VISIONS OF ATLANTIS Announce Physical Edition of Live Album, Armada Live Over Europe, out July 4, 2025 via Napalm Records | Pre-Order HERE!
Electrifying Live Video for “Armada” Unveiled | Watch HERE!
On Extended North America Tour in April!
[photo credit: Robert Eikelpoth, edited by Blake Armstrong]
Pirates never rest, nor do the raging seas! Following the triumphant release of Pirates II – Armada and the ongoing success of their Armada Live Over Europe series, international symphonic metal frontrunners VISIONS OF ATLANTIS set sail once again with their brand-new live video, “Armada”, recorded during their electrifying performance in Graz, Austria. The new video is part of their exciting the digital live series Armada Live Over Europe. By releasing live songs and videos over the past weeks, the quintet has kept excitement levels at an all-time high. Now, the digital series culminates in the live album Armada Live Over Europe set for release via Napalm Records on July 4, 2025. The live album captures the explosive energy of a VISIONS OF ATLANTIS live show, allowing listeners to relive the incomparable spirit of their recent tour from the comfort of home.
2024 was a triumphant year for the international symphonic metal frontrunners VISIONS OF ATLANTIS. The release of their latest full-length album, Pirates II – Armada, marks the band’s most successful record to date, climbing to top positions on international charts, including #5 on the German and Austrian Official Album Charts, #4 on the UK Rock & Metal Charts, and #2 on the US Hard Music Album Charts, to name a few. The summer and fall were filled with extensive touring, enchanting their devoted fans across Europe and the UK.
For fans in North America, the live album will be the perfect way to warm up for VISIONS OF ATLANTIS’ upcoming tour, taking place in April 2025. Tickets for this adventurous ride are on sale now, and fans won’t want to miss the unique VIP upgrade, which includes an exclusive acoustic set performed for a small audience before the show—creating memories to last a lifetime!
Pirate Queen Clémentine states: “Today we end this wonderful live series with our battle chant! For so many weeks, we have had great pleasure gathering online with our sailors, sharing memories and anecdotes from our latest European Armada tour. Now, we are looking ahead to the next adventure appearing on the horizon: the North American Armada tour! We’re very excited to bring our tales again to the other side of the Atlantic. See you very soon!”
“High drama, hard-hitting heaviness, and gentle, spinetingling beauty. Visions of Atlantis have proven that ‘pirate metal’ is much more than a silly gimmick.” – Metal Hammer, 2024VISIONS OF ATLANTIS deliver tales of high-seas adventure through cinematic symphonic metal anthems, swiftly rising as high as a Jolly Rancher flag since the band’s humble beginnings in August 2000. Since the band’s inception, VISIONS OF ATLANTIS has boasted dual vocal power from a male and female vocalist, co-captained today with Clémentine Delauney and Michele Guaitoli at the helm. Both possess captivating range, seamlessly switching from intimate melody to soaring operatic thunder.
Christian Douscha’s guitar work helps forge a brilliant future for the symphonic metal genre. Nintendo-obsessed Herbert Glos punctuates the proceedings with bass lines as rhythmic as the sea. Steady band cofounder and drummer Thomas Caser anchors the sound with powerful percussion.
Songs like “Melancholy Angel”, “Clocks”, “Legions of the Seas” and “Master of the Hurricane” helped establish the band as symphonic metal royalty. Through their pair of critically acclaimed masterworks, Pirates (2022) and Pirates II—Armada (2024), the band took listeners on immersive adventures. Each swashbuckling track serves as a metaphor for perseverance, passion, and emotion.
The Pirates era is majestically celebrated across the multipart Armada Live Over Europe (2025). Culled from professional recordings captured at multiple tour stops, the collection showcases VISIONS OF ATLANTIS’ visceral prowess, power, and dynamic connection to its loyal audience.
Kicking off with its title track and standout song, “Return to Lemuria”,The Deep & The Dark (2018) introduced Delauney, Douscha, and Glos to fans worldwide. Guaitoli completed the band’s best-known lineup on Wanderers (2019), which featured massive fan-favorite anthems, including “Heroes of the Dawn,” “A Journey to Remember” and “Nothing Lasts Forever.”
The new era began in earnest with Pirates. “They build the perfect musical platform for one of the finest dual vocal performances I have ever heard,” wrote Metal Rules in a 5/5 review. Praise for Pirates II – Armada was similarly enthusiastic from Metal Hammer and Distorted Sound. “Over 25 years and eight studio albums, VISIONS OF ATLANTIS have established themselves as the pristine epitome of symphonic metal,” wrote Blabbermouth. “Setting sail has seldom been more entertaining.”
VISIONS OF ATLANTIS continue to captivate Europe and North and South America with each successive trek- whether headlining or performing at major festivals like Wacken, Bloodstock, ProgPower USA, the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise, and the Sabaton Cruise. Armada LIVE Over Europe is a masterclass in performance and a harbinger of the adventures to come for VISIONS OF ATLANTIS. All aboard!
Vocalist Clémentine about the album: “We’re delighted to keep the magic of our live shows alive with this long-awaited release! Now, everyone who has attended one or more shows on our 2024 ARMADA tour can relive the experience at home. We love how our songs from our latest albums are energized and empowered by the live conditions and how the crowd becomes a part of the show, singing and chanting with us all along. This was definitely a tour to remember for us, and we are very happy to have this record as a lifetime souvenir.”
Make sure to pre-order your copy (physical edition) of Armada Live Over EuropeHERE!
[Earbook 36p]VISIONS OF ATLANTIS live: Armada Over North America 02.04.25 US – Mechanicsburg / Lovedrafts 03.04.25 US – Baltimore / Ottobar 04.04.25 US – Pittsburgh / Preserving Underground 05.04.25 US – New York / Meadows 06.04.25 US – Cambridge / Middle East 08.04.25 CA – Quebec City / La Source Martinière 09.04.25 CA – Toronto / Lee’s Palace 10.04.25 US – Detroit / The Sanctuary 11.04.25 US – Joliet / The Forge 12.04.25 US – St. Paul / Turf Club 14.04.25 CA – Edmonton / Starlite 15.04.25 CA – Calgary / Dickens 16.04.25 US – Seattle / El Corazon 17.04.25 US – Portland / The Bossanova Ballroom 18.04.25 US – San Francisco / DNA Lounge 19.04.25 US – Los Angeles / Whisky A Go Go 21.04.25 US – San Diego / Brick By Brick 24.04.25 US – Las Vegas / The Usual Place 25.04.25 US – Phoenix / The Rebel Lounge 26.04.25 US – Salt Lake City / Soundwell 27.04.25 US – Denver / Oriental Theater 28.04.25 US – El Paso / Rockhouse Bar & Grill 29.04.25 US – Dallas / Granada Theater
VIP Upgrades are available for every show! Tickets & VIP Upgrades available HERE
European Summer Shows: 16-17.05.25 DE – Runkel / Pirate Fest 26-28.06.25 RO – Mangalia / Odyssea Rock Fusion Fest 28.06.25 CH – Grenchen / Summerside Festival 30.06.25 IT – San Polo d’Enza / Bilbao* 03.07.25 DE – Nuremberg / Hirsch* 02-05.07.25 DE – Ballenstedt / RockHarz Festival 06.07.25 NL – Helmond / Pirate Metal Party 08.07.25 DE – Memmingen / Kaminwerk* 09.07.25 SI – Ljubljana / Kino Siska* 14-16.08.25 CZ – Moravský Krumlov / Rock Castle Festival 16.08.25 DE – Regensburg / Summerstage Eventhall 30.08.25 AT – Graz / Metal on the Hill 24.09.25 FI – Tampere / Olympia 25.09.25 FI – Helsinki / Korjaamo (* supporting Gloryhammer)
VISIONS OF ATLANTIS are: Clémentine Delauney – Vocals Michele Guaitoli – Vocals Christian Douscha – Guitars Herbert Glos – Bass Thomas Caser – Drums
This installment of the list is eight more albums of the thirty I picked as my all-time favorite Heavy Metal albums. There may be another part where I talk about the next ten or twenty on my list. I’m not sure where I’m going to go with list-making. It hasn’t been as much of a conversation starter as I’d hoped. But it’ll be a permanent page on the site, so people can go roast or review my taste. So, please share your favorite albums in the comments, and let me know if you like any of the same ones on my list! I want to know people’s tastes in Metal records. As it’s probably all different ones from all over the world, I’d like to add more high-quality Metal albums to my “Must listen” list.
So let me know in the comments what Heavy Metal albums I must hear or just what your favorites are!
As with all my posts, this one is subjective. This list doesn’t aim to categorize “the best albums of Metal” because such a feat is just not feasible to me. This is based on just my taste. They’re not even in order by my favorites because what is considered my favorite is highly based on my mood. I just made a master list and narrowed it down to the 30 that are important to highlight my taste. It should give readers a better sense of what I listen to regularly and just personal taste. Let me know about your favorite Metal albums below in the comments, I would love to see if any of these albums resonated with anyone else the same way they did with me.
Part 3
13. Obsolete- Fear Factory (1998)
I remember listening to Fear Factory when I was probably much too young to understand it. It ranged between fun and scary at times, but I knew I loved it because my brother loved it so unabashedly. When someone you love experiences a band so tangibly, it’s impossible not to share the joy of it for me. Fear Factory became a pinnacle band for my brother and me. We’ve been listening to them together for over twenty years. It’s a band we love unconditionally, no matter how many times they change members. I think they’re one of the most consistently good bands in my repertoire besides Epica. Every album has tracks that have remained with me for years. It’s not just industrial speed metal from the depths of “Skynet” created hell. Fear Factory creates very psychologically deep music. It challenges every topic of human existence and even places it from the view of an automaton. This idea, akin to the visionary Isaac Asimov’s I., Robot, captivates me on a fundamental level. I grew up reading and watching Sci-Fi that was themed around the transferring of a human consciousness into a machine or even a transference of the soul entirely. This trope endlessly fascinates me and terrifies others in the new dawn of AI. Fear Factory’s music explored these ideas long before we had half of the technological advances we have now. It is incredible to realize that a lot of these advances were only fiction then, and that a Metal band was expanding upon them in such a realistic level.
Choosing an album of Fear Factory’s for the list came down to three albums: Obsolete, Digimortal, and Archetype. I went with Obsolete because of its stunning dynamics between machine-like riffs and gorgeous soaring melodies like on Resurrection and epic ender Timelessness. When I want to listen to Fear Factory, this is my first choice. The songwriting on this album is solid and is truly a prime example of what Fear Factory has to offer. They polished their sound from the previous release. This makes for clearer and concise tracks. The clarity is refreshing for an Industrial album of that era. There was nothing quite like this album, and there still isn’t anything comparable. Dino Cazares and Burton C Bell are one of my favorite writing duos of all time. It seems like they came together on this album and made something truly beautiful while not compromising the heaviness. But Burton wrote the lyrics solely for this record, and I think he proved he is a revolutionary lyricist on his own. It’s easy to connect with Burton because of the soul he puts into such a cold sci-fi concept and the emotional depth he shows in his vocals. He may not be the most technically sound singer, but he gives you chills like no other. He was the first growler/screamer I’d ever heard. That led me to a lifelong love of dual-sided vocals that accounts for probably half of what I listen to.
The message of each song is more fluent on this record, like Mechanize..They made Fear Factory with a more Metal Radio sense to it, and it turned out brilliantly, I think. While the personal experiences and memories may contribute heavily to why I love this album, I’d still put it atop the greatest. The mix Dino contributed to on this record is an audiophile’s dream. This record sounds good on any format or listening device, but on FLAC quality with Beyerdynamic headphones, it is a true experience. Obsolete is one of the best-sounding records I have heard, regardless of genre. The attack on every note and the mid and bass are so punchy, causing for a more engaging sounding record. The distortion is crisp, not muddy or too low. The vocals sound like they’re taken right off the board with a perfect amount of reverb. You know how much I love reverb on a mix. The engineering is as flawless as it can get for a Metal record.
Fear Factory is one of the key bands that got me into Metal and is my reason for having such a high standard for emotional and sonic depth. They’re a part of some of my earliest music memories and my bond with my older brother. Hopefully, we can see them together in concert one day, even though it’ll never be quite the same without Burton. That contribution to my brother and I’s bond is invaluable. I still think my brother should’ve tried out when they were looking for a new vocalist, but I really enjoy Milo’s tribute to Burton and his precise guttural techniques.
My favorite songs are Shock, Edgecrusher, and Resurrection.
14. Holy Diver- Dio (1981)
Two artists are rarely left off “Best” or “Favorite Metal albums of all time” lists: Iron Maiden and Dio. They are two quintessential Metal artists who forged the genre. Often referred to as the “Heavy Metal God”, Ronnie James Dio created an unmatched legacy in the genre. He is a household name to all that observe Rock and Heavy Metal, and rightfully so. His contributions to the genre foreshadowed many that came before him. His stints with Black Sabbath and Rainbow changed Heavy Metal forever and helped create his everlasting legacy. I don’t need to explain how impactful Ronnie James Dio was on music, it’s a well-known fact that he is the one who made Heavy Metal a movement, a lifestyle, a way of being, and a brotherhood. Without Dio, my most favorite bands would not sound like they do today. His solo work is responsible for influencing my collective favorite genre, Power Metal, which combines Heavy Metal and Classical Music and Fantasy themes. It is impossible to imagine Heavy Metal without Dio. I didn’t always know of his impact on Metal. I just thought he was a singer my dad loved when he was in the Air Force.
Upon delving into the world of Heavy Metal on a more scholarly level, nobody’s name came up more as an influence than Ronnie James Dio. his presence wasn’t just soaring technically perfect vocals, but storytelling, a light in the dark, and a character of acceptance of the children judged by the “Satanic Panic” in the 1980s. RJD was a haven for those who didn’t fit in and were ultimately rejected by the over-glorification of Pop music. That kind of legacy that affects youth first-hand is irreplaceable. Because of him, Heavy Metal became a comfort to those who didn’t fit in: The Fantasy nerds. The dreamers and the Metalheads rebelled against the radio, Christianity, and anything that wished to make them conform. That sentiment still stands today with bands that refuse to give into big corporations’ pressuring them to become something they’re not and go against the formulaic standards of radio. This is a topic I am extremely passionate about and hope to elaborate more in the future. I didn’t know this sentiment was one Ronnie James Dio stood for, and now I love him even more.
