Metal Awards

Boris's Top 15 albums of 2009

  1. Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition
    Dark, beautiful, heavier than the others. Simply amazing
  2. The Devin Townsend Project - Ki
    I prefer this one to Addicted, Devy's other album this year. Devin Townsend's singing voice has never sounded this good, and the music is calming and chaotic all at once
  3. Gorod - Process Of A New Decline
    I'm not a technical death metal fan, but GOROD manage to infuse so much melody into their brand of the genre that it's just too good to ignore.
  4. Mastodon - Crack The Skye
    The only Mastodon album I've been able to truly get into, and I'll be damned if it isn't bursting with mysticism and creativity
  5. Steven Wilson - Insurgentes
    Steven Wilson's solo album was much more consistent than the latest Porcupine Tree, in my opinion. It seems the man can do no wrong.
  6. Transatlantic - The Whirlwind
    As far as prog goes, there is no better. Neal Morse is another composer that, in my mind, rarely misses.
  7. Porcupine Tree- The Incident
    Not as good as it could have been but as mentioned before, Steven Wilson is incapable of producing something bad. Expect a review very very soon.
  8. Katatonia - Night Is The New Day
    Very solid, consistent stuff. Would've been higher on the list if it was any different from Katatonia's last three efforts.
  9. Primal Fear - 16.6 (Before The Devil Knows You're Dead)
    This album made me want to revisit my old power-metal collection. The band's strongest album in years.
  10. Dream Theater - Black Clouds and Silver Linings
    A return to form, more or less, for Dream Theater. Now if Portnoy sang like he does on the Transatlantic album instead of trying to miserably growl...
  11. Scar Symmetry - Dark Matter Dimensions
    You'd never even know that there was a lineup change, much less a major one like switching vocalists from listening to this. Scar Symmetry are the best melodic death metal out there now. Let's hope Soilwork can prove me wrong next year
  12. Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue
    Same deal as Scar Symmetry. You'd never even know Layne was gone listening to this. Alice in Chains rock, simply put.
  13. The Mars Volta - Octahedron
    The best Volta album so far, or at least the best since the debut. Much more of a focus on songwriting rather than noise and craziness.
  14. Lacuna Coil - Shallow Life
    Yeah, I listened to this album a buncha times. I'm a little ashamed considering just how poppy it is, but it's too catchy to write off as nonsense
  15. The Black Dahlia Murder - Deflorate
    Another solid effort from these guys. Again, would've been higher had they even tried anything new.
Boris's Top 5 surprises of 2009

  1. Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue
    How often do the bands of yore reform and actually put out an album that is not rehashed riffs and can stand among its classics? Judging from Heaven and Hell, Smashing Pumpkins, etc--not very often at all.
  2. Dethklok - Dethalbum II
    Despite the ridiculous joke nature of the band, the music on this album is very worthy of the material it parodies. Touche, Brendan Smalls
Boris's Disappointment(s) of 2009

  1. Heaven And Hell - The Devil You Know
    I love Dio-era Sabbath, I really do. And I wanted this to be good, but its just so boring and similar throughout, I can't stand it.
  2. Guilt Machine - On This Perfect Day
    Actually not a bad album, but considering what Arjen Lucassen is capable of, a major disappointment
  3. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
    Man, this sucks. Really. Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones--wtf are you thinking?
Boris's Joke(s) 2009

  1. Austrian Death Machine - Double Brutal
    Then again, this was meant to be a joke, wasn't it? How about being a little clever--take some cues from Dethklok.
Boris's words about 2009
  1. 2009 has been an interesting musical year for me. 2008 rekindled my love for metal more than any other year in recent memory, despite some obvious problems. I was so optimistic about this year at its start, that I was sorely underwhelmed by the amount of good metal releases that came out early in the year. That, combined with my little brother constantly listening to The Beatles around my parents' house made me actively seek out more pop-oriented music. And so, I turned away from metal for a while. When I saw MetalReviews was looking for new team members, I jumped at the chance, and upon being accepted, I began to immerse myself in the genre again. However, with my newfound love for simple hook-filled songs, I found that fewer and fewer metal bands (of any genre) captivated me as much as they had before. This obvious problem has prevented me from writing as much reviews as I would have liked--and those reviews I did write were mostly of archival releases. That being said, my being more critical of metal helped make this list all the more meaningful for me. There were only a handful of albums that I felt truly exemplified the emotionality and musical talent I've always loved about metal, and even so, most of these albums were of a much more laid back nature--my top two, Anno Domini Hi Definition and Ki represent that quite well. I don't think this needs to be said but my list of the top 15 as well as the disappointments and surprises is my own opinion--these are the albums that have moved me or failed to move me personally. I doubt that there is even one other person around who would put all these bands on the same list. It always bothers me when I go on the forums and see people insulting each other's tastes and worse, each other. Music isn't about who is better or worse, or what is tr00 metal or kvlt or whatever. It's about the experiences we all have with it. And this website and the forums are about sharing those experiences and building a community of people all around the world who have similar ones and want to discuss them. The variety of music I have come across this year both new and old, from laid back rock like The Coral or technical death metal like Gorod who I've never listened to before to my very favorite bands like Riverside and Pain of Salvation (who, by the way, released an AWESOME E.P that didn't make the list because it's not an album) , has allowed me to connect with people I would never have talked to before and spread my knowledge as well as take in theirs. For that, 2009 has been a huge personal success in my musical journey, and I hope that my horizons continue to expand in the coming year.