Best albums

- Soilwork - Stabbing The Drama
The competition this year was absolutely murderous. And although nowhere near their earlier masterpieces A Predator's Portrait or Natural Born Chaos, Stabbing The Drama was in the end still strong enough to claim the #1 spot. 2005 will truly be remembered as The Year Of The Soilworker.

- Rammstein - Rosenrot
A record that mostly consists of material that didn't make it to the previous album - this can't be good, right? Wrong! The Germans have, once again, managed to cram beautiful ballads, epic songs and archetypical Rammstein-tracks into one CD. Rosenrot is the definite soundtrack to the winter of 2005.

- Dark Tranquillity - Character
Despite being released almost a year ago, Character more than holds its ground to all the competition. All focus has been directed to the songs and the melodies, which are complex enough to last a lifetime. Character is Dark Tranquillity's best album yet.

- System Of A Down - Mesmerize/Hypnotize
Sure, Mesmerize and Hypnotize were released separately with six months in between, but they were meant to be together. Combined they are 80 minutes of sheer magic.

- Darkane - Layers Of Lies
It was a good year for Helsingborg, which houses two of the best Swedish bands at the moment (Soilwork being the first). Layers Of Lies contains Darkane's own brand of death metal as well as instrumentals that could have fitted into any Tim Burton-movie. Music rarely gets better than this.

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Runner ups: Opeth - Ghost Reveries, HIM - Dark Light, Children Of Bodom - Are You Dead Yet?, Pain - Dancing With The Dead, Arch Enemy - Doomsday Machine
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Biggest disappointments

- In Flames album being post-poned
Come Clarity was recorded last summer and has been finished ever since, but due to problems with getting an American label it was delayed until February next year. A shame, but except to see the album on the list above next year instead.

- Dark Tranquillity dropping out
Arch Enemy. Dark Tranquillity. Trivium. It was supposed to be the metal happening of the fall. Then Dark Tranquillity jumped ship for reasons unknown and the whole thing suddenly felt a bit lukewarm. Make sure to see them in Gothenburg or Stockholm around Christmas to make up for it.

Happiest/biggest news

- All the metal-festivals
2005 has seen great festivals for metal all summer. Sweden Rock Festival, Gothenburg Metal Festival, Gates Of Metal, 100.000 Decibel, even Hultsfred, just to name a few. Metal Covenant will try to cover them all next year, so stay tuned.

- Meeting role models
Being part of the Metal Covenant staff means that sometime you get to cross paths with heroes that you've looked up to for a long time. To find out that for example Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquillity) and Björn Strid (Soilwork) were even nicer than you could have imagined was a revelation in itself.

Best live concerts

- Soilwork @ Klubben, Stockholm
When not performing across the Atlantic on Ozzfest, Soilwork also dominated the stages back home. The set list in Stockholm was close to perfect, the crowd was terrific and the temperature was boiling. Truly a night to remember.

- Iron Maiden @ Ullevi, Gothenburg
Shame about the encores (where was "Flight Of The Icarus", for example?) , but otherwise Bruce & Co didn't disappoint at all. That the whole show was aired live on Swedish TV and radio made it all the more interesting. We're already looking forward to seeing them again next year. Prime time, again?

- System Of A Down @ Hawaii, Hultsfred
The sound was way to low, but this didn't stop System Of A Down from making the best performance at the Hultsfred Festival this year. Both mesmerizing and hypnotizing at the same time.

- Opeth @ Klubben, Stockholm
These guys have always been good at contrasts, and the gig at Klubben was no exception. Not many bands play 10-minute long, complex songs and afterwards tells bizarre jokes and quotes Björn Skifs from the Swedish movie "Strul". Opeth gets away with it without any complications whatsoever.

- Black Sabbath @ Globen, Stockholm
Ever since Mr. Osbourne cancelled his show here in Sweden twice (!) a couple of years ago, I feared that I would never get to see him perform live. That's why it was such a joy to see Ozzy being more energetic during these two hours than during all the seasons of The Osbournes put together.