Holy Diver is an iconic album that has stood the test of time. Still as crisp and innovative today as it was in 1981, the album is a catchy journey against evil forces. Listening to this album again, I had forgotten how exquisite the writing and guitar work truly are. The songs are driving forces, flowing fluidly together, and captivate with every word and every riff. I don’t think I realized how massive the riffs are on Holy Diver. I forgot how incredible Vivian Campbell’s playing was on this record, a record he didn’t even write. He was just the session guitarist in the studio and played the subsequent tours and albums after. He came in and truly brought this album to life with the screaming solos, speedy riffs, and catchy hooks. With a voice larger than life, Ronnie James Dio overshadows his counterparts, but I think Vivian Campbell is the only guitarist whose voice stands up to Dio’s. Rainbow was an incredible band, too, with the great Ritchie Blackmore and his Proggy Gothic style, but man, there’s something magical about Campbell and Dio on Holy Diver. The guitars he crafted fit the epic fantasy theme emphatically. The lineup on this album truly feels like destiny. I love that Campbell’s guitar solos span a minute or two. I love that it completely breaks up the music to create a flashy solo into another verse. I love how assertively 80s this album sounds, whilst keeping Dio’s 70s Rock roots. It’s soulful, extravagant, hook-oriented, a little Progressive, and rooted in pure Rock. Every time I hear Caught In The Middle and Don’t Talk To Strangers, I am reminded of how much I cherish this album. Caught In The Middle is so heartfelt and punchy, a similar inspiring feel to Holy Diver, but more down to Earth.
This is my favorite album of Ronnie’s vocals, too. I love pretty much anything he sings. He could sing a C++ book and still make me want to listen to every word. He isn’t just a singer, he’s a storyteller. The words he sings are exquisitely picked, and the notes are deliberate and exact. He is the height of technical execution, but he blended the storytelling of the 1970s. His voice could fit any genre, but thank god Ronnie chose Rock and Heavy Metal as his home. Holy Diver is unarguably one of the greatest vocal performances ever recorded, regardless of genre. Every song on this album is an epic or a saga, making it timeless and flawless every time I listen to it, which is impressive after four decades.
I hear this down-to-earth quality echoed in Power Metal albums today, and it makes me emotional to hear the impact this album has on my favorite music. Ronnie’s voice is timeless, and Holy Diver sounds just as revolutionary today as it did in 1981. It’s one thing to experience Dio’s impact grandly, but personally hearing it impact my favorite musicians today just feels like Heavy Metal has come full circle. And I wish Ronnie was around to hear bands like Unleash The Archers, Lords of The Trident, Seven Kingdoms, and more that echo his down-to-earth, heartfelt music.
My favorite songs are Holy Diver, Rainbow in the Dark, Don’t Talk To Strangers, and Straight Through the Heart.
15. Legacy of Kings- Hammerfall (1998)
Yet another classic Power Metal album on my list. I’ve been listening to this album since I was just 12 years old. They are yet another band my older brother introduced me to. It was long before I knew anything about European Metal or genres. This was one album I instantly loved, along with Hammerfall’s debut and another classic, Glory To The Brave. Choosing between these albums for this list was a mighty task, but I had to go with the more anthemic Legacy of Kings. Hammerfall’s impact on my music taste is right up there with Dio and Iron Maiden. They have been consistently in my listening rotation longer than any band on this list. I didn’t realize that fact until delving into my memories associated with this band. I started listening to them when my family first moved back to Colorado and have never stopped listening to them. My brother had their first two records in the car for years to come, and many road trips were soundtracked by Hammerfall and other bands on this list. It’s Joacim Cans’ illustrious voice that keeps me coming back to Hammerfall. He is unlike anyone I have ever heard and will always be one of my favorite male vocalists. When I want solid Power Metal with a nostalgic feel, I turn to Dream Evil or Hammerfall. Hammerfall has been an ever-driving force in the scene and a pinnacle of Power Metal for me.
Legacy of Kings is an experience of historical tales of Templars setting out on their designed quests, 80s Arena sounds, and unbelievably soulful vocals. The album sounds exactly like its name and the cover art. It is a no filler, no bullshit, battle Metal album with lyrics that will stick in your head forever. It captures elements of Dio, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Def Leppard, and Manowar but with the Brotherhood of the Templars at the helm. I am forever fascinated by the Templars and Crusade history, and Hammerfall brought this to a sonic basis. It’s a cool thematic concept that instantly transports you to a different time and place. Legacy of Kings is an album I put on while gaming, walking, or on road trips, as mentioned earlier. The music is so fast-paced and interesting; it speeds any task up exponentially and makes it a more enjoyable experience. This would be a perfect soundtrack to a miniseries about the Templars, I can just envision the story line and characters with momentous battles every time I listen to it. I may even write an inspired book series one day, in hopes I can capture some of the magic in this album. I love the theme, the guitar tone, the drums, the level of reverb, and the clarity of the vocals. There’s just not an album like Legacy of Kings, and I don’t think there ever will be. While I dislike the use of the word “masterpiece” and find it way overused. I would use it to describe this album in a heartbeat.
What sold me on Hammerfall is their ability to write epic, long, high BPM songs and then drop an absolutely heart-wrenching ballad. Songs like Glory to The Brave, The Fallen One, Second to None, and Remember Yesterday are unbelievably amazing. The songwriting throughout their albums is masterful, but to me, the ability to write great ballads is a prime example of a great band. The Fallen One, being one of my favorite ballads, ends Legacy of Kings in a forlorn way that makes me want to restart the album immediately. Joacim Cans over a Classical Piano part is simply gorgeous and is a must hear concept. This singer is incomparable. Seeing Hammerfall live and experiencing Joacim’s voice in person was indescribable. He doesn’t miss. He doesn’t waver. He is one of the strongest vocalists I’ve ever heard, and Legacy of Kings is a peak example of his unbridled talent.
I can’t imagine my life without ever hearing Hammerfall, and I will continue to listen to them as long as I can hear (Seeing Sonata Arctica or Unleash the Archers again might just do my ears in).
My favorite songs are The Fallen One, Legacy of Kings, Remember Yesterday.
16. The Congregation- Leprous (2015)
This is one of the most unique albums on the list, I think. When I first discovered Leprous in 2018, it was difficult to dissect what I was hearing. Leprous is a listening experience that simply cannot be described. They’re an eclectic, avant-garde sound that can’t be categorized. It’s Metal, it’s Prog, it’s Trip Hop, it’s Symphonic, tastes of Meshuggah, it’s a little Broadway Musical; It’s Leprous, the only Leprous. There’s nothing like this band in my 31 years of music listening. Everything they do challenges genre, the usual notation and chord progression, and the typical range of music. The talent in this band is incomparable. Their music is weird but in a good way. They create some of the strangest mind-bending soundscapes that are so visceral. No matter what they create, you can always expect an album that takes many listens to digest and sink your teeth into the meaning of. I think Leprous creates a piece of deeper music. This isn’t just music for the sake of making sound or a shock factor, it’s exclusively meaningful. This band gives 110% on every single song, performance, and album. You can hear the immense effort they put into every detail and every note. A band that works intricately and organically in the dawn of AI, copy and paste, and overproduced music cannot go unnoticed by me. They uniquely blend Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Devin Townsend, Tool, and Meshuggah chugs to create music more than worthy of a lifetime-achievement award. Leprous has created an innovative sound that has been immensely influential in everything that I create and made a new standard for Progressive Metal that isn’t just “Djenty” guitars.
The Congregation is an album that sums up their dark, moody, intense, and progressive-oriented sounds whilst combining singer Einar Solberg’s love of Massive Attack. This creates a sound that captures me instantly. I also love Massive Attack and Trip Hop since I was introduced to the genre on The Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack in 2003. This album could be taken right out of that Soundtrack. So, there’s a nostalgic element to it as well as a fresh take for me. The Congregation is full of mind-bending sounds, beautiful and haunting melodies, and exquisite drum-work. This was the first album they’d done with drummer Baard Kolstad. You can hear the enormous impact he had on the band. His drum beats melded with Tor’s funky off-time guitar riffs. This album is a time signature nightmare, and I love it. It’s completely unpredictable. The Price, Third Law, and Moon highlight the beast that is Baard on drums. He is one of the hardest-hitting drummers. The attack he puts into every beat grabs your attention immediately. You have no idea where the song structure is going to go next. It’s like improvisational Jazz put into Heavy Metal, and I think it’s utterly brilliant. I love the drum work on this album, but the vocals are what put Leprous on the map for me.
Einar Solberg’s vocal performance on The Congregation defies all boundaries of male vocals and genre constraints. He has the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard in male vocals. He can move mountains with his voice, even in a whisper falsetto. His unbridled vocal power carries every song in an emotional gut-wrenching journey that is irreplicable. Songs like Rewind, The Flood, and the absolute soul-bursting Slave illustrate his immense range and explosive vocals. The dynamics he shows are unlike anything I have ever heard. It’s as though he is the love child of Devin Townsend, Ihsahn, Colm Wilkinson, and Daniel Tompkins. He is one of my favorite vocalists of all time, and The Congregation is the opus for me. His performance on The Flood is a top favorite of all time for me. The emotional impact this song has is everlasting. It is a cry for help when no one is listening, a release of unimaginable pain into the void, and the clouds inevitably parting on the constant storm life torments us with. I’ve created art pieces to try to capture how deeply The Flood and other songs off the album impacted me, but it’ll never be enough to truly iterate the supreme catharsis this album bestows.
Leprous is an all-time favorite artist of mine and will remain forever on this list with The Congregation.
My favorite songs: The Flood, Third Law, and Moon
17. Eternal Blue- Spiritbox (2021)
I know I’ve talked about this band before, and everyone’s probably getting tired of hearing about them. However, leaving them off this list is not an option. Spiritbox is one of my all-time favorite bands. They reignited my love for Metalcore whilst introducing me to a new genre that would become one of most listened to: Progressive Metalcore. This genre has been vitally important to my mental health and musical journey. Not only did it provide Spiritbox, a band that got me inspired to pick up drums again, but it also gave me Periphery, Whitechapel, ERRA, Novelists, Jinjer, and most especially Ankor. This band not only gave me some of my most personal connections with music, but they also gave me other bands I would connect with even deeper. They opened a window to a whole new world of music for me, and I found new parts of myself scattered within the same genre bubble. I discovered the band with their massive breakout single Holy Roller, and I admit it took a long time to grow on me. The other singles from Eternal Blue emphatically won me over to the immense talent of vocalist/lyricist Courtney LaPlante and guitarist/writer/producer Mike Stringer. Like Burton and Dino, they’re one of my favorite writing duos of all time. Spiritbox’s writing is superb. It is easy to hear why they’re one of the biggest Metal bands on the planet because Eternal Blue is perfectly crafted. I think this band deserves every amount of the hype they receive.
Eternal Blue is a beautiful and tragic journey through COVID isolation, depression, nightmares and night terrors, self-hatred, and fighting societal pressures of conformity. This album’s lyrical content sounds exactly like 2020-2021 was for me. It was fast, a blur of emotion constantly changing, and a calm amongst the storm. It’s a devastatingly heavy album in both instrumentation and emotional continuity. Each track flows together, but no two tracks sound the same. Somehow, it’s all in an idea bubble and sounds like the same theme, but it is completely different. It’s a crazy feat in songwriting to achieve that continuity without repeating or following the same formula. I think it’s because of the shifting in dynamics and wall-of-sound production. It immerses you in a vibe, for lack of a better word, and keeps you there for days, much like Courtney’s described nightmares that inspired this album. I love immersive, deep, huge sounding records, and this is a best effort in a decade. It exists in the same space in my mind and heart as Strapping Young Lad records. There’s brutality, airiness, relief, gigantic guitars, and soulfulness in complete desperation. This album emotionally wrecked me for months, but in a good way. It took me out of my comfort zone while giving me a haven amongst the chaos.
Songs like The Summit, Secret Garden, and Halcyon are lighter and a breath of fresh air amongst a stale, isolated lifestyle during COVID-19 times. These are tracks I would often go to sleep to or practice musical meditation to. There’s something profoundly spiritual about this record for me. It’s a cleansing of the spirit, which isn’t surprising considering the name of the band. Eternal Blue surprised me with how deeply it impacted me. I didn’t expect such a heavy guitar record with djent tropes to be so cathartic and emotional. I think Courtney’s vocals give their music that relatable quality. You can hear every word she says and clearly understand how it makes her feel. That emotional resonance is what makes this band special. A lot of singers are fantastic at singing and conveying a story or emotion because that is the job of a vocalist to audily convey the meanings of the song. What Courtney does is another level of crushingly soul-bearing vocals that dig into you and stay there for a long time.
A powerful quote about pain inspiring art is, “Great art comes from great pain,” which comes from Tortured Artists by Christopher Zara. I think Spiritbox resembles this message in a good way. Spiritbox’s impact on music is unarguably profound, but the emotional connection they’ve made with their fans, including me, is rarely talked about or honored. Spiritbox allows a haven for the anger, pain, and self-doubt we all may deal with throughout our lives. That is such a beautiful kind of catharsis.
My favorite songs are: We Live In A Strange World, The Summit, and Constance.
18. Victims of A Modern Age- Star One (2010)
I was already in love with European Metal early on because of Hammerfall and Within Temptation. Epica is the band that hooked me on Euro Metal and the pursuit of finding more Symphonic Metal and Death Metal. But, Arjen Lucassen and his many Prog projects were also a huge influence to my quest of the Euro Metal discovery. It became a passion to pick out each contributing artist from Arjen’s projects and deep dive into their subsequent bands and albums. It was like the “Six Degrees of Separation” but with incredible Metal. Once my brother and I went down this rabbit hole (Star One pun), we discovered many of our favorite artists of all time. I feel like we should write an extensive thank-you letter to the streaming service, Pandora. This service exposed us to most of the European artists we know and love today. They had the best collection of this kind of underground Metal we could access in America in the 2000s and 2010s. I fear to think what my life would be like without this music, especially without Arjen Lucassen. I remember my brother and I freaking out and “fangirling” to Victims of A Modern Age and all of Arjen’s discography together in his living room. It was a liberating experience that I think strengthened our bond even more and made me the metalhead that I am today.
