The 20 Best Hard Rock & Metal Albums of 2017, Pt. 1: 20-11

2017 was a fucking awesome year for heavy music. Especially, for those into death metal, as it was rightfully declared the "Year of Death Metal" by Decibel magazine. Both new and old death metal bands put forth some great material. But, it was also another great year for thrash metal. As always making this list took a lot of thinking and, of course, the hearing of a lot albums. So let us not waste anymore time and get to it!

Honorable Mentions

Kobra and the Lotus- Prevail I

Overkill- The Grinding Wheel

Terrifier- Weapons of Thrash Destruction

Municipal Waste- Slime and Punishment

20. Necrot- Blood Offerings- An old school death metal album by a new band, that results in the best debut of 2017. My full review: http://themastergio.blogspot.com/2017/06/necrot-blood-offerings-album-review.html

19. Fit For An Autopsy- The Great Collapse- Fit For An Autopsy have delivered an angry and driving deathcore that showcase the subgenre at its very best. The music has a powerful and crushing grove and sounds like the soundtrack to complete and utter destruction.

18. Satyricon- Deep Calleth Deep- Heavy, hateful, and dark, this almost hypnotically sounding piece of black metal is best album of this style for 2017. Featuring the slow and driving sound that band has perfected in their last couple of releases it is the perfect music to listen as you are being dragged you into the very depths of hell!

17. Obituary- Obituary- The latest album from these death metal gods is one of their best in years. It features some great riffs that are catchy and have a really great groove to them. Some of these songs rank among the fastest and catchiest songs, the band has written in many a moon.

16. Kreator- Gods of Violence- The latest offering from Germany's greatest thrash metal export is crushing and devastating music. Some of the year's very best and most memorable songs come from here including the driving "Satan Is Real" and the anthemic  "Hail to the Hordes". Gods of Violence is one that I played a lot since the moment that I got it.

15. Winds of Plague- Blood of My Enemy- It's great to see a band genuinely seen as being rather silly, by some, like Winds of Plague mature and grow. Especially when the end result is the very best album of their career, thus far, and then some. Blood of Me Enemy is a more serious and musically complex work than their previous, but still enjoyable, output. and  Heavy and aggressive, it doesn't feel as interested in reminding just how cool or tough they are. Instead, the music speaks for itself and delivers multiple swift steel boots to your fucking teeth.

14. Cannibal Corpse- Red Before Black- Red Before Black is Cannibal Corpse's best album since Torture, possibly since Kill. It is a solid and heavy, slab of death metal that is unrelenting and uncompromising. Songs like "Code of the Slashers" and "Heads Shoveled Off" are some of the coolest and most memorable extreme metal songs of the year. In fact, this might be the most straight up fun death metal of 2017.

13. Suffocation- ...Of the Dark Light- Holy fuck this is one unrelenting and brutal release! Determine to pummel your fucking head with savage death metal, Suffocation continue to churn out some of the finest releases in death metal. From the very opening of the blistering "Clarity through Depravity" and beyond this is uncompromising and technical assault as your likely hear at this level of spectacular quality.

12. Darkest Hour- Godless Prophets and the Migrant Flora- Anyone who thinks that there are no more classic albums to be made in the metalcore world needs to get a listen to this major ass kicker. Darkest Hour have pulled all the stops and made rollicking and vicious release with great musicianship and pounding breakdowns. This fucker is guaranteed to kick your ass from here to the next fucking continent. Songs like "This Is the Truth" and "The Flesh and the Flowers of Death" are some of the most badass songs of the year!

11. Cradle of Filth- Cryptopia: The Seductiveness of Decay- While, I greatly liked the last Cradle of Filth album, Hammer of the Witches, Cryptopia: The Seductiveness of Decay blows it away. It is is without question the finest album CoF has made since Nymphetamine. The album is a dark and fully enrapturing piece of extreme gothic/ symphonic black metal. It takes all the things that make the band great and gives to us in droves. Honest to Satan, this is the first Cradle of Filth album that keep going back to listen to in ages and helped to remind me why I absolutely adored them many years ago. And, can I say that "Heartbreak and Seance" is one of my favorite extreme metal singles of the year? Another thing that is one of my favorites for this year is the amazing cover art! It is so fucking cool!

I would like to take this time to thank you all for your support in this year! May you all have a happy, fun, and safe New Year's! Stay tuned for the top ten albums of 2017!