The Best Metal Albums of 2014, As Chosen by Metal Musicians Themselves — Part V

Every year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in small groups throughout the week.

Below, check out the fifth batch… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

Marty Friedman

1. Bull Zeichen 88 – Monster 3/4 No Good Job
2. C&K – C&K and More
3. Denpa Kumi Inc. – Chururi Chururira
4. AKB 48 – Kokoro no Placard
5. The Barberettes – #1
6. Tricot – Omotenashi
7. Merry – Fukurou
8.  Momoiro Clover – Moon Pride
9. Mucc – Ender Ender
10. The GazettE – NIL

Travis Ryan, Cattle Decapitation/Murder Construct/Nader Sadek

1. Bethlehem – Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
2. Beck – Morning Phase
3. Swans – To Be Kind
4. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra – Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything
5. Cynic – Kindly Bent to Free Us
6. Die Antwoord – Donker Mag
7. Interpol – El Pintor
8. Aphex Twin – Syro
9. Thurston Moore – The Best Day
10. John Frusciante – Enclosure

John Matos, Abiotic

1. Conquering Dystopia – Conquering Dystopia
2. Animals as Leaders – The Joy of Motion
3. The Contortionist – Language
4. Wretched – Cannibal
5. Within the Ruins – Phenomena
6. Job For a Cowboy – Sun Eater
7. Archspire – The Lucid Collective
8. Behemoth – The Satanist
9. Fallujah – The Flesh Prevails
10. Black Crown Initiate – The Wreckage of Stars

Travis Bartosek, Abiotic

1. Behemoth – The Satanist
2. The Ghost Inside – Dear Youth
3. Whitechapel – Our Endless War
4. Job for a Cowboy – Sun Rater
5. Revocation – Deathless
6. Allegaeon – Elements of the Infinite
7. Beyond cCreation – Earthborn Evolution
8. Aborted – The Necrotic Manifesto
9. The Kennedy Veil – Trinity of Falsehood
10. Fallujah – The Flesh Prevails

Jon Teague, Pinkish Black 

1. Atriarch – An Unending Pathway
2. Unconscious Collective – Pleistocene Moon
3. Richard Pinhas & Tatsuya Yoshida – Welcome in the Void 
4. Bludded Head – Reign in Bludd
5. Def Rain – Def Rain

Sherwood Webber, Skinless

1. YOB – Clearing the Path to Ascend
2. Deertick – Negativity
3. Pallbearer – Foundations of Burden
4. Desecresy – Chasmic Trancendence
5. Cannabis Corpse – From Wisdom to Baked

Christopher Cruz, So Hideous

1. Beck – Morning Phase
2. Run the Jewels – RTJ2
3. Behemoth – The Satanist
4. The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream
5. Thom Yorke – Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes
6. Alcest – Shelter
7. Lana Del Rey – Ultraviolence
8. Wild Beasts – Present Tense
9. Trail of Dead – IX
10. Mastodon – Once More ‘Round the Sun

Curran Reynolds, Body Stuff

1. Unit 731 – The Hive Mind
2. Raspberry Bulbs – Privacy
3. Code Orange Kids – I am King
4. Chain and the Gang – Minimum Rock N Roll
5. Olivia Neutron John – Vulnerability
6. Mobb Deep – The Infamous Mobb Deep
7. Ocrilim – Beggar
8. Pyrrhon – The Mother of Virtues
9. Xiu Xiu – Angel Guts: Red Classroom
10. Black Veil Brides – Black Veil Brides
11. Today is the Day – Animal Mother