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| The Best Metal Albums Of The Decade: 2000-2009
The 00's were a great decade for metal. The following albums are why. | | 20 | | Petra
Jekyll & Hyde
Petra haven't rocked this hard since the eighties. "Jekyll and Hyde" is full of fist-
pumping guitar riffs and soaring hooks. | | 19 |  | Isis
Wavering Radiant
While records like "Oceanic" and "Panopticon" are no doubt hugely important to
the post-rock scene, "Wavering Radiant," the band's final record was their
shining moment. | | 18 |  | Demon Hunter
The Triptych
Although metalcore is becoming increasingly more bland, this excellent record
fortunately managed to come out before the mass of mediocre bands. The
album showcases Demon Hunter's skill at bone-crunching riffs ("Not I"), sick
breakdowns ("Relentless Intolerance"), and touching ballads (the reflective
album closer "The Tide Began to Rise"). | | 17 |  | Harvey Milk
Life... The Best Game in Town
Unapologetically intense, Harvey Milk's 2008 album is the band at their
sludgiest best. "Death Goes to the Winner" is a masterpiece of sludge metal. | | 16 |  | Boris
Pink
Abrasively heavy (in a good way), "Pink" is the most distortion-heavy record of
the decade, a sledgehammer of in-your-face rock. "Just Abandoned My-Self,"
the megalithic 18-minute album closer, has to be heard to be believed. | | 15 |  | Dream Theater
Train of Thought
While the album does amble at parts, the band's brilliant musicianship is front
and center on this intensely heavy record. "Honor thy Father" is the band's
most heavy moment, as well as one of their best. | | 14 |  | Dark Tranquillity
Fiction
A band that never forgets to use melody just as much as they use downtuned
riffs, Dark Tranquillity's 2007 album was their best work of the decade. The
excellent "Mundane and the Magic" is a testament to the band's use of melody. | | 13 |  | Sunn O))) and Boris
Altar
A collaboration that would make most extreme metal fans salivate, Sunn and
Boris crafted a record that both harks back to the band's prior works as well as
breaks new ground; the album's centerpiece, the morosely beautiful "The
Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)" waxes shoegaze, and it does it brilliantly. | | 12 |  | Devin Townsend
Ziltoid the Omniscient
Metal's most eccentric frontman since Mike Patton crafts a hilariously ingenius
concept record about an alien searching for the meaning of life, as well as the
universe's ultimate cup of coffee. Non-stop heaviness and hilarity. | | 11 |  | Tool
10,000 Days
Tool took plenty of time making music this decade; 2001's "Lateralus" and this
LP are the band's sole works in this decade. Both, however, are brilliant, this
record only slightly nudging "Lateralus" out for this spot. This album features
some of the band's most accessible moments ("The Pot," Justin Chancellor's
best bassline yet) as well as their most challenging (the eleven minute alien
abduction tale "Rosetta Stoned"). | | 10 |  | Project 86
Rival Factions
Project 86's best record of the decade is also their least heavy (which isn't to
say it isn't heavy-this album knows how to rock). The 80's influence on tracks
like "Molotov" are excellently done; however, the band shines in tracks like
"Normandy," a powerfully foreboding album closer. | | 9 |  | OSI
Blood
An oft-overlooked prog supergroup (although, to most people's credit, there are
a billion prog supergroups), "Blood" is the band's finest outing, a culmination of
the band's heavy progressive metal tendencies as well as the electronic
influences that run through all of their albums. "Stockholm," a collaboration
with Opeth frontman Mikael Akerfeldt, is a sumptuously dark track and perhaps
the album's finest moment. | | 8 |  | Pain of Salvation
Be
A highly divisive record, but also highly ambitious. PoS crafted a truly
progressive work with this album, touching on their signature syncopated metal
("Nihil Morari") as well as some previously unexplored territory in songs like
"Nauticus" (delta blues) and the gorgeous, show-stopping "Iter Impius" (a
Broadway-worthy ballad). | | 7 |  | Russian Circles
Station
This was a decade of great post-metal, but this one stands out as my favourite;
the Circles fired on all cylinders with this record. It had the band's best heavy
moments ("Harper Lewis") as well as their most calm, introspective ones
("Xavii"). | | 6 |  | Between the Buried and Me
Colors
Technically and musically uncompromising, "Colors" is Between the Buried and
Me's shining moment. The random country jam at the end of the thirteen-
minute "Ants of the Sky" is a testament to the band's greatness. | | 5 |  | Katatonia
The Great Cold Distance
Katatonia perfected their signature sound on this LP, a brilliant mix of
alternative metal and doom metal awash with gorgeous melancholy. | | 4 |  | Sunn O)))
Monoliths and Dimensions
Sunn O)))'s piece de resistance is also the most artistically perfect metal record
of the decade. "Big Church" might just be the best song the band has ever
penned. | | 3 |  | The Dillinger Escape Plan
Ire Works
The most creative and most catchy metal record of the decade, "Ire Works" is a
potpourri of math rock, pop, electronic, jazz, ska, and others, crafting a brilliant,
challenging piece of metal. | | 2 |  | Porcupine Tree
Fear of a Blank Planet
One of the best concept albums I've ever heard, "Fear of a Blank Planet" is the
band's strongest outing, a blend of heavy prog metal (the band even goes
Meshuggah-like insane in the seventeen minute "Anesthetize"), electronic,
ambient, and, of course, Robert Fripp. | | 1 |  | Opeth
Blackwater Park
A magnum opus for the band, progressive metal, Swedish metal, and metal
overall, "Blackwater Park" is the metal record of the decade. A breathtaking mix
of folk, prog, Swedish metal, and progressive metal, Opeth defined themselves
with this record. | |
Crimson Death
12.12.10 | 1,5, and 6 are awesome. I wouldn't call 2 metal. | eternium
12.12.10 | 19, 11, 7, 4, and 3 = wrong album for the band | Oceans
12.12.10 | Um kool | SowerKraut
12.12.10 | Where is motW!? | Volk23
12.12.10 | @Crimson Death- I think the album is definitely progressive metal; most would categorize it as such. While definitely not as heavy as a lot of the other albums, I'd still consider it a metal record.
