As everybody, me included, made their best of 2014 list, I think that nobody (well, almost) has written about what disappointed them that year. And there’s plenty of stuff that disappointed me! My only guess is that they are afraid of the hate coming from fans of said disappointing bands/albums. But I don’t care! I’m here to tell the truth. Well, my opinion, rather, if you’re inclined to hear it.

So here we go. Here’s the stuff that disappointed me in 2014.

First off, Extinction Level Event was a big let-down. Three bass players with a core singer. The premise of having only bass players could have lead to something incredibly good, and new. However, it’s just three guys chugging the tuna, as you can see in the playthrough video below. They aren’t even dropped (or not that much), and it sounds similar to what we’d get with an 8- or 9-string guitar, instead of the two superfluous basses. The newer songs they released didn’t do much to attenuate my disappointment.

Secondly, there’s the new Abstract Deviation sound. They ditched their female singer, who, even though she wasn’t that great either, at least offered something different, as well as their prog-metal sound, embracing instead a full-on djent/metalcore generic, bland and uninteresting sound. It’s really sad because their previous album, Layers, even though far from perfect, was – and still is – a great, fun listen!

The Devin Townsend Project‘s Z2. I can already hear the rocks being thrown at me. Yes, your God, Devin, has put out something incredibly boring. I must admit I have never been a fan of Devin’s works except Ziltoid The Omniscient, which I found funny, novel, and interesting musically. That’s where the disappointment comes from: Zed was the only Devin “franchise” that appealed to me, and I was really excited when Zed Squared was announced. However, upon release, I found it filled to the brim with childish ass-fart pee-pee-poo-poo humour, and the music doesn’t make up for it. It’s basically pretty standard “epic” progressive metal with nothing interesting to stand on.

Killer Be Killed had all the chances of being a motherfucking badass supergroup: with members from The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Cavalera Conspiracy, Mastodon, and The Mars Volta! Admit it, you’re still drooling at the thought of what it could’ve been. However, on their eponymous full-length record, there is exactly 1 (one) good song, and it’s the one they singled (video below). Wow, what a great song, seriously! It has a lot of drive, it’s okay-varied, and it has a good flow to it. It’s really a great song that just wants you to bang your head. It’s pretty simple, but it sounds huge. The ten other tracks on the album just sound like they should’ve been thrown in the bin, or at least worked more upon. Oh well…

Now, maybe the biggest disappointment of the year: Chris Letchford‘s Lightbox. How is that in any way what it promised to be? First, Scale The Summit’s band leader and lead guitarist Chris Letchford announce a jazz album, with Evan Brewer and new band partner Mark Michell on bass, and freaking The Reign of Kindo’s drummer and keyboardist Steve Padin and Danny Pizarro! This has all the reasons to get me excited, and I believe it got a good bunch of you excited too. Unfortunately, what we got wasn’t much of a jazz album as it was a slightly more jazzy-sounding The Collective album. And if you’re like me, it’s really not their best. But whatever, it’s definitely not what we were promised, and it was – and still is – a great deception to me.

That’s all I could think of for now. What music disappointed you, guys? Comment below and let us hear!