Julius "Dreadheart" Mikkelä's Top 10 Metal Albums Of 2015

No. 10 Band: Miracle Of Sound Album: Metal Up General Info Year of Formation: 2010 […]

December 29, 2015

No. 10
Band: Miracle Of Sound
Album: Metal Up

General Info
Year of Formation: 2010
Record Label: Independent/Self-Released

Having been a fan of the overly talented and overly productive Youtube-based musician Gavin Dunne-aka-MIRACLE OF SOUND's work since his debut album in 2011, especially his Metal songs (like the sing-along friendly Skyrim-inspired "Sovengarde Song" and the epic The Witcher-tribute "Wake The White Wolf"), I was both excited and a little concerned when he announced he has doing a full-on Metal album. Could he really deliver an entire album of equal quality to his previous mixed-music works? Turns out, yes he bloody could, and his 2015 Metal-only album "Metal Up" is all the proof anyone would ever need. Using his wide talents to create an extremely diverse Metal album - with styles ranging from happy Folk to raging Thrash to epic Prog to brutal Death - all the while keeping the songwriting at his usual stellar high, I can happily say that MIRACLE OF SOUND made one of 2015's best - and most underappreciated - Metal albums.

No. 9
Band: Iron Maiden
Album: The Book Of Souls

General Info
Year of Formation: 1975
Record Label: Sanctuary Records Group

If there's a single soul around surprised to see this release on this list, then they must've listened to the wrong album, because the almighty IRON MAIDEN's glorious return to form "The Book Of Souls" can do little wrong. While it, unsurprisingly, isn't their best ever, it's simply too hard to ignore for this year's round-up - even for someone like me who actively tried to leave it out. The songs, the sound, the works - "The Book Of Souls" have got everything you'd ever want from an IRON MAIDEN album.

No. 8
Band: Melechesh
Album: Under The Red Cloud

General Info
Year of Formation: 1993
Record Label: Nuclear Blast Records

One of the earlier albums this year to draw widespread recognition was Mizrahi/Oriental Metal pioneers MELECHESH's "Enki", and it was an album that not only entered strong but also stood the test of time as the year went on, being an album I immediately recognized as a contester for Album of the Year, and that now when all's said and done can't be downplayed in its excellence: It's the band's best release to date, and their nigh-on unique mix of Mizrahi Folk, Death, Thrash and Black Metal truly made ancient Mesopotamia come alive this year.

No. 7
Band: Amorphis
Album: Under The Red Cloud

General Info
Year of Formation: 1990
Record Label: Nuclear Blast Records

A band that I thoroughly loved in the past, but felt under delivered on their past 2 album, is Finnish Death-turned-Folk Metal legends AMORPHIS, who this year returned to form with "Under The Red Cloud": An album that managed to recapture some of the band's stellar melodic heights from their modern masterpiece "Skyforger", while still moving ever forward into ever more diverse musical territories, creating a truly enjoyable album that stands as one of the band's best ever - and that says a freaking lot.

No. 6
Band: Blind Guardian
Album: Beyond The Red Mirror

General Info
Year of Formation: 1984
Record Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Being one of the bands that have been with the longest may give BLIND GUARDIAN an unfair advantage in the battle for my precious time and appreciation, but there's no denying that their 2015 effort "Beyond the Red Mirror" was an album worth the wait that us fans have had to endure since their excellent 2010 album "At the Edge of Time". Once again drawing us in with their iconic sound and style that defies all genre definitions, and their surreal songwriting skills that puts them behind perhaps only IRON MAIDEN in terms of consistency, BLIND GUARDIAN once again won my heart with relative ease and should be able to do so with any who happen to peer their general direction.

No. 5
Band: Soilwork
Album: The Ride Majestic

General Info
Year of Formation: 1995
Record Label: Nuclear Blast Records

With Swedish Melodeath looking increasingly unsteady the last decade and the rise of a much more interesting and consistent counterpart across the Baltic in the Land of the Thousand Lakes, it came as a shock to many when SOILWORK - once among the premier Melodeath bands in the world, but of late little more than an afterthought to better times - returned not only to form but went above and beyond with their 2013 modern masterpiece, "The Living Infinite"; not only the given Album of the Year for many (including me), but also arguably one of the finest Melodeath albums of all time. Now in 2015 they returned for round two, and while "The Ride Majestic" couldn't quite match the near-divine heights of its predecessor, it easily stands as one of the year's best releases - all categories - and as a solidifier that SOILWORK is making a solid claim to be the the greatest - current - Melodeath band in the world.

