01) Metallica, 72 Seasons (Blackened)

This is a no-brainer for me. Personally, I’ve followed this band to five different cities this year and have listened to them nearly every single day, with “Inamorata” on repeat many times. This album has, by far, been my favorite and most listened to of the year. You can read my full thoughts on it in my review. 

Key Tracks: “Inamorata,” “Chasing Light,” “Too Far Gone?”

 

Honorable Mentions: 

Angra, Cycles Of Pain (Atomic Fire)

Key Track: “Ride Into The Storm”

Arkona, Kob (Napalm)

Key Track: “Ydi”

Arjen Lucassen’s Supersonic Revolution,  Golden Age Of Music (Music Theories)

Key Track: “Golden Age of Music”

Cruachan, The Living And The Dead (Despotz)

Key Track: “The Hawthorn”

Cyhra, The Vertigo Trigger (Nuclear Blast)

Key Track: “Life Is A Hurricane” 

Doro, Conqueress Forever Strong & Proud (Nuclear Blast)

Key Tracks: “Fire in the Sky,” “Living After Midnight,” “Total Eclipse of the Heart”

Dorthia Cottrell, Death Folk Country (Relapse)

Key Track: “Hell in My Water”

Edge Of Paradise, Hologram (Frontiers)

Key Track: “Don’t Give Up On Me”

Elvenking, Reader Of The Runes – Rapture (AFM)

Key Track: “To The North”

Enforcer, Nostalgia (Nuclear Blast)

Key Track: “Demon”

Exmortus, Necrophony (Nuclear Blast)

Key Track: “Masquerade,” “Storm of Strings”

Floor Jansen, Paragon (Self)

Key Track: “Invincible”

Fvnerals, Let The Earth Be Silent (Prophecy)

Key Track: “For Horror Eats The Light”

Ghosts of Atlantis, Riddles of the Sycophants (Hammerheart Records)

Key Track: “Riddles of the Sycophants”

Girlschool, WTFortyfive? (Silver Lining)

Key Track: “Born To Raise Hell”

Godthrymm, Distortions (Profound Lore)

Key Track: “As Titans”

Host, IX (Nuclear Blast)

“A Troubled Mind”

Icarus Witch, No Devil Lived On (Cleopatra Records)

Key Track: “Last Night On Earth”

Kamelot, The Awakening (Napalm)

Key Track: “The Great Divide”

Kataklysm, Goliath (Nuclear Blast)

Key Track: “The Sacrifice for Truth”

Liv Kristine, River Of Diamonds (Metalville)

Key Track: “Serenity”

Mammoth WVH, Mammoth II (BMG)

Key Track: “I’m Alright”

Mansion, Second Death (Self)

Key Track: “You Are Suspicious”

Nita Strauss, The Call Of The Void (Sumerian)

Key Track: “Momentum”

Ocean of Grief, Pale Existence

Key Track: “Poetry For The Dead”

Omega Infinity, The Anticurrent (Season Of Mist)

Key Track: “Voices from the End of Time”

Orbit Culture, Descent

Key Track: “Descent”

Outlanders, Outlanders (earMusic)

Key Track: “The Cruellest Goodbye”

Overkill, Scorched (Nuclear Blast)

Key Track: “Scorched” 

Psygnosis, Mercury (Season Of Mist)

Key Track: “Uranometria”

Raven, All Hell’s Breaking Loose (Silver Lining)

Key Track: “Edge of A Nightmare”

Redemption, I Am The Storm (AFM)

Key Track: “All This Time (And Not Enough) 

Sevendust, Truth Killer (Napalm)

Key Track: “Leave Hell Behind”

Shylmagoghnar, Convergence (Napalm)

Key Track: “I Hear the Mountain Weep”

Silent Skies, Dormant (Napalm)

Key Track: “Reset” 

Solemn Vision, Despite The Rise Of The Sun (Black Lion)

Key Track: “On The Eve Of Silence”

Spotlights, Alchemy For The Dead (Ipecac)

Key Track: “Beyond the Broken Sky”

Stitched Up Heart, To The Wolves (Century Media)

Key Track: “To The Wolves”

The Howling Void, Into Darkness Ever More Profound

Key Track: “Deeper, Darker, Waters”

The Lion’s Daughter, Bath House (Independent)

Key Track: “Crawler Night”

Twilight Force, At The Heart Of Wintervale (Nuclear Blast)

Key Track: “The Last Crystal Bearer”

Uada, Crepsuscule Natura (Eisenwald)

Key Track: “Through the Wax and Through the Wane”

Ville Valo, Neon Noir (Spinefar)

Key Track: “Heartful of Ghosts”

Vomitory, All Heads Are Gonna Roll (Metal Blade)

Key Track: “Disciples of the Damned”

Voyager, Fearless In Love (Season Of Mist)

Key Track: “Dreamer”

Vulture Industries, Ghosts From The Past (Dark Essence)

Key Track: “Deeper” 

Within Temptation, Bleed Out (Force Music)

Key Track: “Bleed Out”

Year of the Knife, No Love Lost

Key Track: “Mourning the Living”