The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: Recap

Now that I've concluded my list of The Top 50 Metal Albums of the 2000's, I thought I'd provide a bit of a summary. It really was a great decade for metal, seeing the increasing cross-genre mutations as well as the development of new genres.

I suppose many of you are wondering why I didn't call it the top 30 metal albums of the last decade. The explanation that I want you to add your picks is only part of the story. I also thought people would search for a top 50 list a lot more than a top 30 list. I suppose I could have called it the top 100 metal albums of the decade, or the 75 best metal albums of the 2000s, or the top 40 metal albums of the last 10 years. And now people Googling any of those will find this, eventually.

For those who like to keep score, here are the points based on band home country:

Denmark: 3
Finland: 1
France: 2
Germany: 2
Norway: 1
Sweden: 7
U.S.A.: 14

For me, it's not surprising that Sweden, Denmark, and the U.S. are so well-represented on the list. You would expect most of it to come from Scandinavia and the U.S. What is surprising is that France made the list at all--let alone twice. If you would have predicted two great metal bands to come out of France ten years ago, I would have laughed at you. I'm also a bit surprised Finland and Norway didn't have stronger showings. I'm not sure whether that means the U.S. is overrepresented, or if Sweden is, or if both are, but it is puzzling.

Here is the score by record label:

Century Media: 2
Elektra: 1
Epic: 1
Firebox: 1
InsideOut: 1
Ipecac: 1
Listenable: 1
Metal Blade: 4
Metal Mind: 1
Music for Nations: 1
Nuclear Blast: 5
Rebel Monster: 1
Relapse: 5
Roadrunner: 2
Season of Mist: 1
Warner Bros.: 2

It's definitely no surprise that Nuclear Blast and Relapse dominate, being the two finest independent metal labels around. Metal Blade would have been my guess for third-best showing as well. I'm also unsurprised by the fact there was a moderate showing by the major labels, since they tend to pick up some of the greats. So, truly, no surprises whatsoever when you look at it by record label.

And, here is the score by primary genre (which is often open to interpretation):

Black metal: 1
Death metal: 8
Doom metal: 2
Groove metal: 1
Pure heavy metal: 3
Metalcore: 1
Nu-metal: 2
Post-metal: 1
Progressive metal: 5
Sludge metal: 2
Symphonic metal: 1
Thrash metal: 3

Death metal clearly dominates. I would expect this, because it's such a rich genre with many subgenres. If you want to break it down further, 2 are melodic death and 4 are technical death, the latter of which may be a bit over-represented. What is notably absent from the list is power metal, which is not one of my favorites (although I do like some of it), and this is why I invite you to add your picks in the comments to each post. I definitely think black metal is underrepresented as well, and after I realized this I started picking up a lot more of it--so the next time I come up with a list, it should be much better represented.

Check out the whole list and add your favorites here.

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2009

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for, the top list for 2009.

Artillery: When Death Comes

Danish thrash metal veterans Artillery showed nothing but pure genius on this, their first new album in ten years. Allmusic's Phil Freeman has this to say:

On this disc, the band's core -- the guitar-playing Stytzer brothers, Michael and Morten -- remain, but longtime vocalist Flemming Rönsdorf has been replaced by Søren Nico Adamsen, a change that had some of the band's longtime fans worried. Fortunately, he's a terrific addition to the group, a mid-range singer (neither a growler nor a Rob Halford-esque shrieker) who may remind some of former Anthrax vocalist Joey Belladonna, especially when the group's thrash riffing becomes particularly '80s-esque. Which it does quite a bit. Artillery is not a band that's changed with the times -- they're still doing exactly what they did at the beginning of their career. . . . One of the best things about When Death Comes, though, is the powerful production and mixing; every instrument is clear and thunderous, especially Peter Thorslund's bass. This is a quality disc recommended to any metalhead, not just thrash diehards.

I think he puts it pretty well. Top tracks include the title track, "10,000 Devils," and "The End."

