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Your Favourite Year in Metal


Requiem

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I have an enduring love and fascination with history of all kinds, and musical history is no exception. 

I've often paid attention to the production notes of my CDs, and I'm really interested in the whens, wheres and who-withs of album creation. This sometimes means I nerd out over trivial things. 

I'm really interested in hearing of people's 'favourite year of metal releases'. I guess most people probably haven't thought about this sort of thing much, but I'm sure there must be a few obsessives like me out there. 

There was one year in the 90s that produced some of my favourite albums to this day. I was 16 years old and so they have had a lasting effect on me. As a dark/gothic/doom obsessive I'm nominating the epic year: 

1996

Type O Negative - October Rust

Amorphis - Elegy

My Dying Bride - Like Gods of the Sun

Anathema - Eternity

Moonspell - Irreligious

Cradle of Filth - Dusk and Her Embrace

Theatre of Tragedy - Velvet Darkness they Fear

Katatonia - Brave Murder Day

In Flames - The Jester Race

Opeth - Morningrise

SentencedDown

A great year in music and the development of Lord Requiem as you see him today. 

Anyone else have something as awesome as a favourite year in metal? 

 

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Solid thread idea. My first instinct would be to go for 1994, there was just way too much wonderful black, death, and doom metal happening at that time to ignore. Some specifics:

Acid Bath - When the Kite String Pops

Amorphis - Tales From the Thousand Lakes

Avernus - Sadness

Bethlehem - Dark Metal

Bolt Thrower - For Victory

Brutality - When the Sky Turns Black

Brutal Truth - Need to Control.

Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss

Doomstone - Those Whom Satan Hath Joined

Edge of Sanity - Purgatory Afterglow

Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse

Enslaved - Frost

Esoteric - Epistemological Despondency

Gorement - The Ending Quest

Gorgoroth - Pentagram

Grief - Come to Grief

Hades - ...Again Shall Be

Hypocrisy - Inferior Devoties

Incantation - Mortal Throne of Nazarene

Marduk - Opus Nocturne

Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

Mortuary Drape - All the Witches Dance

Ophthalamia - A Journey In Darkness

Rotting Christ - Non Serviam

Samael - Ceremony of Opposites

Satyricon - Dark Medieval Times

Septic Flesh - Mystic Places of Dawn

Skyclad - Prince of the Poverty Line

Solitude Aeturnus - Through the Darkest Hour

Solstice - Lamentations

Thergothon - Stream From the Heavens

Thou Art Lord - Eosforos

Uncanny - Splenium For Nyktophobia

Unholy - The Second Ring of Power

Windham Hell - South Facing Epitaph

...yeah, holy shit. It's possible that 1993 or 1988 could contend with all of the quality here for me, this was just the one my mind went to first when seeing this topic. I'll do some research and may make another post.

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1994 was a very special year for music. That list is amazing. 

Add in Darkthrone's 'Transilvanian Hunger' and Satyricon's second release for that year, 'The Shadowthrone', and 1994 has basically all my favourite black metal albums:

Mayhem - 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas' 

Emperor - 'In the Nightside Eclipse'

Satyricon - 'The Shadowthrone'

Satyricon - 'Dark Medieval Times'

Burzum - 'Hvis Lyset Tar Oss' 

Darkthrone - 'Transilvanian Hunger'

Enslaved - 'Frost'

Holy hell, I'm changing my favourite year to 1994 hahaha. 

1993 and 1995 each have a handful of supreme albums, too. It was a great era of music. 

1993: MDB 'Turn Loose the Swans', Type O 'Bloody Kisses', Dissection 'The Somberlain', Burzum 'Det Som Engang Var', Darkthrone 'Under a Funeral Moon', Paradise Lost 'Icon'. 

