My top 10 albums...of 2008

1) Trivium - Shogun
After being accused (more than ever) of trying to sound too much like "Trivtallica" on 2006's The Crusade, Shogun is somewhat more of a return to Ascendancy territory, but the complexity and fiercity of the record have both ramped up several levels. Down From The Sky is about as catchy as modern Thrash gets, while Into The Mouth of Hell We March, Insurrection and Throes of Perdition will have you singing along and circle headbanging at will. Some of the songs towards the end of the album (particularly He Who Spawns The Furies) show the band at their heaviest, while still retaining what I think is a trademark Trivium sound. This album should put to bed the accusations of trying to be Metallica, and is a fantastic piece of moderm metal. My favourite album of 2008.

2) Sylosis - Conclusion of an Age
Sylosis have amassed a reputation for being one of the most exciting, tightest live bands in the UK (soon to be the world) and this level of quality is obvious on debut full length album Conclusion of an Age. I'm not going to go into too much detail as I've already reviewed this album for rocksins (read that review here), but I've rarely been so impressed with a debut album. It's a fantastic listening experience combining old school thrash with new elements and more modern harsh metal vocals, and is generally guaranteed to blow your socks off.

3) Metallica - Death Magnetic
Anyone who knows me will probably be very shocked that this isn't number one. Death Magnetic is a fantastic album and a superb return to form from James, Lars and Kirk (now with Rob onboard contributing to an album for the first time) after the "St Anger episode". The album has a great feel from start to finish and only really dips with The Unforgiven III, which they really shouldn't have done. My Apocalypse is one of the heaviest, fastest songs Metallica have ever done, while Cyanide and Broken Beat Scarred seem set to be Metallica set staples for years to come. The only reason that they're not number one is that there were two albums slightly better. With Death Magnetic, Metallica proved they're here to stay.

4) Opeth - Watershed
Despite wide recognition of their genius, Opeth still remain something of an acquired taste, with their music ranging from serene accoustics and the progressive tones of Burden to some of the heaviest growls and drumming in metal in songs like Hessian Peel. The album flows brilliantly from start to finish, the changes in song direction and style all feel completely natural as you would come to expect from Mikael and his cohorts. Watershed is another epic in the Opeth catalogue, and arguably one of their finest to date.

5) Black Tide - Light From Above
If it weren't for Sylosis Black Tide would have walked away with the title of "favourite new band of 2008" for me. They opened proceedings at Download 2008 in great style, they were even missing a guitarist and nobody noticed! Thats how well they did. Light From Above is a fantastic debut album, deserving some of the comparisons it has had with early Metallica (aided by their excellent cover of Hit The Lights). Enterprise, Show Me The Way and the albums title track are all great modern thrash songs and this belongs in any fan of thrashes collection. A fantastic start, lets hope they can keep it up.

6) Bullet For My Valentine - Scream Aim Fire
This list does seemingly have heavy leanings to the thrash genre. Hardly surprising. I love thrash, if you don't like it, tough :) BFMV's second album created a lot of divided opinion, I fall into the camp that prefer it to their debut, The Poison. Opener Scream Aim Fire and Waking The Demon are songs that the band will be playing until they call it quits long in the future, while songs such as Take It Out On Me and Eye Of The Storm have an aggressive edge and add to their thrash repetoire. There are a couple of "thrash-ballads" for lack of a better descriptive term, but overall this is a quality modern metal album.

7) Testament - The Formation Of Damnation
From the new school of thrash to one of the old masters, with The Formation of Damnation Testament have produced one of the finest albums of their 20 year plus career. The title track and More Than Meets The Eye are particular standouts, with Chuck Billy in fine voice and the returning Paul Bostaph at his vicious pedalling best. Thrash may have returned to the metal mainstream in the last couple of years, but Testament show there are few who do it better. The strength of the new material mixing with their old material was confirmed by their barnstorming headline set in the Tuborg tent at Download. Let's hope there is more than meets the eye from Testament for many more years to come.

8) In Flames - A Sense Of Purpose
After being a bit disappointed with Come Clarity, I was a bit nervous about what A Sense of Purpose was going to be like, and on initial listen I didn't really like it. After a few listens, I really began to appreciate it. The Mirror's Truth is a fantastic opening track in the vein of some classic In Flames songs from years gone by, and Disconnected will always be guaranteed to get a great singalong live. The albums standout track aside from the 2 mentioned is arguably The Chosen Pessimist, at 8 1/2 minutes long by far the longest song of their careers and is very different to every other In Flames song, almost entering the ambient world occupied by bands such as Isis, but they pull off with great style. Whilst not quite Colony or Clayman, they take several steps back in the right direction.

9) Gojira - The Way of All Flesh
French titans Gojira take things up yet another level on The Way Of All Flesh, from crushing opener Ouroborous the album grabs you and throws you around and doesn't stop until the end of the 17 minute long album title track over an hour later. There is literally no-one who sounds like Gojira with their eclectic yet headbang worthy arrangements, and anyone who did attempt to sound like them would do them a disservice. This album has made a lot of people take notice of Gojira and with very good reason.

10) Judas Priest - Nostradamus
I will admit to commiting a cardinal metal sin, only becoming acquainted with Judas Priest in the months leading up to their semi-headling appearance at Download. Needless to say I liked an awful lot of what I heard with their back catalogue and the same is true here. Opener Prophecy is a great Priest track, while some of the longer numbers such as Death and Future of Mankind may not sit too well with all the old time Priest fans but are great songs in their own right. The album is considered by some as being too long being a full double disc album and there are one or twos tracks that don't meet the heights of others as to be expected on an album of this length. Overall though, the enduring metal quality of Rob Halford and co is more than evident and shows there is plenty of life in the old masters yet.