Well, seeing as its nearly the end of the first year of the new decade, one would consider stepping back and taking a look at the musit that has been flung at us over these past 12 months. We've seen deaths and we've seen comebacks.We've seen masterpices and dissapointments of epic proportions. And here is my top 10 albums of 2010. Also some honourable mentions below, because there were so many good albums released this year. Enjoy!

10 -Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra

Who would have thought that two band members leaving a band would actually make the music better? Dimmu Borgir's keyboardist and bassist left the band earlier in the year which caused quite a lot of laughs in the media. The one thing that every metal fan thought upon reading this is “there is no way they can make a good album now”. So you would think that the band would simply either give up or take extra precautions making their next album.

They sure as hell didn't. The band then announced that they were using an orchestra to make the music a little more powerful, something the band hasn't done since 'Death Cult Armegeddon', which also raised a few eyebrows. And as it turns out, Abrahadabra is probably their best album since 'Enthrone Darkness Triumphant'. The guitar riffs and solos were speedy and effective, the orchestra and use of female vocals gave the album a kick, and even Shagrath's vocals didn't seem plain and unimpressive this time. Check it out!

9 - Daath - Daath

I'll be honest. It isn't every day a death metal album can keep me interested from start to finish. This album is one of the very few exceptions. I'm not even sure why. It must be the demented screaming that blasted through the speakers the entire time the album was played, or was it the ferocious drumming on tracks such as “Double Tap Suicide”. Either way, death metal fans are in for a treat with one of this years finest brutal offerings!

8- Helloween - 7 Sinners

Ahhh..power metal. Who else could release one of the best power metal records this year other than one of the main pioneers of power metal itself? Helloween proved once again that they're worth the hype. This album has pretty much everything a power metal fan needs : Speedy riffs and drumming, catchy, memorable sing-along choruses and a fucking jazz flute solo (see “Raise The Noise”). Perfect for driving or drunken sing-alongs at parties!

7 - Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy

There are plenty of qualities about this band that will keep you coming back to them. Personally, I find the showmanship of Warrel Dane on each of their albums to be completely and uterrly mesmerizing. He may not show much in the way of range. In fact his voice sounds the exact same in almost every Nevermore track.But goddamn, its so unique and memorable! You can tell the man is made to entertain on a stage. Everything about this album was clean, consise and dramatic, which I always love in an album. That, and Jeff Loomis making love with the guitar on each track.Particularly “The Termination Proclamation” and “The Obsidian Conspiracy”. Theres a lot to love on this album, so I recommend it to pretty much anyone.

6 - Nachtmystium – Addicts : Black Meddle, Part 2

Whats this? An original black metal record you say? This really is a miracle! As much as I like black metal, it is a very tired genre. There are either way too many bands trying to keep “trve” and stick to the raw old school sound (ie: shit) whilst calling it “atmospheric” or just add symphoic keyboards making the entire band look unoriginal. Nachtmystium however fuse their black metal roots with psychadelic rock, creating a pretty unique twist on an already exhausted type of music. Think of Queens Of The Stone Age being raped by Darkthrone and you have Addicts:  Black Meddle, Part 2. Easily one of the best black metal records of 2010.

5 - Ophelia – Do Sympathy with Your Fantasy

The review for it is below here, so I'll be breif on this one. It is easily the best Doom record of the year. It's just an inspired mix of Doom, Shoegaze and ethereal metal that is just perfect for those who love thought-provoking music. I really haven't seen many albums as good as this at all over the year!

4 -Alcest - Écialles De Lune

The best french album of the year? Certainly. The best black metal album of the year? You bet!

What would be considered pompous, gay black metal at first glance turns out to be a very icy and beautiful album from French instrumentalist Niege. Each track providing a chilling blend of shoegaze and atmospheric black metal. Don't write this off as another pretentious black album, Niege delivers probably the most emotionally stirring work he's ever done. Perfect for listening to at night or when feeling rather down, you will be transported to Niege's dark little dreamworld of melancholy and bliss.

