Metal Awards

Aleksie's Top 15 albums of 2010

  1. Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy
    From devastation to haunting calm, my perennial AOTY-snatchers did it again.
  2. Blind Guardian - At The Edge Of Time
    Roaring back to the skies after the semi-great A Twist In The Myth, Blind Guardian delivered the epic goods in spades once again.
  3. Spock's Beard - X
    California's premium progsters finally catching the mightiest of second winds. Let's hope they keep up the momentum and quickly head back into the studio.
  4. Sabaton - Coat of Arms
    No other album hoisted the fists and pints (and intriguing tidbits of war history) as effectively as this one. White Death would be proud.
  5. Star One - Victims of the Modern Age
    Scifi-dystopias + proggy heavy metal = utter and total win.
  6. Ihsahn - After
    Ihsahn's post-Emperor ambitions finally break out into a full-blown metallic splendor (even though I really liked angL too) with savage beauty and saxophone solos for all - brilliant!
  7. Helloween - 7 Sinners
    Best throughout-quality album from the veteran Krauts since Time of the Oath, and that's something because I've liked a lot from that between-space.
  8. Marty Friedman - Bad D.N.A.
    So it actually is possible to mix übercatchy metallic riffage with computerized sounds and samples this well? My hat is off, Marty - J-rock style!
  9. Hail Of Bullets - On Divine Winds
    The ol' warhorses follow up Of Frost and War in brutal fashion, and I'm loving it - the best death metal of the year.
  10. Stam1na - Viimeinen Atlantis
    Social commentary metal made fun the Finnish way - the finest from my homeland in 2010.
  11. Avantasia - Angel of Babylon
    Out of Tobias' magnum opus, this part became my favourite with the slight edges in melodic grandeur and overall majesty.
  12. Atheist - Jupiter
    Gotta love your occasional dose of instrumental wizards exploding heads en masse with compositional madness, and Atheist pulled it off better than anyone this year.
  13. Overkill - Ironbound
    After a slew of alright records and commendable persistence, the east coast skullcrushers blitzed us with a helluva showing - excellent!
  14. Heathen - The Evolution Of Chaos
    If not counting Overkill, the best thrash offering of the year. Lovely riffage!
  15. Sons Of Liberty - Brush-Fires Of The Mind
    Social commentary made convincing and heartfelt the American way - no mean feat at all. More lovely riffage!
Aleksie's Top 5 surprises of 2010

  1. Triosphere - The Road Less Travelled
    Biggest surprise potential I heard all year.
  2. Instanzia - Ghosts
    Canadian power metal? Heck, seems it can be really good.
  3. The Jasser Arafats - Condemnation
    Tasty, vibrant death/thrash all around.
  4. Barren Earth - Curse of the Red River
    Maybe not such a surprise with the experienced players involved, but this still came out even better than I expected.
  5. Exodus - Exhibit B: The Human Condition
    After the lackluster Exhibit A, a very pleasing return to form.
Aleksie's Disappointment(s) of 2010

  1. Tarot - Gravity Of Light
    Another classic example of the curse of consistently awesome bands - when they put out an album that is "just" good, real good at times, it leaves a sour taste.
  2. Charred Walls Of The Damned - Charred Walls Of The Damned
    Considering the mega-tantalizing line-up of the group, very dissapointed how mediocre this sounded. Should probably give this another try.
  3. Suicidal Angels - Dead Again
    A blistering debut album was unfortunately followed with more of the same that just didn't bring the same ooomph.
  4. Enemy Of The Sun - Caedium
    Unlike I anticipated, slightly simplifying the chaotic zanyness of the debut album didn't produce a better album.
Aleksie's words about 2010
  1. Lemme get some just-missed-the-best-of-list honourable mentions out of the way first: Gamma Ray - To The Metal! Avantasia - The Wicked Symphony Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier Annihilator - Annihilator Forbidden - Omega Wave Jon Oliva's Pain - Festival Powerglove - Saturday Morning Apocalypse Overall, 2010 was a roorback of power metal and melodic metal in general for me after a year or so during which I thought the more extreme varieties were bringing the goods more often. As such, I caught surprisingly little top notch death metal this year. Let's see who ascends the throne this year - C'mon progressive thrash metal!! Anyhoo, a happy new year to all y'all! Keep it brutal! -Aleksi-