2008 Year in Review

The obligatory overdue Year in Review section has arrived. It’s full of pretty album art, monikers we have been using for the better part of seven years, and of course fan and band chosen material. Revel in the picks of artists like THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER and SHADOWS FALL through to GOATWHORE and SIX FEET UNDER. This list will be continually updated through January 11, so be sure to check back…

While this would not have gone amiss in the actual year of 2008, we figured it was best to enjoy our holiday and squeeze this little surprise out in the early new year. So, without further ado, below you will find:

  • ‘Celebrity’ Album of the Year Lists
  • Staff Album of the Year Lists
  • Your (Fan Chosen) Album of the Year for 2008

Staff Picks

siN

  1. Testament – The Formation of Damnation
  2. Amon Amarth – Twilight of the Thunder Gods
  3. All That Remains – Overcome
  4. Blessed By A Broken Heart – Pedal to the Metal
  5. Shinedown – The Sound of Madness
  6. AC/DC – Black Ice
  7. Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul
  8. The Haunted – Versus
  9. Metallica – Death Magnetic
  10. Unearth – The March

Coma

  1. Secret Chiefs 3 – Xaphan: Book of Angels Volume 9
  2. John Zorn – The Crucible
  3. Genghis Tron – Board Up The House
  4. Birdflesh – The Farmer’s Wrath
  5. Iron Lung – Sexless//No Sex
  6. Fuck The Facts – Disgorge Mexico
  7. Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs
  8. Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
  9. Disfear – Live The Storm
  10. Cynic – Traced In Air

Carlos Ramirez, Contributing Writer

  1. Scar Symmetry – Holographic Universe
  2. Nachmystium – Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1
  3. Trap Them – Seizures In Barren Praise
  4. Testament – The Formation of Damnation
  5. Krallice – Krallice
  6. Cold World – Dedicated to Babies Who Came First
  7. Torche – Meanderthal
  8. Metallica – Death Magnetic
  9. Bloodbath – The Fathomless Mastery
  10. Hail of Bullets – …Of Frost and War

Mark Thompson, Contributing Writer

  1. Opeth – Watershed
  2. Cancer Bats – Hail Destroyer
  3. Soilent Green – Inevitable Collapse In The Presence Of Conviction
  4. Metallica – Death Magnet
  5. Bleeding Through – Declaration
  6. Austrian Death Machine – Total Brutal
  7. Unearth – The March
  8. Amon Amarth – Twilight Of The Thunder God
  9. Disturbed – Indestructible
  10. Testament – The Formation Of Damnation

Fan Picked Albums of the Year

Your album of the year was…the return of Metallica…

1. Metallica – Death Magnetic

2. Opeth – Watershed

3. Kill The Client – Cleptocracy

4. Amon Amarth – Twilight of the Thunder God

5. Meshuggah – ObZen

Band Album of the Year Picks
Fuck The Facts, Topon Das (guitars)

  1. Unearthly Trance – Electrocution
  2. Cursed – III
  3. Gengis Tron – Board Up The House
  4. Cynic – Traced In Air
  5. Gojira – The Way Of All Flesh

Kill the Client, James Delgado (bass)

  1. Captain Cleanoff – Symphonies of Slackness
  2. Jig-Ai – Katana Orgy
  3. Maruta – In Narcosis
  4. P.L.F. -”Crushing Fury of Bastardization
  5. Misery Index – Traitors

The Red Chord, Gunface (guitars)
in no particular order

1. Unearthly Trance – Electrocution
2. Cynic – Traced In Air
3. Leviathan – Massive Conspiracy Against All Life
4. Bohren & Der Club Of Gore – Dolores
5. Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree

Chainsaw to the Face, Ben (Guitars)

1. Hour of Penance – The Vile Conception
2. Rotten Sound – Cycles
3. Doomsday Machine Schematic – Grind Opening
4. Capitalist Casualties/Hellnation Split
5. Kill the Client – Cleptocracy

Maruta, Mitchell Luna (vocals)

1. Capsule – Blue
2. Kill The Client – Cleptocracy
3. Coffins – Buried Death
4. Dead Congregation – Graves of the Archangels
5. Torche – Meanderthal

