10. Triptycon: Eparistera Daimones- While, Celtic Frost maybe done, lead metal-master Tom Warrior continued on with this debut album from his newest exercise in extreme metal. A perfect follow-up to the last Frost album, this one is a darkly glorious mix of doom and black metal, that stands as a slow, heavy, and gloomy musical exertion.
9. Watain: Lawless Darkness- Man, when it comes to straight-out brutal, pissed-off, anti-Christian black metal few bands can top the out-right viciousness and glorious evil of Watain. And, while their two albums before this are great, it's this one that reigns in as their satanic masterpiece. Heavy and head-ripping this album only get better with each listening. The final song is a long complex track, but every song is heavy and crushing. Without a shadow of doubt, Watain are on the way to become one of the true masters of the blackest of the musical arts.
8. Ov Hell: The Underworld Regime- While, the latest Dimmu Borgir is mostly mediocre and forgettable, this side project by lead signer Shagrath and Gorgorth bassist King Ov Hell fucking kills! Dark, evil, and heavy this is everything that Dimmu ain't right now. With songs dealing with evil and horror, this ranks as one of black metal's best and still undiscovered, by some. I hope they make more albums, cause Ov hell fucking rules!!!
7. Avenged Sevenfold: Nightmare- While, I don't think this is the album of the year, as
Revolver picked to be, it is the seventh best of the year. It's also A7X's best work, to date. To come from the tragedy of the death of the Rev, and make such a heavy and angry album is understandable. What is amazing is just how good it is. The opening title track and
God Hates Us rip and kill. As always, the band is one of the single most technically sounding bands to achieve mainstream success in many a moon. It also might have the year's best album cover!
6. Overkill: Ironbound- Many times overlooked or underrated (in particular by those on the westcoast), these New Jersey thrash gods have made their best album in years. It's heavy, fast, and kick ass. While, many a list will stupidly not mention it, I gladly throw the devil horns up for them and rank 'em in at #6!
5. Accept: Blood of the Nations- Here is the year's biggest surprise as well as the year's best come back. I never would have thought that a new Accept album, much less with a new signer (he formerly of T.T. Quick), would be so fucking AMAZING! It's heavy and ass kicking and even the ballad works. Shit, he might even be a better signer than the original dude. If you ain't got this yet, you are seriously missing out!!!
4. Dark Tranquillity: We Are the Void- Also an underrated band (and this list seems to have it's fair share of that), this is yet another killer album from one of melodic death metal's best acts. Featuring amazing guitar work, this is just light years of what many bands in the sub-genre are doing. I also happen to be a huge fan of the vocals on this band.
3. Fear Factory: Mechanize- After two mostly forgettable albums the masters of industrial, with tinges of death, metal are back! In fact, this is one of their best albums ever! It's totally brutal, yet completely listenable. As a huge fan of them, I am overjoyed that they are back motherfuckers!!!!
2. Deftones: Diamond Eyes- Much like FF, the Deftones last album was, well, largely forgettable. But,
Diamond Eyes is a masterpiece. In fact, also like FF, it's their best in years. At times rocking, at others soft, but always captivating this a beautiful sounding alt-metal trip. The song playing and signing are their peak, and it makes for an album that is more and more listenable each and every time you play it.
1. Sigh: Scenes from Hell- Black metal's most original act have given us not only THE best release of the year (and, I have to say picking the top release this year was NOT easy), but also the most original sounding. In fact, I would say no band sounds anything like they do. And, it is in their refinement (and not just of black metal, but metal in general), that this band succeeds, greatly. The use of horns and the fast, heavy, melodic music is beautiful and haunting. This is art, man, and my favorite album of 2010. And, their, so far, crowning masterpiece.
Honorable mentions:
Disturbed- Asylum
Death Angel- Relentless Retribution
All That Remains- For We Are Many
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Now playing:
Fear Factory - Controlled Demolitionvia FoxyTunes
10. Avenged Sevenfold- The Stage- Released with no advertising and as a completed surprise to both media and fans, Avenged Sevenfold's The Stage sold far less than the band's previous releases. Which is a shame because this album is a bold and exciting move for the band. Going for a more progressive sound, the songs are long and technically amazing. This isn't as great as Nightmare, but it still ranks among their finest work. It certainly is their most risk taking work. Songs like "God Damn" rank among my favorite songs of theirs, and the closer, "Exist" is the most epic tune they have ever written.
