The year I started caring less and less about American music.  But there was a hell of a lot of good Japanese releases.  Bands like El Dorado and Craze were heading towards the end, while others were just getting started.  It's honestly a pretty hard choice to choose the best here, but at the same time, two of my favorite albums ever were released this year, so it's not THAT hard.

• Crescent - Gackt
• No Alternative - Deadman
• Kagerou - Kagerou
• Vulgar - Dir en grey
• Dix Infernal - Moi Dix Mois
• Meteora - Linkin Park
• Black Cherry - Goldfrapp
• Fever to Tell - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Winterheart's Guild - Sonata Arctica
• Take a Look in the Mirror - KoRn
• 7 - In Extremo
• ID:2 -  Nanase Aikawa
• Memorial Address - Ayumi Hamasaki
• イキルサイノウ - The Back Horn
• Mona Lisa Overdrive - BUCK-TICK
• Killer Fiction - Calmando Qual
• Spiral - CRAZE
• Gates of Heaven - Do As Infinity
• Flying Dragon - El Dorado
• Many Pieces - Every Little Thing
• Vary - Head Phones President
• HTM - Hitomi
• 666 - Hyde
• 証拠 - Jinkaku Radio
• Grow Into One - Koda Kumi
• Viva!! L Field - La Vie En Rose
• Deep Space Syndicate - La'cryma Christi
• Reine de Fleur - Lareine
• Gendai Stoic - Merry
• 是空 - MUCC
• 1Metronome - Metronome
• Love - Mika Nakashima
• One Aging by Nook - Nookicky
• Pinhole - Nookicky
• 赫赫 - Penicillin
• Shiro Chronicle - Plastic Tree
• Penalty Life - the pillows
• 加爾基 精液 栗ノ花 - Shiina Ringo
• SMILE - Suga Shikao
• Brave - A-Mei
• Stranger - Tanya Chua
• 5th Avenue - Elva Hsiao
• Reborn - Nicholas Tse
• Return to Underground - Twisted Machine

是空

This is honestly probably still my favorite album of theirs, and the album that made me love them in the first place.  So powerful and dark and far cleaner than their previous effort.  Tatsurou remained angry, while still singing on most songs.  Also.  Three words:  waga arubeki basho.

Merry

現代ストイック

This would be the beginning of a streak of awesome for them.  One which only ended quite recently.  But in the meantime, this album has such great tracks as my all-time favorite, Bluesy Night, plus Twilight Restaurant,  Yellow Girl, Rojiura Elegy and others.  They recently re-released this classic as well.

7

Yes, ok, most of their albums are quite frankly awesome.  But either way, it's easy to add them as a third choice.  Rarely disappointing and always at least solid.

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What happened in 2002?  I remember being in Victoria when we attacked...someone, either Iraq or Afghanistan, lol.  Probably the former.  Ahh well, it wasn't the most notable year in music, from what I remember.  I was running out of things to listen to and crap like Fall Out Boy was starting to make an appearance.

Though it also featured uneven releases from two of my favorite bands.  KoRn and MUCC.  And self-titled debuts from super-bands made of members from other bands.  Audioslave and Stone Sour.  Meanwhile, the L'arcsters started putting out solo crap, The Back Horn continued their streak of awesome, and some cool indie bands fell off the radar forever.

