hellbound's year-end wrap up and metal news (updated)

Now up on Hellbound.ca...

New feature: recent news in metal.

And, counting down... I'm sorry to say I haven't heard everything on this list, but I like what I've heard. (stay tuned for more to come!)

The first five entries in Hellbound's top 20 of 2010.

Top 15 to 11.

Bottom half of the top 10.

Plus, the Hellbound writers' individual top 10s (mine included).

Hellbounders' retrospective: memorable metal events of 2010.

pre-winter december reviews (though it's definitely cold outside)

It's that time of year again. Cold. Hints of snow (or lots of snow depending on where you are). And end-of-year best of lists rolling out from various music publications. Exclaim's and mine have nothing in common, almost. You wouldn't even know I'd cast my votes. Stay tuned to Hellbound for what I expect will be a more complementary version of the best of 2010 in metal (and perhaps my own lists reproduced in full).

In the meantime, I have managed to review an album and a show (and mark, theorize, strategize and paint a ceiling - but that's another story or four).

My appreciative take on Agalloch's latest, Marrow of the Spirit. (interview forthcoming)

My blurry impressions of Watain and company live in Toronto.

Now if it wasn't so cold I'd go put up some outdoor xmas lights!

heavy hitters from 1999

I submitted my music picks for 2009 weeks ago already (see this post for exclaim! year in review info, and then check out hellbound.ca's special year end coverage with a Canadian twist and submit your own top Canadian picks to win a Canadian metal prize pack). I'm not even going to try to play the 'best of the decade' game, but since the year is almost expired, it's about time for my twist on the typical year end lists - a rundown oft what I was into ten years ago.

If you caught last year's 'best of' post you might recall that this is a KEEW tradition, first devised for a new year's eve radio special many years past. This will be my third new year's away from CKMS but here are some of the records I'd be mining for tracks if I was still on the air.

KEEW's best of 1999 (in no particular order):

Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black

Opeth - Still Life

In Flames - Colony

Tristania - Beyond the Veil

Cradle of Filth - From the Cradle to Enslave

Anathema - Judgement

Rapture - Futile

Immortal - At the Heart of Winter

Agalloch - Pale Folklore

Moonspell - The Butterfly Effect

Hypocrisy - Hypocrisy

Iced Earth - Something Wicked This Way Comes

Cathedral - Caravan Beyond Redemption

Amorphis - Tuonela

Lacrimas Profundere - Memorandum

My Dying Bride - The Light at the End of the WorldSolus - Universal Bloodshed

Odyssey - Odyssey

Katatonia - Tonight's Decision

Sevendust - Home

Pain - Rebirth

Skunk Anansie - Post Orgasmic Chill

Korn - Issues

Disclaimers: If I screwed up any of these release dates, so be it. These are all worth mentioning whatever year they were released in. But it's also entirely possible I forgot something good too. What can I say? Memory's not my strong point. You'll also note that I start veering away from the metal canon toward the end of the list. I'm not a purist. I like what I like.