Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
The seventh studio album from American progressive metallers is by far the album that I listened to the most this year so far. It was produced by Brendan O'Brien, who Mastodon collaborated with on their highly acclaimed 2009 album Crack the Skye. And that says something about Emperor of Sand. First, Mastodon returns to an album with a concept and story. Secondly, the album does sound like a fusion of latest efforts with the vibe of Crack the Skye. Emperor of Sand has 11 tracks in 51 minutes of outstanding modern prog metal. The musicianship is superb, the division of vocal duties among the 3 singers has been perfected, and the 3 are singing better than ever. The guitar riffs, duos and solos are just fantastic, Brent and Bill have found the perfect harmony. Troy maintains the trademark bass sound and Brann is, simply put, one of the best drummers in activity. I love all 11 tracks and have almost no complains. The album flows amazingly well and it's a serious candidate to album of the year.
Ayreon - The Source
The Source is the ninth concept studio album from Ayreon, a progressive metal/rock opera project by Dutch musician Arjen Lucassen. The concept is once again science fiction and a prequel to 01011001 (released in 2008). Each of the 12 characters is portrayed by one singer from a selection of some of the best prog/power metal singers in activity, including James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Simone Simons (Epica), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia), Tommy Karevik (Kamelot), Russell Allen (Symphony X), and Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me). If you love power progressive metal with lots of melodic vocals, this is the album for you. Another serious candidate for album of the year. The 12 min opening track "The Day That The World Breaks Down" says it all. Featuring 11 of the 12 singers, many tempo changes, a bass solo, and a binary cold singing interlude, this song is modern prog rock perfection. The album flows from there with shorter but equality amazing 16 songs. All singers deliver amazing performances. Without loosing his own sound, Arjen is able to get the best of each singer, they sound natural and relaying on their strong characteristics. The other guests are also fantastic. Mark Kelly (Marillion) and Marcel Coenen (Sun Caged) deliver, respectively, an amazing synthesizer and guitar solo on "The Dream Dissolves". Other two amazing guitar solos: Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big, Racer X) on "Star of Sirrah" and Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats, ex-Asia) on "Planet Y Is Alive!". On top of it all, the concept and story follows like an opera. The album's 1.5 hr fly by when enjoying this fantastic piece of music. If this is not the best Ayreon album ever, then I need to seriously check the other albums immediately.
Pallbearer - Heartless
Heartless is already the third full-length album by this progressive doom metal sensation band. Their 2014's "Foundations Of Burden", appeared on several year-end lists. The current effort runs for 1 hour with 7 tracks. Heartless is a very progressive and melodic album. Clean singing dominates, but in a good way and it's brilliantly executed. It's never too high and translates well the melancholic feel of most songs. The 12-min "Dancing in Madness" is a masterpiece and almost an homage to Pink Floyd. The guitar solo at the beginning reminds me of David Gilmor, fantastic. In addition to fantastic song writing and musicianship, Heartless also sound amazing and dynamic. And to conclude and artful and distinct cover. Over the last couple of years, doom bands have been making appearances in my year-end list. 2017 will most certainly continue this trend thanks to Pallbearer.
Full of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy
Imagine that Cattle Decapitation was more hardcore, that's how I'd describe Trumpeting Ecstasy. Their first LP (by themselves) in 4 years is 24 min of voracious headbanging metal madness. With that said, the album is dynamic with pauses, samples, tempo variation and two vocal styles. My two favorite songs are two of the "long" ones: "The Cosmic Vein" and "Crawling Back to God". And then after 9 brutal metal songs, we come to the title track that unexpectedly opens with a beautiful female vocal over some samples. And while for some this would sound like an album closer, no, Full of Hell returns to voracious grindcore to close the album with the 6 min "At the Cauldron's Bottom" featuring fantastic marching drums. One of the best extreme metal albums of the year so far.
