Your favorite CDs of 2014.

Yep, the first of December on the calender.

Time to think what your favorites CDs are of 2014.
No, no need to hurry.
Take your time to make a list of all the CDs you have bought this year.

The rule is:

- only the CDs released in 2014
- or CDs which are re-released in 2014.

I have been thinking about this for almost a month now.  It will probably take me to the end of the month to digest the new Saint album....I also just downloaded/purchased a new album from Eternal Voyager that I have only had a chance to hear once.  It might be January before I can come up with a list.
I do not that I won't be doing 10 albums this year....my list will probably only be around 7.  I don't feel like I purchased enough to make a "top 10 list".

To be honest, I've only been able to buy a few albums this year. We're in a rough season financially so I have to be pretty choosy. But my picks would be:

My Red Hot Nightmare - Demos, 2004 - 2006 (Got this free, but I would have bought it anyway)
Ethan Luck - Hard Seas (also free, but would have purchased)
Lifesavors - Heaven High
Mission of One - Hostile to the Gospel
The Overseer - Rest and Let Go (also got this one free, thanks Adam at CMR. still listening to it to decide what I think)

I know what CDs are in my top 3.
Now the rest give a place.

ishmael81 wrote:

Mission of One - Hostile to the Gospel

That is one of those obnoxious releases that came out in both 2013 & 2014 depending on who you bought it from isn't it?  I thought if you bought if straight from the artist you could get it in 2013, but if you picked it up from the label it wasn't until 2014.
At any rate I included it in my 2013 best of list, but it would have made this years list as well.  Probably the best Mof1 album yet.

I've been waiting for the new Harmony album to make my list. I expect it to be high on the list. I'm having a hard time remembering everything that came out this year. Me and my obsessive collecting.

Relentless Flood - The Time Is Now

Honorable Mentions go to Light Up the Darkness and Wolves at the Gate

Caveat: I haven't gotten Disciple yet so it likely would have made the list, too. If someone doesn't want their's maybe we can trade.

Staybrite wrote:

ishmael81 wrote:

Mission of One - Hostile to the Gospel

That is one of those obnoxious releases that came out in both 2013 & 2014 depending on who you bought it from isn't it?  I thought if you bought if straight from the artist you could get it in 2013, but if you picked it up from the label it wasn't until 2014.
At any rate I included it in my 2013 best of list, but it would have made this years list as well.  Probably the best Mof1 album yet.

What's really funny is that I bought it from the artist but not until 2014... I didn't even realize I could have gotten it earlier, though I probably couldn't have afforded it.

It's my fave MO1 album as well. Better songwriting and production, and it just really seems like the band is coming into their sound and being comfortable with it.

I'll probably add more but here's some off the top of my head:

Promise Land - Harmony in Ruins
Pylon - Homo Homini Lupus
Veni Domine - Light
Saint - Broad is the Gate
Steve Taylor and the Perfect Foil - Goliath

Here's my list (also posted on CMR).  For Christian bands:

The Autumn League - Concept Of Irony
Blood Thirsty - Sanguine River Absolution
Cloth - Cloth EP
Dalit - Descent (I don't have this one yet, but I'm sure it's gonna be great!)
Dodsmarsch - Skandinavian Black Metal Alliance
Northern Flame - Glimpse Of Hope
Pantokrator - Incarnate
Promise Land - Harmony In Ruins
Sardis - Escape
Wovenhand - Refractory Obdurate
Various - Repossession: A Christmas Album
Various - Prophecy Foretold: A Brutal Christmas Compilation (as with the Dalit, I don't have this one yet but it's gonna be a good'un I know!)

For secular:

Alcest - Shelter
Ikarian - A Shrine Of Fire
Musk Ox - Woodfall

My top list is going to look substantially different than most of what I have seen here.  I don't even have the Empire 21 release yet, but unless it totally blows me away the new Letter 7 album will be at the top of my list.

kerrick wrote:

Here's my list (also posted on CMR).  For Christian bands:

The Autumn League - Concept Of Irony
Blood Thirsty - Sanguine River Absolution
Cloth - Cloth EP
Dalit - Descent (I don't have this one yet, but I'm sure it's gonna be great!)
Dodsmarsch - Skandinavian Black Metal Alliance
Northern Flame - Glimpse Of Hope
Pantokrator - Incarnate
Promise Land - Harmony In Ruins
Sardis - Escape
Wovenhand - Refractory Obdurate
Various - Repossession: A Christmas Album
Various - Prophecy Foretold: A Brutal Christmas Compilation (as with the Dalit, I don't have this one yet but it's gonna be a good'un I know!)

