Best Heavy Metal 2008

Putting together year end lists is always difficult, and for 2008 there were several strong candidates for the best CD. I picked Opeth's Watershed. Here's what Opeth frontman Mikael Akerfeldt had to say about being number one: "Well, on behalf of the band I wanna say thanks a 1000 for giving us the top spot for album of the year with Watershed. Yeah, it's fair to say we're happy with it and it seems like our listeners are diggin' the vibes as well. Cheers guys, and I'll use a quote from Alice Cooper to finish off in style: 'Hello hooray!'"

Heavy metal DVDs aren't a recent phenomenon, but their popularity seems to be increasing every year. 2008 saw a ton of metal DVDs hit the shelves, ranging from concerts to video collections to documentaries. The number of DVD reviews on this site has also increased quite a bit in 2008. In previous years, I just named a single DVD in my annual metal awards post, but this year there are enough quality metal DVDs to put together a top 10 list.

Daniel Ekeroth - Swedish Death Metal

If you want to know the history of Swedish death metal from those who lived it, Swedish Death Metal is a mandatory read. It was written by Daniel Ekeroth, a Swedish musician who is in Insision and Tyrant. He experienced the birth and growth of Swedish death metal, first as a fan and then as a musician. Many music books don't really say much about the music, but focus mostly on personalities. Swedish Death Metal does an excellent job with both. Ekeroth has interviewed most of those who were there at the beginning of Swedish death metal's birth, and their perspective and memories are invaluable.

In Hollywood, movies released in January aren't usually very good. The studios save the dregs and dump it at the beginning of the year. Not so in metal. Although 2008 is getting off to a slower start than 2007 when it comes to the depth of quality, there are still some good CDs released so far in 2008.

After getting off to a moderate start, February was a really strong month. Three CDs received 4.5 out of 5 ratings, and picking the number one slot was difficult. There were also several four-star CDs released this month, making it a month with a lot of depth. That bodes well for the rest of 2008.

March was a bit weaker than February, with only one release having a 4.5/5 rating. There were also fewer 4/5 rated CDs in March than last month. Still, there are several strong CDs that came out this month, including at least a couple you'll probably see on my year end best of list.

For the second straight month there was only one CD that got a 4.5 out of 5 rating. So far it's been a year with a lot of excellent releases, but only a few outstanding ones. Arsis stood above the masses this month, but a great comeback from Testament and solid new releases from Children Of Bodom, The Sword and Boris also made my top five releases of April 2008.

It was another average at best month for metal releases. May was the third consecutive month with only one CD garnering a 4.5 out of 5 review. There were also only a few four-star efforts this month. June looks to be much stronger with some pretty big name releases on the horizon.

Now that the summer is heating up, so are the releases. June was the strongest month so far when it comes to the depth and breadth of really good CDs. This month's number one is also my top CD so far this year. There were a bunch of releases that received 4 out of 5 stars, and it was extremely difficult to narrow them down to the best five.

After June was the strongest month so far in 2008 as far as the quality and depth of new metal CDs, July crashes back down to earth. The physical number of releases slows down a bit in the summer, and there weren't as many new releases to choose from in July. Only one CD received a 4.5 out of 5 rating, so it wasn't tough to choose the number one CD. There were also only a handful of four-star reviews, so July was actually the easiest month so far this year to pick the top five.