Victims of a Modern Age is a nerdfest of Progressive Metal and geeky themes like The Matrix, Planet of the Apes, A Clockwork Orange, and Blade Runner. Arjen is heavily inspired by Sci-Fi to create Space Metal through project Star One. I have loved Sci-Fi series, books, and TV Series since I was young enough to sit and read or watch them. This love of sci-fi combined with Metal is such a personal niche. Especially since opening bombastic hook track Digital Rain is based on my favorite movie series of all time, The Matrix. This is, in my opinion, one of his best works because of its more band-like feel with Dan Swano, Damian Wilson, Russel Allen, Floor Jansen, Ed Warby, Peter Vink, and Joost Van De Broek. It was a lot easier to perform live shows and put together solid Metal records. This album is evidence that progressive metal doesn’t need 50 musicians and 5000 notes in a measure to be good. This album is hook-laden, anthemic, and bombastic. It is unapologetically nerdy and cheesy, and I love it immensely. Arjen Lucassen’s music writing is some of the best of our modern times, and his ability to compile the absolute best singers and musicians is a stroke of brilliance. Victims of A Modern Age is an album I wish I wrote and created. It is a Metal ode to Sci-Fi in the biggest way ever achieved, with some of the greatest vocalists of all time to tell the story.
The performances on this record are unbelievable. The first time I’d ever heard Russel Allen was on this album, and it blew me away more than 99% of singers I’d ever heard. It also introduced me to the mighty Floor Jansen, and that forever changed my life. I didn’t know women sang Power Metal, so when I heard her powerful vocals stand up to Russel and Damian Wilson, it had me hooked for life. Hearing Floor for the first time forever changed my view of female vocals and sent me to loving After Foreer, then Revamp, and then Nightwish. Arjen getting Floor Jansen heard on a larger scale in 2010 is probably one of the most significant moments in music for me. I think his loaded projects lead to a lot of discoveries for a lot of metalheads. Because of Ayreon and Star One, many of these artists have gone on to bigger projects and collaborations. I have no idea how Arjen does it, but he keeps crafting the best progressive music this generation has to offer, with the absolute best lineups. If I could ever achieve one percent of what he has, I’d be happy with my music career. The man is an absolute genius and wizard, and just knows how to bring the best out of the best musicians.
Victims of A Modern Age is yet another transformative release in my Metal History. It inspired me to plunge into the world of Metal head first and soak up Euro Metal like my life depended on it. Through this discovery, I found bands like Threshold, Adrenaline Mob, Porcupine Tree, After Forever, Stream of Passion, Symphony X, Between the Buried and Me, and so many other artists that impacted my taste in music writing. I think Arjen is a great writer, musician, collaborator, producer, and all-around nice guy. I don’t believe he gets the worldwide recognition, sales, or credit he deserves for being such a consistent contributor to music.
My favorite songs; Digital Rain, Cassandra Complex, 24 Hours
19. Audio Secrecy- Stone Sour (2010)
Of all the albums on this list, this might be the most influential to me personally. Devin Townsend, Brittney Slayes, Amy Lee, Joacim Cans, Simone Simons, and more top my favorite singers of all time list. But, before I dived into the Progressive and Power world, it was Corey Taylor who topped my list. The range, diversity, emotional diction, and character in Corey’s vocals made him stand out for me. Corey Taylor’s unique style is still unlike anything I have ever heard. Many have been inspired and replicate the style of rap, Metal gutturals, and soaring anthemic cleans that could organize a thousand people. His power is unbelievable to me. Even to this day, his live performances are staggeringly good. His vocals with Stone Sour are somehow different altogether. They’re softer, more nuanced, and more thought out to give a tonal quality. This makes Stone Sour stand out, blending the 60s and 70s with the Alternative Rock and Metal of the 2000s. I’ve been listening to Stone Sour since 2007 or so. I’ve always loved Jim Root’s guitar playing. Roy Mayorga is also a very underrated drummer. But, when Audio Secrecy came out, it changed my entire world as a music listener. This album was going to be on my list of “Favorite Rock Albums of all time”, but the drums and chugging guitars made this album fit Metal a little bit more to me. It’s just one of my favorites, regardless of genre.
I was listening to Turbo and Sirius XM recently, and Brent /Smith from Shinedown told the story of singing Guns N’ Roses’s Appetite For Destruction every Friday night in his garage as a kid. That’s how he got his start as a Rock vocalist. I related to that story because when Audio Secrecy came out, I practiced singing through it at least twenty times a week. It came out in September, and I think I was still practicing it the next October 2011. This strengthened my voice immensely and gave me so much confidence overall. While I’ve never sung in public or front of a band, at least I know I could sing some of those songs in a bad imitation. Those are the memories you hold onto forever with albums. When music makes you feel like you’re at your best, it leaves a permanent imprint on the deepest parts of you. That’s a powerful connection that makes music a unique experience. Regardless of whether I ever become a singer or not, I’ll always remember what album made me feel like I could be a rock star.
Audio Secrecy is sonically perfect; Stone Sour at their absolute apex of writing and song construction. This record is so well mastered, so well composed and engineered, it sounds like a late 1970s release. It sounds uncompressed, unfiltered, and so open and airy. It’s a massive-sounding album that combines Arena Rock with Deftones-inspired riffs and melodic vocals. It is hard-hitting. Every song is an attack. Every one of Roy’s hits punches you in the chest. The driving explosive choruses hook you in. Mayorga’s cataclysmic drumming on this record captivates me every time I listen to it. The bass line on Say You’ll Haunt Me would make Paul McCartney cry, it’s so damn good and smooth. The ballads cool off the tension, especially the power ballad Hesitate which is among my favorite songs of all time. The vocals are utterly perfect on every song, but I think Heisitate and Imperfect are two of Corey’s best clean performances of his entire career. This is undeniably the most relatable album in Stone Sour’s catalog, and I think that’s what makes it so beautiful. Corey put his whole heart into this album, as Slipknot had just lost bassist Paul Gray. Corey’s life has been full of loss, pain, and making it out by the skin of his teeth, and those parts of him are bare on Audio Secrecy. This accentuates the deep connection fans like me have made with him. It is Stone Sour’s best album, and I don’t think it will ever be replicated in the slightest.
Audio Secrecy is a once-in-a-generation album, and I will always remember it as my favorite album to sing along to. Seeing this album played almost entirely live was a highlight of my life that I’ll never forget.
My Favorite songs are: Digital (Did YouTell), Hesitate, Threadbare
20. All Hope Is Gone- Slipknot (2008)
Slipknot is one of my favorite bands of all time. Slipknot is what originally got me into Heavy Metal when I was 12 to 14 years old. Maybe it’s cliche at this point because Slipknot is one of the biggest metal bands of all time, but their impact is undeniable. They’ve inspired countless artists and young metalheads, exposing them to a whole new world of American Death Metal and Metalcore. I heard Slipknot as a kid because my brother and one of his friends were into Metal and shared albums, but it was probably too much for me at eight years old. I can imagine that, as sensitive as I was, the masks and the aggression would’ve freaked me out. But, as I got older, this aggressive music became essential to me. As a typical American teenager, Slipknot was heavy in my rotation long before the era of streaming. Though, I did have Youtube, and I would religiously watch Slipknot’s videos and attempt to decipher the visual subtleties Shawn Crahan hid in every video. Every aspect of Slipknot was endlessly fascinating to me. The fact that they hid their identities for so long, the horror-themed music videos, and all the strange sounds they used in their music were captivating and confusing at the same time.
All Hope Is Goneis an indescribable album of aggressive sound, piercing screams and DJ effects, and incredibly heavy drums. This is undoubtedly one of the best drum albums in Metal. Joey Jordison blended Progressive and Death Metal influences with solid Rock beats to complete the almost tribal backbone of Slipknot. He is a household name all over the world for his incomparable contributions to the world of Metal drumming. This album is my favorite of all his works, despite it being slightly lighter and more radio-friendly than others in the Slipknot arsenal. I also think this has some of the best guitar work of any Slipknot record. It sounds like Jim Root and Mick Thomson at their best to me. The mix of melodic hooks and depth with the pummeling speed riffs is something we don’t hear often in American Metal. The riffs remind me of early In Flames and At the Gates on this album, which, to me, is an upgrade in pedigree. There’s a musical depth to this album that intrigues me more than most Metal albums ever released. In some respects, it is so European and Death Metal oriented, and then there are anthemic sing-song parts in between. It’s a unique and eclectic mix that was very surprising for 2008. It sounds like this album could’ve been released in 2024, but on the other hand, it could’ve been an early 90s Thrash record. It’s hard for me to pin it down, and that’s what Slipknot always goes for. That’s what I love about them; they literally don’t sound like anyone or anything else, and they don’t try to be anything but themselves.
Slipknot creates some of the most unique Metal ever released with a staggering amount of influences and different musicians. I love bands who dare to be different, don’t aim to create radio rock, and are eclectic. Slipknot manages to be strange as hell and yet sell millions of records. This proves the idea of “mainstream” is an elitist construct of misinformation and old-fashioned thinking. Nothing Slipknot does is conforming to the radio or record company conglomerates, yet Sulfur, Before I Forget, Dead Memories, and Duality are some of the most played Metal tracks on the air. I love that they’ve flipped off all the doubters and all the elitists and stayed true to their chaotic and angry roots after all this time. While they’ve stayed true to this vacuum pretty much the whole time, besides recent release The End So Far (seriously, what the fuck was that album?), I think All Hope is Gone is going to remain my favorite Slipknot album of all time.
While I’ve moved on from Slipknot to completely different music, I will always love the nostalgia of hearing them on the radio. They are still a band my mom and I share every once in a while, and I will never forget the surprise of my mom loving Slipknot and everything Corey Taylor. I hope to see them together one day.
My Favorite songs are; Dead Memories, Snuff, Butcher’s Hook, Sulfur
There it is, my top 20 favorite Heavy Metal albums of all time! What are your favorites? Did you like or dislike any of the albums I listed? Start a conversation in the comments below!
All-Female Melodic Death Metal act FRANTIC AMBER premieres “Hell’s Belle” video single taken off upcoming studio album “Death Becomes Her”!
Swedish all-female melodic death metal band FRANTIC AMBER is currently gearing up for the release of their much-awaited, third studio album, entitled “Death Becomes Her”, due out on April 4, 2025 via ROAR. Coming on CD, Vinyl and in Digital formats, you can now pre-order the band’s forthcoming rager right here: https://franticamber.rpm.link/deathPR
After FRANTIC AMBER just recently unleashed a first track taken off “Death Becomes Her”, the furious “Jolly Jane”, now, the band is premiering a new video clip for their latest single “Hell’s Belle”!
““Death Becomes Her” is a concept album about female serial killers and includes different kinds of killers and categories of serial killers,” the band states. ““Hell’s Belle” Gunness was a particularly gruesome Black Widow type serial killer, who lured unsuspecting men to her Indiana farm with promises of love, only to poison and dismember them for their money. She also orchestrated multiple insurance frauds and many suspicious deaths, including those of her husbands and children. Her gruesome legacy, spanning from 1884 to 1908, left a trail of at least 14 confirmed victims, with estimates reaching as high as 40 murders. Belle most probably faked her own death by burning down her farm, leaving behind a headless corpse and a farm full of buried body parts. The song “Hell’s Belle” has a lot of black metal inspiration and combines a waltz with blast beats giving it a ruthless sway. We also incorporated a lot of orchestra to set the mood and tone together with the guitar melodies and tremolo. The lyrics tell the story of Belle Gunness and her bloody activities on her farm. The writing style is brutal with a little tongue-in-cheek undertones and the vocals have a wide range going from vicious growls to a little sprinkle of clean classical vocals in a three-part-harmony.”
FRANTIC AMBER started in 2008 as a project in Stockholm by founding guitarist Mary Siebecke with the intention to form an all-female metal band. At first it was an experiment through various genres and with clean vocals. It wasn’t until 2010, with the recruitment of Danish ballet dancer Elizabeth Andrews on extreme/clean vocals and lyric writing, as well as Japanese vocal and guitar teacher Mio Jäger handling lead guitar and main songwriting, that the identity of FRANTIC AMBER started to take its shape into the melodic death metal beast they are known as today.
Their music can best be described as Melodic Brutal Death Metal with Thrash, Black, Progressive, Heavy Metal and Symphonic elements. The thunderous bass together with the technicality and power of the drums provide the backbone, while the guitar’s shredding and soaring melodies complete the soundscape together with the powerful and aggressive vocals.
FRANTIC AMBER’s first EP, “Wrath Of Judgement”, was released in 2010 and landed them the opportunity to play live on national TV at the prestigious “P3 Guld” awards. Gaining momentum the band toured in Europe with SIX FEET UNDER among others, followed by releasing three videos for the songs “Wrath Of Judgement”, “Bleeding Sanity” and “Ghost”. In 2012 they won the Swedish Wacken Metal Battle and got to play a show at the huge W:O:A festival.
With two much-acclaimed full length records under their belt, “Burning Insight” and “Bellatrix”, several single releases and millions of streams and Youtube views, FRANTIC AMBER have played numerous festivals and toured all across Europe, Scandinavia as well as Japan, Russia and even played the largest festival in Colombia “Rock al Parque”. They have shared stages with bands like BEHEMOTH, EXODUS, SABATON, EXCITER, HAMMERFALL, CARACH ANGREN, DARK TRANQUILITY, UNLEASHED, TAAKE, INSOMNIUM, MYRKUR, AT THE GATES and TARJA to name just a few. In 2023, they were nominated by IMPALA as one of three Swedish acts to be included in the worldwide “100 Artists to watch” program that year.
Now, the time has finally come: On April 4th, FRANTIC AMBER will release their hotly-anticipated new album “Death Becomes Her”, an incredible, unique and brutal beast, with eleven amazing tracks, that will definitely blow your speakers and minds!
“Death Becomes Her” track listing: 01 – El Orfanato (Intro) 02 – Bloodbath 03 – Black Widow 04 – Death Becomes Her 05 – Hell’s Belle 06 – Angel Maker 07 – Jolly Jane 08 – Gore Candy 09 – The Butcheress 10 – In The Garden Of Bones 11 – Epitaphium (Outro)
FRANTIC AMBER is: Mio Jäger – Guitars Elizabeth Andrews – Vocals Madeleine Gullberg Husberg – Bass Laura Hernandez – Drums
FRANTIC AMBER live: 2025-04-04 Frantic Amber “Death Becomes Her” Release Fest at Encore – Sundbyberg, Sweden 2025-05-02 Karmøygeddon Metal Festival in Kopervik, Norway 2025-07-04 Metal Mayhem in Mariehamn, Åland 2025-07-25 NoExcuse Festival in Sätila, Sweden 2025-07-26 Bulgasal Metal Fest in Västerås, Sweden 2025-11-08 House of Metal in Umeå, Sweden
The ultimate pirate metal adventure is about to set sail! Hoist the sails, sharpen your cutlasses, and fill your tankards—ALESTORM is back with their brand-new album, The Thunderfist Chronicles, set for release on June 20, 2025 via Napalm Records! The Scottish party pirates return with their eight album, containing eight new anthems packed with blistering riffs, wild shanty-driven riffs, and utterly ridiculous lyrics—taking the high seas of metal to new depths.
