There were a lot of exciting happenings in Metal this year, but Metal can be a difficult genre to keep up with these days. There is so much of it out there, and so much of that is harsh, abrasive, and just damn ugly. If you're like me, and you like high-energy, powerful metal music, with discernable songs and pleasant vocals, this list should give you plenty of good options. Because it is metal, some screaming and growling vocals are tolerated, but I have honed it down to records with quality instrumental and vocal work, and careful song writing.
Best HEAVY Records of 2017.
Spunk Rock Style
Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/fluid3sally/playlist/5GvWHhYRJTu1GdfLLJ2bYt
Follow to sample and decide for yourself
1. Snovonne - The Child And The Bitch
2. Body Count - Bloodlust
3. Edenbridge - The Great Momentum
4. Ocean Grove - The Rhapsody Tapes
5. Butcher Babies - Lilith
6. Hail Sagan - Hail Sagan
7. Elder - Reflections of a Floating World
8. Palisades - Palisades
9. Fall As Leap - Super-Ficial
10. Dream Evil - Six
11. Helion Prime - Helion Prime
12. Blackbriar - Fractured Fairytales
13. The Dark Element - The Dark Element
14. Marty Friedman - Wall Of Sound
15. Amberian Dawn - Darkness of Eternity
16. Bare Infinity - The Butterfly Raiser
17. Powerflo - Powerflo
18. Scarlet Canary - Perspective
19. Epica - The Solace System
20. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
21. Avatarium - Hurricanes and Halos
22. Adrenaline Rush - Soul Survivor
23. Sleeping Romance - Alba
24. Minniva - Volume #1
25. Gwar - The Blood of Gods
Honorable Mention:
The following Bands had records this year that may be of interest to the metal-head in you. These were included in the main Spunk List
- Sumo Cyco
- Roses Unread
- Skarlett Riot
- In This Moment
CHECK OUT THE MAIN SPUNK LIST HERE:
https://joelspunkrock.blogspot.com/2017/12/best-of-2017.html
Selection Process:
All year long, I have been compiling a playlist of heavy metal records as they were released. I started with a pool of over 200 records. For each record, I sample at least a couple songs, and weeded out the ones I found unlistenable, or undesirable, at best. That process weeded out most of the "brutal death metal". If you like that stuff, I respect your opinion, but you won't find it here.
That left me with a pool of about 75 records. A few of those were discarded as "good, but not really metal enough". The remaining records are rated as shown below.
Record Ratings:
The first place most metal bands run amok with me is in the vocals. This is a heavy list, so screaming/growling vocals are tolerated. But many times, if the vocals are too harsh and ugly, I just can't get into the record. In many cases, I still think the band makes a solid sound, it's just that the vocals kill it for me.
The second place many metal bands fall afoul with me is in the song writing, or lack thereof. I like records where the songs are memorable and distinctive, not just a big wall of non-stop heaviness. Take, for example, "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath. great song. you know it. A high school marching band could play it and get everyone excited - it would be quickly recognizable. Many metal bands overlook the art of the song.
For these reasons, I ranked the records on three metrics: instrumental sound, vocals, and song-writing. Each are scored on a scale of 1 to 10 per my usual scale
(details on scale here: https://joelspunkrock.blogspot.com/2017/11/record-rating-scale.html)
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