2007 Best Heavy Metal CDs

The problem with a lot of intense grindcore/death metal CDs is that everything is played really, really fast and begins to sound the same. That's not the case with Cephalic Carnage. Yes, they amp it up to warp speed on Xenosapien, but there are also slower parts and interludes, and even a slow, doomy ballad with some melodic vocals. There are a couple other songs with doom influences as well. Cephalic Carnage's bread and butter is grindcore and death metal, but they also branch out with some songs that are really unusual and experimental.

This is an album filled with crushing riffs, searing solos and music that can be relentlessly intense or surprisingly catchy. Xenosapien is a great mix of technicality, brutality, melody, and groove.

The Red Album is an eclectic and epic album. The songwriting is a diverse mix of heavy guitars, acoustic guitars, metal, prog, doom and many other elements. There are instrumentals on the album, and the songs with vocals still have a lot of extended instrumental jams that are sometimes proggy, other times doomy, and a few times even twangy with a southern rock influence.

Comparisons will and have been made between Baroness and bands like Mastodon, Isis and Pelican. While they do have some similiarities to those groups, they also have their own unique style. Their combination of excellent musicianship, creative songwriting and willingness to experiment makes for a compelling and interesting CD.

Laethora is a new group, but it is made up of veterans such as Dark Tranquillity guitarist Niklas Sundin and The Provenance guitarist Joakim Rosen. The Swedish band immediately makes their presence known with their death metal/grind debut.

The sound of March Of The Parasite is different than you might expect from this lineup. Instead of the standard Swedish melodic death you'll hear a dose of old school death metal mixed with grind and some modern influences. The songs can be crushing, blast beat filled attacks, but Laethora also adds plenty of really clever riffs and catchy solos to their angry barrage. They also slow it down from time to time for a little change of pace before plunging back into destruction mode.

This is Devin Townsend's first pure solo album. He wrote all the songs, played all the instruments and did all the production work. It's a concept album about Ziltoid, a 4th dimensional alien from the planet Ziltoidia 9.

Ziltoid The Omniscient is over the top and theatrical, with narration between many of the songs telling the story of Ziltoid. The music is very diverse and experimental, just as you'd expect from Devin Townsend. It ranges from slow and atmospheric to fast and thrashy. Townsend also showcases many different vocal styles from spoken word to melodic singing to screaming. It's an epic tour de force that's highly entertaining from a lyrical perspective and outstanding from a musical perspective.

A Symphony Of Suffering combines old school death metal with symphonic black metal The foundation of the album are the guitar riffs that are aggressive, yet very catchy. Infaernaeon can assault you with blast beats, but also pull back the tempo into more of a traditional metal style. More than mere window dressing, the keyboards are an integral part of the music, adding diversity and atmosphere to the mix.

The vocals are also really good. Ben Falgoust from Soilent Green/Goatwhore lends his screams to a track, and Keith DeVito (Obituary) is another guest vocalist. Infernaeon's vocalist Brian Werner (Monstrosity) doesn't really need the extra help, because his vocals are aggressive and extreme and could easily carry the entire album.

Ithyphallic continues Nile's brutal death metal sprinkled with Egyptian/Middle Eastern lyrics and influences. Most of the time Nile careens forward at warp speed with crushing riffs and devastating blast beats. There are times they slow down the tempos and ease off the throttle before stomping on the accelerator again. Those tempo changes are a much needed change of pace, and the Middle Eastern sections also add some variety.

The dual vocals of Karl Sanders and Dallas Toler-Wade are the usual death metal cookie monster growls, but are more understandable than a lot of death metal bands. Ithyphallic follows a road that Nile has been down before, but that road is paved with great musicianship and well-written songs.

Dödsvisioner is a study in contrasts. There are the usual harsh, grim and abrasive guitars, but you'll also hear mellow and melancholy acoustic passages along with melodic riffs. It's an album that's unusual, but also intriguing and compelling. The first listen is really enjoyable because you aren't sure what's coming next. It might be fast and evil, it might be tense and mid-tempo, or it might be ambient and slow.

I was concerned that this might be one of those one-listen type albums that really grab you up front, but then upon repeated listens quickly lose their luster. That isn't the case here. The continual shifts and changes in style and texture remain interesting.

In Sorte Diaboli is a concept album that's epic in scope and has an effective musical, lyrical and emotional arc. The songs are orchestral and melodic, but still plenty of punch and darkness. There are some really catchy riffs and a dark symphonic atmosphere. Hellhammer (Mayhem) returns on drums for this album, and his powerful style is ideal for Dimmu Borgir. Shagrath's vocals are a combination of throaty rasps and lower pitched growls, and his performance is solid.

When all is said and done, In Sorte Diaboli probably won't change the minds of the naysayers, but Dimmu Borgir's fan base will really enjoy their latest effort.

In Requiem is Paradise Lost's 11th studio album, and they've reached a nice balance between old and new. It's heavier and more metallic than their recent efforts, and there's still a hint of electronica, but nothing too dramatic. The songs are dark and atmospheric with a lot of melody and catchy hooks.

When it comes to the vocals, Nick Holmes showcases a variety of approaches. He sings some edgier and harsher vocals that are Hetfield-esque, and also does a lot of very melodic singing and dips down into that lower register and sounds really goth on a couple of tracks. Paradise Lost are a band that's influenced a lot of today's gothic metal groups, and with In Requiem have released their best album in a long time.

Vintersorg returns to their roots for their latest album. Folk elements are front and center, with acoustic guitars, flutes and strings. Solens Rötter also has elements of other genres of metal. There are traditional metal guitar riffs and melodies along with more forbidding black metal touches. It's a nice combination of the warmness of folk metal and the coldness of black metal.

The lyrics are entirely in the band's native Swedish, and Vintersorg's vocals are a combination of melodic singing and black metal rasps. On really extreme albums it doesn't really matter what language the lyrics are in because you can't understand them anyway. But with an album like this with a lot of melodic singing, it makes it even more distinctive.