This is the thread where we talk about the best METAL albums of the decade!

Because everyone else is doing it, why can't we? What are the all-time classic, list-worthy metal (whatever you consider that term means) records from 2000 to now?

2003: Valley of the Damned
2004: Sonic Firestorm
2006: Inhuman Rampage
2008: Ultra Beatdown

This is going to be tough.

i demand some u-toob action on this thread! Scott?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mayq9kw1tfY

lol, yeah, where do you begin? at the beginning, i guess.

A very good place to start!

Here are some initial thoughts:

Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night
Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon
Machine Head - the Blackening
Baroness - Blue Record
Torche - Meanderthal

"Baroness - Blue Record"

Everyone is talking about how good this is, its not out yet, so us mere mortals can't weigh in.

We're building up anticipation so it can't possibly live up to your expectations!

It leaked a while back, it's great.

"We're building up anticipation so it can't possibly live up to your expectations!"

Yeah, it better be like Master of Reality Jr. at this point or I'll be pissed.

haha--its good but not that good, Bill.

bill would like the gates of slumber album

Mastodon: metal band of the decade?

not in my book!

I won't be putting very serious thought into this until after dealing with 2009, but some obvious candidate bands for me:

Nightwish
Deathspell Omega
Enslaved
Rotting Christ
Cradle of Filth
Dark Tranquillity
Dimmu Borgir
HIM
Immortal
Leviathan
Ludicra
Negura Bunget
Sentenced

Oh, and: Slayer, Celtic Frost, Evoken, Gorgoroth, Nevermore, Satyricon, Sunn O))), Xandria, Xasthur. Candlemass?

And Blut Aus Nord. Sirenia/Tristania? So much good music...

I thought you weren't going to think about it? ;)

stuff not mentioned ...Jane Doe and Given To The Rising will be in mine

Oceanic and Panopticon

and whatever Corrupted albums came out this decade and electric wizard too

ie dopethrone and witchcult today

the first Jesu album!

1st QOTSA

or was that 99?

or even 98

Did the second Jesu record come out already?

These are the first 40 records that came to mind, mostly on the basis of me having listened to them a whole heckuva lot. By no means any sort of final list, but food for thought:

Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon
Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night
Machine Head - The Blackening
Baroness - Blue Record
Torche - Meanderthal
Mastodon - Leviathan
Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder Gods
Soilwork - Figure Number Five
Pelican - The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw
Lacuna Coil - Comalies
Shadows Fall - the Art of Balance
Nightwish - Wishmaster
Arch Enemy - The Wages of Sin
Blind Guardian - A Twist in the Myth
DragonForce - Inhuman Rampage
Children of Bodom - Hate Crew Deathroll
Slough Feg - Traveler
Opeth - Watershed
Gojira- From Mars to Sirius
Earthless- Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky
Nachtmystium - Assassins
High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings
Corrosion of Conformity - in the Arms of God
Cradle of Filth - Midian
Agalloch - The Mantle
Armored Saint - Revelations
Anthrax - We've Come for You All
Clutch - from Beale Street to Oblivion
Rammstein - Mutter
Behemoth - Evangelion
Strapping Young Lad - Alien
Into Eternity - the Incurable Tragedy
Kylesa - Static Tensions
Enslaved - Vertebrae
Testament - the Formation of Damnation
Turisas - The Varangian Way
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster - II
Municipal Waste - Hazardous Mutation
DHG - Supervillain Outcast
Hammers of Misfortune- Fields/Church of Broken Glass

Bloody Panda, Pheromone
Wetnurse, Invisible City
Nightwish, Wishmaster
Drastus, Roars from the Old Serpent's Paradise
Pig Destroyer, Phantom Limb
Mayhem, Ordo ad Chao
Hate Eternal, King of All Kings
God Forbid, Gone Forever
Gorgoroth, Ad Majorem Gloriam Sathanas
Blut Aus Nord, The Work Which Transforms God

I'll tell you what, too, people have slept on the last couple Krisiun albums which are totally good

my tentative list is all huge dumb crossover stuff, weirdo obscurities, and stuff people are going to carp isn't metal. as it should be, i guess.

it would probably take bamboo shoots and gitmo nipple work to nudge leviathan from numero uno, though

c'mon, Jess, i wanna see what you come up with--well, just so long as it's not all grind shit, i suppose. ;?)