• 1919 Eternal - Black Label Society
• Untouchables - KoRn
• Stone Sour - Stone Sour
• Light & Magic - Ladytron
• Order of the Leech - Napalm Death
• Audioslave - Audioslave
• Roentgen - Hyde
• Phobia - Phobia
• Acid Android - Acid Android
• 戦場の華 - Aya
• Rainbow - Ayumi Hamasaki
• 心臓オーケストラ - The Back Horn
• 極東 I LOVE YOU - BUCK-TICK
• 鬼葬 - Dir en grey
• True Song - Do As Infinity
• Heaven's Market - Fairy Fore
• 5 - Fanatic Crisis
• 13 Leaves - fra-foa
• Moon - Gackt
• ID - Head Phones President
• Self-Portrait - Hitomi
• 怪談！首つりの森 - Inugami Circus Dan
• Unstoppable Drive - J
• [gozen] - Kagrra
• Affection - Koda Kumi
• L Style - La Vie En Rose
• &U - La'cryma Christi
• 020120 - The Mad Capsule Markets
• Gagaku - Miyavi
• 葬ラ謳 - MUCC
• TRUE - Mika Nakashima
• Thank you my twilight - the pillows
• Natural Vibes - RIZE
• Suite November - Tetsu69
• Tommy February6 - TF6
• 4U - Elva Hsiao
• Fever - A-Mei
• Me - Nicholas Tse
• SH!N - Shin
• We Are Automatic - New Pants
• Hiekka - Apulanta
• Sen Yoluna, Ben Yoluma - Hande Yener
• No.53 - Penicillin
  

Stone Sour

This being their debut album featuring the only member of Slipknot with any talent, the singer, Corey Taylor.  They didn't really follow it up very well, but this one was very solid and I still love 'Bother'.

13leaves

fra-foa
13 Leaves

Oozing with raw indie cred and the last release of a brilliant band that died way too quickly.  So quickly in fact, that most people in the Jrock fandom have no clue who they are.  It also features an unusually charismatic female vocalist in Mikami Chisako.  She has also all but disappeared.  Well, at least I still have this awesome album, which I have not played in years.

心臓オーケストラ

And here is TBH again, taking a spot on this year's list.  Filled with strong bass rhythms, jazzy compositions and one of my favorite songs ever by them; Materia.  They slightly upped the awesomeness of the previous album with this one, and would continue to do so in the next few years, before suddenly declining into boringness.  But hey, this one rocks and that's all that counts in this list.

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Moving right along to the year the towers came down in NY.  Award for best foreshadowing album title has to go to Megadeth.

• Climax - La'Mule
• 痛絶 - MUCC
• Sing Loud, Sing Proud - the Dropkick Murphys
• 604 - Ladytron
• The World Needs a Hero - Megadeth
• Come Clean - Puddle of Mudd
• Silence - Sonata Arctica
• Beautifulgarbage - Garbage
• Sünder ohne Zügel - In Extremo
• Heinola 10 - Apulanta
• Purana - Nanase Aikawa
• 人間プログラム - The Back Horn
• Craze - CRAZE
• Deep Forest - Do As Infinity
• AULA - ElDorado
• 4 FORCE - Every Little Thing
• Beautiful World - Fanatic Crisis
• Rebirth - Gackt
• Fragment - INORAN
• Blood Muzik - J
• L Mega Mix - La Vie En Rose
• Heaven - Laputa
• 010 - Mad Capsule Markets
• Nuclear Banana - Penicillin
• Foreplay - RIZE
• Sugarless - Suga Shikao
• Recall - Transtic Nerve
• Panic Pop - Charcoal Filter
• People Life Ocean Wild - Mayday
• Jade Butterfly - Nicholas Tse
• Muma - Muma
• I Do Believe - Tanya Chua
• Tomorrow - Elva Hsiao
• siteOfScafFold - deadman
  

And the winners aaaare:

Sunder Ohne Zugel: Unbridled Sinner

In Extremo
Sünder ohne Zügel

One of the rare bands where their back-catalog is extremely good.  This is probably my favorite album of theirs along with Mein Rasend Herz.  Who wants some medieval folk metal?


INORAN

Fragment

Fragment

I've loved pretty much every album from this one on.  I wish I had never met you and Won't leave my mind are among my favorite tracks in his discography.  And he remains my favorite LS solo act.

