This should be interesting. Ground rules: One album per band, had to be released in 1/1/00 – 31/12/09, had to be new recordings (best of’s and remasters are excluded).

10. Slayer – God Hates Us All (2001): The best album Slayer released all decade. Filled with great memorable riffs and lyrics about God and religion and stuff that were really emphasised by the fact that the album was released on September 11 2001. More experimental than what had come before from them with more groove, different tunings and lyrics that were more based in reality. It might not be pure thrash, but it is still pure metal. When I want to listen to Slayer, I usually put on this album.

Fav Songs: Threshold, Disciple, Bloodline

9. Anthrax – The Greater of Two Evils (2004): Anthrax with their best vocalist (John Bush) recording their best songs from the 80s. No matter how great the classic versions were with the other vocalists these are better in everyway – better arrangements, better tones, better vocals. I’ve listened to this album so many times because its almost better than their greatest hits. All it needs is a second disc of Bush era songs and this would be the perfect Anthrax collection. As the cover says, this is スラッシュ　メタル (Surasshu Metaru – a transliteration of “thrash metal”).

Fav Songs: Deathrider, I Am The Law, Belly of the Beast

8. Tourniquet – Microscopic View of a Telescopic World (2000): Yes. This is a Christian Metal album, but it is technically brilliant in every way, except of course most of the messages of the lyrics. The drumming alone should get this album onto any playlist, but the songs themselves are great examples of Progressive Metal. Great riffs, complicated and unusual song structures, with enough variations in speed and timing and tone throughout to keep it interesting without being just for the sake of it. Plus there is the instrumental, Immunity Vector…. the flute solo in the middle still floors me.

Fav Songs: Besprinkled in Scarlet Horror, Immunity Vector, Erratic Palpitations of the Human Spirit

7. Metallica – St. Anger (2003): Hear me out on this. 1. I love the album. The grooves, the “tones” (even the drums), the lyrics all put forth a mood and a vibe of unbridled rawness. It isn’t polished for a reason. It is a complete deconstruction of everything that Metallica had been. It is an album of purgation, not of skill demonstration. 2. Metal as a whole would not be where it is today without this album. The backlash that it caused killed nu-metal and the no solos or skill movement. 3. The Unnamed Feeling is a better ballad than any they’ve done since Justice (and maybe even before), including that one you like.

Fav Songs: Some Kind of Monster, The Unnamed Feeling, All Within My Hands

6. The Dresden Dolls – The Dresden Dolls (2003): Completely unlike anything you’ve heard before, but still completely familiar. Amanda Fucking Palmer is a fucking genius. If you don’t have this. Go and get it. If you want to know what the future of music will be like in a post-label world, then look at what she is doing right now. Follow her on twitter, go and see her shows, tell your friends that there are still people who are making music for its own sake.

Fav Songs: Girl Anachronism, Coin-Operated Boy, The Jeep Song

5. Machine Head – The Blackening (2007): This album is why I picked the #7 that I did. This is a guitar driven thrash metal masterpiece that is better than anything that the older generation have produced in recent times. Headbanging heaven music from start to finish, with lyrics that actually have a message…. in the same vein as the best from the classic 3 Metallica albums (the blue, red and white ones) – its not just screaming about satan over the fastest riffs you can play (not that there is anything wrong with that, see #2).

Fav Songs – Aesthetics of Hate, Now I Lay Thee Down, Halo

4. Diablo Swing Orchestra – Sing Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious (2009): Its real simple. When I’m in charge I’m going to put this album on. Anyone who doesn’t feel an irresistible urge to dance gets a tattoo on their arm and then gets shipped off to a death camp. Swing Jazz + Metal + Awesomeness = This Album. If you’ve ever liked music, you need this album.

Fav songs: A Tap Dancer’s Dilemma, Bedlam Sticks, Vodka Inferno.

3. Dream Theater – Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002): It was hard to pick which of their albums should get on this list, but I think this one beats the others they’ve released this decade (because Scenes from a Memory is their best and was from 99). It has everything Dream Theater are known for on the first disc, and then there is a whole concept album on top of that which is what really out it over the top. Now you could probably read something into the fact that I picked the concept album about mental illness, and why not, I like it because I identify with the lyrics.

Fav Songs: The Glass Prison, Misunderstood, and from the concept: The Test That Stumped Them All, Solitary Shell.

2. Cradle of Filth – Midian (2000): “Care for a little necrophilia?” This is the best album from CoF, and the best album to come out of the extreme metal world, at least in my pansy prog loving opinion. Every single song on this disc is great. Sure, my absolute favourite CoF song came on a different album, but this is their (and extreme metal’s) Black Album. A perfect package of pure evil.

Fav Songs: Lord Abortion, Amor E Morte, Her Ghost in the Fog, Tearing The Veil From Grace.

1. The Devin Townsend Project – Addicted (2009): The best thing Devy has ever done. It is still heavy metal but with a poppy edge that blows me away. Reminds me of my music, except that it is well written and actually produced. Big riffs, bigger hooks, and all the vocals from Anneke van Giersbergen make it my true album of the decade. If you pulled out all the parts of the previous 9 albums on this list that make them my favourites and distilled them into 1 package it would be this.

Fav songs: All of it.