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Favorite Albums of 2015


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Ooooh... Favourite Is a tough one, but I think what I was most most impressed with was Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Nightwish.

 

Number 2 is probably Coma Ecliptic by Between the Buried and Me.

 

Third would have to Love, Fear and the Time Machine by Riverside, I love the video for Found (The Unexpected Flaw in Searching).

 

Fourth goes to Quiet World by Native Construct, when I listened to it I was amazed that it was only their debut album.

 

Fifth and sixth go to Iron Maiden, Book of Souls and Von Hertzen Brothers, New Day Rising depending on what mood mood I'm in really.

 

Seventh would be Underworld, thank you cyclonus for reminding me :)

 

If I'm allowed live albums Devin Townsend Project, Live at Royal Albert Hall and R40 would be in there too.

 

I feel like there's alot I missed but that's all I can think of at the minute.

 

I might check some of these out!

 

But nothing came close to Nightwish this year! Was totally, absolutely captivated by it in such a big way! Precious record, truly beautiful.

 

This year belonged to Nightwish and nothing came close. Not one single, solitary album, whether it be a new release or a newly discovered old classic.

 

I agree nothing came close to Nightwish this year. EFMB is most certainly the best Nightwish has ever done thanks to Floor, I think her voice just makes that album. Tuomas and Marco with their song writing as well but I think Floor brought something that Tarja and Annette never could've.

 

 

I missed Hand Cannot Erase and Polaris by Tesseract from my original list. I actually was thinking about Steven Wilson as I was typing it last night but just completely forgot to include it :LOL:

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Here's my top 10:

 

10. Periphery - Juggernaut

9. Tremonti - Cauterize

8. Ghost - Meliora

7. Symphony X - Underworld

6. Tesseract - Polaris

5. Iron Maiden - Book of Souls

4. Soilwork - The Ride Majestic

3. Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful

2. Steven Wilson - Hand Cannot Erase

1. Amorphis - Under the Red Cloud

 

Honorable mentions:

Riverside - Love, Fear and the Time Machine

Enslaved - In Times

Baroness - Purple

Kamelot - Haven

Blind Guardian - Beyond the Red Mirror

 

Honestly, I'm pretty stunned that Amorphis made it to #1 as I haven't been a huge fan of theirs in the past but this album is just so damn good. Highly recommend listening to it if you haven't heard it.

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Ooooh... Favourite Is a tough one, but I think what I was most most impressed with was Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Nightwish.

 

Number 2 is probably Coma Ecliptic by Between the Buried and Me.

 

Third would have to Love, Fear and the Time Machine by Riverside, I love the video for Found (The Unexpected Flaw in Searching).

 

Fourth goes to Quiet World by Native Construct, when I listened to it I was amazed that it was only their debut album.

 

Fifth and sixth go to Iron Maiden, Book of Souls and Von Hertzen Brothers, New Day Rising depending on what mood mood I'm in really.

 

Seventh would be Underworld, thank you cyclonus for reminding me :)

 

If I'm allowed live albums Devin Townsend Project, Live at Royal Albert Hall and R40 would be in there too.

 

I feel like there's alot I missed but that's all I can think of at the minute.

 

I might check some of these out!

 

But nothing came close to Nightwish this year! Was totally, absolutely captivated by it in such a big way! Precious record, truly beautiful.

 

This year belonged to Nightwish and nothing came close. Not one single, solitary album, whether it be a new release or a newly discovered old classic.

 

I agree nothing came close to Nightwish this year. EFMB is most certainly the best Nightwish has ever done thanks to Floor, I think her voice just makes that album. Tuomas and Marco with their song writing as well but I think Floor brought something that Tarja and Annette never could've.

 

 

I missed Hand Cannot Erase and Polaris by Tesseract from my original list. I actually was thinking about Steven Wilson as I was typing it last night but just completely forgot to include it :LOL:

 

For me it wasn't Floor as much as the songwriting. It recycled moments from past albums, which amazingly worked out, and then ended with The Greatest Show On Earth, which after a streak of near perfection ended the album with an entire careers worth of grandeur and beauty, wrapped up in a wondrous display of orchestra, metal, commentary and a lot of depth.

 

Just...words failed me. Tuomas songwriting is on top form, and whilst I love Nightwish for the escapism, this album deals with a !lot of real world/personal issues in a way that avoids a lot of the fantasy style they are known for, and its a truly mature effort. Plus, the heavier folk side suits me down to a tee nowadays! The organic instrumentation, which moves the band beyond the realms of metal and into an eclectic array of styles, is some of the best music I have ever heard!

 

Nightwish are untouchable at this point, and the live concert at Wembley more than reinforced my opinion that this is a masterpiece.

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Top albums of 2105 for me look like this:

 

1) Steven Wilson - Hand.Cannot.Erase

2) Riverside - Love, Fear and the Time Machine

3) Gazpacho - Molok

4) Steve Hackett - Wolflight

5) Ghost - Meliora

6) Ozric Tentacles - Technicians of the Sacred

7) David Gilmour - Rattle that Lock

8) Lion Shepherd - Hiraeth

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Steven Wilson - Hand Cannot Erase, is probably my favourite.