人間プログラム

The Back Horn
人間プログラム

I generally like their older albums better.  And this album marks the start of a foursome of awesome albums from them.  Ending with Headphone Children in 2005.  So you may see them appear on a few more lists, assuming there weren't other awesome albums that year, lol.

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Stealing this idea from Go.  Counting down the best albums of each decade from now until New Year's Eve.  Instead of my usual huge list, I'm only going to pick a few I found truly notable in all the years leading up to this one.  The nominations, i.e. what I have listened to, are as follows:

• Stiff Upper Lip - AC/DC
• Machina - The Smashing Pumpkins
• Stronger than Death - The Black Label Society
• The Sickness - Disturbed
• Beethoven's Last Night - Trans-Siberian Orchestra
• Infest - Papa Roach
• Brave New World - Iron Maiden
• White Pony - Deftones
• Felt Mountain - Goldfrapp
• Awake - Godsmack
• Lunacy - LUNA SEA
• Real - L'arc en Ciel
• Break of Dawn - Do As Inifinity
• Eternity - Every Little Thing
• Harlem Jets - Blankey Jet City
• Magic Theatre - La'cryma Christi
• 甦る陽 - The Back Horn
• 勝訴ストリップ - Shiina Ringo
• One Life, One Death - BUCK-TICK
• 幻覚α波 - Merry Go Round
• Union Jap - Penicillin
• EAS - Fanatic Crisis
• Plastik - Apulanta
• Remember - Tanya Chua
• 4 Flusher - Suga Shikao
• Love Life - Hitomi
• Macabre - Dir en grey
• Foxtrot - Nanase Aikawa
• Scream - Lareine
• Disco Girl - New Pants
• Viva Love - Mayday
• Red Rose - Elva Hsiao
• Chasing the Ghost - Collide
  

勝訴ストリップ

Her first few albums had more of a rock feel and as this was her first one, it was also the first album I heard that got me into her.  Gips remains an awesome song.

LUNA SEA

LUNACY

It's all about Gravity, which remains one of my favorite LS songs ever.  This wasn't the first album I'd heard by them, that honor goes to Shine, but nevertheless, it certainly wasn't a bad way to go out.

Plastik

Their fifth album, and honestly where I think their sound really got going.  More of the melodic rock and noticeable bass.  Sure they've done better albums since this one, but compared to lots of other things released in this year, this is pretty damn awesome.  Also because Apulanta is one of the best bands in the world right now, lol.

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KREVA - I'm not sure what lured me in about the Yellow Monkey cover.  Maybe the use of all the autotune, which I find kinda cool most times.  But upon downloading his newest album, I got bored pretty freaking quickly.  I probably should have known better, since it seems like I can only stand hip-hop/urban stuff in Chinese.  I've never liked it in Japanese and certainly not English.  I gave it about four songs and called it a day.

Frosty Eve - this is a Chinese epic metal band.  Kinda like Sonata Arctica musically, but with more of the death screaming stuff.  However, the vocalist does occasionally sing and sounds good when he does so.  I like the melodic arrangements and of course the fact that it's metal, and not some lame, mellow rap crap, lol.

Van Fan - found him while looking through the genre section of NJ.  It said 'rock' so I thought why not?  2 songs in and well, he has a good voice, but that is barely a compliment in Chinese music, because they ALL have good voices for some reason.  But this is not rock.  It's not bad music, but it also doesn't stand out in any way.  I got bored and started skipping around after about four songs.  I guess you could say he's a little similar to Shin, but Shin has better songs and a better voice. 

Fandy - after the boringness that was KREVA, I found this guy in the C-R&B section of NJ and thought he might be like Will Pan or VW or something.  Again though, Idk what to call this, but it's not what it was made out to be.  It seems to be mostly just ballads.  I liked the ethnic touches, but it still got boring pretty fast.  There was like, one good rap song.  But mostly, blah. 

