Have we really reached the end of the aughts on our retrospective Top 10 journey? We sure have. The decade that began with true metal relegated to a tight-knit underground community ends with the likes of Iron Maiden and the Dio era lineup of Black Sabbath fully embracing their legend status to arena sized crowds. Bands who were long since dormant or near death come storming back, ready to make the incoming ’10s their own, and there’s even a handful of newer bands determined to make a name for themselves amidst all this nostalgia. Get ready for all this and more in our Top 10 Metal Albums of 2009.
10. The Lord Weird Slough Feg – Ape Uprising!
Long before the monke aesthetic became a staple of modern death and black metal, beloved bizarro metallers The Lord Weird Slough Feg dropped what can best be described as a musical companion to the Planet of the Apes series, Ape Uprising!. In this 8 song saga, humanity faces off against their primate cousins, tired of being relegated to the jungles and ready to take the reigns of society once and for all. Whereas past Slough Feg releases flirted between epic, power, prog, and folk metal (sometimes combinations of each within single songs!), Ape Uprising! is easily the doomiest album in their canon, filled with thick, lumbering guitar riffs courtesy of frontman/founder Mike Scalzi. Both Iommi and Caesar would approve!
9. Skeletonwitch – Breathing the Fire
In hindsight, the late ’90s and early ’00s were packed with killer blackened thrash bands. Nifelheim, Aura Noir, Deströyer 666, and Absu (more on them later) among others were hellbent on taking black metal back to its raw, stripped down, thrashy ’80s roots. I’m not going to say this niche fell off the face of the earth as the ’00s marched onwards, but it definitely became more obscure. Then Skeletonwitch (alongside Toxic Holocaust and Goatwhore if we’re being honest) said, “To hell with that!” Third time proved to be the charm for these unholy Ohioans, who scorched headbangers with Breathing the Fire. 15 years on and this all killer, no filler rager of an album still urges us to “Stand, Fight and Die”.
8. Cauldron – Chained to the Nite
Totally tubular ’80s production? Check. Face melting, high octane shred guitar solos? Check. The word night spelled as “nite”? Check! Formed out of the ashes of Canuck doom metallers Goat Horn, Cauldron took the heavier side of Dokken and ran with it for their debut album, Chained to the Nite. A hook laden trip back in time, Chained channels the unbridled authenticity of the early ’80s Sunset Strip glam metal sound before it got swooped up and bastardized by money hungry record execs. Little did this budding power trio know their first effort would help make way for the *shudders* NWOTHM movement. More on that in the ’10s!
7. Saxon – Into the Labyrinth
Having spent the better part of the ’00s incorporating elements of euro power, prog, and symphonic metal into their classic NWOBHM sound, Saxon continued to do exactly that with the brilliant Into the Labyrinth. Alongside “Lionheart”, I firmly believe the opening “Battalions of Steel” is one of the finest euro power metal anthems of the past 25 years. The rest of the album rules as well. Whether it be the hard driving “Live to Rock”, raging “Demon Sweeney Todd”, or doom-grooving “Protect Yourself”, Saxon unleashes each cut with power and glory. 30 years since their debut album and the “Heavy Metal Thunder” roared stronger than ever.
6. W.A.S.P. – Babylon
The band that parents once feared as being an acronym for “We Are Satan’s People” returns with a now born again Christian frontman and epic concept album based on the biblical visions of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. On paper, it shouldn’t work. And yet it does. Aside from a cheap rewrite of “Wild Child” in the opening track, “Crazy” (If you’re gonna ape anyone, ape yourself.), Babylon is a traditional metal voyage on par stylistically with The Headless Children (1988) and The Crimson Idol (1992). Lawless’ singer/songwriter approach to metal remains as captivating in the late ’00s as it was decades earlier. Too bad the album’s subsequent tour saw the notorious outfit playing such esteemed rooms (sarcasm alert) as The Cubby Bear North in Lincolnshire, Illinois. It would be another 12 years before they toured stateside again.
