The 20 Best Hard Rock & Metal Albums of 2017, Pt. 1: 20-11

2017 was a fucking awesome year for heavy music. Especially, for those into death metal, as it was rightfully declared the "Year of Death Metal" by Decibel magazine. Both new and old death metal bands put forth some great material. But, it was also another great year for thrash metal. As always making this list took a lot of thinking and, of course, the hearing of a lot albums. So let us not waste anymore time and get to it!

Honorable Mentions

Kobra and the Lotus- Prevail I

Overkill- The Grinding Wheel

Terrifier- Weapons of Thrash Destruction

Municipal Waste- Slime and Punishment

20. Necrot- Blood Offerings- An old school death metal album by a new band, that results in the best debut of 2017. My full review: http://themastergio.blogspot.com/2017/06/necrot-blood-offerings-album-review.html

19. Fit For An Autopsy- The Great Collapse- Fit For An Autopsy have delivered an angry and driving deathcore that showcase the subgenre at its very best. The music has a powerful and crushing grove and sounds like the soundtrack to complete and utter destruction.

18. Satyricon- Deep Calleth Deep- Heavy, hateful, and dark, this almost hypnotically sounding piece of black metal is best album of this style for 2017. Featuring the slow and driving sound that band has perfected in their last couple of releases it is the perfect music to listen as you are being dragged you into the very depths of hell!

17. Obituary- Obituary- The latest album from these death metal gods is one of their best in years. It features some great riffs that are catchy and have a really great groove to them. Some of these songs rank among the fastest and catchiest songs, the band has written in many a moon.

16. Kreator- Gods of Violence- The latest offering from Germany's greatest thrash metal export is crushing and devastating music. Some of the year's very best and most memorable songs come from here including the driving "Satan Is Real" and the anthemic  "Hail to the Hordes". Gods of Violence is one that I played a lot since the moment that I got it.

15. Winds of Plague- Blood of My Enemy- It's great to see a band genuinely seen as being rather silly, by some, like Winds of Plague mature and grow. Especially when the end result is the very best album of their career, thus far, and then some. Blood of Me Enemy is a more serious and musically complex work than their previous, but still enjoyable, output. and  Heavy and aggressive, it doesn't feel as interested in reminding just how cool or tough they are. Instead, the music speaks for itself and delivers multiple swift steel boots to your fucking teeth.

14. Cannibal Corpse- Red Before Black- Red Before Black is Cannibal Corpse's best album since Torture, possibly since Kill. It is a solid and heavy, slab of death metal that is unrelenting and uncompromising. Songs like "Code of the Slashers" and "Heads Shoveled Off" are some of the coolest and most memorable extreme metal songs of the year. In fact, this might be the most straight up fun death metal of 2017.

13. Suffocation- ...Of the Dark Light- Holy fuck this is one unrelenting and brutal release! Determine to pummel your fucking head with savage death metal, Suffocation continue to churn out some of the finest releases in death metal. From the very opening of the blistering "Clarity through Depravity" and beyond this is uncompromising and technical assault as your likely hear at this level of spectacular quality.

12. Darkest Hour- Godless Prophets and the Migrant Flora- Anyone who thinks that there are no more classic albums to be made in the metalcore world needs to get a listen to this major ass kicker. Darkest Hour have pulled all the stops and made rollicking and vicious release with great musicianship and pounding breakdowns. This fucker is guaranteed to kick your ass from here to the next fucking continent. Songs like "This Is the Truth" and "The Flesh and the Flowers of Death" are some of the most badass songs of the year!

11. Cradle of Filth- Cryptopia: The Seductiveness of Decay- While, I greatly liked the last Cradle of Filth album, Hammer of the Witches, Cryptopia: The Seductiveness of Decay blows it away. It is is without question the finest album CoF has made since Nymphetamine. The album is a dark and fully enrapturing piece of extreme gothic/ symphonic black metal. It takes all the things that make the band great and gives to us in droves. Honest to Satan, this is the first Cradle of Filth album that keep going back to listen to in ages and helped to remind me why I absolutely adored them many years ago. And, can I say that "Heartbreak and Seance" is one of my favorite extreme metal singles of the year? Another thing that is one of my favorites for this year is the amazing cover art! It is so fucking cool!

