Songs, songs, songs - it's even harder to pick out a top 40 than to pick out 10 albums. There's no such thing as a bad year or a good year for songs - there are always great ones out there. As with the albums, these songs largely reflects my personal taste - too weird for the common people, really not heavy enough for metalheads - and is largely independent of the actual "goodness" of songs.
As per usual, links are in the descriptions (the song titles), but the songs are available on 8tracks and Spotify (although 3 songs are missing in the latter). As per usual, the post is extremely long.
39. Tyrant of Death - Genetic Paragon
38. The Agonist - Architects Hallucinate
37. Gloryhammer - Legend of the Astral Hammer
36. Khemmis - The Bereaved
35. Ghost - From the Pinnacle to the Pit
34. Swallow the Sun - Rooms and Shadows
33. Nightwish - Shudder Before the Beautiful
32. Mechina - Vanquisher
31. While She Sleeps - Modern Minds
30. Myrkur - Hævnen
29. Enter Shikari - The One True Colour
28. Moonspell - Funeral Bloom
27. Borealis - Destiny
26. Sylosis - Mercy
25. Carach Angren - When Crows Tick on Windows
24. Barren Earth - Frozen Processions
23. Rise to Fall - Murk Empire
22. Obsequiae - Autumnal Pyre
21. Amorphis - Death of a King
20. Serenity in Murder - Noticed This is the Betrayal
Neat, melodic, overdramatic, loud as a bomb, very addictive. This is just the usual, but I still really like this song.
19. Iron Maiden - Shadows of the Valley
Say what you want about the new Iron Maiden record, but it's not bad. Does the intro of this song sound like a slowed down version of Wasted Years? Yes. Is that why I love it or I love it despite that? I don't really know.
18. Bring Me the Horizon - Throne
The guilty pleasure - stadium pop rock? Well, we have to have this as well. I actually quite like a lot of metalcore - but I never liked this band as such. I really think their sound now suits them more, the pretentiousness is a lot less disturbing. This song is catchy as hell.
17. Kamelot - End of Innocence
Kamelot delivered their symphonic power metal, this time in a fairly modern-sounding fashion. It's just as theatrical as always, and I like it as always.
16. Alustrium - A Tunnel to Eden
Strangely enough, despite the record being in my top 10 list, my favourite song off of it didn't make it - which is to say the album as a whole is just to a higher quality, rather than one that has a few standout songs. Not that this song isn't amazing.
15. Ensiferum - Warrior Without A War
I always favoured the more introspective, somehow more poetic Ensiferum songs, and it wasn't different this time either. However, I do think this is their best song in the recent few years (including the past, say, two albums).
14. Alkaloid - Carbon Phrases
This song is a whole story in itself as well, an exciting journey of heavy progressive metal from start to finish. It's worth its whole nine and a half minutes.
13. Avatarium - Pearls and Coffins
An intriguing mix of doom metal and jazzy female vocals, this is a truly captivating song, a sad, slow, warm melody.
12. Wolfheart - Abyss
Cold and beautiful like the Finnish melodeath bands would have us believe Finnish winter is. Very much like Insomnium (less good, of course), which is obviously right up my alley.
11. Arcturus - The Arcturian Sign
A curious song on an even more curious album. It's subtly disturbing - in all the ways your pop-loving friends/family members/cats/dogs/etc find metal disturbing but cannot voice. Sure, harsh vocals and immense sounds are easy to point to, kind little disharmonies, unusual song structures, weird times less so. Conclusion: this is a perfect song.
10. Pyramaze - Disciples of the Sun
Very catchy. Power metal is often catchy and usually cheesy. This one is not very cheesy, but incredibly, dangerously catchy. I warned everyone.
9. Tribulation - The Motherhood of God
Despite being very fresh-sounding, it retains an old school charm, over all the fine progressive death details.
8. Deathwhite - Pressure
I listened to the Deathwhite EP many, many times. I loved it, but I still think it's possible to pick up a bets song. It's clean-sounding gothic metal, with a decidedly non-gothic sounding vocalist, which, after deliberation, I think is a huge plus for me.