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OH what is this?  A non-Japanese review?  Yes, in fact.  I should be reviewing AIC, tbh.  But I just got my grubby hands on this new album that again, I didn't realize was even out, lol.  These guys are from Finland, but pretty much sing in English, which makes them unique among my Finnish loves.  I generally like my Finnish bands to sing in Finnish.  I have a sort of...love/hate relationship with Sonata Arctica though.  When they're good, they're really good, but when they're bad, they're epically annoying.  So Idk.  Let's see how this one rubs me.

The Days of Grays

Sonata Arctica
The Days of Grays
Genre: metal, power metal
Release Date: 09-16-09
Language: English
Label/Distributor: Nuclear Blast
Tracks: 13

01. Everything Fades to Gray (Instrumental
02. Deathaura
03. The Last Amazing Grays
04. Flag in the Ground
05. Breathing
06. Zeroes
07. The Dead Skin
08. Juliet
09. No Dream Can Heal a Broken Heart
10. As If the World Wasn't Ending
11.The Truth Is out There
12.Everything Fades to Gray (Full Version)
13.In The Dark

The cover is certainly awesome.  It would get five stars only for that if that's how I was judging things.  Everything Fades to Gray (Inst.) is the first track.  Starts very ominously with a swelling string section, then some piano and it moseys on for about 3 minutes before segueing into Deathaura.  Which, begins almost the same way, but gets quickly heavier, and oh, this is a surprise, a woman starts singing.  According to the Wiki article this song is broken into "scenes", but I can't say I really feel that, though there is a brief tempo change around 4-smth, and then again some 30 seconds later.  The women come back in at that point too.  Typical Sonata song, really, in spite of the extras.  The Last Amazing Grays is next.  It starts out suitably heavy, but ends up more melodic.  I like the crunchy riffs mixed with strings about a minute from the end.  From there we go to Flag in the Ground.  The beginning is a bit Celtic in flavor and the rest is fairly epic, but nothing special.  Breathing starts out quietly, turns into a ballad.  Fortunately it's short, I don't really like their ballads all that much.  Zeroes starts out kinda screamy and is less stringy than the rest of the album so far.  I like the emphasis on the machine-gun drums in parts.  Probably my favorite song so far.  The Dead Skin comes up next.  I like the contrast between the heavy rhythm and the piano at the start.  It continues the darker, heavier vibe of the previous song, with the exception of the chorus parts.  I'm all for the yelly parts, lol.  And there's even a tiny bass solo about a minute from the end.  Juliet starts with a similarly pounding rhythm section and vocals that are noticeably accented.  It gets ballady after that, or rather has a ballady section before marching back into metal territory.  It basically keeps that switcheroo up for the entire song and works pretty well.  No Dream Can Heal A Broken Heart is next.  Harpsichord or a mandolin starts this one out, along with some nice bass.  Later on the female vocalist comes in again.  This is a short one, but it's effective and continues the streak of goodness that started with Zeroes.  As If the World Wasn't Ending follows up with a soft keyboard intro and singing.  It jumps into power ballad territory about a minute after.  It's better than the first ballad song and just as short.  The Truth is Out There is kind of a lolarious title, but the song kinda goes back to the first half of the album.  Everything Fades to Gray is probably a continuation of the starting track, but it's a bit disappointing.  In The Dark is some sort of bonus track, and it's another one those power ballad things, albeit much longer than the other two, and well, not terrible.  It's got a nice rhythm breakdown two minutes or so before the end.

To be honest I was starting to get bored right up until Zeroes, but then the next five songs were truly glorious.  Dark, heavy, great musical atmosphere, the kinda stuff I really like from them.  Unfortunately it backslid a bit with the 11th track and I didn't feel like the final track did anything to improve on the instrumental.  In fact, it was probably more boring.  The bonus track helped dull this a bit, but overall, I can't really say this is an amazing album.  Though about five songs are, lol. 

