NOMINATIONS AND DISCUSSION THREAD FOR 2016 METAL/HEAVY ROCK POLL (Nominations end December 7)

Physical release trumps digital only on bandcamp

i'll relisten to the new one. Pillars (definitely 2016) is the one for me tho

40 Watt Sun - Wider Than The Sky
Aborted - Retrogore
Black Tomb - Black Tomb
Bloodiest - Bloodiest
Bossk - Audio Noir
Church of Misery - And Then There Were None
Crowbar - The Serpent Only Lies
Distant Sun - Into The Nebula
Djevel - Norske ritualer
Droids Attack - Sci-Fi or Die
Gadget - The Great Destroyer
Greenleaf - Rise Above the Meadow
Helion Prime - S/T
Hosanna - Flesh Of The Stars
Ihsahn - Arktis
In Mourning - Afterglow
In The Woods ... - Pure
Khanus - Rites Of Fire
Lord Vicar - Gates of Flesh
Magrudergrind - II
Mantar - Ode to the Flame
Meadow's End - Sojurn
Monolith - Primordial
Monomyth - Exo
Mountain Witch - Burning Village
Novembre - Ursa
Oak Pantheon - In Pieces
Obscura - Akroasis
Obscure Sphinx - Epitaphs
Pesta - Bring Out Your Dead
Revocation - Great Is Our Sin
Rising - Oceans Into Their Graves
Ritual Chamber - Obscurations To the Feast On The Seraphim
Sahg - Memento Mori
Serpentine Dominion - S/T
Shadow Of Intent - Primordial
Skaphe - Skaphe2
Slabdragger - Rise Of The Dawncrusher
Spirit Adrift - Chained To Oblivion
Subetroth - Native Alien
Subrosa - For This We Fought The Battle of The Ages
Suma - The Order Of Things
Sunburst - Fragments of Creation
Sunnata - Zorya
Temple Of Hallucinations - Mantis
Throes of Dawn - Our Voices Shall Remain
Uada - Devoid Of Light
Ulcerate - Shrines Of Paralysis
Virvum - Illuminance
Wake - Sowing the Seeds Of A Worthless Tomorrow
Whores. - Gold
Winterfylleth - The Dark Hereafter
Wo Fat - Midnight Cometh
Wolverine - Machina Viva
Mizmor - Yodh

I think a few of those have been nomm'd already, thanks for remembering 40 Watt Sun tho

Oh, if this didn't make it to the poll in time last year (December release), then:

Spectral Lore - Gnosis

Oh shit there was a new Wo Fat? Clearing some space at #1 here

Uskumgallu is quite good but is making me miss Thantifaxath really

couple more EPs I forgot: Spectral Apparition is UK black/death with some cool, emotionally charged guitars under all that howling, and Bizarre does the swampy, bouncy, keyboard dripping old school Finnish death thing really well (even if they're from Spain)

Bizarre - Inner Necropolis
Spectral Apparition - Manifestation

And speaking of Finnish dm, there's also

Serpent Ascending - Ananku

https://invictusproductions666.bandcamp.com/album/manifestation
https://xtreemmusic.bandcamp.com/album/inner-necropolis
https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ananku

I think you sold me on that Bizarre...

I got the new Serpent Ascending and I'm not blown away... feels kinda groove-ish. Maybe he was listening to a lot of Samael's Ceremony of Opposites or something.

I can't say that 2016 has been a good year for "blow-me-away" metal. In fact only the Furia has gotten a reaction out of me stronger than, "huh, cool." That will be my #1 by many paces; I don't even know what'll come in second -- maybe Hail Spirit Noir or Panphage, both of which were just slight modifications on prior albums. Even the weird stuff on my ballot, like Howls of Ebb, sounds sort of routine by now.

Since I don't recognize like 3/4 of what's been listed so far, I'm thinking I'm spending too much time getting my metal news from the NWN and Metal Archives forums, two of the most cloistered and calcified communities on the net. I'll just start throwing invisible darts at this spreadsheet or something.

Maybe 3/4 is a little high. There's a lot unfamiliar to me, though. I guess that's the point of these ballots.

ok I just found this today and must nominate it

Xoth - Invasion of the Tentacube

https://xoth.bandcamp.com/album/invasion-of-the-tentacube

huh, cool

(no, I do like this)

OK one last one:

Coma Cluster Void - Mind Cemeteries

http://comaclustervoid.bandcamp.com/album/mind-cemeteries

"Like if Meshuggah lost their fucking minds at a Gorguts concert." With Mike "ugggh bring back Lord Worm" Disalvo.

