For the past week, Metal Insider had contributors Bram Teitelman , Zach Shaw, Kodi McKinney, Matt Brown, Nick DeSimone, Chip McCabe, Anthony Maisano, Chris Colgan, Seth Werkheiser, and Zach Fehl share their top 10 favorite albums of 2014. And while there was plenty of diversity amongst the lists, there were also plenty of crossovers. Thus, we took the time to tally up the picks and compile one complete list naming the overall top ten albums of 2014.
Here’s how the voting worked: each album that appeared on a list, ranked from 10-1, was assigned a point, with the #1 record getting 10 points and #10 getting 1, while honorable mentions got a half point. In the event that an album that made it into the overall top 10 received the same amount of votes (which happened quite a few times), whichever album received the most votes from the ten contributors during a separate tie-breaking vote would get the higher ranking.
So without further ado, here Metal Insider’s overall top ten albums of 2014.
10) Fallujah, The Flesh Prevails (Unique Leader) (Total Points: 14 and a half)
Cracking two contributors’ top 10 lists, along with three honorable mentions, Fallujah’s sophomore effort seemed to take the Metal Insider crew by surprise. “If ever there was a band that just came out of nowhere to kick my ass and leave me questioning everything, Fallujah would be it,” Chris declared. Kodi was also taken aback, noting how “it’s as if they listened to Cynic’s catalog in reverse order and attempted to get back to the roots of what made Focus a classic, but with modern weight and power. As eager to push you to stratospheric vision quests as it is to annihilate you – often in the same song – something about this record has had a hypnotic grip on me since its release.”
9) Trap Them, Blissfucker (Prosthetic) (Total Points: 15 and a half)
Also landing on two contributors’ top 10 lists, while grabbing an additional honorable mention, is what Bram declares as the best hardcore album of the year. “Kurt Ballou has a way of bringing out the best in every band he works with… this is a solid 45 minutes of hate that shows them solidly coming into their own and staking out their own place in punk and hardcore on their fourth album,” Bram further adds. Meanwhile, Nick simply directed people to the “sparse beat punctuated by blasts and a riff mostly made up of screaming feedback” heard in the album’s second track, “Habitland.”
8) Edguy, Space Police: Defenders of the Crown (Nuclear Blast) (Total Points: 16)
Not only did the German power metal group’s tenth album make its way onto two contributor’s lists, but also was named Anthony’s #1 pick of 2014. “In terms of power metal, this record just has pieces of it all,” declared Anthony. “This album was a truly delightful listen across the board.” Meanwhile, Zach Fehl was also pleasantly surprised, noting how “There was something about Space Police that blended the cheese and satire that is distinctively Edguy.”