5. Asphyx – Death…The Brutal Way
Having watched their beloved death metal become diluted down to an MTV friendly joke by the end of the ’00s, Dutch devastators Asphyx knew there was only one way to play Death…The Brutal Way! That’s right. Move over swoopy haired, Hot Topic sponsored, Mayhem Fest parking lot stage pretty boys. Leave it to the masters to show us all how it’s done. A near decade long absence didn’t deter Asphyx one bit. MvD’s vocals were as unhinged as ever. The guitars still sounded like the equivalent of amplified barbed wire. Flashes of violent thrash and knuckle dragging doom reared their ugly heads. Nobody in the death metal realm came close to touching the hideous glory of Asphyx’s comeback in ’09!
4. Raven – Walk Through Fire
Funny story about this here album! Walk Through Fire, the first studio album from English speed dealers Raven in a decade, was unleashed upon an unsuspecting earth on March 25, 2009…in Japan. The rest of the world, specifically the States and their native UK, had to wait a whole entire year to get their hands on it. Now I can use this entry as an opportunity to vent about how much “truer” the Japanese are than us westerners and how Walk Through Fire should’ve been distributed globally from day one. For the love of Lemmy, this is the band who first took out Metallica! Or, I can be the bigger man and praise Walk Through Fire for what it is: An absolutely bonkers display of blistering ’80s metal fury, thrash before it was thrash! Raven have been riding this creative high ever since, promising to rock until, you guessed it, they drop.
3. Absu – Absu
Asphyx and Raven weren’t the only bands who returned in ’09 to show the metal underground who’s boss. So did US black metal necromancers, Absu. Armed to the teeth with a new lineup, the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Proscriptor struck with their first album since their 2001 masterpiece, Tara, the simply titled Absu. While some might complain the aggression of past releases was toned down to emphasize more traditional and progressive influences, the fact of the matter is Absu is still as wicked and unforgiving as its predecessors. Proscriptor continues to explore the arcane, while the band as a whole showcases a newfound musical maturity, resulting in a modern day classic (That is if you still consider 2009 to be “modern”.)
2. Candlemass – Death Magic Doom
Death! Magic! Doom! Epic doom pioneers Candlemass deliver all this and more on their aptly titled ninth album, their second to feature Solitude Aeturnus vocalist Robert Lowe. Much like King of the Grey Islands (2007) and Candlemass (2005) before it, Death Magic Doom stays true to the band’s epic doom roots of the ’80s. Whether it be the rampaging “If I Ever Die”, cryptic “My Funeral Dreams”, or anthemic “Hammer of Doom” (which has since become a staple of Candlemass’ catalog), every song on here leaves us utterly “Bewitched”. Ideally, this would be the greatest metal album of its respective year, or at least the greatest doom metal album, but alas…
- Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know
The album says “Heaven & Hell”. Don’t be fooled. It’s Black Sabbath. Sharon Osbourne can say otherwise all she wants. She can send me a cease and desist for all I care. Guess what? It’s still Black Sabbath. Not only that, but it should’ve been the last Sabbath album. That’s right, I said it. The Devil You Know saw the early ’80s incarnation of metal’s greatest band reconvene one last time for their doomiest, darkest, and most diabolical album ever. Everything about it, from Dio’s wicked lyricism and powerhouse vocals, to Iommi’s soul crushing riffage, to the thunderous rhythm section of Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice, screams classic Sabbath. No Ozzy? No problem.
What should’ve been the beginning of a glorious new chapter in Sabbath history was tragically ended a little over a year later on May 16, 2010, when Ronnie James Dio was cruelly taken from us after a valiant battle with stomach cancer. He was only 67 years old. One can only imagine what could’ve been had Dio lived. Part of me believes another reunion with Ozzy would’ve never happened and this lineup would’ve dominated the landscape of metal in the ’10s. While this is simply speculation, what’s not is that The Devil You Know is the greatest metal album of 2009, and as far as I’m concerned, the greatest metal album of the ’00s. Rest in power RJD, our “Rock and Roll Angel”.
Honorable Mentions
- Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue
- Cannibal Corpse – Evisceration Plague
- Hardcore Superstar – Beg for It
- Obituary – Darkest Day
- U.D.O. – Dominator
Last three sentences of this article are some of the truest words ever spoken, well said brother 🤘🙏