These are just a handful of albums I absolutely loved this year that were released in 2008. One of the best things in writing for music publications is the amount of music that when you are my age, you would have never heard about. Over the past number of years, I have heard a lot of good music but unfortunately more crappy stuff than stellar. For instance, I did not listen to one Hip-Hop / R&B album this year. Too sad but that is the state of the industry, I guess (but I did hear that the new Erykah Badu album was tight).
As for 2008? I dunno. Some have said that it was a good year for metal, some have thought otherwise. For me, I listened to a lot of great stuff so I was pretty happy: A lot of good Doom / Stoner stuff came out, such as The Sword, Torche, Pelican and this band I just covered for ME, Viking Skull; some awesome Death / Grindcore stuff, like Misery Index, Neuraxis and The Faceless, this indescribable progressive death metal band that totally blew my mind the first time I heard the album. Oh yeah, you have to check out the newest album by this Canadian band, FiftyWattHead. Some serious stoner metal.
However, I did find myself discovering a number of albums that I missed in 2007. I listened to a lot of Melvins, Bib Business, tons of Mastodon, Neurosis, Harvey Milk, and the double-CD of the newest incarnation of Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, was on heavy rotation. I also took out probably one of my favourite albums of all time, Slayer's 2001 epic God Hates Us All, quite a bit. My friend Bryan turned me onto The Bronx, I really dug the latest album by Agnostic Front and liked Made Out Of Babies. Oh yeah, check out ( if you haven't already) Boris, the new SoulFly and Ghengis Tron, which I absoutely loved. Recently, I decided to check out Today is the Day because I was intrigued by Steve Austin who produced this fucking awesome band Early Graves. The singer, a brother named Makh, seems quite interesting and a must-interview for the future.
Future bands to check out which I haven't yet already: Cannibal Corpse, Goijra, Opeth ( acutally I checked out their Myspace but have to make a return visit), Disfear, Cynic, Bison BC, Five Finger Death Punch.......any more? Tell me which metal albums I should check out. Damn, I'm sure I'm missing a few........Oh yeah, you have to check the Misery Index - it is off the chain!
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