So that was 2015...my choices and I want your choices too

SITTING here, January 4th, reflecting on the year that was 2015, and before wrapping the 12 months up there are a few thank yous in order...

First to family - fuck I know it's a cliché but it's true. This site exists through a lot of things but contributors make it. Melanie Brehaut, Andy Gillen, Darren McVeigh, Andrew Pennington, take a bow.

Next my colleagues in music reporting, Mark Ashby, Carolyn Ashby, Brenda P McTaggart and all the lensmen and women. Camaraderie deserving in many mentions in dispatches.

James Loveday (The Distortion Project) and Derwin McFarland (Diamond Rock Club) and all the other promoters of rock and metal that deliver the noise for us all.

To Nigel, Davey and Phil at RockraadioNI cheers! To Rob, Jamie, Sion and Ritchie at Devils Gate Media - world domination awaits! To Dilly at Belfastunderground for letting me blast the net (now with Mark and Carolyn bringing more metal too!).



Matt - Gasoline Outlaws

To the bands - all in all thank you for the music, That is all. To the friends - Lizzie, Ruth, Ivor, Simon and many more for keeping it real and well for being friends.

Down to business. As editor of this site 2015 represented a watershed year for me. Instead of reviewing it I could write a thesis worthy of a masters degree based on the strength of the releases and live shows. (I could but I'll not...)

Here's where you come in. Below I'm posting my personal top three tracks and top three albums of 2015. Agree or disagree, they're personal choices. I want you to post in the comments box below your top track, top album and/or top show, with a sentence (just one, as to why).

Now my choices...
Top Track:

1. Stand As One - Gasoline Outlaws
2. Where Angels Fly - Trucker Diablo
3. In Kymatica - Sinocence

Why? I could and perhaps could have chosen more (Screaming Eagles eponymous song for one), but Stand As One's cry for peace was all the more poignant after standing at Hard Rock Hell and hearing the news of the Bataclan massacre. Matt's delivery and the song's structure edged it to the top for me.

Top Album:

1. The Defects - 45 Minutes
2. Rise Above the Noise - Trucker Diablo
3. Joint third: Screaming Eagles - Stand Up and Be Counted/ Gasoline Outlaws - No Rules, No Laws, No Regrets

Aidy - The Defects

Why? I cheated by having a joint third, but it's my site. The Defects selection may strike some as odd, as the album only scraped a release at the end of 2015 and has it's 'official launch' in 2016. However, it is a totally immersive selection of styles - rock, punk, pop punk, ska, dub step and reggae that it represents what is best about music, when it accepts no boundaries. [Full review coming shortly].

Now over to you...post your comments below, oh and there's a prize for what I think is the best post. [More than a pint, less than a Slipknot ticket].