Best Of 2008

No order of preference, this was yet another very strong year for metal. In fact, there's a good 10-15 releases that I never got around to that I know are potentially worthy of this list. Same goes for the everything else section.

HEAVY STUFF - Metal/Punk/Hardcore
1. Darkthrone – Dark Thrones and Black Flags (Peaceville/Tyrant Syndicate)
2. Blood Ceremony – Blood Ceremony (Rise Above)
3. Hail Of Bullets - Of Frost And War (Metal Blade)
4. Soilent Green - Inevitable Collapse In The Presence Of Conviction (Metal Blade)
5. Superbad - East River Deathsquad 7” (Torture Garden Picture Co.)
6. Enslaved - Vertebrae (Nuclear Blast)
7. Misery Index - Traitors (Relapse)
8. World Burns To Death - The Graveyard Of Utopia (Prank)
9. Avskum – Uppror Underfrån (Prank)
10. Rudimentary Peni – No More Pain (Southern)
11. Unleashed - Hammer Battalion (SPV)
12. Unearthly Trance - Electrocution (Relapse)
13. Thou - Peasant (Autopsy Kitchen)
14. Made Out Of Babies - Ruiner, The (The End)
15. Jucifer - L'autrichienne (Relapse)
16. Disfear - Live The Storm (Relapse)
17. Gnaw Their Tongues - Dawn Breaks Open Like A Wound That Bleeds Afresh (Universal Tongue)
18. Bloody Panda – Pheromone (Level Plane)
19. Bloodbath- Fathomless Master, The (Peaceville)
20. Desaster - 666 - Satan's Soldiers Syndicate (Metal Blade)
21. Holy Moses - Agony Of Death (SPV)
22. Dismember - Dismember (Regain)
23. Agenda of Swine – Waves of Human Suffering (Relapse)
24. Skepticism - Alloy (Red Stream)
25. Toxic Holocaust – An Overdose of Death... (Relapse)
26. Nachtmystium – Assassins – Black Meddle Part I (Century Media)
27. Menace Ruine – Cult of Ruins (Alien8)
28. Arckanum - Antikosmos (Moribund)
29. Elk/Carrion - split (no label)
30. Koldbrann - Stigma: På kant med livet (Twilight)
31. Agalloch – The White (Vendulus)
32. Beercraft - Demo 2008 (self-released)
33. Motorhead - Motorizer (Spv Gmbh)
34. Urfaust - Drei Rituale Jenseits Des Kosmos (Debemur Morti Productions)


EVERYTHING ELSE - folk, prog, psych, etc
1. Sts9 - Peaceblaster (1332)
2. Firewater – The Golden Hour (Bloodshot)
3. Lights – Lights (Language of Stone)
4. Death In June – The Rule of Thirds (Nerus)
5. Legendary Pink Dots - (ROIR)
6. Airfix Kits – Airfix Kits (self-released)
7. Dungen – 4 (Kemado)
8. Elephant9 - Dodovoodoo (Rune Grammafon)
9. Glass Candy - Beat Box (Rough Trade)
10. Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill (Type Records)
11. Guapo - Elixirs (Neurot)
12. Tommy Jay - Tommy Jay's Tall Tales Of Trauma (Columbus Discount)
13. Irata - Irata (Self-released)
14. Kim Ki O - En Az Iki, En Fazla Sekiz (Slusaj Najglasnije!)
15. Silver Summit - Silver Summit (Language of Stone)
16. Mudhoney - The Lucky Ones (Sub Pop)
17. Spectrum Meets Captain Memphis - Indian Giver ( Birdman Records)

REISSUES/OLD STUFF
1. Hellhammer – Demon Entrails 3xLP (Century Media)
2. Belong – 2006 Tour EP
3. Everything by Eric Malmberg (solo & with Sagor & Swing)
4. Helrunar - Baldr ok Iss (Lupus Lounge)
5. Defiance, Ohio - Share What Ya Got (Plan It-X)

LIVE SHOWS
1. Lichens/Om @ Brookdale Lodge January ‘08
2. Conspirarcy of Beards, etc. al @ Thee Parkside 2nd of February
3. Subhumans (UK)/Conquest for Death @ Slim’s – 4th March
4. Candlemass @ Slim’s 30th May
5. Needles/Yellow Eyes on WNL @ KZSU – June?
6. Deténe/Hirax/Attitude Adjustment @ Tidal Wave Metal Fest – McLaren Park 5th July
7. Laibach @ The Independent, 25th September
8. Embers/Saros/Nachtmystium/Wolves in the Throne Room @ DNA 12th October
9. Sir Richard Bishop - @ Aquarius Records 26th October
10. Ludicra/Asunder/Corrupted @ Slim’s – 31st October Metalween
11. Orb of Confusion/Beercraft @ Cedar St. Dome, Berkeley 21st December

BEST NEW(ISCH) BANDS:
1. Mourne (Boston)
2. Lights (Brooklyn)
3. Helrunar (Germany)
4. Kathaaria (Germany)
5. Elk (Oakland)
6. Beercraft (Oakland)
7. Orb of Confusion (Oakland)
8. G.A.T.E.S. (Japan)
9. Necrite (San Jose)
10. Abrupt (Oakland)

OTHER
1. Metal, Music & Politics Conference in Austria 1st-5th of November
2. Making more friends in the metal/punk scene
3. Nagawika’s Metal Comics
4. Austrian Beer & Austrian & German Bretzels, Metal Mags und chocolates