Eryn Non Dae: Hydra Lernaia

These guys are so completely unknown, as I write this, that they don't even have a Wikipedia article, so you may have to check their web site to learn more. The music is difficult to categorize: It's sort of a progressive post-deathcore, evoking comparisons to the likes of Meshuggah, Neurosis, and Eryn Non Dae's countrymen Gojira. It's an extremely bass-heavy, brutal, and experimental album, both original and excellent. Metal Blade found something extremely special with this group. This is what the label's web site has to say about the album:

As per its mythological definition - the mythical nine-headed serpent, slain by Hercules, that grew two heads in place of each one that was cut off, unless the wound was cauterized - Hydra Lernaia explores nine human feelings as many-sided problems that present new difficulties each time one aspect of them seems to be solved or overcome. Each song is a feeling; each feeling is an incurable disease that tortures the heart of man.

My favorite tracks include "Existence Asleep" and "Pure."

Baroness: Blue Record

As I mentioned in the introduction to this series, the 2000's saw the rise of sludge metal, due in no small part to the success of Mastodon. And after Mastodon, fellow progressive sludge metal band Baroness is the band on everyone's short list. At times they sound like Black Sabbath, at other times Thin Lizzy, and still at others Mastodon, but always with their own unique take and in a coherent style. Coherence throughout the album is something that's often thrown by the wayside in the days of single-song downloads, but these guys haven't forgotten how to make a true album. The numerous interludes help the whole thing flow together, often incorporating elements from the prior song which are then followed up in the next, until finally the last track (a reworking of the first track) brings the whole thing to a thoughtful and fully-explored ending. While some groups get a lot of hype without deserving it, Baroness has earned the hype. See especially "Swollen and Halo," a psychedelic metal triumph.

That just about does it for the list--except, as I noted, I've only picked 30 out of the top 50 metal albums for the decade. Be sure to add your picks for the remaining two in the comments to each decade. You can see the whole list by clicking here. I will follow up next Friday with a recap.

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2008

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

Without further ado, the list for 2008.

Cynic: Traced in Air

A reunion album 15 years after their debut, it's surprising these masters of jazz fusion-inspired progressive technical death metal haven't lost their roots. Instead, they've stuck to the original formula, and over a decade and a half these accomplished musicians (some former members of the legendary Death) evolved and refined the style significantly. As John A. Hanson of Sputnikmusic wrote (giving the album a perfect score),

While some may have expected the 15 years and band member changes to perhaps cause a giant shift in sound which would have caused either a renaissance or a dilution of Cynic’s sound, all that happened in 15 years was the maturation of Paul Masvidal, Sean Reinart and Sean Malone to the point where Traced in Air sounds like the older, futuristic, spacey cousin of the already futuristic, spacey Focus. Which means it's arguably the weirdest metal album released this year, and almost undoubtedly the best.

The vocals are strange, the death growls making some appearances, but mostly sticking to the computer-like clean vocals they had on the debut album. The music is complex and simultaneously brutal and beautiful, as Hanson noted in his summary, "Traced in Air is essentially the audible recording of the element of Air, in all of its beauty and rage, and one could not ask for anything more." My only complaint is the album is incredibly short (like its predecessor), clocking in at little more than 34 minutes. Top tracks include "The Space for This," "Integral Birth," and especially "Adam's Murmur."

Gojira: The Way of All Flesh

Technical death metal is the order of the day here, and these French masters of the genre also include progressive, thrash, and groove metal elements in their fourth studio album. The lyrics deal with death and its place in the cycle of life, and as always with this band, the environment. I can't praise it enough, so I'll let Chad Bowar of About.com help:

The Way Of All Flesh is a complex effort that takes a few listens to fully unravel and appreciate. Gojira's sound blends death, progressive and thrash metal, and they add a few industrial parts on this CD as well. Some tracks are dense and technical, with waves of riffs and pummeling blast beats that are brutal and intense.
Other songs leave a little more room to breathe, with mellower progressive sections and groovier riffs. The Way Of All Flesh has a lot of diversity in tempos, textures, intensities and song lengths that help keep the listener fully engaged at all times.
There are shorter, focused songs in the 3 to 4 minute range, and more epic and complex tracks like "The Art Of Dying," which clocks in at nearly 10 minutes. . . .
Vocalist Joe Duplantier has a distinctive sound, and his death metal vocals are both intense and understandable. He's brutal, but also uses excellent technique that makes it a bit more accessible. . . .
With The Way Of All Flesh Gojira cements their place as one of the elite bands in extreme metal.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Top tracks include "Oroborus," "The Art of Dying," and "Vacuity," though there is no low point in the record.

