Of course, this is a metal board.. that means that every once in a while you gotta pump out a top 10 list.
So this is a question of your top 10 albums from the 2000s. (I was inspired by Metal Review doing their top 100 of the 2000s.)
Mine are as follows (though, the order is pretty arbitrary):
1. Opeth // Ghost Reveries This is always the toughest for me. Choose which Opeth record I think most defines the modern era. I finally always decide on GR, which incidentally I hated when it came out. But it totally grew on me after that and now it's probably my favorite.
2. Katatonia // Last Fair Deal Gone Down Again, this is tough. I love all of their modern stuff, but I think this is probably the most consistent of all their albums. Another defining record in my life, I think, too.
3. Turisas // The Varangian Way I consistently come back to this record over and over. It pretty much represents everything that big, awesome extreme metal should be. I also think it was very much new. It combined much of that power metal and viking metal stuff that's been threatening to merge for years into a cohesive whole.
4. Vintersorg // Visions from the Spiral Generator Again, how do you really choose? I chose this one because I think the whole album is fantastic. But they're all fantastic. It's definitely between this one and Cosmic Genesis. I chose this one 'cause I love Digorgio and Mickelson's performances.
5. Amon Amarth // Versus the World Again a hard one to choose. But this record has some of the best tracks these guys ever wrote and some of the best melodic death metal ever.
6. Anathema // A Fine Day to Exit This record is fucking tremendously written and perfect from first note to last note.
7. Amorphis // Eclipse The rebirth of Amorphis is quite possibly one of the greatest things that happened in the two-thousandsies. This album, and the two that have followed since, are some of the finest metal records produced in the modern era.
8. Rhapsody // Power of the Dragonflame Sets the bar for orchestrated, ridiculous over-the-top metal. They've never produced anything like it since, nor has anyone else for that matter.
9. Ihsahn // angL I love Ihsahn's solo stuff. It's a perfect blend of extreme metal and prog. His writing is massively improved since being out of Emperor, in my opinion, but I'm sure there's a black metal guy on this board who will shriek in horror at those words.
10. Shining // V:/ Halmstad This record hooked me immediately and hasn't let go.
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Holy crap that was really hard...
Honorable mentions galore here.. I know it's cheating.... buuut all of these albums sat on this list while I was writing it and then were later removed and replaced:
Symphony X // V: A New Mythology Suite
Taake // Over Bjørgvin Graater Himmerick
Amon Amarth // With Oden On Our Side - So hard to choose between this one and Versus the World.
Enslaved // Vertebrae
Solefald // Red for Fire
BLAZE // Tenth Dimension
Opeth // Blackwater Park
Orphaned Land // Mabool
So this is a question of your top 10 albums from the 2000s. (I was inspired by Metal Review doing their top 100 of the 2000s.)
Mine are as follows (though, the order is pretty arbitrary):
1. Opeth // Ghost Reveries This is always the toughest for me. Choose which Opeth record I think most defines the modern era. I finally always decide on GR, which incidentally I hated when it came out. But it totally grew on me after that and now it's probably my favorite.
2. Katatonia // Last Fair Deal Gone Down Again, this is tough. I love all of their modern stuff, but I think this is probably the most consistent of all their albums. Another defining record in my life, I think, too.
3. Turisas // The Varangian Way I consistently come back to this record over and over. It pretty much represents everything that big, awesome extreme metal should be. I also think it was very much new. It combined much of that power metal and viking metal stuff that's been threatening to merge for years into a cohesive whole.
4. Vintersorg // Visions from the Spiral Generator Again, how do you really choose? I chose this one because I think the whole album is fantastic. But they're all fantastic. It's definitely between this one and Cosmic Genesis. I chose this one 'cause I love Digorgio and Mickelson's performances.
5. Amon Amarth // Versus the World Again a hard one to choose. But this record has some of the best tracks these guys ever wrote and some of the best melodic death metal ever.
6. Anathema // A Fine Day to Exit This record is fucking tremendously written and perfect from first note to last note.
7. Amorphis // Eclipse The rebirth of Amorphis is quite possibly one of the greatest things that happened in the two-thousandsies. This album, and the two that have followed since, are some of the finest metal records produced in the modern era.
8. Rhapsody // Power of the Dragonflame Sets the bar for orchestrated, ridiculous over-the-top metal. They've never produced anything like it since, nor has anyone else for that matter.
9. Ihsahn // angL I love Ihsahn's solo stuff. It's a perfect blend of extreme metal and prog. His writing is massively improved since being out of Emperor, in my opinion, but I'm sure there's a black metal guy on this board who will shriek in horror at those words.
10. Shining // V:/ Halmstad This record hooked me immediately and hasn't let go.
---
Holy crap that was really hard...
Honorable mentions galore here.. I know it's cheating.... buuut all of these albums sat on this list while I was writing it and then were later removed and replaced:
Symphony X // V: A New Mythology Suite
Taake // Over Bjørgvin Graater Himmerick
Amon Amarth // With Oden On Our Side - So hard to choose between this one and Versus the World.
Enslaved // Vertebrae
Solefald // Red for Fire
BLAZE // Tenth Dimension
Opeth // Blackwater Park
Orphaned Land // Mabool
looks like the best music ever comes from Sweden 
