(Honorable Mention)  Korpiklaani - Voice of Wilderness    Napalm Records

     These guys get my vote in the "Oodles of Fun" category, as any time you can add folk elements to metal and sing odes to beer, hunting, building lodges and basically living out in the woods, you're doing something great.  It's not really an album that you can listen to repeatedly or very often, but it's a helluva change of pace from time to time.  Beer, Beer!

5.  Adema - Planets   Earache Records

     Waaaaitaminnit.  GG is seriously putting Adema on his Best Of list?  WTF?  Formerly famous because their singer was Jonathon Davis's stepbrother, Adema finally figured out how to write good mid-paced rock that didn't reek of everything else on the radio.  Oh, and they got rid of Marky Chavez, too!  Two great moves that got them kicked off their label to land on the equally WTF-inspiring Earache Records, former home of bands like Carcass, Bolt Thrower and Napalm Death.  If singer Luke Caraccioli had more range, maybe this gets rated a bit higher.  BTW, Caraccioli left the band earlier this year, too.

4.  Vio System Divide - The Stained Line EP   Godspeed Records

     Man, this is a great disc.  Acting as a placeholder in between their first two full-lengths, The Stained Line shows off everything that is great and original about Vio System Divide.  Heavy grooves, superior songwriting and amazing performances mark each and every song here.  Problem is, these three tracks leave you longing for so much more that I can't really rate it higher than this.  Barring a complete collapse of the band or them signing to Century Media, look for their new LP to be on next year's list.

3.  Sagisu Shiroh - Bleach OST 1    Aniplex

     Shiroh Sagisu gets credit for being one of the most versatile anime composers of all time.  He did the creepy, gospel-infused soundtrack for Evangelion, the moody, string-based music for Kare Kano, the super wacky Abenobashi and now he comes in with some sort of perfectly performed hodge-podge of songs on the first Bleach OST.  I mean, when you hear a Yuki Kajiura song, you know who wrote it.  Same goes for Kou Ohtani, Michiru Ohshima, and even Yoko Kanno to an extent.  But with Sagisu, you just never know what you're going to get...except excellent music.  In addition to being a totally fun show to watch, Bleach gets bonus points for cranking out more than its share of quality OPs and EDs.

2.  Bleed the Sky - Paradigm In Entropy    Nuclear Blast America

    This is some pretty ferocious music.  The band is pretty openly styled after Chimaira (they even share the same producer), but approaches their songwriting with a bit more dynamism than Cleveland's finest.  With three dudes singing (frontman Noah Robinson, drummer Austin D'Amond and DJ Puck), two guitars and some electronic elements, there's a huge amount of depth to their music, and D'Amond puts in a performance that is simply jaw-dropping.  You want chops?  He's got 'em.  And yes, The Curse struck these guys, too.  While on tour, all their gear got stolen; something like 10 grand.  Sorry, guys!

1.  The Agony Scene - The Darkest Red    Roadrunner Records

     Maybe The Agony Scene gets rated number one because this album was one of the last ones I listened to that really grabbed my attention.  There's no question at all that The Darkest Red deserves to be on this list, but I totally waffled on where to put them.  After listening to the songs over and over again, I realized they just blast the bejeezus out of everyone else here.  One of the final selling points was actually one of my initial deterrents: the clean vocals.  Their self-titled debut was more along the lines of older Zao or As I Lay Dying, and at first, I was pissed because this was, well, not.  But once I started really listening to the music, the clean stuff makes Mike Williams's screams that much more tortured, while simultaneously offsetting AND emphasizing the music.  Really and truly, this is an AWESOME record.