1995: Dissection 'Storm of the Light's Bane', At the Gates 'Slaughter of the Soul', MDB 'The Angel and the Dark River', Blind Guardian 'Imaginations from the Other Side', Dark Tranquillity 'The Gallery', Darkthrone 'Panzerfaust', Cathedral 'The Carnival Bizarre', Moonspell 'Wolfheart', Iron Maiden 'X Factor' (joking...)

 

 

 

 

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1994 was a very special year for music. That list is amazing. 

Add in Darkthrone's 'Transilvanian Hunger' and Satyricon's second release for that year, 'The Shadowthrone', and 1994 has basically all my favourite black metal albums:

Mayhem - 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas' 

Emperor - 'In the Nightside Eclipse'

Satyricon - 'The Shadowthrone'

Satyricon - 'Dark Medieval Times'

Burzum - 'Hvis Lyset Tar Oss' 

Darkthrone - 'Transilvanian Hunger'

Enslaved - 'Frost'

Holy hell, I'm changing my favourite year to 1994 hahaha. 

1993 and 1995 each have a handful of supreme albums, too. It was a great era of music. 

1993: MDB 'Turn Loose the Swans', Type O 'Bloody Kisses', Dissection 'The Somberlain', Burzum 'Det Som Engang Var', Darkthrone 'Under a Funeral Moon', Paradise Lost 'Icon'. 

1995: Dissection 'Storm of the Light's Bane', At the Gates 'Slaughter of the Soul', MDB 'The Angel and the Dark River', Blind Guardian 'Imaginations from the Other Side', Dark Tranquillity 'The Gallery', Darkthrone 'Panzerfaust', Cathedral 'The Carnival Bizarre', Moonspell 'Wolfheart', Iron Maiden 'X Factor' (joking...)

 

 

 

 

Transylvanian Hunger is fairly overrated IMO, which is why it's not on my list. There's also something about the folky simplicity of Dark Medieval Times that I find endearing, so I chose that one. I tend to not favor Norwegian black metal so much, but this was a big year for it. I'm sure that 1995 won't be as good of a candidate for me with death metal winding down, but 1993 could do it. I'll check back when I have more time, it's my daughter's birthday today.

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10 minutes ago, BlutAusNerd said:

Transylvanian Hunger is fairly overrated IMO, which is why it's not on my list. There's also something about the folky simplicity of Dark Medieval Times that I find endearing, so I chose that one. I tend to not favor Norwegian black metal so much, but this was a big year for it. I'm sure that 1995 won't be as good of a candidate for me with death metal winding down, but 1993 could do it. I'll check back when I have more time, it's my daughter's birthday today.

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Happy birthday to her! :)

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8 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

95 had some other great albums: Opeth - Orchid, Ulver - Bergtatt, Anathema - The Silent Enigma, Suffocation - Pierced From Within, Death - Symbolic, Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve, Fear Factory - Demanufacture (not joking!). I suck at lists so I'm probably forgetting a bunch.

How could I forget 'Bergtatt' and 'The Silent Enigma'?!

And yes, 'Demanufacture' was a great album back in the day - revolutionary even - but for me doesn't have the lasting emotional impact of Ulver and the Anaths. Same thing for, say, 'Burn My Eyes', which was awesome for 14 year old me in 94 but it has no place in my pantheon. Great albums though. 

I used to tease my Opeth obsessed friend by referring to 'Orchid' as 'Awkward', but I'll refrain from doing so here. 

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3 minutes ago, Requiem said:

How could I forget 'Bergtatt' and 'The Silent Enigma'?!

And yes, 'Demanufacture' was a great album back in the day - revolutionary even - but for me doesn't have the lasting emotional impact of Ulver and the Anaths. Same thing for, say, 'Burn My Eyes', which was awesome for 14 year old me in 94 but it has no place in my pantheon. Great albums though. 

I used to tease my Opeth obsessed friend by referring to 'Orchid' as 'Awkward', but I'll refrain from doing so here. 

