[quote:3nl83ara]COREY TAYLOR

21 - Adele
When I preach about people singing WITHOUT the use of auto-tuning and bullshit, Adele is the first person I think of. She's amazing, and so is this album. Heart breaker, crooner, soul smith - she does it all and I love her for it.

The People's Key - Bright Eyes
Easily one of the best and underrated bands alive today. The roots of the return of alternative are in this band's DNA and their new album encompasses everything they do well... which is basically everything.

Give The Drummer Some - Travis Barker
Yeah, I'm a shameless whore since I'm ON this, but the rest of the album is equally good - Travis is one of my generation's best drummers, and he lays down the sickest beats I've ever heard.

Sonic Mass - Amebix
If you like your sludge heavy and your melodies haunting, this album is for you. It features Roy (Stone Sour) playing and twisting knobs to create a bleak and beautiful soundscape that will sing you to sleep and cave your face in at the same time.

The Hunter - Mastodon
The Masters of Stoner Prog bring it again. You may need a fuckin' calculator to figure it out, but the emotion all but pummels you into service. From start to finish, this album makes you earn it in a good way.

Worship Music - Anthrax
ANTHRAX!! MOTHERFUCKING ANTHRAX!!! WHAT FUCKING MORE DO I NEED TO SAY?!? IT'S FUCKING ANTHRAX!!! OWN THIS FUCKING ALBUM!!!

Bad As Me - Tom Waits I've been a fan of Mr. Waits for a very long time, and with each album he never disappoints. You ever wanna know why I approach every song with absolutely no fear? Listen to Tom Waits.

Unto The Locust - Machine Head
My boys are back with a clinic in riff-ology. This fuckin' album tears your face off and replaces it with someone else's face. Destructive, terrific... killer.

Undun - The Roots
When you just need to settle back and let the natural grooves of a band that knows their way around it have their way with you, The Roots have no equal. You may only know them as Jimmy Fallon's late-night band. I know them as a band that could bring the soul back to music.

And of course...

Wasting Light - Foo Fighters
The best rock album of the year. Period. End of fucking list. Nothing else I need to say.[/quote:3nl83ara]

[quote:3nl83ara]ROB FLYNN

1) Times Of Grace - The Hymn Of A Broken Man?

This record is unreal. Un-fucking-believable album. SO inspiring. Goosebumps throughout. The passion, the vocal harmonies, the lyrics, SO meaningful and real. Songs about LOVE on a metal record... and they're great??!! Crazy! And when it's pissed, man, look out. What I've always loved about Jesse Leach's voice is that it sounds like dude has PROBLEMS!! And I relate. I was really disappointed with where music was going when this came out... and this record literally saved me.?

?2) Ghost - Opus Eponymous

?"It took me about 4 listens, but when I "got it", man, it hit me like a ton of bricks, this record simply RULES"?

?3) Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs - God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise

?"Normally I hate this kind of music, but our drummer Dave McClain turned me onto to this, and it's seriously an absolutely incredible folk / Americana record, I could not stop listening to it. Ray's voice has so much ache and sadness," This Love Is Over" is a masterpiece.?

?4) All Shall Perish - This Is Where It Ends

"Our Bay Area brethren deliver, and ambitious, and staggeringly heavy piece of work here. These guys are the undisputed kings of the Death-Core genre, and the main reason is the song writing. This isn't Tech-Death-Arpeggio-Core with a 3rd rate Meshuggua riff, these are songs, GREAT songs, with great lyrics. The Past Will Haunt Us Both is simply incredible. They just might be putting the nail in the coffin to this genre, while at the same time transcending into something greater. ?

?5) Tyler The Creator - Goblin

?"Sick, sick, SICK man!!! So dark, and fucked up. Warped! Underground rap at it's finest. Thank you Mark from Chimaira"?

?6) Trivium - In Waves

?"Best album since Ascendancy hands down, and probably a better album overall. Great songwriting, great production, great hooks. Watch The World Burn is amazing. Love it."?

