2014 POLL RESULTS COUNTDOWN - ILM Metal Albums of the Year

I mean, I'm glad the ILM metal polls have the slant they do. Afaict, most metal lists don't really intersect with my tastes nearly as much as these tend to. I think it was the 07 poll or so that got me to realize that, often, what I sought in contemporary rock music was most present in certain branches of metal (or else in niches that are categorized as "jazz").

^this

feeling a bit bad for not voting Jute Gyte into this rundown, obv, sorry Sund4r. wd have been 1 & 2 for me even i dare say if i'd heard every single album here

you said that last year LJ!

I think there was a post on the nominations thread that summed it up along the lines of its a poll of albums the ilx metal fans like rather than just a "metal" poll.

Ha, I didn't nominate Bill Frisell or Owen Pallett, though.

Solstafir seem cool. I need to give it more listens.

Did anyone follow prog-rock this year? I only heard one thing I really liked, this band Gazpacho: https://soundcloud.com/kscopemusic/sets/gazpacho-demon

Any Trouble fans in the house?

23 The Skull - For Those Which Are Asleep 489 Points, 13 votes
http://i.imgur.com/HsUrZPE.jpg
spotify:album:2LBdt08fhIzXNtbSlz7ZC7

The Skull is a doom metal band founded by three former members of Trouble, vocalist Eric Wagner, bassist Ron Holzner and drummer Jeff "Oly" Olson. In May 2012, Olson departed from The Skull due to his desire to "wait for a real Trouble reunion with original members or not play Trouble's music at all." However, on August 19th, 2013 Olson rejoined The Skull stating, "I want to rock again." [1] The Skull performs a large portion of Trouble's first two pioneering doom metal albums; Psalm 9 and self-titled The Skull; and perform a large catalogue of several other Trouble classics.

This 'comeback' was a wonderful surprise

Happy to see this get so many votes. It didn't generate a ton of talk on the Rolling thread.

really?

22 BABYMETAL - BABYMETAL 500 Points, 14 votes One #1
http://i.imgur.com/yGHaQzp.jpg
spotify:album:3lYyAPBY8OGVCNBzsEG7uf

The only band that matters.

listening to FTWAA, and yeah, this is excellent. don't know why i slept on it. maybe cuz i wasn't really into that blackfinger joint.

(Gazpacho are sounding p good.)

I heard their next album is to be a concept album about a super hero hamster

The number one vote was me.

Also, SKULL FIST

BABYMETAL!! at last an album I voted for

I think I put Babymetal in my top 5. If we'd polled metal tracks, "Gimme Chocolate" would have absolutely been my first pick.

was the babymetal album ever released in the uk on cd ?
never seen it in the racks.

A J-pop/metal hybrid sounds like it has potential on paper but I've never been able to click with Babymetal so far.

that gazpacho album has been showing up on all kinds of metal sites/lists. weird, cuz i don't hear anything metal about it, and their previous albums haven't made much of a dent in "the community" (so far as i can tell). half suspect it's down to the title and cover. then again, it does get pretty spooky from time to time, esp on "death room".

lol there is a band called gazpacho?!

yeah, lol. delicious, artistically compelling, and surprisingly easy to prepare.

I've never been able to click with Babymetal so far.

going with this in favor of something much less kind

I just don't fucking get Babymetal either.

xxp

super

Gazpacho got an extremely positive review on Angry Metal Guy, a site which tends to favour prog-metal. I think that's how I heard them. They're also #2 on RYM's prog-rock list this year, which has a lot of prog-metal crossover. I don't know, in 2014 I think it's mostly safe to conflate prog-rock and metal audiences into one blob.

Following Gira's lead I see contendo

21 Behemoth - Jolly Christian Singalongsongs 537 Points, 18 votes
http://i.imgur.com/cIKk50J.jpg
spotify:album:6yjTdaBIgDXAwCl8NpBEyG

Lol

...I don't know, in 2014 I think it's mostly safe to conflate prog-rock and metal audiences into one blob.

like you, i first heard of gazpacho through AMG. i spun demon a few times early this year, eventually filed it away as interesting but not really for me. and i suppose you're right about the lack of separation between metal and prog circa now. kindly bent to free us still might show, right?

Idk, is Slipknot's fanbase listening to a lot of prog? (Maybe they are.)

xp not sure, I nom'd it and still didn't vote for it

There's a big difference between mainstream metal fans and underground metal fans (whether extreme or not)

Are you guys ready for the start of the TOP TWENTY

20 Blues Pills - Blues Pills 557 Points, 13 votes
http://i.imgur.com/PG8Fcjg.jpg
spotify:album:46S8YoOhkWQhHKRCcvflfD
http://bluespills.bandcamp.com/

Either she's sitting on someone or her leg is in a really weird position.

who are they? didn't think there'd be stuff in the top 20 i'd not heard of.

She's sitting on the SURFACE OF YOUR MIND, MAN

Ooh!

Swedish blues-rockers. They're really good. I just heard them a few weeks ago.

cheers, playing in london this year - i'll check em out!

If we've reached Behemoth, we will not be reaching the other 7 of my 10. Stuff like Tortorum, Old Wainds, The Deathtrip, I can understand; I'm kinda flummoxed that Domains, Emptiness, even Overkill didn't make it.

I just listened to Sinister Ceremonies again last night for what I assume is the millionth time this year, and it still gets better with each listen, to the point where I'm sticking it next to stuff like Altars of Madness, Onward to Golgotha, Consuming Impulse, Leprosy -- ahistorically of course; I'm just speaking of pure musical enjoyment on my part. I don't think a single bar of music passes by without something really inspired/inspiring happening. I'm wondering if their main writer isn't classically trained because the level of songwriting and thematic development is among the best I've ever heard. Each time a musical idea appears, as great as it is at its starting point, it gets decorated, expanded, emphasized each time it returns so that you're practically cheering on every riff as it's brought back over the course of a song. I'm still noticing little details in the guitars and even the fleeting keys all this time later -- and this is not some kind of complex, layered, symphonic metal extravaganza. It's ... pretty straightforward blackened death metal. My initial assessment of the album was "Altars of Madness played with a black metal mindset" or something; this assessment hasn't changed at all. I thought it would be quite some time before my #1 of a year would compete with last year's Colored Sands but this Domains thing assuredly does.

Their album is free, even. Insane. Though their distribution presence kind of sucked; I got mine through Ajna. Maybe their lack of web presence was the problem.
http://domainsofdeath.bandcamp.com/

I have no idea why the listenable mp3's have been reduced to two. It doesn't matter, though: every song is the best song.

Blues Pills are wonderful. If anything from this poll was gonna crossover to ILM in general it would be them. She Has a great voice.

devilock and others who think stuff should be higher - that is why you need to campaign for albums. I say it every year but you ignore it!

what might be the last surprise coming of the poll?

BARGHEST?

Ya know, when I look at the albums I mention for the sake of imbuing a selection with metal cred, and then I scroll through most of the stuff making this year-end list, I have to wonder if I've not become one of those metal purists I loathe so much. Oh god. Get me a DFHVN stream, stat.

xpost: I think my Domains campaign expired, considering it really only consisted of my initial awe-struck post about it. Back in like April or something. I didn't think that one through.

hey, i voted for that, devilock, but it was down in the teens on my ranked ballot.