Live-Metal.Net - Features - Best Albums of 2009

It's that time again, taking a look back at the best that rock and metal had to offer in the year. The lists are broken down from each staffer here at Live-Metal.net. Take a look at some obvious, surprising and even forgotten choices of 2009. (Click the "Year in Review" image above to return to the 2009 main page and view more lists.)

List by Live-Metal.net Editor-In-Chief JEFF MAKI

	1) BEHEMOTH - Evangelion In the upper echelon of extreme metal since its formation, Poland’s Behemoth in 2009 released the colossal Evangelion, one of the most brutal, yet memorable death metal albums ever. Corpse-painted lead vocalist/guitarist Nergal is deadly-serious about his music and it shows on an album that seemingly tries to single-handedly destroy Christianity. The lead track from the album, “Ov Fire and the Void” is one of the best extreme metal songs ever. “All hail St. Lucifer!” Pure brutal mastery. Buy Album

	2) EPICA - Design Your Universe If you were already an Epica fan, Design Your Universe was your ultimate reward. If you're not and you're a metal fan, you should take immediate note. Symphonic metal has never sounded this intricate, complex and mesmerizing. Equal doses of power and thrash metal are also here. It's like Epica upped the ante in every aspect of its style and sound. Their music has never been this accessible before, yet it's still trademark Epica. Frontwoman Simone Simons uses a variety of vocal styles while still singing in her trademark operatic style. She has to be looked upon as one of the subgenre’s best ever. Standouts are “Unleashed,” “Martyr of the Free World” and “Our Destiny.” Buy Album

	3) ALICE IN CHAINS - Black Gives Way To Blue Alice in Chains has been one of my favorite bands since my late teens. Layne Staley’s death in 2002 wasn’t shocking, but it was still heartbreaking. Twelve years since their last album, the band released Black Gives Way to Blue with new vocalist William DuVall. I, like many other fans, was skeptical. But this is near-classic Alice in Chains. Yes, DuVall’s vocals resemble Staley's, and yes, it’s not exactly the same as it was before. But remember, Alice in Chains could have just toured until their late 40s or 50s with no new album whatsoever—releasing one this great was just phenomenal. Buy Album

	4) BARONESS - Blue Record Baroness’ Blue Record is like this year’s The Way of All Flesh (Gojira)—relatively unknown bands coming out of nowhere and laying it all out with badass, monster records. Blue Record is heavy, sludgy, melodic, nostalgic and beautiful all in one. It’s bands like Baroness that make the future of heavy music look better than ever. Standout tracks are “Sweetest Curse, ” “A Horse Called Golgotha” and “War, Wisdom and Ryhme.” After reading all of the hype, I’ve spun this one nonstop since finally purchasing it for myself. Buy Album

	5) ARCH ENEMY - The Root of All Evil While an all-new Arch Enemy release would have been great, what we got instead was a collection of re-recorded songs from the band’s back catalogue before vocalist Angela Gassow joined the band. The new versions are absolutely killer. It's like hearing the early incarnations of Swedish death metal with great production and new technology. In other words, it's much of the same, yet it's better. Standouts are “Beast of Man,” “Bury Me an Angel” and “Demonic Science.” Buy Album

	6) MEGADETH - Endgame I’ve always been a huge Megadeth fan, maybe even more so than Metallica back when Metallica were the kings of heavy metal. Opinions of Dave Mustaine aside, I honestly don’t ever think Megadeth has released a bad record. I’d rank the band’s return to thrash metal—Endgame—somewhere around Megadeth's fourth best of all time. For a band that's been around this long to put out an album this strong is saying a lot. Every song is solid, with strong continuity, making Endgame what Megadeth has been throughout their its career, a mark of metal and musical consistency. Buy Album

	7) SHADOWS FALL - Retribution OK, so can we all agree now that Threads of Life pretty much sucked? I think the band—hooked up to lie detectors—would tell you the same. One single album hadn’t nearly killed a metal band’s career like this one in a long while. It was on the same sort of level as Risk or St. Anger but even more detrimental to Shadows Fall, as they are nowhere near as well known. So that’s why we got Retribution, a return to the ferocious sound and style of their great albums, The Art of Balance and The War Within. If you haven’t seen them live, do it. Shadows Fall’s live performance impressed me more than any other band in 2009. Standouts are “Still I Rise,” “My Demise” and “A Public Execution.” Shadows Fall are convincingly back and hopefully here to stay. Buy Album

	8) EVILE - Infected Nations A surprise in the best of 2009? Well, it comes with good merit, as Infected Nations can be considered a modern-day ... And Justice For All. It’s leaps and bounds above their debut, Enter the Grave. While years ago many where dubbing Shadows Fall or Trivium the next Metallica, Evile is now knocking on death's door. While originality is still an issue, it doesn't threaten anything here—the songs are just too good. I'm in awe at the massive maturation and craftsmanship that Evile has displayed with only its second album. Recommended to anyone into metal, period. Buy Album

	9) MARDUK - Wormwood Wormwood is one of the most exhilarating, in-depth and surprising black metal albums released in recent years. Whether it's the slower, marching epics “Funeral Dawn” and “To Redirect Perdition,” or the all-out war on God that rages on “The Fleshly Void” and “Into Utter Madness,” Marduk fires on all cylinders. The musical style recalls parts of the last two decades. The primitive, raw, faster black metal songs sound like classic early '90s material, back when the subgenre was first beginning to rear its ugly head, while experimental songs like “Unclosing the Curse” and album closer “As a Garment” lead us into recent experimental areas of black metal. Buy Album

	10) GOD DETHRONED - Passiondale (Passchendaele) Don't be fooled by the tame album title. The casualties are mounting and the dead bodies are piling up on God Dethroned's Passiondale. The album is faster and more violent than what I consider to be the band's landmark album, The Toxic Touch (2006). Passiondale is not for the faint of heart. When God Dethroned is not playing as fast as any given black metal band, they're engaged in heavy grooves, hitting hard and with authority. Melodies are subtle, but they're used at the right place and right time, making these songs stick. Buy Album

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