| 4.5 superb |
| A Wilhelm Scream Career Suicide |
| Air Moon Safari |
| Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works 85-92 |
| Aphex Twin Richard D. James Album |
| Arcade Fire Funeral |
| At the Drive-In In / Casino / Out |
| Bat For Lashes Two Suns |
| Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique |
| Benoit Pioulard Précis |
| Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema |
| Boards of Canada The campfire Headphase |
| Boards of Canada Hi Scores E.P. |
| Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks |
| Brand New Deja Entendu |
| Burst Lazarus Bird |
| Given the stagnancy of most metal scenes these days, it isn't all that often that I'll scour blogs for lesser known bands. Too much of the material is either a second or third rate clone of already established artists, and searching for unique or interesting artists is just too tedious. This is, in part, what makes an album like Lazarus Bird so endearing. Though Burst's fifth studio album does take a page from the likes of Mastodon and Neurosis, it's a refreshing record none the less. Songs like "I Hold Vertigo" and "Cripple God" convey Burst's song writing prowess exceedingly well, as they effortlessly morph from heavy, riff-based sound to a tranquil, yet still lively endeavour. The nine minute long "City Cloaked" not only does an especially exceptional job in bridging together Burst's multifaceted sound, but also earns the distinction of being on of the year's best songs. |
| Collective Soul 7even Year Itch |
| Converge Jane Doe |
| Death Symbolic |
| Death Human |
| Death The Sound of Perseverance |
| Delerium Karma |
| DJ Shadow Endtroducing |
| dredg Leitmotif |
| Experimental Aircraft Third Transmission |
| It's been seven years since Experimental Aircraft released their sophomore album, but the Texan quartet has hardly missed a beat. The brand of shoegaze featured on the band's third LP, Third Transmission: Meet Me on Echo Echo Terrace is hardly a groundbreaking endeavour, but the record is a superb effort all the same. The album's backbone is a constant buzz of distortion that creates a hazy, yet endearing atmosphere; accented by the ethereal talents of vocalist Rachel Staggs, and the sparse, yet effective passages of clean guitar, Third Transmission simply makes for a beautiful listen. Guitarist T.J. O'Leary adds his own voice to some of the more straightforward rock tracks which gives the album some diversity, but the real story behind Third Transmission lies in the dreamy atmospheres created in the likes of "Paintings in the Attic", "Stellar", and "Remembrance". Third Transmission: Meet Me on Echo Echo Terrace is only Experimental Aircraft's third release in eleven years, but it is the band's most engaging thus far, and easily one of the year's strongest records. |
| Experimental Aircraft Love For the Last Time |
| Explosions In The Sky The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place |
| Fair To Midland Inter.Funda.Stifle |
| Gamma Ray Somewhere Out in Space |
| Gamma Ray No World Order |
| Gamma Ray Land of the Free |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To |
| GZA Liquid Swords |
| Iron Maiden Powerslave |
| Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time |
| Iron Maiden The Number of the Beast |
| Iron Maiden Seventh Son of a Seventh Son |
| Iron Maiden Live After Death |
| Isis Panopticon |
| Jeff Buckley Grace |
| Judas Priest Painkiller |
| Kayo Dot Choirs of the Eye |
| Koji Kondo The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time S/T |
| Kraftwerk The Man-Machine |
| Leonard Cohen Songs Of Love And Hate |
| Massive Attack Mezzanine |
| Matthew Good Band Hospital Music |
| Matthew Good Band Beautiful Midnight |
| Matthew Good Band Vancouver |
| Metric Fantasies |
| Mew Frengers |
| Nas Illmatic |
| Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea |
| Nirvana Nevermind |
| Oasis Whats the Story Morning Glory |
| Opeth Damnation |
| Our Lady Peace A Decade |
| Our Lady Peace Naveed |
| Our Lady Peace Spiritual Machines |
| Pavement Slanted and Enchanted |
| Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain |
| Pearl Jam rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991-2003) |
| pg.lost It's Not Me, It's You! |
| Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon |
| Pink Floyd The Wall |
| Pink Floyd Animals |
| Portishead Dummy |
| Public Enemy It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us |
| Radiohead Hail To The Thief |
| Radiohead Amnesiac |
| Radiohead In Rainbows |
| Raine Maida Love Hope Hero |
| Raine Maida The Hunters Lullaby |
| Regina Spektor Soviet Kitsch |
| Regina Spektor Far |
| Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness |
| Sigur Ros ( ) |
| Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness |
| Soap and Skin Lovetune for Vacuum |
| Soundtrack Metroid Prime & Fusion: Original Soundtracks |
| Television Marquee Moon |
| The Beatles Rubber Soul |
| The Cranberries Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? |
| The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium |
| The National Boxer |
| The Red Paintings Walls [EP] |
| Thrice The Illusion of Safety |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index: Vols. I and II... |
| Tim Hecker An Imaginary Country |
| Since his 2001 debut, Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again, Tim Hecker has been one of Canada's most prolific electronica musicians. The Montreal based Hecker's sound has taken on a variety of different forms, from the subtle drone of his aforementioned debut, to the dark dissonance of Mirages, to the more engaging characteristics of Harmony in Ultraviolet. An Imaginary Country takes Hecker's droning electronica in a new direction, introducing elements of noisy shoegaze in tracks like "100 Years Ago", subdued minimalism in "Utropics", and an overlying sense of naturalism to the album as a whole. That An Imaginary Country is Hecker's most accessible release can be attributed to its free-flowing, natural ambience, which is as effective as it 's been on previous releases, if not more. |
| Yo La Tengo I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One |
