hey, DillingerEscapePlan! I've seen them a halfdozen times. Jeez, probably ten years ago,... I'm getting soo old soo fast...

Anyhow, my musical taste kept going into weirder directions this year;

Sufjan Steven's made a tremendously interesting and personal album (Age of Adz) that took this consistently well done electronic turn, like it was produced by Reznor or something ('I Walked' is a highlight for me, with a weeeirdly cool, staggered melody that I'd never really heard done successfully before...). His vocals grow on you after a while... really the whole album gets a lot better with repeat listens (good night-driving album).

Yeasayer shared a (free) live album... I saw them twice in 2010, so might be biased, but they are just the right amount of experimental with a dash of pop so that people get down at their shows. 'Madder Red', 'Tight Rope', '2080', a lot of good stuff. Bit of an 80's throwback with the synth drums and such, but I like it as a child of the 80's.

Beach House (Teen Dream)... oooh beach house... listened to their album for all of Jan and Feb of 2010... great driving cd... love minimalism with build-ups, which is basically every song by them, and her distinct smoker's voice is just rad. Very different band doing its own thing. If you're into As I Lay Dying and all that business right now this cd might be a stretch... however I used to be way into The Locust, so, you never know! (ok, I still listen to The Locust from time to time...)

Local Natives cd was good. The ladies dug this shit a lot because of the vocal harmonies and whatnot; as a drummer, I thought it was pretty rocking at times, and had some nice minorkey guitar themes and buildups. Also caught them live, and they were excellent. 'Wide Eyes' is a good one.

Lastly, she didn't put out a cd, but I listened to a lot of Neko Case in 2010. 'Star Witness', 'The Pharaohs', 'Blacklisted','Deep Red Bells', 'Things that Scare Me',... all these darker, noir tracks really work for me, and I don't think anybody else is doing anything like this successfully. Plus Neko has the greatest voice possible.

Thanks for sharing your top 10; I'll check 'em out!

p.s. sorry I ignored your 'metal albums' request. not a lot of metal caught my attention in 2010 (unlike 2009... but hey, got Mastodon tickets for Feb in Chicago... maybe 2011 will swing more metal/hardcore again!!!)