1622

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.

1623

Since the overwhelming bulk of my list is metal, I’m sharing it here. It’s been a pretty awesome year of music :-D

Album of the Year 2017
Album of the Year 2017.jpg2499×1620 1.49 MB

1624

WAIT SHIT NO I JUST FOUND OUT THAT DATURA’S AWESOME RECORD THE HARROWING IS ALSO A 2017 RELEASE NOOOOOOO

edit: this horrific injustice has finally been fixed now that the website I made that thing on is working again.

1625

@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.

Winner


Vvilderness - Devour the Sun (atmoblack)

Runners-up


Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pacifisticuffs (damfino)


Organized Chaos (prog)

Honorable Mentions:
Iron Walrus - s/t
All Will Know - Infinitas
Battle Dagorath - II: Frozen Light of Eternal Darkness

1626

@Thraeg

The original Topsters.net died horribly. . .

So thank the lords of darkness for Topsters2!

https://www.neverendingchartrendering.org/

1627

Diablo Seing Orchestra is, and has been, my jam for years. Ever since I heard Balrog Boogie off their debut album.

1628

Same here. The new one is a bit of a slower burn for me, with the new main vocalist and some hokey Elvis-impersonator-y bits, but it grew on me.

1629

My top 20 albums for 2017.

Artist Album
Svartsyn In Death
Wiegedood De Doden Hebben Het Goed II
Runespell Unhallowed Blood Oath
Malokarpatan Nordkarpatenland
Poison Blood Poison Blood
Belphegor Totenritual
Blut aus Nord Deus Salutis Meæ
Dodecahedron Kwintessens (Through Bodies Measureless to Man)
Blaze of Perdition Conscious Darkness
Samael Hegemony
Temptations Wings Skulthor Ebonblade
Divine Element Thaurachs of Borsu
Unleash the Archers Apex
Vampire With Primeval Force
Arckanum Den Förstfödde
Svart Crown Abreaction
Vassafor Malediction
Novembers Doom Hamartia
Necroblood Collapse of the Human Race
Immolation Atonement
1630

Looks like I’ve got some listening to do… Since I’ve heard approximately three of those! Ugh lol. Too much music dammit.

1631

I usually spend the year listening to the previous year’s top lists. ;)

But in 2017 I made a concerted effort to listen to more current stuff!

1632

My favorites this year:

Cannibal Corpse: Red Before Black (first Cannibal Corpse album ever for me)
Violent album art NSFW

Decapitated: Anticult
Violent album art NSFW

Myrkur’s Mareridt:

Meshuggah: The Violent Sleep of Reason

Converge: The Dusk in Us

Mastodon: Cold Dark Place

Iced Earth: Incorruptible

Dillinger Escape Plan: Dissociation

Honorable mention: The non-filler half of the Metallica album, Hardwired…To Self Destruct

1633

Re: Cannibal Corpse

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!”

That’s the whole story. I’m lame.

1634

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.

Here’s my own top 10 metal albums of 2017.

  1. Trivium - The Sin and the Sentence
  2. Kreator - Gods of Violence
  3. Iced Earth - Incorruptable
  4. Arch Enemy - Will To Power
  5. The Faceless - In Becoming a Ghost
  6. Overkill - The Grinding Wheel
  7. Body Count - Bloodlust
  8. Ghost - Ceremony and Devotion
  9. Sepultura - Machine Messiah
  10. In This Moment - Ritual
1635

Bah, I had this on my list, but I’ve listened to it so much I somehow convinced myself it must have come out in 2016…

1636

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:

1637

But some of your list is from 2016 anyway (Meshuggash, Metallica)!

1638

I’m getting too old to keep track of time, and I typed all that on my phone and didn’t do too much googling. The last 12 months are a blur.

1639

Wow, turns out he’s a pretty down to earth dude. :P Maybe I’ll say “Hi” next time I see him.

The last time he was with his wife (presumably, I guess I don’t know his marital status), and I didn’t want to bother him, ya know?

1640

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

  1. Aether Realm - Tarot (Wolfheart, Noumena)
  2. Threshold - Legend of the Shires (Ayreon)
  3. Galderia - Return of the Cosmic Men (Unleash the Archers, Cellador)
  4. Archspire - Relentless Mutation (Cytotoxin)
  5. White Ward - Futility Report (Ruins of Beverast)
  6. Fit for an Autopsy - The Great Collapse (Converge, The King is Blind)
  7. Violet Cold - Anomie (Vvilderness)
  8. Hallas - Excerpts from a Future Past (The Necromancers, Royal Thunder)
  9. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper (Hallatar, Loss)
  10. Thunder and Lightning - The Ages Will Turn (Orden Ogan, Serenity)
  11. Night Flight Orchestra - Amber Galactic (High Spirits)
  12. Undrask - Battle Through Time (God Dethroned)
  13. The Midnight - Nocturnal (Ulver)
  14. Wormwood - Wounds From a Bleeding Earth (Vintersorg, Der Weg Einer Freiheit)
  15. Lor - In Forgotten Sleep (Voyager, Caligula’s Horse)
  16. Ex Deo - The Immortal Wars (Demonic Resurrection)
  17. Sorcerer - The Crowning of the Fire King (Tau Cross, Below)
  18. AfterTime - World We’ve Lost (End of the Dream, Beyond the Black)
  19. Temple of Void - Lords of Death (Cold Insight)
  20. My Sleeping Karma - Mela Ananda (The Mantle)
  21. Warbringer - Woe to the Vanquished (Power Trip, Kreator, Vampire)
  22. Elder - Reflections of a Floating World (Jupiterian, Dvne)
  23. Persefone - Aathma (Ne Obliviscaris)
  24. Great Old Ones - EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy (Kawir)
  25. Lunar Shadow - Far From Light (Night Demon)
  26. Impure Wilhelmina - Radiation (Soen)

image
image.jpg1810×1145 1.13 MB

1641

Where are you guys generating those images from?