I planned on doing a "My favorite albums of 2007" post like I did last year, but that ended up taking a long time for me to do last time and I didn't really like the way it looked once it was done. So I thought I'd put together a compilation instead, featuring some of my favorite metal songs of the year. I call it Death By Metal. The compilation started off as a collection of Death Metal songs with the word Death in the title, but that ended up being more difficult to put together than you would think, so I thought it might be better as a year end type thing. Plus, this way I was able to mix it up and have an assortment of different metallic subgenres, a little something for everybody. I might do a non-metal compilation after this, for the anti-metal people out there but I haven't decided yet. I do get pretty bored pretty frequently, so I probably will.
Anyway, here's the tracklist for Death By Metal:
1. Lizzy Borden – Appointment With Death
2. Arch Enemy – The Last Enemy
3. Dark Tranquillity – The Mundane and the Magic
4. Novembre – Cobalt of March
5. The Duskfall – Deep In Your World
6. The Black Dahlia Murder – I Worship Only What You Bleed
7. Dawn of Tears - Blaspheme Natured Messiah
8. 3 Headed Monster – The Beast of Odo Island
9. Machine Men – Ghost of the Seasons
10. Darkest Hour – Demon(s)
11. Skeletonwitch – Fire From The Sky
12. Eldritch – Silent Flame
13. Scariot – Slaves
14. King Diamond – The Girl In The Bloody Dress
15. Dekapitator – Deathstrike Command
16. Nightmare – A Thrill of Death
17. Blood Tsunami – Rampage of Revenge
I put together a back cover for this one. The decapitated bear image is from an old poster from Who Slew Auntie Roo? (in case you're wondering) and Psychosis Records is something I just made up because I'm the type of guy who would make up a record label name for no good reason. Ignore all the fine print at the bottom, I just copied that more or less from something while making a CD cover template. Oh, and don't call that number unless you need to get in touch with Copasetik Recordings in London, four years ago.
2007 was an atrocious year for radio friendly music (Nickelback, Finger Eleven, any rap songs) but it was a great year for non-radio friendly music. Here's a very small list of some of the other music I enjoyed this year (that wasn't on the compilation already):
After Forever - After Forever
Agua De Annique - Air (Anneke van Giersbergen's new band)
Alcest - Souvenirs d'un autre monde
The Birthday Massacre - Walking With Strangers
Candlemass - King of the Grey Islands
Deathspell Omega - Fas-Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum
Dødheimsgard - Supervillain Outcast
Echoes of Eternity - The Forgotten Goddess
Epica - The Divine Conspiracy
God is an Astronaut - Far From Refuge
Hearts of Black Science - The Ghost You Left Behind
Indica - Kadonnut Puutarha
Neurosis - Given to the Rising
Shels - Sea of the Dying Dhow
Tristania - Illumination (Last album with Vibeke. Their new female vocalist, uh, not
good.)
Virgin Black - Requiem - Mezzo Forte
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
That's just stuff I can think of off the top of my head, there were a lot of great albums in the past 12 months, and I haven't even heard half of what I would've liked to. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me some music that you enjoyed that I might've overlooked.
While I'm here, I don't really like to call anything "the Worst" of anything, but I had to do just one; Worst Song of the Year: Soldja Boy - Crank That. I want to punch this guy in the nuts every time I hear this song, which, thanks to my job is pretty much every day. Of course, I'm a pacifist (not a hippy, just non-violent) and I believe punching someone in the nuts would be very un-pacifist-like of me. But seriously, after you've had a guy go "Ohh!" over 50 times in your song you'd think you'd tell him to shut the hell up. Easily the worst song I've heard since Gwen Stefani gave us Hollaback Girl. But of course it's one of the most popular songs of the year, but a long shot. Go figure.