No. 4
Band: Mechina
Album: Acheron

General Info
Year of Formation: 2004
Record Label: Independent/Self-Released

Having been introduced to Symphonic/Industrial Death-Djent Metal (read: Space Metal) band MECHINA about 2 years ago shortly after the release of their 4th full-length album "Xenon", this band grew on me something fierce; forcing its way into not only my day-to-day playlists but also into my top 10 of 2014, where "Xenon" ended up on 6th place. So to say that I was hyped to hear and review their 2015 album "Acheron" was an understatement, but I could truly not have anticipated what a titan of an album it turned out to be. With a reinvented sound and mixing, better and more diverse songwriting, the use of Mel Rose's beautifully haunting voice, and a more "cinematic" sense of direction; "Acheron" has since my review infected half the Temple with its undeniable uniqueness and excellence, and easily crowns itself as the given soundtrack to every epic space blockbuster movie or game you ever have and ever will encounter.

No. 3
Band: Kamelot
Album: Haven

General Info
Year of Formation: 1991
Record Label: Napalm Records

After having dispelled all doubts that Roy Khan's departure would be the band's death with their excellent - but not outright fantastic - 2012 "comeback" album "Silverthorn", featuring their new vocalist Tommy Karevik of SEVENTH WONDER, many a fan wondered if we would ever see the legendary KAMELOT return to their once divine heights. And this year, we got a resounding answer in the form of "Haven": An album that saw the band realize the full potential of the absurd talents of their new vocalist, and a change of musical direction into much darker and more progressive territories, all the while retaining and evolving their iconic sound. And while it took me a while to fully appreciate it, "Haven" steadily won me over from merely being another great KAMELOT album, to me now preaching it as their finest since "The Black Halo", and as such an easy and successful contender for the greatest album of 2015 - bar only two.

No. 2
Band: Ghost
Album: Meliora

General Info
Year of Formation: 2008
Record Label: Loma Vista Recordings

And similarly to how KAMELOT made a resounding comeback into my heart this year, so did a band that I had essentially written out of my notebook: GHOST. Having been a fan of their first album, I was somewhat underwhelmed by their follow-up "Infestissumam" bar a few excellent tracks, and had such written them off my interest list. Then, while at Sweden Rock Festival (where they were to play), they released the "South of Heaven"-esque single "Cirice". And not only did it take me by storm; it took the entire festival by storm to such an extent that some 30,000 people had learned it by heart come the time the band were to play, just a few days after its release. And as they showed off several of their upcoming songs on that show with overwhelming conviction, I started to realize that GHOST's upcoming album was going to be something extra. And not only is "Meliora" something extra; it is an infernally powerful album with superb songs, a wonderfully evolved sound, a masterful mixing, and everything it needs to proclaim itself the anthem to the Second Coming of Satan.
But even Satan must bow down before the, without a doubt in my mind, greatest album of 2015...

No. 1
Band: Nightwish
Album: Endless Forms Most Beautiful

General Info
Year of Formation: 1996
Record Label: Nuclear Blast Records

The album that went up and beyond to convince me that it's by far the greatest album of 2015: Symphonic Metal titans NIGHTWISH's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful". Having already seen the light that is their new vocalist Floor Jansen (of AFTER FOREVER) at Wacken Open Air performing songs from both the Tarja- and the Anette years with blinding conviction, I was beyond intrigued to see what Tuomas and the NIGHTWISH boys could conjure up with this new tour-de-force at the front. The result was unexpected; in some ways a little disappointing, and when all is said and done: the only album this year that brought me to tears - of joy.
For while "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" may have failed to utilize the full extent of Floor's surreal vocal range, and lost some of the band's former power to on one hand a change to a more Folky direction with the inclusion of folk instrumentalist Troy Donockely as a permanent member (to the distress of oh so many "fans") and on the other the (hopefully only temporary) loss of their phenomenal drummer Jukka Nevalainen, the album did something that no other Metal album has done to date: Write a positive, empowering, life-loving, tribute album to science and reason based on the writings, concepts and teachings of prominent scientists like Charles Darwin, Carl Sagan, and Richard Dawkins - the latter of which even appears on the album.
This, along with the ever-present mastercraft songwriting, production and direction of Tuomas Holopainen, makes "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" not just the kind of flawed masterpiece you can return to time and time again to hear music that moves you, but more importantly the kind that you can go to as a source of inspiration, invigoration, and appreciation of life; the Universe, and - you guessed it - all these "Endless Forms Most Beautiful".