Opeth - Watershed
Cut from the same cloth as Ghost Reveries, Opeth's new release pushes forward without aleinating die-hard fans. This is probably more progressive than earlier releases, and has a couple of mellow songs, but they still slay with songs like "Heir Apparent" and "Hessian Peel".

Cynic - Traced In Air
Beautiful new release from a founder of technical death metal. They waited 15 years between their first and second albums, and didn't miss a beat. I still prefer Focus, but this is fantastic. Their skill level is amazing. I've only had this for a few weeks, and haven't had enough time to listen to it thoroughly. The weakest point for me is the whimpy vocals. I don't mind clean vocals at all, case in point is Opeth who do clean vocals very well, but Paul Masvidal should stick to growling.

Keep of Kalessin - Kolossus
The new direction of black metal. Enough anger to peel paint off walls. Good stuff.

Testament - The Formation of Damnation
One of the fathers of thrash released their best work on a long time. I think it's better than anything Metallica has done since the Black Album, but that's not saying much. It has a lot of the same feel as Metallica's s/t, without the cringe-worthy moments of James trying to show his feminine side.

Arsis - We Are The Nightmare
Very good technical death metal. They're a little too melodic for me, but they are incredible musicians. I saw this at Best Buy, which surprised me. I guess this is "commercial", but don't expect to hear it on K-SHE. If you listen to Liquid Metal on XM (Sirius?), you're familiar with Arsis.

The Sword - Gods of the Earth
I probably shouldn't like this as much as I do, but I can't help myself. The Sword ripped a page out of the early 1970s Black Sabbath songbook. This is the kind of album your teenaged son would love. It's very heavy and slickly produced. If you liked early Sabbath 20 years ago, you'll love The Sword.

(Note: I wrote this for a non-metal forum. Coldplay had the top album according to many others on that forum).