Let's start with the one that my readership, such as it is, will care the least about: in alphabetical order, LEONARD'S PICKS FOR THE 30 BEST HARD ROCK/HEAVY METAL-ISH ALBUMS OF 2008!
AC/DC, Black Ice
Arsis, We Are the Nightmare
Bison b.c., Quiet Earth
Blood Ceremony, Blood Ceremony
Bonded By Blood, Feed the Beast
Boris, Smile
Chingalera, Dose
Cynic, Traced in Air
Earth, The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
Earthless, Live at Roadburn
Esoteric, The Maniacal Vale
Farflung, A Wound in Eternity
Genghis Tron, Board Up the House
Harvey Milk, Life: The Best Game in Town
Ihsahn, angL
In Flames, A Sense of Purpose
Lair of the Minotaur, War Metal Battle Master
Made Out of Babies, The Ruiner
Meshuggah, obZen
Neuraxis, The Thin Line Between
Nine Inch Nails, The Slip
Opeth, Watershed
Sirhan Sirhan, Blood
Slipknot, All Hope is Gone
Soilent Green, Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction
The Sword, Gods of the Earth
Torche, Meanderthal
Total Fucking Destruction, Peace, Love and Total Fucking Destruction
Warbringer, War Without End
Whitechapel, This is Exile
So.
AC/DC, Black Ice
Arsis, We Are the Nightmare
Bison b.c., Quiet Earth
Blood Ceremony, Blood Ceremony
Bonded By Blood, Feed the Beast
Boris, Smile
Chingalera, Dose
Cynic, Traced in Air
Earth, The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
Earthless, Live at Roadburn
Esoteric, The Maniacal Vale
Farflung, A Wound in Eternity
Genghis Tron, Board Up the House
Harvey Milk, Life: The Best Game in Town
Ihsahn, angL
In Flames, A Sense of Purpose
Lair of the Minotaur, War Metal Battle Master
Made Out of Babies, The Ruiner
Meshuggah, obZen
Neuraxis, The Thin Line Between
Nine Inch Nails, The Slip
Opeth, Watershed
Sirhan Sirhan, Blood
Slipknot, All Hope is Gone
Soilent Green, Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction
The Sword, Gods of the Earth
Torche, Meanderthal
Total Fucking Destruction, Peace, Love and Total Fucking Destruction
Warbringer, War Without End
Whitechapel, This is Exile
So.
Comments
Still, with you re Accadacca's latest - best since the Bon Scott era! Who'd have thought the old buggers still had it in 'em?
I've been evangelizing for Black Ice since my first spin. It's not like they need the money, but boy, it's just a swell record.
I will say, though, that I need to give Torche a few more spins, but I'm kind of on the fence about it. It's mostly good, but it comes off as oddly kind of emo in places.
This is good because I need more rock-the-fuck-out stuff on my 100-song year-end mix, but at the risk of looking like one of those AV Club diphammers, wotta bout Black Mountain? And, I dunno, maybe they're a bit too goofy, but Valient Thorr made a pretty damn good record, too. And Fucked Up, depending on how much that -ish suffix covers.
Black Mountain I don't care for. Fucked Up sounds like something I'd like but I haven't heard it yet. Valient Thorr's record was good, but not good enough to crack my top 30.