Late additions to the top whatever of 2009...

Portal - Swarth (this re-established my faith in death metal. glad someone managed to do something sonically with it that moved the genre forward after so many years of static....)

Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough (just got hip to these guys)

Anaal Nathrakh - In The Constellation of the Black Widow (how could i go without mentioning this?????????)

Slayer - World Painted Blood (FINALLY, Slayer put out something good!!!!!!! No joke!!!!!!!)

Shrinebuilder should probably go on here, but I've slept on them for some reason...

And Struck by Lightning is not going onto my list until I hear the vinyl, which comes out next year.

Top Whatever of 2009

I don't care enough about this year's releases to actually do any work on this beyond listing some that I still listen to after poking around for a few minutes.  Anyhow, the only major bands whose releases from this year that I'm still pumped on are Washed Out, Owl City, Christmas Island, C.Aarmé, Radiohead, and of course, The Beatles.

Locally:

Sabre - Demo II
White Walls - Demo
Fucked for Life - Distortion and Death Demo
Wise Blood - Second Demo

And I'm sure I"m forgetting someone who'll inevitably get mad at me, but whatever, go to hell if you have a problem.  My head hurts.  Let this be a pre-emptive "fuck you".


International:

Washed Out - High Times
Washed Out - Life of Leisure
C.Aarmé - World Music
The Beatles - (all the mono remasters )
Owl City - Ocean Eyes
Lady Gaga - The Fame
Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
Taylor Swift - Fearless
Brutal Truth - Evolution Through Revolution
Christmas Island - Blackout Summer
Coalesce - Ox
Death (Detroit proto-punk band from the 70's; finally had their album put out) - ...For the Whole World to See
Wilco - Wilco
Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave
The Last Hope (Christian anarchist oi punk) - Manifesto
Fight Amp - Manners and Praise
Kylesa - Static Tensions
Why? - Eskimo Snow

And while it's not an album, i really liked this single release:

Radiohead - "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)"