Fabio's Top 51 Albums of 2016

It's that time of the year again...it took me the whole month of December to compile this list of best metal and metal-related albums of the year that closes. If you ask yourself "why?" you are right, I don't know why. I know it's fun and I've been doing it for years.

For all the shit that went down in 2016, it was a great year for heavy metal music. I noticed my scores going up...Every year it scares me how many albums can I dig in a single year. It seems that my "capacity" is about 50 albums. Really?! 50 studio albums released in a single year? Still sounds like a lot to me. Consequently, I try to limit myself so that I won't check more than 100 new albums in a given year. Well I failed again, during 2016 it was close to 120 new albums. Some took just a few minutes and I disliked them immediately, but others took many listens.

Now, this is a pure a subjective list, it's all about the feelings and emotions that those records bring in me. But I do value originality, production, songwriting, etc. It's also important how many times I listened to them since release date. While it's not a competition and it's all personal, I have reviewed lists of many important music outlets (magazines, websites) and it seems that the big "winners" of 2016 were Metallica, Meshuggah, Gojira, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Opeth. They are all in my top 51, but not as high as you may expect (with one exception).

So here you have it...my top 51 albums of 2016.

51.Rage - The Devil Strikes Again
50.Holy Grail - Times of Pride and Peril
49.Blues Pills - Lady in Gold
48.Running Wild - Rapid Foray
47.Sodom - Decision Day
46.Primal Fear - Rulebreaker
45.Rival Sons - Hollow Bones
44.Megadeth - Dystopia
43.Grand Magus - Sword Songs
42.Heaven Shall Burn - Wanderer
41.Omnium Gatherum - Grey Heavens
40.Katatonia - The Fall of Hearts
39.Destruction - Under Attack
38.Magnum - Sacred Blood "Divine" Lies
37.Axel Rudi Pell - Game of Sins
36.Them - Sweet Hollow
35.Opeth - Sorceress
34.Mistur - In Memoriam
33.Mob Rules - Tales From Beyond
32.Hatebreed - The Concrete Confessional
31.Dream The Electric Sleep - Beneath The Dark Wide Sky
30.Obscura - Akroasis
29.Redemption - The Art Of Loss
28.Witherscape - The Northern Sanctuary
27.Dark Tranquility - Atoma
26.Death Angel - The Evil Divide

25.Moonsorrow - Jumalten Aika
The album sounds fantastic. It displays a set of mesmerizing and epic songs balancing atmospheric and powerful black/folk metal elements. Their music is certainly challenging for its listeners. Originally it was on my top 10, but competition this year was really tough.

24.Long Distance Calling - TRIPS
LDC has produced a masterpiece of modern progressive (post) rock. TRIPS is an original album and full of curve balls, but make no mistake, it is awesome.

23.Testament - Brotherhood Of The Snake
Testament are still around and making good thrash metal 30 years after the birth of genre. While I really like this album, at the end of the day, there was nothing really new albeit extremely well written and executed thrash metal.

22.Gojira - Magma
A very diverse and interesting experience full of sadness with shorter, less complex songs. Gojira continue to sound unique (if any doubts, check the tittle track). Not their best album, but anyways their bar is set so high, so it's still a great album, and as I predicted, it is heading many year-end lists.

21.Darkthrone - Arctic Thunder
Simply put, it sounds f* amazing. The album marks a return to the band's familiar black metal style, and probably that's why I liked so much. Great riffs, up tempo, catchy and well written.

20.Abbath - Abbath
8 songs in only 40 minutes of straight up, catchy and "as you would expect" black metal from the former Immortal frontman Abbath.
It's easy and fun to listen to this record. While sounding familiar, it is also fresh and modern. Apparently, Abbath doesn't need Immortal to deliver black metal music at the highest quality. There isn't a lot of variability, but what the hell - it's lots of fun!

19.Nails - You Will Never Be One of Us
Relentless brutal shit! Oh My! this is one of the heaviest and most aggressive record I own. I found their second album quite good but YWNBOOU is way better. More technical with nice hooks and grooves without loosing the grindcore/hardcore violence but also adding some thrash metal elements, specially in some guitar solos and riffs, think of Slayer. One of the best extreme metal albums of the year, very addictive! And it's only 22 minutes, you can listen to it repeatedly, and you should!

18.Amon Amarth - Jomsviking
This is a fun, enjoyable, headbanging feast. Jomsviking follows the same formula as 2013's Deceiver of the Gods. At first the lack of variability and overly formulated singles threw me off. But eventually it grew on me. I really enjoy this band and always look forward to see them live. Jomsviking adds instant classics to their setlist - "Raise your horns! Raise them up to the sky! We will drink to glory tonight"

17.The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation
The supposedly final album from this unique and revolutionary band is a perfect summary of their great career while continue to advance their sound with electronic music and jazz, for example. Noise and hooks, speed and melody form a perfect swansong. We miss you already guys!

