(Honorable Mention) Do As Infinity - True Song    AvexTrax

    I suppose it was bound to happen.  A JPop band makes its way onto my top five list.  Do As Infinity are a pop duet consisting Van Tomiko (WHY DID YOU CUT YOUR HAIR?!!?) on vocals and Ryo Owatari on guitars, with session musicians filling in the rest.  They don't write their own songs (composer Dai Nagao does all their stuff), and I'm pretty sure Van doesn't write her own lyrics, but they *have* been kicking my ass all year anyway.  Van's voice is audio gold, and their songs vary from the surf-punk of "Summer Days" to the bubblegummy "Fukai Mori" ("Deep Forest," the second ED song from Inu-Yasha).  The best thing I've heard from them so far is "Shinjitsu no Uta" ("Song of Truth"), which features both the samisen and shakuhachi, two traditional Japanese instruments that make the song seem like it's about a thousand years old.  DAI need to come tour the States soon, or at least get their damn CDs distributed in North America.

5. Vio System Divide - A Subliminal Spirit To The Spatiotemporal Extremity

    Ah, those crazy Japanese!  If they're not filling my eyes with animation, my belly with ramen, my brain with にほんご, they're filling my ears with metal!  One of several JMetal bands I listened to this past year (others include Defiled, Lethal, Ogre and Enforce) Vio System Divide was by far the best.  I guess you could almost call them a crossover between nu-metal and grind (if that makes any sense), with bits of prog thrown in for flavour.  It's not uncommon to hear blast beats, clean vocals, synth and death growls all in the same song.  Vio System Divide also gets the award for "Most Unwieldy Song Titles of the Year," (taking the trophy from last year's winner, Norma Jean) with numbers like "Apoptosis Down," "Libido in the Cage" and, of course, the lengthy-titled title track.  Way cool stuff, and I'm looking forward to hearing more from them.  By the way, if you're looking to buy A Subliminal Spirit... and you don't live in Japan, you better have some good connections, brotha.

4. Devin Townsend Band - Accelerated Evolution   HevyDevy Records

    If you read my review already, you know how I feel about Hevy Devy and his projects.  Regardless of that, this is *still* a fantastic album full of great songs; probably his best work to date.  It far out-paces the latest, more commercially successful, Strapping Young Lad release in every way but energy.  However, SYL's energy was too chaotic to deliver a cohesive album, and that's where the single-minded focus on the music in Accelerated Evolution just blows away the competition.  Given Devy's capricious nature, I'm not sure if we'll see another DTB record, which is a bit of a shame.  On the other hand, if you went to see them play live, you'd get everything from here, Ocean Machine, Terria, Infinity and Physicist, and that'd pretty much own every other show you've ever seen.

3. Freya - As the Last Light Drains   Victory Records

    Rising from the ashes of eco-friendly rockers Earth Crisis comes Freya, who produced an album that should have gotten a shit ton of radio play but was largely ignored.  The hooks in "Negative Infinity," "April Witch," and "As the Last Light Drains" are light years better than any mallcore band out there.  There's a similar vibe on As the Last Light Drains to the one-off band Handsome.  It's just good heavy music.  How Clear Channel Communications didn't pick up on these guys (Clear Channel finally owns every radio station now, right?), or why Victory didn't push them harder is beyond me.  It's kind of like how I feel about Century Media and their mismanagement of Lacuna Coil, who should be where Evanescence is now.  With hard rock music making its way back into the limelight, there's absolutely no reason why this shouldn't have been a gold-selling record.  Mid-level indies, get your shit together, okay?

2. Nightrage - Sweet Vengeance   Century Media

    Paraphrasing the reviewer on DigitalMetal.com, "It would take Tomas Lindberg to outdo Tomas Lindberg."  The former At the Gates singer puts on a freaking CLINIC in Sweet Vengeance, showing everyone out there how to scream like you mean it.  This album is punishing melodic death (which is a great moniker, if I may say so) the likes of which has been a blueprint for stateside bands Darkest Hour, The Black Dahlia Murder and As I Lay Dying.  The production is punchy 'n' crunchy, and the drum performance by The Haunted's Per Jensen is second-to-none (which you would expect).  If you're looking for a forty-minute ass-kicking, get yer happy ass in yer car, drive to the record store and BUY THIS BITCH.  Seriously, there's nothing here you don't want.

1. Saosin - Translating the Name   Death Do Us Part Records

    For a 17-minute, five-song EP to top the list...now THAT's saying something.  I read a review of Saosin on Lambgoat and was intrigued enough to download the MP3 they had posted.  Ho-lee-kuh-rap.  Though there aren't many songs on Translating the Name, they put forth more emotion and passion than bands like Trapt or Smile Empty Soul will ever release in their whole career.  It's awesome, it's heartfelt and...I'm running out of superlatives to use here.  Of all the CDs I've bought in the past few months, this one has gotten the most spin-time in my player.  I'm hoping that this EP hasn't given me a false sense of the band.  They're currently working on a full-length album for later this year, so we'll have to see what comes of these Californians.  If it sucks, you can all say, "I told you so," but I really hope it doesn't.  There's so much promise here.