[Editorial note: Just when you think Metalland has output its last lists at least until the end of 2011, you get another. Our regular visitor and contributor of great suggestions of bands for us to write about, Rufio, has been working on his own little list of favorite albums of the past decade. I know for a fact that he spent a lot of time and care in preparing this list, and I wholeheartedly agree on many of his inclusions, which also includes a couple of bands you might not have thought of at the first insight. In short, a proper list, with many bands that you should be checkin’ out if you haven’t listened to them already!

To facilitate in this, Rufio has selected his favorite songs off each album to be included in this article. We’ll start today with the numbers 4 to 10 off his list, though they are in no particular order. Tomorrow we’ll continue with part 2 of this endeavor, and Rufio will feed you his top three - this time they are ordered - albums of the Zeros.]

I started this process back in early February and likely should have been finished about a month sooner, but analyzing all of my Metal meticulously took a bit of a toll. Anyways, as the title suggests this is a list of my favorite albums from the past decade. Originally the list was around 25 albums that was then whittled to 20. I’ve been juggling those back and forth for some time, with a few being outright eliminated under an “obvious” clause so I could shed light on a few other gems.

The remaining choices will be in a list of 10 with 5 honorable mentions. The list is in no set order, but there will be a top 3. The top 3 will be talked about at length with two songs, the other 7 will have a few sentences with one song attached to them.

Metal Albums That Are Obviously Awesome

• Opeth – Blackwater Park (2001)
• Soilwork – Stabbing the Drama (2005) / Chainheart Machine (2000)

These three have been eliminated from the list (at least for discussion) because I don’t feel the need to tell Metalheads, that should know they are awesome, that they are awesome. Blackwater Park is one of the best Metal albums of all time in my opinion. Soilwork kind of has two, and possibly even two more. Stabbing the Drama is my favorite album, but Chainheart Machine is a very close second. Basically I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but they do need to be mentioned in some way.

So without further ado here are the numbers 4 to 7 of my 10 favorite albums from 2000-2010.

Charon – Songs for the Sinners (2005)

When 9 out of the 10 “songs for the sinners” are good, it might as well have been called “Album for the Sinners.” Charon hasn’t been very active since this 2005 release, but they sure did leave me wanting more. Charon is more Gothic Rock than Metal, but it’s still awesome in my book. I’d plug the video for Ride on Tears, but the sound quality is pretty much shit. We’ll go with Deep Water instead.

Noumena – Absence (2005)

This is the band I hope doesn’t die. According to a message on their MySpace they are rehearsing for a studio session, but that was over a year and a half ago. Mixing growling, clean, and female vocals throughout the album, Noumena crafts a unique sound with great melodies. There’s something about the clean vocals (Tuomas Tuominen) that grab hold and make you want more. I already plugged my favorite song off the album (Prey of the Tempter) on The Baboon, so let’s serve you something different this time. Everlasting Ward should do nicely!

Accept – Blood of the Nations (2010)

This is the best album that you probably didn’t know about. After a 14 year absence and a frontman change, Accept has returned with force. If you are a fan of AC/DC, or wish AC/DC sounded a bit more Metal you will enjoy this fantastic album. Teutonic Terror has been plugged on The Baboon already, so Locked and Loaded should get you kicking. Simple straight forward Metal!

Kamelot – The Black Halo (2005)

It is with a fair amount of pleasure that I am the first to bring Kamelot here to The Baboon. Black Halo is Kamelot’s seventh full length album, the second concept album based on Goethe’s Faust and follow up to the first, Epica. Kamelot weaves a great form of Symphonic Metal without going over the top, keeping both feet in Metal territory. March of Mephisto is the opening track and the only music video off the album with a guest appearance from Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir.

Closer – A Darker Kind of Salvation (2008)

Originally this was going to go into honorable mentions as I didn’t feel the need to talk much about it, considering Niek already did a great review on the album. However, it is awesome and it is one of my favorites. Cleverly, I will just link you to his review!

Though it has been featured before, here’s a fucking music video for the opening track, Chaos Internal! It’s damn awesome enough!

Disarmonia Mundi – Fragments of D-Generation (2004)

So you know about Soilwork right? Which means you know who Speed Strid is. Fragments of D-Generation is the first album with his involvement, the second album by the band, and it’s a doozy. He’s been part of the creative process since then helping these craft Italians along. There’s a handful of songs I could direct to your attention to, but A Mirror Behind is the winner in my book.

Katatonia – The Great Cold Distance (2006)

Katatonia is on the lighter side of Metal, basically an upbeat Doom Metal of sorts. I’m a fan of the melancholic tones and pure clean singing. I was going to put up Viva Emptiness (2003) instead of this album, but decided not to. Why? I’m bias towards that album as Omerta is my favorite Katatonia song. So instead, I give you this album which is solid as all hell. Here’s the video to July.

[That’s the first part for today and I’d bet that has come a long way towards satisfying your daily appetite for Metal. Another good fuckin’ stew of the stuff tomorrow, when Rufio continues his discussion of his selection of the Zeros best Metal albums.]

Tags: American, dark, death, doom, Finnish, German, gothic, Italian, melodeath, melodic, Swedish, symphonic

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 at 8:00 am and is filed under Music Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.