3 - Blind Guardian - At The Edge Of Time

If there is one thing that this album has proven, it's that Blind Guardian, a band who's career blossomed well into the 80's, still have it. “It” being that magic spark than makes their music memorable and iconic. Be it the blistering guitar work, particularly on tracks “Voice In The Dark” and “Ride Into Obsession”, two tracks of pure speed metal energy ; or the rousing scream-your-heart-out symphonic-oriental epic “Wheel Of Time”. This album is a must have from the veterans of power metal.

2 - Avantasia - Angel Of Babylon/The Wicked Symphony

Yes it's a double album. Or rather, a pair of albums released at the exact same time continuing the same storyline from 2008's “The Scarecrow”.At gunpoint, I would have to choose “Angel Of Babylon” because compared to it's more solid counterpart, it just had more memorable songs. That said, this is a huge achievement for Avantasia's mastermind Tobias Sammet. Featuring a who's who of power metal veterans including Russel Allen, Michael Kiske of Helloween and of course Masterplan's very own Jorn Lande. Each song on each album practically presenting itself as an epic sing-off, providing a new level of sheer showmanship and power. This is without a doubt not to be ignored. Because once you hear tracks such as “Promised Land”, “The Wicked Symphony” or “Death Is Just A Feeling” (featuring Savatage's Jon Oliva), you will no doubt be hooked to this melodic metal opera and Tobias's crowning opus!

And the winner is.........

1- Star One -Victims Of The Modern Age

OK, I didn't think this album could grow on me even more than it already did. Despite giving it 9/10 in the review below, it just seemed more and more enjoyable after more and more listens. It's just an amazingly pristine and well put together Prog metal album, and it's actually HEAVY.You need this nerdy nerdy album.Check out the full review below!

Honorable mentions :

Pendulum – Immersion : Say what you want about these guys, they know how to make some catchy shit! It's not going to change your life or anything, but it will get anyone and I mean ANYONE moving at a club or festival.Its a tonne of fun and easily worth checking out!

Cee-Lo Green – The Lady Killer : Cee-Lo Green being Cee-Lo Green. What's not to love?

Melechesh – The Epigenesis : Not the most memorable album admittedely, but probably one of the most solid ones. Showing both brutaility riffs and vocal carnage and very chilled Mesopotamian folk instrumental-ism at the same time, and pulling it off near flawlessly!

Coffinworm - When All Became None : This album hates you.It hates everything about you, and every human like you. This hellish mix of Sludge and Black metal is sure to leave your ears in shreds, in the most awesome way possible.

James La Brie – Static Impulse : This album will surprise you. Instead of the expected Dream Theater-esque Acoustic power ballads, you will be greeted by tracks filled with speedy melodeath! It doesn't have much of a long-lasting appeal but it has some pretty neat tunes and is well worth seeing!

Kamelot – Poetry For The Poisoned : It's definately a grower, even for a die-hard Kamelot fan. The fact that it's moved on from it's memorable symphonic power metal roots into something darker and more progressive kind of makes it a lot harder to digest, but with a few more listens it will grow on you, simply because Kamelot are all about ignoring doing things by the books and making their own music. And as an album? It does deliver, mostly.

Iron Maiden – Final Fronteir : Same argument with the new Kamelot album really. This really didn't get the reaction it deserved, especially from the fans. The Final Fronteir does deliver, just not in the way we are used to. Long gone are the days of the over the top choruses and galloping. Instead we are given complex, more thought provoking tracks while still showing off a trememdous amount of skill. I really do think more people should listen to this album with an open mind, only then will it shine.

