Here's a list of my favorite albums that have been released throughout this year (in particular order) :
1-Dream Theater (Black Clouds & Silver Linings)
2-Lamb of God (Wrath)
3-Shadows Fall (Retribution)
4-Threat Signal (Vigilance)
5-Andy Wood (A Disconcerting Amalgam)
6-Between The Buried & Me (The Great Misdirect)
7-Behemoth (Evangelion)
8-Joe Bonamassa (The Ballad of John Henry)
9-Porcupine Tree (The Incident)
10-Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Nightcastle)
11-Scale The Summit (Carving Desert Canyons)
12-Exivious 2009
13-Marty Friedman (Tokyo Jukebox)
14-Katatonia (Night is the New Day)
15-Megadeth (Endgame)
16-Slayer (World Painted Blood)
17-The Agonist (Lullabies for the Dormant Mind)
18-Gorod (Process of a New Decline)
19-Obscura (Cosmogenesis)
20-Cannibal Corpse (Evisceration Plague)
Honorable Mention...
Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Thy Will Be Done, DevilDriver, Sybreed, Lazarus A.D, Nile, Vinnie Moore, Chickenfoot, Heathen & Pestilence