I'm not even sure I like the CCV its' just... noteworthy. And I want to be able to vote for it if I need to.

Xoth is crazy btw, thanks for posting that.

Wytch Hazel – Prelude
Brimstone Coven – Black Magic
Troll – Troll
Cardinals Folly – Holocaust Of Ecstacy And Freedom
Dunbarrow – Dunbarrow
The Rare Breed - Looking For Today
Castle – Welcome To The Graveyard
Truckfighters - V
Asteroid - III
Kremlin - I
The Well - Pagan Science
Electric Citizen - Higher Time
Spidergawd - III
Greenleaf - Rise Above The Meadow
Blood Ceremony - Lord Of Misrule
Motorpsycho - Here Be Monsters
Baby Woodrose - Freedom
Vokonis – Olde One Ascending
Beastmaker – Lusus Naturae
Gygax – Critical Hit
Helstar – Vampiro
Spiritus Mortis – The Year Is One
The Order Of Israfel – Red Robes
Holy Grail – Times Of Pride And Peril
Spellcaster – Night Hides The World
Sinister Haze – Laid Low In The Dust Of Death
Denner/Shermann - Masters Of Evil
Dark Forest – Beyond The Veil
Grand Magus – Sword Songs
Lizzies - Good Luck
HammerFall – Built To Last
Elephant Tree – Elephant Tree
Haunted – Haunted
Curse The Son – Isolator
Altar Of Oblivion – Barren Grounds
Diamond Head – Diamond Head
Sabaton - The Last Stand
11Paranoias – Reliquary For A Dreamed Of World
Spider Kitten – Ark Of Octofelis
Horseburner – Dead Seeds, Barren Soi
Ghoul – Dungeon Bastards
Atomikylä – Keräily
Black Shape Of Nexus – Carrier
Red Fang – Only Ghosts
Bloody Hammers – Lovely Sort Of Death
Dunsmuir – Dunsmuir
Valient Thorr – Old Salt
Hellbringer – Awakened From The Abyss
Headless Kross – Projections I
Cardinal Wyrm – Cast Away Souls
Lucifer’s Hammer – Beyond The Omens
Attalla – Attalla
Amon Amarth - Jomsviking
Hypnos - Cold Winds
Mars Red Sky - Apex III (Praise For The Burning Soul)
The Hazytones - The Hazytones
Shadow Witch - Sun Killer
Bright Curse - Before The Shore
Svartanatt - Svartanatt
Black Rainbows - Stellar Prophecy
Mondo Drag - The Occultation Of Light
Blues Funeral - The Search
Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell - Keep It Greasy!
Turnip - Window Killer
Dreamtime - Strange Pleasures
Salem's Pot - Pronounce This!
Big Jesus - Oneiric
Moths & Locusts - Helios Rising
Blaak Heat - Shifting Mirrors
Wight - Love Is Not Only What You Know
Nightstalker - As Above, So Below
Child - Blueside
Pyrior - Portal

I completely missed that Truckfighters had one this year

Xoth is crazy btw, thanks for posting that.

Apparently they've been opening for Vektor, now that's a bill

Today is the last day for nominating

Okay really the last one here:

Demontage - Fire of Iniquity

nobody nominating babymetal this year? how fickle you all are

oh wait, its there

Oh man, this one. The singer can be kinda dodgy, and some of his high notes make me cringe, but otherwise he sounds like Jon Oliva back in the Sirens/Dungeons Are Calling days -- and the music is balls out thrashing speed metal. I remember listening to it a week or so ago, only to forget the band name and where I'd found the link. Add them to that Vektor/Xoth bill.

Armory - World Peace ... Cosmic War

https://armory417.bandcamp.com/

Cover art's pretty wicked, too.

