What month is it? October! Crap! I am so behind on posting
this list.
That's how I've been feeling ever since the end of January
when I actually finalized my list. I just never got around to editing it
properly. Now, let’s do a little
reflection on last year and the music that was released. There is some great
Hard Rock and Metal music that was released in 2016. The unfortunate thing is that
I couldn’t listen to it all.
Now, without further ado here is my top 16 albums of 2016.
16) Hardwired… to Self-Destruct – Metallica
I don’t think I’ll be able to appreciate this album or band
as much as other fans, but I can certainly acknowledge their impact and
influence that they had and still have today. Congrats to Metallica on their 6th
consecutive number one album. Check out my review for my full thoughts.
Top 3 Songs:
1) “Spit Out the Bone”
2) “Moth Into Flame”
3) “Confusion”
15) Theories of Flight – Fates Warning
Fates Warning’s
album Theories of Flight is one of my favorite progressive albums to
comes out this year. To me it surpasses Dream
Theater’s The Astonishing. Check out my review for more details.
Top 3 Songs:
1) “Seven Stars”
2) “The Light and Shade of
Things”
3) “SOS”
14) Heavy Crown – Last in Line
If you ever wanted to have that Dio fix that I yearned for, Last in Line’s Heavy Crown definitely
filled that need. Being three fourths of the original Dio band, they pay homage
to that music while offer songs that are original. Check out my review for
more details.
Top 3 Songs:
1) “Devil in Me”
2) “Starmaker”
3) “Blame It on Me”
13) Welcome to Fat City – Crobot
I like Welcome
to Fat City, but I much preferred Crobot’s
debut album Something Supernatural. Many of the songs on this new album are
growers and need to be listened to multiple times. Welcome to Fat City is more like part 2 of their first album.
My only complaint is that Crobot
didn’t differentiate the songs more. I hope I can catch them live and I look forward toward
their next album. I love their trippy album cover. My review.
Top 3 Songs:
1) “Plague of the Mammoths”
2) “Welcome to Fat City”
3) “Hold on to Dear Life”
12) Hallow Bones – Rival Sons
Unfortunately, this is one of the albums that I was not able
to review previously on my blog. Rival
Sons is an absolutely great band that offers a great 70’s hard rock sound. They
have continued on that trajectory and have crafted another awesome album in Hallow
Bones. I also love their surreal album cover.
Top 3 Songs:
1) “Thundering Voices”
2) “Hallow Bones Pt.1”
3) “Pretty Face”
11) Sittin’ Heavy – Monster Truck
Do you like Canadian bands? Well do you like bands that
bridge hard rock and metal? Well Monster
Truck have all the findings of a Hard Rock band, but their tone is heavy
enough for the average metalhead to bang to. Sittin’ Heavy is just
great. Go check out my review of my thoughts on the album.
Top 3:
1) “Don’t Tell Me How to Live”
2) “She’s a Witch”
3) “To the Flame”
10) Seal the Deal & lets Boogie – Volbeat
Volbeat has a
special sound that is unique to metal. It appeals to metal fans and hard rock
fans. I’ve disused Volbeat with a
friend and I consider this artist to be a ‘Rockabilly Metal’ band. Anyway, Seal
the Deal & Lets Boogie is a superb album, go check out my review for more details.
Top 3:
1) “Seal the Deal”
2) “The Loa’s Crossroad”
3) “The Devil’s Bleeding Crown”
9) Dystopia – Megadeth
Dystopia was one of my most anticipated albums of the year.
Many fans of Megadeth were very
critical of their previous album Super Collider, but personally I
liked that album. Dystopia is superior though, in its tone, musicianship and song
writing. Kiko is phenomenal on this
album and I look forward to Megadeth
on tour and their next effort in the studio. I have a review that goes into
detail of what I think of the album.