I would like to take this time to thank you all for your support in this year! May you all have a happy, fun, and safe New Year's! Stay tuned for the top ten albums of 2017!

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The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 13: 40-31

If you have been following this list since it's start, I'm sorry for all if the months where I did not continue it. Once convention season (Oct, with NYCC) started followed by the holidays, I was severely busy and couldn't continue to do this list. But, with all of that over now (well until I head out to Vegas for AEE, later this month), I can go right back to it. And, so let's not waste anymore time and get right back into it:

40. Cradle of Filth- Nymphetamine- The sixth album by this extreme metal act is actually my favorite of theirs. The title refers to the addiction towards a vampiric woman. Which is perfectly understandable in my book! The cover with a sexy and tempting vampire babe painting is truly beautiful, very cool, and captures the title perfectly.







39. Guns 'N' Roses- Appetite for Destruction- One of the greatest debut albums, and in fact one of the greatest albums period, in all of hard rock, this badass rocker is a must have. It's equally iconic cover was originally suppose to be a controversial piece of art with a robot rapist about to get his up and comings via a metallic monster. But, when stores refused to carry that cover they opted for this classic image of the band members represented as skulls on a cross. It was based on a tattoo by Billy White, Jr. I actually prefer the rapist cover, but at least that ended up on the inside sleeve. This image is still fucking awesome, though!!


38. Kreator- Terrible Certainty- The third album by these German thrashers is the one that I first bought from them. It's my second favorite of their albums and the cover with their badass demon mascot surrounded by statues of skull faced bishops on each side of him is fucking awesome!







37. King Diamond- Abigail- The second album, and first to be a concept album, remains the band's masterpiece. It also has one of it's most classic covers, evoking an old school, gothic horror movie with it's beautiful and creepy cover of a carriage being drawn by two horses.







36. Scorpions- Love After First Sting- This hard rock classic from the greatest band to ever come out of Germany features a truly classic photographic cover of a man tattooing a scorpion, of course, on a beautiful, partially nude woman. It was designed by Kochlowski.







35. Black Sabbath- Dehumanizer- The sixteenth studio album by these metal legends, was a return for metal god Ronnie James Dio at vocals. It's the first one that I ever bought with him signing for Sabbath. The cool looking cover features a robotic grim reaper turning a human into a machine. A cool image that goes perfectly with the title track.






34. Arch Enemy- Anthems of Rebellion- The fifth studio album by Arch Enemy is the first one that I ever bought of theirs. The cover depicts a man who pulls off the faceless visage that all the others have, rebelling and showing his own individuality.








33. Sodom- Agent Orange- The third studio release by this German thrash band had what might be their best cover, as it captures the inside of a large, flying war plane. It's badass and looks very eye-catching.








32. Suffocation- Blood Oath- This sixth studio album from this American death metal act, was actually the first album of theirs to chart on the Billboard 200. It's a killer one with a great cover by artist Jon Zig. It's pure classic death metal stuff with it's use of an otherworldly place and monk like phantom people with unseen faces.







31. Sepultura- Chaos A.D.- The classic and influential fifth album by Brazil's metal masters has them move away from thrash to groove metal. But that doesn't mean they have to stop having cool covers. In fact this another kick ass cover as a mummified man is tied to machines.

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 12: 50-41

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 11: 60-51

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 10: 70-61

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 9: 80-71

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 8: 90-81 

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 7: 110-101 

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 6: 120-111 

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 5: 130-121

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 4: 140-131 

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 3: 150-141

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 2: 160-151

The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 1: 175-16

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The 175 Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of all Time Pt. 1: 175-160

As a fan of cool artwork and metal music, I've always liked that our genre has some of the coolest covers in the history of the world. Other forms of music seem content in giving us half-assed, boring pieces of shit for covers. But, since this is the greatest type of music in the universe, the cool covers go with it. I have ranked the best of the best, and this was not an easy list to make. As such, it is THE biggest list I have ever made on this blog. I wanted to fit as many as I could. all types of subgenres are included here: nu-metal, industrial, metalcore, deathcore, black, death, etc. I even threw in some hard rock bands. Now, remember the quality of the album does not at all weigh in with being included, its the artwork that counts here.

