Shadowlights Top 20 of 2014
Now, this task was a doozy for me. You've most likely observed that it took 101 choices, with numerous runners-up for me to even make a favorite and/or most influential albums as per yours truly (the "101" section of this site). So many KILLER releases, both metal and non-metal (we will focus on the metal here) have been birthed this past year, and it makes my head spin to think of narrowing it all down to just 20. As a webzine editor, I hear literally an average of somewhere between 700 and 1000 new releases (still, both metal and non) in the course of a year. Some were a shoe in, and that part came quick. It's the ones that battle with each other for their rightful place in my heart that had me scratching my head and making all types of pros/cons lists and processes of elimination in my noggin. But, despite the raging OCD trait of wanting to list damn near everything that had an impact on me in a nice, organized way (another 101, anybody?), I finally came down to a top 20. Hallelujah!
- Bloodbath - Grand Morbid Funeral
- At The Gates - At War With Reality
- Death Fortress - Among the Ranks of the Unconquerable
- Mayhem - Esoteric Warfare
- Belphegor - Conjuring The Dead
- Chaos Moon - Resurrection Extract
- Judas Priest - Redeemer Of Souls
- Ævangelist – Writhes In The Murk
- Mare Cognitum – Phobos Monolith
- Tombs - Savage Gold
- Panopticon – Roads Of The North
- Hoth - Oathbreaker
- Cloak Of Altering - Plague Beasts
- Teitanblood - Death
- Varathron - Untrodden Corridors Of Hades
- Khthoniik Cerviiks - Heptaedrone
- Horrendous - Ecdysis
- Cormorant - Earth Diver
- Swallowed - Lunarterial
- Edguy - Space Police - Defenders of the Crown
Thus concludes this arduous task of pinpointing the definitive highlights of our 2014 year in METAL. And though 20 being the limit truly wasn't enough; this is what I came up with. I hope some of that made sense to at least some of you, as I was quite traumatized and disoriented with the idea of rounding up so few of the so many brilliant works of the year. We can just say that I was operating on less than sane brainwaves. May The Force Of Metal be with ye all!
12/06/14
TTSNSN