DISCLAIMER: My "best of" list is always based on stickiness. I judge albums by how often was I drawn to hearing them over a long period of time. These are not the "best" albums of 2006, these are my "most listened to" albums of 2006.
1. Jon Oliva's Pain - Maniacal Renderings: Jon Oliva sings to my heart, the perfect songwriter for my tastes. My fanboy status aside, this album is truly fantastic. I loved 'Tage Mahal, but it doesn't compare to this, an album right on par with many Savatage classics. Long Live the Mountain King!
2. Vanden Plas - Christ 0: Bryant's hounding forced me into giving this a second and third chance. It definitely paid off because I eventually became de-sensitized to the part of Andy's vocals that bothered me. With that obstacle out of the way, I could hear it for what it is; a perfectly progressive heavy metal album.
3. Devin Townsend - Synchestra: I am certainly no fan of extreme music, but Mr. Townsend toned it down just enough to appeal to my tastes, and he's a brilliant songwriter, extreme or not.
4. Iron Maiden - Matter of Life and Death: I love the old-school feel of this album, and it's the first Iron Maiden I rank as 5 stars since the 80s. From the beginning I felt hypnotized when listening to this, which proves once again that backward subliminal messages do work.
5. Benedictum - Uncreation: Good ol' carnut gave me countless hours of entertainment when he introduced me to this band back in April. It's everything old school metal should be in the year of our lord, 2006. And the fact it's a chick belting out those Dio-ish vocals is just icing on the devil's food cake.
6. Wolf - The Black Flame: The energy and awesome songwriting/performance are a one-two/three punch in another example of what modern heavy metal bands should sound like.
7. Dezperadoz - Legend and the Truth: An extremely fun old western concept album [thanks again to carnut] with good songwriting, but more importantly, originality. It's Rage meets Johnny Cash
8. Rage - Speak of the Dead: This album started strong, but faded as the year went by...I really love the first half of the album, but the second half didn't thrash on par with Unity and Soundchaser to my ears.
9. Wuthering Heights - The Shadow Cabinet: I really love Erik Ravn's songwriting, but this was much more of a straight forward power metal album than I was expecting. Far From the Madding Crowd set the bar way too high for a follow-up.
10. Edguy - Rocket Ride: Damn, this is one fun album to listen to. Excellent songwriting with a special happy atmosphere that isn't obsessively happy ala Helloween and clones. I love the diversity between songs. It deserves to be higher in my list.
11. Tarot - Crows Fly Black: My amps go up to eleven! I couldn't let my list go without mentioning Tarot. If I had this album earlier in the year, it probably would have landed top-ten for 2006.
Honorable mentions to: Rebel Meets Rebel, Pharoah, Winter's Bane, Dragonforce, Evergrace, Jorne Lande, Queensryche, and Meatloaf.
