Most of my listening is guitarist driven heavy metal (guitarists are the primary songwriter or showcase) so here we go:
In Hearts Wake - Skydancer - somehow they topped Earthwalker (this was recorded along with Earthwalker during the same session). Album of the year.
Rivers of Nihil - Monarchy. Tech death with some thrash. With bands like this, Revocation, Black Crown Initiate, american metal is in an outstanding place.
Tesseract - Polaris.
Gorod - A Maze of Recycled Creeds. The tech death masters put out another monster release.
The Gorod and Tesseract releases are of the same ilk: slightly lesser followups, but still absolutely great albums.
Ghost Ship Octavius - debut album showcasing Adon Fanion's monster melodies with ex-God Forbid and ex-Nevermore relations. This was supposed to be Chris Amott's post-Arch Enemy career but he left and so we got this monster record. As an aside, this is why I love it when bands split up (and do solo projects) cuz you get more music from your favorite artists.
Armageddon - Captivity and Devourment - Chris Amott's reactivated sometimes death metal project, back to doing death metal.
Notable debuts:
Visigoth - The Revenant King - great power metal from Utah
Good Tiger - A Head Full of Moonlight - Elliot Coleman finally gets a vehicle to shine
Farmikos - Joe Holmes, finally, puts a record out (and it's great!)
