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Best/worst of 2003 list (since im too poor to buy anymore cd
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Tyrannorabbit



Joined: 04 Oct 2000
Posts: 3985
Location: Canada

PostPosted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 5:03 am    Post subject: Best/worst of 2003 list (since im too poor to buy anymore cd Reply with quote

quote:
Originally posted by General Zod:

#6 - Vital Remains - Dechristianze - Much like Black Metal, Brutal Death isn't my thing, but this disc has some real strong moments. I'll probably break down and buy it at some point.

I wasn't going to buy this at all because of Glen Benton...I can't stand Deicide and I figured this would probably sound pretty similar, but it doesn't. That David Suzuki guy...whoa [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] Hard to believe that's the same guy playing lead guitar and drums, he smokes on both!
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woosta



Joined: 12 Mar 1999
Posts: 780
Location: PA

PostPosted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 9:55 am    Post subject: Best/worst of 2003 list (since im too poor to buy anymore cd Reply with quote

Hmm...Ok, I can do a top 15 from cds I bought this year (not necessarily from 2003, though):

15. Nevermore "enemies.." The production is downright unlistenable. If you can get through the muddle, I think there is something there. This JUST beats Dimmu Borgir out of the 15 spot.

14. Steel Attack "Predator of the Empire". Ok, nothing ground breaking, just classic/true metal. However, this band turned up the writing by a couple of notches and they have a very solid cd here!

13. Sonata Arctica "Winterheart's.." A bit off from the first 2, but this cd's first half smokes most other whole cds.

12. Godiva s/t This is my newcomer of the year. They sound like "Unleash"-era Saxon with a German flair. Killer riffs and it would be rated higher except for some lyrical moments.

11. Lost Horizon "The Flame.." I think this cd dumps all over the debut. The melodies are strong, the singing is great and this band can play!

10. Chinchilla "Madtropolis". This is the stalwort that everyone seems to overlook. They are old school German metal but they can thunder across a cd!

9. Moonspell "The Antidote". Easily Moonspell's best release so far. They've backed off the Elvis vocals enough that you still know it's them, but it doesn't annoy you. Melodies are strong and this is a brilliant cd.

8. Lullacry "Crucify My Heart" See everyone else's reviews on this on. Good cd!

7. Evergrey "Recreation Day" The only Evergrey cd I've really liked a lot. Very tight songs, very melodic and not too prog. Works well for me!

6. Arch Enemy "Anthems.." Best of the bunch for them. Melodies are present everywhere and the songs hit hard and fast with easy to remember tunes.

5. Brainstorm "Soul Temptation" Oh boy, another Metal Blade release on my list? The world will soon end. This cd is hot as fire. Big, heavy, aggressive. If you haven't heard this one, you're missing the best Brainstorm cd thus far!

4. Sinner "There Will Be Execution". No surprise as I've been a longtime Sinner fan. Heavy, heavy, heavy. If you like Primal Fear, then check out 50% of the basis for their sound! This cd is Sinner at their best!

3. Shakra "Rising". The ballsiest, most jamming cd since the scene of the 80s. This is like Gotthard meets Bonfire meets riff heaven! Shakra are fast becoming THE gods of hard rock!

2. Rawhead Rexx "Diary in Black". A close race for #1 with this one! Sadly, nobody seems to give them a spin so I feel metalheads are missing one of the most punishing melodic bands around. Certainly on par with Primal Fear musically, this band's vocals put them in a different category for me! If you know Glenmore, this is the singer. If you know Rawhead Rexx, you know why this is my #2 release of the year! TRY IT!!!

1. Poisonblack "Escapexstacy". This is the cd that over the course of my year just won't go away. I love the sound. I love the style. I love the songs. It's too bad that they have to get a new singer because this mix was "exstacy" to my ears!!