The Thunderfist Chronicles arrives as the successor to ALESTORM’s epic seventh studio album, Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum, which peaked at #5 on both the US Current Hard Music and Top New Artist Albums charts, #7 on the German Album charts, and many more. After the release of last year’s Voyage of the Dead Marauder EP and extensive touring, the band returns for more! With The Thunderfist Chronicles, ALESTORM proves once again why they are the undisputed rulers of the Seven Metal Seas. So, grab your nearest jug of rum—this is going to be loud, chaotic, and absolutely legendary!
Christopher Bowes on the new album: “This album is weird and full of difficult riffs that I already regret. There’s a bunch of fun things to discover on the record though – we’ve got a cover of a song by our friends in Nekrogoblikon, a whole lot of other heavy stuff, plus the longest song I’ve ever written (over 17 minutes long) which features guest vocals from Patty Gurdy (everyone’s favorite hurdy gurdy player) and Sir Russel Allen (Symphony X singer and my favorite vocalist of all time).”
The Thunderfist Chronicles track listing: 1. Hyperion Omniriff 2. Killed to Death by Piracy 3. Banana 4. Frozen Piss 2 5. The Storm 6. Mountains of the Deep 7. Goblins Ahoy! 8. Mega-Supreme Treasure of the Eternal Thunderfist
The Thunderfist Chronicles will be available in the following formats: 1 LP Gatefold Liquid (Poster, Lyric Sheet, Hand-numbered Certificate, Booklet 16p) – Napalm mailorder (RoW) exclusive – strictly limited 1 LP Gatefold Translucent Lime Green (Poster, Lyric Sheet) – Napalm mail order exclusive – strictly limited 1-LP Gatefold Splattered Orange/Black (Poster, Lyric Sheet, Booklet 16p) – Napalm mail order exclusive – strictly limited 1 LP Gatefold Black 2-CD Mediabook, 24p (Album + Live Album) 1-CD Mediabook, Digisleeve (Instrumental Album), 7″ Single (2-Tracks) – (deluxe wooden box, flag) – Napalm mailorder exclusive – strictly limited 1-CD Jewel Case
Get ready for a firestorm of hard rock fury! Fierce Austrian hard rockers VULVARINE are set to shake things up with their new single and album opener, “The Drugs, the Love and the Pain”, taken from their upcoming studio album, Fast Lane, out on March 28, 2025 via Napalm Records!
“The Drugs, the Love and the Pain” kicks off VULVARINE’s album with an electrifying fusion of punk attitude, hard rock grit, and heavy metal intensity. Bursting with raw energy and rebellious spirit, the track delivers soaring melodies and hard-hitting riffs that embody the highs and lows of euphoria, chaos, and resilience. With its anthemic hooks and relentless drive, this powerhouse sets the tone for an adrenaline-fueled ride through the band’s bold and unapologetic sound.
The track debuts just in time for VULVARINE to bring their signature rock’n’roll to cities across Europe on the second leg of Thundermother’s Dirty & Divine tour, also featuring Napalm Records label mates Cobra Spell.
VULVARINE on their new single “The Drugs, the Love and the Pain”: “The song takes you on a ‘rock ‘n’ roller coaster ride’ between euphoria and chaos, exploring where these emotions come from – be it substance abuse, heartbreak, or inner struggles. It resolves with a message of hope, reminding us that all feelings are temporary and will eventually lead to a brighter, clearer state of mind.”
Check out “The Drugs, the Love and the Pain” HERE:
Influenced by bands such as Girlschool, The Runaways and The Donnas, VULVARINE defines their own sound as “vulvarock”: a unique fusion of high energy rock’n’roll, heavy metal and glam, topped up with punk and blues elements. Following their debut album, Unleashed (2020), and the 2023’s Witches Brew EP, on Fast Lane, VULVARINE head full speed into a new adventure filled with adrenaline and authenticity.
VULVARINE on the new album: “Fast Lane captures the whirlwind of creativity and energy that has driven us as a band. The album came together in an intense but exciting process, where we pushed our limits, worked with incredible people, and poured everything we had into the music. Signing with Napalm Records is a huge milestone, and we’re ready to hit the fast lane and dive headfirst into this new adventure.”
While remaining uncompromising and real, VULVARINE impresses with a variety of soundscapes on Fast Lane. The explosive opening track “The Drugs, the Love and the Pain” sets the scene for the rest of the album: rebellious, action-packed, raw, punky – and irresistibly catchy. “Ancient Soul” shows the softer side of VULVARINE while “Demons” dives into darker waters. VULVARINE’s strong rhythm section shines especially bright on “Alright Tonight”, and “Equal, Not the Same” is particularly refreshing and empowering. “Fool”, co-written with German producer Felix Heldt (Dominum, Feuerschwanz, Visions Of Atlantis), surprises with a different tone while remaining true to the sound and spirit of the band. “Polly the Trucker” is an ode to the highway, a classic rock’n’roll anthem with a modern touch, featuring raspy vocals and incredible guitars. VULVARINE brings in yet another highlight with an electrifying cover of Modern Talking’s “Cheri Cheri Lady”, featuring a powerful guitar solo from Thundermother’s Filippa Nässil, before wrapping the album up with pensive track “She’ll Come Around”.
On Fast Lane, VULVARINE soars to the next level with both songwriting and high-quality production without losing their edge. The album was produced in Vienna and Wiener Neustadt as a collaboration of three different producers: Thomas Zwanzger of Stressstudio, Dietmar Baumgartner of Sonar Music Productions and Engel Mayr (formerly of Russkaja) of Studio Mäusepalast, resulting in a cohesive work and VULVARINE’s strongest album yet. Fast Lane is a multifaceted and honest high-octane rock’n’roll extravaganza with no filler: the 11-track offering is packed with the very best of one of the most promising bands in the scene. Fast Lane tracklisting: 1. The Drugs, the Love and the Pain 2. Ancient Soul 3. Heads Held High 4. Demons 5. Alright Tonight 6. Equal, Not the Same 7. Fool 8. Polly the Trucker 9. Dark Red 10. Cheri Cheri Lady (feat. Filippa Nässil) 11. She’ll Come Around
Fast Lane will be available in the following formats: 1-LP Translucent Orange – ltd. to 400 copies worldwide 1-CD Digisleeve Digital Album
This blog is dedicated to all women in Rock and Metal, the trailblazers, and the young guns. This is my number one passion in life to discover and share the amazing women in Heavy Music that endlessly inspire me and millions of people around the world. It’s hard to narrow it down to only 10, because diversity has skyrocketed in the past decade, but I decided to highlight my favorites!
Who are you favorite women in Rock and Metal! Let me know in the comments below!
Lzzy Hale
Lead singer of the long grinding band, Halestorm, she defies all glass ceilings in Rock and Metal with her immensely powerful voice and her impossibly difficult screams. She has become a household name for many, earning a Grammy, fronting legendary Hair Metal band Skid Row, and collaborating with notables Corey Taylor, I Prevail, Lindsey Stirling, The Hu, Avatar, and many many more. She is one of the most prolific women in Rock and Metal, and will no doubt earn a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Courtney LaPlante
The legendary LaPlante got her start with cult classic Iwrestledabearonce for a short stint where she shocked people with her immensely raw screams. She now fronts the worldwide phenomenon, Spiritbox, who are known for their bipolar mix of beautiful melodies and brutal breakdowns. She is one of the most versatile vocalists I have ever seen and always surprises with her seemingly impossible low gutturals. She defies any genre boundaries and everything I knew about female vocals. Her reputation and recognition is hard earned and no doubt Spiritbox will gain continued success throughout their careers.
The Warning
This Mexican Rock trio comprised of three dynamic sisters have been working to make a name for themselves for ten years. They’ve created some of the best Rock in the last four decades with their uncompromising rawness and unapologetic Hard Rock riffs with massive hooks. They are one of my favorite bands of all-time. They’re rebelling against the mainstream, formulaic, AI, autotuned laden Radio Rock and reprising ideals of the 1970s with instrument proficiency and explosive chemistry. These are some of most talented musicians I’ve ever heard. They never miss. If you haven’t heard them yet, get ready to get hooked.
Jessie Williams
Gaining the spot as my favorite band as of right now, Ankor has created some of the most unique blends of music since 2003. Joining the band in 2014, she immediately impacted the dynamics and range of Ankor, who were originally a Power Metal band in the limited market or Catalonia, Spain. They switched their style to an edgy Alternative Metal with EDM, Japanese, and Evanescence styles. They are one of the most innovative bands I have heard in a long time. Jessie’s range is absolutely explosive with fry screams, gutturals, rapping, operatic, and high soaring vocals. Shoganai, the first part of their Mini album, is a stunning and surprising mix of extremes. I was instantly impressed by Jessie and now she is one of my favorite vocalists in just a short week of being introduced to Ankor.
Fabienne Erni
One of the most diverse and incomparable vocalists, Fabienne is among my favorite vocalists. She has a unique Alpine style that is perfect for Folk Metal band Eluveitie. She’s made a name in her Alternative and Symphonic Metal band Illumishade, which has created some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. Her range is crazy with almost Broadway-power, being one of the loudest vocalists on this list I’ve ever heard.
Sabrina Cruz
Power Metal vocalist Sabrina Cruz brings attitude, flashiness, and crazy high vocals that mirrors the charm of the 1980s while giving modern soulful twists and twang. Seven Kingdoms is among my favorite bands of all time. They deliver a blue collar American Power Metal with nostalgic sounds and raw talent. Their music is full of heartfelt messages and they’ve created such a supportive fanbase whom fund all their ventures without a big label or producer. I absolutely love this band and cannot recommend them enough. I have no idea why they’re not more well-known, because they deserve a lot more recognition.
Krista Shipperbottom
Fronting one of the best opening bands I’ve ever seen, Krista Shipperbottom delivers Death Growls and high-pitched screams that captivate you on the first note. She is an unbelievably good live vocalist with immense volume, power, and dynamics that match the thrilling speeds of Lutharo’s speed-metal prowess. Seeing this band open for Seven Kingdoms was one of my highlights of 2024 and their album Chasing Euphoria ended up on my favorite releases. Krista’s voice impressed me immensely, mirroring Alissa White Gluz of Arch Enemy in brutality. You’re not going to believe the amount of sound that comes out of her. It is truly mesmerizing.
Brittney Slayes
A name I mention often on this site, Brittney fronts the warriors of the frozen north Unleash the Archers She is one of the greatest singers I have ever heard in my life. She reminds me of the great Heavy Metal vocalists of the 1980s, while adding her signature Power Metal screams at dog whistle pitch and incredible diction. Brittney’s talent is one of a kind, and puts her among the likes of Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio, and Joacim Cans for me. I love her voice and her story writing emphatically and will be a fan for life. I have no idea why she is not a household name among Floor Jansen, Lzzy Hale, and Ann Wilson, but maybe me endlessly sending praise will expose more people to this amazing vocalist and truly kind human being.
Tatiana Shmayluk
I think Tatiana’s reputation proceeds her and doesn’t need mentioning, but I simply can’t leave her off a list of my favorite vocalists. Her brutality and deep gutturals never cease to amaze me. I had never heard female gutturals so low in my entire life. She defies everything I knew about screaming/growling and mixes it with a Jazzy style and pitch perfect intonation. She is on her own level, especially with their latest release Duel which is truly a fantastic album. Nobody sounds like Tatiana, and no one ever will.
Camille Contreras
A new comer in the Metal scene, Camille has lent her soulful vocals to Prog Metalcore band Novelists and begun a new era for the band increasing their visibility and dynamics immensely. She is one of my favorite vocalists right now. She blends Pop, Jazz, and fry screams to create a gut-wrenching sound that is unlike anything I’ve heard in the genre of Metalcore. Her tonal quality puts her above 99% of Metal vocalists right now for me. She has one of the most beautiful tones I have ever heard, adding warmth and depth to a cold and mechanical genre inundated with male vocalists I couldn’t pick out from a lineup. She’s going to take Novelists to the top of the genre touring with heavy hitters such as Tesseract. I cannot wait for the first full album with her at the helm. Coda out May 9th, 2025
As with all my posts, this one is subjective. This list doesn’t aim to categorize “the best albums of Metal” because such a feat is just not feasible to me. This is based on just my taste. They’re not even in order by my favorites because what is considered my favorite is highly based on my mood. I just made a master list and narrowed it down to the 20 that are important to highlight my taste. It should give readers a better sense of what I listen to regularly and just personal taste. Let me know about your favorite Metal albums below in the comments, I would love to see if any of these albums resonated with anyone else the same way they did with me.
In part one of the series, the first six albums were all by Devin Townsend. Part two highlights a favorite album from my favorite Metal bands. It was incredible to go back and listen to these. I listen to them often, but not in this context. Active listening has always been my preferred writing method, but I’ve never done it so personally in depth. Listening to these albums whilst actively picking out why I love them cemented my admiration. The whole process was very cathartic and interesting. I don’t think I ever thought about these albums on such an introspective level. Each album and its songs have distinct meanings to me. They even have vivid memories attached to them. Writing this proved to me how integral music is in our lives.
7. Apex- Unleash the Archers (2017)
I refer to Unleash the Archers as my favorite band of all time. I’ve been listening to them since about 2015. Growing up with Iron Maiden, Metallica, Whitesnake, Dokken, and Judas Priest, I look for similar music. High octane, dueling guitars, speed Metal, and killer power vocals never fail to grab my attention. No surprise to me that I’ve become such a fan of Unleash the Archers. They have all the qualities of those Power Metal/Heavy Metal 80s bands and ooze with the magic of Iron Maiden. The guitarists Andrew Kingsley and Grant Truesdell are masters of dueling guitars, Thrash riffs, and Melodic Power licks. They are two of the best technical guitarists I have ever seen. The sheer speed and accuracy with which they play are miraculous to me. It’s like Adrian Smith and Dave Murray on a massive amount of Monster Energy drinks. It is insane to watch them play live and in the studio. The same goes for drummer Scott Buchanan, who I think is the most underrated drummer of all time. This guy seemingly effortlessly plays at 150 beats per minute and faster for an hour and a half. Buchanan looks as if he’s barely moving behind what looks to be a basic Rock drum kit. I do not understand why he is not recognized as a fantastic drummer. Nick Miller is also a fantastic bassist, showing his strong presence on the last two UTA albums. He chugs the hell out of the bass. As a bass player, his tone and speed captivate me. He is just so good without being too loud, too low, or too flashy.
