Sunn 0))) have made an album that is often down right beautiful (not always, but often). Probably my favorite album of the year right now. Stunning.

Hardcore albums like this come by rarely. I'd put it up there with the best Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan. Maybe higher.

Don't prejudge this album. This is a huge improvement over everything else ANb has ever done (and I really like their early stuff). Best grindcore album so far this year.

Both more elegant and diverse than there other albums, arguably their best since Oceanic (though some are saying it's their best ever).

Very intense black metal/thrash (yes, the two occasionally meet). It has really grown on me.

Cannibal Corpse remain relevent in a genre that has kind of lost some steam over the past few years (blame that on the rise of USBM). Another awesome album from the death metal veterans.

Post-metal with a strong leaning to black metal, these guys are one of the most exciting bands on the rise.

This has been out on vinyl for a couple of months. It's a dark and unsettling masterpiece, but it's also their last, unfortunately.

Black metal that's influenced by Mogwai? So frickin cool.

Not the best Xasthur album, but sub-par Xasthur is still more interesting and powerful than most black metal.

Obituary aren't the only death metal trailblazers that are still going strong. I love me some old school death.

These guys are nuts, in a very awesome way. A mash of noise, grindcore, black metal, and a bunch of other genres.

More old-school thrash, but these guys do it very well and find their own sound.

It may be more interesting if they brought more black into the equation, but as it is, this further proves them to be one of the most powerful death bands in the world.

If you're a fan of both bands, you probably have a good idea in your head of what this should sound like, but you're probably wrong. The majority of this is dreamy ambient shoegaze with a few heavy drones and thundering blastbeats thrown in. Last track is more of what you'd expect from the two, and is incredible.

Their first album of avant-black metal drew some comparisons to jazz and math rock. This one is compared more to classical music, which makes way more sense. At first I thought it was over-ambitious, but it's been growing on me and is a pretty astounding achievement.

I've lost track of how many veteran death bands have had come-back years in 09, but Nile is easily at the top of the bunch, this being their most intense, adventurous, and flatout best release in over a decade.

There's no mistaking BDM. I can't say they're one of my favorite bands, but this album destroys.

Noise artists given an entire Melvins album to remix in 4-5 minutes. Basically, however you feel about that concept will be a good indicator of how you enjoy this album.

Classified as noise and associated with bands like Black Dice and Growing, but this album is straight-up metal, driven by huge riffs and thundering drums (meet your new favorite drummer, btw).