You will notice that the artwork includes lots of zombies, skulls, demons, babes, gore, and scary stuff cause that's what I like. The list will also have some admit ably satanic, sexually graphic, anti-Christian, intensely violent, and other potentially offensive material, so be for warned. But, if you been following this blog for long enough, you should that I could give a flying fuck about offensive material. Anyways, you have been warned...
Now let the countdown begin!!

175. Disturbed- Ten Thousand Fists- Disturbed's mascot, The Guy, makes his album cover debut here along with a bunch of others looking to stand in defiance in the very first album on this list. Props for the punk rocker hottie next to him. 

174. Municipal Waste- The Fatal Feast- This cool cover by Justin Osbourn of Slasher Design is pure trash/ horror cheesiness with zombies eating human flesh in some sci-fi setting. Easily my favorite album cover of this crossover thrash band.

173. Dokken- Tooth and Nail- 80s metal band Dokken had a lot of hair, but I always thought that they were miles ahead of the other hair bands. This cool cover with a Creature form the Black Lagoon type monster hand reaching out of the water kind of adds to that coolness factor.

172. In This Moment- Blood- The first photography based cover to make the list comes courtesy of this alternative metal female fronted band. It's both sexy and kinda creepy, but all cool!

171. Helloween- Metal Jukebox- German power metallers Helloween have their pumpkin-headed mascot put some tunes on the jukebox on this cool cover to an all covers album.

170. Slayer- Hell Awaits- The first Slayer album to make the list is filled with demons in hell, and, coolest of all, a dude getting his guts ripped out by a trio of them. Gore, demons, and hell! This had to be here!

169. Metallica- Kill 'Em All- The fast as fuck debut from Metallica is the next of the Big Four to make the list. Simple but cool and bloody, the image of the hammer and the blood tell you a nasty murder has been committed.

168. Disturbed- Asylum- The second Disturbed album to make the list has a real pissed off looking The Guy looking cool as fuck. I love it when bands have their own mascot!

167. Halestorm- Halestorm- Philly hard rockers continue to get more and more popular, but it's this debut that ranks in the list. Featuring robotic versions of the band, it's a cool concept and the artwork looks great. Also, I wouldn't mind having a cyborg Lzzy Hale! 

166. Behemoth- Evangelion- Blackened death metal masters Behemoth get on the list with this cover that looks majestic and evil. According to front-man Nergal the cover is:
"The picture is of The Great Harlot of Babylon riding the seven-headed beast. Saints bow before her in worship whilst the tablets of the Ten Commandments lie broken at her feet. It represents our vision and the interpretation of the New Testament parable where the “Whore of Babylon” is a symbol of rebellion and resistance against God."


165. Suffocation- Effigy of the Forgotten- Some sort of robotic horror is the focus of this cool death metal cover that is just that just perfect example of that the best of that type of cover.

164. Overkill- Fuck You... And then Some!- Badass and simple this rerelease of the classic live EP from New Jersey's king's of thrash is just too cool and memorable. Especially, when you first see it as a teen on someone's shirt and are like "Fuck! I NEED that t-shirt!!"

163. Scorpions- Blackout- The best album from Germany's hard rock/ metal gods has a self portrait of artist Gottfried Helnwein. Rudlof Schenker would play the character in the video for "No One Like You".





 


162. AC/DC- If You Want Blood You've Got It- The first live album both on the list and released by AC/DC has Angus getting impaled by his guitar. The cover was once pointed out as being some sort of satanic ritual by some jackass (who he is unimportant really), but that guy can suck it. Gore and great hard rock FTW motherfuckers!!

161. Kataklysm- Heaven's Venom-  The tenth album by Canadian death metal band Kataklysm has their demon mascot getting attacked by some pissed off looking angels. For some reason he rips out his own heart like a self version of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!

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The 10 Best Metal/ Hard Rock/ Punk Albums of the Year

The first thing I wanna address is the title to my long time readers. I know in the past the list has only had the word "metal" in it, but I wanted to avoid the "that's not metal" comment. And, in some cases, it isn't. So, in the end it's the right title to post here. Anyway, on to the subject at hand, this year saw A LOT of really fucking awesome releases. Enough so that the top ten kept changing, well except for my pick for best album. That remained the same from the moment I heard the album in a friend of mine's car. This has to be one of the most exciting years for heavy music, I've heard. So, that made making this list both tough to do and really awesome to wade through as a metalhead. Anyways, it's here, it's done, and now you can see my picks for yourself.

