Cancer Bats Liam Cormier's Top Five Albums Of 2009

1. MASTODON Crack The Skye
This is my number one choice for record of the year because I've not been able to stop listening to this since it came out. The whole album is a huge monster slab of progressive metal, with each band member pushing themselves to the outer limits of technical domination. Shit is awesome. Mastodon stepped up to the plate with their fourth record and just crushed it.

2. CONVERGE Axe To Fall
This much anticipated album from Converge left no one disappointed. It's hard to imagine constantly putting out records that always out-do the last. The cool part about this record is that they got tons of friends to help write songs. There's collaborations from members of Neurosis, Cave In, Gengis Tron and a bunch of others. With all the greatest heads in underground hardcore and metal contributing there's no way this record could have sucked.

3. EVERY TIME I DIE New Junk Aesthetic
I've always loved these guys. When I was first getting into hardcore these guys would be playing locals shows and destroying everything in sight. Fast-forward 10 years later and they're still destroying everything in their path. The only difference now is that there's 1,000 people at the show instead of 10. This album rules because the band is still brutal and heavy, but they're trying new things and making awesome jams. I'm so stoked for you dudes.

4. VICIOUS CYCLE Pale Blue Dot
Sudbury, Ont.'s favorite punk rock sweethearts finally got their shit together and recorded one of the best records I've heard in a while. This album is some awesome spaced-out, punky hardcore with a few slow jams thrown in for good measure. Grab this one before they blow up hotter than the sun and you can tell all the kids "I knew VC when..."

5. BRAND NEW Daisy
I get the sense that Brand New don't give a shit. They don't do press at all, they just headline their own awesome tours and they certainly ain't scared to try whatever they want with their records.

The whole album is all over the place with screamy vocals layered over whispers with tons of guitar and drum tracks getting distorted and moody, yet they bring it all back together to make it catchy and rad. Here's to not playing it safe and still being the hugest band. You guys rule.