Top 3:
1) “The Threat is Real”
2) “Fatal Illusion”
3) “Poisonous Shadows”
8) For All Kings – Anthrax
Anthrax’s For All Kings was another of my most
anticipated albums of the year. In comparison to their last album, Worship Music, For All Kings sounds bigger but
it lost the edge that the previous album had. Again, I can’t really point to that
one glaring factor that I have a problem with, but overall this is a great
album by Anthrax. Check out my review.
Top 3:
1) “Breathing Lightning”
2) “Monster at the End”
3) “For All Kings”
7) Sorceress - Opeth
Sorceress is the album that introduced me to Opeth. This is another album that I
didn’t get to review. I really like this album. I love the progressive elements
that meshes so well on this album. I know of Opeth’s history with death metal, but the current musical direction
that Opeth is training definitely appeals
to me. Go check this album out.
Top 3:
1) “The Wilde Flowers”
2) “Sorceress”
3) “Will O the Wisp”
6) Brotherhood of the Snake – Testament
I love their past three albums starting with The
Gathering to Dark Roots of Earth.
So, Testament’s follow up to Dark Roots of Earth of which is one of
my favorite albums by Testament, Brotherhood of the Snake had some
expectations placed upon it. It delivered. One thing I that I did not mention
in my review was that this album has a strong presence in the rhythm section.
Top 3:
1) “The Pale King”
2) “Neptune’s Spear”
3) “Stronghold”
5) Magma – Gojira
Gojira is another
metal band that has its roots in the heavier side of metal. While in my review
some of the vocals were hard to listen to, because of the accent. Magma
is a phenomenal album and I love the intensity of the music. I can’t wait to
see Gojira live and look back in
their discography. Check out my review of their album.
Top 3:
1) “Stranded”
2) “Silvera”
3) “Pray”
4) The Evil Divide – Death Angel
Death Angel is
one of my favorite thrash metal bands, and I absolutely love their last album The
Dream Calls for Blood. So, the expectations were high for The
Evil Divide. Actually, I originally had this album in the top three,
it’s because of the next album that it’s not in that spot on my list. Anyway,
go check out my review of the reasons I love this album.
Top 3:
1) “Hatred United / United Hate”
2) “Let The Pieces Fall”
3) “Breakaway”
3) Breathe in the Water – Kyng
Kyng’s last album
Burn
the Serum was my favorite album of 2014. So, for me their follow up
album had some serious expectations. I really like this album and it’s no
surprise for me that it ended up in the top 3 on my list. You can check out myreview to see my full thoughts.
Top 3:
1) “Follow Blindly”
2) “Closer to the End”
3) “Not Enough”
2) The Last Hero – Alter Bridge
Alter Bridge’s
fifth album came out of nowhere for me. I was not a fan before but now I am. I
love this album. Check out [my review] of The Last Hero, for my reasons on why
I love this album.
Top 3:
1) “The Last Hero”
2) “My Champion”
3) “Crows On a Wire”
1) The Stage – Avenged Sevenfold
I had no expectations for this album. All I knew was the good critical and fan recation. In fact, the guest writer of this blog, Jacob, is a huge fan of the band
(although I may be underselling his fandom). I listened to it, and I loved the
progressive elements on the album, the vocals to the guitar riffs were awesome.
The
Stage is phenomenal and I have not been able to put it down since I
first got it.
Top 3:
1) “Paradigm”
2) “The Stage”
3) “Sunny Disposition”
Honorable Mentions:
Clean Your Clock [Live] – Motörhead
Battle Cry [Live] – Judas
Priest
Metal Resistance – Babymetal
XI – Metal Church
Book of Shadows II – Zakk
Wylde
Diamond Head – Diamond Head
End of Days – Discharge
The Astonishing – Dream Theater
Who You Selling For – The Pretty Reckless
Victorious – Wolfmother
Jomsviking – Amon Amarth
There are too numerous amount of albums I’ve listened to,
but I can’t list them all.