10. AFI- Burials- Perhaps the year's biggest surprise to me came in the form of this amazing album. It's dark and melodic, yet with the right type of sound to not turn-off their fan base. The album gets better with each listen, and is, in the end, the very best album of AFI's career. I would say it's thier masterpiece. Oh and "I Hope You Suffer" is one of the best rock songs of the year!

9. Eyes Set To Kill- Masks- I been a fan of ESTK for a while, but this album has made them one of my favorite bands out there. It's their best work, yet. It's a heavier and harder sound for the band, while still keeping the melody and accessibility that they have sonically. They even went back and picked two songs from their last album, White Lotus, and redid them to make them heavier and even better sounding than they already were! Songs like Haze and Little Liar are among some of my most played tracks of the year!
 


8. A Pale Horse Named Death- Lay My Soul to Rest- The second release from this band is just amazing! A dark and brooding epic that is crushing and emotionally charged. I wonder if they can top this one, but while it won't be easy, I think that they can! This is the definitive album to listen to when you are feeling like shit, or even when you ain't. And, songs like DMSLT, Cold Dark Mourning, and Shallow Grave make them light years ahead of any band even trying to make this kind of metal music.

7. Norma Jean- Wrongdoers- Another band that made their best album of their career has to be Christian metalcore masters, Norma Jean. With Wrongdoers they have streamlined their sound, while still keeping, it heavy and very aggressive with great technicality. It's an album that gets better with each listening and showcases a band that is just head and shoulders above any from the more generic music that others playing this kind of music have.

6. Suffocation- Pinnacles of Bedlam- This was a very solid year for extreme metal and this brutal and vicious release from NY's technical masters of mayhem is a shining example of just that. It ranks as one of their finest works, with the crushing Sullen Days ranking as one of the absolute best death metal tracks of the year!! On a side note, I think this is the best cover on the list.

5. Warbringer- IV: Empires Collapse- Every album they release gets ranked by me, because they are THE best of all the modern era thrash bands. This album continues that tradition with aggression and heaviness to spare. In all, this is the best thrash metal album of the year!

4. The Black Dahlia Murder- Everblack- While, I am a huge fan of these melodic death metallers, I always harken back to Nocturnal, as their best. While, that remains the case, they finally have an album that does comes close. Heavy and technically sound, this one rips from start to finish, and The Evil Dead inspired Raped in Hatred by Vines of Thorns might well be my absolute favorite death metal song of the entire year! I LOVE signing the chorus!!

3. Carcass- Surgical Steel- Holy fuck! It's been ages since a new Carcass came out, but my God have they made up for lost time!! This is one of the greatest comeback albums in the history of metal music! A continuation of the melodic death metal that they pioneered in the classic Heartwork, this is a masterpiece that has been getting rave reviews in every metal site and mag and with GREAT reason. This is their second best album of their career, and I cannot wait to see what they will give us next!

2. Watain- The Wild Hunt- One of my absolute favorite black metal bands continue to prove why they are head and bloody shoulders above their fellow musicians in the sub-genre. An epic, evil, and majestic album, it shows the band growing and experimenting and even slowing down for a ballad or two!! Yet, they always stay true to their wonderfully evil and Satanic sound. The best album to listen to in the pitch black, cold night released this year, and, unquestionably, well to me anyways, the best black metal release of the year.

1. Killswitch Engage- Disarm the Descent- While, it was a continuous moving around in the other rankings, this was the only album that came in at number one and stayed there. Jessie Leach had to become a better signer, as he was replacing Howard Jones (and returning to front the band full time). And, boy did he ever! A great mix of inspiring lyrics, driving grooves, great musicianship, crushing heaviness, wonderful melody, and those aforementioned amazing vocals, makes this their best work since The End of Heartache. I listen to this album all the time and it's great for just about anytime or anything I'm doing. "A Tribute to the Fallen" might be the best song of the year, at least to me. KsE are truly back and better than ever!!

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Five Finger Death Punch- The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell Vol. 2
Winds of Plague- Resistance
Trivium- Vengeance
Avenged Sevenfold- Hail to the King
Five Finger Death Punch- The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell Vol. 1
Terror- Live by the Code
Arsis- The Unwelcome

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