6. MASTODON - Leviathan

I would usually see the top five as the watershed of these lists, but this year the top six were clearly ahead of the rest before I started thinking about it in any detail.  The order of the top six was harder, though…  With Tool having released an album in 2001 (they take around six years in between), and no System of a Down record this year, the progressive metal baton has been passed to the little known Mastodon.  And they have risen to the challenge.  My god, have they.  This album is metal at its most essential, crushing yet subtle, beautiful whilst ripping your head of.  What makes this stand apart is the sheer inventiveness of the record.  They have taken the metal blueprint (the one set down by Machine Head/Sepultura/Pantera) and completely re-vamped it.  Crazy guitar licks, insane lyrics (this is a concept album based around the story of Moby Dick – where the hell did they get that from?  Hardly fits the metal image, does it?), and what I assume to be a nine-armed drummer, combine to create something that is utterly unique.