Kerrang top 50

50 Electric Century - From The Night To Control
49 Alcest - Kodama
48 Vodun - Possession
47 Pup - The Dream Is Over
46 Descendents - Hypercaffum Spazzinate
45 Billy Talent - Afraid Of Heights
44 Black Peaks - Statues
43 Against The Current - In Our Bones
42 The Pretty Reckless - Who You Selling For
41 Swmrs - Drive North
40 With Confidence - Better Weather
39 Brian Fallon - Painkillers
38 Cane Hill - Smile
37 Bury Tomorrow - Earthbound
36 Sum 41 - 13 Voices
35 Russian Circles - Guidance
34 The Amity Affliction - This Could Be Heartbreak
33 Beach Slang - A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings
32 Modern Baseball - Holy Ghost
31 Letlive - If I'm The Devil.
30 Weezer - (The White Album)
29 Waterparks - Double Dare
28 Alter Bridge - The Last Hero
27 Asking Alexandria - The Black
26 Lonely the Brave - Things Will Matter
25 Beartooth - Aggressive
24 A Day To Remember - Bad Vibrations
23 Jimmy Eat World - Integrity Blues
22 Hellions - Opera Oblivia
21 The Black Queen - Fever Daydream
20 Nails - You Will Never Be One Of Us
19 Milk Teeth - Vile Child
18 Muncie Girls - From Caplan to Belsize
17 The Dillinger Escape Plan
16 Biffy Cunto - Ellipsis
15 Gojira - Magma
14 Moose Blood - Blush
13 Blink-182 - California
12 Pierce The Veil - Misadventures
11 Every Time I Die
10 Twin Atlantic - GLA
9 BABYMETAL - Metal Resistance
8 Panic At The Disco - Death Of A Bachelor
7 Deftones - Gore
6 Against Me - Shape Shift With Me
5 Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage
4 Frank Iero And The Patience - Parachutes
3 Architects - All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us
2 Metallica - Hardwired... To Self-Destruct
1 Green Day - Revolution Radio

hey brad is the frank iero album any good

There hasn't been a lot of enthusiasm this year in metal thread (except for Vektor) but I dont know if that's because people are unimpressed with 2016 releases, fed up with metal in general, and/or fed up with polls. But rolling metal thread has been really quiet this year.

I actually thought this was a wonderful year for metal, though for me "a wonderful year" means four or five releases I really dig - I'm never going to listen to 161 albums in a year and get some huge-breadth sense of what's going on, but when I find a good handful that I think I'll be listening to next year & the year after that, too, then that's a good year for me. New Mithras, the underrated SVLFVR record, Skuggja, Skaphe, Moon Tooth, Defiled, a really nice Church of Misery album...not like a trailblazing year or anything but who cares honestly. Plenty to chew on for me

hey brad is the frank iero album any good

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Wednesday, December 7, 2016 7:06 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

never knowingly listened to a frank iero song, will report back

What about Mesarthim? Wasn't it you who tipped me off on them smithy?

xp

i listened to a lot less metal this year but what i found i really loved, so imo it's a good year! mesarthim, furia (seriously what a record), kvelertak, that ghoulgotha record is still surprising me, etc.

also wow i love the new vader, surprise

I didn't have my mind blown a lot this year but I look forward to being proven wrong when we do the poll

What about Mesarthim? Wasn't it you who tipped me off on them smithy?

I think so, maybe -- wow was that really this year? love it, but it feels so long ago!

digital release last year physical release this year and you messaged me on fb about about january i think. They've had 2 releases since I think!

Armory - World Peace ... Cosmic War

Nice find! I really like this.

Only Isolate is on Spotify fwiw (for some reason)

yeah they seem to be headed into a heavier keyboard direction while I head in a heavier metal direction. Isolate's good though.

pillars is super keyboardy but the morse code one feels real pared down to me. fav band of the year at least, easily

also the zao record is extremely good thank u simon

yeah it really comes alive in the middle section

I completely missed that Truckfighters had one this year

I love that band, could never miss a new release from them, though there's less fanfare I suppose since it's been only two years since Universe. Greenleaf is great but I still think Truckfighters do the desert fuzz thing best. I forgot to CTRL-F for Greenleaf, hopefully there's no other repeats in my list.

Abnormality - Mechanisms of Omniscience

Oh wow, I was completely misremembering Mesarthim as something else! This is the little space one. I like it a lot. Yeah, Pillars is beautiful. Listening to Isolate now for the first time - lovely majestic fuzz.

Mesarthim are the band that sounds like Summoning IN SPACE

It is also a bit like if Botanist were upset and tending to his greenhouse IN SPACE

Wow though, this is really too much.

Isolate is a 2015 record it seems

i really love that abnormality record, feel like they stepped it up all around, the riffs are better and even a little metalcore-y in parts, and the song structures occasionally get real abstract without losing their sense as songs (a problem in tech death)

Mesarthim did two EPs (Spire, Pillars) and an album (Absence) this year - that's plenty. Nominate Spire I guess

Isolate PHYSICAL release came out this year. It stays.

Oh OK! Will listen to it then ;)