Darkest Hour - Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora
The seventh studio album from American progressive metallers is by far the album that I listened to the most this year so far. It was produced by Brendan O'Brien, who Mastodon collaborated with on their highly acclaimed 2009 album Crack the Skye. And that says something about Emperor of Sand. First, Mastodon returns to an album with a concept and story. Secondly, the album does sound like a fusion of latest efforts with the vibe of Crack the Skye. Emperor of Sand has 11 tracks in 51 minutes of outstanding modern prog metal. The musicianship is superb, the division of vocal duties among the 3 singers has been perfected, and the 3 are singing better than ever. The guitar riffs, duos and solos are just fantastic, Brent and Bill have found the perfect harmony. Troy maintains the trademark bass sound and Brann is, simply put, one of the best drummers in activity. I love all 11 tracks and have almost no complains. The album flows amazingly well and it's a serious candidate to album of the year.
Ayreon - The Source
The Source is the ninth concept studio album from Ayreon, a progressive metal/rock opera project by Dutch musician Arjen Lucassen. The concept is once again science fiction and a prequel to 01011001 (released in 2008). Each of the 12 characters is portrayed by one singer from a selection of some of the best prog/power metal singers in activity, including James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Simone Simons (Epica), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia), Tommy Karevik (Kamelot), Russell Allen (Symphony X), and Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me). If you love power progressive metal with lots of melodic vocals, this is the album for you. Another serious candidate for album of the year. The 12 min opening track "The Day That The World Breaks Down" says it all. Featuring 11 of the 12 singers, many tempo changes, a bass solo, and a binary cold singing interlude, this song is modern prog rock perfection. The album flows from there with shorter but equality amazing 16 songs. All singers deliver amazing performances. Without loosing his own sound, Arjen is able to get the best of each singer, they sound natural and relaying on their strong characteristics. The other guests are also fantastic. Mark Kelly (Marillion) and Marcel Coenen (Sun Caged) deliver, respectively, an amazing synthesizer and guitar solo on "The Dream Dissolves". Other two amazing guitar solos: Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big, Racer X) on "Star of Sirrah" and Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats, ex-Asia) on "Planet Y Is Alive!". On top of it all, the concept and story follows like an opera. The album's 1.5 hr fly by when enjoying this fantastic piece of music. If this is not the best Ayreon album ever, then I need to seriously check the other albums immediately.
Pallbearer - Heartless
Heartless is already the third full-length album by this progressive doom metal sensation band. Their 2014's "Foundations Of Burden", appeared on several year-end lists. The current effort runs for 1 hour with 7 tracks. Heartless is a very progressive and melodic album. Clean singing dominates, but in a good way and it's brilliantly executed. It's never too high and translates well the melancholic feel of most songs. The 12-min "Dancing in Madness" is a masterpiece and almost an homage to Pink Floyd. The guitar solo at the beginning reminds me of David Gilmor, fantastic. In addition to fantastic song writing and musicianship, Heartless also sound amazing and dynamic. And to conclude and artful and distinct cover. Over the last couple of years, doom bands have been making appearances in my year-end list. 2017 will most certainly continue this trend thanks to Pallbearer.
Full of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy
Imagine that Cattle Decapitation was more hardcore, that's how I'd describe Trumpeting Ecstasy. Their first LP (by themselves) in 4 years is 24 min of voracious headbanging metal madness. With that said, the album is dynamic with pauses, samples, tempo variation and two vocal styles. My two favorite songs are two of the "long" ones: "The Cosmic Vein" and "Crawling Back to God". And then after 9 brutal metal songs, we come to the title track that unexpectedly opens with a beautiful female vocal over some samples. And while for some this would sound like an album closer, no, Full of Hell returns to voracious grindcore to close the album with the 6 min "At the Cauldron's Bottom" featuring fantastic marching drums. One of the best extreme metal albums of the year so far.