16.Anthrax - For All Kings
For All Kings features some amazing written and produced songs, great guitar solos (welcome Mr. Donais), several good riffs, more progressive and modern sounding than previous records. This is Anthrax back to the classic albums form. The bests songs here could've been written in the 80's. The album is a bit too long with some lesser tunes, otherwise it would be even higher on the list.

15.Metallica - Hardwired…to Self-Destruct
Yes, they made to my list. The album is far from perfect and it's too long...BUT it's the best thing that one of my first loved bands has done in 25 years. And by the way, I haven't cared for anything after And Justice For All...So I am not a fan boy. Some tracks in this album are catchy, fun and feature some awesome riffs, e.g. "Atlas, Rise!", "Moth Into Flame" and of course "Spit Out The Bone".

14.Haken - Affinity
Their previous album The Mountain from 2013 brought Haken to the forefront of the prog scene. But instead of repeating themselves Haken pushed it further by incorporating new elements. Also, the new bassist Conner Green brought quite some heaviness to the Haken sound, take "1985" and "The Architect" for example, some riffs are even Djent-like. Throughout the album the guitar riffs and melodies are also fantastic, "Lapse" features one of the best guitar solos of this year.

13.Periphery - Periphery III: Select Difficulty
Periphery is one of my favorite "modern metal" bands out there. I like how they are essentially a Progressive Metal band who mixes Meshuggah and Slipknot adding a very versatile vocal (at times Death Metal style e.g. "Motormouth", others hints a clean Power Metal e.g. "Remain Indoors" and even Pop Rock, e.g. "The Way The News Goes..."). Like all Periphery albums, this one grew on me with time and now I really dig it.

12.Letlive. - If I'm The Devil...
In terms of song writing If I'm The Devil... is at par with the predecessor maintaining the mix of punk, rock and soul. But this time around the balance among the elements being more focused on the soul instead of the punk. I think that's not a surprise given that Jason Aalon Butler is one of the most passionate and intense frontman I've ever seen on stage. This album touches deeper into that emotion from their live performances. A clear improvement from this new release is the production. Overall a great album that was constantly on my players.

11.Killswitch Engage - Incarnate
The album sounds pretty much the same as the predecessor: great guitar riffs, awesome hooks and catchy choruses while keeping it heavy and aggressive. Additionally Jesse performance is even better and the song writing is slightly less formulated than what we heard in Disarm the Descent. For the long time fans this is a great addition to their catalog. I dug it and listened to it several times.

10.Vektor - Terminal Redux
One of the almost unanimous choices of 2016, Vektor. This band is miles away from the retro thrash wave. In fact, adding "progressive" to their sub genre is essential. I'd describe their sound as Voivod meets Slayer with Chuck Schuldiner on the vocals while adding black metal elements. But Terminal Redux is not an incoherent blend, they pull it off magnificently. It is actually a concept album that flows beautifully. I have no doubts that this thrash/progressive masterpiece hence why is at the top of many year-end lists.

9.Khemmis - Hunted
An stellar release and the Doom album of the year, and remember it's just their sophomore. They are epic and beautiful while adding heavier elements. Beautiful lyrics that I can't resist singing along. The vocals are just perfect, the choruses are big and the guitar riffs are thick and heavy while adding some almost Maiden-like duos. I've also seen this album in several year end lists, and deservedly so, it's not overhyped, it's just great fucking heavy .

8.Architects - All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us
Architects is one of the very few metalcore bands that I truly like. This disc pretty much follows the direction of the predecessor with a bit more dark sound to reflect the theme of the lyrics. But they don't stop there, they go further. Within the predictable and often boring metalcore genre, Architects bring an inspiring new breath and leave their peers behind. The music writing is as good as previously, with aggressive but melodic and catchy vocal lines. Sam Carter has a nice voice and balance harsh screams with cleaner singing very well.

7.Black Crown Initiate - Selves We Cannot Forgive
BCI impressed me with a very well written and executed balance between progressiveness and modern metal. My first highlight is the vocal work throughout the album. Singer James Dorton has a good harsh vocal range and additionally the band lead, songwriter and guitar player Andy Thomas uses his clean vocals in most of the songs. Secondly, there is no question that those are highly skilled musicians playing their instruments with superb techniques. But they don't overuse those to create an instrument lesson but rather to create great music. I love the slow parts in contrast with the heavier ones and I specially impressed with the guitars.