?7) Kanye West & Jay-Z - Watch The Throne

?"I love my mainstream hip hop, I can't help it. What makes this record so freakin' good though, and also why I love Ye's last album, is the production. Going back to the "sound collage"-style of early 90's east coast rap, this record is sonically was incredible. Ridiculously good rhymes from both rappers, and the dark political undertones only deepened the beauty of it all."?

?8) The Beatles - iTunes catalog reissue

?I've heard every one of these songs a million times, and yet getting them all together made fall in love with the Beatles all over again. The guitar tone at the beginning Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is one of the heaviest, raunchiest things ever put down in history. And while many bands have tried to cover Helter Skelter and make it heavier, none have come close to the apocalyptic proto-punk, garage-rock feel they captured. Eleanor Rigby, forget it, retarded!?

?9) Anthrax - Worship Music

I wasn't expecting much out of this to be honest, the long public train wreck that unfolded with our friends was a bummer. Plus, I really liked John Bush's voice, but man, this record is just so unbelievably good it stopped me in my tracks. Great songs, great, production, great lyrics, and fuck me if Belladonna didn't deliver the vocal performance of his life. Hands down the best he has ever sounded, and the freedom he was allowed (insisted on?) made it all the better, soaring vocal harmonies, power, the quality of his vocal tone, dude had to deliver a Hail Mary and he did. In The End and Fight 'Em Til You Can't are 2 of the best songs Anthrax have ever written. GREAT job dudes!?

?10) Darkest Hour - The Human Romance

?Stop sleeping on this album!! Metal done at it's finest, buy a bunch of dudes who are serious music freaks, and might be the craziest bunch of party animals alive. Do yourself a favor and buy this now.?

?Honorable mention: Behemoth - "Lucifer" video (this video blew my fucking head off. In one fell swoop Nergal just changed the reason metal bands make videos), Dane Cook - Retaliation (SO late to the DC party, just heard it this year, hilarious).[/quote:3nl83ara]

[quote:3nl83ara]MATT HEAFY (TRIVIUM)

c. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Deluxe Edition)

Although The Suburbs was released in 2010, the Deluxe came out this year.The Suburbs (and Mumford And Sons’ Sigh No More) were the albums I listened to each day on the drive to the studio while tracking In Waves. The song writing is impeccable, the lyrics are heartfelt and gripping. I didn’t “get” this band until I saw an international live performance of theirs - to put it in the terms I described it exactly to a friend after seeing it: “It was like the energy of Slipknot… and the amount of people (roughly)… but of a completely different musical universe.” The band members are all multi-instrumentalists, trading off on specific-instrumental duties, but utilize instrumentation differently than the typical musical sense. They’ll use violin “noise” as textures - it feels like they just do what they feel like doing, when they feel like it. It doesn’t stick to rules or genres or anything - it’s uniquely a sound of their own.

h. Machine Head - Unto The Locust

The world was definitely anxiously holding their breaths in anticipation for what would follow The Blackening. IÂ’ve had a long musical-listening history with Machine Head (and a long-time friendship): MH was the first Metal band Iever saw live; the third band IÂ’ve ever toured with; a band, with whom we toured together - drawing upwards of 6-8,000 people in the U.K. The Burning Red and Through The Ashes Of Empires are without a doubt, two albums that helped make me the musician I am today, and with Unto The Locust - Machine Head has again changed the game.

With the new album, MH does things that I didn’t expect would happen: a whole new melodic sensibility and level of catchiness I haven’t heard yet, utilizing different playing approaches (like Black Metal/tremolo-picking), and the song “Darkness Within” in general. The first time Robb played that song for me, my jaw actually dropped. Locust still feels incredibly Machine Head, but delves into uncharted territory previously unheard in their music.

a. Times Of Grace - The Hymn Of A Broken Man

See: http://matthewkiichiheafy.tumblr.com/po ... broken-man

f. Rise To Remain - City Of Vultures

It is still hard to grasp the fact that there are bands out there that are influenced by the band I am in. IÂ’ve known the Rise guys for years - and have had the honor to be able to watch them grow as people, musicians, a band - theyÂ’re truly coming into their own. AustinÂ’s voice live gives me chills - his vocals have come such a long way since his early demo days that itÂ’s an insane rate of growth. Their new album isnÂ’t quite out yet in the USA (it is in Europe), but let me tell you - it is an amazing preview as to what this band will become in the years to come.

