This article should be better than the last one, even if it means I gush about power metal most of the time, but it was great year for that genre. After HammerFall had opened the gates, tons of new bands got signed, making it a ripe year for fans of the style. However, I promise I'll talk a little bit about other genres, and we'll kick things off with some hard rock.
The big album of the year was definitely Creed's Human Clay. Between the Matrix cameras in the music video and the anthemic post-grunge sound, this was when Creed cracked into the mainstream and became a big name. I remember hearing "Higher" on the radio and thinking I needed more of this band. I ended up loving them so much, they ended up being my first band retrospective article three years ago (the fact that they had such a small discography certainly helped as well.)Other rock highlights include a few bands coming back in one form or another. Def Leppard got back to their classic sound with Euphoria, Styx tried to make another concept album for Brave New World, and Santana teamed-up with Rob Thomas to give us "Smooth." Classic rock might not have been the charting success it once was, but they still had plenty of good ideas and fun music.
I've delayed it long enough, though. Power metal was really strong this year, with plenty of options to pick up. Primal Fear came back with Jaws of Death, Gamma Ray and Iron Savior carried on their space crusade (which I reviewed earlier this month), Kamelot went into their Fourth Legacy now with epic vocalist Roy Khan helping with the songwriting, Edguy criticized the Theater of Salvation., and Helloween pulled out a Metal Jukebox for some interesting covers.
There were some solid debuts. Freedom Call started their happy style of metal with Stairway to Fairyland, Metalium rang in the year with Millennium Metal, and Sonata Arctica blew everyone away with their debut Ecliptica. With magnificent songs like "Kingdom for a Heart" and "Unopened," it was clear they were poised to become a champion of the second wave of power metal.
Of course, prog was making good stuff as well. Dream Theater would reach a creative peak with their psychodrama Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, Alan Parsons would check out The Time Machine, and Yes would blow my teenage mind away with The Ladder. I've gushed about this album before. Despite being 25 years old now, I still sing along to every word and note and beat whenever I put it on. Honestly a modern prog rock masterpiece in my opinion.
So there's my thoughts on a pretty dang good year of rock and metal. As always, check out the playlist below for more, recommend what I missed in the comments, and try to stay cool out there! August is looking to be a hot and busy month for me, as I have a lot of album reviews planned, so keep an eye out for those. Until then, rock on! \m/
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