TOP 6 OF 2006

I've only bought/downloaded six new albums from 2006, so now that we're 3/4 of the way done, let's see how they stack up:

1. Sepultura - Dante XXI
My second favorite Sepultura album of all time now, and I'm not ashamed to say that. They finally got it right, and it's a bummer that the only good Derrick Green-era Sep album will probably be the last one before they go back to shitty Max Cavalera-fronted nu-metal. Tasteful use of horns, too.
2. Mastodon - Blood Mountain
It was probably impossible to live up to Leviathan, but they lived up to at least 99% of it. Any other year, this would have been my #1 album. Guitar-wankery is annoying, but they manage to do an entire album of nothing but guitar-wankery and make guitar-wankery not suck, while getting all "prog" without thirty-minute songs.
3. Voivod - Katorz
Shit, if this is what they managed to put out with what they had to work with, more bands need to have their guitar players die tragically before they even start recording their albums. My favorite album of theirs since The Outer Limits.
4. Lacuna Coil - Karmacode
You could tell they really wanted to break through and become more of a major mainstream-known band, but thankfully, that didn't really require changing their sound too much. There is sort of a disturbing Ross Robinson production sound going on in points, but if you can get past that, this might be their best album.
5. Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death
This was decent, but definitely didn't live up to any of the "Maiden is back!" hype at all. I found myself enjoying everything I heard, but not being able to recall a second of it once the album had ended. Still, a mediocre Maiden album is equivalent to a pretty good album from someone else.
6. Body Count - Murder 4 Hire
You know, it's been all downhill since the first BC album, but I still liked Born Dead and Violent Demise, and I've been looking forward to this album ever since the first time they said a new Body Count album was "coming soon," in like 1999. But aside from a few brief moments, mainly on the two instrumentals, this album sucks shit like no other. Like it takes a big fat shit in a bucket and passes out straws. God damn, son.