Top 10: Metal Albums of 2008

2008 was truly great! Yes, it was 15 years ago that an unsuspecting 9 year old Joe stumbled upon Rush, Black Sabbath, and Judas Priest, paving the way for the rest of his life to follow. While I fell in love with metal at first listen, I didn’t immediately fall headfirst down the rabbit hole in terms of the underground and new releases. Of this list (honorable mentions included), there are only 2 albums that I was aware of upon their initial release. Find out which 2 those are, and which albums I fell in love with over time, in our Top 10 Metal Albums of 2008.

10. Uriah Heep – Wake the Sleeper

When was the last time Heep graced one of these retrospective lists? 1982? Yeah, that sounds about right. So what did these elder statesmen spend the last 25 years doing? Well, the better part of the ’80s and early ’90s were wasted muddling around an AOR wasteland in a desperate attempt to stay musically relevant. Come the mid ’90s, the band returned to their proto-prog metal roots, only for said outings to be virtually ignored outside of Europe (1995’s Sea of Light and 1998’s Sonic Origami). It would be another decade before Heep struck again, kicking off a late career renaissance with the brilliant Wake the Sleeper. Expanding upon the best qualities of their David Byron fronted heyday, Heep proved they were more than a relic of the past with an album of heavy prog anthems, chock full of heavy riffs, old school organ, and thought provoking lyricism.

9. Motörhead – Motörizer

Like many of my age group, my introduction to the Loudest Band on Earth was via WWE. Triple H had long been using “The Game” as his theme song, and if memory serves me right, there were other Motörhead/WWE collaborations throughout the ’00s as well. Come ’08, in what was a marketing masterstroke by their record label, the legendary band’s 19th studio album, Motörizer, was used to soundtrack the ongoing season of WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown. This led to many, myself included, going to their local Best Buy and picking it up for themselves. While the production on here is distinctly modern, the spirit is classic Motörhead. Lemmy and the boys unleash a high speed rock n’ roll riot with anthems like “Runaround Man”, “When the Eagle Screams”, and “Buried Alive”.

8. King’s X – XV

Even by King’s X standards, XV is not the heaviest album. That said, when it does get heavy, it doesn’t screw around. Songs like “Rocket Ship”, “Move”, and “Go Tell Somebody” channel the sludgy grooves of Dogman, upping the attitude ante to the max. Then there’s the rest of the album, which falls somewhere between the impossible to pin down King’s X amalgamation of prog, funk, psych, and singer/songwriter. Such musical meanderings are characteristic of a failed Bandcamp project, yet even this deep into their career, King’s X blurred these genre lines with an effortless finesse. What also stands out about XV is its melancholic atmosphere, further giving the songs a unique edge. It’s no wonder we’d have to wait another 14 years for a follow up.

7. Opeth – Watershed

Has it really been 15 years since Opeth released an album with any semblance of death metal? Indeed, it has. Watershed marked a major turning point for the Swedish prog practitioners. At this stage in the game, they had almost completely pivoted towards progressive metal/rock, the only death metal trope being the occasional guttural vocals of Mikael Åkerfeldt, which would be gone for good come 2011’s Heritage (more on that another time). Metal-ness aside, the songs and performances on here are absolutely incredible. No doubt the likes of Ian Anderson and, well, Jon Anderson, would be proud of compositions like “Burden” and “Hex Omega”.

6. Dead Congregation – Graves of the Archangels

Although a common descriptor today, the term “OSDM” (old school death metal) was non-existent in the ’00s. By and large, death metal in the ’00s was characterized by C-grade Cannibal Corpse clones and overproduced outings of melodic/tech death wankery. Then along came Dead Congregation. Following in the devilish footsteps of Immolation and Incantation before them, Dead Congregation conjured up a wicked brew of death metal that emphasized unsettling darkness and doom as opposed to mindless brutality and musical wizardry. Their debut album, Graves of the Archangels, comes off as the soundtrack to one’s descent into hell. 15 years later and most death metal bands are still playing catch up.