FINAL WORD: good, but also typical.  ★★★☆☆

_______________________________________________________

Key:

★★★★★ = Excellent, flawless, perfecto
★★★★☆ = Very good, has some minor flaws
★★★☆☆ = Good, maybe a few boring moments, but overall enjoyable
★★☆☆☆ = Fair, bad outweighs the good
★☆☆☆☆ = Poor, possibly offensive to your ears

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Landy Wen-D.I.S.C.O (MV)

I've listened to Landy Wen in the past, but I never thought she was particularly compelling.  That opinion still stands.  But her new album, Dancing Queen, is.  It really sounds very little like her older work, instead channeling influence from both Lady GaGa and Koda Kumi, arguably my two favorite pop ladies, with Elva Hsiao thrown in there for good measure.  The song DISCO especially has Gaga written all over it.  It could BE Gaga.  I could be like some wankers and complain about copying, but the song is good, so I really don't care.  I wish my Gaga folder was a lot bigger, tbh.  The other amazing thing about this album is that there's only a couple ballads and both are quite good.  Surprising because every other ballad I've heard from her has been generic and boring.

Karen Mok

It always happens to me.  I always find myself interested in singers and bands way outside the mainstream fandom.  The ones no one else is into and it takes me forever to find anything.  This time it's Karen Mok.  The description of her singing on Last FM sounded fantastic, so I tried it.  Boy was I NOT disappointed.  Her voice is awesome.  And even better is the range of styles she employs on her albums.  Well, all two of them that I've listened to.  The most recent one was full of Celtic flavor, which, she is apparently something like 1/4 Welsh.  But anyway, I love her voice, it's really amazing.  And she can seemingly sing everything.  I especially like her lower register, it's very strong and convincing with a darker color.

AIC - Black Gives Way To Blue

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DEAD END Princess

So, this is what you get when the most legendary of Jrock bands decides to reunite something like 20 years after their breakup.  No one-shot reunion live and promises of a possible new release, no failed concert tours and bogus promises of some kind of reunion.  Nope, instead you get immediate action and an actual release date of an album, that being Nov.11th, and they even went to the trouble to make a PV.

But let's talk about the actual song. Well, besides awesome, I'm not sure what to say.  It was a good mix of old and new.  I was perhaps a tiny bit afraid they'd just play their old style of hairy hair metal, which, don't get me wrong, was also awesome.  But it's also played in this particular decade and century.  However, other than You's ripping solo, this is not old DEAD END, this is new DEAD END.  And I like the name of the album, Metamorphosis.  It suggests a transition, and ergo, more albums.

This song is six minutes of good stuff, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that it's Morrie's voice leading this song from start to finish.  I like the haunting echo-y effect and though I wasn't sure if I liked all the vibrato, after several listens, I've come to the conclusion that it fits the song and would not have it any other way.

So yeah, other old bands that keep trying to stay relevant?  THIS is how you do it.

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Or at least, very very disappointing.

Merry

2.L'arc En Ciel - for those who know me, it's no secret that I touch everything they do lately with a ten-foot pole and one eye closed.  We can probably go back to Smile for them, but at the very least, Awake and Kiss were nothing to write home about.  Again, like Merry, maybe half the tracks were decent?  Less on Awake.  I think there were only a couple good tracks there.  Unlike Merry though, it's hard to figure out where they went wrong.  At least, for the legions of Hyde fangirls disguised as L'arc fans.  For me, it's easy.  The solos.  They have gotten markedly worse since going off for solo fun time.  I don't think they'll ever be the same and I honestly just wish they'd break up.

3.Dir en grey - I can't say I'm a huge fan, but I did like most of their stuff prior to Marrow.  But that and this other one with the pretentious U title are steaming piles of poo.  Crimes against music include, noise, Kyo being unable to sing better than a hoarse monkey, trying to sound like Korn and just general boredom.

