Here are ten albums that did not make it to my Looking Back On 2009/Awards List, Top Ten Hard Rock Albums List or my Top 25 Heavy Metal Albums List. These are albums that I did buy, enjoyed, still listen to and reviewed on Metal Odyssey during 2009. They all deserve some Metal attention as well. There is no specific order of importance here, these are albums that I really want to celebrate – for their overall integrity in musicianship and songs. From the Progressive/Extreme Metal of Daath to the Hard Rock meets Heavy Metal of the ultra legendary Thin Lizzy, these 2009 albums blanket a few genres. It just wouldn’t feel right to me, not revisiting these albums one more time, in an end of year list. I put the header link below each album, so you can read the original review I posted during 2009. Enjoy or scream at this list… Happy Metal New Year too!
CHARM CITY DEVILS – LET’S ROCK AND ROLL
Charm City Devils “Let’s Rock-N-Roll” – A Charming Hard Rock Album
GREAT WHITE – RISING
Great White “Rising” rises to the top with A+ Hard Rock
CHILDREN OF BODOM – SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET
Children Of Bodom – “Skeletons In The Closet” Album Of Cover Songs Is Metal Thrashing Good
U.D.O. – DOMINATOR
U.D.O. – “DOMINATOR” Unleashes Potent Heavy Metal
ANVIL – THIS IS THIRTEEN
ANVIL – “THIS IS THIRTEEN” – THIS IS OLD SCHOOL, REAL HEAVY METAL
LAZARUS A.D. – THE ONSLAUGHT
LAZARUS A.D. “The Onslaught” – a real intense Thrash Metal invasion
RONNY MUNROE – THE FIRE WITHIN
Ronny Munroe “The Fire Within” – Metal Church vocalist roars on solo debut
SAXON – INTO THE LABYRINTH
Saxon continues to Rock with Old School Heavy Metal
DAATH – THE CONCEALERS
DAATH – “The Concealers” is a full blown Metal onslaught!
THIN LIZZY – STILL DANGEROUS
LIVE AT THE TOWER THEATRE PHILADELPHIA 1977
Thin Lizzy “Still Dangerous” reminds me Metal never ages.
Well, this will be the fourth and final list, in the Best Of 2009 Series of posts I’ve done this past week. All of my Metal accolades are out in the open for all to read and dissect. I thank any and everyone for taking the time to stop by Metal Odyssey for a visit(s) in 2009! I anticipate a tremendously Metal 2010! Let the new Hard Rock and Heavy Metal releases come! If you like, you can check out the other Metal Odyssey – Best Of 2009 posts, (there are 3 other posts), just click on the header links below:
METAL ODYSSEY’S TOP TEN HARD ROCK ALBUMS OF 2009
METAL ODYSSEY’S TOP 25 HEAVY METAL ALBUMS OF 2009
METAL ODYSSEY LOOKS BACK ON HEAVY METAL 2009… AND SOME AWARDS!
Be sure to check out the following Hard Rock and/or Heavy Metal blogs for their respective Best Of 2009 Lists as well! There were many more cool albums released in 2009 than I was able to get my hands on! These other great blogs cover a ton of ground with Hard Rock and an array of Heavy Metal genres… it is all good fun to see so many albums that I have missed and where my favorites rank with other bloggers lists.
