Fell Voices - Ragnum Saturni
Deltron 3030 - Event 2
Lychgate - Lychgate
Wolvserpent - Perigea Antahkarana
Streetlight Manifesto - The Hands That Thieve
Banewreaker - Banewreaker
RJD2 - More Is Than Isn't
Oozing Wound - Retrash
Skagos - Anarchic
Revocation - Revocation
Mac Miller - Watching Movies With The Sound Off
Altar of Plagues - Teethed Glory And Injury
Brother Android - Space Hymns

Lunar Aurora - Hoagascht
Testament - Dark Roots of the Earth
P.O.S. - We Don't Even Live Here
Panopticon - Kentucky
Sorry - White Lung
Keny Arkana - Tout Tourne Autour du Soleil
Sigh - In Somniphobia
Obolus - Lament
Anti-Venöm - Planet of the Apes
The Great Old Ones - Al Azif
Ash Borer - Cold of Ages
Little Sister - Little Sister

2011 has really been a good year for new music. A handful of new releases (Doomtree, Panopticon, Ash Borer) completely blew me away and made the list without competition. But as I struggled to pare the list down to 20 I realized that this has been an exceptional year across the board. I'm still not entirely happy with some of the albums I had to leave off, but that's what top # lists are all about: sadness and regret. Anyway, like I said everything here comes highly recommended. There's obviously a lot of black metal here; that's just the style…

This year I'm cutting my list down to 10 instead of 20. It felt more appropriate, though I'm not sure if that's because I haven't been putting as much effort into finding new music recently, or if there just really weren't as many awesome releases this year, or maybe I'm just feeling picky and leaving off a bunch of albums that I still like a lot and/or forgot about. Both Megadeth and Iron Maiden made new cds this year! Neither made my list - they weren't terrible or anything, just not top-10 material in my opinion.

Sigh - Scenes From…

Here are twenty albums I enjoyed from 2009. I heard (and liked) a lot of new releases this year. I think it was a slightly better year for music than 2008, and I have my hopes up for 2010 (flying cars and some new crust punk I hope)!
My top ten are filled in with several artists I already knew and loved coming back for more, along with some excellent new debuts.

I'm certain I'm forgetting some important releases, and also I just like to hear other people's opinions, so you should all comment with your favorites!

1. Panopticon -…

Here are twenty albums I enjoyed from 2008. There were tons of good albums this year, but not very many that I would call brilliant - 2007 had more of those. This made the ordering very difficult, so it is still very approximate (in some cases arbitrary).

I'm certain I'm forgetting some important releases, and also I just like to hear other people's opinions, so you should all comment with your favorites!

1. Menace Ruine - In Vulva Infernum AND ALSO Cult of Ruins AND ALSO The Die is Cast

* unique drone and ambient black metal. 3 albums in…

It takes no creativity or inspiration or musicianship or anything else to add thudding noises and screams to a song.

Please forward to any black metal artists you may know.

Nokturnal Mortum Lunar Aurora Temnozor Thyrfing Ragnarok Immortal Isengard Enslaved Gorgoroth Nokturnal Mortum

Nae'blis - Sketches of Reality
Primordial - To the Nameless Dead
Younger Brother - The Last Days of Gravity
Shining - V: Halmstad
Jeffrey Lewis - 12 Crass Songs
Lunar Aurora - Andacht
Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde
Sigh - Hangman's Hymn

I am also looking forward to hearing the new releases from Boris, Swallow the Sun, Lifelover and Pagan's Mind. Anyone who says music is dead isn't trying hard enough.

not recommended: Megadeth - United Abominations =(

This last week I took a trip to the Rasputin Music store and picked up a few albums that have me drooling all over myself. Half dooooom, half punk-ish rock.

*Dommedagsnatt :: Thorr's Hammer have become legends of doom metal, and for good reason. Everything about this album is crushing. I would love to meet this woman.

*The Unreal Never Lived :: If you like doom/stoner metal, Yob is the band for you. Grasping For Air is my favorite track, but the entire album is really solid. It's a shame they broke up.

*...And the…

Do it. Right now.