First half of the year favorites

Now that the first half of the year is coming to an end, what is your favorite new release and your favorite reissue so far? 

For new release, I would have to say my favorite is:

Gale Force "Subhuman". Mike Lee / Michael Drive (former Barren Cross lead singer) sounds better than ever, and the songs on this release show off his voice better than anything BC ever did IMO. This was a huge surprise to me, as I really didn't expect anything that rocked this hard and sounded this good from them. Favorite songs are Subhuman, Master Machine, Dystopia, Fire In The Hole and Never Say Goodnight. However, I don't think there is a bad song on there. If I am in the car and wanna rock, sometimes I will skip Red Line or Where Am I Going?, but I still actually love both songs.


For reissue, I have to be honest, I couldn't really choose one favorite as this was another great year for reissues. My 3 that tied are the following:

1) Barren Cross "Rattle Your Cage". This was previously remastered and released for digital only by the band back when Birth Pangs came out, but the remaster was loud, shrill, and had too much noise in it. Retroactive Records did a great job breathing new life into this, correcting all of the remastering issues that were present in the digital only release.

2) Trytan "Celestial Messenger". Not only did Retroactive Records do a much better job with the remaster this time (and it's on gold disc) vs the Magdalene Records' release in 2000, but they added 3 bonus tracks ("The Lost Tracks"). If you are a fan of Trytan, I actually recommend picking up both remasters as the 2000 Magdalene Records release, though an inferior remaster, does have 3 different bonus tracks.

3) Xalt "Under The Ruins". Another excellent job by Retroactive Records. The original, while not hard to find, can be pretty pricey to get, so it is great to see this release become more obtainable for people. A great job with the remaster, and you get a bonus track also.



Soooo...what are your picks for the first half?

This year started off with quite a bang and then has since sorta plateaued, though I think we've still got some good stuff to look forward to.  Some favorites have been:

Dalit - Moksha.  Dalit's one of my favorite doom/death bands in the scene and remain consistently excellent.  While their lyrics are not very explicitly Christian for the most part, this album was a step forward in being more-so (particularly the last track) which I was happy to see.

Pantokrator - Marching Out Of Babylon.  Initially this one didn't click with me as much as I expected, but I've been finding myself going back to it again and again since its release and have been really enjoying it.  It's also got the best lyrics yet from anything Pantokrator IMO.  Gone are the Christian mysticism themes as in their Aurum album, and now they're quite mature and bold.  I love it.

Reflection Of Glory - Escape The Dream.  Melodic/symphonic power metal done right with bold lyrics.

Crowned In Sorrow - In Memoriam.  Symphonic doom/death just dripping with passion and emotion.  While the majority of bands of this style tend to just mope around in misery, Derek's lyrics recognize and acknowledge suffering, but point to Christ and the hope therein.

Northern Flame - Twisted Reality.  Musically this is really great power metal.  My only gripe would be some of the lyrics are a bit awkward and don't really make sense to me.  There's nothing bad or un-Christian in the lyrics though.

Death Therapy - Melancholy Machines.  This one's still growing on me but for something quite different than anything else in my library, it's pretty good.  Much poppier than their previous stuff.

Favorite new release so far:  Trytan, Blood of Kings! 

Re-releases--everything Bought4life mentioned.  

Gale Force is my top contender, but I only have three new albums this year (also Trytan and Milennial Reign's EP of re-recorded songs).  So not a lot of competition in my albums.

As for reissues I haven't really been keeping track.

Only new ones are Gale Force, Trytan and Pantokrator and depending on my mood, each one could be my favorite.

kerrick wrote:

This year started off with quite a bang and then has since sorta plateaued, though I think we've still got some good stuff to look forward to.  Some favorites have been:

Dalit - Moksha.  Dalit's one of my favorite doom/death bands in the scene and remain consistently excellent.  While their lyrics are not very explicitly Christian for the most part, this album was a step forward in being more-so (particularly the last track) which I was happy to see.

Pantokrator - Marching Out Of Babylon.  Initially this one didn't click with me as much as I expected, but I've been finding myself going back to it again and again since its release and have been really enjoying it.  It's also got the best lyrics yet from anything Pantokrator IMO.  Gone are the Christian mysticism themes as in their Aurum album, and now they're quite mature and bold.  I love it.

Reflection Of Glory - Escape The Dream.  Melodic/symphonic power metal done right with bold lyrics.

Crowned In Sorrow - In Memoriam.  Symphonic doom/death just dripping with passion and emotion.  While the majority of bands of this style tend to just mope around in misery, Derek's lyrics recognize and acknowledge suffering, but point to Christ and the hope therein.

Northern Flame - Twisted Reality.  Musically this is really great power metal.  My only gripe would be some of the lyrics are a bit awkward and don't really make sense to me.  There's nothing bad or un-Christian in the lyrics though.

Death Therapy - Melancholy Machines.  This one's still growing on me but for something quite different than anything else in my library, it's pretty good.  Much poppier than their previous stuff.

I can honestly say I have never heard of any of those bands 

Normaniac wrote:

Favorite new release so far:  Trytan, Blood of Kings! 

Re-releases--everything Bought4life mentioned.  

Yeah, based off the reactions when it first came out, I was expecting a lot of people to vote for the Trytan release as their favorite. I've only listened to it once, I really need to go back and give it another spin.

Hopefully Saint will have something new by year's end. That will definitely be a top release for me if they keep up like they have been doing since Hell Blade. 

Really like the Barren Cross and Bride "Snakes" reissues. Good stuff. 

The newest release getting the most plays from me right now is the new one from Styx "Crash Of The Crown"

So far, I haven't really bought much from this year.  My picks would be limited to just a couple of purchases until recently when I got five new ones from Roxx yesterday.

So, until I listen to the new stuff, my picks (in no particular order) would be:

Gale Force - Subhuman
Christian Lilgegren - Melodic Passion
Moonshine Zombies
Perpetual Paranoia - Hell Fest
Michael Sweet - Reborn Again
Sunbomb - Evil & Divine

I've to buy my first CD from this year.

I listen to some very old rockers right now.

rockerVu2 wrote:

I've to buy my first CD from this year.

I listen to some very old rockers right now.

I do that a lot.  Most of the new music I buy just doesn't seem to grab me as much.  Whether we are talking about Christian or secular music, there is much to be said about nostalgia and feelings that make music more important to us as fans.