Chalk this one up as Surprise of the Year. After a couple of semi-droopy goth albums in the form of A Dead Poem and Sleep of Angels, one of Greece’s foremost purveyors of atmospheric black metal are back with a small gem of an album. They’ve managed to combine their older style of rampaging black metal with the kind of moody lushness found on the more recent material. The icing on the cake, though, are the guitar melodies. They’re everywhere on this disc, always subtle and never overwhelming, adding a perfect complement to the structure of each song. “Thou Art Blind” and “Aeternatus” blast their way right through you, while “If It Ends Tomorrow” and “Art of Sin” ply their dark trade more gently, but in either case the melodies rarely leave. They form a sort of rippling tapestry in the background, adding a depth to the material that is really quite enchanting. Here’s to nice surprises…

This disc has taken some flak for being considered rehashed, and I can’t disagree with that completely. Sentenced has made some amazing albums and this is admittedly one that is far from groundbreaking, but I have to say it’s pretty solid material. I am addicted to Sentenced’s suicidal love songs, and there’s still no other band that has quite the same edge that they do. With songs like “Home in Despair” and “No More Beating as One,” there’s no question of what’s being served up here. Sure, we’ve heard this before, but it remains convincing. Am I just a hopeless Sentenced devotee? Perhaps, but if you’ve enjoyed this band’s last couple albums, I think there’s plenty here for you.

After 4 years of inactivity (and more or less breaking up) these bayou bastards are back, and I’m pretty happy about that. I can’t say this album grabbed me as violently and immediately as Take as Needed for Pain or In the Name of Suffering, but I do think it offers more potency than Dopesick. It took me a few listens for the crunch to really seep in, but it’s there in full force. Tracks like “Inferior and Full of Anxiety” and “Last Year (She Wanted a Doll House)” ooooze with the crushing sludge this band helped to put on the map nearly ten years ago. A tune like “Jack Ass in the Will of God,” on the other hand, provides a more frantic pace, slapping you around with staccato rhythms, then slowing down after a couple minutes to drip with bluesy Sabbath riffs. Add in the usual screeching feedback and the atmosphere of scathing hatred that EHG create so well and you’ve got a classic sludge release for the ages. Prepare to be pulverized…

In 2000 Nocturnal Rites greeted us with their fourth album, and they’ve seen some changes. Vocalist Anders Zackrisson has been replaced by Jonny Lindkvist, but this hasn’t made a huge difference. Lindkvist handles the role effortlessly, turning in a smooth performance. What has made a difference is a general shift in style for the group. Their take on power metal now has less to do with Maiden and Helloween than with Riot or bands of that “heavier” ilk. In fact, the album is damn heavy, almost disarmingly so. I’ve never heard these guys crunch like they do on songs like “Hell and Back” or the title track. Still, there’s plenty of melody on hand, particularly in the vocals. The choruses in many tracks, including “The Sinners Cross,” “The Devil’s Child,” and the aforementioned “Hell and Back” are absolutely infectious. Nocturnal Rites remain one of Sweden’s finest exports.

Borknagar continue to make some of the most potent metal around. Caustic and blasting enough to appease the black legions, yet melodic enough to keep things interesting. Their penchant for mixing clean and harsh vocals has always been key to their magic. As on The Archaic Course, I.C.S. Vortex lends his awesome vocal prowess to this effort, but alas, he has since left the band. Not to fear—the spot has now apparently been filled by Vintersorg, another epic crooner. Lars Nedland of Solefald lends his considerable synth talents to this release and the result is a bit of a …Thousand Lakes-era Amorphis feel. Regardless of the current members in this revolving-door band, they have always managed to create excellent output. No exception here, as Quintessence will have you puffing out your chest and singing praises to the Norse gods.

Bring on the old school metal! Deceased is a totally no-nonsense band that has brought us another no-nonsense release. This time around they’ve chosen to tackle not one theme, as on Fearless Undead Machines, but eight different themes, based on eight different stories or movies. Inspiration includes The Tell-Tale Heart, The Blair Witch Project, a Twilight Zone episode, and others. Regardless of the story, there’s one constant throughout these tracks: melodies, melodies and more melodies. There are enough Maiden-inspired riffs here to satisfy any metalhead’s wet dream. Check out “A Very Familiar Stranger,” “The Doll with the Hideous Spirit” or “The Hanging Soldier” for some of the very best. You’ll be in air guitar heaven, I guarantee it. The one track that is a bit of a departure here is “Elly’s Dementia,” a tune with a rather odd stop/start formula. It drags on a bit longer than it should, but successfully creates a very eerie ambience. In any case, this disc should be in every metal fan’s collection. Up the Tombstones!

