Too Soon? Chuck & Godless’ Best of 2014… So Far
Godless
Much like the best metal album of the year so far, the year itself has been off to a slow start… but it’s growing on me and may yet be comparable to the peak of 2013. No one has broken down new walls yet, but these albums are doing damage, and certainly pushing them out.
Arch Enemy – War Eternal (Century)
The Atlas Moth – The Old Believer (Profound Lore)
Cynic – Kindly Bent to Free Us (Season of Mist)
Exist – Sunlight (self-released)
Hour of Penance – Regicide (Prosthetic)
Insomnium – Shadows of the Dying Sun (Century)
Nightfell – The Living Ever Mourn (Parasitic)
Polar – Shadowed by Vultures (Prosthetic)
Septicflesh – Titan (Prosthetic/Season of Mist)
Whitechapel – Our Endless War (Metal Blade)
Chuck
Since I do a radio program as well as The Metalsucks Podcast, I listen to EVERY album that comes across my desk. It can get pretty stupid sometimes with the stack of stuff that is in my inbox, and most of it (at least 95%) sucks. Not in the cute snarky way, and not the “not my kind of music” way — really, most music is terrible and unoriginal and does nothing for me and will never get to the air, or even my iPhone, for that matter.
On the flipside, that 5% can be shockingly amazing, stuff that blows your hair back and changes your life. I make no distinctions between genres, I am not a purist or elitist in my taste. I choose to enjoy everything, so long as it engages my brain. Sometimes, the dumbest stuff tickles me the right way, and other times, I prefer the tr00est of the tr00. Those who deny that some “mainstream” metal rules are lying to themselves, so my picks represent the wide swath of tastes I enjoy, as well as some of THE best music I have heard all year.
Agalloch – The Serpent & The Sphere (Profound Lore Records)
Black Anvil – Hail Death (Relapse)
Cynic – Kindly bent to Free Us (Seasons of Mist)
Opeth – Pale Communion (Roadrunner)
Trap Them – Blissfucker (Prosthetic)
Vallenfyre – Splinters (Century Media)
Wovenwar – Wovenwar (Metal Blade)
