D.M's Five Greatest Albums of the Decade

First off, let me stage a minor protest in that I do not think 2019 represents the end of the decade.  That should be 2020, and for two reasons – first, because in counting sets of ten, you do not start with zero and end at nine (unless you’re a software engineer,) and second, because when the calendar was unified and the division between BC and AD established, there was no year zero (Nine Inch Nails album aside.)

Okay, now that I’ve logged my protest, allow me to actually get to the point.  When Chris C and I first started discussing listing our best albums of the decade, he wanted to confine it to three.  I immediately loved the exclusivity of his idea, that it was lazy to list the top fifty or twenty or even ten.  Let’s really see who cut muster and made an impact over the past ten years.

There was only one problem.  I couldn’t keep it at three.  I pleaded, nay begged to have Chris go to five.  He saw my plight and relented.  Here we are.

A brief primer – the usual rules apply – original studio albums only.  No covers albums, no live albums, no compilations.

The cut down process was excruciating.  It took me two full months to decide on the top 5.  I fully admit, it’s the top 5 of the decade...for now.  Ask me next month, it could be almost entirely different.  As such, I would like to pause for a moment to recognize the albums that didn’t quite make the cut.  Consider these the honorable mentions in alphabetical order:

Blood Ceremony – Lord of Misrule
Cancer Bats – Dead Set on Living
Children of Bodom – Relentless, Reckless Forever
Destrage – Are You Kidding Me? No.
Graveyard – Hisingen Blues
Midnight Ghost Train – Cypress Ave
Red Eleven – Round II
Shawn James and the Shapeshifters – The Gospel According to Shawn James and the Shapeshifters

And now, without further reservation, the top 5 albums of the (sort of) decade:

5  Cancer Bats – The Spark That Moves

Possible that there’s some recency bias here, but this is an excellent, easily digested and highly listenable album.  It’s just so damn catchy, and that’s something you don’t often say about a hardcore album.  Liam Cormier’s vocals are like when you go see a band and they invite their local friend up on stage – the guy can’t really sing, but he’s giving it his all and his authentic performance is eminently enjoyable.  That’s not to say that Cormier can’t sing.  His throaty rumble during “Bed of Nails” might just be his best performance ever.

4   The Sword – Warp Riders

This is bittersweet.  Remember when we thought The Sword was going to take over the world?  I’m gonna move on before I start remembering what happened after Apocryphon.

3   Clutch – Psychic Warfare

The cliché rings true – don’t call it a comeback.  I fully admit that I had all but left Clutch for dead after the blasé disappointment of Strange Cousins From the West.  Earth Rocker was a nice album, but seemed like an agonal gasp in the face of the downturn that had preceded it.  And then…this.  A masterpiece.  A bold statement, a near-concept album that it set up brilliantly.  The fact that the record begins with an investigator asking for a statement makes the winding narrative of Neil Fallon’s lyrics even more gloriously absurd.

2   Destrage – A Means to No End

We’ve talked about it a lot over the years; the quest for something different.  To find a sound that is new and unique and yet appealing is incredibly difficult in the modern era.  Destrage has captured something.  There’s a frenetic violence to their music, but woven through it all are huge, hook-laden choruses and spots of fragile beauty.  To be able to command this many raw elements and have them make sense is a level of songwriting most aren’t capable of.  Destrage did it three times this decade, and this is the best of them.

1   Turisas – Turisas2013

There are only two bad things you can say about this album.  One, the title is dumb.  Two, we haven’t heard from Turisas since.  Nevertheless, this album remains the gold standard for the kind of transcendent genre-blending that metal is and should be capable of.  It’s a magical ride, the kind of experience that can only be described in absurd terms.  For example, when people ask me to define what this album sounds like, I say “imagine if Andrew Lloyd Webber had an angsty son who wrote metal.”  Turisas also released the outstanding Stand Up and Fight in 2011, and this album completely buried it.  No one did it better this decade.