10

1. Decapitated - Organic Hallucinosis - Sauron finally ditched and his generic death grunts aren't missed at all. They bring in some new kid named Covan who sounds remarkably like Barney from Napalm Death. That implies that he’s also really good. This thing grooves the hell out of the shed and is heavier than Satan the Hutt.

2. Mastodon - Blood Mountain - They're the new Zeppelin.

3. Gojira - From Mars to Sirius - It might have been released last year but that was only in Europe and I don't live there. It came out here this year so I'm putting it on this list. These frenchies knocked it out of le parc with a load of greenpeace whale sludge and the production is incredible.

4. Enslaved - Ruun – Aside from a few exceptions Black metal may be pretty much dead seeing as the only reason most bands play it these days is to have an excuse to wear corpse paint. Thankfully these guys keep recreating the genre by completely avoiding everything that’s so lame about it.

5. Urkraft - Inhuman Aberration – This record can sometimes be pretty generic melodic thrash but the performances are perfect and the riffs are never predictable. They're almost always rolling over the fourth beat and ending up somewhere only Danish people seem to understand.

6. I - Between Two Worlds - Heavy fist pumping rock metal with Abbath on vocals? Duh.

7. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale - I used to dislike his voice on the wu-tang records, I thought it was too whiny. I was so much younger then and too stupid to realize how insanely good he was.

8. Lamb of God - Sacrament - We're not supposed to like them anymore. What did Sloan say? That's rhetorical as I know the answer. They said it's not the band I hate it's the fans. Meatheads across the land may love beating each other up while listening to them (aka looking for an excuse to grab at each other) but to be honest this record is still with me. There’s enough of an evolution to keep me interested, the songs are heavy and catchy and Chris Adler is always entertaining.

9. In Flames - Come Clarity - Hell sometimes I like pop music.

10. Intronaut - Void – I’ve heard it enough to know that it’s top ten worthy. It will likely take many more listens to fully appreciate it’s denseness and weight. Next year I’d be disappointed with myself if I hadn’t included it.