@Eternium-"Panopticon" was a close second, but I really do think "Wavering Radiant" is the band's best. Same situation with Tool and "Lateralus." Although critically most think that "Geneva" ousts "Station," I still find myself drawn to the latter. I don't think there was any contention for me for the Sunn album. And I looove "Ire Works."
| climactic
12.12.10 | Very weird choices for Dillinger, Porc Tree, Tool and Isis | Hawks
12.12.10 | No Agalloch = fail. | wyankeif1337
12.12.10 | weird choices here... | LepreCon
12.12.10 | Where's Slipknot? =[ | MrBirdoWordo
12.12.10 | where is Immolation | Hawks
12.12.10 | Or Enslaved?
Oh and 12 sucks huge black cocks. | wyankeif1337
12.12.10 | also, 7 isn't metal. it's awesome, but it's not metal. | Hawks
12.12.10 | 1, 5, and 14 are really the only acceptable ones here. | ThyCrossAwaits
12.12.10 | I feel like this list is so schizo.
About 2:3 ratio of shit to truth. | Zoo
12.12.10 | i don't understand what is this | Crimson Death
12.13.10 | Demon Hunter really bugs me, they have some tracks that are REALLY great. I Play Dead, Thorns, Not I and Infected are some of my favorite, especially I Play Dead. But they're spread amongst a few albums, and I find a lot of their other work boring. | North0House
12.13.10 | 9 is awesome. | ShadowRemains
12.13.10 | where's the dm? | Josh D.
12.13.10 | 3, wtf. | North0House
12.13.10 | Lol, I didn't even see 3.
Is 3 even metal?
They're kinda like heavy math-rock, in my opinion. | Josh D.
12.13.10 | It's not even, I mean, but... | DeafMetal
12.13.10 | Glad to see Harvey Milk and Sunn O))), although neither is one of the best metal of the decade. | Volk23
12.14.10 | "I feel like this list is so schizo."
I feel it should be. If metal as a genre has taught us anything, it's that it's not just one thing. I wanted my list to reflect the diversity of the genre, and I certainly feel that it did that. I know people won't agree with my choices (I knew I was asking for it with certain ones, like the particular Isis, Tool, and Dream Theater records I chose), but I made this list based off of the quality of the music as well as how the music purveyed the genre it was a part of. | MrGlass
12.19.10 | rival factions! hell yeah! their new live album is awesome too. | Crysis
12.19.10 | ""Big Church" might just be the best song the banned has ever penned"
cool spelling bro
list is missing a whole fucking lot from multiple sub-genres | Cavs
12.19.10 | In the Absence of Truth >>> Waving Radiance
Missing alot of albums though, and some very meh chooses.
| TheStefan
12.19.10 | lol @3 even making a "best of" list.
of course unless that list is "best of shitty albums" or the like | Cavs
12.19.10 | 3 is just a mess idk why he would add it unless he is a giraffe | Mordecai.
12.19.10 | "No Agalloch = fail."
ahahahahhahahahahahahahahha
so dumb | Volk23
01.01.11 | I wasn't aware there was a lot of ire for "Ire Works." I read great reviews of it, and I personally think it's a genius metal record. | FadeToBlack
01.01.11 | | Josh D.
01.01.11 | YEAH I'M WORKING EARLY TODAY GONNA BE HOME IN TIME FOR THE ROSE BOWL HELL YEAH GET OUT OF MY DREAMS AND INTO MY CAR | maqwep
01.01.11 | if youre gonna put an isis album in put in a good one | Motiv3
01.01.11 | some good, some bad and some very weird choices...Ire Works over Miss Machine?! | NeroCorleone80
01.01.11 | Wrong albums for many of these bands. | Josh D.
01.01.11 | Well Still Life came out in '99, so it can't be on a 2000-2009 decade list. | W477ZY
06.18.11 | 1, 2, 9, 11, 19 are godlike. Few wrong albums for bands though. | Psychopathologist
06.18.11 | how do you people find these lists omg stop it |
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