Best albums

- Astral Doors - Evil Is Forever
Classic heavy metal that beats the shit out of everything that Black Sabbath and almost everything that Dio ever have done. A follow up to the brilliant debut that is even more brilliant.

- Nocturnal Rites - Grand Illusion
The pride of swedish heavy metal at the moment. An album filled with heavy metal that focus on really strong melodies all the way from the initial verse to the finishing refrain.

- Kreator - Enemy Of God
Once they again the german hate patrol show who is the king of the hill.

- Dark Tranquillity - Character
Gothenburg's leading extreme metal band deliver an album filled with nothing but hits and they once and for all confirm their place on the throne of melodic death metal.

- Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal
The british death metal squadron return with material that leaves no diehard fan disappointed. The best material coming from them the past decade.

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Runner ups: Opeth - Ghost Reveries, Masterplan - Aeronautics, Gamma Ray - Majestic, Savage Circus - Dreamland Manor, Timeless Miracle - Into The Enchanted Chamber, Russell Allen & Jorn Lande - The Battle, Sabaton - Primo Victoria
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Not albums but most worthy of mentioning are the DVD's:
- Grave Digger - 25 To Live
Leaving everything else aside, like for example the lack of interesting bonus material and movement on stage, this is a good showcase in classic heavy metal. Timeless songs.

- Evergrey - A Night To Remember
Very nice shot and sound and colors are top notch, and the entire show manage to mesmerize me from start to finish everytime even though I am not normally that much of a fan of progressive metal. Do yourself a favour and check this one out no matter what genre of metal you usually prefer.

Biggest disappointments

- Running Wild - Rouges En Vouge
Highly anticipated, this album fell pretty flat. Bad production, and songs that don't reach all the way. I will continue to give them a last chance but if the next album does not rise above this level, I will have to make another choice of favourite band in the future.

- U.D.O. - Mission No. X
Please spend some more time before composing and recording new material next time, guys. This is as boring as it gets, apart from 2 decent songs, and that is far from good enough.

- Rammstein - Rosenrot
Unfortunatly this turned out to be just a random mess of tired riffs and non-saying refrains. Their least good album so far.

- Rebellion - Sagas Of Iceland: The History Of The Vikings Volume I
I had expected more from Uwe Lulis. A quickly forgotten album with just the occasional riff as highlight.

- Judas Priest - Angel Of Retribution
It initially felt like a good album but I guess that was just the excitment of the return of the gods that was speaking. After just a couple of spins it was pretty obvious that the material is very weak.
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Almost qualified, but managed to stay away from a list position:
Primal Fear - Seven Seals

Happiest/biggest news

- Everything. That I am healthy and can listen to and look at metal every day is worth it all for me.

Best live concerts

- Obituary @ Dynamo Open Air, Hellendoorn, Holland
A very vital performance with awesome sound and plenty of classics performed in a brilliant way.