John 5 & The Creatures - Season of the Witch
If you come to this album expecting anything related to Robbie Zombie's sound, you will be disappointed. This is a guitar hero album, on the lines of Satriani, Vai, etc. In fact, the title track is the only one that reminds us of Robbie Zombie. While not original and sounding a lot like Satriani, I'm not saturated with Satriani-like bands and I love Satriani. So I found myself really enjoying this instrumental journey. Despite this clear influence, there are two differences: First John 5 adds a hint of Industrial influences and second, the "& The Creatures" makes a difference because while Satriani studio albums can have boring bass and drums, The Creatures band deliver a solid rhythm section with awesome bass lines and groove. "Guitars Tits and Monsters" is one of the best song titles of the year, but also a great guitar song, almost 6 min of shredding with class. "The Macabre" could've been in Satriani's Surfing with the Alien album. "Hell Haw I.G.R." sounds like an homage to Joe Pass. Great guitar album and highly recommend for fans of the genre, don't let John 5 association with industrial or alt rock mislead you.
Darkest Hour - Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora
In this comeback album, Darkest Hour presents us with the perfect blend of hardcore and melodic death metal. The memorable songwriting showcases fantastic guitarwork and drumming throughout the record. John Henry delivers relentless visceral vocals from start to finish. And that's a great thing. because due to outstanding guitarwork, groves, and tempo changes, Darkest Hour is able to break the monotony and add enough variability to the songs without depending on two singers or clean singing to do so. My only problem with GP&tMF is that a chunk of middle part songs tend to blend together. But that's a minor problem to an otherwise fantastic metalcore record.
Sólstafir - Berdreyminn
Sólstafir's 6th album is a small departure from its predecessor. It follows the same path of progressive post-rock music but it flirts a bit more with rock and roll groove. That's mostly notable in the first two songs. Most of the other songs are very progressive and dark. "Naros" and "Hvit S?ng" are very heavy tracks while "Hula" and "Dyrafjor?ur" slow tempo and melancholic. A very diverse album showcasing that Sólstafir seems to have found the sound they were looking for.
The Doomsday Kingdom - S/T
Sólstafir - Berdreyminn
Sólstafir's 6th album is a small departure from its predecessor. It follows the same path of progressive post-rock music but it flirts a bit more with rock and roll groove. That's mostly notable in the first two songs. Most of the other songs are very progressive and dark. "Naros" and "Hvit S?ng" are very heavy tracks while "Hula" and "Dyrafjor?ur" slow tempo and melancholic. A very diverse album showcasing that Sólstafir seems to have found the sound they were looking for.
The Doomsday Kingdom - S/T
The new solo project from Candlemass bassist and songwriter Leif Edling is another triumph. The Doomfather while having difficulties to perform live is unstoppable in the studio. The new addition The Doomsday Kingdom while full of Doom elements sounds much more like a traditional heavy metal record. Several moments remind me of the Sabbath Dio era which is always a good thing.
Avatarium - Hurricanes and Halos
And just like that Avatarium is already releasing their 3rd studio album. After two successful albums, we are please to welcomed the third effort with high expectations. Avatarium combines beauty and darkness, heavy guitars and fragile sounds, and unique female vocals. While the first two albums focused on the Doom Metal sound, Hurricanes and Halos displays more influence from vintage sound from the 60s and 70s (subtle influences from Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, etc), while still staying truthful to their signature sound. Six out of the eight tracks were written by Leif Edling, who also released a doom record already this year via his new outlet Doomsday Machine. But this album goes beyond traditional doom and Marcus Jidell (guitars) and Jennie-Ann Smith (vocals) not only contributed to the songwriting but bring a lot of character to this band. The first album is still my favorite, but the followers are not far behind. Fantastic band.
While She Sleeps - You Are We
I'm glad I gave this record several spins because I was very close to miss one of the best metalcore albums of the year. While I liked the previous effort, I didn't give it a lot of chance. Therefore leaving comparisons aside, You Are We is a jump forward for a band that was already being seen as the "next big thing".
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