I'm probably forgetting some stuff, but this is my list in no particular order:

Khanate "Things Viral"
Katatonia "Great Cold Distance"
Blut Aus Nord "In Memorium"
Enslaved "Isa" & "Vertebrae"
Converge "Jane Doe"
Funeral Mist "Marantha"
Lurker of Chalice "S/T"
Pig Destroyer "Phantom Limb"
Fantomas "The Director's Cut"
Meshuggah "Catch 33"
Botch "We Are the Romans"
Atavist "II: Ruined"
SunnO))) - "Black One"
Deathspell Omega "Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Egnem Aeternum"
Falkenbach - "Heralding the Fireblade"
Moonsorrow - "Viides Luku: Havitetty"
Buried at Sea - "Ghost"
Nadja - "Body Cage" & "Truth Becomes Death"
Nachtmystium - "Assassins"
Wolves in the Throne Room - "Two Hunters"
Prostitute Disfigurement - "Descendents of Depravity"
Old Man Gloom - "Christmas"
Kylesa - "Static Tensions"
Make a Change... Kill Yourself - S/T
UFOMammut - "Godlike Snake"
Finntroll - "Ur Jordens Djup"
5ive - "Telestic Disfracture"
Aura Noir - "Hades Rise"
Drudkh - "Estrangement"
Hyatari - "The Light Carriers"
Leviathan - "Massive Conspiracy Against All Life"
Weakling - "Dead As Dreams"
Hammers of Misfortune - "Fields/Church of Broken Glass"
Electric Wizard - "Dopethrone"

that Blut Aus Nord was supposed to be "Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars"

first Khanate definitely

Summoning - Oath Bound
Darkspace - II
Absu - Tara
Mayhem - Ordo Ad Chao
Megiddo - The Devil And The Whore
Anaal Nathrakh - The Codex Necro
Drudkh - Autumn Aurora
Wigrid - Die Asche Eines Lebens
Antaeus - Cut Your Flesh And Worship Satan
Countess - The Shining Swords Of Hate
Peste Noire - Ballade Cuntre Lo Anemi Francor
Svartsyn/Arckanum - Skinning The Lambs/Kaos Svarta Mar
Trelldom - Til Minne
Alcest - Souvenirs d'Un Autre Monde

Ah! Darkspace II would go on mine, too.

can't wait for pfunkboy to start asking for nominations

excepting "alt-metal" stuff like SunnO))) and Deftones, the best metal-metal album of the 00s is Mastodon's Leviathan easy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFRrASZC7oI

i can't say that that track wins me over to wigrid's camp. although i'm sure they have a lovely camp! probably a bit chilly, but lovely all the same.

it does kinda lull me in a pleasant way. hypnotic. maybe it's the kind of thing that would grow on me.

the best metal-metal album of the 00s is Mastodon's Leviathan easy

people have slept on the last couple Krisiun albums which are totally good

Yeah, agreed. When I went back and checked out Southern Storm after just kinda registering its existence when it was first released, I was amazed.

it does kinda lull me in a pleasant way. hypnotic. maybe it's the kind of thing that would grow on me.

It took me three years, I initially dismissed it as just another Burzum clone. Which it is, it's just an extremely effective one. A big warm bath.

I must be getting old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2spnhPwytYM

arcturus - the sham mirrors
sigh - imaginary sonicscape

xpost - I've always had a problem with the drum production on Isa. When I interviewed Grutle, I asked him about this and he revealed that all the drum tracks were lost/damaged so triggered sounds were used.

