Top Albums 2008

Here are twenty albums I enjoyed from 2008. There were tons of good albums this year, but not very many that I would call brilliant - 2007 had more of those. This made the ordering very difficult, so it is still very approximate (in some cases arbitrary).

I'm certain I'm forgetting some important releases, and also I just like to hear other people's opinions, so you should all comment with your favorites! And if anyone would like to hear an album from my list, let me know and I'll post it.

1. Menace Ruine - In Vulva Infernum AND ALSO Cult of Ruins AND ALSO The Die is Cast

• unique drone and ambient black metal. 3 albums in one year; how prolific!
  

2. Panopticon - Panopticon

• awesome anarchist black metal

3. Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle pt. 1

• very good sludgy metal. Not much black though.

4. Toxic Holocaust - An Overdose of Death

• crossover-style oldschool thrash
  

5. Boris - Smile

• it's Boris.

6. Slug's Revenge - Revenge is Never a Four Letter Word

• anarchist folk music played at a punk tempo
  

7. Revocation - Empire of the Obscene

• thrashy death metal that actually makes me enjoy death metal

8. Orange Tulip Conspiracy - Orange Tulip Conspiracy

• instrumental experimental rock/fusion that's actually quite interesting. Also has the best album cover of the year.

9. Keny Arkana - Desobeissance

• more excellent revolutionary French hip-hop. Not quite as passionate as Entre Ciment et Belle Etoile

10. No Cops For Miles - A New Diction

• riot ska, short but very good

11. Satumnaisuus - Kaleidoskopedelia

• very trippy Finnish psy-trance
  

12. Black Anvil - Time Insults the Mind

• really good black thrash; not afraid give a Megadeth style solo

13. A Forest of Stars - The Corpse of Rebirth

• black metal with very nice use of violin
  

14. Dreams of the Drowned - Demo

• interesting addition of hardcore elements to black metal

15. Cynic - Traced in Air

• neat melodic death metal

16. Quest for Blood - Quest for Blood

• weird japanese folk black metal with a prominent manic, improvised flute

17. Coldworld - Melancholie

• beautiful, depressive black metal
  

18. Draconian - Turning Season Within

• gothic doom metal done right.

19. Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill

• acoustic shoegaze/ambient/drone

20. K'naan - The Dusty Foot Philosopher

• African-Canadian hip-hop

EDIT: I have now listened to Torche - Meanderthal (sludge, doom metal), and I think it deserves a spot in my list as well.
EDIT EDIT: Ufomammut, Gojira, Genghis Tron, and probably others I'm not remembering also deserve honorable mention.