I liked Orchid when I was a teenager, but had stopped listening to it for a long time, for no particular reason. Got back into it a year or two ago and it's become one of my favorites again. Maybe not as sophisticated as their later stuff, but the raw energy and originality of the songwriting ideas come through even better for me these days. I agree about Demanufacture, and rarely put it on these days, but it had a huge impact on me as a kid and I think it'll always have a place in my heart.

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4 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I liked Orchid when I was a teenager, but had stopped listening to it for a long time, for no particular reason. Got back into it a year or two ago and it's become one of my favorites again. Maybe not as sophisticated as their later stuff, but the raw energy and originality of the songwriting ideas come through even better for me these days. I agree about Demanufacture, and rarely put it on these days, but it had a huge impact on me as a kid and I think it'll always have a place in my heart.

You and I have had quite similar lives in some ways. I remember at school in Theatre Studies class my friend and I would put 'Demanufacture' on the PA system in the theatre all the time. Those were the days. 

As for 'Orchid', I haven't heard it in at least 15 years I'd say. In fact I don't even own it. Maybe it's time I got it and completed my 'metal' Opeth collection. 

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Since I had that suspicion, let's just investigate 1993, shall we?

Anacrusis - Screams and Whispers

Anathema - Serenades

At the Gates - With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness

Beherit - Drawing Down the Moon

Brutality - Screams of Anguish

Burzum - Det Som Engang Var

Cathedral - The Ethereal Mirror

Coroner - Grin

Cynic - Focus

Darkthrone - Under a Funeral

Dark Tranquillity - Skydancer

Death - Individual Thought Patterns

Demilich - Nespithe

Depravity - Silence of the Centuries

Deteriorate - Rotting In Hell

dISEMBOWELMENT - Transcendence Into the Peripheral

Disincarnate - Dreams of the Carrion Kind

Dismember - Indecent and Obscene

Dissection - The Somberlain

Edge of Sanity - The Spectral Sorrows

Emperor/Enslaved - Emperor/Hordanes Land

Eyehategod - Take As Needed For Pain

Gorguts - The Erosion of Sanity

Hades - Alone Walkyng

Havohej - Dethrone the Son of God

Hypocrisy - Osculum Obscenum

Immortal - Pure Holocaust

Impaled Nazarene - Ugra-Karma

Kataklysm - The Mystical Gate of Reincarnation

Katatonia - Dance of December Souls

Macabre - Sinister Slaughter

Marduk - Those of the Unlight

Mayhem - Live in Leipzig

Morbid Angel - Covenant

My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans

Necromantia - Crossing the Fiery Path

Necrophobic - The Nocturnal Silence

Necrosanct - Desolate

Neurosis - Enemy of the Sun

Pan.Thy.Monium - Khaoos

Paradise Lost - Icon

Paramæcium - Exhumed of the Earth

Primordial - Dark Romanticism

Ringworm - The Promise

Rippikoulu - Musta Seremonia

Rotting Christ - Thy Mighty Contract

Seance - Saltrubbed Eyes

Sentenced - North From Here

Sigh - Scorn Defeat

Suffocation - Breeding the Spawn

Therion - Symphony Masses: Go Drakon Go Megas

Unanimated - In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead

Utumno - Across the Horizon

Varathron - His Majesty At the Swamp

Voivod - The Outer Limits

Wombbath - Internal Caustic Torments

...yeah, on second thought, this may be the year to beat for me. 1988 and/or 1989 could pose a challenge though.

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All that cool stuff and no Bloody Kisses? [emoji3]

I think this is going to turn into a more exhaustive version of the "Top Ten Albums Of Any Given Year" thread. That's cool, but I tend to be like Grayscale, I couldn't pick a "favorite" year.

I probably would have considered it if it was a more consistent album. I really like a lot of the songs, but others kid of drag the album and don't flow well, like Blood and Fire. I think you're right, and I had forgotten about that thread.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 07/02/2017 at 4:18 PM, BlutAusNerd said:

I probably would have considered it if it was a more consistent album. I really like a lot of the songs, but others kid of drag the album and don't flow well, like Blood and Fire. I think you're right, and I had forgotten about that thread.

