My Top 10 Essential Metal Albums

While watching Gojira at the Corporation in Sheffield the other day, I was challenged to produce my Top 10 Essential Metal Albums. The albums that I keep going back to, or have some special meaning to me. It's obviously a very personal list and I can guarantee that just about everybody in the world will find fault with it, but that's the point of these things, isn't it?

Dark Tranquillity - We Are The Void Dark Tranquillity's latest album (although it is now five years old), and the one I have played most by a very large margin. I have even played it twice as much as Projector, my previous favourite. Featuring some shudderingly creepy melodeath riffs and covering all the classic Gothenburg bases, you can't go far wrong with this one. It's hard to choose a favourite track of this album, but I guess Shadow In Our Blood or Iridium would take it. Or Her Silent Language, or The Grandest Accusation. One of those, anyway.

Opeth - Ghost Reveries There will always be controversy over choosing a favourite Opeth album, but this is mine, narrowly beating Blackwater Park to the top spot (thanks to my decision to only have one album by any given band in the list). Of all the Opeth albums I have on my iPod (most of them) it's the one I return to time and again for my fix of proggy deathy growliness. The Grand Conjuration is probably the best track, but like We Are The Void there are too many good ones. The cover of Soldier of Fortune is bloody good, too.

Lacuna Coil - Comalies From way back in the days when I was finding my metal feet, as it were, Comalies contains just enough heavy, just enough catchy to get me hooked. This was my gateway drug to a love affair with melodic death metal, of all things. Top track would be Tight Rope, which gives me a little nerdgasm for recognising the game the voiceover samples are taken from.

Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit I heard about Agalloch long before I heard Agalloch, and when I finally did hear them, I wondered why I hadn't looked them up before. Dark and disquieting and epic in equal measure. Favourite track would have to be, um, all the tracks. Seriously, I can't choose between them.

Judas Priest - Painkiller The one and only venture into NWOBHM on this list. As must as Iron Maiden is seen as the pinnacle of British heavy metal, you just can't beat Painkiller for volume or tempo. I did air guitar to the title track a couple of months ago and my left shoulder still hasn't forgiven me. My favourite tracks are Painkiller, obviously, and Night Crawler.

Insomnium - Above The Weeping World Although in recent months it has been pushed aside in favour of One For Sorrow, Above The Weeping World is still Insomnium's magnum opus, and proof that they are still one of the finest melodic death bands in the business. I'm starting to think I shouldn't have tried to include a favourite track. On this one The Gale, Mortal Share, The Killjoy and Devoid of Caring are my choices.

Wolverine - Still One of my favourite albums ever. I first heard Sleepy Town on a friend's shuffle, and wanted to know what the rest sounded like. I was amazed, and have been a fan of the band ever since. Sleepy Town itself is high on the list of favourite songs ever, too.

Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth As grandiose and epic as it is proggy as it is ear pummeling. I originally dismissed Sylosis as being too -core for my tastes based on looks alone. Big. Mistake. This album was one of the surprises of 2011 and still gets regular rotation on my commute. It's hard to pick favourite tracks because the whole album flows so well together, although Empyreal (both parts) deserve special mention.

Eluveitie - Slania Is it folk metal, or is it Gothenburg melodic death with a hurdy gurdy? I don't really know, but it's bloody good. I first heard of (and, indeed, heard) Eluveitie at Bloodstock '08. I rushed to the CD sales tent, only to discover that I had missed the rush and every copy of Slania had been sold in 30 minutes. Inis Mona is the definite highlight of this folk juggernaut.

Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs I originally found out about Ghost Brigade from Last.fm, recommended due to my constant playing of Dark Tranquillity and Insomnium. I'm glad the recommendation engine worked this time! Possibly the most depressing death metal band I've ever heard. Highlights include Into The Black Light and Lost In A Loop.


I was also graciously allowed 5 "honourable mentions" for those albums that I love, but didn't make the top 10. To be honest this was harder to come up with than the first 10. There are so many albums I love  that narrowing it down proved difficult.

One in particular that gets regular plays is Skyforger by Amorphis. A random purchase at HMV led me to discover Amorphis, a sort of hybrid of melodic death and folk that's both heavy as a heavy thing and melodic as an, um, melodic ... thing. Aerolithe by Fall Of The Leafe (which led to the coining of the term "fotling", meaning "listening to Fall Of The Leafe") is another that I throw on a lot when I fancy something a bit more utterly nonsensical.

Perhaps a controversial choice because it is the least metal of anything I've put so far, but How To Measure A Planet by The Gathering is a long standing repeat listen. A fine work among a body of fine works. More recently, and definitely less controversially, is Woods of Ypres's final album Woods 5: Grey Skies And Electric Lights. Sure, it's depressing, but it's frankness and honesty elevates it from pointless morbidity into something far deeper and more philosophical.