Metallica: Death Magnetic

With the help of legendary producer Rick Rubin, the all-time kings of metal return to their thrash metal roots. As I noted previously, the album is definitely their best since Master of Puppets, and quite possibly their second best album ever. It combines the ferocity and power of their early work with the polish and maturity of their later work (St. Anger excluded, though I still think that album deserves its place in their catalog). The Wikipedia article notes something of interest: "The album is the band's fifth consecutive studio album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 in the United States, making Metallica the first band ever to achieve five consecutive number one debuts." That's impressive, but not nearly as impressive as the album itself, which is completely and uncompromisingly heavy, replete with the band's legendary guitar solos. Critically, it's almost universally accepted as Metallica being Metallica again, their best work in at least two decades. My favorite track is "All Nightmare Long," but the only track I can't see as a staple of their live sets is "The Unforgiven III."

Be sure to add your picks for the remaining two 2008 albums in the comments, and come back next week for the last post in the top 50 albums of the last decade, 2009, a year still fresh in memory. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2007

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

As I said last week, my list for 2007 has some picks which are very different from those already on the list. So let's get to it.

The Dillinger Escape Plan: Ire Works

You might guess I like strange music, having picked Disillusion last week, and you'd be right. Yes, Dillinger are a metalcore group, but they are the best kind of metalcore: mathcore. While there are some accessible, almost 90's pop punk style moments, these don't serve to make the album mainstream at all. Instead, they seem to emphasize the abrasiveness of the rest of the album. The sound is extremely complex and abrasive, the way I like it, but it's not just aimless complexity. It all makes sense. Both rock magazine Kerrang! and extreme metal magazine Decibel gave the album perfect scores. My top picks include "Black Bubblegum" (which combines mathcore with a dance tune), "Milk Lizard" (which includes brass), and "Horse Hunter" (which is highly counter-intuitive, yet still works).

Symphony X: Paradise Lost

Up until this pick, I have neglected to include any power metal, and I'm sure any European readers were foaming at the mouth over that. I'm not a huge fan of the genre, although I do have some favorites (Brainstorm, Firewind, and of course Iced Earth). Hopefully the inclusion of this progressive symphonic power metal band will help (even if they are American). Anyway, the album is epic in concept, epic in scope, and epic in execution. It's absolutely brilliant, from the Carmina Burana-like opener "Oculus Ex Inferni" to the dramatic closer "Revelation (Divus Pennae ex Tragoedia)" which clocks in at 9:17. The vocals are some of the best in power metal as well. The band seems to have backed off the symphonic part of their work a bit, as it had been accused of derailing their music before, and the result is breathtaking: Rather than overwhelm the metal or make it wimpy, the symphonic elements merely emphasize it (much like on a certain Norwegian band's album I picked for 2003). A truly excellent album.

Volbeat: Rock the Rebel / Metal the Devil

These Danes have a unique approach to heavy metal: They combine it with 1950's style rock music (a la Elvis). The approach which could be seen as part of the larger "retro metal" movement, but I object to any comparison which puts them in the same box with the likes of crap like Wolfmother; no, Volbeat's approach is a fusion genre, not a return to a prior metal style. The juxtaposition of styles creates a stunning result, with the seemingly wholesome elements of the 50's rock, including both musical and lyrical elements, twisted into a scary metal interpretation. This is in evidence on top tracks such as opener "The Human Instrument" (which takes a twist on all those I-love-her-but-she-doesn't-know-it 50's songs), the aggressive love song "A Moment Forever" (which includes scatting), the murder story (including a wrongly-accused husband) "Mr. and Mrs. Ness," and especially the mythical "River Queen."

I hope you enjoyed my picks for 2007. Be sure to add your picks for the other two songs for 2007 in the comments, and come back next week for 2008, where I go back to some death and thrash. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2006

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

On to the list for 2006.

Amon Amarth: With Oden on Our Side

With their sixth full-length album, these experts of melodic death metal don't do anything they haven't done before. Rather than reinvent the wheel, they have refined it. And why not? Consistency has worked for other greats (see for example Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Exodus, and the list goes on) while innovation has backfired on others (obvious examples include Danzig and Metallica). Refinement is the word of the day for Oden, with the band beautifully blending the brutality of death metal with engaging melodies in ways unmatched by any other practitioners of the Gothenburg style. The standout tracks on the record include "Valhall Awaits Me," "Runes To My Memory," the title track, and especially "Gods of War Arise," though there is not a weak track in sight.

