Charger's TOP 10 albums of 2017

[Charger]

I thought it would be sensible to move this thread from the other place here as well...

So here is my list of TOP 10 albums of 2017.


10. With The Dead - Love From With The Dead
It was rather hard to imagine that Lee Dorrian and partners could ever get heavier and doomier than they did with the first With The Dead record but they sure did...This is so slow and doomy that it almost makes the first Cathedral album sound like funky music. Sadly though it is getting bit too much already. An album like this would most certainly benefit from atleast one or two uptempo tracks...or hell even mid-tempo tracks...now it's just bit too plodding, which is a real shame considering.

9. Marzi Montazeri / Tim "Ripper" Owens - The Uprising
Granted this isn't a full size album but an EP but it's so great it most certainly deserves to be on this list. Montazeri proves that he is a metal guitarist who will be a force to reckon with in the future...and ofcourse Tim being the greatest singer in the metal world right now proving once again why that is the case. Fantastic stuff here and there have been some talks of a full album next year...one can only hope!

8. Bathsheba - Servus
Here's a new band for me...Bathsheba is a new band put together by the Death Penalty (Catherdral guitarist Gaz Jennings' doom project) singer Michelle Nocon. All the band members come from Belgium which isn't the most common place for heavy metal bands...let alone heavy DOOM metal band. There is a lot of heavy doomy stuff here but unlike Love From With The Dead there is some variety too. And Michelle's vocals are rather impressive from deep growls to angelic softness.

7. Devil Electric - Devil Electric
Another new band for me...Gotta give special thanks to my buddy TYR66 for turning me into these guys and gal. Awesome 70s oriented doomy rock band from another rather uncommon doom metal country Australia! This is their debut album and based on this they should have a great future ahead! The vocals of Pierina O'Brien at best are quite hypnotical...she is brilliant!

6. Cellar Darling - This Is The Sound
This was the real surprise album of the year I'd say...An extremely strong effort from a trio from Switzerland previously from a big Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie, singer and Hurdy Kurdy (YES HURDY KURDY! Gotta love that instrument) player Anna Murphy, Guitarist Ivo Henzi and drummer Merlin Sutter left the group and formed Cellar Darling and frankly this blows their former band off the charts! And I am not alone in this statement...I've heard nothing but positive reviews about This Is The Sound and gotta say I agree with every single one. There are some softer folk songs here sure but then there are some really heavy rockers too which balance it out and Anna's voice is fantastic to say the least...oh and did I mention she plays the Hurdy Kurdy?

5. Metal Church - Classic Live
Metal Church came back 2 years ago with singer extraordinaire mr. Mike Howe and they toured heavily in support of the stellar XI (which was the album of 2016 I might add) and recorded few shows and from those they chose the classic songs for this live album. I would have preferred a full blown live album with a complete show but they wanted to just the classic tracks instead. Mike Howe (if possible) sounds even better than he did when he first fronted the band...my god the pipes on this guy! Also the rest of the line-up is spot on. Best incarnation of the band ever maybe...and they are really enjoying themselves on stage and you can hear it.

4. The Dark Element - The Dark Element
This one rocketed up to the top 5 instantly. The band is formed by the former Sonata Arctica guitarist Jani Liimatainen and former Nightwish singer Anette Olzon. They didn't try to recreate either Arctica or Nightwish but made a band of their own. This is perhaps bit on the poppier side at times but there are some really strong heavy rockers too like the Title track, Dead To Me and the fantastic The Ghost And The Reaper. Anette sings once again her heart out here and it is so great to hear her back in the world of metal. She is a fantastic singer and never got the respect she rightfully deserves while in Nightwish eventhough she sang on songs like Scaretale and Turn Loose The Mermaids...but let's hope now with The Dark Element people give her a chance for who she IS not who she replaced.

3. Deep Purple - Infinite
Deep Purple doesn't really do bad albums, not with Ian Gillan and Steve Morse anyways and this infact is one of their strongest ones since the magnificent Purpendicular. Producer Bob Ezrin really woke the band up again and made them even surpass the fantastic Now What!? I can safely say that All I Got Is You is THE Best track of 2017 and The Surprising isn't far behind mainly because of Steve Morse's unreal guitar playing. Listening to Steve play now and listening to Ritchie play now all you can say is...Ritchie who? It's also impossible to comprehend that Ian Gillan is in his 70s...the man sounds fantastic on the album...sure he doesn't scream like he did in 1970 but who cares...Ian wasn't all about the screams anyways...
The band is tight as hell here and from every single note played you can sense just how much they love this and how good they all are individually and as a group. These guys are just simply put suberb.
Sadly this most likely will be the last ever Deep Purple album, but luckily unlike Sabbath they go out with a brilliant original sounding album and not a mediocre rehash of old.

2. Blaze Bayley - Endure And Survive
Blaze Bayley's mammoth task of 3 albums in 3 year saw the middle part of the trilogy being released. The story of William Black turned darker both thematically and musically. The story of the first deep space flight of mankind is nothing short of breath takingly brilliantly written both lyrically and musically. Blaze has a band now which rivals his very first solo band BLAZE and his own vocals have just gotten better and better over the years which is rather amazing considering he is in his 50s now too. Chris Appleton is a fantasic and extremely versatile guitarist and song writer and that complements Blazes unique and strong melodies perfectly. A true match made in heaven...or hell...or Birmingham either way...And this album is a true testament to that.
Blaze had a preorder for the 3rd part of the trilogy and it has been the most succesful to date, which means that album will be Blaze's biggest one yet and there isn't a man more deserving of that than Blaze who is one of the most humble and hard working people in the metal world...and among the nicest guys too...

1. Alice Cooper - Paranormal
The godfather of Horror rock came back with his best album since Brutal Planet! Some songs here were written with members from the original Alice Cooper band as well as with guest musicans including Roger Glover from Deep Purple and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. Songs like Dead Flies, Paranoiac Personality, Dynamite Road and the absolutely SUBERB Fireball are all right up there with any classic Alice track from any era. This also features one of Alices first ever song writing efforts in the hypnotic form of The Sound Of A which closes the unfortunately short album of near perfection. Alice's vocals and lyrics are as great as ever and eventhough he likes to use different people to record songs than he does in his touring band (which too is awesome by the way) there is still strong chemistry present and the classic Alice Cooper sound. Thanks most likely goes to the brilliance of Bob Ezrin again.
This is without a doubt the album of the year and looking at the top 3 of the list old school hard rock is still going pretty damn strong in my book!


There you go...that's my list...now I would love to read yours!

Oh I just realised this was all metal/hard rock this year...but honestly my favourite non metal artists didn't release anything this year...

[Zzzptm]

I did a lot of stoner/desert rock last year, my #1 favorite purchase was War Cloud by War Cloud. Great NWOBHM metal sound to it.