And finally I can't forget to mention Monuments by Sheffield's own Northern Oak, the album I've seen played (in parts, at least) more than any other. If I fancy listening to it, I could put on the MP3s, or I could just pop to a local gig to enjoy it with an ale or five. 

Lacuna Coil @ The Corporation, 28th September 2010

They said it would never happen. They said we were dreamers. But on September 28th, 2010, Lacuna Coil returned to the Corporation, their first visit since the heady days of 2006 when I first ever saw them live. Of course, we've seen them since. Back in January we hauled ourselves over to Manchester for the Shallow Life launch tour, but here they were playing our favourite local metal venue, next door to one of our favourite pubs. How could we possibly miss it?

Mark from Troika

Two support acts were playing that cold Tuesday night; Troika, a local band, and Slaves To Gravity, who were supporting the whole tour. I really enjoyed Troika's set. The band have a quirky amateur demeanour but the music is amazing. Really talented local bunch of Sheffield lads. I'll be checking their music out again in the future for sure. Possibly find a gig to go buy CDs direct from the band.

Slaves To Gravity were up next. They're not really my cup of tea, I'll be honest. Little bit too much grunge and posturing for my taste, but the crowd loved it. I love finding that a band I would never normally listen to put on a show that gets the crowd going. The atmosphere is what makes live music special.

Slaves To Gravity

After a wait that felt like an eternity, as it always does while waiting for Lacuna Coil to come on stage, the house lights dimmed. A hush descended, just for a moment, and the crowd went wild.

And what a show they put on! Starting out with Underdog and I'm Not Afraid from Shallow Life, this proved to be a very varied show with some delving into the band's back catalogue. Classics like Honeymoon Suite and Half Life made an appearance, as well as long standing favourites Swamped and Heaven's A Lie.

Karmacode stole most of the show, with eight of the eighteen tracks played from that album. Fragments Of Faith and Our Truth are a must, and of course, what would a Lacuna Coil show be without a sing-along to Enjoy The Silence? Shallow Life came in second, with six tracks including I Won't Tell You and Spellbound. The setlist was expertly put together, effectively mixing classics and recent fan favourites to keep the pace throughout the entire set and into the encore.

The Corporation once again shone as a live venue. While Manchester Academy 1 was an impressive venue, it lacked the intimacy of the Corporation. At the larger venue, you watch a show. At the Corp, you are part of it. I was very excited when I found out about the gig, and now I can safely say it's the best Lacuna Coil gig I've ever seen. Simply awesome.

Gigs, gigs and erm more gigs!

2009 was pretty hectic as far as gigs were concerned and I wanted 2010 to be even more impressive. A lot of dups last year: Electric Six 2 times, Reverend and the Makers 2 times, Magenta 3 times ... challenge for 2010?? At least one gig a month ... no dups!

The January gig was Lacuna Coil on their Shallow Life Tour at O2 Academy, Manchester.

This was followed by Sheffield Folk Metal band Northern Oak at Corporation.

Then came the long awaited Dead Like Harry album launch at The Plug. A Sheffield band who are really starting to make waves in the industry.

Last weekend we saw Frightened Rabbit at Leadmill. A favourite with some friends of ours and certainly worth going to see. Venue let the gig down a little bit, but the band were superb.

Next week we see The Courteeners. A band I first came across after seeing them at the Love Music, Hate Racism gig held at Magna in 2008 where they played a set before local boys Reverend and The Makers and Leeds lads the Kaiser Chiefs. This will be the first gig this year so far at O2 Academy, Sheffield.

The next gig will be The Joy Formidable at O2 Academy, Sheffield. I first came across these on Indie Music Filter Volume 5 and Doozr bought me tickets for their mid-week gig as a birthday present. That will be followed by the mighty Wonder Stuff at Leeds O2 Academy in April performing songs from their amazing album HUP! And finally Misstallica a female tribute to Metallica at O2 Academy, Sheffield in May. OMG I can't wait to see that!!!! LOL!

March has been a little manic as far as gigs are concerned and when I found out that Delain were playing Nottingham and Leeds next week, I had to hold myself back and not book them. Little disappointed but then I have had 4 gigs this month alone. I will have to wait until they tour next time. :(

So what is that then? 8 gigs by May? That is not bad going at all. I know Electric Six are playing in December again and so I think I will have to go see them again. There is also talk of a trip to Bloodstock this year, money and childminding permitting. So I will get to experience a whole weekend of mud and metal! It is looking very likely that I will successfully achieve my challenge for this year. Hmmm, I wonder what I can challenge myself to for 2011??