Since Below the Lights featured the last Enslaved recording with Dirge Rep on drums (and he never triggered), I've just always preferred that one. To me, it's their peak, though Vertebrae is certainly a new high water mark in a different style.

I understand that it's hard to ever shake the preference of the first one you hear though. Still, it seemed to me that the band got better with each album until Isa. That's the first time they faltered in my eyes.

PIG D - Phantom Limb
Genghis Tron - Board Up the House
Jesu - Conqueror
Protest the Hero - Fortress
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
Baroness - Blue Record
Torche - Meanderthal
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Isis - In the Absence of Truth
Gojira- From Mars to Sirius
Nachtmystium - Assassins
Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
Kylesa - Static Tensions
Enslaved - Vertebrae
Alcest - Souvenirs d'Un Autre Monde

"heathen temple" alone that thing gets a spot.

the fucking drums on "thought crime spree"!!! i've rewound that opening probably more times than i've listened to any single song this year

Yeah, that's probably my fave too. Off course it's *always* about the riffs, but I also really get a kick out of those little double kick fumbles at the end when the drums come back in. "heathen temple" does have that awesome dark angel-with-blastbeats opening though.

I want there to be a sports team whose mascot is the Pig so that I can shamelessly cheer for PIG D

i'm not a big fan. in general. of pig destroyer. sorry. i can't love everything. the production bugs me.

totally agree with this. I like their material but the production has been an obstacle for me. so cold and lifeless.

really like everything I've heard on siegbran's list. from that one, these albums would probably make mine as well:
absu - tara
countess - the shining swords of hate

these immediately sprang to mind:
meshuggah - chaosphere
esoteric - metamorphogenesis
corrupted - llenandose de gusanos

all three caused fundamental shifts in my listening habits. was primarily listening to a lot of hardcore with a smattering of metal, grind, and other noisy stuff to get my heavy fix before that. speaking of which:
discordance axis - the inalienable dreamless
converge - you fail me
harvey milk - special wishes

probably will make it:
blut aus nord - memoria vetusta II

gonna have to think on the rest.

i need actual physical copies of the darkspace albums. sick of just listening to them on my computer. i wish there was a heavy metal store around here. i wish my store was a heavy metal store.

Well there's this thing called mailorder distros. I've always supported these and these guys.

seconded:

Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
Converge - Jane Doe
Fantomas - The Director's Cut
Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Egnem Aeternum
Neurosis - A Sun That Never Sets
Meshuggah - ObZen
Jesu - Conqueror
Harvey Milk - Special Wishes
Mastodon - Remission

plus

Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works (Calculating Inifinity just missed the decade...)
Oxbow - An Evil Heat
Sunn o))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
John Zorn - Six Litanies for Heliogabalus
Asva - What You Don't Know is Frontier
Asva - Futurists Against the Ocean
Desalvo - Mood Poisoner
Krallice - Krallice

...and no Melvins mentioned yet? I'd have to place (A) Senile Animal somewhere near the top of the list.

"Well there's this thing called mailorder distros."

yeah, i know. i'm sure i could get it in a day or two from amazon or wherever. i'm old-fashioned. i like to support my local record seller. um, there just are none around here. so, i will eventually order online.

speaking of no colours, they haven't sent me anything that memorable in awhile. they are usually good for some top-notch grimness every six months or so. they have good taste. along with my pals at debemur morti.

I actually consider Meshuggah's Nothing to be slightly superior to ObZen...and the new Converge album is so good that I'd give it the nod over Jane Doe.

oh, whoops. chaosphere came out 1998. I might consider giving the nod to obzen or i, then.

Can't believe I forgot about I.

lol, the corrupted and esoteric albums I listed came out pre-2000. oh, well.

absu - tara

seriously awesome

"and the new Converge album is so good that I'd give it the nod over Jane Doe."

Wow. Strong words. I must investigate. I first saw them on the Petitioning the Empty Sky tour and they haven't disappointed me yet (besides the awful production on that first LP).