You could almost set your watch to In Flames. Every year or two they put out another album of blazing, melodic Swedish death metal. Last year I called them the elder statesmen of the Gothenburg sound, and that still holds true. This material is the work of a band that has been around, a band that seems to have the ability to put every note in the right place. I’m sure it’s not quite that easy for them, but you wouldn’t know it to listen to this disc. As on Colony, there is a bit of vocal experimentation going on (some clean and synthesized vocals), but it works pretty well for them. I guess you could call this their most “accessible” album to date, but I don’t expect to see it in the Billboard Top 200 any time soon. It’s really pretty simple: if you like heavy metal, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t like In Flames. They are masters of the craft.

When I heard that Jag Panzer was going to tackle Shakespeare’s Macbeth as the concept for their next album, I had my doubts. Could this band pull off this most epic of plays? Indeed they could, and they have. This album is not flawless in its approach to the play, but no single album could be; there’s just too much material to process. It does do a pretty good job though, conveying the greed, ambition, regret and vengefulness of this great work. On to the music: consisting of 17 tracks, there’s a lot to digest here. It takes several listens just to piece together what’s going on; once you do, however, you’ll find that it’s well worth your effort. For a power metal album, there’s not a whole lot of melodies or guitar acrobatics here. At first it’s a little surprising, but after a while it just didn’t matter to me. The grandiose nature of the work as a whole is very impressive indeed, and will pull you into the story. Vocalist Harry Conklin does a fine job portraying the intense emotional facets of the different characters. I constantly find myself singing along to these songs, curling my hands into fists and feeling like a character in the story; the passion is tangible. Bravo to this band for creating one epic work that nicely complements another.

Seems like Alchemist is never short on creativity. This Australian band has had some pretty impressive output and Organasm continues their momentum. I find 1997’s Spiritech to be a more engaging album, displaying a little more variation, but this one certainly has its moments. Track one greets you with a didgeridoo before moving into giant crashing riffs. From there the album is a trip through psychedelic keyboard melodies, tribal rhythms, and plenty of straightforward kicks to the head. Without question, the highlight of the disc is “Tide In, Mind Out,” a track that gently builds while a sublime guitar melody is carefully woven into its fabric. It finally bursts forth into heavier territory, then reacquires that same melody as it attains completeness. The result is spectacular, quite possibly the finest song I’ve heard from this band. If the whole album were like this track, I would have bumped it up several notches on this list. As it is, this is a very worthwhile release from one of the most underappreciated bands in the metal realm. Let’s change that last part, shall we?

For the third year in a row, Stuck Mojo has made my Top 15. Why? They utterly rock, my friends. This band’s sense of punishing groove, metallic crunch, and harmonious melody is second to none. Put the usual killer production behind it and you’ve got another barnstormer of an album. The unholy vocal triumvirate is still solidly in place: Bonz handles the rhythmic rhymes, guitarist Rich Ward belts out the deathy roars, and new bassist Dan Dryden does quite well with the clean, sung parts. As on the previous studio effort, the awesome Rising, this format makes for extremely dynamic and emotive music. Add in some truly insightful and intelligent spoken word tracks, plus an intro that will have you laughing your ass off, and it’s no mystery why this disc gets high marks.

Well, this was quite a highly anticipated Maiden album, to say the least. And why not? You have the return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith, but more than that, you now have three guitarists in the band. Three guitarists in a band that practically invented power metal, a genre that revolves heavily around guitar histrionics. It’s no surprise that Maiden was getting set up to be the great white hope of heavy metal, but that is not quite how it turned out. For having three guitarists in the band, three talented ones at that, there’s a shortage of stunning multi-part harmonies here. I know, I know, it’s foolish to want them to make Piece of Mind Part II, but I at least thought there might be a few jaw-dropping examples of guitar noodling. That said, there’s obviously a reason why this album is on my list, and that’s because it’s quality material by quality musicians. To some extent they’ve gone back to where Seventh Son… left off, but it’s clear that four other albums have happened in between. Some of this material wouldn’t sound entirely out of place on Fear of the Dark or Virtual XI; sure, it’s better, but the vibe is still there. The most recent Maiden discs have exhibited a tendency toward 70s prog rock; in at least one instance, that tendency has gone horribly awry (Virtual XI’s hideous “The Angel and the Gambler”). Thankfully, the band is able to make the sound work on this effort, and work quite well. “Blood Brothers” and “Dream of Mirrors” both use progressive elements, and are two of the finest tracks on the disc. Elsewhere, “The Fallen Angel” goes right for the throat, sounding as much like classic Maiden as this album ever does. Conversely, the chorus of “Out of the Silent Planet” is reminiscent of Dickinson’s recent solo work. “The Thin Line Between Love and Hate” ends things on a somewhat odd note, utilizing dual-track vocals that add a strange edge to Bruce’s voice. The track is new territory for the band, but they’re all the better for it…it’s a stirring and energetic tune. Ultimately, what it boils down to is that this is a great album from a bunch of guys that have been making music for more than 20 years. They’ve created art that, even if it doesn’t get you as riled up as “The Trooper,” is still a credit to their career and a strong step in the right direction. If you haven’t come back to the Maiden fold yet, give this album a chance. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

