The 2009 Elite

The moment you have all been waiting for. My list of the best albums/songs/etc. of 2009. With no further delay, here it is. Enjoy. As usual, all of it is recommended.

(P.S. - main genre divisions are between Metal and everything else.)

-Best Song (Metal)


1. Behemoth - "Shemhamforash"
2. NILE - "Permitting The Noble Dead To Descend To The Underworld"
3. Beneath The Massacre - "Harvest Of Hate"
4. Dying Fetus - "Conceived Into Enslavement"
5. Napalm Death - "On The Brink Of Extinction"

-Best Album (Metal)


1. Dying Fetus - "Descend Into Depravity
2. Behemoth - "Evangelion"
3. NILE - "Those Whom The Gods Detest"
4. ZAO - "Awake?"
5. Augury - "Fragmentary Evidence"

-Biggest Improvement (Metal)


1. Slayer - "World Painted Blood"
2. Slipknot - "All Hope Is Gone"
3. Megadeth - "Endgame"
4. Gigantic Brain - "I Swallow 16 Red Planets"
5. The Chariot - "Wars & Rumors Of Wars"

-Biggest Disappointment (Metal)


1. Impending Doom "The Serpent Servant"
2. Vader - "Necropolis"
3. Alice In Chains - "Black Gives Way To Blue"
4. Between The Buried & Me - "The Great Misdirect"
5. Gorod - "The Process Of A New Decline"

-Biggest Surprise Album (Metal)


1. Portal - "Swarth"
2. Cattle Decapitation - "The Harvest Floor"
3. Augury - "Fragmentary Evidence"
4. Dethklok - "Dethalbum II"
5. Shadows Fall - "Retribution"

-Best New Band (Metal)


1. Shrinebuilder
2. Viraemia
3. Masachist
4. Wretched
5. Eyes Of Noctum

-Best Old Timer Album (Metal)


1. Heaven & Hell - "The Devil You Know"
2. Cannibal Corpse - "Evisceration Plague"
3. ZAO - "Awake?"
4. Slayer - "World Painted Blood"
5. Suffocation - "Blood Oath"

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-Best Song (Other)


1. Converge - "Wretched World"
2. ISIS - "Hand Of The Host"
3. Sunn O))) - "Alice"
4. He Is Legend - "Stranger Danger"
5. maudlin of the Well - "Excerpt From 6,000,000,000,000 Miles Before The First, Or, The Revisitation Of The Blue Ghost"

-Best Album (Other)


1. Converge - "Axe To Fall"
2. Sunn O))) - "Monoliths & Dimensions"
3. ISIS - "Wavering Radiant"
4. He Is Legend - "It Hates You"
5. Om - "God Is Good"

-Biggest Improvement (Other)


1. Neon Horse - "Haunted Horse: Songs Of Love, Defiance, & Delusion"
2. Om - "God Is Good"
3. Sunn O))) - "Monoliths & Dimensions"
4. Pelican - "What We All Come To Need"
5. MuteMath - "Armistice"

-Biggest Disappointment (Other)


1. mewithoutYou - "Its All Crazy! Its All False! Its All A Dream! Its Alright"
2. Muse - "The Resistance"
3. Marilyn Manson - "The High End Of Low"
4. Irepress - "Sol Eye, Sea I"
5. Jesu - "Infinity"

-Biggest Surprise Album (Other)


1. maudlin of the Well - "Part The Second"
2. Mastodon - "Crack The Skye"
3. port-royal - "Dying In Time"
4. Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster - "III"
5. Steve Von Till - "A Grave Is A Grim Horse"

-Best New Band (Other)


1. Them Crooked Vultures
2. port-royal
3. Greymachine
4. Orbs
5. Jodis

-Best Old-Timer Album (Other)


1. ISIS - "Wavering Radiant"
2. maudlin of the Well - "Part The Second"
3. Jesu - "Opiate Sun"
4. Converge - "Axe To Fall"
5. Thrice - "Beggars"

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Best Song: goes to the band(s) that released the best song of the year in question.
Best Album: goes to the band(s) that released the best album of the year in question.
Biggest Improvement: goes to the band(s) that improved the most from their last album musically.
Biggest Disappointment: goes to the band(s) whose latest album was received lower than expectations.
Biggest Surprise Album: goes to the band(s) that unexpectedly released an amazing album.
Best New Band: goes to the band(s) that were created and/or released their first songs in the year in question.
Best Old-Timer Album: goes to the band(s) that has been around for at least 10 years, and released a solid album in the year in question.