10.

Mastodon – Once More Around The Sun

Despite being a tad on the over melodic side and not packing maybe the crunch of their early work, to be blunt its still fucking Mastodon. You cannot argue with tunes like ‘The Motherload’, ‘Ember City’ and ‘High Road’ for sing-along anthems, as well as the stunning ‘Diamond In The Witch House’ featuring Scott Kelly (as always). The album still has riffs in abundance and what more is there really to say, its Mastodon.

9.

Royal Blood – Royal Blood

The Hype train surrounding Royal Blood was coming close to being overloaded with jizz cannons and jizz cannon maintenance equipment, with it all coming to the conclusion we maybe preparing to appease the gods and sacrifice them for the corn harvest (South park reference).But in all honesty even without the hype trains none stop momentum, this album would have deserved its place on this list for simply its overall quality. Royal Bloods brand of Bass and Drum (never Drum & Bass) provides all the Queens Of The Stone Age/ White Stripes swagger you could want, whilst making one hell of a racket for just two blokes.

8.

Code Orange- I Am King

Doomy, Droney and at all times a crushing experience, Just like Tripytkon’s album was like living inside a H R Giger painting, Code Orange’s album I Am King is like transcending the plains of reality in a David Lynch film and experience all elements of the spectrum and so much more at the same time.

7.

Trap Them – Blissfucker

2014 is the year where Trap Them emerge as one of the brightest shining lights in the world of extreme metal. Nasty, dirty riffs smothered in the Entombed guitar tone played with super precision and grit. With Blissfucker, Trap Them show that they are fast becoming one of the most in form and aggressive bands in the world.

6.

Mongol Horde – Mongol Horde

Frank Turner’s return to hardcore could not have been any sweeter. Packed will all The Refused and At The Drive In post-hardcore vibes and riffage, Mongol Horde deliver a fun blast of anarchic punk that no matter what context I hear it in makes me want to wreck the place up. Also I challenge you to find two better lyric topics than Natalie Portman’s tapeworm leading a revolution and a the bastard child of a horse and a rhino being a unicorn.

5.

Against Me! –The Transgender Dysphoria Blues

Nowhere near the heaviest album to come out this year, but might just be the most powerful. Against Me where already being hailed as one of the best songwriters in the world before the news about Laura Jane Grace became public earlier this year, but on this album they have surpassed themselves. Grace’s brutally honest and poignant lyrics as well as an album packed with soaring choruses create one of the most emotional albums of the year.

4.

Young And In The Way – When Life Comes To

Savage black metal-tinged hardcore, which some say is becoming over done with bands such as Tombs already well established in this field. However its Young And In The Way who absolutely nail the sound of raw black metal crossed with razor sharp aggression spewing from every pour of this album.

3.

Marmozets – Weird & Wonderful Marmozets

Put simply, the most exciting band to break through in 2014. Sounding like a mish mash of System Of A Down, Rolo Tomassi without the electronic parts and a slight indie tinge to their guitar tone, Marmozets have made the biggest impact in terms of my opinion of them. At the start of the year I had no idea who they were and now they are barely ever off my iPod. A frenetic ball of fun and high pitched energy from start to finish, Marmozets have proved themselves to make a serious impact.

2..

Slipknot – 5. The Gray Chapter

Safe to say the return of the year. With all that has gone on in the past six years since their last release many people thought Slipknot were done and ready to be condemned to the scrap heap like so many fallen bands before them. But the new crazy Nine motherfuckers from Iowa returned in a big way, silencing critics and delivering their most savage and best album since IOWA. From the world conquering ‘AOV’ to the haunting electronic flourishes of ‘Killpop,’ to the already festival anthem in waiting that is ‘Custer,’ .5 The Gray Chapter is not just a return but it is a statement to the bands intent to remain one of the biggest and best bands metal will ever have.

1.

Machine Head – Bloodstone & Diamonds

After the post release kicking that Unto The Locust received (unjustifiably in my opinion, its not The Blackening but in all honesty could have lived up to that hype) Machine Head seemed backed into a corner as people began to talk down the bands achievements and their prospects going forward. So like a rabid wolverine backed into a corner, Machine Head did what they were always going to do in retrospect, come out fighting and tear everyone face off with their sheer magnificence.

Bloodstone & Diamonds is not just the best album of 2014, but might be a serious contender to being better than The Blackening. The album oozes riffs like a UKIP candidate oozes bullshit, the album has a return to out and out pace whilst still maintaining the complexity of the bands poster Supercharger work.

That’s without getting to the quality of the song writing on this album, with the likes of ‘Now We Die’, ‘Killers and Kings’ and especially the trash magnum opus ‘Game Over’ which may sound like Rise Against playing a Slayer song, but is still magnificent in the live arena. With the likes of ‘Beneath The Silt’, which sounds like if you rammed Deftones and Down into a jam room together and ‘Sail Into The Black’ sounding like Sunn0))) with notes showing the bands willingness to experiment is still as rampant as ever, Bloodstone & Diamonds is the song of a band at the top of their game, but most importantly reminding everyone in the whole world how good that top of their game is.

DAN O’BRIEN