For secular:

Alcest - Shelter
Ikarian - A Shrine Of Fire
Musk Ox - Woodfall

No Veni Domine or Pylon???

In order - First is "ABSOLUTE AWESOME FAVs"... down to "not bad, kinda dig" albums

GX Project -Sinner
Sinbreed -Shadows
ApologetiX -Singles Group
ApologetiX -Loaded 45s
Letter 7 -Trust
Discple -Attack
The Brave -Rise
Anberlin -Low Born
Michael Sweet -I'm Not Your Suicide
Flyleaf -Between the Stars
Guardian -Almost Home
Demon Hunter -Extremist
Lean Van Ranna - Maestro
TFK -Oxygen: Inhale 
Taker -It is finished

Through The Dark Radio wrote:

kerrick wrote:

Here's my list (also posted on CMR).  For Christian bands:

The Autumn League - Concept Of Irony
Blood Thirsty - Sanguine River Absolution
Cloth - Cloth EP
Dalit - Descent (I don't have this one yet, but I'm sure it's gonna be great!)
Dodsmarsch - Skandinavian Black Metal Alliance
Northern Flame - Glimpse Of Hope
Pantokrator - Incarnate
Promise Land - Harmony In Ruins
Sardis - Escape
Wovenhand - Refractory Obdurate
Various - Repossession: A Christmas Album
Various - Prophecy Foretold: A Brutal Christmas Compilation (as with the Dalit, I don't have this one yet but it's gonna be a good'un I know!)

For secular:

Alcest - Shelter
Ikarian - A Shrine Of Fire
Musk Ox - Woodfall

No Veni Domine or Pylon???

I've been trying to get him on the Pylon since it came out. No luck, so far.

Yeah, sorry gents, Pylon just hasn't done it for me. 

As for VD, well, I have this sorta OCD thing about music and if I'm going to get into a band, I impose on myself this need to get all their albums.  And since money's always a bit tight and some of their stuff is super hard to get, I haven't really looked too much into 'em.  If perhaps their back-catalog got re-released in a budget box-set, I would be very interested though!

Quote :

It's my fave MO1 album as well. Better songwriting and production, and it just really seems like the band is coming into their sound and being comfortable with it.

Band?  I have a band now?  LOL

The writing, for the most part, is just me playing around with some lyrical ideas and a couple of riffs.  I did use a couple of other lyrical writers, but most of it was just me.  As far as writing, I was trying for the "less is more" approach and just keep things stripped down and real.

I'm a fan of all four Mission Of One CDs.

alldatndensum wrote:

Quote :

It's my fave MO1 album as well. Better songwriting and production, and it just really seems like the band is coming into their sound and being comfortable with it.

Band?  I have a band now?  LOL

The writing, for the most part, is just me playing around with some lyrical ideas and a couple of riffs.  I did use a couple of other lyrical writers, but most of it was just me.  As far as writing, I was trying for the "less is more" approach and just keep things stripped down and real.

I know... I thought I clicked a smiley face after the word band but apparently I didn't. Whatever approach you took, it worked. Don't get me wrong I like the other albums but this is the one that really grabbed me, you know?

kerrick wrote:

Yeah, sorry gents, Pylon just hasn't done it for me. 

As for VD, well, I have this sorta OCD thing about music and if I'm going to get into a band, I impose on myself this need to get all their albums.  And since money's always a bit tight and some of their stuff is super hard to get, I haven't really looked too much into 'em.  If perhaps their back-catalog got re-released in a budget box-set, I would be very interested though!

Listen to the newest one if you haven't.  It sounds quite different from the previous releases.

Geez, am I going to have to get you all of the Veni Domine releases and have you "win" them on my show?