Heavy Metal Addiction – http://heavymetaladdiction.com/
All Metal Resource – http://allmetalresource.com/
Bring Back Glam – http://bringbackglam.squarespace.com/
Hair Metal Mansion – http://hairbangersradio.ning.com/
Hard Rock Hideout – http://hardrockhideout.com/
Heavy Metal Time Machine – http://metalmark.blogspot.com/
Imagine Echoes – http://www.imagineechoes.com/
Layla’s Classic Rock – http://laylasclassicrock.blogspot.com/
Metal Excess – http://metalexcess.com/
The Metal Minute – http://rayvanhornjr.blogspot.com/
Rock Of Ages – http://rockofages.wordpress.com/
The Ripple Effect – http://www.ripplemusic.blogspot.com/
I picked up my copy of Charm City Devils – Let’s Rock-N-Roll this past Summer, it was towards the end of July. On July 10, my mother passed away, she was as splendid, caring, giving and loving as a mother could possibly be for me. I received the news of her passing from my father… over the cell phone. We, (my wife and I with our twin daughters), were on our way to Connecticut by car with my courageous wife driving when this tragic news was conveyed to me by my father. We live in Pennsylvania, a solid three and a half hours away from our parents and relatives. The shock and sadness we all felt in the car at that moment can not be expressed in words here. Why I am telling this story is due to the Charm City Devils song Almost Home. You see, upon my first listen to Almost Home, I felt instant sadness, goose bumps formed all over my body and my thoughts instantly were directed to that awful moment in time – of receiving my fathers phone call about my own mothers passing away. It was only a couple of weeks after losing my mother that I first listened to this song.
I have been riding on a rather enjoyable, Progressive Metal & Progressive Hard Rock wave of music as of late. Am I complaining? Not when bands like The Mars Volta release the Progressive elasticity of songs that they have titled – “Octahedron”. It is Hard Rock music like this, that challenges the outer reaches of my very own musical senses. I suppose that is what Progressive Music is meant to do? I am not going to fib here, it took me well into my third listen of “Octahedron” to have “it” finally hit me. The “it” is the focused energy and streamlined patience and musical precision, that are consistent, musical nuances I hear in these songs from The Mars Volta. Let’s be real, these artistic lined, Hard Rock songs, with all of their progressiveness, were not written over night. Is it considered to be uncool these days, to have a thought process and spacial intellect towards music? Not in my realm of listening to Hard Rock – or Metal for that matter. The Mars Volta has thrown “Octahedron” to the progressive wind, it has blown my way and this is what I have to say.
“Since We’ve Been Wrong” has my inner psyche floating somewhere out there in 1979, the retrospective, ambient rays of melody I hear in this song, has me laying on a freshly mowed lawn, staring up at a clear blue sky. “Teflon” does not stray too far away from this dreamy type of feeling either, it only Rocks a little harder. “Halo Of Nembutals” has me agreeing with the assertion that lead vocalist Cedric Bixler Zavala really does sound like the living legend – Geddy Lee of Rush. (This comparison has been thrown around quite a bit, it should be construed as a compliment, much better than being compared to the vocals of Jim Nabors, aka Gomer Pyle). With this song, carrying it’s way into “With Twilight As My Guide”, I tend to realize that I have fallen victim to a cascade of Progressive Hard Rock sanctity. I refuse to just stand pat and not let my feelings be known, about a band that is able to grasp the flexibility and open mindedness of song writing, both lyrically and musically. The Mars Volta apparently were either born as collaborative musicians or they visited some type of mystical being, in a tropical rain forest, who granted them the ability to eradicate themselves of any staleness and ego – thus anointing them with Progressive Musical powers.
“Cotopaxi”, “Desperate Graves” and “Copernicus” are three songs in a row, that I swear are a path that lead me to believing that the words status quo are not in The Mars Volta vocabulary. Omar Rodriguez Lopez has given new meaning to the phrase – lead, not follow – for if this musician were to follow, I would probably be listening to a band that wants to fit in and play it safe, like so many bands who don’t follow their hearts and instincts do. The same goes for Cedric Bixler Zavala, as both a vocalist and lyricist. If anything, I am completely guilty of being passionate about the music that moves me. The Mars Volta are just as guilty for being passionate in creating the music that stands up and above, so much so, the “Octahedron” CD cover does not even bear their name. It is the music that really matters, the music that stands alone, it is not a name of a band, the physicality or gender of it’s members, nor the image. “It” is really all about the finished product, the music and what it says. “Octahedron” speaks more if you give “it” the space and respect is so justifiably deserves.
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