TOP 10 FAVORITE ALL-TIME BANDS (as of 2014)

Every December in a furious attempt to justify myself as an aficionado in the fine arts of music, I find myself; A) being too wordy for my own fucking good, and B) making Top 10 lists (and checking them tw---...nevermind). I’ve made two lists this year so you can get a better idea of what I’ve listened to throughout 2014, and what my all-time favorite groups are. It’s hard for me to make a “best albums of 2014” list because I haven’t listened to one album this year, I couldn’t name one album to come out this year, and I don’t have much faith that whatever I’d listen to would be any good. I listened to a Sleep single and that’s pretty much it. But I digress, and please pardon my pessimism. I’ve also done the whole “top 10 all-time favorite albums” thing on Facebook one too many times (I’m tagged for them often, which speaks volumes of how much people respect my opinion), so I’ll hold off making an official list for this blog until I have the energy to do it again. 

So, here’s my top 10 all-time favorite bands list. Very few purist heavy metal groups here with the exception of #10, which is the purest, uncut diamond in the diamond patch. I’ve never been one to call #4 a heavy metal group, let alone any sort of group, as they truly defy labels and genres (although their early catalogue is ripe with one too many blues covers, you could argue they started as a hard rock blues tribute). #9 teeters a line between NYHC and thrash, #2 being a hodgepodge of those things along with doom and 80’s goth. #6 is VERY metal but always lumped into the grunge scene, which (depending on your perspective of that era) isn’t fair. 

My #1 and #2 selections haven’t changed in years, thanks to healthy, consistent catalogs, and my devotion to both that dates back to early teenage times. #3 has playfully frolicked up such a high ranking over the past three years, largely in part to when it came and mattered in my life, and how many new, great things I discover from them through repeated listens. #4, #5, and #6 are teenage fancies that stuck with me as an adult, although of the three, #4 has very few throwaway songs, #5 has had an inconsistent decade, and #6 dropped from my radar for a piece of my 20’s but reemerged strongly when, to me, it mattered. #7 and #8 were respectively #1 and #2 throughout my college years and are always sequentially paired in any lists, but have dropped largely in part to disappointing albums during the 2000’s. #9 is the only band to make this list with only two good albums and a transgender-in-training vocalist (did he change yet?). #10 will probably make its way higher up the 2015 list as my fondness for the obscurities in its discography grows. 

Well, there it is. Keep on rotting and I’ll be back momentarily with more listomania. 

TOP 10 FAVORITE ALL-TIME BANDS (as of 2014)

10. Black Sabbath

9. Life of Agony

8. Depeche Mode

7. The Cure

6. Alice in Chains

5. Nine Inch Nails

4. Led Zeppelin

3. Talking Heads

2. Type O Negative

1. Genesis