Orginally, I planned to release this blog on silvester, but due to technical issues my blog went offline for more than a week, so here I am one and a half weeks int0 2020 still writing about 2019.
Since I already wrote about my favourite movie of 2019 in my blog, I decided to put albums, TV series & concerts together in a blog. 2019 was a year with many highlights for me personally, so let’s dive into it!
Albums
Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind
Slipknot's new album is not only my favourite album of the band's history, but also my favourite album of 2019. On this record, they were able to merge their typical percussion-heavy sound with atmospheric modern and 80s retro elements that blew my mind. Starting with Insert Coin and Unsainted (my favourite song of the album), the album truly grips you from the first second and won’t let you go until the final notes of Solway Firth. Another of my personal favourites of this album is A Liar’s Funeral, which Corey Taylor described quite fittingly as a cross-section of David Bowie and black metal.
Honorable Mention: Sum 41 - Order In Decline
I did not expect this album to make it to my favourite albums of the year, I didn’t even really follow Sum 41 before. But I listened to this album because Spotify suggested it when it dropped, and I instantly fell in love with it. Each song is so unique and meaningful, yet the album goes by fluently, and I also love the (Metallica-inspired?) cover art. This is for sure my surprise of the year and one of my absolute favourite albums!
Honorable Mention: Mark Morton - Anesthetic
This album contains my Song Of The Year: Cross Off by Mark Morton feat. Chester Bennington. This is one of the last recording of Chester, but it also is one of his most powerful ones. But not only this song found its way into my heart, but the entire album is amazing. Including guest performances of Jacoby Shaddix, Myles Kennedy (one of my all-time favourite vocalists) and many more, this album has an enormous range of different songs, and is a true testament to the power of today’s rock & metal community.
TV Series
Quicksand -Störst av allt
I had neither heard of the book nor the series before it appeared on my Netflix start page, and I have to say I am so glad it did. This Swedish Netflx Original about a girl surviving a school shooting, her backstory and her trial, based on the book by Malin Persson Giolito, was incredibly well written and made, but the thing that stood most was Hanna Ardéhn’s overwhelming performance as Maja Norberg. She truly owned every scene that she was in (and that’s almost every scene), playing all these various stages of her character arc perfectly, especially when she was broken and hopeless in prison after the shooting. If you have not seen this series, you should absolutely check it out!
Honorable Mention: The Mandalorian
Well, do I really have to talk about this series? Yes, it had one or two “filler” episodes at the beginning of the second half of the season, but in general it was just amazing. In my mind, this was the best live-action Star Wars in quite some time, even though I am not sure whether it can beat The Clone Wars and Rebels to Best Star Wars Series (but ok, it’s only been the first season, let’s see how the show develops next year). You could see in every episode what a massive Star Wars fan Jon Favreau is, and how much thought he put into this series. Also I really liked the choice of directors with Dave Filoni giving his live-action debut (yes, his second episode was the worst of the season, but I still want to see more of him in season two), Deborah Chow basically applying for the Kenobi-series and Bryce Dallas Howard building the first father-daughter-duo to direct live-action Star Wars (her father Ron Howard directed Solo: A Star Wars Story).
Concerts
The Spell Tour - Cellar Darling, Forever Still, Oceans
Since I am a huge Eluveitie-fan, I followed Cellar Darling since I first heard of them (when the Black Moon video dropped on Nuclear Blast’s YT channel). So them finally playing a show in my hometown was a must-go concert. But I was also really excited to see Forever Still, since I really liked their new album Breathe In Colours (yes, I took it home on vinyl after the show).
But before these bands played, Oceans opened the night. I had not heard of them before, but they are on of the bands that blow you away from the first second. They had a tremendous energy on stage, great atmospheric&heavy songs, and you could feel their passion for the music (something that should continue for the whole night).
Next up where Forever Still. Their performance – including a Theremin – was just as amazing as I had hoped. The whole band had an awesome energy, and Maja (the singer) really showed an amount of joy that might be unusual for metal shows, yet completely fitted her personality & style on stage and dragged you even further into their magic. I can not wait to see them again, hopefully there will be a possibility in 2020.
Finally – after some technical issues – Cellar Darling were able to start their set, and even though I expected a lot, they completely exceeded every expectation and blew me away. Their chemistry and energy on stage is truly unique, Anna’s voice is always on point, her hurdy gurdy is what gives the songs this unique soul, and Merlin’s drumming is just out of this world! Still, the band stayed completely down to earth, even though Anna isn’t much of a “talker” on stage you could feel her joy and gratitude throughout the whole set, and the band took the time to meet all the fans after the show (well, since it was a quite small location there weren’t too many people, but still it’s something not every band does). I will definitely find a way to see them again as soon as possible, and I can’t wait for it!
Honorable Mention: The American Nightmare Tour - Ice nINE kILLS
Ice Nine Kills are maybe my absolute favourite band atm, so I was super excited when this tour was announced. I ended up going to two shows, the Cologne one and (including VIP Meet&Great) the show in Karlsruhe. While I was more in the back in Cologne and saw how much the entire audience loved INK's set, I was right in the frontrow for Karlsruhe, so I could see all the madness. The entire band & team (Spencer, Ricky, Joe, Dan, Pat, Shevy, Darrell, etc.) were super nice at the M&G, but also after the show I got the chance to talk to some of them some more (especially the incredible Ricky, whose other band HAWK I would love to see as well). The shows themselves were just as brilliant as I could have hoped, and I had an amazing time at both. I absolutely cannot wait to see them again (with Papa Roach and Hollywood Undead in February)!
Honorable Mention: Holy Hell Tour - Architects, Beartooth, Polaris
For this last one, let's go back to one of my first concerts of 2019, seeing yet another of my favourite bands, Architects, for the first time. Opener Polaris completely blew me away with their music, a great start to a great evening. Next up were Beartooth, who were great as well (even though I'd probably choose Polaris over them), they especially had a lot of fans in the crowd and got the crowd really hyped up. And then - finally - the headliner played. Architects are on of those bands, that you would think can't be half as good life as they are in studio, because the vocals are simply impossible. But then you see them live, and you realize that Sam Carter simply isn't human. What this guy does every night on stage is nothing but spectacular. The crowd went absolutely insane, and it was without a doubt one of the best shows of my life.
But what do you think? Have I missed any albums or TV series? What were your favourite concerts? Tell me below!
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