Genghis Tron, Hamilton Jordan (guitars/drum programming)

1. Portishead – Third
2. Snowman – The Horse, The Rat, and the Swan
3. Invisible Conga People – Cable Dazed/Weird Pains 12″
4. Krallice – s/t
5. Nine Inch Nails – “The Slip

Bane, Aaron Bedard (vocals)

  1. Blacklisted – Heavier that Heaven Lonelier then God
  2. The Dodo’s – Visiter
  3. Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
  4. Greg Laswell – Three Flights from Alto Nido
  5. Ceremony – Still Nothing Moves You

Cataract, Greg Mader (guitars)

  1. Guns’n'roses – Chinese Democracy
  2. Bleeding through – Declaration
  3. Slipknot – All Hope is Gone
  4. Bring me the horizon – Suicide Season
  5. Whitechapel – This is Exile

Overcast, Derek Kerswill (drums)

1. Kings of Leon – Only By The Night
2. Protest The Hero- Fortress
3. Gojira – The Way of All Flesh
4. Robyn – Robyn
5. Radiohead – In Rainbows

Shadows Fall/Overcast, Brian Fair (vocals)
in no particular order

  1. Amon Amarth – Twilight Of The Thunder God
  2. Ours – Mercy
  3. Children Of Bodom – Blooddrunk
  4. Dragonforce – Ultra Beatdown
  5. Coldplay – Viva La Vida

Cannibal Corpse, Alex Webster (bass)

1. Meshuggah – Obzen
2. Jeff Loomis – Zero Order Phase
3. Hour of Penance – The Vile Conception
4. Psycroptic – Ob(servant)
5. Skeleton of God – Primordial Dominion

Cattle Decapitation, Josh Elmore (guitar)
in no particular order

1. Woven Hand-Ten Stones
2. Nachtmystium-Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1
3. Slim Cessna’s Auto Club-Cipher
4. Hail Of Bullets-Of Frost and War
5. Portal-Outre

(HED)P.E., Jared Gomes (vocals)

1.    Tech9 – Killer
2.    Kottonmouth Kings – Green Album
3.    Suicidal Tendencies – Suicial Tendencies
4.    Minor Threat – Complete Discography
5.    Refused – The Shape of Punk To Come

Cattle Decapitation, Travis Ryan (vocals)

1. Death In June – The Rule of Thirds
2. Nadja – The Bungled & the Botched
3. Nadja/5/5/2000 split LP – Tumpisa
4. Cynic – Traced in Air
5. Giddle Partridge & Boyd Rice – Going Steady With Peggy Moffett

Goatwhore, Zach Simmons (drums)

1. Nachtmystium- Assassins
2. Leviathan- Massive Conspiracy Against All Life
3. Motorhead- Motorizer
4. Metallica- Death Magnetic
5. Hank III- Damn Right Rebel Proud

The Ocean, Robin Staps (guitar)

1. Cult of Luna – Eternal Kingdom
2. Burst – Lazarus Bird
3. Textures – Silhouettes
4. Opeth – Watershed
5. Cynic – Traced in Air

Woe of Tyrants, All Members

  1. Chris Catanzaro: Anti-Flag, The Bright Lights of America
  2. Adam Kohler: The Human Abstract, Midheaven
  3. Matt Kincaid: Beneath the Massacre, Dystopia
  4. Johnny Roberts: Arsis, We Are the Nightmare
  5. Hehman: Amon Amarth, Twilight of the Thunder God

The Crimson Armada, Chris Yates (bass)

  1. Underoath – Lost in the Sound of Separation
  2. 3OH!3 – Want
  3. Emmure – The Respect Issue
  4. Austrian Death Machine – Total Brutal
  5. Krystal Meyers – Make Some Noise

Kill What I Adore, Sean McCandless (vocals)

1. The Acacia Strain – Continent
2. After The Burial – Rareform
3. Unearth – The March
4. Whitechapel – This Is Exile
5. Veil Of Maya – The Common Man’s Collapse

Municipal Waste, Dave Witte (drums)

  1. Leviathan – Massive Conspiracy Against All Life
  2. Young Widows – Old Wounds
  3. Virus – The Black Flux
  4. Meshuggah – Obzen
  5. Genghis Tron – Boarding Up The House