Lacuna Coil, Shallow Life Tour - Manchester Academy, 31st Jan 2010

On January 31st 2010 Doozr and I headed to Manchester for my first official 'metal' gig; Lacuna Coil's Shallow Life Tour. Originally the show was scheduled to be at Manchester Academy 2 but was promoted to Academy 1 at the last minute. Admittedly, Shallow Life is their most commercial release to date but having only recently embraced the whole metal genre, this was to be a real treat for me.

We booked a hotel seeing as Manchester is over an hours drive from home and figured we could enjoy a few drinks at the venue and make an evening of it. I also had to acquire a new outfit - how could I possibly go to a metal gig in my usual gig clothes? (any excuse!) Taking advice from Doozr I decided to plump for a black and silver under bust corset from Corsets-UK with a black gypsy top, black skin tight jeans and the most amazing Pleaser boots. I also purchased a beautiful gothic style jacket from The Gothic Shop. I was to be all dressed up with somewhere seriously exciting to go.

Due to the venue change the doors opening time was also altered. This meant that we arrived much later into the support acts than we would have liked. We only managed to only catch the end of Dirty Little Rabbits. They were an 'interesting' band to say the least. Lead singer Stella Soleil clearly forgot to get dressed and appeared to be performing in her nightdress. Still, they had the desired effect on the audience and the place was full of excitement and anticipation. It was the most amazing experience to stand in the middle of the crowd and soak up that atmosphere.

As you may have previously read there were a couple of standout tracks for me from the Shallow Life album and seeing those tracks live was breathtaking. They opened with Survive and I could feel my heart pounding as the track started. To be honest my heart didn't stop pounding throughout the entire show. Standouts for me were Fragments of Faith, Tight Rope, Wide Awake, Enjoy the Silence and their final track Our Truth.

The band were energetic and note perfect, the visuals were impressive, the venue was well organised, the acoustics were amazingly good quality and the crowd were a joy to stand in. Often at gigs you find yourself being pushed about my morons, have people push past you to get to the bar or you get covered in somebody's stray beer that somehow managed to get thrown up into the air. Not at this gig. The crowd not only respected the artists on stage, but also each other. Most notably they remained in their place for the entire show, not a single person pushed past me to get anywhere; the show was just too good to walk away from.

The visual element of the show is apparently something new and never before used for a Lacuna Coil gig. It fitted perfectly into the background of the stage, with the performances from the group and with the tracks they were playing. Cristina Scabbia had at least 5 costume changes throughout the show. She is an amazingly beautiful woman and her presence on stage had me mesmerised.



The added bonus to the evening was at the merc stand where I purchased the Deluxe Tour Edition of Shallow Life which included a bonus disk and was hand signed by the entire band. The bonus disk includes live tracks, tracks recorded for radio and a couple of never before released tracks.  Doozr also scored a very stylish Lacuna Coil t-shirt.  It was a perfect way to end an amazing evening.

Lacuna Coil - Shallow Life

Having tried (and failed) to filter out the metal from Doozr's music collection, I decided to admit defeat and when he purchased the new Lacuna Coil album I thought I should embrace my inner metal chick and give it a listen.

Lacuna Coil have had five studio albums to date and Shallow Life marks the band moving their sound from gothic metal to more straight-forward alternative hard rock. I have very limited knowledge of their previous offerings and have just started listening to their 2006 release Karmacode.

On my first listen to Shallow Life, I was surprised how much I liked the overall sound to the album. It has a distinct mainstream metal feel and I can't help but compare tracks such as 'I'm Not Afraid' with artists such as Linkin Park. Throughout the album there are a number of really strong choruses and catchy guitar riffs that epitomise producer Don Gilmore's style (Avril Lavigne, Linkin Park, Pearl Jam) and I can understand why long standing Lacuna Coil fans might find the change too far removed from their previous gothic sound.

Cristina Scabbia states: "Shallow Life is a natural metamorphosis from within the band; we explored different musical territories while maintaining our own style. A mix of old and new, fast and slow and light and dark. The album production is incredibly powerful and has a beautiful purity to it. Shallow Life has forced us to challenge ourselves. It represents the way we see ourselves in the days we live in through truth, love and lies."

I have come to adore this album. All of the tracks have something about them that sends a shiver down my spine and as the album progresses, the volume gets louder and louder. However, standout tracks for me are Survive, I Like It and Wide Awake.

I don't know yet if their previous releases will appeal to me in the same way as Shallow Life has and I am not sure how existing Lacuna Coil fans will feel about the direction they have taken their music. However, Shallow Life as a stand alone album is without a doubt the most excited I have been about new music for a long time.

Lacuna Coil home page

Shallow Life on Wikipedia