Metal Awards

Marty's Top 15 albums of 2009

  1. Heaven And Hell - The Devil You Know
  2. Grave Digger - Ballads Of A Hangman
  3. Megadeth - Endgame
  4. U.D.O. - Dominator
  5. W.A.S.P. - Babylon
  6. Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
  7. Fairyland - Score To A New Beginning
  8. Outloud - We'll Rock You To Hell And Back Again
  9. Gotthard - Need To Believe
  10. Shadow Gallery - Digital Ghosts
  11. Lion's Share - Dark Hours
  12. Queensryche - American Soldier
  13. Hammerfall - No Sacrifice, No Victory
  14. Cain's Offering - Gather The Faithful
  15. Herman Frank - Loyal to None
Marty's Top 5 surprises of 2009

  1. Stratovarius - Polaris
  2. Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue
  3. Celesty - Vendetta
  4. Kiss - Sonic Boom
Marty's Disappointment(s) of 2009

  1. Chris Caffery - House of Insanity
Marty's Joke(s) 2009
  1. Aerosmith - Steven Tyler falls off the wagon (I mean stage)
  2. Axel Rose still using the Guns N' Roses name even though he's the only original member
  3. Anthrax - They recorded a new album with a new singer that they pumped up so much in the press....only to fire his ass and bring back John Bush
Marty's words about 2009
  1. Well....another year and yet I find myself having less and less time to listen to and review music anymore. I haven't been as regular with my reviews as of late but I sure do try to contribute when I can. My 2 boys are now 14 and 12 and they keep me pretty busy. The almost 50 year old body just doesn't have the stamina and energy that it used to as all of you will eventually find out. I'm only three years from early retirement and and I'm looking forward to possibly starting another career and one that is very much music related. Metalreviews.com has really stirred up a passion in me for music and journalism in general and one day, I would like to expand my interests to include music promotion. None of this would have ever been possible without the invaluable experience and contacts that I have made through my association with Metalreviews.com. I will always be grateful for that. I'm still trying to fly the power/prog and traditional metal flag as high as I can but shifts in musical interests amongst the metal community to more extreme forms of metal has left it almost all up to me to keep up that end of the weekly reviews. There's lots of great stuff released this year that never got reviewed. I'm going to try to get a few of the best of the bunch done before we get too far into the New Year. To all of you, our loyal readers, here's to a safe and wonderful 2010!!!! Cheers, Marty