The musicality is fantastic, Ben should of existed in an 80Â’s-shred band like Racer X (Hell - he can keep up with those dudes easy, IÂ’m sure), Pat is a drummer capable of anything technically - but hearing him lay back into simplicity when it calls for it, really creates an impact. The songs are really something special - heavy, catchy; very now. These guys are the future of metal - and City is a fantastic promise of great things to come.

g. Rammstein - Made In Germany (Special Edition)

Rammstein is one of my top favorite bands in the world. This band is the entire package. Their creativity does not stop at music; it delves into heavy visual art: intense, performance-art style live shows; music videos that break all boundaries of what a music video is supposed to look like; the only massively internationally popular band that sings almost completely in German. Rammstein does it the way they want. They are creativity defined.

I feel bad using a greatest hits… but hey - if you haven’t gotten into this masterpiece of a band, this may be the perfect start. Their songs and style are uniquely their own; unmistakably - when you hear a Rammstein track - you know it’s them. Just get into ‘em.

b. Mercenary - Metamorphosis

See: http://matthewkiichiheafy.tumblr.com/po ... amorphosis

f. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

If I had to describe this album in one word, it would be: beautiful. Musically, its itÂ’s own thing. Instruments are used musically and texturally alike; at times, the song structure is its own style of structure - not traditional at all; I judge a good album on whether or not it makes me see a visual setting while listening to it - this is like an auditory soundtrack to a nature-scene. A mixture of all sorts of genres and instruments and textures - this album is breath-taking. It feels heavy, sad and uplifting all at once. It can feel hopeful and woeful simultaneously. Truly beautiful.

d. In Flames - Sounds Of A Playground Fading

See: http://matthewkiichiheafy.tumblr.com/po ... touring-in

In Flames is a band, without whom - I would not exist in Trivium. In Flames has always been an impossibly vital band to the inspiration to be creative for me. Throughout their existence, they have created different sounds and genres within themselves - with Sounds, theyÂ’ve again paved way for something new for them. The catchiness of the songs, the feeling you get from the lyrics, the utilization of a mixture of their old Gothenburg roots and their layered-electronic-dimensional soundscapes really make something unique on this album. Watching 8,000-plus people in Gothenburg, Sweden singing their hearts out to every song from this album gave me goosebumps.

e. Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events

Dream Theater is the only band in the world like itself. TheyÂ’ve created their legacy by consisting of some of the greatest musicians in the world, who all can actually write incredible songs. When one strives to hit the level of playing that DT is capable of, typically - song-writing takes a distant back-seat. Dream Theater does not settle for this fate: from their inception, theyÂ’ve been not only capable of some of the most mind-blowing musical ability seen in an actual band, but they do it tastefully and within some really amazing songs.

With their new album, Dream Theater has captured (and topped) the magic ofImages, with a spin of what theyÂ’ve been doing in the later albums. I spent my school years coming home and watching Metropolis Pt.2 daily; I have John PetrucciÂ’s Rock Discipline memorized and use it every single show as my warm up before performing with Trivium. I was privileged enough to be able to tour with the band, and I learned more musically on that tour than any tour IÂ’ve done in my almost 13 years of being in Trivium.

The new album has everything anyone who has ever loved Dream Theater could ever want. It is one of their finest works with some of the greatest songs theyÂ’ve ever composed (and the musicalityÂ… well - itÂ’s so damn good, it makes you wanna quit guitar/keys/singing/drums/bass).

h. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Fleet Foxes has opened my brain and heart up to a new love for a new sound of music. Before Fleet Foxes, I never really knew this style of music (I’ll spare them from me trying to “label” the style), but lemme tell you - it’s something really uniquely their own. It pulls from things of the past, present and future. The song are incredible, the music really puts you somewhere nature-y.

Every album by this band is fantastic - their musicality and ability in their instruments is intense. This style of playing isnÂ’t easy - this level of harmonic-intelligence of how to blend so many vocals, so many instruments into the fantastic arrangements that they do is something special.

This album makes me feel good, itÂ’s an album worth living and loving during. [/quote:3nl83ara]