Phage's best albums in 2015

Best of 2015

My mission is to beat Sami this year but I failed again. Having said that here is my listing. There are some new acquaintances and many old friends. Judging the whole picture gives me the idea this year wasn’t so great after all. Sure there were highlights that will be future classics, but if we were giving stars out of five, there wouldn’t be many five star albums in my list. This is partially evident from the fact that my most played artist, according to last.fm stats, this year did not release new album. I won’t develop any formulas this year do determine the actual play times and to compensate late year release time. This list is purely based on my subjective feeling about the album. So, here are my picks for the best new albums released in 2015.

Amorphis – Under the Red Cloud

After all this is pretty obvious selection and comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me. I am pretty honest when I say that this is the best album without looking it through colored glasses. Two previous albums weren’t that good, perhaps they were too experimental or lacked interesting hooks to gain enough listening time. This was totally different listening experience from the beginning reminding me of the Skyforger in catchiness, song writing and composing. In addition, Tomi is clearly expanding his vocal repertoire and creating new layers to Amorphis’ music. I could go on for long but 600+ plays says all: AOTY, no more, no less. 

Paradise Lost – The Plague Within

Holy shit, what an album this is. This was my other option for AOTY. I simply love how Nick Holmes has evolved (or some might say reverted) as a singer. I was very excited when I heard Holmes replaced Åkerfeldt as a lead singer of Bloodbath and now we are enjoying the outcome with the best PL album ever released. This is a perfect mixture of death metal, doom and gothic rock ever released. Just listen to song Beneath the Broken Earth and you understand what I mean.  

Tau Cross – Tau Cross

Tau Cross in one of the aforementioned new bands (or a super group to be exact) that totally blew my mind. Unless I would be an Amorphis fanboy, this could be number one, it is at least the most interesting and refreshing record released this year. Natural continuum to Amebix, something you might get by mixing Killing Joke to Primordium spiced with punk elements.

The Crown – Death Is Not Dead

I’m so glad this album saw daylight. Johan Lindstrand is one of my all-time favorite metal singer and the true vocal sound of The Crown. When the foundation is solid only the sky is the limit how high one can build. I got instant Deathrace King -vibes when I first listened to this album. Lindstrand vocal output fits perfectly to this fast-paced deaththrash music they are playing. To be honest, I’m not saying this is exceptionally good album because it is not. What I’m instead saying is that I needed this album and it is here based on the pure pleasure I get listening to it.

Annihilator – Suicide Society

Annihilator saw some major line-up changes and Padden quit because of personal reasons. I regret this deeply (I really loved his performance on vocal department). So, Jeff ended up making all vocals by himself. Something is missing along Padden but something is also gained. This is pretty coherent Annihilator album for a change although the big hit such as The Trend is missing. I am really surprised how many plays this finally managed to get and hence it deserves position in top five.  

Death Hawks – Sun Future Moon

I really don’t know why I listened to this album so many times. It has few really interesting songs but also many fillers especially amongst the last three songs. Still those that are good are really good and have such a vibe in them I seldom hear. I bought Death Hawks first album and after that I forgot them (they were wrestling in highly competed retro rock category with diamond hard Witchcraft and Graveyard). I totally missed the second album and the metamorphosis from retro stoner band into psychedelic rock band. From what I’ve heard it has been such a great move. Now Death Hawks have nothing I can compare them to. They just are and they are doing fine.     

TesseracT – Polaris

I have a soft spot for this kind of music. TesseracT plays kind of technical progressive metal that could be the result of mixing Tool and Katatonia and adding some modern taste. I find this album quite relaxing and enjoyable to listen to. Featured track could be the “Survival” if you want to quickly pick up an idea what I mean.

Slayer – Repentless

Old dog delivers once again. Repentless is solid Slayer album even without Jeff. You find nothing new from this but in this chaotic world, it is just good to know there are some things that hold their ground no matter what. 

Soulfly – Archangel

As a fanboy, inclusion of this album comes to no surprise to anybody knowing my listening habits. 10^th Soulfly album won’t let you down. Death metal elements are strongly present and max sounds angry (which is highly respectable concerning how many aging artists has turn into mellow pussycats). I know some fans miss those tribal elements from the earlier albums, but luckily this is no longer a bouncing-up metal, but death metal one can feel for at times of need.

Enslaved – In Times

This is a difficult album and somehow I managed to avoid it almost totally according to scrobbles. That however doesn’t diminish its greatness at all. Enslaved keep evolving from album to album and only their imagination seem to be the limit. I really thing a live gig in Finland would be more than appropriate in 2016.     

Venom – From the Very Depths

Old school heavy metal from old school heavy metallers just the way I like it. As their earlier album, this enjoyed lots of Spotify time during my commuting trips.

High On Hire – Luminiferous

Another record I bought and then it ended up gaining dust. I believe this is a result of too much hurry and too little of time to listen to. Diminished time unavoidable leads to focusing to a smaller amount of albums. This year the new Amorphis album stole a huge piece of the total time pie. Luminiferous is a solid HoF-album.

Lik – Mass Funeral Evocation

This is Swedish death metal as is should be done. Once again nothing now but they managed to sound quite refreshing.  Lik is totally new acquaintance to me and should not be mixed to LIK which is a black metal band. Their next album will determine if they will be new pinnacle of Swedish metal scene or will they be just another metal band from Sweden.    

Foo Fighters – St. Cecilia EP

Foo Fighters released free EP for us to enjoy and boy did I. Nothing to add, FF sounds just is should sound. Favorite track is Iron Rooster but others are great too. Saint Cecilia is the Best EP of the year definitively.

  

Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell

Nothing that late Nick Drake has already done, but I chose this for the lyrics. Musically this is indie acoustic music that almost made me feel a bit “hipsterish”. Luckily I survived, but nevertheless this album deserver a notion.

Chris Cornell – Higher Truth

I like Chris Cornell’s voice more on his solo albums than when he is in Soundgarden. His voice seems to come out so effortlessly. Such a nice late evening record everyone should have.