I is probably my favourite meshuggah record, but as an EP I didn't think it qualified.

the converge is indeed ace. not sure I'd rate it above jane doe, but it's only had one quick listen so far...

the new converge, I mean.

oh damn how did i forget pink and monoliths & dimensions duhhhh

I thought about Pink but I just don't really consider it metal. That or Meanderthal.

I've always thought Converge has gotten better with each album...though it's undeniably good, I just don't revere Jane Doe the way other folks do.

Yeah idk I feel like Pink & Meanderthal are definitely metal, I feel a little more iffy about The Blue Album though. But boo hair splitting.

Hair splitting: totally metal IF DONE WITH A BATTLEAXE. GARRRRRRRRGH>>>>>.

Now lessee, did Savatage have any albums in the 2000s?

All of the above are metal enough to count. Do ugly dudes with long hair and metal t-shirts come to their shows?

I thought so.

"longhair splitting"

i guess if we're calling convege metal, 'jane doe' takes the prize.

some of my other favourites:

ISIS - oceanic AND wavering radiant
mastodon - crack the skye AND remission
katatonia - last fair deal gone down AND the great cold distance
opeth - blackwater park
enslaved - below the lights
my dying bride - the dreadful hours
mayhem - ordo ad chao
torche - meanderthal
jesu - jesu
neurosis - the eye of every storm (i'm gonna risk calling these guys metal, as they obviously don't like going by that tag)

i found my old 2007 list and it still has a bunch of things on it that i love a ton. and there was a ton more great stuff that didn't make my list that year. it might be my favorite year of the decade. or maybe i was just listening to a lot more.

1 – Caina – Mourner (Profound Lore)

2 – Grave In The Sky – Cutlery Hits China: English For The Hearing Impaired (Heart & Crossbone)

3 – Dodheimsgard – Supervillain Outcast (The End)

4 – Moonsorrow – Viides Luku: Havitetty (Unruly Sounds/The End)

5 – Necrodemon – Ice Fields of Hyperion (Open Grave)

6 – Sun Of Nothing - …in the weak and the wounded (Venerate Industries)

7 – Ulver – Shadows Of The Sun (The End)

8 – Procer Veneficus – A Summerhaze Array For August Nights (God Is Myth/Ars Magna)

9 – Amok – Necrospiritual Deathcore (Planet Satan Revolution)

10 – Novembers Doom – The Novella Reservoir (The End)

11 – Blood of the Black Owl – S/T (Bindrune)

12 – Virgin Black – Requiem – Mezzo Forte (The End)

13 – Alcest – souvenirs d’un autre monde (Profound Lore)

14 – Portal – Outre (Profound Lore)

15 – Deathspell Omega – Fas-Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum (Norma Evangelium Diaboli)

16 – Tharaphita – Iidsetel Sunkjatel Radadel (Nailboard)

17 – Metsatoll – Terast Mis Hangund Me Hinge 10218 (Nailboard)

18 – Earthless – Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky (Tee Pee)

19 – Baroness – The Red Album (Relapse)

20 – Ensiferum – Victory Songs (Spinefarm)

There have been few good metal albums at all this decade, but the best ones have all been by Dream Theater, the best (and least metal) being "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence", "Octavarium" and this year's "Black Clouds And Silver Linings".

the best metal album is also the LEAST metal! gotta remember that.

sooooo, really, if you think about it, Beyonce has probably made the best metal albums of the decade!

Most of the music I love (and I hate Beyonce) is probably considerably less metal than Beyonce ;)

neurosis - the eye of every storm (i'm gonna risk calling these guys metal, as they obviously don't like going by that tag)

like that you singled-out this one. I prefer given to the rising but I think that this is a great album. only problem I have with it is that the grunting vox can sound a little silly over the mellow bits. particularly the part in "no river to take me home" w/the sparse synth washes.

still way, way better than a sun that never sets, imo.

nimo

but then i probably haven't listened to it enough

2007 was the year metal hit home for me; it's easily the best metal year of the decade afaics. I have most of the stuff on Scott's list and it's pretty much all awesome. Dodheimsgard are fucking ace!

