Drum roll please … or maybe a hearty dose of blast-beats! Tis the season to commence the good, bad and ugly of 2014! Of course we’re talking about BravePicks 2014, where all the staff put their collective metal minds together to build the ultimate lists including individual Top 20s (new studio albums ONLY),  Top 5 Brave Embarrassments, Top 3 Concerts, What/Who Needs To Stop In 2015? and Metal Predictions For 2015.

BravePicks 2014

23) DEVILMENT – The Great And Secret Show (Nuclear Blast)

 

“It’s a little different from my day job,” Cradle Of Filth frontman Dani Filth told BraveWords scribe Aaron Small last month in regards to his new, secondary band Devilment. “It sort of just developed… I was approached by a friend, (guitarist) Daniel Finch, just to help out and I drunkenly agreed at a party. Over the last couple of years, we’ve just sort of gone from there. They couldn’t find another singer, I was quite enjoying what was happening with it; proper members were joining as opposed to mucking around. So we just decided to do an album. Scott Atkins, who did the last Cradle album and is doing the new Cradle album – which we’re writing at the present – produced it. He’s done Behemoth and Amon Amarth as well. We just sort of nibbled away at the record over the course of a year. Then it literally just got snapped up by Nuclear Blast, and here we are. It’s crazy ‘cause I was overworked with one band, and now I’ve got two bands.”

Analyzing his almost over-crowded lot in life, Dani attests, “Devilment is definitely a second band (as opposed to a side-project or hobby). Me - more than anybody, is going to live to regret that. Just for the fact that I’m living literally on coffee and borrowed time. When we come back from the Devilment tour (at the end of November), Cradle is straight in the studio. It’s got a release date of the 15th of June. All the press, I can only say how good Nuclear Blast have been with the amount of work and support they’ve put into this album. They’ve really taken it to heart and done a top job. I guess I was being a bit naïve to think that it wouldn’t be as busy as when Cradle gets to do stuff. So I’m doing all that by day, and by night I’m a psychopathic killer – no, sorry! I’m Cradling. It’s full-on at the moment.”

 

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BravePicks 2014 Top 30

23) DEVILMENT – The Great And Secret Show (Nuclear Blast)

24) MR. BIG - ...The Stories We Could Tell (Frontiers)

25) EYEHATEGOD – Eyehategod (Housecore)

26) STEEL PANTHER – All You Can Eat (Open E)

27) CALIFORNIA BREED – California Breed (Frontiers)

28) TESLA – Simplicity (Tesla Electric Co.)

29) PRONG – Ruining Lives (SPV/Steamhammer)

30) GAMMA RAY – Empire Of The Undead (EarMusic)