Worst 5:

5. Soilwork "#5" As stated before, this sounds like leftovers and not good ones at that.

4. Maiden "Dance.." BOOOOOOOORRRRRIIIIINNNNGGG!

3. Stratovarius "Elements, pt.1" 100 steps back after taking 10 steps forward prior to it.

2. Helloween "Rabbit Don't Come Easy". Well neither do songs and melodies apparently. Unlistenable trash from a more than able unit. This is downright embarrassing at times.

1. Dragonforce "Valley of the Damned" I got pinned under the hype machine and got this repetitve piece of garbage. I'm a melodic metal fan to the core, but this is just plain junk and wankery. I felt like throwing it out my car window about 5 minutes after I put it in.

**obviously these 5 are only the worst 5 of the more respectable bands. Any and all Nu-metal would be "the worst" for me overall.
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General Zod



Joined: 24 Jan 2001
Posts: 2519
Location: Krypton

PostPosted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 11:46 am    Post subject: Best/worst of 2003 list (since im too poor to buy anymore cd Reply with quote

woosta,

Good list. We have a number of discs in coommon (what is the world coming to?). The Poisonblack will be high up on my list, as will Brainstorm. I'm definitely gonna have to revisit Lullacry.

GZ
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Jake



Joined: 02 Mar 1999
Posts: 4963

PostPosted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 4:14 pm    Post subject: Best/worst of 2003 list (since im too poor to buy anymore cd Reply with quote

My top ten are as follows:

1. Arch Enemy - Anthems of Rebellion. Though weaker than previous Arch Enemy albums, this still packs plenty of punch. I love the song Instinct.

2.The Black Dahlia Murder - Unhallowed. A band I wasn't familiar at all with has kicked it's way to number two. Lots of energy and some good riffs make this a fun one. Better than most traditional death metal I've heard.

3.Grave Digger - Rheingold. I'd never tried this band before. What a mistake! This stuff is great crunchy power/speed metal. Not much in the way of solos, but the riffs are the most killer I've heard in this genre in ages.

4.Nevermore - Enemies of Reality. Bad production, but good songs. Everyone owns this one so I don't need to explain.

5.Helloween - Rabbit Don't Come Easy. I didn't like the direction they went with Dark Ride; this is a step in the right direction in my opinion. Do You Feel Good and Just a Little Sign are a couple of my favorites from this one and are classic Helloween.

6.As I Lay Dying - Frail Words Collapse. My first experience with this group. I don't know if this is their first album or not since there's no bnr metal page on it. Anyway, there are some great melodies on here. It starts out like it's going to be a great album, but teeters off a little in quality. Still, good promise here. I may have to look out for their next/past releases.

After number six nothing is particularly worthy. Nevertheless I will list what come next:

7.Opeth - Damnation. Some interesting arrangements on this pretty much non-metal offering. I miss the electric riffs. Some songs are pretty good, while others(opener Windowpane for instance} are slightly boring. Their non-metal songs on other albums are probably better than most of the material on this album.

8.CircleIICircle - Watching in Silence. First 4 songs are cool, especially the awesome song, Into the Wind. Rest of the album is soso. Too bad, I was hoping we'd get two Savatage quality bands from the Zak split. I guess we only get one and a half.

9.Black Widow- Satan's Playground. Some decent 8Os styled heavy metal. But it's way too cliche and nothing in particular draws me back to this album again. It does have some female vocals though.

1O. Anthrax - We've Come for You All. Not a great album. I like parts of songs like What Doesn't Die's thrashy section and the chorus to Safe Home. Other parts- Cadillac Rock Box- should have been thrown out. Worst Bush album yet(and I like Bush}.

Crappy albums of the year:

1.Soilwork - Figure Number Five. The drive is gone. The melodies are gone too. There's nothing left for me to get in here. This just sucks.

2.Deep Purple - Bananas. I liked some of the tracks on Purpendicular and most of Abandon. I don't like anything here. The new Deep Purple blows. No drive, just a lot of boring noodling. Yuck!

3.Evergrey - Recreation Day. A lot of people like this album. I don't really understand it. This isn't terrible, but it's a serious letdown. Every song starts out with a cool riff before stopping the groove and slowing down for some emotional wailing from Tom Englund. Boring! Next time keep things going for some real kick.

