ROADRUNNER ARTISTS + STAFFERS NAME THEIR FAVORITE ALBUMS OF ’08 (AND WE SOMEHOW MADE THE LIST)

Even before we were an “industry type” (I think we can safely call ourselves that now), I loved the fact that Roadrunner Records posts their staffers and some of the artists “best of” lists every year; these people work at/with one of the biggest metal labels out there, so it’s pretty interesting to see what they were grooving on from year to year.

The 2008 lists are on Roadrunner’s website now. Here are some highlights:

• Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy (Y’know, the Jewish one) and Trivium’s Paolo Gregoletto (Y’know, the short one) both named Metallica’s Death Magnetic as his favorite album of the year.
• Machine Head’s Robb Flynn named All Shall Perish’s Awaken the Dreamers as his favorite album of the year (which I imagine will totally make the members of All Shall Perish’s lives).
• Dragonforce’s Frederic Leclerq named Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy as his favorite album of the year (Do we think Axl Rose knows who Dragonforce are?).
• Max Cavalera really, really liked the new Bad Brains album. I knew someone must have.
• Trivium’s Matt Heafy gave both his number one AND number two spots to Coldplay albums.
• You’ll be five albums deep into Killswitch Engage axeman Joel Stroetzel’s list before you even see a metal album.
• One of the dudes from Nickelsuck (not the ugly blond chick who sings for them) claims to like Meshuggah.
• Jonathan Miller from DevilDriver named In This Moment’s The Dream as his favorite album of the year. I’m sure the fact that he’s sleeping with Maria Brink had nothing to do with that.
• Roadrunner Senior VP of A&R Monte Connor (a.k.a. the dude you can thank for Sepultura, Deicide, Obituary, etc.) named Amon Amarth’s Twilight Of The Thunder God as his favorite album not released on Roadrunner.
• Roadrunner Director of New Media/frequent MetalSucks commentor Jeremy Rosen listed MetalSucks as his number ten album of the year. We’re flattered, Jeremy, but let’s be real: we were so much better than that Mourdella album.

Read everyone’s lists in their entirety here.

-AR