Opeth
REDEEMER's release this year has presumably propelled D'espairsRay higher in the ranks. Position #335 is not great, but it's not bad when you consider their contenders and the fact that in the ten years they've been active, it's only this year they've begun to shine.
In Japan, this quirky, genre-bending rock band has a small but dedicated following. It took them ten years, three full lengths and numerous singles/mini-albums to perform at C.C. Lemon Hall (2,084 capacity). the GazettE are three years younger and reached Budokan (14,201 capacity) in 2006. Europe, in particular Germany, Poland and Finland, is where you'll find the largest assembly of D'espairsRay fans outside of Japan. 2009 has been D'espairsRay's, in my opinion. They deserve the newfound success.
#335 overall
#2 in the best of last.fm tagged “j-rock”
#8 in the best of last.fm tagged “japanese”, beating KAT-TUN, Capsule and the GazettE (#866 overall) this year. Although the latter has multiple artist pages, it's still worthy of mention.
Addendum: I pray stray D'espairsRay fans will stop tagging them as “j-rock” and “visual kei.” Is this a lost cause? Yes. I don't care if the Japanese do it, it does NOT describe the music. How are casual last.fm listeners supposed to discover the band when they search for legitimate genres and don't typically care about bands based on their country of origin? Really, now. Let's push the j-rock and visual kei out of their main tags.
Do your bit, tag them as something relevant.
ANYWAY. It's clear Lady GaGa is going to be number one in the top 40.
Other surprises? dredg and Porcupine Tree are side by side in the 70s, about ten spaces behind Marilyn Manson and Pearl Jam, and two hundred ahead of Devin Townsend / Devin Townsend Project. Scanning the charts, bands under the emo tag primarily infect 50-300, where they, fortunately, peter out. I couldn't find Katatonia anywhere amongst the slew of crap I had to peruse. Night Is The New Day received a lot of plays but mixed reviews, didn't it? I can only assume they ranked lower than 1000, which baffles me. Unless they're in the top 10, it's more probable that I missed them or they aren't there. Oh well.
Adagio barely made the cut at #956, with the album Archangels in Black, one of the year's biggest auditory pleasures. And Eluveitie were granted spot #220. Impressive!
My personal gems of '09, however, are
• Ava Inferi - Blood of Bacchus
• Katatonia - Night Is The New Day
• D'espairsRay - Redeemer
• Diablo Swing Orchestra - Sing-Along Songs For the Damned and Delirious
• 陰陽座 - 金剛九尾
• Porcupine Tree - The Incident
• Thy Catafalque - Róka hasa rádió
• Omega Lithium - Dreams In Formaline
• Amorphis - Skyforger
• Adagio - Archangels in Black
• Lillies and Remains - Part Of Grace
• Luna Obscura - Feltia
• ストロベリーソングオーケストラ - 血の濫觴
• The Gathering - The West Pole
My top three bands released new material this year, and I am happy with the results.
Disappointments,
• To-Mera - Earthbound
• DELUHI in general.
• Going on！
• D'espairsRay's best of album. Fffffffuuuuuu-
• there's no new Opeth
• David Sylvian - Manafon
• people actually like Owl City
