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: "Cold Day Memory" by Sevendust

There are few bands that can match the consistency and perseverance of Sevendust. Since their self-titled debut album came out in 1997, the band has struggled to achieve any sort of big breakout, while many of their peers have leapfrogged them into fame. However, the band has never stopped or given up, remaining very tightly knit throughout all their trials. The band has only experienced one member change in their entire career, in the form of Clint Lowery's departure in 2004, and that change was undone two years ago when Lowery expressed his desire to rejoin the band. Cold Day Memory marks the recording return of Sevendust's original lineup, and the reunion with Lowery immediately proves to be a huge step forward for the veteran quintet.

First round of cuts, and some adds!

It's been a week since I posted the list of albums that I was considering for my top albums of 2008. I've done some refining to the list since then. Here are the albums that are being cut from the list:

Continent by The Acacia Strain - Yes, this album is a big improvement lyrically. Musically, though, its very similar to their previous albums. And although I like their previous albums, it's not mind-blowingly good.
Declaration by Bleeding Through - Again, not a lot of variation from their previous albums musically. I suspect Jona Weinhoffen did not give a lot of input into the writing of this album - otherwise it would have sounded more like I Killed the Prom Queen, which would have been much better.
Ultra Beatdown by Dragonforce - What was I thinking here? Sure, it's a good album, but there is so much more power metal out there that is better!
Versus by The Haunted - I listened to rEVOLVEr the other day, and I realized why I first got into this band. The new album doesn't do for me what rEVOLVEr did for me.
Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow by Sevendust - It's really unfortunate that I'm cutting this, because I had hoped that this album would grow on me over time. But it didn't, sadly. It just lacks the pure balls of Next and Alpha, which is a bit of a letdown for me.

And now, some adds to the list, both of which are not even out yet:
Stormchaser by Light This City - I've only heard two tracks from this album, but I can already tell that this album will end the band's career on a high note. It's very sad that they're breaking up, because I hear so much potential for this band in the songs I've heard.
The March by Unearth - The three songs I've heard so far prove that what Trevor Phipps and Derek Kerswill told me is true: Unearth have fused the pure metal of The Oncoming Storm with the thrash elements of III: In the Eyes of Fire to form a towering, brutal sound that features the most technical elements in metalcore today.

Keep an eye out for more cuts, and possibly more adds, in the coming weeks!