9. Testament- Brotherhood of the Snake- The absolute finest album Testament have put out since Formation of Damnation, Brotherhood of the Snake is a monster of a thrash album. A full throttle thrasher, this is Testament destroying all in their path. While, many older bands kind of just rely on their laurels, these guys are still giving it their all, which just happens to be filled with fury and speed.
8. The Pretty Reckless- Who You Selling For- The third release from The Pretty Reckless is a great album with wonderful mix of various styles, influences, and songs. This is the hard rock album of the year, for sure. Some songs rock with a headbanging groove, others with a real blues feel, and, yet others are beautiful ballads. The blusey "Take Me Down" is one of my favorite singles of the year, one that I cannot stop listening! Whatever the song may sound like, they are all united by Taylor Momsen's voice which as beautiful as is.
7. Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas- Mariner- The sleeper hit of the year, Mariner, is an album that exceeded my expectations and delivered one of the most beautiful, complex, and unforgettable music experiences of 2016. This collaboration between Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas will go down in history as one of the greatest, and most original, between artists in the history of metal music. My full review: http://themastergio.blogspot.com/2016/03/cult-of-luna-and-julie-chirstmas.html
6. Anthrax- For All Kings- Filled with a classic metal sound and their thrash speed For All Kings, has Anthrax showing that they still are masters of the style of metal that they play. This one will have you banging your head at a continuous, breakneck pace, throwing up the horns, signing along, and wanting to mosh straight into the pit. The way a great thrash metal album should make you feel! Oh, and "Breathing Lightning" is a modern metal classic!
5. Amon Amarth- Jomsviking- This is straight up THE best album the melodic death metal masters Amon Amarth have put out since With Odin in Our Blood. I've liked a lot of the albums that made post that classic, but none of them ever fully pleased in the way that one had. And, then comes this masterpiece. It reinvigorated my love for the band and never fails to get me pumped up. With its soaring guitars and vocals that sign of awesome and violent viking tales, its the type of metal album that you'll wanna sling a few beers to as you headbang and sign along. And, one more thing, that cover fucking rules!
3. Abbath- Abbath- This is the most fun black metal album ever made. I know that sounds like an odd thing to say, but it really is. Featuring great hooks, driving music, and the right amount of a cold and distant feel, this album has the former Immortal frontman take the best of the sounds from the last couple of albums from his former band and expands on it. By doing so he has birthed the greatest black and roll album of all time. It might inspire a lot of the opposite feelings associated with black metal, but who cares? This is one of my most played albums of 2016!
3. Killswitch Engage- Incarnate- Here is an album that yet again proves that Killswitch Engage are light-years ahead of the bands they inspired. They are without a shadow of a doubt the greatest metalcore band, ever. And, this is the best metalcore album of the year. Heavy and melodic with Jesse Leech's amazing vocals giving much heart to the band's excellent and powerful lyrics. Songs like "Alone I Stand", "Cut Me Loose" and "Hate By Design" have some of my personal favorite lyrics of 2016, which I think is pretty much a trademark of KsE. 
2. Metallica- Hardwired... To Self-Destruct- I very much liked Death Magnetic, but this album blows it away. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the best Metallica album since ...And Justice For All. And, no this album does not match those first four albums, but hardly any album in this world does. What this album does do is rock and thrash hard. Speed metal lovers will love the title track and the destined to be modern classic "Spit Out The Bone". While other songs like "Atlas Rise" and "Now That We're Dead" pummel and pound the listener. In fact, the later is not just my favorite track of the album, it might be my favorite of the year. Note the words, might be. Anyway, there is some melodic heaviness with songs like "Moth Into Flame". Shit, they even have a song that mentions my lord and master Cthulhu in "Dream No More"! What the fuck more could you ask for?
1. Meshuggah- The Violent Sleep of Reason- This pummeling, driving, merciless, yet intricate and fury filled monster is the album of the year. Meshuggah have delivered a rage creature incarnate in The Violent Sleep of Reason. From the opening track of "Clockworks" to the closer in the form of "Into Decay" this album just beats you into submission till it kills you, then pummels your corpse until nothing is left. Songs like "MonstroCity" are destined to be classics in their sets. It serves as a shining example of how even the best of the bands that Meshuggah has birthed cannot hang with their brutal forefathers. This is truly the Violent aural masterpiece without equal of 2016.
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