These Green Eyes, Colin Cunningham (vocals)

  1. Polar Bear Club – Sometimes Things Just Disappear
  2. Alkaline Trio – Agony & Irony
  3. Kill The Frontman – Songs From The Game Room
  4. Why? – Alopecia
  5. Gym Class Heroes – The Quilt

The Black Dahlia Murder, Trevor Strnad (vocals)

  1. Vampire Weekend – s/t
  2. Nada Surf – Lucky
  3. Cynic – Traced In Air
  4. Arghoslent – Hornets Of The Pogrom
  5. Mirrorthrone – Gangrene
  6. Mirrorthrone – Gangrene
  7. Hour Of Penance – The Vile Conception
  8. Bloodbath – The Fathomless Mastery
  9. Dead Congregation – Graves Of The Archangels
  10. Deeds Of Flesh – Of Whats To Come
  11. Psycroptic – (Ob)servant

Kris Norris, Kris Norris Projekt (guitars)
in no particular order

  1. Cynic – Traced in Air
  2. Destinity – The Inside
  3. Diablo – Icarus Complex
  4. Volbeat – Guitars Gangsters and Cadillac Blood
  5. Helltrain – rock n roll devil

36 Crazyfists, Brock Lindow (vocals)

1. Dax Riggs – We only sing of love or blood
 2. Kings of Leon – Only By The Night
 3. In Flames – Sense Of Purpose
 4. Everlast – Love,War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford
 5. 36 Crazyfists – The Tide and Its Takers

Sonic Syndicate, John Bengtsson (drums)

1. Volbeat – Guitar Gangsters and Cadillac Blood
2. Gojira – Way of all Flesh
3. Slipknot – All Hope is Gone
4. Metallica – Death Magnetic
5. Scar Symmetry – Holographic Universe

Black Tide, Zachary Sandler (bass)

  1. Guns ‘n’ Roses – Chinese Democracy
  2. Drive By Truckers – Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
  3. Slipknot – All Hope Is Gone
  4. Rihanna – Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded
  5. The All-American Rejects – When The World Comes Down

Demon Hunter, Jon Dunn (bass)

1. AA Bondy – American Hearts
2. Metallica – Death Magnetic
3. Copeland – You Are My Sunshine
4. The Gaslight Anthem – The 59 Sound
5. The Famine – The Raven And The Reaping

Mutiny Within, Andrew Jacobs (bass)

1. Scar Symmetry – “Holographic Universe”
2. In Flames – “A Sense Of Purpose”
3. Trivium – “Shogun”
4. All That Remains – “Overcome”
5. Slipknot – “All Hope Is Gone”

Single Bullet Theory, Matt DiFabio (vocals/guitars)

1. The Haunted – Versus
2. Guns ‘N Roses – Chinese Democracy
3. Metallica – Death Magnetic
4. Slipknot- All Hope is Gone
5. Journey- Revalation

Chimaira, Mark Hunter (vocals)

1. Metallica – Death Magnetic
2. NIN – Ghosts I-IV/The Slip
3. Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III
4. T.I. – Paper Trail
5. Whitechapel – This Is Exile

Chimaira, Matt DeVries (guitars)

1. Overcast – Reborn To Kill Again
2. Meshuggah – Obzen
3. Whitechapel – This Is Exile
4. Emmure – The Respect Issue
5. Terror – The Damned, The Shamed

Chimaira, Andols Herrick (drummer)

1. Opeth – Watershed
2. Hate Eternal – Fury and Flames
3. The Savage Nation – 6-9pm EST
4. The O’Reilly Factor – 8-9pm EST FNC
5. Hannity and Colmes – 9-10pm EST FNC

Chimaira, Chris Spicuzza (keys)

1. Nine Inch Nails – The Slip
2. Meshuggah – Obzen
3. Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts I-IV
4. Scars on Broadway – Self Titled
5. Opeth – Watershed

Six Feet Under, Terry Butler (bass)

1. Hail Of Bullets-Of Frost And War
2. Candlemass-Lucifer Rising
3. Uriah Heep -Wake The Sleeper
4. Motorhead-Motorizer
5. Toxic Holocaust-An Overdose Of Death