Metal Awards

Crims's Top 15 albums of 2006

  1. Ancient Rites - Rubicon
    My most played CD this year with Templar being my most played song of the year. Easy choice for me.
  2. Axxis - Paradise In Flames
    A near perfect demonstration of excellent Melodic Heavy Metal
  3. Into Eternity - The Scattering Of Ashes
    A lot of people don't like the modern elements of this band (mainly the vocals), but I don't mind them at all. In fact, this band continues to blur the line between traditional and modern Metal in excellent fashion.
  4. Communic - Waves of Visual Decay
    Communic is well on their way to possibly being the best new thing in Metal. The song writing and musicianship of everybody involved is a wonder to behold.
  5. Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side
    Amon Amarth returned to the dirtier guitar tone and the result was perhaps a less catchy CD, but it was more crushing than the last three.
  6. Edguy - Rocket Ride
    You know... despite the drastic change in musical direction Edguy still made one hell of a catchy CD that had amazing choruses on every song.
  7. Scar Symmetry - Pitch Black Progress
    Not as strong as their previous release but the more complicated and progressive-ish song writing on a few songs bodes well for the future of the band
  8. Pyramaze - Legend Of The Bone Carver
    Souls Of Pain had one of the most explosive openings in a song this year. The rest of the CD was impressive as well. Meant to be listened to in one sitting.
  9. Falconer - Northwind
    Ahhh... Mathias Blad, what a difference you make. A change back to the original style of song writing helped as well. Nice return to form
  10. Bal-Sagoth - The Chthonic Chronicles
    With a more aggressive guitar sound, Bal-Sagoth had a triumphant return this year.
  11. Winter's Bane - Redivivus
    I seemed to like this more than most. Really, really liked the vocals on here and the guitar work was amazing
  12. Blind Guardian - A Twist In The Myth
    I wasn't a huge fan of A Night At The Opera... too over the top. This was a return to a slightly simpler style with better production. A pleasent surprise.
  13. Deicide - The Stench Of Redemption
    Some of the best metal leads this year can be found right here. The Hoffman brothers leaving is the best thing that ever could have happened to them.
  14. Bloodbound - Nosferatu
    The title track was my favorite song this year. Rest of the CD didn't quite measure up (otherwise this would have ranked higher) but it was ever so close.
  15. Hammerfall - Threshold
    Much better than the previous release, which was way too slow.
Crims's Top 5 surprises of 2006

  1. Heed - The Call
    Not quite top 15 material but I was surprised how much I liked this; especially since it's so different from Lost Horizon
  2. Trivium - The Crusade
    I know this would be good when mallcore kiddies were saying it sucked
  3. Lamb of God - Sacrament
    Still not that great of a band (I find the vocals annoying) but I did get enjoyment out of this where as I never have with previous releases.
  4. Slayer - Christ Illusion
    Better than their last 2 releases combined.
  5. Cannibal Corpse - Kill
    Much like Deicide, this band managed to release something worthwhile after years of re-hashing
Crims's Disappointment(s) of 2006

  1. Venom - Metal Black
    I was one of the few people in the known universe who really, really liked Resurrection. So it's easy to see why this was a disappointment
  2. Bludgeon - World Controlled
    Oops. Changing the style to follow trends = really bad CD
  3. Celtic Frost - Monotheist
    I really liked the first song. Fell asleep for the rest of the CD
  4. Evergrey - Monday Morning Apocalypse
    Wow, Evergrey has been consistently in my top 15 for the last 4 releases. Not sure what happened here. Hopefully they can rebound from a very disappointing release.
  5. Eidolon - The Parallel Otherworld
    By no means a bad CD but I expected so much more with Nils K. Rue on vocals. Though the vocals wasn't the problem, the too slow song writing was. Eidolon is best when they're fast not progressive.
Crims's words about 2006
  1. 2006 was a very exciting year for me. I moved in with my girlfriend, who is now my fiancee and I'll be getting married in September. I received a very nice promotion at work which resulted in the start of a potentially profitable career. All this meant having to completely change the way I managed my time. The result was very little reviews and CD listening. As things settle done this year I hope to return to 1 review a week plus a lot more CD listening. So for all two of you who read my reviews, I'm back. :) And btw, when the hell is Hollenthon going to release something new?? Stay Metal, Crims