ksbluesfan wrote:StillBleedingBlue wrote:ksbluesfan wrote:Ruutu15 wrote:I'd have to think that South Carolina goes with the Marshall Tucker Band, but they're the only band I know of from SC.
You've never heard of Nile? Technical death metal with an Egyptian theme. They're very good.
I cannot plus plus this enough. Karl Sanders is quite a genius as far as tech death goes.
I downloaded Origin's s/t based on your Kansas suggestion. I'm impressed. I didn't think it was possible for anything good to come out of the hellhole that is Topeka, KS.
In your opinion, what is the best release so far this year? Testament's latest is pretty good. I still need to get my hands on the latest Judas Priest and Opeth.
Origin's entire discography is impressive, and their newest album, "Antithesis" is, in my opinion, their best album, and definitely among my short list of best albums from this year (so far, that is). They may take Decapitated's spot amongst the tech death elite with this album if Decapitated call it quits now with the passing of Vitek.
Testament's was pretty good, though kind of lackluster given all the hope I had for Skolnick's return to form.
Opeth's "Watershed" is good as expected, albeit a bit overrated, but then again, Opeth always seems to be a little bit overrated.
Two other albums that really caught my attention were Keep of Kalessin's "Kolossus" and Ihsahn's "angL". Keep of Kalessin is probably best described as a second-generation Norweigian black metal band, reminiscent of a mix between late-period Emperor, Amon Amarth, and Nile, and their last album, "Armada", really impressed me, but this album blows it away. It's definitely worth checking out. Ihsahn's album, "angL", is his second solo album, and, though I may be a bit biased since I tend to love everything Emperor/Ihsahn has ever done, this album is also very impressive. It's a natural progression from Emperor's "Prometheus", with a more pronounced black metal feel than his last album, "The Adversary".
Given all the bands that are putting out albums still this year in metal, especially Anata, Gorod, Nevermore, and hopefully Cynic, one of those albums are going to take the title of the best of the year. I'm not even holding my breath for Metallica's new one.