And then, there’s Brittney Slayes: Where do I even start with the incomparable and iconic vocals of UTA? It’s hard to sum up her contribution to the band and the Power Metal genre in a paragraph. She is larger than life in vocal presence. Her range truly defies everything I knew about vocals. She can sing in many styles and voice types, but it fits perfectly with the music. The brilliance of her note choices, her ability to sing in the pocket, and her storytelling are the strongest aspects I love about Brittney. In some ways, I feel like she’s the closest vocalist to Ronnie James Dio in spirit, style, and range, but she also stands on her own. All of these virtuoso musicians make perfect chemistry in UTA, and are what make the band so special. There’s nothing out there like them that I’ve heard. They pull from a plethora of genres and influences to create meaningful, energetic, and technical Power Metal.
Apex is undoubtedly my favorite album from UTA. Apex is a once-in-a-lifetime concept album. It is incredibly emotionally compelling in different ways on each track. The story of Apex is heart-wrenching. It follows the story of “The Immortal” and his curse to serve whoever wakes him on Earth. Over 1000 years, The Immortal sleeps and wakes multiple times. This time, the evil tyrannical witch queen “Matriarch” wakes him for an evil task. Her evil knows no limit, and she has power over the entire planet. She orders the Immortal to bring her four sons back to her to sacrifice them for her own immortality. Through the story, The Immortal shows his immense power to summon an army of ten thousand to subdue and chase out the sons. He also shows morality and introspection, trying to decide if it’s all for nothing or if the ends justify the means, and he considers what the good in it all is. This concept is interesting because, to me, it reflects the acceptance of Good and Evil in the world and the balance it upholds in the right hands. Everything about Apex astounds me. The story, the instrumentation, the composition, the structure of each song, and how it flows together seamlessly. I love everything about this album, especially the guitars and vocals.
I connect so personally with Apex. The aspect of The Immortal slumbering in a mountain with this curse and his acceptance of his curse struck me. I was born and raised in Colorado, and the end of Apex with the title track tells my story in a way. The curse I view as my disability, Cerebral Palsy, and my acceptance of this thing I cannot change. , being born and raised in Colorado, “The mountain, my home” reminds me that the mountains are my haven. Apex, the song, is truly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard in my life. The whole album echoes this beauty to me. Apex is a masterpiece in both written and sonic form to me. It’s music that means something deeper. You can interpret the story to mean different things and take what you want from it. This is why I think Brittney is brilliant. It’s a well-composed story, but its meaning is ambiguous and mysterious in a way. This allows fans to attach to it personally on a possibly deep level, like so many of the best Fantasy novels. I don’t think Brittney gets enough credit for creating and crafting the stories and concepts of their three-album run. Apex deserves much more credit for its concept and musicianship. It is truly unmatched and will always remain an important album to me.
My favorite songs are Apex, False Walls, Earth, and Ashes
8. Ategnatos- Eluveitie (2019)
I’m going to be honest: I wasn’t entirely sold on this album initially. The heaviness was a drastic change from “Evocation II”, and I wasn’t ready for how hard this band came with Ategnatos. I’d been listening to Swiss Folk Death Metal band Eluveitie since 2012, so I knew they were pretty heavy in the past. Some albums take time to grow on me. After I sat down and was in the mood for something heavy, I listened to this album three times back to back. The experience was intense, spiritual, and tear-jerking. This album is an experience from start to finish and is larger than life. It combines old-Eluveitie with Death Thrash riffs and their signature blend of Folk Instruments and Celtic/Gaulish sounds. It’s Melodeath meets Ancient Pagan music, and I love it so very much. If a Metal album could ever sound Alpine, Ategnatos is the prime example. It’s like walking among your ancestors in the valleys of the Swiss Alps. It’s so unique and specific to Eluveitie. While many Metal bands are incorporating Folk inspiration into their heavy music, Eluveitie stands out from the rest to me. Maybe it’s because I experienced this in concert when I saw them in March of 2023, but they just feel so different from any other band to me. The first time I’d ever heard of a hurdy-gurdy was in Eluveitie. It’s such an unlikely instrument for Metal, and it’s almost a comic and unbelievable mix, but it works so well. They’ve crafted a truly unique sound that is all their own. With Chrigel’s signature harsh vocals, the Folk instruments, the speedy fiddle riffs, and epic guitar riffs and breakdowns, it’s undeniable that this band is one of a kind.
Ategnatos is a difficult album to stop listening to once you start. There’s an addictive “Beauty and the Beast” quality that I’ve been hooked on since 2008. The riffs are catchy on any instrument. Like on Blackwater Dawn, the pipes intro has been in my head off and on since it came out. Somehow, they packed in heavy chunky riffs, Speed Metal drums, Folky diddies, and Nightwish-like choruses sung by the incomparable Fabienne Erni. I will never get over her powerful voice and incredible range. She is yet another Metal singer who can sing anything. Her performance on Ategnatos is sensational with every note. She is one of my favorite vocalists of all time. Ambiramus is the Eluveitie song to date. It was a last-minute addition to the album, and yet it fits the anthemic nature so well. This song is unbelievably beautiful. Experiencing it live was a truly spiritually cleansing moment of my life. How she delivers such notes and Alpine calls with volume and clarity is mystifying. The whole album is a spiritual trip. Her voice is a pivotal aspect I love about the album. The riffs and the chanting on The Raven Hill are so epically catchy, along with the unique groove. It’s like listening to an ancient Celtic celebration with a death growler. It scratches my brain and satisfies the Scot-Irish in me like I’ve never expected. I grew up listening to Celtic music, but Ategnatos raised the bar. The darkness of The Slumber and Worship imprints on me. The acceptance of one’s fate comes into play, the Death Metal and depth of these songs are eerie, and it’s an interesting feeling. Breathe is another track where Fabienne’s range shines on, and it shows why she’s considered the heart of Eluveitie. She sings her heart out on every song, but especially on ” Breathe. This song reminds me of long road trips out of Colorado and being severely homesick for the safety of the mountains.
I can’t talk about this album without fanning over Rebirth. Rebirth rounds out the journey of someone who converts to a tribe, becomes a powerful figure, and ascends. This is one of the best Metal tracks I have ever heard in my life. Alainn Ackerman is a favorite drummer of mine, and his speed, use of flam, and interesting fills are the backbone of this album. But my god, his blast beats on Rebirth paired with the shredding of Jonas Wolf and Rafael Salzmann is a stroke of brutal virtuosity. The first time I heard this song, I was genuinely blown away. I restarted the song over before it even ended because the intro is insane. I thought my YouTube playback speed was up by two clicks, but it wasn’t. I will never forget the first time I heard this song as long as I live.
This album is also personal to me because it spawned quite the saga of dreams. I began having these dreams in the Spring of 2020. They were the most interesting dreams I’d ever had. One dream in particular remains. The dream began with walking through a valley of the Alps, lush with green native grasses and herds of sheep below. It was in Switzerland, and it was, of course, beautiful. I was walking along with members Fabienne Erni and Jonas Wolf. Fabienne explained to me in detail about the tribes of people from a millennium ago that walked the same path that we walked. She told of riches, tragedy, triumph against armies, and how Celts and the Gauls were related. The two led me to a waterfall with a sizable pond below it. In the pond, they performed a ceremony of sorts, and I was baptized back into my Celtic roots. When they had me plunge into the pond that was barely deep enough to stand in, I saw seven “beings”. These seven beings were grey and green, with cloaks. They had no face or discerning features. They repeated the words of Ambiramus to me. I was then pulled out of the pond and was cleansed of bad energy. It was a “Rebirth” you could say. The dream was very cinematic and beautiful. I am known to have very detailed and epic dreams, but this has to be one of my best. I will always remember it and think of it when listening to this album.
My favorite songs are Ambiramus, Breathe, Rebirth
9. Delirium- Lacuna Coil (2016)
I have been a fan of Lacuna Coil since I was around thirteen or fourteen years old. My older brother discovered them on the College radio station after we moved to Colorado. While I remember seeing the Heaven’s A Lie video on a music channel, it was two or three years after I started listening to them. “Comalies” lived in our car CD player for a good three years after that. Experiencing the 20th anniversary of Comalies was the biggest wave of nostalgia. This album has impacted the Metal market in the US and influenced Metal more than people realize. Before this album, “Beauty and the Beast” style vocals weren’t exclusively done on an entire album, I don’t think. This concept was only done in passing on songs. Now, it’s one of the most interesting music concepts that shaped Symphonic Metal and more bands than I can count. Comalies is an album that will be immortal, much like the Evanescence album that brought female vocals in heavy music into the mainstream. I’ve loved everything Lacuna Coil has released since (Yes, even Shallow Life). The moment I became a mega fan of LC was upon the release of “Delirium”. This is when LC became one of my favorite Heavy Metal bands of all time and Maki became one of my favorite bassists.
“Delirium” is a deep delve into the human psyche with all its dark manifestations. It’s heavy, moody, cinematic, atmospheric, catchy, beautiful, and brutal all at the same time. It could easily be a soundtrack to a miniseries about a serial killer, and I mean that in a good way. The thematic elements swallow you up and take you into the eerie depths of catharsis. Delirium is incredibly deliberate and perfectly constructed. It flows from each song and doesn’t break the tension and dark elements. It’s an experience as much as it is an album. It takes you to the literal edge of sanity where you’re losing control of yourself, your relationships, and the perception of things around you. This album is brilliant in how spot-on it captures its theme. Rarely does an album concept hit as hard as Delirium does for me. It’s so literal, which is refreshing in Metal. I don’t find a lot of albums that speak about a subject so clearly, and I commend LC’s dive into the dark world of Mental Health issues. Delirium takes me back to toxic relationships, anxiety, and feeling as if my reality was going dark, but in a good way. It reminds you of how you can live through all the darkest parts in your life and rise above the darkness in your mind. I love that message.
The sounds on this album are unlike anything I have ever heard. I don’t like comparing artists too much, and this album is incomparable. Despite not having an official guitarist at the time, Maki, the bassist and a founding member of the band, constructed some of the hardest-hitting riffs on both bass and guitar. It’s a rhythmic onslaught of heaviness, but it also drops out to highlight the insanely beautiful tone of Cristina Scabbia. Cristina is one of the most unique singers in Metal. This dark and light balance is evident on “Live To Tell”, a solo track for Scabbia’s unique, soulful soaring vocals. The riffs offset so perfectly, and yet pummel your senses to a pulp on “Blood, Tears, Dust” and “The House of Shame”. Maki and guest guitarist Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge created Nu-Metal nostalgia with a punchier bass sound, and I love it. The drums are also technically perfect. Every hit matches the riffs so exactly, it sounds like a machine. The musical chemistry on this album is spectacular. Everything just flows so well together, A sign of a band that’s been together for so long; they work in exquisite harmony. Andrea’s screams are a highlight of the album., To me, his transformation into a death growler is one of the best decisions ever made in music. He went from an “okay singer” to me to an absolute guttural god on this album. It’s the extreme of “Beauty and the Beast” vocals, and I love it so much.
Lacuna Coil keeps defying the constructs of Rock and Metal and extremifying their concept. They evolve, change, and grow while remaining unique to them, but I don’t think the perfection of Delirium will ever be topped for me.
Favorite songs: Ultima Ratio, You Love Me Cause I Hate You, and The House of Shame
10. Seventh Son of A Seventh Son- Iron Maiden (1988)
I’ve mentioned this album in previous posts but never delved into it quite like this. Iron Maiden is undoubtedly one of my favorite bands of all time. They are one of the most influential bands in Metal history. I have memories as far back as I can remember of this band. They’re a band my family loves and has loved since long before I was born. My late uncle was responsible for my love for Iron Maiden. He was a traditional Metalhead that brought these bands to my Mom and eventually my brother and me. Bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Rush, Pantera, Van Halen, and more came from my Mom and my Uncle. That sharing of music was crucial to me. That’s probably why I have a compulsive need to share music with everyone I know. Sharing music was the purest form of love I had from my uncle, who was otherwise a problematic person in our family’s lives. That sentiment is one I wish to pass on to other people. I’d like to be known by the bands I share and whether that discovery meaningfully impacted someone else’s life the way Iron Maiden impacted mine. Without my Mom and Uncle exposing me to this music, I probably wouldn’t be a Metalhead and a pretty different person. There are many weekend memories tied to this album: Packing up the house, going on a road trip, working on a car, or just sitting out on the back patio. I remember listening to this album. Music is a powerful thing when it is tied to happy memories. It can remind you of who you are when you’re at your best or happiest. This album always does that for me.
I haven’t always been a huge Metalhead. In my childhood, I was exposed to Rock and Metal and generally liked it. During my childhood, I chose Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, The Cranberries, Fleetwood Mac, and Celine Dion more than anything. As a teen, I rebelled for a while against what other people were listening to and chose more pop-punk like Paramore, Fall Out Boy, New Found Glory, Incubus, and more of that mid-2000s style. It’s normal to go through phases, but I think, deep down, I always truly loved Metal. Iron Maiden was one of the bands that cemented my dedication to Metal when I was 18. While I credit Iron Maiden, it was more specifically Sam Dunn’s Metal Evolution that made me realize I had an innate passion for Metal. Watching this anthology in full on VH1 made me realize how deep and scholarly Metal could be. The theme of the Metal anthology was The Trooper. I had heard the song many times before, but hearing it on this documentary truly reignited my love for Metal. All of Iron Maiden’s albums are impactful and nearly masterpieces, but I had to go back in time. The Trooper may be my favorite song of all time, but my favorite Maiden album is undoubtedly Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.
