Non-vgm.  Let me see if I can compose 10.

10. "Untitled (Nas)" - Nas

9. "Division" - 10 Years

8. "Illusion of Progress" - Staind - Pretty much par for the course, but that's OK.

7. "Anti-Mother" - Norma Jean - Not as good as "Redeemer", but still an incredible album.  "Robots 3 Humans 0" is one of my favorite tracks of the year.

6. "Re-Consumation" - Hurt - Old material, but since I love this band and it was released in '08, it gets a nod. 

5. "Lunatic Soul" - Lunatic Soul - Side project from the frontman of Riverside.  Not as consistently strong as a Riverside album, but some amazing tracks from one of the best and most passionate voices in music.

4. "All Hope is Gone" - Slipknot - This band seems to get progressively more mature and better.  Bonus tracks are all really good.

3. "Watershed" - Opeth - It's Opeth.

2. "Hindsight" - Anathema - A semi-acoustic album of past material and they sound better than ever.  Eagerly awaiting their next album.   

1. "Indestructible" - Disturbed - Doesn't top "10,000 Fists", but I'll take everything I can get from this band as they create the theme music to my workouts.  Undeniably heavy, melodic, and awesome. 

Actually a lot more amazing records were released this year than I first thought, and I'm sure I'm still missing one or two.

I totally have to agree here. Definately much more "mature" and approachable than their previous albums.

I'll go ahead and chime in as well.

1)  Textures - Silhouettes  This is it.  Their grand magnum opus.  Each track shows its strengths in the writing and composure while not straying away from the sound that made the band (Meshuggah meets "A Predator's Portrait"-esque Soilwork).  Best tracks, "Storm Warning", "Awake", "The Sun's Architect" and "Laments of an Icarus".

2)  Marionette - Spite  Bravo to these newcomers into the melodic death scene.  Take the best of japanese art-metal and give it a Gothenburg spin and that's what you get.  Excellent melodies aplenty and some of the best songs that I've heard written in 3/4.  Can't wait to hear what's next from these guys.  Track get:  "Flies", "Dead Boys and Girls", "Parasite" and "Closed Doors".

3)  Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe  HELL YES.  What a way to go.  Christian (vocals) has left the band, but he brought them up so high that they should be able to sustain themselves (they had to replace him with two people).  If you like your melodic death metal with a little more substance, then this is the album for you.  Stand out tracks are:  "Holographic Universe", "Artificial Sun Projection" and "Ghost Prototype I"

4)  Meshuggah - Obzen  It's Meshuggah.  'nuff said.  Best tracks:  "Bleed" and "Combustion"

5)  Raunchy - Wasteland Discotheque  Pop-death-metal and a fun ride all the way.  You can put in this album and not worry about skipping any tracks.  It's nothing really new, but just well-done songs.  Best tracks:  "The Bash" and "Straight to Hell".

6)  Omnium Gatherum - Redshift  Pretty much an extension of "Stuck here on Snakes Way", you'll find great melodies and some fast-paced melodic death metal with a slice of black metal thrown in.  A solid album all around.  Get these tracks:  "The Second Flame" and "The Return".

7)  Outcast - Self-Injected Reality  YAY!!  Some much-needed good tech-death in a genre that's fast becoming stale.  It's one of those albums that takes a few listens to really get into it but once you do, you're hooked.  Best tracks:  "Autonomy in Progress" and "Hysteria".

8)  Firewind - The Premonition  I had a chance to see these guys at their first Vegas performance (with Divine Heresy and Dark Tranquility) and they completely stole the show.  (side note: the guy I'm in a band with actually knows them so we got to hang out with them before the show :3)  Power metal at its finest.  Tracks to get:  "Mercenery Man", "Into the Fire" and "Angels Forgive Me"

9)  Diablo - Icaros  More groovy-melodeath and another fine album from the band.  It's less "club-ish" that "Mimic 47" (which is a good thing) and it's great to see the drummer really showcase his stuff.  Best tracks:  "Trail of Kings", "Chagrin" and "Icaros".

10)  Burst - Lazarus bird  Definitely not as good as "Origo" but I'm still in the process of absorbing everything the album has to offer.  Given another 2-3 good listens this one still has time to shine.

EPIC FAIL:

Fear My Thoughts - Isolation  What the hell is this?  It's like they took 2 steps in the wrong direction.  What happened to the vocals?  Boo.

1. Phantom Limb - Pig Destroyer
The pinnacle of grind in '08.

2. Watershed - Opeth
Mix the best parts of Opeth's previous works with Ghost Reveries to get this solid Opeth showing.

3. Twilight of the Thunder God - Amon Amarth
The gods of Viking Metal prove again that you don't have to reinvent your sound on each new album to still rock hard. Fun metal.

4. Eternal Kingdom - Cult of Luna
I loved "Somewhere", but CoL returned with their heaviest release yet.

5. One with Filth - Crowpath
Holy shit, did these guys come out of nowhere! One of my most unexpected/awesome releases of '08. (Do yourself the courtesy and listen to the samples over at Willowtip).

6. The Fathomless Mastery - Bloodbath
I prefer the old-school Death metal sound of the previous albums but this is a damn fine Tech-death album. Åkerfeldt's back in full form.

7. Holographic Universe - Scar Symmetry
It was a grower for me, but once it finally "clicked" it entered my top ten immediately.

8. III: Architects of Troubled Sleep - Cursed
Every Cursed release has built on the last 10-fold. Too bad they split on such bad terms. They will be missed.

9. Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction - Soilent Green
Terrible album name; great southern grind.

10. Descendants of Depravity - Prostitute Disfigurement
Another Willowtip release?! Yeah, I feel like a dumbass for never hearing about this label until this year.

And for 09: I better see Skyfire's Esoteric released this year.

I only have three.

(artist - album)

Anathallo - Canopy Glow

Copeland - You Are My Sunshine

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

I'm still catching up on 2007. Also, Portishead might deserve to be on this list but I haven't given the new album a fair shake.

1. Ours - Mercy (Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy)

  - 6 long years in waiting this album does not disappoint.  Still has an amazingly talented voice.  I saw these guys live in late 2007 and they played 3 songs and I couldn't stop waiting for the full length to hit in March 2008.  It didn't disappoint <3.

2. Underoath - Lost in the Sound of Separation

  - A lot of fans didn't like this, it's heavier and very non-mainstream from their previous releases but I really like the direction. A focus on the main vocalist for heavy vocals and using the soft vocalist for the clean vocals is much better decision.

3. Thrice - The Alchemy Index: Vol. 3 & 4: Air & Earth

  - Pure genius songwriting and musicianship.  I will be the first to admit that they could have probably released all 4 albums as one album and cut a lot of the filler, but even the filler songs on these volumes are brilliantly crafted.  The fact that a band with such a heavy "hardcore" following can pull off something like this and have a majority of their fans like it (or at the least, respect it) is a feat in and of itself.  I'm eager to hear what kind of music they will write after this experiment, hoping that they learned a lot about themselves and others musically.

4. The Mars Volta - Bedlam in Goliath

   - A double step in the right direction, they're finally getting more mature (or listening to their label) and not writing song lyrics that don't make any sense at all and moving away from the 45m jam sessions of previous releases.

5. Usher - Here I Stand

   - Some great production on these tracks, vocorder or not. 

6. Moving Mountains - Foreword EP

    - Suprised an EP ended up on my list but I picked these guys' 2007 full length and this EP is almost an extension of that.  Some straight up good post rock.

7. Alive In Wild Paint - Alive in Wild Paint

    - Not usually the indie kinda guy but these guys hit something

8. Emarosa- Relativity
   
     - Crazy singer gets kicked out of old band, joins new band and makes new band sound the same as the old band, but a little better?  Okay, works for me.  Too bad you already got kicked out of your new band.

9. Thursday/Envy split

     - The collective effort of both bands on this EP is so amazing I wish other bands could do the same thing.  Envy took a piece of Thursday and Thursday took a piece of envy, I can only hope their full length will sound like this, but I have my doubts.  Instrumental Post Rock Thursday?  In my dreams

10. Fall Out Boy - Folie a Deux

     - Suprised this even made my top 10 in such a late year, but the only other top 10 candidate I could think of was Innerpartysystem, and FOB just destroy them in every musical category.  I am not really a previous FOB fan, but this album is mature pop in every aspect, unbelievably better written/sung/produced than their previous "Let's hit the 15yo girl pop market" productions.  Maybe they realized the kids who liked them aren't 16 anymore and decided to step it up a notch.

Interesting you list this! My wife got it for me, but I'm not sold on it yet. The last album I had from them was "They're Only Chasing Safety," which is when they got new vocalist. I also have Changing of Times and the VERY OLD album Cries of the Past. I'm an oldschool Underoath fan.

I don't like their original vocalist.  They're Only Chasing Safety was a good breakout album, and for the time it was good.  I'm glad they did not stick with that sound.   Changing of Times was heavy and still on the poppy side, seems like they were not sure if they would keep the fans from They're Only Changing Safety after the change, and then with the newest album they just went with what they felt they wanted as musicians.  I think it's a good sound and a good change, overall. 

Also I don't know what it is about the stereotypical gamer, but why is it seemingly every single one of them is some weird horrible death/thrash/grindcore/heavy/black metal fan?  I don't get that.

You forgot power metal (think Dragonforce), but that's...actually quite a diverse selection you picked out there. I actually don't know anyone who listens to black metal and only a few that like death or grindcore (only one, actually). I tend to find more of an alternative rock or nu-metal (notably Slipknot, Disturbed and System of a Down) slant with most gamers I know, although I was surprised a few people were big Nightwish fans. I personally prefer clean or operatic vocals (or at the most "extreme", Slayer-esque screaming, ala most thrash metal).

My picks:

1. Metallica - Death Magnetic (I honestly wanted to hate this because of the suck-fest these guys turned to, but...damn, I can forgive their last 4 studio crapfests for something this good)
2. Death Angel - Killing Season (was a fan of them before this came out...this is easily their best album)
3. Revolution Renaissance - New Era (Kiske + Sammet...check. Oh, and the guitar player from Stratovarius. check)
4. Edguy - Tinnitus Sanctus (Sammet...check)
5. Power Quest - Master of Illusion (love these guys and this is probably their best album yet...like Dragonforce, they seem inspired by classic VGM tunes)
6. Warbringer - War Without End (really nice old-school thrash with a lot of personality)
7. Testament - The Formation of Damnation
8. Dragonforce - Ultra Beatdown (a bit predictable, but good)
9. Paramore - Riot (surprisingly enjoyable)
10. Hammerfall - Masterpieces (not sure if these are all B-sides, but a lot of excellent covers I hadn't heard before)

Thumbs down: Motley Crue - Saints of LA. Think they tried to modernize this too much, at the expense of their classic sound. Only liked the title track off it. And Cruefest didn't feature a single other band I liked at all.