5 Best albums

- Astral Doors - Of The Son And The Father
Excellent old school metal with megastrong vibes of Dio and Black Sabbath clad in a modern and fat sound. This style never goes out of date, and it has seldom before sounded this good. One of the best albums in years. Outstanding.

- Masterplan - Masterplan
Classic metal with outstanding songwriting and vocals. Works very good for me.

- Aina - Days Of Rising Doom
An outstanding and breathtaking effort.

- Kreator - Live Kreation
The fact that a live album fits in a list over just the 5 best albums of 2003 says something about the quality of the releases this year, but a double cd filled with absolutely every Kreator classic in awesome versions - that can never go wrong!

- Children Of Bodom - Hate Crew Deathroll
Children Of Bodom are one of the absolute best bands ever. This album confirms that fact. It's not even the best one they have released, but still it fits here without hesitation.
*********************************
Runner ups:
Cryonic Temple - Blood Guts And Glory, Majesty - Reign In Glory, Axenstar - Far From Heaven, Chinchilla - Madtropolis, Sinner - There Will Be Execution, Kamelot - Epica, Rage - Soundchaser

5 Biggest disappointments

- Iron Maiden - Dance of Death
The pre-talk around this album sounded and felt promising and I had the feeling that the curve for Iron Maiden would start pointing up with this release. It instead fell flat on its face and have not managed to rise since.

- Stratovarius
The ongoing soap operawithin the band, Elements Pt. I, Elements Pt. II: Emberrasing.....and very, very, very boring.

- Arch Enemy - Anthems Of Rebellion
My mind was all set for a mindblowing album, and who can blame me after hearing their previous effort Wages Of Sin. Everything was right and ready for a smashing release. Alas, it was a turn-off and has not been spinning much in my cdplayer since.

- Helloween - Rabbit Don't Come Easy
Naaahhhh.....it has to be better than this.

- Rebellion - Born A Rebel
And this is supposed be written by a man responsible for immortal classics in Grave Digger?
*********************************
Almost qualified, but managed to stay away from a list position:
Dark Moor - Dark Moor, Falconer - The Sceptre Of Deception

3 Happiest/biggest news

- Nocturnal Rites/U.D.O./Iron Savior/Children Of Bodom (Dvd), Primal Fear, Axel Rudi Pell
New albums are under production as we speak......no further comments. 2004 is going to be a great metal year.

- 2003 has ended....
....and that marks the beginning of 2004. Why do I condsider that a happy event? Because the albums that are to be released in 2004 that I have heard so far already beats most of what was released in 2003, and to that add the fact that above mention bands will release, without doubt, excellent albums, and it is clear that we are heading straight into a very good year of metal. That is reason for joy.

- Musicians in the metal business
Always a pleasure to be in contact with guitarists, singers, drummers etc. in metalbands of various sizes. You will have a hard time finding more nicer, helpful and humble people that in the metal business. Always there for the fans. Mailing an interview and receiving a complete answer 35 minutes later is beyond all expectations. Hat's off to you all!