Rankings

So much music. So little time to write about it all. In what could be considered a banner year for the old guard, 2019 saw the return of multiple metal heavyweights, the final Slayer show, and the scope of the genre growing to new widths…

Every year, many of our staff writers put together their Top 10 albums lists, and every year our Radio Show Hosts write up their lists as well. Since our DJs are known more for their gift of gab than their knack for the written word, their…

2019 was a great year for metal. Not only a good year, but for all sub-genres of Metal. It seems not one or another dominated this year. Death Metal unleashed many great albums but Black Metal came out strong with just as many and also the…

This has been a season of change for yours truly. After 30 years of writing non-stop about hard rock and metal, I semi-retired this summer. For the first time in three decades, I didn’t close out there year with dozens of album reviews…

This list was especially difficult to create since 2019 brought some incredible music. I wrote and rewrote my list numerous times, while listening to each and every one of these albums over and over to attempt to give it my best. Since this…

Not that I suspect anyone is keeping track (or cares), but I wrote a paltry 3 album reviews for Metal Nation in 2019.  In no way, shape, or form is this an indication of the quantity and quality of this year’s releases—quite the opposite…

One of the biggest things in music this year has been the announcement and subsequent arrival of the new Tool album, Fear Inoculum.  Thirteen years after their last studio album, 10,000 Days, the band also released their discography on…

Usually in preparation for ranking an artist’s catalog of original studio albums, I go back and listen to them all again. I try and gain fresh perspective and revisit my original feelings about each record. I also talk to a lot of fans to…

It’s 2019, and the blue-collar bruisers in Overkill are about to drop album number 19. It seemed the appropriate time to rank the band’s massive canon of thrash-n-roll. Picking and choosing what goes where on a list like this is always a…

Best of lists have always been a challenge for me.  Call me fickle, but I feel like my interests are constantly fluctuating based on mood, life events, patterns, etc.  It seems an ever changing dynamic playlist sometimes even tailored to…