Tis The Season: Part One

Tis the season, my friends. It’s that time of year when everyone begins listing their favourite metal albums, which means it’s also that time of year when some folks will be getting their knickers in a twist about all the choices and rankings. I guess that shows there’s still a healthy amount of passion for this music that we all hold dear out there, which is no bad thing.

That said, deciding which band ranks higher than another is clearly all subjective, and to be honest, end of year placements aren’t of prime concern to me. What is more important is that the albums that resonated with you in 2014 might have passed me by unnoticed, and I see end of year lists as a fantastic opportunity to catch up on releases that I might have missed during the year.

In that spirit, I asked a few writers, fans, label owners, radio hosts, and musicians if they’d like to highlight the music that mattered most to them this year on Six Noises’ pages. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be posting lists of albums that hit home for a raft of contributors in 2014, and then, around mid-December, I’ll be covering the albums I enjoyed this year as well. I’ll be posting about the international metal, New Zealand metal, and experimental bands that struck a cord with me in 2014. And I’ll be throwing a heap of Bandcamp discoveries I made this year at you as well.

Until then, I hope you discover some albums you missed during 2014 on the upcoming lists. My thanks go out to every contributor who sent me a list. There’s more to come, but let’s dig in with part one right now.

Steve Francis (drummer, Bulletbelt and Red Dawn).

(1) Old Wainds – Nordraum

(2) Midnight – No Mercy for Mayhem

(3) Nightfell – The Living Ever Mourn

(4) Eastern Front – Descent into Genocide

(5) Dragonforce – Maximum Overload

(6) Nachtmystium – The World we left behind

(7) Portrait – Crossroads

(8) Exordium Mors – The Apotheosis of Death

(9) Ringworm – Hammer of the Witch

(10) Exodus – Blood in Blood out

Brandon Duncan (artist, multi-instrumentalist in Sterilizer and Sequence of Prime)

(1) Chrysalide – Personal Revolution

(2) High Spirits – You Are Here

(3) Animal Bodies – The Killing Scene

(4) Black Rain – Dark Pool

(5) Skull Fist – Chasing the Dream

(6) Emptiness – Nothing But The Whole

(7) Diocletian – Gesundrian

(8) Mayhem – Esoteric Warfare

(9) 1349 – Massive Cauldron of Chaos

(10) Valis – The Demolished Man

Nightmare 666 (screen printer at Local Church, co-host Anger Management Radio show)

New Zealand Top 5 for 2014

(1) Exordium Mors – The Apothesis Of Death

(2) Sabbatic Goat/Trepanation – Split 7″

(3) Meth Drinker – Oil

(4) Vassafor/Sinistrous Diabolous – Split

(5) Diocletian – Gesundrian

International Top 5 for 2014

(1)Midnight – No Mercy for Mayhem

(2) Mayhem – Esoteric Warfare

(3) Behemoth – The Satanist

(4) Mysticum – Planet Satan

(5) Triptykon – Melana Chasmata

Cheers to Steve, Brandon and Nightmare. Stay tuned for plenty more lists to come.