Yep, lets see if I can pull this off this year:

Black Metal

Alcest (Fra) - Les voyage De L'Ame (Shoegaze/Atmospheric Black) 8/10
Annorkoth (Rus) - Annorkoth (Depressive Black Metal/Ambient) 7.5/10
Azaghal (Swe) - Nemesis (Aggressive Black Metal) 7.5/10
Dodecahedron (Hol) - Dodecahedron (Experimental/Atmospheric Black Metal) 8.5/10
Moonfrost (Swz) - Starfall (Atmospheric Black Metal) 7/10
Owlscry (US-WI) - Fruitful Wounds (Atmospheric Black Metal) 7.5/10
Sear Bliss (Grc) - Eternal Recurrence (Atmospheric Black Metal) 9/10
Wildernessking (SA) - The Writing of Gods in the Sand (Atmospheric Black) 8.5/10

Death Metal

Abominable Putridity (Rus) - The Anomalies of Artificial Origin 6/10
Desecravity…

This year since I'm writing for Metal-Observer I suppose it only makes sense to follow their ranking system:

10 - What, you are still here?! Get it! If you don't have the cash, sell your soul…
9 - For those about to rock…This CD's for you!
8 - Start counting your pennies…
7 - Worth putting on your check-out list!
6 – Discount bin treasure…
5 - Identity crisis, not good, not really bad…
4 - Houston, we have a problem…
3 - Waste of money, not much hope!
2 - A good beer coaster, also usable as CD, if…

Yeah, I wrote this a couple weeks ago, but I'm way too lazy to edit it further:

Well, so far this year we have one hell of a year for metal. I think that this could easily match last year which was fucking phenomenal. So right now on this the unholiest of days (6/6/06) I feel its a good time to start talking about the best releases (of the unholiest of music) so far this year. Alright fuckers, unleash your top 15's for the first half of the year.

Now for those of you that are going to be inane…