Through The Dark Radio wrote:

kerrick wrote:

Yeah, sorry gents, Pylon just hasn't done it for me. 

As for VD, well, I have this sorta OCD thing about music and if I'm going to get into a band, I impose on myself this need to get all their albums.  And since money's always a bit tight and some of their stuff is super hard to get, I haven't really looked too much into 'em.  If perhaps their back-catalog got re-released in a budget box-set, I would be very interested though!

Listen to the newest one if you haven't.  It sounds quite different from the previous releases.

Geez, am I going to have to get you all of the Veni Domine releases and have you "win" them on my show?

I wouldn't be opposed to that...

topshot rhit wrote:

Relentless Flood - The Time Is Now

Honorable Mentions go to Light Up the Darkness and Wolves at the Gate

Caveat: I haven't gotten Disciple yet so it likely would have made the list, too. If someone doesn't want their's maybe we can trade.

Now that I have Disciple, I will make it co-champion. (Hope we don't have any Big 12 fans here - go Bucks! LOL) I must say I was quite surprised by the return to such bold lyrics throughout.

Well I was going to wait until I heard the new Harmony & Empire 21 albums before I made my list.  I checked them both out on Spotify and I'm not even sure I want to buy either of them, so they probably won't make a dent in my "tops" list.  

I decided to only go with a top 8 this year as I only have 17 new albums (about half of what I usually get in a year).

1 Letter 7 – Trust
2 Four Star Revival – Knights of the Revival
3 Messenger – Perfect Storm
4 Liberty N Justice – The Vow
5 Sound of Eternity – Visions & Dreams
6 The Brave – Rise
7 Michael Sweet – Not Your Suicide
8 Light Up The Darkness – Waiting

I will say that I do really like all of these albums, and nearly included the new Promise Land as well (the only reason I didn't is because the album was instrumental heavy and I'm not at all a fan of instrumentals...great band though and a fantastic recording).
I would have to say the biggest disappoint for me this year was that "Taker - It is Finished" anthology that Roxx put out.  The cd package itself is fine (Roxx did a good job with that), but nearly half of the material on the album is horrible in my opinion.  The band did have some good songs, but the out-take recordings were really poor quality and the second EPs worth of material they recorded with a different singer I found so cringe-worthy I couldn't even listen to those songs repeatedly.

All in all I thought it was an off year for quantity, but a lot of good quality in the stuff that was released.

Quote :

I would have to say the biggest disappoint for me this year was that "Taker - It is Finished" anthology that Roxx put out.  The cd package itself is fine (Roxx did a good job with that), but nearly half of the material on the album is horrible in my opinion.  The band did have some good songs, but the out-take recordings were really poor quality and the second EPs worth of material they recorded with a different singer I found so cringe-worthy I couldn't even listen to those songs repeatedly.

I have to agree with this wholeheartedly!  The recordings were so bad that I ended up selling my copy almost as fast as opened the shipping envelope.  Of course, I also did the Guardian release this way.

OK, here's my top CDs for 2014

1. Promise Land - Harmony in Ruins

2. Veni Domine - Light

3. Pÿlon - Homo Homini Lupus

4. Harmony - Theatre of Redemption

5. Teramaze - Esoteric Symbolism

6. Saint - Broad is the Gate

7. Halcyon Way - Conquer

8. Mission of One - Hostile to the Gospel

9. Signum Regis - Exodus

10. Pantokrator - Incarnate

alldatndensum wrote:

Quote :

I would have to say the biggest disappoint for me this year was that "Taker - It is Finished" anthology that Roxx put out.  The cd package itself is fine (Roxx did a good job with that), but nearly half of the material on the album is horrible in my opinion.  The band did have some good songs, but the out-take recordings were really poor quality and the second EPs worth of material they recorded with a different singer I found so cringe-worthy I couldn't even listen to those songs repeatedly.

I have to agree with this wholeheartedly!  The recordings were so bad that I ended up selling my copy almost as fast as opened the shipping envelope.  Of course, I also did the Guardian release this way.

Fortunately I was able to hear all of that Guardian album before I spent any money on it.  Good thing, as I would have sold it too.