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Anteater · 11-27-2010, 10:22 PM

These are just a few of many albums that have left a strong impression on me this year, but I think they deserve a mention anyway-

Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape

This year's strongest melodic metal album by a short nose, and that's saying a lot when you've got Vanden Plas, Kamelot AND Anathema on the queue for a very strong year in the world of metal. But lets face it, when it comes to vocals and composition set against a killer instrumental backdrop, this is material that won't be bested too easily, especially by the time you get to the 30-minute title cut. Fucking. Genius.

Black Lung - The Soul Consumer

I've been thoroughly impressed by quite a bunch of 2010's various electronic-related offerings, but honestly, how can anybody beat a project like Black Lung, who designed this throbbing heartbeat of a record which sounds like the personal soundtrack to a serial killer in some smoked-out metropolis who eats his victims? Very nostalgic of certain dying industrial breeds while taking care to appeal to the IDM fiends, this is fucking classy **** and easily AOTY material for me.

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid

This album was certainly a shock to the system when it hit shelves earlier this year -- it's gorgeously ambitious and conceptual from its most upbeat and commercially aspiring to those songs that delve into psychedeliciously experimental territory. Janelle is also one hell of a capable vocalist from swoon to scream to slur, and the songs benefit that much from her talents as they do from the production. R&B/Soul AOTY? You bet your ass.

Big Big Train - Far Skies Deep Time [EP]

Along with Moon Safari, Big Big Train have produced this year's top proggy effort in my eyes..and with an EP at that. Featuring a mix of extra material from last year's unsung masterpiece The Underfall Yard sessions and some new stuff such as the 18-minute Jaques Brell ode 'The Wide Open Sea', I couldn't be happier with this quiessential English bunch. They take what Genesis started in the 70's and hoist it to glorious new heights while still having a few interesting things to say for themselves.