Only a "20 best" list for this quite good year - or well, 'quite good year' for prog at least.

The first four are arranged in preference order, then th sixteen order are in alphabetical order.

Beware: this is a consolidated - but not definitive - version, it might see some changes in the newt few months.

1.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

2.Kalisia - Cybion

3.Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs

4.Sólstafir - Köld

5.Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs

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1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde

3.Allvaters Zorn - Geburt

4.Alrakis - Alpha Eri

5.Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs

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My personal best selection of releases I physically bought in or from 2009 - a brilliant year for Black Metal.

1.Nokturnal Mortum - The Voice of Steel

2.Wodensthrone - Loss

3.Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs

4.Crucified Barbara - 'Til Death Do Us Party

5.Urna - Iter Ad Lucem

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I liked a lot of non-metal albums this year but sadly I cannot include them here. Nevertheless, it was a great year for metal and here are my choice albums for 2009. None of them are in order but if I had to choose my number one pick would be for Fen or Blut Aus Nord.

1.Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II - Dialogue With The Stars

2.Devin Townsend - Addicted

3.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

4.Ulcerate - Everything Is Fire

5.Fen - The Malediction Fields

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My top Metal picks for 2009. It was in interesting year and a good transition into what I feel will be a decade of progression as never seen before.

If you don't agree with my list, make your own. I obviously don't have time to listen to 5,000 albums every year. Magazines that do, such as Decibel or Terrorizer, usually have trouble conjuring up 40 quality albums to throw on their yearly lists, so cut me some slack...I am not working with a team of people, and I don't get paid. I'm sure there are plenty of great albums that I have yet to discover or that I have just not been able to listen to...but all of those that are listed have been personally approved by me. The numbers are not as important to me. I would greatly appreciate some "Thumbs ups", as I have put a lot of my personal time into this list, and also into reviewing these great albums.

1.Wodensthrone - Loss

2.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

3.Anaal Nathrakh - In The Constellation Of The Black Widow

4.Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough

5.Napalm Death - Time Waits For No Slave

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Limited to only those albums featured on Metal Storm.

1.Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick

2.Rush - Moving Pictures

3.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

4.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane

5.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

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In no particular order.

1.Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs

2.Kalisia - Cybion

3.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

4.Finsterforst - ...Zum Tode Hin

5.Deströyer 666 - Defiance

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Such a great year! Deathstars released another masterpiece, the Shining album is brutally underrated, Immortal stunned me and even Slayer released, to my suprise, solid stuff.

1.Deathstars - Night Electric Night

2.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

3.Amorphis - Skyforger

4.Dråpsnatt - I Denna Skog

5.Shining - VI - Klagopsalmer

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Actually I wanted to write a blog as several of my colleagues, but now that we have this nifty new feature there's no reason to bother with formatting all the pics and stuff

So this was it. The decade which saw me turning into a metalhead. Actually I've been listening to metal since 17 years now, but not on a regular basis. This changed (to the better) when I joined this site in the good old days of MSR. Agalloch, Anathema and Tristania got me used to growls, Immortal and Agathodaimon to extreme metal as a whole and soon enough I was hooked to the vast plethora of styles which are to be found in heavy metal. The following list presents my personal top 50 of this decade. The order isn't really set in stone, neither is my musical taste, but at least the top 10 are somewhat fixed. Especially the 2009 releases, of which none made it into my top 25, might not stand the test of time. And please don't message me because you disagree with some of the genres, they are neither there to be discussed nor to educate, but to give an impression what the bands sound like. If you have about the same (broad) taste as I have, but aren't familiar with some of these releases, try to get your hands on them. You won't regret it

1.Negură Bunget - OM

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Redemption - The Origins Of Ruin

4.Dark Tranquillity - Character

5.Anaal Nathrakh - The Codex Necro

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