Some consider it a miss or just a mini album of 80s ideas, but it impacted me more than any album. I will never understand the discontentment for this album. This album was an experiment, and I love experimental music. While people perceived it as Maiden trying to go Mainstream, I think they were trying to do the opposite and rebel against the Sunset Strip of Hair Metal. Iron Maiden took what Fates Warning was doing and combined NWOBHM with Progressive Metal. This combo engrained itself into my brain forever. It is the most influential album to my music taste. I think many albums on this list have a taste of this record at heart in some way. Unleash the Archer’s albums remind me so much of this record, and that’s probably why I love them so much. Seventh Son is a mix of soaring atmospheric synths, melodic dueling guitars, and insanely Proggy drums from the incomparable Nicko Mcbrain. It sounds like a mix of King Crimson, Deep Purple, Manowar, and Vangelis while still keeping the Iron Maiden grit and epicness. The technicality of it is staggering. They keep their anthemic sing-along style but add time changes and syncopated rhythms and flashy ’80s sounds. In my book, it’s one of their best works and my absolute favorite album from them. Every song is just so memorable without relying on hooks. It’s creative, emotional, cinematic, and badass in its guitar work and aggressiveness on songs like the title track, Evil That Men Do, and The Clairvoyant. Oh man, and Steve Harris’s bass playing on this record is just sublime. The bass could’ve been much louder on this album, but it still impacted my playing, as all Maiden albums have.
Seventh Son of A Seventh Son is one of the most unique Metal records I’ve ever heard. I will always cherish its technicality and the memories that go along with it.
My favorite songs; Moonchild, Infinite Dreams, and Seventh Son of A Seventh Son
11. Moonbathers- Delain (2016)
While Symphonic Metal is more of a part of my past, Moonbathers is an album that will forever remain special to me. It’s not the biggest, technically perfect, or cinematic Symphonic album ever made. It’s not the best mix or engineering on a Symphonic Metal album. It defies all the things I normally look for in a great album, and yet here it is on my favorite album list of all time.. Moonbathers is an anthemic, moody, dark, masochistic record with more soul than 99% of any Symphonic album ever made. This album is a whole experience of emotions, thematic sounds, and epic guitar hooks. It’s an eclectic mix of traditional elements of the genre and sounds that are so unique to powerhouse vocalist Charlotte Wessels. It’s like The Cranberries, Within Temptation, Kate Bush, Nick Cave, and The Birthday Massacre combined into one really neat package. It’s the rawest Symphonic Metal album I have ever heard. It’s unapologetically loud, jarring, and campy all at the same time. Moonbathers is a vocal astonishment and put Charlotte Wessels on the map forever, along with her incomparable performance on Burning Bridges, Masters of Destiny, and her solo work The Obsession. Moonbathers feels like Charlotte’s Delain, and it is my favorite version of the band that ever was and that ever will be.
Moonbathers is the moodiest album I’ve ever heard. It’s an explosion of emotions: anger, pain, love, sadness, and elation to be alive to experience it all. It’s a concept album in that it holds the same dramatic theme throughout. It’s more of a vibe than a story for a theme, which is unique in and of itself. It’s a love letter to those suffering in life in such an epic way. It’s a little bit Pirate and Hans Zimmer with Hands of Gold, a little bit of 90s Alt-rock, a little bit of soul Vocals, a little bit Queen, and Poppy hooks like on Fire with Fire, Turn the Lights Out, and Suckerpunch.Pendulum is a Machine Head/Trivium one-two punch with Epica thrown in there. It’s a crazy record. The mix of inspirations is unlike anything I have ever heard. It just hits you right in the chest, like a suckerpunch that stays with you forever. It’s catchy while remaining musically interesting and progressive. I’ve never heard anything like it. Despite all the comparisons I’ve made attempting to describe how this sounds to me, it’s a Mason’s Mark all on its own. Glory and the Scum is one of my favorite tracks of all time. It’s a “Beauty and the Beast” vibe, with Charlotte and bassist Otto combining for the compelling bone-chilling growls. Her voice on this song is one of the most mesmerizing sounds to me. She embodies the idea of a Siren and succeeds in captivating every single time, but especially on this song and power ballad, The Hurricane. These two songs still astound me today and are some of my favorite performances on any album to date.
Moonbathers is special to me for more reasons than I can even say. This record inspired me to write books about my two alter egos. It’s inspired poems, countless riffs, whole songs, short stories, and more dreams than I can even count. This album spoke to me on a philosophical level in ways words cannot articulate. It’s a unique nostalgia, a throwback to one of the only bands I have ever loved with my entire being. It reminds me of all the hard work I put in on myself with meditation, running, soccer practices, and self-actualizing. This album signifies self-acceptance for me. It also is the first album I’ve ever bonded with someone outside of my family. My best friend and I experienced this album for the first time together. I will never forget writing tens of paragraphs foaming over this album. It was a very special time in my life, and it cemented our bond forever, I believe. It’s an album that will always remind me of her and also everything we’ve been through together. She’s the reason I have continued writing, besides the absolute necessity to express words on paper in which she understands and celebrates more than anyone I’ve ever met. Moonbathers helped us solidify this connection, and that is irreplaceable.
Delain with Charlotte will always be one of my favorite eras in music, and Moonbathers is the keystone album for that time to me.
Favorite songs; Glory and the Scum, The Hurricane, Fire With Fire
12. Omega- Epica (2021)
One of the newest albums on this list. I felt odd picking the most recent Epica album. I have listened to Epica since 2011. Hearing this band for the first time was a religious experience. It was as if I was hearing a choir from heaven and an orchestra only fit for cherubs. As cheesy as that sentiment sounds, it’s the best depiction of my connection with Epica. There’s a supreme feeling to their music. It’s all-encompassing and incredibly emotionally moving but also deeply philosophical. There’s no instrument, topic, theme, or height of technical excellence that this band isn’t afraid to tackle. This band creates gargantuan albums.. Tackling them in a critical sense is way above any music reviewer’s pay grade. Talking about the impact this band has had on music and myself is more in the realm of tangible. Epica is what my brother and I like to say, “a band of all time.” They just are what they are, and that is massively, unfathomably talented. People often complain that the days of Classical Composition and the greats such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Handel are dead. To me, those days of completely perfect and epic music are far from dead. Classical Music isn’t dead or gone; it just evolved into Symphonic Metal. And Epica is the pinnacle of that sentiment. Epica creating an album called “Omega” is possibly the aptest title any band has ever used.
Omega is an expansive record. The album contains all of Epica’s typical sounds and ideas compressed into a well-produced package. It is the omega-ist album they could’ve done, whilst still showing mature restraint. While Quantum Engima was chaotic, unrestrained, and unfiltered, with a wall-of-sound production with a hundred layers of choirs and orchestras, I loved it. Omega is massive, but it’s carefully constructed with more beauty and dynamics than past albums. To me, Epica is at its best when you can hear Simone without constant layers of loud choirs. Simone is too incredible of a singer to overshadow. I think Epica got this message loud and clear on this record. The balance of Metal, choirs, orchestras, keyboards, and vocals is sublime on Omega. It is my absolute favorite album because of this perfect balance. It’s fresh and new for Epica, but echoes back to the days of “Sahara Dust” with Middle Eastern instrumentation and Thrashy-Speed guitars. The melodic inclinations remind me of Design Your Universe and the b-sides of The Quantum Enigma. The drums are straight from the more Fear Factory-influenced The Holographic Principle. Not only do Simone’s perfect Operatic belts and trills shine on this album, but every member is quintessentially audible.
I can finally hear everyone and their styles and influences equally. Each member creates the capacious illusion that Epica has a hundred members, and it’s so great to hear all six of them as individual musicians. The members on their own are genial musicians, and together, it’s a cataclysm of the best Metal this generation has to offer. You need not look further to understand the power of this band than Kingdom of Heaven Prt 3. This song is among the greatest pieces of Music I’ve ever heard. Out of all the composers over the last eight hundred years, I think Coen Jansen is the most underrated. This song is angelic and pristine. You go from crying to feeling as though you’ve faced your judgment. It’s genial in every movement, all 17 times and key changes, and all the moments it switches between Classical and Melodeath to a 70’s Prog keyboard solo. “You get a solo, you get a solo, everybody gets a solo!”.
Epica is the sole reason I began this blog nearly twelve years ago, so it’s a given that this band is sentimental to me. My brother took me to a headlining Epica show in 2012. This show was a turning point in my life. The fact that bands like Epica weren’t huge in America was a travesty to me. I created “Metal Valkyrie” to be a promoter for European bands like Epica. My goal was to greatly increase their fanbase here, but the journey expanded into a review site. It has been a grind, but it has improved my writing, created friendships, and maybe exposed some to these amazing bands. Epica took the minspration that Iron Maiden and Sam Dunn’s Metal Evolution started, and ignited it to the stratosphere for me. I’ve quit reviewing and switched entirely to promotion. While it hasn’t been as successful as I’d hoped in viewership and interaction, it’s a pinnacle journey for me and has benefited my life in ways I’ve not delved into yet. Epica’s music is immensely inspiring. The epic atmospheres they create can truly get me through anything. Their music is forever inspiring.
Because of Epica’s everlasting contribution to music, I will continue this journey with Metal Valkyrie and forever share this band’s incredible music.
My Favorite Songs: The Skeleton Key, Kingdom of Heaven Part 3, Code of Life
Today is a great day for Spiritbox fans. They have unleashed their brand new album Tsunami Sea, their most bombastic and genre bending venture yet. This album is a combination of their crushing riffs, heart-wrenching vocals, and industrial sounds that combine Nu-Metal nostalgia and Modern Metal at its finest. Tsunami Sea is everything you love about Spiritbox, magnified by a thousand suns. They are a band that doesn’t miss because of their uncompromising concept of defying all expectations, Ironically, you simply can’t put them in a box. Eternal Blue is one of my to 40 albums ever made, so I had incredibly high expectations coming into Tsunami Sea. However, it is impossible and unfair to compare albums, as they’re entirely separate in every way. Tsunami Sea is a monument of brutality that stands entirely on its own. It is extreme. The spectrum and enormity of this album is staggering. I’ve only heard this level of extremity a few times in my life, and I love it. Spiritbox are experts at absolutely pummeling you with riffs, then soothing your soul to a meditative state with beautiful clear vocals and smooth rhythms. Tsunami Sea expands on this concept and does it expertly with wall-of-sound production. To say this is a special album is an understatement. It is dedicated entirely to the late and great Spiritbox bassist Bill Burr wo unexpectedly passed away last July. This tribute is gut-wrenching and so beautiful to all who knew Bill and how much he contributed to the Metal community.
Tsunami Sea is the rawest Spiritbox album yet. It is a lot to take in upon the first couple listens. This is going to be a slowburner for the rest of the month for me. This release feels like a long time coming after listening to Eternal Blue approximately 500 times since it came out. It is everything I expected, but so much more. I feel like adding Josh Gilbert to the lineup was a brilliant idea. The bass and backing vocals add so much to this record. He and Courtney have great harmonies and chemistry, which adds texture and depth that is vastly different from Eternal Blue. I think Zev Rose is a bit quieter on this record, but still adds some groove that breaks up the brutality of the seemingly endless layers of guitars. I prefer the guitar sounds on Eternal Blue, just because there were more layers of melodic harmony that added heart and atmosphere to the album. But, if this album is a personification of anger and pain, the instrumentation, lyrics, level of distortion, and truly inhuman growls amplify the theme perfectly. The highlight is really Courtney LaPlante’s vocals and storytelling on this album. It’s like she’s narrating the struggles they’ve been through in such a fluent way. It just hits so hard, it lingers for hours after you listen to it. She is a once-in-a-generation vocalist with unbridled power and shock factor that will last her entire career. Tsunami Sea is Courtney LaPlante at her apex.
Overall, this is a great Modern Metal record. This style of Music is not usually my thing nor area of expertise, but Spiritbox are the pinnacle of this new wave of Progressive Metalcore/Deathcore. They’ve brought brutality to the mainstream and crossed-genres of fans from every walk of life. Tsunami Sea shows the impact and the pure power of this band to absolutely captivate with their sonic presence. I love this band and I am so far really impressed with Tsunami Sea.
My favorite songs so far: Ride The Wave, Perfect Soul, Tsunami Sea, A Haven With Two Faces
Here’s a short list of new singles and videos to check out! It’s approaching spring which is always a big release time of the year. A lot has been coming out, it’s hard to keep track of it all. There are new releases from Lacuna Coil, Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, and many more that I’ve been delving into. I am considering sharing my thoughts in a Review sampler once in awhile. Right now, I am working on “Part 2” of my Favorite Heavy Metal Album list, but life stresses have made it difficult for me to focus. I plan to finish it next week. That’ll be one of the last lists for awhile
So, here’s a list of new music and my latest discoveries!
Awesome Orchestral Cover of Metallica
American Melodic Metal Releases New Collab single, Algorithm Recommendation To Me
Modern Progressive Metal Band Shocks with new Groove Oriented Track
American Progressive Metal Band Releases New Single. Killer song with great riffs and vocals
KSE is back and tackling the System. I want to like this new record, but the mix killed it. What do you think?
Papa Roach Drop New Compelling Single, Bringing back the 2000s Rock with good hooks
Italian Heavy Metal band Deathless Legacy Drops Gorgeous New Emotive Single
French Metalcore band LANDMVRKS and Mat Welsh from While She Sleeps
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I began the impossible task of cataloging my favorite Metal albums of all time at the beginning of February. It’s so arduous because I could easily list 100 albums. It started with about 47 albums. For the readers’ sake, I narrowed it down to 20. I love Metal as if that isn’t obvious with this decade-old blog. I’ve been listening to Rock and Heavy Metal my entire life. I have loved many bands and albums over the last 18 years of exclusively listening to Heavy music. The goal of this was to critically think about why I love these albums so much. The other goal of writing this article was to create a more personal approach to lists and share my slightly unconventional taste in Metal records.
When I asked the internet about their favorite Metal albums, I found a lot of the usual suspects on there; Black Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer, Dream Theater, and Opeth. It made me wonder why none of these ended up on my list. The impact these bands and their releases had on the Metal genre is undeniable and I enjoy many of their songs. I can’t sit and listen to a whole album by any of those artists. None of the “conventional Metal” albums hold my interest for long. I went to Rate Your Music and scoured their Metal chart to see if I had forgotten any of my favorite Metal albums, and I found my taste to be once again drastically different from the majority. Going back through other’s lists and listening to these albums, I realize how weird my taste is. My tastes remain heavily in Progressive and Power Metal.
You won’t find a lot of “classics” on this list. I think it’s because I was raised with so many different kinds of music to where I seek out a lot more variation. Sticking to a theme isn’t always my thing. I like unconventional artists who push technicality and emotions to the ultimate limits. I seek out singers with multi-octave ranges and unique tones. I like heavy, fast drums, dueling guitars, and extremely punchy basslines. I like Metal which makes me think, tells a story, and evokes profound soul-deep emotion. I love albums that toe the line between Opera and Metal, and that don’t play by any genre rules. I like it Heavy as fuck, but well balanced with beautiful melodies. None of these albums on the list will be a surprise to those who know me and will be hopefully interesting to those who don’t.
