Top 20 Albums of 2010

Yes, it's that time again. The end of the year is upon us, which means it's time to roll out what albums made this year amazing for me. However, there are some people that have pointed out something about my past year-end lists, so let me make a quick disclaimer before I start this shindig:

I listen to a LOT of music. I have a 160 GB iPod that is maxed out with music, and I intend to get another one in the future and max it out as well. My music is my life. That said, I did not get to every album that was released this year in the rock and metal world. In fact, I didn't get to nearly as many as I wanted. I will listen to the albums I missed in the future though. At that time, if I determine that one of those albums is good enough, I will adjust my rankings to accommodate it. Thus, this list may change in the future. If you are not okay with that, I am sorry, but they are my rankings, not yours. I do my best to remain consistent, but that isn't always possible. Unlike last year, when my choices were extremely clear-cut for me, I spent hours agonizing over this list, trying to find a way to order it and decide which albums meant the most to me. It's been reordered and reconsidered more times than I can remember, and as I said, the chance exists that it will be redone again in the future. About the only thing I can promise is that my top three will always stay the same. For everything beyond that, I'm standing by the order that I have listed here for the foreseeable future.

Now that that's out of the way, we can move on to the list itself. As I just stated, I listened to significantly less music this year than I did last year. There are multiple things that factored into that, most of them having to do with the fact that I actually write about the music I listen to now instead of just listening. Either way, if you remember last year's top 200 list and were hoping for something similar, I must unfortunately (unfortunate for me, at least) announce that I will not be reaching that milestone. Hell, I have a long way to go before I get to even half of that. However, to make up for that fact and my lack of reviews for several weeks, I will give you an extended best-of list for this year.

Album Review: "Periphery" by Periphery

In the realm of entertainment and arts, everything is capable of being reviewed. There is no form of artistic expression that is completely unable to be critiqued, no matter what some critics might have you believe. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Roger Ebert. Man up and rate The Human Centipede, ya jerk!) That being said, there are some things in the realm of the arts for which reviewing is not constructive. These are forms of art that are best left to individual interpretation and opinion, because reviewing them cannot possibly present the entire experience that occurs when the art form itself is taken in. The new self-titled album from experimental metal upstarts Periphery is one such example of this. The album itself is more than just a mere collection of songs, but rather a twisted, fragmented musical journey that goes beyond almost anything currently in existence in the realm of heavy music. And despite my misgivings, I am going to give my review of this album, although in the end, my review means nothing, because there are almost no universal truths found within the notes of Periphery.