 

Other great releases this year by,

 

Faith No More

Ghost

Sarah Cracknell

Blur

Mercury Rev

Von Hertzen Brothers

Anekdoten

Built To Spill

Riverside

Iron Maiden

Tim Bowness

Saxon

Guy Garvey

Mbongwana Star

ELO

Therapy?

Battles

Courtney Barnett

Bop English

Moon Duo

Steve Rothery

Shattered Skies

Jean Michel Jarre

Sweet Billy PilgrimAristocrats

John Grant

Julia Holter

Joanna Newsom

Dave Heumann

 

Almost forgot, Uncle Acid

 

WHAT A YEAR.

Edited by Hatchetaxe&saw
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My top albums for the year (which should be no surprise to anyone who reads the "Albums You've Listened To" thread :D ) are:

 

Ghost - Meliora

Symphony X - Underworld

Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful

 

Via this thread I see Kamelot has a new album out so I will go listen to that.

 

The most disappointing was the new Maiden album. I really, really wanted to like it but it does nothing for me :(

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My top albums for the year (which should be no surprise to anyone who reads the "Albums You've Listened To" thread :D ) are:

 

Ghost - Meliora

Symphony X - Underworld

Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful

 

Via this thread I see Kamelot has a new album out so I will go listen to that.

 

The most disappointing was the new Maiden album. I really, really wanted to like it but it does nothing for me :(

 

I too was disappointed in the new Maiden. It doesn't affect my love for the band at all though!

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of Montreal - Aureate Gloom

Calexico - Edge Of The Sun

My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall

Destroyer - Poison Season

Foals - What Went Down

Motörhead - Bad Magic

Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls

Beirut - No No No

Baroness - Purple

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ad lib

 

(R40 Live - Rush)

Meliora - Ghost

Love, Fear And The Time Machine - Riverside

Hand.Cannot.Erase - Steven Wilson

War Of Kings - Europe

Transformation - FM

 

Haven't heard the latest Saxon, and I fing can't warm up with the new Maiden.

 

Thanks for the reminder on the FM i need to give it a listen.

Gonna give the europe a spin also

 

I listened to the FM today and was not feeling it, but the Europe war of kings was a happy surprise...

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I should also add i never have loved the steven wilson solo stuff as much as everyone here. Dont get me wrong they dont suck , just not great for me. I consider this strange as i love porcupine tree...
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My top 10 favorite albums (and color coded to reflect their respective album artwork's primary colors) of the year. This is gonna be quite long cause I've included my personal comments on the albums that made the list. 10 through 6 are in no particular order...

 

10. Blind Guardian - Beyond The Red Mirror

Power metal's a genre of metal I have a difficult time getting into outside of Stratovarius and early Sonata Arctica, but thanks to Union and Mr. Not, I just got into these guys and found another band in the genre I really like. Epic. I'd call this "power prog metal" for lack of a better term.

 

9. Envy - Atheist's Cornea

The post-rock meets hardcore sound of this Japanese band returns with their first album in half a decade with one of their most emotionally charged and satisfying records to date. It's on the shorter side in terms of their typical album lengths at 43 minutes, but it's my favorite Envy record along with A Dead Sinking Story.

 

8. Rosetta - Quintessential Ephemera

The Philadelphia based blue-collared/DIY "post-metal" band returned as 5 piece with a hopeful and light sounding record on the heels of the angry, bleak and existential The Anaesthete. Great band that don't get a lot of praise or attention in a post-Neurosis or Isis (the band) era of "post-metal" and considering all the dudes in the band have day jobs, it's probably for the best they remain functioning the way they are now.

 

7. Sunn O))) - Kannon

The drone metal legends' first proper studio album in 6 years is their shortest album ever at 37 minutes, but arguably their most potent. What it lacks in the album length for the band's standards it accentuates in concept and delivery.

 

6. Riverside - Love, Fear and the Time Machine

Arguably the biggest surprise for me in the list, and even more surprising that I placed this reasonably high in my top 10. Never listened to Riverside before this album, but I've heard them mentioned amongst prog fans as Steven Wilson's good friends with Mariusz Duda. Another album that Mr.Not and Union influenced me in listening to. Really fell in love with this as the album went one. Looking forward to going back to the band's discography and seeing what this band has in store for me. I can imagine great things from this band if this album indicates.

 

5. Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls

Definitely surprised me when they revealed it to be a double album. While the last half is the strongest and better of the two discs IMO, overall it's got some of Maiden's finest songs of the modern era (Brave New World - present) with If Eternity Should Fail, the title track, The Man Of Sorrows, and the epic closer Empire Of The Clouds being the standout tracks for me. If this were to be band's final album, I personally think they would end with all of their integrity intact.

