The Top 6 Albums of 2014 to 2019

 Here’s the end of September fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

Now we come to what was perhaps the hardest list to make. My number one lists on movies & games were tough, but I was able to make a list without too much trouble. For my no 1 albums? Yeah, this was tougher than the others. I loved all of these albums, and while not equally, they manage to stay in my brain in good yet different ways. 2020 looks to be a good year for music in it’s own right, but we’ll get to that when the time comes. For now, let’s take a look at the top 6 albums from 2014 to 2019, and see what’s up!

6) Faith No More - Sol Invictus (Song)

I noticed that, outside of perhaps 1 or 2 records....everything on this list were comeback albums. Practically everything at my number 1 spot from 2014 to 2019 was a comeback in some way. Starting things off is 2015, when on the 19th of May...Faith No More returned to the scene. It had been 18 years since their last release, so the fans (And even non-fans) were shocked to see them return. They had been laying down a hint or two about something in the years prior, and when Sol Invictus came into being...it was a shock!

I confess that this album is the one I least recall. Not saying that it’s bad, cause Sol Invictus isn’t in any way. As I said in my review back in 2015, Faith No More brought back the 90s for a brief time, and it was welcome by anyone that liked it. However, if there was one issue that I see in hindsight, it would be that the record may be a bit too artsy for it’s own good. The band were always odd, and whether sung by Chuck Mosley or Mike Patton...the group wasn’t afraid to show it. However, Alternative Metal groups (Faith No More was more than that) tend to have an ego, and Sol Invictus seemed a little full of itself. Still, it’s a great release from a band that never always got their just due, and I recommend it to anyone who’s even remotely interested in.

5) Ministry - AmeriKKKant (Song) & Turmion Kätilöt - Universal Satan (Song)

Now we’re talking!

To this day, I consider 2018 to have the weirdest top 5 list of albums. For anyone who may not have read that list, I basically have everything be a tie that year (Outside of it’s honorable mentions), but the albums had to match stylistically. Ministry & Turmion Kätilöt just so happened to be Industrial Metal giants from their respective countries, and they also had some shakeups as well. In Ministry’s case, they came back 5 years after they said they wouldn’t, and Turmion Kätilöt had one of it’s original singers leave. Still, they came back strong!

While AmeriKKKant wasn’t necessarily received well, at the same time many Ministry fans were delighted to see a legend come back, and while Turmion Kätilöt had an original singer leave, his replacement was just as good if not better. Both bands were swinging wildly, and while they weren’t hitting the target all the time....when they did, they hit hard!

4) David Bowie - Blackstar (Song)

Nearly 5 years later, the passing of one of music’s most iconic figureheads is still felt by everyone. I didn’t matter if you were a Metalhead, Punk, or Rapper......David Bowie’s death was a colossal earthquake, and the aftershocks still ripple out on rare days. 2016's Blackstar seemed to be a herald of his coming’s death 2 days after it came out, and even though he was dying....he never showed it. Sure, the music is perhaps some of the darkest he’s ever done, but even standing on the razor’s edge of the grave he sings his heart out! Even at his age at that time, he was still imaginative, artistic, and most importantly.....weird. Blackstar also happens to be the only non-metal album to reach no. 1 on any of my end-of-the-year lists, which I guess makes it special in another way. Even if you’re not the biggest David Bowie fan (Which I technically am), Blackstar is something to seek out if you enjoy music that’s more on the artistic/alternative side.....take your pick.

3) Kreator - Gods Of Violence (Song)

Looking back in hindsight, it seems coincidental that one of Germany’s most iconic Thrash Metal bands would release a particularly potent political (For the most part) album shortly after our current (Hopefully one time only) president Donald Trump was inaugurated in early 2017. Not only that, but it had been half a decade since the band had put out a record. It was quite welcome to have Kreator come back, and while Gods Of Violence didn’t surpass Phantom Antichrist from 2012, it did manage to stand alongside it & further helped to gain a presence among Metalheads here in the States. Full of potent instrumentation & vocal work, the album is the very definition of Thrash, and like their brethren Sodom it hit me hard. In the short time since then our country’s politics has only gotten worse, and in turn this album has become that much more with the times. Definitely something to seek out in 2020 if you’re interested.

2) Septicflesh - Titan (Song)

Picking who would go in this position was easy. It was the order in which they would be placed that proved to be difficult, as both records turned out to be some of the most important things I’ve ever listened to. However, what I ultimately decided which album would go where due to emotional impact, and 2014's Titan just barely missed the no. 1 spot. Make no mistake: I genuinely adore the 3rd venture into Septicflesh’s journey of Symphonic Death Metal. It was this album that finally got me to understand the subgenre that is Death Metal, and got me to understand Death Metal’s fans as well. Even if I’ll never be a full-blown fan, I can appreciate this style of metal I’ve judged for so long, and in the years since my library has be graced by a few Death Metal releases. Despite this, one fairly recent album made it to number one.....and I have a feeling that none of you will be surprised by this.

1) Rammstein - Rammstein (Song)

I said it in 2019, and I’m say it again here: this album is like meeting an old friend you haven’t seen in a decade. An old friend that has changed so much, but in all the right ways. It had been nearly a decade since Rammstein had put out an album before this self-titled release, and for a long time fans wondered if they ever would put out anything again. Sure, they still toured all over the world,  Richard Kruspe brought back his side band Emigrate for 2 more albums, and Till Lindemann started up a special project with Peter Tägtgren in 2015, but there seemed to be nothing from the Rammstein camp. Cut to May the 17th of last year, and one of the best ways to close out the 2010s was released.

Received almost universally in a positive light, the album takes everything that the band has done over the 25 years of their existence, distilled it, and released it as a fine vintage spirit for everyone to enjoy. There is not a single bad track through the entire running time of the record, and while you could argue it took forever for the band to release a proper record, I would counter argue and say that this decade-long wait is what allowed the album to be that genuinely perfect. Again, nothing on here sucks, and the touring for the record after this release was just as good as the album itself. Once this plague subsides, I hope that they come again to the states, cause if this record is to be the last one like it supposedly is......then it’s not a bad way to go out on by any means.

And those were my top 6 albums from 2014 to 2019. Again, this was the hardest of the 3 lists I made for this month, but it was still fun to do. With October coming, some gothic wind will be blowing through this blog......so let’s see what it brings in a few days!