Teeth of the Divine 2015’s STAFF PICKS
2015. Another, goddamn, year over already. And how’d it end? With a major downer with Lemmy going somewhere else. Who do we have left? Ozzy? Rob? Alice? Anyone else? Damn. It wasn’t all that bad of a year though, even if the world seemed to become even crazier than 2014 — if Fox News is to be believed. Plenty of good music got released and what we’ve got here is a top list of metal related stuff that Teeth of the Divine’s staff handpicked themselves. Unlike most of our corporate overlords, we don’t outsource our opinions, enslave some poor bastards and build safety nets around them just in case they decide to call it quits. Actually, that’s not true. We’re not a hive mind, we enslave people to write for us but we sure as hell aren’t spending any of our huge advertising revenue to keep them alive. Ha! Anyway, browse around and find some worthy stuff you might have missed!
Kristofor Allred
2015 was a very strange year for me as far as metal goes. I listened to, checked out, & ultimately purchased less metal than I have in years and what I did gravitate to this year was a bit more on the “safe” side, than the norm for me. I think everyday “real life” got in the way too much this year… Anyways, here are my top 10 albums of the year, in no particular order:
IRON MAIDEN – The Book of Souls (BMG)
When anyone asks me what my all-time favorite band is, I always respond with “It’s a tie between Iron Maiden & Death.”…The Book of Souls affirms that my answer will continue as such.
FEAR FACTORY – Genexus (Nuclear Blast)
I was 18 years old when Demanufacture came out, and Genexus takes me right back to that feeling of twenty years ago…’nuff said..
MOONSPELL – Extinct (Napalm Records)
Now I am generally a Moonspell fan, so it was no surprise that I did like Extinct, but I was surprised at how many times I kept returning to it.
MELECHESH – Enki (Nuclear Blast)
I absolutely loved this album. The riffs, the production, the leads, the every fucking thing!!! Ashmendi is right up there with Abbath & (old)Mustaine when it comes to wielding mighty riffs like few can.
GRUESOME – Savage Land (Relapse)
I swear Savage Land could literally pass for a 1989 lost Death album. It does rely heavily on the source material, but all in all this is some great shit. Hats off to Matt Harvey!!
PARADISE LOST – The Plague Within (Century Media)
Could possibly be the best, or at least heaviest, album from these guys in the last twenty years.
SERIAL BUTCHER – Brute Force Lobotomy (Unique Leader)
Simply some great semi-tech death with a wonderful sense of old-school without sounding dated in the least..
ATREYU – Long Live (Spinefarm Records)
I’ve never been the biggest metal-core fan, so I don’t understand why I’ve always liked the sugary, bubble-gum flavored pop metal that Atreyu plays, but I do. Fuck, sometimes you just need the musical equivalent of diabetes…DIABEETUS!!!
NILE – What Should Not Be Unearthed (Nuclear Blast)
I’ve loved this band since its debut. Some albums are clearly better than others, and this one ranks as one of them. Definitely some damn fine death metal from these mighty veterans.
DRACONIAN – Sovran (Napalm Records)
Not sure if it was just the gloomy fall/winter weather that kept hanging around or what, but I listened to this heavily gothic, death/doom release for two weeks straight upon its release. Great somber, yet crushing stuff…
HONORABLE MENTIONS :
Napalm Death – Apex Predator-Easy Meat
Tomb of Finland – Below the Green
Cradle of Filth – Hammer of the Witches
Cattle Decapitation – The Anthropocene Extinction
Act of Defiance – Birth and the Burial
Malevolent Creation – Dead Man’s Path
Krisiun – Forged in Fury
Slayer – Repentless
The Black Dahlia Murder – Abysmal
Gorod – A Maze of Recycled Creeds
Best EP:
CRYPTOPSY – Tome I – Book of Suffering
A great mini album from Cryptopsy; some are claiming a true return to form, but personally I thought their last album was really just as awesome…hell, I didn’t think the Unspoken King was really bad either.
Biggest Disappointment:
tie between Unleashed – Dawn of the Nine, and Skinless – Only the Ruthless Remain
Best Reissue:
PYREXIA – Sermon of Mockery
Sermon of Mockery, plus the Hatredangeranddisgust EP, and the Liturgy of Impurity demo equals one badass win!!!
So many metal musicians were lost this year, it’s almost mind boggling…here’s just a few that I wish eternal peace to :
“Lemmy” Kilmister
AJ Pero
Scott Clendenin
Ryan Stanek
Martin Kearns
Frank Watkins
and to the multi-talented Christopher Lee for being so damn awesome!!!
Find more articles with: 2015, Blog, Staff Picks
I am a bit surprised (and saddened) to see the Sickening Horror mentioned only once, since this seemed to be one of the very few sites that actually reviewed it, and it got a pretty positive review at that.
Definitely some stuff I missed on these lists though so I will have to start digging through them.
on Jan 15th, 2016 at 04:35I reviewed it here but didn’t submit a top ten due to extremely part-time status. But it was one of the few metal records I liked last year.
on Jan 16th, 2016 at 20:49Erik thanks to you I discovered Vallendusk. And WOW! What an amazing album and band!Cheers!
on Jan 25th, 2016 at 07:49\m/
on Jan 25th, 2016 at 09:00