 

4. Ghost - Meliora

I had a sort of rediscovering of this band when this album came out. Bought Infestissumam the year it came out, but sort of went in the back burner quickly afterwards. This album clicked with my instantaneously and it's such a fun, kickass album. One hell of a record. Can't really complain about this one really.

 

3. Baroness - Purple

The most recently released album in the top 10 (11 days ago) Hard hitting like their first two albums, yet retains the increase in melody and hooks like their last album, Purple has everything that I love about the band all in a single album. For me, this album's like a come from behind win with a three pointer down to last millisecond. I think the best way to describe how I felt about this album is the following: "It's the end of 2015! Oh shit, Baroness just released a new album! Time's running out! 'How is it? How's the new Baroness album?' Bam! Bam! It's a great record! It's a great record!" Baroness kicked ass this time around with this album, they really kicked ass this time around.

 

2. Sumac - The Deal

Aaron Turner's newest band shows why he's still the poster boy in the "post-metal" scene. Compared to the final Isis (the band) album, Wavering Radiant, The Deal is minimalist (just guitar, bass, drums and bellowing vocals), organic and raw (it was recorded live in the studio). Arguably this is Aaron Turner's heaviest album (even heavier than Isis' pre-Celestial EPs). Nick Yacyshyn's drumming is like a machine gun at times yet it's so rhythmically interesting when interlocked with the guitar riffs which I think is the biggest strength of this album. It was such a thrill for me to see them open for Neurosis this past August; it was one of the more memorable and unforgettable shows I've seen in 2015 and an even bigger thrill to have met and talked with Aaron Turner as well (albeit when he was playing live with Old Man Gloom a month later). And next year, there will be a follow-up album which I'm really looking forward to.

 

And my favorite album of 2015 is...

 

1. Steven Wilson - Hand.Cannot.Erase. and Intronaut - The Direction of Last Things

Yes. For first time ever, I've had had to resort to giving out co-AOTY cause I honestly think both albums were just so f***ing good IMO. HCE was my #1 up until early November when the new Intronaut LP dropped but when it was time for the moment of truth, they were neck and neck over my favorability that it was too close for me to make the call. Intronaut's for being their most complete and adventurous record to date (and IMO the best prog metal album of the year), and SW's for it's brilliance in concept and triumph in creativity if not innovation (which to use his own words against him, not necessarily original). For whatever "flaws" both albums have, it doesn't hinder the fact that they were the most enjoyable albums I've heard this year which is why they're my co-favorite albums of the year.

 

And what year can go without some other albums I also enjoyed that didn't make it onto the top 10. These are not all of the remaining albums I enjoyed this year but here are an additional 10 that deserved inclusion/recognition IMO (and would probably consist of my bottom 10 had if I made a Top 20 albums of 2015 list). In no order:

 

Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful (Floor Jansen's amazing on here and without a doubt the best vocalist the band has ever had, but sadly I moved onto other bands and while I continue to keep tabs on them from time to time, Imaginaerum was definitely the peak of my enthusiasm for the band)

Coheed and Cambria - The Color Before The Sun (Coheed's first non-concept album is also one of their more accessible and catchiest ones IMO)

A Place To Bury Strangers - Transfixiation (My sister introduced me to this band as she saw them live; great noise rock)

Deafheaven - New Bermuda (Some people call them black metal meets shoegaze a la early Alcest, but honestly as with Alcest themselves, they have their own sound. Great stuff, I can understand why they're one of my friend's favorite band at the moment.)

Endon - MAMA (This was released in Japan in 2014, but did not get a worldwide release until 2015 via Hydra Head Records; as someone who's seen My Bloody Valentine, Endon's perhaps the most catastrophically harshest/loudest band I know of)

Faith No More - Sol Invictus (A well welcomed comeback album for the band!)

Prurient - Frozen Niagara Falls (A tortured, experimental, and personal abyss of noise)

Stratovarius - Eternal (another solid post-Tolkki album, still better than anything by Sonata Arctica post-Unia)

Panopticon - Autumn Eternal (A great one man black metal outfit from Minnesota of all places. Considering it's black metal, this album is very captivating, soulful and at times sad in beauty.)

Mamiffer and Daniel Menche - Crater (A great drone/field recording collaboration album involving one of my favorite post-Isis the band Aaron Turner projects.)

Edited by PolarizeMe
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Black Star Riders - The Killer Instinct

 

 

 

David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock

 

 

 

Brian Wilson - No Pier Pressure

 

 

 

Def Leppard - Def Leppard

 

 

 

Stryper - Fallen

 

 

 

Bob Dylan - Shadows in the Night

 

 

 

Hollywood Vampires - Hollywood Vampires

 

 

 

Ringo Starr - Postcards From Paradise

 

 

 

Chris Isaak - First Comes the Night

 

 

 

Keith Richards - Cross Eyed Heart

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Not including live albuims.....

 

Black Star Riders - Killer Instinct

Queensryche - Condition Human

Winery Dogs - Hot Streak

Iron Maiden - Book of Souls

 

 

Yes condition human!

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