heavy metal

Happy new year, friends. I hope you had a chance to check out the list of my top 10 favorite metal albums from 2014. If not, I recommend you find it and read it. If you already have then you may recall that one of the bands at the top was a group called Calabrese.

Nature abhors a vacuum.  Whenever there’s a gap of empty space, the universe will seemingly conspire to make sure that atoms of some kind or another rush to fill the void.  Hell, I once saw a term paper were a kid tried to argue that the tide swells at night because there’s no water on the moon and the ocean is attempting to reach the moon and fill the void.  Nonsense, but you had to admire the effort.

One of the saddest things that can happen, as a music fan, is to discover a band after their run has finished.  Knowing that, as you fall in love with a band, they will never make another record is a crushing experience, the sort of thing that does make it difficult to delve into the past for hidden gems.  Despite that, I do make an effort to see what I have missed out on over the years, which led me to Nightingale.  I only discovered the band after the release of "White Darkness", which over the years has become one of my go-to melodic rock albums.  It is a brilliant pi

I hate to use the term 'supergroup'. Most of the time, the bands that get stuck with that label are pieced together from parts of other bands that are not quite so super. We've lowered our standards, and now anyone whose name you might have heard before qualifies to be a member of one. When Cream formed, they were three of the very best in the world at what they did. Today's supergroups don't come anywhere near that level of fame or acclaim, which makes it impossible for the next real supergroup to get the respect they deserve.

Of all the metal bands that have impressed me in the last decade, the vast majority of them have only managed to do so with a single album. Maintaining that level has proven difficult for many bands, but Orden Ogan is not one of them. My history with them goes back to the early days of independent bands putting their music online, where I stumbled across their song “Angels War”. I was hooked, and tracked down their album “Testimonium AD”, which was still rough, but a great starting point.

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of top ten lists but my pals here at Bloody Good Horror have been doing them around this time of year for a while so I figured, "what the hell". There are rules, though. All albums must be original studio releases from the year that was 2014. No live albums, no cover albums and no re-releases. And, to streamline things, I will limit my list to those metal albums I've reviewed this year. Lastly, this list is comprised of the ten best albums as I see them. Your list may be (and probably is) different.

Okay, let’s get going on what worked this year.

You probably know the rules by now, but for those catching up, all entries for consideration had to be original studio album releases.  No compilations, no re-releases, no live records.  Also, my top ten features eleven records, because first of all it’s my damn list and second of it all, “it goes to eleven.” Clear?  Good.  Moving on.

D.M: Before this gets hijacked and turns into a discussion of Taylor Swift, let me get a couple thoughts down before we move on.  I mostly agree with your sentiment.  I would wholly agree, but I haven't heard the whole record, only the parts that mass media have made unavoidable.  That said, here's my Taylor Swift rant.  I am in no way a Taylor Swift fan, and I recognize that as far as the population at large goes, that puts me in the minority and I accept that.  I don't get the infatuation with her, personally.  I don't care for her songs, I d

D.M: I guess I'll launch the first volley.

The anticipation was both palpable and unspoken.  The collective combination of hope and grief was evident on the faces on the gathered throng.  Still, it was undeniable that less human fodder had assembled to stand in front of GWAR.  Whether that was the product of a cold, snowy night when people are Christmas poor or whether it was the manifestation of doubt about GWAR’s ability to continue in the wake of their founder’s death was uncertain, but the brave masses rolled into the venue hoping for the best.