Moonsorrow's album Chapter V might make my list fwiw

alan, 'the eye of every storm' is my favourite neurosis along with 'through silver in blood', and probably the first one that got me hooked on the band.

going back to converge, the title track of 'jane doe' is pretty close to song of the decade

My vote would be for Velvet Cacoon's "Genevieve" an awesome, and awesomely fucked-up, record which has spawned quite a few soundalike acts, no of whom really get close.

I'd also go for one of Tobias Mockl's projects, probably Darkspace III.

Been revisiting Sons of Northern Darkness this weekend for my All Shall Fall review, and to me that one’s still definitely a contender for (metal) album of the decade. The new one is good though, somewhere halfway between SoND and I's In Between Two Worlds, re: style as well as overall quality. Other best ov 2000s: Anaal Nathrakh (Eschaton), Pig Destroyer (Phantom Limb), Withered (Folie Circulaire), Grand Magus (Iron Will), Hammers of Misfortune (The August Engine and/or The Locust Years; don’t understand all the love for the last one which imo is way inferior to both of these), Leviathan (Massive Conspiracy Against All Life), Funeral Mist (Salvation and/or Maranatha), Weakling (Dead as Dreams), Dismember (self titled), Jesu (Silver EP), Nile (In Their Darkened Shrines), SunnO))) (Black One), Gorgoroth (Ad Maiorem Gloriam Sathanas).

Leviathan (Massive Conspiracy Against All Life) - good call, awesome production, doesn't sound like much else

SunnO))) (Black One) - this completely changed my listening habits, I don't think I'm the only one, and records like that tend to stay around.

Leviathan (Massive Conspiracy Against All Life) - good call, awesome production, doesn't sound like much else

Also, it's got The Riff of The Millennium halfway through "Receive the World".

okay i had to do a top 40 list and this is that plus all the stuff i had to leave off no room. sadly, i sold about 500 metal CDs on ebay a year or two ago and i'm probably forgetting a ton of stuff. also: a big shout-out to THR, Bindrune, God Is Myth, Blackmetal.com, Willowtip, No Colours, Debemur Morti, and Hells Headbangers, cuz i like almost EVERYTHING those labels put out.