Star One - Victims Of The Modern Age

01. Down The Rabbit Hole
02. Digital Rain
03. Earth That Was
04. Victim Of The Modern Age
05. Human See, Human Do
06. 24 Hours
07. Cassandra Complex
08. It's Alive, She's Alive, We're Alive
09. It All Ends Here

Label : InsideOut

Relase Date: 25 October 2010

Look at this album cover.See where it says on the top-right?Arjen Anthony Lucassen.The master of Progressive metal.It's safe to say that nearly everything he touches turns to gold.Every.Thing.If you already know this mans work, you know this albums going to be good.If you still need convincing, know this ; Star One's previous album is called "Space Metal".That is just pure awesome.

Lucassen has been renowned throughout his career for having a robust back-catalog of guest musicians to aid his cause.Famous musicians, such as Devin Townsend, Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth, Dan Swano and fucking Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden.This time around he uses Russel Allen, of Symphony X as his main-man.To say the least Allen's vocals are probably one of the main highlights of the album as well as the chunky guitar riffs, thundering drums and cheesy keyboard work, making probably Lucassesn' most "metal" album to date.Even the die-hard anti-Prog metal fans can appreciate this dark, haunting little album.And I mean little.It may be 53 minutes long, but the entire album just feels short.Another couple of songs would have made the album feel a little more complete.The songs (all 9 of them) already given are great but why limit it like this?

Aside from that, I have no problems with the album.The album does it's job superbly.It's highlighting songs include the rousing "Digital Rain" and  fist-pumpingly heavy "Victims Of The Modern Age", each presenting a dark atmosphere that Lucassen rarely shows off in his music. A high recommendation for fans of Avantasia, Opeth and Dream Theater.

9/10 

Ophelia - Do Sympathy With Your Fantasy

[Introduction]

01. January - Dream Within A Dream

02. February - Mirror Lake

03. March - Spring

04. April - Object Petit A

[Body]

05. May - Water Deep

06. June - Chant Of The Night

07. July - Floating And Drowning

08. August - Misty Forest

09. September - Ophelia

[Conclusion]

10. October - Calm

11. November - Same Moment, Different Dream

12. December - A Walk To Remember

13. Undecimber - Communis

My experiences with Asian metal bands have proved to be very rewarding over the last few years.I mean this wholeheartedly as Asia isn't exactly a region where your average metal-head can simply drop names of bands.The only bands that might immediately spring to mind are perhaps Sigh , X-Japan  and Dir En Grey.

So what else is there?

I can only hope that in the next year or so, Korean Ethereal Doom Metal band Ophelia, who have only released their debut album will get the attention they deserve so much."Do Sympathy With Your Fantasy" is simply a stunningly original and creative masterpiece.Perfectly blending shoegaze, Korean traditional music and doom metal together to make a piece of work that practically breathes ambiance into it's listener.

The concept of the album runs through three factors : Introduction(January, February, March and April), Body(May, June, July, August, September) and Conclusion(October, November, December, Undecimber) each of which will transport you into a different emotion and mindset, which together make an 80 minute listen.The albums achievement is that it manages to keep the listeners full attention.Each track is as rewarding as the next, subjecting the listener to feelings of anguish, melancholy, bitterness, serenity, hope and so on.Very very few bands manage to incorporate these elements into their music with such ease, especially with their first album.

In conclusion : Get this album.Find some time for yourself to listen to it in full and in peace.Probably the most rewarding metal album of the year so far, and also a good example of the music Asia has to offer.

Just for the sake of content,I'm posting an old Rock Band 2 review I made ages ago!

As some of you may know,Activision and Harmonix were together when they made Guitar Hero 2,but split up to make seperate games.Acivision carried on the Guitar Hero legacy whereas Harmonix created Rock Band.Since then the two games have been stealing eachothers ideas and put into their new games. 


This game seems more like a modified edition to its predecessor,but it has so much more features this time. 
I will start on the Instruments. 
The new guitar was modified to be less "mushy" so the strum bar will work better,but still feels cheap compared to the Guitar Hero one. 
The new Drum set is wireless,quieter,and force sensitive (it means it will be more or less accurate depending on how hard you hiit the set) and the new bass pedal is made out of steel so no more breakages. 
The microphone remains the same,simply because it is in no need of modifications,but you could use a simple headset just as easily. 


