I recently stumbled across an old favorite album on Youtube, and I’ve become a bit obsessed by it.
The album is Edguy: Kingdom Of Madness. Their second album, released in 1997. Some refer to it as their first album, because it’s the first that received record company distribution. Their actual first album was “Savage Poetry” in 1995, later re-recorded as “The Savage Poetry” in 2000. I own and enjoy both of those albums as well, but “Kingdom Of Madness” really benefited from the production. And for a Youtube upload, I think the quality really comes through.
I hadn’t heard it in several years, and for some reason, it’s audio quality just sounds phenomenal to me now more than ever before. Maybe it’s because most of the music I’ve been buying lately has suffered from the “loudness wars” to some degree, and it’s nice to hear a more basic approach to the recording, where you can clearly hear every single instrument. I’m also really enjoying the musical compositions.
This may have just shot to the top of my “Favorite Edguy Albums” list. I think I’ve listened to it every night now for the past week. I’ve always been an Edguy fan, but even they succumbed to the loudness wars in their later recordings, which I never really cared about until I went and heard this again.
@ArmandoPenblade That’s a great list, and I definitely overlap with a lot of it. Is there some tool you used that outputted in that format, or did you just do a lot of copy and pasting?
Anyway, before I get to my own AotY list, spare a thought for the poor, unloved, December releases who always get left off year-end lists. Here’s my December 2017 AotM.
I’ve seen George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher at my local Target several times and I just sort of point and tell my wife and go “hehehehehehehhehehhhhhh it’s HIM!”
What’s interesting is how diverse our little metal club’s interests are here, because I’ve not heard ANY of @Profanicus list. :) But I tend to gravitate to groove metal, thrash, and melodic death rather than anything black or doom metal.
I swear to god this youtube video is literally the reason I started listening to them a month or so ago (came up in my suggested videos list once and I had nothing better to do at the time). Turns out I actually like the new album too:
Hell, I follow several metal review sites, and I still missed a good chunk of those. Lots of good stuff on everybody’s lists, along with several that I haven’t heard and will have to check out. Anyway, here’s my top 25 list (along with some honorable mention bonus recommendations in the same general musical ballpark as each of my picks). A pretty damn amazing year for metal, all told.
AotY 2017
Aether Realm - Tarot (Wolfheart, Noumena)
Threshold - Legend of the Shires (Ayreon)
Galderia - Return of the Cosmic Men (Unleash the Archers, Cellador)
Archspire - Relentless Mutation (Cytotoxin)
White Ward - Futility Report (Ruins of Beverast)
Fit for an Autopsy - The Great Collapse (Converge, The King is Blind)
Violet Cold - Anomie (Vvilderness)
Hallas - Excerpts from a Future Past (The Necromancers, Royal Thunder)
Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper (Hallatar, Loss)
Thunder and Lightning - The Ages Will Turn (Orden Ogan, Serenity)
Night Flight Orchestra - Amber Galactic (High Spirits)
Undrask - Battle Through Time (God Dethroned)
The Midnight - Nocturnal (Ulver)
Wormwood - Wounds From a Bleeding Earth (Vintersorg, Der Weg Einer Freiheit)
Lor - In Forgotten Sleep (Voyager, Caligula’s Horse)
Ex Deo - The Immortal Wars (Demonic Resurrection)
Sorcerer - The Crowning of the Fire King (Tau Cross, Below)
AfterTime - World We’ve Lost (End of the Dream, Beyond the Black)
Temple of Void - Lords of Death (Cold Insight)
My Sleeping Karma - Mela Ananda (The Mantle)
Warbringer - Woe to the Vanquished (Power Trip, Kreator, Vampire)
Elder - Reflections of a Floating World (Jupiterian, Dvne)
Persefone - Aathma (Ne Obliviscaris)
Great Old Ones - EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy (Kawir)