Top 40 Of The Decade

1 – Agalloch – Ashes Against The Grain
2 – Celtic Frost – Monotheist
3 – Katatonia – Last Fair Deal Gone Down
4 – Primordial – The Gathering Wilderness
5 – Converge – Jane Doe
6 – Deathspell Omega – Kenose
7 – Orphaned Land – Mabool
8 – Neurosis – A Sun That Never Sets
9 – Intaglio – S/T
10 – Eyehategod – Confederacy Of Ruined Lives
11 – Grave In The Sky – Cutlery Hits China: English For The Hearing Impaired
12 – Amok – Necrospiritual Deathcore
13 – Vog – S/T
14 – Necrodemon – Ice Fields Of Hyperion
15 – Harvey Milk – Special Wishes
16 – Celestiial – Desolate North
17 – Blood Of The Black Owl – S/T
18 – Heinous Killings – Hung With Barbwire
19 – Magane – Beginning At The End
20 – Metsatoll – Terast Mis Hangund Me Hinge 10218
21 – Ahab – The Call Of The Wretched Sea
22 – Indesinence – Noctambulism
23 – Minsk – Out Of A Center Which Is Neither Dead Nor Alive
24 - Negative Reaction – Under The Ancient Penalty
25 - Ea – Taesse
26 - Skinless – Trample The Weak, Hurdle The Dead
27 - Tristwood – The Delphic Doctrine
28 - Virgin Black – Requiem – Fortissimo
29 – Gospel – The Moon Is A Dead World
30 – Kylesa – To Walk A Middle Course
31 - Destroyer 666 – Cold Steel…For An Iron Age
32 – The Black League – Ichor
33 – Tyr – Eric The Red
34 – Falkenbach – Heralding The Fireblade
35 – Opeth – Deliverance
36 – Caina – Some People Fall
37 – Gorguts – From Wisdom To Hate
38 – Electric Wizard – Dopethrone
39 – Moonsorrow – V:Havitetty
40 – Raging Speedhorn – How The Great Have Fallen
41 – Vader – Litany
42 – Septic Flesh – Communion
43 – Guttural Secrete – Reek Of Pubescent Despoilment
44 – The Ruins Of Beverast – Rain Upon The Impure
45 – Alchemist – Austral Alien
46 – Lengsel – The Kiss, The Hope
47 – Fall Of The Idols – The Womb Of The Earth
48 – Winterfylleth – The Ghost Of Heritage
50 – Solefald – Red For Fire
51 – Empire Auriga – Auriga Dying
52 – Atomizer – Songs Of Slaughter – Songs Of Sacrifice
53 – Endstille – Endstilles Reich
54 – Grimfist – 10 Steps To Hell
55 – Braindrill – Apocalyptic Feasting
56 – Akercocke – Antichrist
57 - Blood Red Throne – Altered Genesis
58 – Exhumed – Anatomy Is Destiny
59 - Farsot – IIII
60 – Intronaut – Void
61 – Enochian Crescent – Black Church
62 – Velnias – Sovereign Nocturnal
63 – Godflesh – Hymns
64 – Sun Of Nothing - …In The Weak And The Wounded
65 – Absolute Steel – Womanizer
66 – Portal – Outre
67 – Ancient Rites – Rubicon
68 – Mistress – In Disgust We Trust
69 – Hekel – De Dodenvaart
70 – Majesty – Hellforces
71 – Lightning Swords Of Death – The Golden Plague
72 – Dodheimsgard – Supervillain Outcast
73 – Tharaphita – Lidsetel Sunkjatel Radadel
74 – Das Oath – S/T
75 – Mehkago NT – S/T

big up agalloch!

That Moonsorrow is a really special album.

Scott--where's the doom? (I know there's a few but not many!)

Also like that you picked Deliverance. The title track is one of my favorite Opeth tracks. So brutal, and that ending...

these are all doom albums: Intaglio, Celestiial, Ahab, Indesinence, Minsk, Ea, Virgin Black, Electric Wizard, Fall Of The Idols, Velnias, Sun Of Nothing.

and there is plenty of doom in the Neurosis, Eyehategod, Vog, Grave In The Sky, Blood Of The Black Owl, Negative Reaction, and other stuff up there.

so, yeah, 11 albums out of 75 might seem light on doom. like i said, there is plenty of stuff i forgot/could add. lots of stuff on I Hate for instance. But these were the albums I played the most over time.

Definitely some in there that I haven't heard and others that I wouldn't consider doom. But whatever--it's your list. I can't argue with good taste.

my list is actually 14.666666666666666 percent doom.

i actually should have put my favorite Gog album from this year next to the Vog album. i love them both so much.

and, one last time, if you like heavy heavy sounds, and you have really really big speakers, i can't recommend the Gog album enough. it's an album that isn't on a metal label (so i think a lot of people who would like it might not hear it), and i think it's one of the best heavy guitar albums i've heard in years. *Mist From The Random More*. so beautiful.

http://www.utechrecords.com/Misc/GOG.jpg

my fave heavy albums of the year are the Gog, the Overmars reissue, and maybe that Necro Deathmort album. i didn't make a 2009 metal list though. i haven't heard enough new stuff to make any kind of comprehensive list. (which means that my decade list is sadly lacking in newer stuff - and also probably lots of stuff from the beginning of the decade that i forgot about - but what are you gonna do. i'm a sloppy list-maker from way back.)

dopethrone