5. Bob Catley – Immortal

Best known in AOR circles as the voice of the legendary Magnum, Bob Catley spent the better part of the late ’90s and ’00s embarking upon a solo career. Similar to those of Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford, Catley’s solo oeuvre is full of gems along the way, none shining brighter than his last solo outing to date, Immortal. Penned by euro metal vet Magnus Karlsson, the album fuses elements of modern power metal and symphonic metal with that classic pomp rock sound Catley is known for. Subsequent Magnum releases have always managed to have a song or two in this melodic metal vein, before retreating to anthemic AOR and pomp-prog adventurism. Come on Bob! Would it kill you to give us one more metal outing?

4. Pharaoh – Be Gone

Bow down to the Pharaoh! The US power metal saviors proved that three was indeed a magic number with the release of Be Gone. Expanding upon the progressive explorations of their sophomore outing, The Longest Night (2006), Be Gone so peerlessly tows the line between the majesty of the euro scene with the brute force of those ’80s US warriors (i.e. Omen, Jag Panzer, Warlord, etc.). Cuts like the anthemic “Speak to Me” and ambitious “Buried at Sea” satisfy those of a progressive and melodic disposition, while the rampaging onslaughts of “No Remains” and “Red Honor” will make you want to lay your enemy to waste, just like any true power metal song should. Like I said in the 2006 list, rest in eternal power Tim Aymar. Anyone who disputes this album’s inclusion is a surefire poser.

3. Manilla Road – Voyager

We really take for granted how much epic metal we have at our fingertips today. It seems like every week there’s a new band emulating the ancient traditions of viking era Bathory and Manilla Road. Around ’08, Manilla Road was about all there was. Founder Mark “The Shark” Shelton was determined to keep his epic vision alive against all odds, treating the underground with another truly monumental outing in Voyager. Chronicling the barbaric lives and times of the Vikings, Voyager stands out for its raw production and aggressive musicianship, the latter exemplified on “Return of the Serpent King”, on which Shelton delivers a nearly full guttural vocal performance. I’ve long considered Shelton’s vocals on parts of Crystal Logic (1983) to be proto-death metal. To hear him going full throttle long after the genre’s advent is a thing of brutal beauty.

2. Enforcer – Into the Night

Behold: The album that, for better or worse, spawned the “NWOTHM” movement. Now as I’ve said many times before, it’s not like traditional metal ceased to exist entirely for 25 years only for Enforcer to singlehandedly resurrect it. That being said, there’s no doubt these old school revivalists helped bring the sound and style back into the metal scene’s collective conscious with their debut album, Into the Night. A blatant hybrid of NWOBHM muscle and Swedish metal mysticism, Into the Night is a rampaging display of traditionalism and speed. It certainly helps that the songs themselves have a heavy anthemic quality to them, something Enforcer would expand upon on their follow up album, Diamonds (2011), but again, more on that later.

1. Toxic Holocaust – An Overdose of Death…

If a kid just getting into metal came up to me and asked where to start with Toxic Holocaust, the answer would have to be An Overdose of Death…. From top to bottom, this is their finest hour by a landslide. Each individual song is an all killer, no filler, blackened thrash outburst of sinister rage. While it can be argued that past (also kickass) outings drew heavily from ’80s pioneers like Venom, Sodom, and Bathory, AOOD… is the album where Joel Grind truly developed a style of his own. Every riff and hook of this album explodes through the speakers and puts the listener into submission. I mean, just look at the track listing: “Wild Dogs”, “Future Shock”, “The Lord of the Wasteland”. I dare you to find me a more memorable blackened thrasher of the past 15 years than “Nuke the Cross”. Enough said. For all these reasons and more, AOOD… is the greatest metal album of 2008. All those who disagree will face “Death from Above”.

Honorable Mentions