7. Draconian - Pale Tortured Blue
Doom metal with a slight gothic influence - impossibly beautiful, haunting in the way that it'll get stuck in your head and in your mood. The female vocalist's truly heart-wrenching voice pairs up nicely with the primalness of the grunted vocals.
6. Enshine - The Final Trance
I really like melodic death/doom, especially the kind with grand atmosphere, and this song is exactly like that. It's the word 'sweeping' in metal form.
5. Wilderun - The Faintest Echo
A perfect song from a near perfect album, it's a perfect blend of folky orchestra and some real metal based on some cool guitar work. What more do you want?
4. Kingcrow - Adrift
I thought the new Kingcrow album lacked something - maybe it wasn't heavy enough, wasn't quirky enough, hard to tell. But this particular song has everything I want from progressive metal, including a really catchy 'solo'.
3. Swallow the Sun - Lost & Catatonic
I could wax poetic about this song, it'd be easy, because I like the band, and I especially like the new release. So I won't, so I'll only say one thing: I listened to the album after that night in Paris, and this song got stuck in my head real deep.
2. Nightwish - Weak Fantasy
This is such a powerful song, and I love it, and I especially love to sing it along... I dislike its original intentions and it's not really how I interpret it: it's not really religion I'd label as a weak fantasy, but any and all things a person themselves uses - not as a shield against reality, because sometimes we all need that, but as an untrue fabrication to become their reality. Be that the extremist interpretations of faith, or beliefs over science (it's not like they can't coexist), be those beliefs religious or simply fueled by paranoid media and conspiracy theorists.
1. Amorphis - Dark Path
A perfect song on a beautiful album - it's fairly simple, with no twists in songwriting or composition, but maybe that's why I love it. It's catchy but not too catchy, it has just the right amount of heaviness offset by just the right amount of their characteristic instrumentals.
8. Deathwhite - Pressure
I listened to the Deathwhite EP many, many times. I loved it, but I still think it's possible to pick up a bets song. It's clean-sounding gothic metal, with a decidedly non-gothic sounding vocalist, which, after deliberation, I think is a huge plus for me.
7. Draconian - Pale Tortured Blue
Doom metal with a slight gothic influence - impossibly beautiful, haunting in the way that it'll get stuck in your head and in your mood. The female vocalist's truly heart-wrenching voice pairs up nicely with the primalness of the grunted vocals.
6. Enshine - The Final Trance
I really like melodic death/doom, especially the kind with grand atmosphere, and this song is exactly like that. It's the word 'sweeping' in metal form.
5. Wilderun - The Faintest Echo
A perfect song from a near perfect album, it's a perfect blend of folky orchestra and some real metal based on some cool guitar work. What more do you want?
4. Kingcrow - Adrift
I thought the new Kingcrow album lacked something - maybe it wasn't heavy enough, wasn't quirky enough, hard to tell. But this particular song has everything I want from progressive metal, including a really catchy 'solo'.
3. Swallow the Sun - Lost & Catatonic
I could wax poetic about this song, it'd be easy, because I like the band, and I especially like the new release. So I won't, so I'll only say one thing: I listened to the album after that night in Paris, and this song got stuck in my head real deep.
2. Nightwish - Weak Fantasy
This is such a powerful song, and I love it, and I especially love to sing it along... I dislike its original intentions and it's not really how I interpret it: it's not really religion I'd label as a weak fantasy, but any and all things a person themselves uses - not as a shield against reality, because sometimes we all need that, but as an untrue fabrication to become their reality. Be that the extremist interpretations of faith, or beliefs over science (it's not like they can't coexist), be those beliefs religious or simply fueled by paranoid media and conspiracy theorists.
1. Amorphis - Dark Path
A perfect song on a beautiful album - it's fairly simple, with no twists in songwriting or composition, but maybe that's why I love it. It's catchy but not too catchy, it has just the right amount of heaviness offset by just the right amount of their characteristic instrumentals.
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