As with all my posts, music is subjective. This list doesn’t aim to categorize “the best albums of Metal”, because such a feat is just not feasible to me. This is based on just my personal taste. They’re not even in order by most favorites, because what is considered my favorite is highly based on my mood. I just made a master list and narrowed it down to the 20 that are the most important to highlight my taste. It should give readers a better sense of what I listen to regularly and just personal taste. Let me know about your favorite Metal albums below in the comments, I would love to see if any of these albums resonated with anyone else the same way they did with me.
Devin Townsend
I decided to do Part One entirely of my favorite albums by Devin Townsend. Being my favorite artist of all time his music accounts for most of my listening habits. He is so influential to me and such an integral part of my life. I couldn’t choose only one album from his discography to list. Devin has created some of the most special music over the years. My entire music taste has been a long search for artists who wish to achieve the same heights of emotional and technical ability. Maybe it sounds elitist, but he’s my absolute favorite musician and writer. I said I wouldn’t let an artist become my entire personality. After hearing Z2 by Devin Townsend Project in 2014, his music took over my listening rotation. His music is mostly what I listened to for eight months straight or more. It was so transcendental and became so important to uplifting me and inspiring my music and dreams. That powerful connection with music is what I always strive to find, and I hope other people can find such a connection. Nothing compares to that connection. I don’t think I’ll ever find anything like it again. I find everything he releases to be personally impactful and spiritual. Spirituality and Music have been intertwined since the dawn of when man would sing and beat bones on skins for entertainment. This relationship between the two didn’t occur to me until I discovered Devin Townsend, and that’s the main reason why I am such a fan of his music. I’ve been wanting to write this article for years, but never thought it was a good idea until this year. I focused exclusively on Devin’s heaviest albums or what I think are his heaviest albums, and chose my absolute favorites. Honestly, I love all of his material. Everything he puts out is valuable to me, emotionally or just musically.
Going back through Devin’s catalog for this article was such an incredible journey this time. Experiencing his music again and thinking about why I love these albums and songs so much just fueled me to keep going with my creative projects. Every time I consider taking a step back from music or writing and think about going back to school, Devin reminds me of where my heart and talent truly lie. His music inspires me to take my dreams to the absolute pinnacle of where they can go. If he never gave up despite everyone telling him his ideas were crazy or he was clinically insane for thinking of them, then nobody should ever give up on anything they want to achieve in life. His musical career has survived the worst possible things someone can go through. If he can do it through pain and darkness, then so can I. I truly believe he is the most underrated artist of all time and should be listed among the absolute greats, not just in Metal, but in all music. Considering the power of his message, his virtuoso guitar playing, and his immense possibly four-octave vocal range, I have no idea why this guy isn’t as big as Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney. His music may be crazy and extreme at times, but it is always beautiful and profound. His contribution to music should never be forgotten and deserves a lot more credit. The albums below are essential to that thought.
I think of Devin and I like kindred spirits, because I relate to his music and his journey on such a deeply personal level.
City- Strapping Young Lad (1997)
City, listed as one of the greatest Metal albums of all time as coined by Kerrang and Revolver, is a bombastic assault on the senses and psyche. It is the most extreme album I have ever heard in my life. City is Los Angeles personified; An overwhelming chaotic darkness that you have no choice but to dive into. This album is beyond all reason, all genres, and everything we knew about Metal. Extreme music wasn’t new in 1997, but it had never gone to this cracked-out level as City did. This is an audible documentation of someone in complete turmoil in one of the hardest times of their life. Devin had moved to Los Angeles from Canada and was sleeping on friends’ couches whilst trying to figure out life after Steve Vai and a copious amount of drugs. It is the most raw level of dealing with one’s emotions audibly. It is pain from the depths of a soul coming out in the most angry and anxiety-fueled ways you can ever experience. It is an audible account of someone’s mental health breaking down due to their environment. It is a rawness artists aspire to, but will never reach. Nobody expresses the pain of human existence like Devin Townsend. While Strapping Young Lad started as a farce to make fun of the Heavy Metal scene, they ended up creating the most iconic Extreme Metal records.
I discovered this album for the first time in 2018. Finally, I decided to go through Devin’s entire catalog and do a deep dive. This was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Listening to Strapping Young Lad is a religious experience, in a sense. It is a spiritual cleanse, a purge of all the darkness and rage I think most people hold inside. First time I heard this record, my jaw dropped to the floor and tears flooded to my eyes. It was just so overwhelming. Devin has this ability to take the idea of catharsis and take it to the soul-crushing extremes. City, and most SYL albums, are painful to listen to. It’s chaotic, abrasive, cloying, and overwhelming beyond anxiety. It’s like El Paso traffic on a weekday with Metallica in town. It’s like the height of COVID where everything is telling us the world is ending, we’re all going to die, and humanity is a shit show. Despite all these negative descriptors, City makes me genuinely happy to be alive and able to experience this album. I still get happy tears listening to the utter brilliance of Gene Hoglan and Devin Townsend together. Gene’s drumming on this record makes all the hair stand up all over my entire body. His drumming with the riffs on this album is just genial to me. “All Hail The New Flesh” has to be one of the greatest Metal songs I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s just so damn relentlessly fast, and still so groove-oriented. City cements why Gene Hoglan is one of my favorite drummers of all time. He is the only drummer that could’ve drummed on these SYL albums. I wish I was half as good as he is at drums.
City, it’s insane how great this album still sounds today. It’s too short, but somehow just right as intense as it is for thirty-nine minutes. It is all so extreme, but ends one of the most philosophical mind-bending tracks. I think this is one of the highlights of Devin’s career as a Progressive Metal musician. There’s just something about the way the chaos ends with such a deep, dark, and interesting track. The transition is a stroke of brilliance. I just love Devin’s ability to mix so many different styles in one album. “Spirituality” is kind of the soul predecessor to the next album on this list, Ocean Machine: Biomech. Listening to it and Ocean Machine back to back is an eerie experience that can never be replicated. Experiencing all the sides of Devin is a revelation, but City will always be the apex of the journey for me. This is where music became limitless for me. I began to understand how extremism and Prog can work together. It was an eye-opening first experience that I will cherish forever. “City” is an album that will forever be on the timelines of Metal. I wish Devin’s other albums received as much press and acclaim as this one. Maybe he’d be as big as Opeth and Dream Theater, and rightfully so.
Favorite Songs; All Hail the New Flesh, Spirituality, Detox
2.Ocean Machine: Biomech- Devin Townsend (1997)
When I am asked what my favorite album of all time is, Ocean Machine is my immediate response. Choosing an absolute favorite is difficult and contrived in a way. There have been so many iconic, influential, and important Metal albums since the 1960s. Choosing one out of a million albums just seems elitist in a way. Though, I can’t help but let one album define my ultimate personal taste. Ocean Machine best highlights my favorite sounds in Metal and also highlights some of my personality traits. Ocean Machine was written at a critically important time in Devin’s life when he had to choose his Mental well-being over the success of Strapping Young Lad. He began to notice a cognitive discourse between the anger of SYL, and the solo music he was writing while at home. The two extremes lead to Devin being diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. Somehow his mental health issues became audibly documented, which is such an interesting experience to hear the separation of two personalities. It’s an incredible feat, even if it was entirely unintentional. Through Ocean Machine and his other solo works, Devin began to heal and move on from the most tumultuous years of his life. You can experience this journey with him through his music. Unintentionally, Devin became an outlet for so many people struggling and he built a unique cult following that found immense positivity through his music. This is one of the most profoundly beautiful things I’ve ever seen in music and is why Ocean Machine is so vital to me. It’s the ultimate catalyst to healing, and god knows, humanity has a lot to heal from.
Ocean Machine is where Devin’s “Power of Positivity” through music began. Songs like “Life” began this new voice for Devin and allowed a connection to form with new lifelong friends and fans. Everyone should experience this album at least once in their life. It is a Progressive and atmospheric triumph with exquisite guitar chord progression and fantastic vocals. It is a love child of 90’s Alternative, Pink Floyd, Rush, and Genesis… Yet, the album stands on its own entirely. I’ve never heard anything quite like it in my entire life. I feel like describing it is such an arduous task. Ocean Machine is complex; Still one of the most complex records I have ever heard. The atmosphere in it captures sitting by the ocean in the dark alone so vividly. It paints such a unique picture in my head with such profound feelings. It’s loss, it’s freedom, it’s rejoicing, and so many complex human emotions. Devin is the most proficient at capturing these sentiments I have ever heard. Thus, the most epic quad of songs I have ever heard is what makes Ocean Machine an everlasting one-in-a-million experience. I strive for this level of emotional depth and positivity every day of my life, but still have a lot of work to portray this message. Devin is on another level of self expression. That quality comes out on Ocean Machine so poetically. That’s why it’s my favorite album. It’s not held back by commercialism. It’s not refined. It’s not heavily edited. It’s raw and real tangible emotion. It is a musical of the Human Condition of sorts, and I just can’t get enough of it.
Most call it a trio, but I consider the last track to be an integral part of the journey. This quad begins with the heartbreaking “Funeral”, where Devin continues to hash out the death of a childhood friend. It continues with the painful, epic, and droning “Bastard”, one of the darkest songs I have ever heard in my life. The guitar on that song is absolutely sensational and so unique to anything I’ve ever heard. “The Death of Music” is a long epic; a dark Peter Gabriel-esque tribal track that perfectly sums up the theme of the album “It’s like a death becomes Musical”. Devin’s crooning on the bridge “Don’t die on me. Don’t go away. When I need you here. In my need” is one of the most spine-chilling things I have ever heard. This song is a milestone. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime underrated masterpiece, and I love it irrevocably. Ocean Machine closes with one of the most depression-inducing songs I’ve heard. While it’s a bonus track, it was added to the album later on. “Thing Beyond Things” is everything about unexplainable heartache sonified. It was originally a demo and featured in his collection “NoiseScapes” as one of the oldest recordings of Devin. It features an unbelievable 10-second fry vocal scream featuring harmonics that only Devin can seemingly reach. It is the most epic scream I have ever heard. Devin puts his body on the line for music again and again, and his ability to perform these songs even today is a superhuman feat. This album is what made Devin Townsend my favorite artist of all time and it will remain my favorite probably for life. I’m considering doing a bass playthrough of the entire album on Twitch or Youtube this year!
Favorite Songs; Voices In The Fan, Seventh Wave, Funeral, Regulator
3. The New Black- Strapping Young Lad (2006)
This is one of the first albums I put down while compiling this list. When I think of my favorite Metal albums, The New Black is one I never talk about but it lives in my mind and heart forever. This is Strapping Young Lad’s last record. I think it’s a perfect representation of SYL’s immensely unique sound. This album may not have received the acclaim of “City” and “Alien”. I still find it to be one of my favorite albums Devin has ever released. It is highly influential to the music I want to write. The guitar and drum sounds on it are unlike anything I’ve ever heard. “The New Black” is still as extreme and heavy as ever, but this is where Devin’s awakening in refinement and self-editing began. His extreme approach to music would continue with “Ziltoid; The Omniscient” and “Deconstruction” which are the “last breaths of SYL”, but this album marked the end of an era. This album would separate the fans forever. Many have not moved on from SYL and still refuse to accept Devin as a solo artist. That is how impactful SYL was on the Metal community. While it brought Extreme Metal and Prog together for me, it seemingly separated the SYL fanbase I understand why people have not moved on from SYL, but they’re missing out on the transformation of Devin and everything he’s created since.
“The New Black” is an eclectic mix of Prog Metal, Extreme Metal, and Industrial rhythms that keeps you guessing with every listen. I find this album to be the turning point of Devin’s vocals, where his refined operatic style began to come out. It appeared on other tracks before this album a bit, but not as forefront or epic as on The New Black This is probably one of the greatest transformations in Music. His grasp on clean vocals and fry vocals is unparalleled in music to me. Nobody does this transition quite like Devin, with such range, technicality, and pure unedited emotion. It is quite a sound to behold on any record of his from “The New Black” and on. This album is where my favorite music of all time began to take its shape. I also think this album has some of the best riffs in SYL history. The Title Track, “Far Beyond Metal”, and my absolute favorite song “Almost Again” are filled with groovy and pummeling riffs with the unique Devin Townsend tone. I hear these riffs ghosted on anything from Gojira to Periphery to Orbit Culture. SYL and “The New Black’ impacted Metal a lot more than I originally thought. I had no idea what a big deal SYL was to Metal. I don’t participate in forums or fan-groups, so it wasn’t until other artists started talking about SYL did I realize how influential they were.
Now, listening to this album back to back, I hear so many bands that borrowed from this album. But, I have yet to hear anyone recreate the magic and utter devastation of “Almost Again”. This song is my favorite SYL song, right above “Love?”, “Spirituality”, and “Skeksis”. This song has one of the fastest and most incredible drum parts I have ever heard. It feels like a million volts of electricity pummeling your heart and neurons. Gene Hoglan really defied the parameters of speed drumming on this song, to the point where few drummers can even play this song today and it has only been played live a couple times. The technicality blows me away on “Almost Again”, but SYL doesn’t have a slouched song. They’re pioneers of Extreme and Progressive Metal. Every song on this album is a triumph to me. “The New Black” forever altered my music taste, and I’ve sought out that balance of heavy and Prog ever since. Devin always achieves a unique blend of styles, but The New Black is definitely one of my favorites. I love that it doesn’t sound like anything else in that era of music. Yet, I find it nostalgic to that time where Industrial Metal was popular. This era of Metal had a unique atmosphere to me that hasn’t been recreated since. It’s a desolate feeling to listen to. It’s eerie, but in a good way. It has a dystopian futuristic feel that would fit in a Bladerunner or Dune film. It’s such a cool experience I’ve only had when listening to Industrial Metal. I think SYL is one of the best at capturing this vibe.
Favorite Songs; Almost Again, The New Black, Wrong Side
4. Accelerated Evolution- The Devin Townsend Band (2003)
The Devin Townsend band, while it shares members with the DTP, was only created to make two keystone albums for Devin Townsend. This album was a huge departure from his other works. It was more personal, less about being heavy or extreme. The band was put together in under a year with local musicians to create a whole fresh experience. It is the polar opposite of the self-titled SYL album that was recorded at the exact same time. The Devin Townsend Band began touring with SYL after the albums came out, and they were both really well critically received. When I discovered Devin in 2014, I had never heard of another musician being so prolific. Two bands at once and multiple albums in one year under different projects was inhuman to me. His explosive creativity always astounds me. I think this band was created as a buffer for the chaos that SYL brought. This was a group of people that Devin could just jam his ideas with and create whatever came out of his head without the need for a theme or time constraints. Music is not a job or a hobby for Devin, it is a necessity to express emotion and work through it all. This necessity birthed what I think is one of the greatest songs ever written: Deadhead.
