Your favorite album of 2009!!

blasterbeat

Senior Member
I think it's time to share our thoughts as to what we believe to be our favorite album of the year is.

I'll go first...

MASTODON!!! CRACK THE SKYE!!!

I have been listening to these guys for 6 years now and each album has it's own mark in the universe. Crack the Skye really struck a chord with me and I can tell it is their magnum opus. It has that vibe that can only be truly harnessed once in a bands career. Think Blackwater Park by Opeth. That was a creepy 70's feeling album that Akerfeldt I'm afraid will always be trying to capture again. I pray that Lindgren and Lopez return to their rightful places. And to Mastodon...BRAVO.

On a similar note I would like to give a nod of approval to the band FORMERLY known as KISS. Though Sonic Boom wasn't the retro album that I was hoping for (and I read in guitar player magazine that Paul did not want to make a retro album) it did grow on me. As a die hard there will always little nuances that I wish were in the album. A lick here, a fill there, I could go on...but overall I am more than mildly pleased. Too bad that Ace & Peter aren't on the album and that Psycho Circus wasn't the album that it should have been.

Other worthy mentions in my book are Cave In. They are back after a 3 1/2 year hiatus and have only released an EP...ON VINYL!! Haven't heard the new Slayer but from what I hear about it it's well, SLAYER. Shrinebuilder is another that is moving mountains right now and the only thing I have to say about Alice In Chains is welcome back!

thank you, that is all.
 
For me it has to be:

Kasabian : West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

If only because I expected to hate it. Was hugely unimpressed by their last offering "Empire" and didnt expect much of this one. Was very wrong... Hugely accomplished album, much more textured and varied than their previous offerings, an enjoyable end to end listen.
 
Muse - The Resistence!!

Amazing album! amazing band! im gonna see them live at MSG!
 
Probably Thom Yorkes new single... I will count it as an album. I just will.
 
For me, it's Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue.
 
Crack the Skye was brilliant in my opinion. Prior to that album I wasn't a huge fan of Mastodon, there were select cuts off of their albums that I liked. The last song off Blood Mountain was great, it sounded really southern rock bluesy with a lot of the guitar work. It sounded like they continued in that direction. And "The Last Baron"... *shakes head* just epic.

Humbug from the Arctic Monkeys was really good too. It was noticeably different and took some time to grow on me. I picked it up and listened to it a few times and then it just sat there for a month or so and one day I decided to listen to it again and didn't put it down for a month. Josh Homme produced a lot of so I expected it to be different.

On the hip hop front Mos Def put out The Ecstatic which was noticeably unconventional and really showed off his versatility style-wise. And the cultural poignancy was still there (not that it ever left).

Blakroc (self titled) which is a very interesting project is very solid all the way through. The Black Keys did all of the music (the RZA threw down a guitar track) and got in touch with Damon Dash who brought over a mob of emcees to put that together. It's raw and THICK.

And Q-Tip put out The Renaissance, and as far as I can remember Tip has never done wrong. Need not say anymore.

The Roots were supposed to put out How I Got Over in October but that was pushed out till February. The single of the same title is a gem, it's got that old school soul/RnB style to it with a fat groove.

It wasn't an album, but a "mixtape" that was recently released by an Afro-German female RnB singer Nneka has been playing constantly on my phone. A lot of pro Africa, rise up content with a hell of a voice behind . She's definitely saying something.

And there's nothing else on the horizon until next year.
 
The new Killswitch Engage album (self-titled). Its pretty good, they try a few new directions on this cd. They said they didn'y want to make a part 2 of the last album and some parts are obvious but it still has the KS sound.
Harmonized melodies lines from the guitar, opera man vocals and the usual screams from Howard. No vox from Adam D on the album, big disapointment, at least to me, his back up parts make a lot of the songs. Mike Foley goes for a few new drumming ideas by thinking outside of the metal box. Overall, a good album. I am still undecided if I like as much as the old ones.
 
Only By The Night - Kings of Leon.

I really just like the overall feel and sound of the songs on this album. At first I was skeptical about the band, but after hearing this album I decided to check out their earlier albums and I'm sold on them. They're a groovin band.
 
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