#15. POWER TRIP – Nightmare Logic (2017): One band that grabbed the heavy metal genre by its throat and formed a vice-like grip on it during this decade is Dallas, Texas group Power Trip. Not since the early Metallica days has a young thrash metal band generated as much hype and excitement as Power Trip, and they’ve succeeded in doing so based on the sheer strength of their music, sans any gimmick or shtick. Power Trip’s 2017 LP Nightmare Logic is a fine illustration of the band’s sonic bestiality. It’s only onward and upward from here for Power Trip, but this album by itself stands strong as one to remember for a long time to come.
#14. BARONESS – Purple (2015): Being in a band is a journey of wildly contrasting fortunes, and no one can attest to this better than Baroness. From a devastating, near-fatal bus crash in 2012, to mainstream glory in 2015-16. Purple brought out the best of Baroness, an album that does full justice to the band’s heavy stoner metal leanings but also succeeds in catering to a much wider demographic with its melodic tendencies. No one can begrudge Baroness for their subsequent success, because at the heart of it all is a set of ten songs that exude pure creative genius.
#13. UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS – Blood Lust (2011): Anyone even slightly immersed in the world of heavy metal knows that the genre has its roots in the psychedelic rock music of the ’60s. Fans of the genre often find themselves wondering and fantasizing about what it would be like if a band went back to those roots to recreate that era, while still sounding like a heavy metal band by modern-day definitions. In 2009, a band based in Cambridge, England, by the name Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats, emerged to bring this fantasy to reality. Combining traits of Black Sabbath, the Beatles, Alice Cooper and the like, the band’s sophomore effort Blood Lust is truly one for the ages, in all its mind-bending occult-themed doom metal glory.
#12. KVELERTAK – Nattesferd (2016): Thin-Lizzy-inspired rock ‘n roll … hardcore punk … black metal. Three completely distinct colors of the musical spectrum. Enter Norwegian group Kvelertak, to put these together in a manner perhaps never attempted before, and with brilliant results. This head-turning, eye-catching, mind-blowing band’s third album Nattesferd was their most ambitious undertaking, and they successfully emerged with one of the most intriguing albums of the decade, an album so dynamic that it almost defies belief.
#11. CARCASS – Surgical Steel (2013): English extreme metal legends Carcass had a lot riding on Surgical Steel, what with it being their first since the ’96 album Swansong. The 2013 release captures the glory of all things Carcass, with eleven tunes of vicious death metal written and played with pinpoint precision. It is hard to find a better example of a successful comeback than the one made by Carcass through the aptly titled Surgical Steel.
By now you’re probably curious to see what the top ten looks like. #10 to #6 unveiled on Page 3 …