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We've almost reached the end of 2008, and we gotta say it was a good year for metal. The genre continued to grow and diversify, as best exemplified, perhaps, by the top headbanging fest of the year, Rockstar Energy Mayhem. In a single day of Mayhem, fans could witness mainstream extreme metal (Slipknot), mainstream regular metal (Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch), power metal (Dragonforce), lumbering prog/doom metal (Mastodon), contemporary thrash (Machine Head), deathcore (Job For a Cowboy), pre-deathcore/hardcore (The Red Chord), alt-metalcore (36 Crazyfists), female-fronted metalcore (Walls of Jericho) Christian metal/hardcore (Underoath) and hard rock (Airbourne, Black Tide).
Metallica returned to their thrash metal roots after more than 17 years of fairly commercial songwriting, and delivered Death Magnetic, a powerful showcase of technical musicianship and brute force. Slipknot proved they're still alive and well with their first number one album All Hope is Gone and Testament returned with a vengeance, delivering The Formation of Damnation, their first studio record of new material in 16 years to feature lead guitarist Alex Skolnick. Innovative French metallists Gojira released the stunning The Way of All Flesh, which brought death metal to new progressive heights and Chicago black metal experimentalists Nachtmystium put out Assassins: Black Meddle Vol. 1, which owed almost as much to Pink Floyd as Emperor.
While numerous contemporary bands were paving new paths, old-school outfits were suggesting the brightest route to the future is through the past. AC/DC stuck to its "21-gun salute" and released Black Ice, which was only sold at Wal-Mart and, despite a complete lack of Internet sales, shifted over 1.6 million copies. Guns N' Roses finally released Chinese Democracy (exclusively through Best Buy) and despite disappointing sales, the record drummed up a boatload of publicity because of a botched promotional move by Dr. Pepper (which promised a free bottle to every American if Chinese Democracy was released in 2008) and because it was actually listenable and totally didn't suck. Judas Priest released the most ambitious album of their career, the double-disc concept record Nostradamus and supported the project on the monstrous Metal Masters tour, which also featured Heaven and Hell, Motorhead and Testament.
If 2008 offered evidence to the theory that heavy metal gets stronger in tough times, 2009 promises to be even more devastating. Clearly, it's gonna be a rough year for the world's economies, and it's already shaping up to be a killer year for metal. Look for new albums by Slayer, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Megadeth, Deftones, Sigh and God Forbid, just to name a few.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. There are still a few hours left of 2008. Go forth and make them as metal as possible.
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