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Firstly, shame on Greyscale and FA for fence sitting. You're not actually risking anything by nominating a year that you like hahaha. 

Secondly, 'Bloody Kisses' is a masterpiece and made my 1993 list above. I love 'Blood and Fire'. In fact, I love all the songs on the digipak re-release (I can do without the joke songs). 

1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996, are in my opinion the greatest years for music. Many of the bands listed here are my favourites to this day. Just incredible, life changing albums nearly each and every month across those four years. 

I'm waiting for someone to post, you know, 1989 or something like that. Or 2008. I'd love to see someone jump in and move away from the golden age of black/doom/gothic metal that is 93-96. 

If I took my metal shirt off for a while and replaced it with a rock shirt, I would have to nominate 1987. 

1987 - the Greatest Year of Rock

Def Leppard - 'Hysteria'

Whitesnake - '1997'

Guns n Roses - 'Appetite for Destruction' 

Motley Crue - 'Girls Girls Girls' 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 07/02/2017 at 4:18 PM, BlutAusNerd said: I probably would have considered it if it was a more consistent album. I really like a lot of the songs, but others kid of drag the album and don't flow well, like Blood and Fire. I think you're right, and I had forgotten about that thread.

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Firstly, shame on Greyscale and FA for fence sitting. You're not actually risking anything by nominating a year that you like hahaha. 

Secondly, 'Bloody Kisses' is a masterpiece and made my 1993 list above. I love 'Blood and Fire'. In fact, I love all the songs on the digipak re-release (I can do without the joke songs). 

1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996, are in my opinion the greatest years for music. Many of the bands listed here are my favourites to this day. Just incredible, life changing albums nearly each and every month across those four years. 

I'm waiting for someone to post, you know, 1989 or something like that. Or 2008. I'd love to see someone jump in and move away from the golden age of black/doom/gothic metal that is 93-96. 

If I took my metal shirt off for a while and replaced it with a rock shirt, I would have to nominate 1987. 

1987 - the Greatest Year of Rock

Def Leppard - 'Hysteria'

Whitesnake - '1997'

Guns n Roses - 'Appetite for Destruction' 

Motley Crue - 'Girls Girls Girls' 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I mentioned, I'll probably hit 1988 at some point, for the golden age of thrash, power, and progressive metal to be featured, as well as some great and pioneering extreme metal releases. What exactly would you highlight in 2008? That year doesn't jump out at me at all.

 

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8 hours ago, BlutAusNerd said:

 

As I mentioned, I'll probably hit 1988 at some point, for the golden age of thrash, power, and progressive metal to be featured, as well as some great and pioneering extreme metal releases. What exactly would you highlight in 2008? That year doesn't jump out at me at all.

 

I just named some years arbitrarily. I meant that I hope someone posts about a year outside the spectrum we've already been talking about. There's nothing special about 2008 as far as I'm concerned. 

Now I'm curious so here are some of my favourites from 2008. 

Septicflesh - Communion(!)

Eluveitie - Slania

Tiamat - Amanethes

Moonsorrow - Tulimyrsky

Moonspell - Night Eternal

Motley Crue - Saints of Los Angeles

Daylight Dies - Lost to the Living

Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God

Cradle of Filth - Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder

Thyrfing - Hels Vite

Satyricon - The Age of Nero

Actually some very good albums in there, including my favourites from Eluveitie, Amon Amarth and Tiamat. Very good bands but for me only second tier. The grand and majestic 'Communion' by Septicflesh easily takes out album of the year. Motley Crue put out their amazing come back album which for me is their third greatest album after 'Feelgood' and 'Shout'. 

Not a great number of all time classics though. 