4.Metallica - St Anger. Isn't as terrible as everyone makes it out to be. It's actually a great deal better than Reload. But these songs are too long and they need some solos. Disappointing, but after Reload this stuff sounds pretty good.

5.Iron Maiden - Dance of Death. A giant borefest of reused sounds and long boring songs. I just can't get into this album. It's great that some people can worship this piece of crap, but it isn't for me.
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JosephC



Joined: 26 Apr 2000
Posts: 1074
Location: Middleton, WI

PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 1:07 pm    Post subject: Best/worst of 2003 list (since im too poor to buy anymore cd Reply with quote

quote:
Originally posted by General Zod:
OK. So, based on the rating of Lullacry's "Crucify my Heart" as SGR's #1 CD of 2003, and the fact that Tyranno loved it so, I decided to go back and revisit it. And I have to say, that after giving it a second chance... what the hell are you guys thinking?

To my ears, there is nothing about this music that even suggests that this band should have a record contract. The vocals are annoying, the melodies are candy-coated and flat out weak, the musicianship is lackluster at best, and the band as whole, doesn't have a shred of originality.

I respect both of your opinions on music, but I just go get what you hear on this disc. Care to elaborate?

GZ

The Lullacry CD is great.

I disagree with just about everything regarding the vocals/musicianship. The vocals fit the songs perfectly. Many of the songs are kind of working a "psycho-bit*h" angle, and the singer's voice is perfect for those lyrics. Granted, this is not full of great solos but the rhythms are great for pop-metal and it's tight. Sugar-coated? Sure, absolutely. But it's pop metal.

No, it's not the most original CD. But it's a basic pop metal CD. Has bands like Motley Crue and Ratt released some classic CDs? I think so. How much originality and musicianship is featured on Too Fast For Love? If you ask me, it has annoying vocals, average at absolute best (could Nikki even play bass at that point?) musicianship, and the songs are not all that original. But at the same time, I would probably say Too Fast For Love is one of the 100 best CDs ever released. It has great songs, and I think the Lullacry CD has great songs as well. In my book it's a superior release and will definitely rank in my top 10 at year's end. In fact, I'm trying to figure out why I haven't bought the rest of Lullacry's catalog yet....
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live4metal



Joined: 12 Jul 2001
Posts: 1057
Location: El Segundo,CA.

PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 1:46 pm    Post subject: Best/worst of 2003 list (since im too poor to buy anymore cd Reply with quote

You guys are sniffing too much glue 'cause that Lullacry sucks big sweaty donkey balls!
Weak sauce Goth-Pop garbage.Not worthy of any top ten metal list.
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Jake



Joined: 02 Mar 1999
Posts: 4963

PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 4:42 pm    Post subject: Best/worst of 2003 list (since im too poor to buy anymore cd Reply with quote

I forgot to put God Dethroned - Into the Lungs of Hell on my worst list. This is one weak cd. General Zod likes it though, so maybe I'll give it another chance after I'm finished listening to all the other good stuff I've been listening to.
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General Zod



Joined: 24 Jan 2001
Posts: 2519
Location: Krypton

PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 4:54 pm    Post subject: Best/worst of 2003 list (since im too poor to buy anymore cd Reply with quote

JoeC,

You're killing me. Did you just compare Motley Crue's "Too Fast for Love" with Lullacry's "Crucify my Heart"?

Blasphemer!

As for Lullacry... I respect your opinion, as well as the opinions of the other folks on the board who are digging it, but I just don't hear it.

GZ
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General Zod



Joined: 24 Jan 2001
Posts: 2519
Location: Krypton

PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 5:08 pm    Post subject: Best/worst of 2003 list (since im too poor to buy anymore cd Reply with quote

Jake,

To be specific, I think the first half of "Into the Lungs of Hell" is pretty cool. The second half is fairly uninteresting.

GZ
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