2007 Best Heavy Metal CDs

With Paradise Lost, the long running power/progressive metal band has it running on all cylinders. The songwriting is first-rate, with powerful melodies and memorable hooks blending effortlessly with complex and progressive musicianship. It's been five years since their last studio album, and the songs have a little darker edge to them this time around.

Russell Allen is a great vocalist whose talents are really showcased on Paradise Lost. His edgier growl is used a lot of the album, but his powerful melodic voice is utilized as well. Symphony X uses a nice mixture of styles on this album that contrast the aggressive and the melodic.

The strength of Prey For Eyes is the songwriting. The Red Chord constructs memorable riffs on top of memorable riffs, making the dense, complex and technical songs also very catchy. Death metal, grindcore and hardcore influences ebb and flow within each song, creating a diverse and interesting soundscape. There are a few metalcore style breakdowns, but not as many as on past albums.

In addition to Guy Kozowyk's screaming vocals, there are also guest appearances from Nate Newton of Converge and Jonny Davy from Job For A Cowboy, who contribute vocals on two songs apiece. It's such a cliche, but this is truly one of those albums that reveals something new every time you listen.

The Divine Conspiracy combines a dark, haunting gothic atmosphere with bombastic and symphonic music. The songs are sometimes epic, grand and majestic, other times more subdued and introspective. It's a lengthy album (75 minutes long) that takes the listener through an audio journey that ebbs and flows, rises and falls, and brings something new and interesting around every musical corner.

Vocalist Simone Simons has an excellent voice. She sometimes sings with a clear alto voice that has a flawless tone and a lot of emotion. Other times she sings with an operatic soprano. Guitarist Mark Jansen provides the grunts and screams that are secondary to Simons' singing, but very important in terms of balance and variety.

Beyond The Permafrost is blackened thrash metal with influences of both Bay Area and European thrash along with a little New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. The songs are fast and streamlined with great guitar work from Nate Garnette and Scott Hedrick. They have an excellent groove, and the black metal influence adds a dark and somewhat ominous vibe.

Chance Garnett is Skeletonwitch's vocalist, and he uses both a high pitched evil black metal rasp and a low pitched death metal growl. The songs, although aggressive and extreme, are also very catchy with some memorable melodies.

Hardworlder continues Slough Feg's unique style of combining traditional/power metal with folk metal. You'll hear crunchy riffs and extended guitar solos alongside Celtic-flavored acoustic guitars. The songs run the gamut from '70s influenced rock to classic Priest/Maiden styled metal to folky European flavored songs.

Vocalist Michael Scalzi has a baritone voice and sings with a lot of expression and dynamics. He has a distinctive sound, just like the rest of the band. Slough Feg is an underrated but always interesting and creative band. If you've never heard their music, they are well worth checking out.

Legacy Of Evil finds Limbonic Art taking a more aggressive approach. The symphonic elements are still there with orchestral keyboards that are elegant and atmospheric, but the emphasis is on the black metal. The guitars are more prominent than the keyboards this time around.

It's also a nicely balanced effort. There is a good combination of songs that are slower and melancholy with faster, more evil sounding tracks. Daemon's black metal vocals are the dominant style, with only some brief melodic or clean vocals. That emphasis also makes the album sound more aggressive and brutal. There are a few lulls, but Legacy Of Evil is a welcome return for Limbonic Art, and shows the black metal veterans are still developing their musical legacy.

The Varangian Way is an epic and spirited concept album that tells the story of a journey through the river route of Eastern Europe back in the 9th - 11th centuries. The songs are bombastic Viking metal with majestic arrangements using strings, choruses and orchestral elements. The vocals are a combination of raspy growls and melodic singing.

Even though the songs are grand and majestic, they are still reasonably focused and don't go completely over the top. The Varangian Way has the scale and scope of a movie soundtrack, but there are also many smaller and quieter moments that give the album a great balance. Metal guitars, folk instruments and epic orchestration make this a rousing and memorable album.

Xecutioner's Return is the band's seventh studio release, and the second album since their reunion a few years ago (they had been apart for about 6 years). They also have a new guitarist, Ralph Santolla (Deicide). Obituary plays classic old school death metal, and this CD is pretty diverse. They play several songs that are fast and loose with a lot of great guitar riffing and solos. They also play a lot of slower, down-tuned doom flavored tracks that are simply crushing.

Xecutioner's Return is a huge improvement over 2005's Frozen In Time. The songwriting is better, the guitar work is a lot better, and overall it's probably their best album since their first few in the early '90s.

Hangman's Hymn is blackened thrash metal with a lot of symphonic elements. It's a combination that works. The lightning fast thrash riffs and solos are really complemented by the symphonic and classical sounding strings and keyboards. It adds a majestic sound to the band's extremity without being cheesy or pretentious.

Kawashima's harsh vocals return on this album after being absent on 2005's Gallows Gallery. His black metal rasps fit perfectly with the music on this CD, and there are some melodic vocals as well. Overall, Hangman's Hymn is a very well constructed, diverse and engaging album.

The second album from Tampa, Florida’s The Absence was truly a group effort. They brought aboard a ton of guest musicians for the album. Producer Jonas Kjellgren lends guitar and vocals on a couple tracks, Scar Symmetry guitarist Per Nillson, Santiago Dobles from Aghora, James Murphy (Death, Testament) and Jonas Granvik (Without Grief, Edge of Sanity) also appear on various tracks.

Riders Of The Plague has the European melodeath vibe mixed with great thrash guitar riffs and solos from Peter Joseph and Patrick Pintavalle. Aggression and brutality are tempered by catchy hooks and memorable melodies. Jamie Stewart delivers his harsh, raspy vocals with a lot of passion, emotion and angst.