I’m not familiar with Cave In’s prior work, but from what I understand it sticks more closely to the definition of hardcore. At most, what’s on offer here could vaguely be called post-hardcore. This is one of those albums that’s tough to categorize, which is usually a good thing. What I do know is that it’s impassioned, it’s emotional, and it works. Much of it would probably be deemed too mellow for the average metalhead. “In the Stream of Commerce” and “Innuendo and Out the Other” glide along on jangly space rock foundations, reminding of Into Another’s Ignaurus album. However, “Big Riff” packs a thick wallop over its nearly seven minutes. Dynamic and brilliantly constructed, this song amazes me every time I listen to it. “Brain Candle” is upbeat and uptempo, a great energetic song perfectly placed in the middle of the disc. “Requiem” is another lengthy tune at just over nine minutes, shifting through several moods, the crisp cosmic guitar melodies shimmering likes stars on a cold winter’s night…delightful. Vocalist Stephen Brodsky is a truly talented fellow, reserved and gentle, easily moving into falsetto at times but still able to deliver some ragged screams. It is simply a pleasure to listen to him. I don’t know where Cave In will go from here, but I intend to be along for the ride.

Primordial knows well what the words “epic” and “majestic” mean in metal. No, these songs aren’t 12-minute forays into tales of viking warriors. Rather, their majesty comes from a sort of resonating guitar harmonic sprinkled with melodies; it spins, it weaves, it swirls…it conjures. Conjures a sense power, power that you can feel surging through you. The vocals do the same, moving between gripping, mournful cries that closely parallel Anathema’s Silent Enigma days and surging death rasps, vehemently spitting forth these hymns. “Gods to the Godless” is a perfect example: the phrase “the stench of your Slaughtered kin” is repeated to great effect, slowed down, each word bursting forth with frightening intensity. Chilling! Heavy and engaging, this is a stunning effort from an impressive band.

Wow. Last year Nevermore made my list with their remarkable Dreaming Neon Black opus. A great album, but I sensed that this band still had more to offer and wondered if the next album might give proof of that. It does. Rest assured, friends: Nevermore has ascended to godhood on this disc. They are without question one of the finest bands in metal today. Due in no small part to an Andy Sneap production, the first thing you’ll notice about this disc is that it’s HEAVY. Uncompromisingly, viciously heavy. The second thing you’ll notice is that, even though the band has gone from two guitarists to one, the riffs seem to have gotten better. Through songs like “Narcosynthesis,” “Inside Four Walls,” and “The River Dragon Has Come,” Jeff Loomis pulls out some guitar work that’s so razor sharp, so piercing, it’ll have you weeping in ecstasy. Warrel Dane’s vocals are as good as ever, perhaps better, eliciting emotional intensity and delivering the punches exactly where they’re needed. He’ll piss you off, he’ll drag you to the depths of despair, he’ll lift you up with a breath of hope and strength. Track after track, this release is a powerhouse of metallic genius. Buy it or live in shame forever.

Many bands do a lot of “evil” posturing, whether it be wearing corpsepaint or holding battle axes in their photos or screaming the word “satan” every ten seconds. Usually it’s pretty amusing, sometimes just embarrassing, but rarely very convincing. Make no mistake, though: Mayhem is the real deal. They don’t do any of the above things, but their music will make your flesh crawl. Unholy serpents of sound slither forth from your speakers the moment you hit the play button. However, this deadly atmosphere is just one side of Mayhem’s double-edged bloodsword; this is one of the most musically amazing albums of the past decade. Maniac is a vocal wonder, moving through a dozen different styles on this album. From volatile shrieks to Southern Baptist preaching/shouting to a sinister whisper, you’ll never know what’s coming next. Same goes for Hellhammer, whose drumming surely defies the laws of physics. He creates a maelstrom of beats, rolling across his kit at light speed, yet always keeping it under control. It’s order infused with chaos, chaos transformed to order. Look to “A Time to Die” for perhaps the most mindboggling drum performance ever recorded. And no, he doesn’t use any technical trickery to accomplish it…the man is a master of rhythmic madness. Maniac’s vocals aren’t the only things that keep you on your toes; song styles move through black, electronica, doom, Voivodian thrash and back again. Some longtime fans have criticized the disc for all this exploration. So is this really black metal? You bet your ass it is, because Mayhem say it is. These guys are the innovators, not the imitators. There is nothing safe about this music; it is the very definition of original, it crashes through musical boundaries, it scoffs at the notion of limitations. A true masterpiece.