Best albums

- Stormwarrior - Heading Northe
Perhaps a boring and worn out genre to most, but most vital and interesting for some. This year Stormwarrior provided the best album in many years, filled with great riffing and brilliant hymn-like refrains. Close to perfection.

- Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God
Many with me didn't expect Amon Amarth to be able to take their music any longer than what they did on the last album With Oden By Our Side, but they sure did surprise. Twilight Of The Thunder God goes even one step further when it comes to feeling and being heavy yet catchy.

- Vader - XXV
Sure, not a new studio album with new songs, but I am going to include it in this list anyway. It is a double disc album with re-recorded songs from earlier in their career. Over 90 minutes and not one dead second, and with today's production which is rising the songs to another dimension.

- Equilibrium - Sagas
With Sagas, the german folk inspired band manage to follow up the predecessor Turis Fratyr with an even better album. Not much differs from before but they refining the melodies and the overall feeling.

- Legion Of The Damned - Feel The Blade
Not a new album, since it was released back in the days when the band was called Occult and then the album was called Elegy For The Weak. Now it has been remastered and two new songs have been added. It is nevertheless so good that it deserves a spot here. Marvellous thrash metal that in my opinion is a blueprint of how it should be done. Beats anything that for example Slayer and Kreator have done the past 15 years.

- Testament - The Formation Of Damnation
What can you say? Solid, classic thrash metal that beats the crap out of most other bands in the genre.

- Brother Firetribe - Heart Full Of Fire
Not the type of album one would expect to see on a yearly top list from me, but the musical quality is undeniable, with the vocals and the choruses as icing on a delicious cake.

- Sabaton - The Art Of War
Were it not for the vocals, Sabaton would probably be considered a most standard heavy metal band. But the vocals, combined with punchy and epic choruses and of course good riffs to back it up, make Sabton and here they have outdone themselves.

- Kalmah - For The Revolution
I am happliy surprised to hear that Kalmah continue on their beaten path with the addition of even more delicious melodies, solid riffs and a great atmosphere. The successor to The Black Waltz is one this year's strongest.

- Legion Of The Damned - Cult Of The Dead
It is unprecedented that a band has two albums represented on a yearly list of mine before. This is not quite as good as previous albums and I miss a little bit in the riffing area. But nevertheless, this is good enough to be labeled thrash metal at its absolutely finest.

Runner-ups: Deicide - Til Death Do Us Part - Guillotine - Blood Money, Keep Of Kalessin - Kolossus, Randy Piper's Animal - Virus, Falconer - Among Beggars And Thieves, Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery, Grand Magus - Iron Will

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DVD's worth mentioning:

- U.D.O. - Mastercutor Alive
The metal nestors deliver, contrary to the previous dvd flop, a package with a marvellous set list and a great production. Timeless, classic and oh so good.

- Gamma Ray - Hell Yeah!!! The Awesome Foursome
It finally arrived, due to various production problems, close to two years after the initial release date, but it was worth the wait. A great and extensive dvd with Gamma Ray in great shape with a great show and, very important; Kai Hansen singing close to flawlessly.

Biggest disappointments

- Axel Rudi Pell - Tales Of The Crown
A couple of pretty good songs, but no real killer. For the rest it is a sleepy and gray mess. Not even Johnny Gioeli, who shines as always, can save this.

- Iced Earth - The Crucible Of Man
I don't know if I can call this a disappotment really, since my expectations were close to zero after the previous two albums. But this was even worse than I had thought. Very flat and non-saying, and I can not even remember one single riff or passage from the album after quite a few spins.

- Carcass @ Sweden Rock Festival
One of the most anticipated concerts at the festival this year but it turned out to be one of the most boring ones I have ever seen. A questionable setlist as well as performance and a boring show altogether. The fact that they played on the stage with the worst sound this year did not exactly add anything to the experience.

- Motörhead - Motörizer
I am the first to say that nothing Motörhead has ever done is bad, but "disappointment" in this case merely means that it's far from as good as it could be, or what I had hoped for. Semi-lame and flat apart from two or three great songs.

- Ross The Boss - New Metal Leader
Same thing here as with Iced Earth, I'm hesitating to label this a "disappointment" per se, since I hadn't expected great work, but if Ross The Boss is releasing a new album and is claiming to play massive and epic metal "better than Manowar ever did", of course you have your hopes up for something smashing. But alas, this goes directly to the garbage bag.

Best live concerts

- I attended too few to really have a saying, but Testament sure came, played and kicked our thrash metal ass at this year's Sweden Rock Festival.