The game has a huge selection of songs,and if you already have rock band 1 a simple 400 microsoft points (for the xbox 360,i dont know how it works for the ps3 or wii) is all it takes to import ALL of its songs into the new one.Include the hundreds of songs and albums available to download and you could potentially have well over 300 songs before you even play it.DLC from the first games carries over so you don't have to download it again,which makes it a fantastic deal. 
There is definatley something in there for everyone,there may be a few songs each individual person may not care about but there is much more good tracks than bad ones.But to name a few tracks there are the following: 

Let there be rock:AC/DC 
Battery:Metallica 
Painkiller:Judas Priest 
Shackler's Revenge:Guns 'n' Roses 
Master Exploder:Tenacious D 
Almost Easy:Avenged Sevenfold 
That's What You Get:Paramore 
Down With The Sickness:Disturbed 

The games features in several different playing modes which will keep you amused for months on end. 
Such as the World Tour,which is almost identical to the first one but made slightly easier and you can play it solo while still making fans and money,but playing with as a band is much more enjoyable.As the tour progresses you start to play more difficult songs until near the end where you will be literally ambushed with high paced metal songs such as Mastodon's Colony Of Birchmen and Get Clean by the Anarchy Club. 
Keep in mind Harmonix realised that its first game went a bit too easy on guitarists so this game will serve as the ultimate test,Painkiller as a band experience is simply epic,testing everyones limits. 
The challange mode i found the most innovative game mode.It starts you off in the "Local Upstarts Club".After you play that either playing an instrument or as a band you can play challenges made specifically from your own DLC.For example i played the Roadrunner Track Challenge,i had to play songs from Airbourne,Machine Head,Megadeath and others and got heftily rewarded for completing it.The Game rewards you for playing the songs you downloaded! 

The Battle of the Bands feature is also an interesting little feature. 
Every week Harmonix will create challenges open to anyone who meets its criteria (whether its owning the proper DLC or using the right instruments). 
They have a pre-made setlist for you to play and you have to get the best score possible,which is placed on its own leaderboard. 
And if you don't like a certain event dont't worry about it,wait and see what next week has in store. 

The Tug Of war section was modified to be a little...fairer,so more people will play it. 

The character creation is nearly identical to the first one,with a few new clothes,intruments and faces added in.The tattoo creation has such a level of depth its a wonder its so simple to use.What i discovered about the creator recently made me realise how unique the game really is:You can create your own band merch. 

http://www.rockband.com/merch 

This site will allow you to take the characters you made and make real 6 inch figurines,t-shirts,desktop wall papers,screensavers etc 
Look on my page i have my characters pictures taken. 

The vocals work well still,but have beed tweaked somewhat.The "talky-wordy" parts are impossible to fail even if you make farmyard animal noises. 
And trust me on this:Nothing is funnier that saying "quack-quack-moo-moo-neigh-neigh-woof-woof-meow" when trying to do Devildriver's "Clouds Over California" on expert.Its stunningly easy to get 100% on "Testify" and "Give It Away" 

Not much to say about the visuals,they are in fact almost identical to the first game but cleaned up a bit.Still friendly to the eye and the lights are how may i say "smarter"?They are coreographed perfectly,meshing perfectly with the song in stage as if you were actually there and the characters move as if they were in cartoons (like Celebrity Deathmatch,but thats probably because its an MTV game). 

And interestingly,if you are either eight years old or forty five years old and severly lack the hand-eye co-ordination to excell the games already demanding standards there is a handy "No Fail Mode" which you can use just for fun. 


Overall,this is a music games fans dream.You would be frankly insane to not get it,just for the fantastic deal you get and re-play value which will keep you rockin' for another year.