A Brief Look At the Best of the Year In Hard Rock/Metal

[Ozone]

1. Saturday Night Wrist by The Deftones
The Defontes have indeed gone a bit soft, but in a very good way. SNW sizzles with an ambiance that can only be found in one other album released this year, and that album is number two on this list. An intoxicating concoction of progressiveness, sludge riffs, electronic elements and Chino's amazing voice make this the best Deftones album to ever hit the market, and the best album of the year.

2. Blood Mountain by Mastodon
The kings of conceptual metal return with an amazing offerring of slyly progressive, heavy, moody and brilliant music. Blood Mountains surges with unbridled energy on tracks like the Wolf Is Loose, explores new melodies with Circle of Cysquatch, and brings the pace down to a moody trudge with Sleeping GIant. The album also features guest vocalists like Josh Homme from QotSA and Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta. Barely edged out by Saturday Night Wrist, Blood Mountain's perilous journey finds its resting place at the second best album of the year.

3. Sacrament by Lamb of God
Bringing the menace back to metal, Lamb of God reloads with their favorite producer, Machine, for Sacrament. Rife with crushing metal riffs and double bass that feels like it will make your head cave in, the band charges the battlefields of the metal scene. Songs like Walk With Me In Hell and Beating On Death's Door burn with an unquenchable fire for destruction, while Randy Blythe channels a bit of Phil Anselmo for their lead single, Redneck. Clearly calling out the rest of the metal bands in the game, Lamb of God stakes its claim as the new kings of thrash metal.

4. The Ties That Blind by The Mouth of the Architect
Taking the reins of sludge metal, MotA brings their newest experimetal creation to life. TTTB contains thrilling heavy riffs and amazing ambient passages. Songs like Baobab bring this brilliance of this band to the forefront of the new metal crowd that is more and more accepting of the sludge genre. Watch out ISIS, The Mouth of the Architect has spoken.

5. The Fall of Ideals by All That Remains
Metalcore at its finest as presented by one of my hometown groups. All That Remains follows up Behind Silence and Solitude with an amazing album full of different variations and blendings of styles of metal and seering breakdowns. Phil Labonte, formerly of Shadows Fall, makes the album hiss and spit while keeping it very melodic with his mixture of clean vocals and primal screams. The first single, This Calling, is the leadoff single on the Saw III soundtrack and the lead single from the album, and it is one hell of a song. (and I can't believe that I almost forgot to list this band).

6. As Daylight Dies by Killswitch Engage
The New England boys bring back their unique brand of metalcore, which they described as "Heavy Petting," Killswitch Releases a hell of a solid album in As Daylight Dies. Songs like Break the Silence show their astounding ability to mix technical skill with damn listenable songwriting. Not in the top three, but it's very worth getting.

7. The Price of Existence by All Shall Perish
Blending black metal with hardcore elements, All Shall Perish makes themselves known to the metal community with the blistering Price of Existence. Some truly innovative breakdowns and a mix of technical qulaity with sheer and utter brutality make this album one to get.

8. The Hours That Remain by Mercenary
Bridging the gap between power metal and melodic death metal, Mercenary creates a progressice and technically impressive sound that amazes on their latest album. Though THTR has its hokey spots, it certainly makes up for it in listenability. Listen to the album from the beginning to the end and enjoy every second of this remarkable stunner.

9. The Stench of Redemption by Deicide
Glenn Denton returns with a revitalized Deicide on their latest offerring. The Stench of Redemption comes to life like an ancient beast with a set of new guitarists that give their death metal sound a thrashier element. Deicide is obviously having more fun on this album than they ever had before. A definite album to get if you don't mind satanism

10. In the Absence of Truth by ISIS
The kings of the sludge genre produce an offerring of magnificent proportions with In the Absence of Truth. There's really not much to say about this album, ISIS' reputation speaks for itself. But, in case you've never heard of them, they are known for their use of true heaviness, building atmosphere and sonic thickness layer by layer, progressively creating music as thick as the London fog. This album is no different, another remarkable release from ISIS.

11. Army of Anyone by Army of Anyone
Richard Patrick of Filter teams up the DeLeo brothers from Stone Temple Pilots to release one of the most refreshing rock albums in years. Army of Anyone creates a unique blend of post grunge music with everything you love about your favorite bands of the 90s rock movement. Songs like It Doesn't Seem To Matter, Goodbye and This Wasn't Suppose To Happen create a sonic variation that is nothing short of remarkable.

Other runners up include:
10,000 Days by Tool
With Oden On Our Side by Amon Amarth

[exigence]

sweet u like porcupine tree not many people i know have heard of them their one of my favorite bands

[Ozone]

Awesome, I'm not the only person on the boards anymore xD If you haven't checked out their DVD, Arriving Somewhere, do so immediately, it's amazing. Oh, and, the new album is slated for early 2007, so keep your eyes open for it.

[DragonmasterAndy]

That list up there is pretty much horrible, in my opinion.
Some of it's "okay".

[Megalodon]

That list up there is pretty much horrible, in my opinion.
Some of it's "okay".

Whats your list?

[DragonmasterAndy]

A lot of stuff that you probably haven't heard...but I could list it if you want, anyway.

I wasn't trying to insult anyone. I was just voicing my opinion.

[Werefrog]

A lot of stuff that you probably haven't heard...but I could list it if you want, anyway.

I wasn't trying to insult anyone. I was just voicing my opinion.

Well, I think if you want to say someone's list is horrible, you should throw your list out there too. If you want to critique (I would call this criticism personally), open yourself to the critique of others.

[DragonmasterAndy]

Well, part of it is that I didn't like a lot of releases from this year, and most mainstream(in the metal sense, since metal generally isn't maisntream itself) metal is crap to me because a lot of it is generic IMO... Too bad this isn't an 05 list, I could name off tons of good stuff. 06 was just a bad year in my opinion. there's some good stuff though.

Eidolon-The Parallel Otherworld. GREAT album. I reccomend it to anyone.
Sodom-Sodom(it's self-titled) is pretty good. Kind of typical of Sodom, but a great album.
Both the new Metal Church and the new Iron Maiden are decent.
The new Dismember album, The God That Never Was, is pretty good as well.

It's just kind of difficult for meb ecause 06 is just a weak year, in my opinion.

[Megalodon]

A lot of stuff that you probably haven't heard...but I could list it if you want, anyway.

I wasn't trying to insult anyone. I was just voicing my opinion.

It isn't possible for you to know what I have and haven't heard. Rare or unheard doesn't constitute good. I for one only agree with a few albums on the list posted. I will agree though, there has not been many good releases this year.

[DragonmasterAndy]

A lot of stuff that you probably haven't heard...but I could list it if you want, anyway.

I wasn't trying to insult anyone. I was just voicing my opinion.

It isn't possible for you to know what I have and haven't heard. Rare or unheard doesn't constitute good. I for one only agree with a few albums on the list posted. I will agree though, there has not been many good releases this year.

I went by something you said somewhere on the forum before. I also didn't say I definitely knew you hadn't heard any of them, hence why I put "probably". I also didn't even imply that rare or unheard meant good. It's your choice if you want to take it that way, but I didn't say that. I simply stated that most of the bands that I find good aren't popular. Nothing more than that.