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8 hours ago, BlutAusNerd said:  

As I mentioned, I'll probably hit 1988 at some point, for the golden age of thrash, power, and progressive metal to be featured, as well as some great and pioneering extreme metal releases. What exactly would you highlight in 2008? That year doesn't jump out at me at all.

 

I just named some years arbitrarily. I meant that I hope someone posts about a year outside the spectrum we've already been talking about. There's nothing special about 2008 as far as I'm concerned. 

Now I'm curious so here are some of my favourites from 2008. 

Septicflesh - Communion(!)

Eluveitie - Slania

Tiamat - Amanethes

Moonsorrow - Tulimyrsky

Moonspell - Night Eternal

Motley Crue - Saints of Los Angeles

Daylight Dies - Lost to the Living

Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God

Cradle of Filth - Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder

Thyrfing - Hels Vite

Satyricon - The Age of Nero

Actually some very good albums in there, including my favourites from Eluveitie, Amon Amarth and Tiamat. Very good bands but for me only second tier. The grand and majestic 'Communion' by Septicflesh easily takes out album of the year. Motley Crue put out their amazing come back album which for me is their third greatest album after 'Feelgood' and 'Shout'. 

Not a great number of all time classics though. 

 

Now I'm curious about 2008 too. I know that there hasn't ever been a bad year for metal since its inception, but the mid-80's through the mid-90's are the years that are bound to be stacked with the most classics. I'll report back when I get some time.

 

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1982? Number of the Beast, Screaming for Vengeance, Creatures of the Night, Black Metal, Battle Hymns, Blackout, Borrowed Time, Restless and Wild, Metal on Metal.

1980? Heaven and Hell, Blizzard of Ozz, Wheels of Steel, British Steel, Iron Maiden, Strong Arm of the Law, Lightning to the Nations, Ace of Spades, Back in Black.

It's hard. But if you ask me it's never gonna be beyond the 80's.

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1982? Number of the Beast, Screaming for Vengeance, Creatures of the Night, Black Metal, Battle Hymns, Blackout, Borrowed Time, Restless and Wild, Metal on Metal.

1980? Heaven and Hell, Blizzard of Ozz, Wheels of Steel, British Steel, Iron Maiden, Strong Arm of the Law, Lightning to the Nations, Ace of Spades, Back in Black.

It's hard. But if you ask me it's never gonna be beyond the 80's.

 

I'm sure that if I was to pick a year on the earlier side of the 80's, it would be 83 or 84. Not that there's anything at all wrong with the first couple of years of the decade, but a lot more opens up if you give it a few years.

 

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BlutAusNerd's 2008 favorites:

 

Aura Noir - Hades Rise

Averse Sefira - Advent Parallax

Brown Jenkins - Angel Eyes

Darkspace - Darkspace III

Daylight Dies - Lost to the Living

Deathspell Omega - Chaining the Katechon

Disfear - Live the Storm

Doom: VS - Dead Words Speak

Drug Honkey - Death Dub

Enforcer - Into the Night

Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale

The Gates of Slumber - Conqueror

Hail of Bullets - ...of Frost and War

Hellveto - Neoheresy

Horna - Sanojesi Äärelle

Mgła - Groza

Misery's Omen - Hope Dies

Misery Index - Traitors

Mitochondrion - Archaeaeon

Moonsorrow - Tulimyrsky

Moonspell - Night Eternal

Mourning Beloveth - A Disease For the Ages

Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1

Opeth - Watershed

Pest - Rest in Morbid Darkness

Sculptured - Embodiment

Skepticism - Alloy

Taake - Taake

Umbra Nihil - The Borderland Rituals

Unearthly Trance - Electrocution

Velnias - Sovereign Nocturnal

Virgin Black - Requiem: Fortissimo

 

Damn, I guess I didn't give 2008 enough credit. There may not be as many masterpieces here as in previous years, but there's a ton of great and excellent stuff that should have sprung to mind more readily.

 

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