Accelerated Evolution is full of quirky, Hard Rock, and Progressive Metal tracks that rise up quick and soar above anything I have ever heard before. There is an intangible vibe to this album that reminds me of Superunknown by Soundgarden, Ten by Pearl Jam, and Rush. It was the most concise, most hook-heavy, and most well-thought-out album Devin had put out in that era. It was less frantic, more groove-driven, and Industrial at the right point in Music. It was catchy without going too commercialistic. It had the potential to be as popular as Fear Factory at the time, but of course, it didn’t receive the promotion it deserved. I think Accelerated Evolution has some of Devin’s absolute best guitar work, especially the solo on “Suicide” and the complete guitar solo track “Away” which still mesmerizes me to this day. “Away” is such an underrated guitar track. I like every song on this album and think each one is very distinct from anything ever released as usual. I believe this is one of the strongest albums in his extensive catalog and will always be one of my favorites. Most of my current music material emulates this album to some degree because the guitar tone and drums are just of the utmost quality. I like big sounds and big “Rock” mixes, and this album is mixed so well for 2002. Devin uses so much reverb in his mixes and his guitar effects, it’s become an inside joke among him and the fans. I love it. I love how all encompassing his mixes are. Accelerated Evolution was the first album I noticed this “wall of sound” production, and I fell in love with it.
I just have to talk about “Deadhead’. This song is one of Devin’s most popular songs and has become unanimous with how people identify him. It’s an ambiguous song that has never been revealed to what it exactly means to Devin. But, he always describes it as a “song about love” and a song “written for his wife”, which fits the relationship theme of the album. It is one of the first songs Devin ever wrote on his very first electric guitar. He was very inspired by the industrial Metal band Godflesh at the time of writing most of the album. I think that influence helped create the unique and devastating atmosphere of “Deadhead”, but also a lot of SYL’s atmosphere. I had never heard a more emotionally painful song in my life. It’s the drone, the slow tension of the guitar, the backbeat of the drums, and the harmonic fry scream that emulates pain. I had heard a handful of singers’ harmonic screams before, but none to the frequency or sheer audible pain of Devin. This song healed things in me that I didn’t even know still pained me. That’s how powerful this song is. It can be interpreted as a difficult relationship, a first love, or a really dark break-up song. I think all of these interpretations of painful situations hit me like a freight train at once. So, I listened to the song until the pain went away. This course of time was about three months. While some people may think it’s unhealthy to listen to the same song on repeat for that long. I find whatever helps you heal to be absolutely necessary. I fear to think where I’d be in my mental health journey without this song, or any of Devin’s music. I truly think there’s a song in Devin’s discography that can heal anyone. I don’t know if that’s what he was shooting for with Accelerated Evolution. But, it impacted me as gigantic as the mix is and I think it’s impacting even more people over a decade later. It still hits me like it did when I first heard it, especially the live versions where he even exceeds the original power. His music is forever, and Deadhead is the flagship of that infinite contribution.
My favorite Songs; Deadhead. Traveller, Away
5. Transcendence- Devin Townsend Project (2016)
I featured the very last SYL album, so it’s no surprise I’d feature the last album ever released by DTP, the power group we all loved for a decade. At the point the DTP was working on Transcendence, I saw a big change in Devin. He started to relinquish some control of his musical projects and delegate to the other guys, Ryan, Mike, Dave, and Beav in the DTP. Transcendence was a true band collaboration, which is something we hadn’t seen with Devin’s solo work. It was a promising turning point to solidify the project as a band, and maybe grow it further for future releases and add more personality to it rather than just being one of Devin’s solos. And boy, did I love this idea emphatically. I had become very attached to Ryan Van Poederooyen, the drummer, who is still one of my favorite drummers of all time. That powerhouse of a drummer and a very inspirational self-sufficient guy inspired me to pick up the drums again, and I’ve had so much fun with the instrument and learning his interesting patterns. DTP had become kind of a buffer to Devin’s eccentric “madman” style of music. Ryan and co kept Devin grounded and definitely helped hone in his ideas for one of the best Prog Metal albums ever, Transcendence.
Transcendence is an anthemic Progressive Metal album that’s a full-circle journey with incredibly complex guitar riffs and one of the best drum performances since Dream Theater’s Images and Words. It is a huge-sounding record that makes the hair on my arms stand straight up every single time I listen to it. I think this is the “magnum opus” of the DTP. It’s perfectly constructed with each track just flowing together in perfect timing and harmony. The Wall-of-sound production from Devin and Periphery’s Nolly Getgood is utterly exquisite. I will never get over how good this record sounds. Is it mixed to sound good on every possible form of media? God, no. This is an album you have to listen to in FLAC with spatial audio either 2.1 with a sub or 5.1, and that’s perfectly acceptable. I don’t want to listen to Devin’s music on my “airbuds” while I’m cleaning. I want to sit down and listen to this album, and have a completely immersive audio experience. I listen to DTP’s music to be uplifted, emotionally conquered, and unironically “transcended” to a different state of mind. That’s exactly the intent of this album and it achieves it so loudly. It’s the loudest mix on a DTP album, so you can hear each member with perfect clarity. The result is actually mind-boggling. I have no idea how such a perfect mix was achieved. There are so many layers to this album.
The choirs, immense synths, many guitar tracks, and the biggest sounding drums ever recorded. Yet, it sounds so damn good. On songs like “Failure” and the instant classic “Stormbending” you can pick out each musician, and everyone gets a “solo” of sorts. The heaviness, and yet the airiness and spine-tingling sounds this album achieves are unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. My favorite song of the album tops it all off for me, though. “Stars” is a bombastic track with incredible vocals, syncopated guitar and bass, and epic imagery. I was lucky enough to watch this song come to life on stream in only a couple hours. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to watch Devin speed-craft such a beautiful song. His talent knows no limits and really came to shine on this song in particular.
It’s a mind-blowing emotional and thought-provoking album that makes you feel like you can rise above absolutely anything. Whether it be self-doubt, social anxiety, the negativity of social media, the depressing news media, or isolation, this album works through all those aspects in a very logical sense. The connection I made with this record is just so affable, one article where I’m keeping it as short as possible is not enough to go through each song. It’s just so monumental to me. How do you possibly articulate an album that encapsulates everything you stand for and believes in? I can say just go listen to arguably the most epic and perfect track on this album “Higher”. That song alone may make you understand just how significant this album is and get the message loud and clear, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” Transcendence and its message have never been more relevant than in 2025 with a world full of hatred and divisiveness. “Higher” is about rising above negativity and making your own life without the influence of others. It’s taken from the concept of Buddhism and Transcendental Meditation, which are teachings I have brought into my own life. I will always associate this song with Ryan, too, as it’s my favorite work from him on drums and part of his teachings.
In 2016, I was lucky enough to partially experience this album live in person. Seeing DTP on one of their last tours was phenomenal. I still can’t believe I got to see them headline at a one-off show in Denver. It was an experience I am forever grateful for. I thought the DTP would go on and last for their entire careers as musicians, but sadly, the project was disbanded in 2018 after the release of Ocean Machine Live at Plovdiv.
Favorite songs; Stars, Failure, Stormbending
6. Empath- Devin Townsend (2019)
While I’m grateful for the DTP and I still love the guys, I found out that I was so wrong about Devin needing people to reign him in and tame him. This idea is good for some albums, but when it comes to Devin’s unhinged visions, some of the best music has been created without constraints. Empath was a collection of ideas Devin had long before deciding to disband DTP, but he never had the time to sit down and expand on these ideas. Talking with Frank Zappa guitarist Mike Keneally over the phone, he would let these ideas flow out. The two compiled an album together in this manner and went into the studio to record what I think is one of the best Prog Metal albums ever created. This album is all of Devin’s ideas, personality, and deepest thoughts without limit. It is infinite in reverberation, full orchestra, full choir, and about thirty very different musicians. It’s a weird personification of Devin going on an island vacation with his family, but it’s also the journey of life in a chaotic and profound Metal Opera. There are so many layers and sounds on this record, that it returns him to that “musical madman” viewpoint. Empath was Devin’s huge launch into solo work 12 years after his last solo release, and I believe it is one of his best works but also one of the best works of music ever created.
Empath is a fantastical Prog Metal album with all of Devin’s past and present influences combined with infinite layers and the genial guitar work and mixing of Mike Keneally. It is “The most Devin album that Devin has ever recorded” as said by the Angry MetalGuy. This album is insane and watching him create it over two years was insane in the best way possible. Witnessing this album, as well as all of Devin’s albums, is one of the biggest reasons I am thankful to be alive, to be honest.
Empath is an explosive Prog Metal album with Opera, Symphonic, Extreme, and Ambient influences created by some of the best musicians I’ve heard in my entire life. It is Devin Townsend to the one-millionth power, and it took so many people to make the sounds of this man’s Synthesia-laden mind come to life. Mike Keneally took these colors, patterns, and shapes and helped Devin translate them to a team of musicians, essentially learning a new language and creating one of the best relationships in music. Somehow all of this chaos, passion, multitude of emotions, and influences came together in a Prog Metal epic. It took three drummers, eight vocalists, four guitarists, three producers, a choir, a pedal steel guitar player, a whistle player, and immense work from Mike, Devin, and Nolly Getgood to create this epic. It is Devin without limits or constraints, and my god, it is incredibly beautiful. While it is the least accessible and commercial album he has ever created, it is a piece of pure art that will be forever irreplicable. It may not be the best example of his vocals or guitar solos, but it is a purge of all the sounds that have ever existed in a brilliant musician’s head, and I think it’s incredible.
It’s a soundtrack to Devin Townsend by Devin Townsend, and predictably, I love it. The other musicians also really shine on this album, exposing me to the brilliance of Mike Keneally, Morgan Agren, and Nathan Navarro. Nathan’s bass lines on this album are absolutely sensational. It’s one of the things I love most on this album. You can hear him decimate the bass on “Evermore” and “Genesis” with his unique thumb-picking that just fits so well with Devin’s guitar playing and tone. These collaborations are just so perfect, it seems as though it was all meant to happen this way. It made the shock and pain of disbanding the DTP worth it to me because Devin finally had musicians who understood him and could meet the expectations of brilliant musicality.
I want to talk about some of the songs. I think “Why?” is one of the most special songs in Devin’s entire catalog and highlights his perfect operatic vocal ability so beautifully. Metal and opera are no strangers to each other, but rarely do I hear male vocals so well done in this mix. It’s so beautiful. It really speaks to the message of Empath and how relationships with Empaths work in a group setting. I really relate to this song, but also most of the songs on the album I also think “Borderlands” gets stuck in my head more than any Devin Townsend song. It’s just so catchy and rhythmically interesting. While it’s kind of ambiguous and seemingly simplistic, it’s such a deep Jungian concept. It attaches music to a “Muse” and describes upholding a balance to sate the “Muse” and a nuclear family, giving Devin a literal sign to make this album. The way his mind works is incredible and it comes out so profoundly on this album, but no more profoundly than on “Requiem” and the epic “Singularity”. “Requiem” is a closer to the era of DTP and a look ahead to the future of Devin’s music. A choir echoes the beautiful chorus to “Stormbending” which is probably the biggest song DTP ever released and gives you a feeling of closure. Devin’s full circle approach to his music where he reuses older lyrics is a personal touch that always captivates me. I love how he “rips his own material off”.
“Singularity” is the final to this epic transformation of Devin as a solo artist. I think it’s a goodbye to his previous works, but also an insight into the “Moth” project coming out in 2025 where he moves to Symphonic work. This is one of the most epic and gorgeous songs I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s split up into multiple movements that all encompass every style of music he’s ever done. It’s got industrial Meshuggah parts reminiscent of SYL, a little bit of Transcendence and Epicloud, Infinity, and Addicted. It is one of my favorite songs he’s ever written. I listen to the “Here Comes the Sun” section of repeat, because Anneke’s vocals are just so uniquely beautiful on “Through the Storm, may you become a Rainbow.:” This song mirrors the epics of Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, and While Heaven Wept in such an ornately Devin Townsend way. I truly believe this is Devin’s magnum opus. I love this song so hugely, I think everyone NEEDS to hear it in full at least once in their life. It’s like listening to a film soundtrack. I envision a short film: A man goes through unbearably dark valleys of loneliness and despair to rise and transcend into the beautiful nebulas with love and light. It’s a sublime piece of music, one of my absolute favorite songs ever written. I will be listening to it and Empath for the rest of my life and honestly trying to recreate this brilliance in my own music, although I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to ever replicate it.
I await to see if “The Moth” is as visionary as “Singularity”.
Favorite Songs: Singularity, Genesis, Why?
To sum it all up, I love Devin’s music irrevocably. Anything he puts out is significant to me in multiple ways. His music always seems to find me when I need it the most. Whether it be a death in the family, a break up, an injury, or living in an isolated place, his music is always what lifts me up. That’s what his music means to me; It’s about rising about any obstacle and any darkness while accepting everything life has to offer. On “Genesis” Devin screams on the chorus “Let there be light let there be moon! Let there be stars and let there be you! Let there be monsters, let there be pain! Let us begin to live again From the top to the bottom genesis!” I repeat this message in my head every day. It’s become my mantra. It seems to get me through absolutely anything. Through Devin, I’ve learned to accept pain and find the strength to rise out of it. That’s what his music means to me. Throughout his music career, I find his message of “transcendence” to be loud and clear. Whatever happens in life, you can transcend it and come out of it stronger than you were before. Bad shit is always going to happen, and you can’t fight it. Pure acceptance of the journey has helped me more than any pharmaceutical I have ever tried. His music is literally better than drugs for me. His music is essential to every aspect of my life. I know a lot of people find his music this way. Some people even wonder if he’s a demigod walking and screaming about cheeseburgers among us. I think he’s just an incredible human being with a feast of knowledge and experience to share. Whatever goes on in life, I will always have his large discography to be my soundtrack. I remember who I was before his music. I know who I am after discovering his music. I know it forever changed me for the better, and I hope more people discover him this way.
I could go on and on about Devin’s music for more articles, and I will! Let me know what your favorite albums of Devin’s are. Maybe I will run a poll just for fun.
[photo credit: Robert Eikelpoth, edited by Blake Armstrong]
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