the blackening.
I agree. Machine Head stated that they are going for a more mainstream audience with their next release. So you know it’s going to be a really bad album.
Pleased to see Whoredom Rife in the top half of the list. Pleased to see them on the list at all. This whole list feels rather arbitrary, though.
Papa Roach right next to Fleurety lol
Metal Hammer is shit. Ulver is not metal. At the drive in is not metal. Grave pleasures is not metal. I used to buy MH in London back in 1997.. 20 years ago, I have never in my life bought an album on their recommendations, nor have i bought a MH since like 2001 as soon as I got myself some stable home and internet. fuck them.