Disillusion: Gloria

Yes, Metal Blade had a good year in 2006, with two releases making the list, this one from the strange German avant-garde progressive industrial melodic death metal band Disillusion. Yes, the genre listing is a mouthful, but these guys draw from a wide variety of influences to create something entirely new and engaging. Eduardo Rivadavia from Allmusic elaborates:

Surely one of the most intriguing CDs that heavy metal fans will hear in 2006, Disillusion's sophomore effort, Gloria, uses the group's death and thrash metal roots as mere springboards from which to launch into extremely varied realms of sonic experiment; including alt-rock, industrial, electronic, gothic, ambient and classical tendencies -- all more or less held together under the always convenient, but never entirely functional, description of prog metal. Which is to say that its unexpected twists and turns may prove too eclectic for any but the most open-minded of listeners, and that the thrill of the adventure itself is as central to the experience as the actual music.

My personal picks include "The Black Sea," "Aerophobic," and "Save the Past," though it's so eclectic I doubt any two people would share the same favorites from this disc.

Mastodon: Blood Mountain

I simply can't heap enough praise on this album. It actually took me a few listens to really "get it," but after I did, I realized this is truly a once-in-a-generation triumph (much like Master of Puppets from 20 years prior). These masters of progressive sludge metal taught me, among other things, that drums do not have to be mere background to the music, and they have restored faith in the American metal scene. Praise is nearly universal; according to the Wikipedia article,

Total Guitar magazine voted it its Number One album of 2006, and magazines such as Metal Hammer and Kerrang! have stated that it is every bit as good as the band's previous album Leviathan, if not better. . . .
Blood Mountain was voted the best album of 2006 in the UK Metal Hammer magazine end-of year polls, as well as top in Total Guitar magazine's top 50 albums of 2006. It was also rated the 17th greatest metal album of all time by a countdown recently done by gaming website IGN.

Such disparate sources as PopMatters ("Mastodon has certainly held up its end of the bargain, releasing the most uncompromising major label debut by an American metal band since Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Slayer’s Reign in Blood two decades ago"), Absolutepunk.net, and Drowned in Sound have given it stellar (or perfect) reviews. The whole album fits perfectly together, each track seeming to introduce the next perfectly. The writing of the individual tracks themselves, too, is amazing; each one is built on a simple framework, but with intricacies overlaid which rival even Dream Theater's most progressive moments. Top tracks include opener "The Wolf Is Loose," the dramatic and ominous "Sleeping Giant," the wildly embellished "Capillarian Crest," and the phenomenal "Colony of Birchmen." The only bad thing I can say about it is that I don't understand why, in the age of MP3 players, anyone would have a hidden track anymore--These things are annoying, when incorporated into another track (we don't want blank time on the album, and we didn't even want it on hard copies either).

Be sure to add your picks for the remaining two top metal albums of 2006, and come back next week to see mine for 2007, which has choices much different from the albums already on the list. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2005

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

On to the list for 2005.

Candlemass: Candlemass

These Swedes practically invented doom metal, and though they released a lot of less impressive albums in the late 80's and the 90's, they reunited with early day vocalist Messiah Marcolin to release their best album since 1986's Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. (It's only too bad he left the band soon after, and they proceeded to record lackluster material again.) This is epic doom at its finest, as evidenced by such dramatic tracks as opener "Black Dwarf," the "War Pigs"-like "Copernicus," and most especially the brilliant "The Day and the Night."

DevilDriver: The Fury of Our Maker's Hand

Though he started with nu metal band Coal Chamber, and this band's first album sounded mostly like more of the same, Dez Fafara had come a long way by 2005. Specializing in the heavier, faster melodic death-inspired groove metal favored by many groups of the new wave of American heavy metal (see, e.g., Machine Head and Lamb of God), these guys stand out from the crowd. Dez still has all the energy and charisma he always had, but now he has a much heavier, more credible band to match it (though I have always liked Coal Chamber, one of the heavier nu metal bands of its time). The obvious stand-out track is "Hold Back the Day."