Mika

4.Mika Nakashima - ok, it's really only one album, but I hate it so much I'm mentioning her.  VOICE.  Manufactured, generic pop tripe and such a complete and utter waste of her ability it makes me see red just thinking about it.  I wish whoever her handlers are would realized that jazz, soul and even gospel are what she sounds best singing.  Thus, to me, her best album is YES.  Fortunately though, her latest single seems to indicate she might be going back to that.

5.SID - lol.  I'm sorry, but I enjoyed their jazz days.  This Osare-sounding poppy lite-rock is really...not cool, and it makes Mao nearly intolerable to listen to.  That said, I did enjoy Monokuro no Kiss quite a bit, but the rest of the album was not much better than Sentimental Macchiato, which should be shot for its name alone.

6.Penicillin - Idk, I think I'm just getting tired of them.  Their music sounds so very uninspired these days, and it's getting harder and harder to overlook Hakeui's complete inability to sing.  They have another album coming out next month, and if it's not head and tales above their last one, I think I'll toss them.

7.The Pillows - that last album of theirs was so ugly I don't even care about the new one.  The songs were anywhere from really annoying to really boring.  I think I only really like one or two songs on it.

So the big question is, can these artists recover from their crappy streak?  I think it's possible.  My favorite examples are Girugamesh, UVERworld and Exist Trace.  I was ready to drop Giru after 13 Reborn.  I was sick of all their stuff sounding just like every other raaawwr hxc nu-metal VK band.  Then they released their self-titled and all was forgiven.  I was turned off from UVERworld after Bugright, an awful, boring mess of an album.  But since then they've released AwakEve and Proglution, both very solid albums, so I've changed my mind. Exist Trace has always been a mediocre-at-best band, and had they released another badly produced, generic, filled-with-muffled-bad-vocals album, I would have dropped them for good.  But the mini they DID release was very good so I have high hopes for whatever they do next.

UVERworld

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1.daikirai 2006
2.waga, arubeki basho
3.nageki tori to doukenin
4.rojiura boku to kimi e
5.monokuro no keshiki
6.saishuu ressha
7.kokoro no nai machi
8.gokusai
9.gerbera
10.libra
11.fukuro no yurikago
12.chain ring
13.anjelier
14.fuzz
15.ageha
16.oz
17.sora to ito
18.aoi mori

MUCC

That is my current best-of for MUCC lately.  Having recently experienced a revival of my strong feelings towards them, this is the driving mixtape that got made.  Ignoring 'Daikirai' for the moment, since it's mostly only there because 1.it's a classic and 2. it filled space.  I have this thing with needing to fully fill the space on a blank CD.

We have 2 songs from Zekuu, 2 songs from Kuchiki no tou, 2 songs from Houyoku, 2 songs from Gokusai, 4 songs from Shion and 3 songs from Kyuutai, and also add 2 songs from Kyuutai/Shion era singles.  What does that tell you exactly? 

In spite of still thinking that Zekuu is the perfect album, I would have to say that I vastly prefer post-Homura Uta material.  And if we just cross out Zekuu, I would say more like Houyoku and on.  Tbh, through my flatlining times with them, I've realized that most of their earliest music is just...not that good from a technical standpoint.   I would rather hear Tatsu sing than do that emo scream/yell/sing hybrid thing he used to do.  I also love how he's been introducing the raspyness into his vocals lately.  What I do not love is some of the vibrato I'm hearing from him live.

Oddly though, as much as I love a good chunk of the songs from Shion, I don't enjoy it very much as an album.  I can't stand Flight, and I don't like some of the track placement, there's some really weak tracks on there to supplement the really good ones.  Also, Libra may have been better as a single.  It just doesn't work as an ending track, or probably anywhere else.

Anyway, yeah, I really kinda laugh at these people who think they're so bad now, when it's obviously the exact opposite.  Their earliest music was FAR from the best they're capable of and Tatsu singing >>>>> Tatsu doing anything else.  People just can't tell the difference between taste and actual goodness.

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