Top 10 Albums of 2016 Part 3

Happy holidays/Merry Christmas/Happy Chaunukah/Happy Yule/Happy Kwanzaa/Happy New Year/etc.! By now I imagine you guys know the drill with this. I'm taking the last week that I will be posting this year to list what I feel were the 10 best albums to come out this year. 2016 had some pretty good stuff released, so I'm looking forward to posting two of them a day till the end of the week after which I will be taking the rest of the year off to enjoy the holidays. These albums will not be listed in any particular order because as I've said in the past, it's a pain trying to place all of them. All that aside, let's continue!

6. The Stage, by Avenged Sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold have always been a rather creative band. More so than a lot of the metal community might give them credit for. To be fair, when you have such a plethora of radio hits out there it can be a bit difficult to be taken seriously among the metal community considering how much it prides itself in being not consumer friendly. That said however, A7X has quite a few technical tricks up their sleeves and they let them all out to play on their current record The Stage.

The Stage is probably Avenged Sevenfold's most exploratory and creative albums to date. No radio hits whatsoever. This is all them just letting their creative side out to play and really digging in. The songs are incredibly long and feature some extraordinary writing and musicianship. One of the best tracks is over 15 minutes long and even features a monologue from astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. If you love prog metal, this might actually be worth your time to listen to.

5. Dystopia, by Megadeth

This brand spanking new Megadeth cut was the first to feature the band's current line-up of Dave Mustaine on vocals and rhythm guitar, David Ellefson on bass, Kiko Loureiro on lead guitar, and Chris Adler on drums. It is definitely a return to classic thrashy form for the band since the more commercial sound 2013 release Super Collider. Probably because that album didn't do all that hot with the fans and critics alike.

If you go in expecting what you have heard out of Megadeth's more thrashy albums in the past decade or so you're going to get what you expect. It's no Rust in Peace, but it still has some good thrash metal on it. The writing and musicianship are pretty solid. Plus, the fresh blood in the band definitely brings the music new life. I would definitely recommend picking this up if you're in the mood for a loud, angry, crashing, banging, and shredding good time.