6.Avantasia - Ghostlights
For symphonic power metal fans, Avantasia offers everything you like and Ghostlights, the seventh full-length album, is no different. Overall, as expected, great melodies, catchy vocal lines and big choruses. Overall the album has some of the most impressive guitar work that Avantasia has ever produced. And even the artwork is fantastic. And to top it all, "Let The Storm Descend Upon You" is 12 min of epicness and one of the best songs of 2016.

5.Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep of Reason
This is Meshuggah as we came to love with slightly additions of new elements, but mostly sounding very much like the last couple of albums. With that said, the deepness and heaviness are just mesmerizing and addictive. I couldn't stop listening to it for days. No surprises to anyone that all musicians are superb and obviously amazing drumming by Mr. Tomas Haake. But still I was very impressed by the guitar solos, take "Nonstrum" and "Born In Dissonance" solos for example. The Violent Sleep of Reason is a lesson of extreme progressive metal and pure art.

4.Insomnium - Winter's Gate
Winter's Gate is a story told as a song. A concept album with just one song in 7 parts (probably for practical reasons, because it's one continuous piece of music) and 40 minutes. This is a masterpiece of melodic death metal. I have no complain, it's one amazing song with powerful riffs, amazing melodies, full of hooks, variations, tempo changes and all very well produced with a dynamic range of 7 and a great mix.

3.Neurosis - Fires Within Fires
This album features only 5 songs in 40 min which means no bad songs, no fillers. Despite the long songs, they grab your attention and time flies when you immerse yourself into them. This is a album best enjoyed with headphone and quality medium. There are several subtle noises and melodies going on throughout the record showing Neurosis' influences from dark ambient and industrial music. The album also balances very well soft passages with heavy doom riffs and singing. So it's not surprise to conclude that with a DR of 8, this is one of the highest range I've heard this year.

2.Ihsahn - Arktis
A rich and diverse extreme metal journey from one of the most reverenced modern heavy music masterminds. There are no weak points and the 10 songs flow wonderfully. Arktis is essentially a progressive metal album with its roots in the black metal. But the drumming is full of groves, many songs contain clean vocals and slow tempo moments. To me this all adds to the experience and variability.

1.Fates Warning - Theories of Flight

Most years, making a choice for number one is hard work, but in 2016 was very easy. FW has secured their spot after a couple of listens. Theories of Flight basically combines the best of two worlds. The more progressive side of FW with the more direct style from the earlier albums is in a modern and fresh way. It's FW at its best and upgraded. The first noticeable difference is that the record features one of the best drumming performances I heard in a long time. Matheos stepped up to deliver one of his best guitar work, it is pure art! Most of the songs have at least 3 guitar tracks each doing some very specific riffs and rhythms that intertwine giving such a beautiful texture. All of this without loosing heaviness. And last but not least, Alder is singing better than never, very confident hitting some high notes without sounding forced or exaggerated, I mean his performance in "The light and..." Is simply amazing. By the way, this is the best song I heard this year and one of my favorites of the last few years. Now, if I'd be picky and split hairs, then I'd say that the bass is a bit too low in mix, specially compared to their previous albums with Vera.

Honorable  Mentions:
Rhapsody Of Fire - Into the Legend
Dream Theater - The Astonishing
Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage

The Best Sounding Albums:

Witherscape - The Northern Sanctuary

Opeth - Sorceress
Anthrax - For All Kings
Moonsorrow - Jumalten Aika
Neurosis - Fires Within Fires

Favorite EPs:
Gruesome - Dimensions of Horror
Steven Wilson - 4 ½

Biggest Disappointments:
Serious Black
Denner/Sherman
Kai Hansen

Wovenwar

Favorite Guitar Solos:

Megadeth - "Conquer Or Die" by Kiko Loureiro
Dream Theater - "A Better Life" by John Petrucci
Avantasia - "Babylon Vampyres" by Bruce Kulick
Haken - "Lapse" by Charlie Griffiths
Death Angel - "Father of Lies" by Rob Cavestany
Black Crown Initiate - "Selves We Cannot Forgive" by Andy Thomas
Testament - "Brotherhood Of The Snake" by Alex Skolnick
Meshuggah - "Nonstrum" by Fredrik Thordendal

Top 5 songs:

"Born In Dissonance" by Meshuggah
"Let The Storm Descend Upon You" by Avantasia
"Hate By Design" by Killswitch Engage
"The Light and Shade of Things" by Fates Warning
"Atlas, Rise!" by Metallica

Best Shows:

Iron Maiden - GMM 2016
Avantasia - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle
Meshuggah  - Trix, Antwerp

Worst Show:
Virgin Steele - GMM 2016