John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
One of the most influential writers ever, I still have my complete Lord Of The Rings/Hobbit book set from 35+ years ago. Do yourself a favor and read about this fascinating man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien
Since the mid 80's, I've had to listen to and evaluate music for a living. Through this process and my constant search for new music to satisfy my personal cravings, I hear most rock, prog and metal releases every year. Some instantly get mentally marked for airplay, others go into my personal files for later listening. Much like radio charts, these are not just based on opinion but are what I actually listened to in my spare time during the past year.
Here are my favorite albums released in 2016:
Haken - Affinity Headspace - All That You Fear Is Gone Steven Wilson - 4 1/2 Gemini Syndrome - Memento Mori Fates Warning - Theories Of flight DGM - The Passage Kansas - The Prelude Implicit Karmakanic - DOT Big Big Train - Folklore Frost* - Falling Satellites Opeth - Sorceress The Mute Gods - Do Nothing till You Hear From Me Metallica - Hardwired... To Self-Destruct Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage The Devin Townsend Project - Transcendence Highly Suspect - The Boy Who Died Wolf Kyng - Breathe In The Water Lucid Fly - Building Castles In Air Katatonia - The Fall Of Hearts Evergrey - The Storm Within RavenEye - Nova Circa - Valley Of The Windmill Twelve Foot Ninja - Outlier Cosmograf - The Unreasonable Silence The Winery Dogs - Hot Streak The Reticent - On The Eve Of Goodbye
Korn - The Serenity Of Suffering Dream Theater - The Astonishing Tiles - Pretending 2 Run Red Eleven - Collect Your Scars