Soilwork: Stabbing the Drama

And speaking of melodic death metal, and Swedes, Soilwork also makes the list with their most innovative and experimental album (at least up through 2005). Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia explains:

Extreme enough to convince some of the genre's more suspicious fans of their authenticity to the cause, they've also excelled at flirting with its more mainstream sensibilities, and, like every release before it, 2005's Stabbing the Drama is no different. Like a hyper-efficient assembly line, its songs connect components of the band's hometown melodic death metal to elements of neo-thrash velocity, to metalcore's innate simplicity, to even -- gasp! -- sketchy nu-metal devices (see "Weapon of Vanity," "Distance") in order to construct a well-lubricated driving machine that's ever compact and economical.

As always, be sure to add your picks for the other two top metal albums of 2005, and check back next Friday for 2006. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2004

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

And on to the list for 2004.

The Haunted: rEVOLVEr

Not since the 1980's has thrash metal been this good, and it's rarely been in such capable hands. Brutal all the way through, but with maturity and innovative songwriting, great guitars, and harsh metalcore-esque vocals, the record is a violent treat from start to finish. "Fire Alive" is perhaps the highlight of the album, but other tracks such as "99" and "Burnt to a Shell" (along with all the rest) are also excellent.

Necrophagist: Epitaph

Ah, the single most definitive statement of technical death metal. "Technical" is the order of the day: the band play with such precision on this track it's hard to believe it wasn't played by a computer, except for the fact they also play with a conviction a computer could never reproduce. While Turkish-German vocalist/guitarist Muhammed Suiçmez gets most of the attention for his shredding (and he deserves every ounce of attention he gets), bassist Stephan Fimmers deserves as much attention. This album not only crushes with its surgical assault, it is also a thinking-man's album, with pieces derived by composers Sergei Prokofiev and good old Ludwig van. The only problem with this one is it's over far too soon, at only about 33 minutes.

Suffocation: Souls To Deny

Yes, more death metal, but it was a great year for the genre. This is another album which introduced me to the splendors of the same, along with the works of Meshuggah. The album comes after a long hiatus by the band, time which was well spent, because they come back refreshed and ready to split eardrums. William York of Allmusic says it better than I can:

There seems to be a sort of hidden logic at work in it, since it's hard for even an astute listener to figure out what's going on in terms of the song structure, yet it obviously all makes perfect sense to the band, who deliver this perplexing material with a natural, freely flowing sense of brutality. Many bands have attempted to copy Suffocation's sound, and most of them are extremely boring because they either don't grasp the subtleties or don't have the intuition that these guys obviously possess as songwriters and musicians. "Souls to Deny" is a reminder of what makes good death metal good, and a refreshing break from the uninspired landfill fodder that constitutes so much of the genre's output circa the early- to mid-'00s.

Remember to comment and add your picks for the other two albums to round out the list for 2004, and then come back next Friday for the 2005 list. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2003

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

Now for the list for 2003.

Dimmu Borgir: Death Cult Armageddon

This album is easily the best symphonic black metal album of all time. The band is assisted by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, who provide a melodic counterpoint to the band's crushing assault. As often, John Serba of Allmusic explains quite well:

The orchestra lends overwhelming and full-bodied sonic bombast to "Vredsbyrd," "Eradication Instincts Defined," and "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse," the latter two so vast and epic in scope they seem to spot weld John Williams/Star Wars compositional soundtrack drama to blastbeating black metal nastiness -- and while naysayers claim strings make metal wimpy, here they're seamlessly integrated and lend power and profundity to the arrangements.

Personally, I believe "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse" to be one of the greatest metal tracks of all time, but everything on this record destroys.

Dream Theater: Train of Thought

The kings of progressive metal released their heaviest album to date with Train of Thought, a nearly-70 minute opus which puts the considerable chops of these Berklee College of Music alumni to full use. The best tracks on here are the 11-plus minute epics "This Dying Soul" and "Endless Sacrifice," and the album also includes Dream Theater's longest instrumental-only studio track, "Stream of Consciousness," which clocks in at 11:16, and while it's more difficult to manage an instrumental which goes into epic lengths, they managed it beautifully.

Swallow the Sun: The Morning Never Came

The Finnish quartet's debut album was seen by many as breathing life into the stale doom metal genre. Of course, it would take a new group to do that, and there is no better country than Finland to do so, with their wide variety of experimental and against-the-grain metal bands. Technically, it is death/doom, the best kind of doom. And it's absolutely brilliant, without any low points. High points include "Deadly Nightshade" and "Hold This Woe."

Please be sure to add your picks for the other two top metal albums for 2003 in the comments, and be sure to come back next Friday to check out the picks for 2004. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.