This was a year I had a really hard time narrowing it down to just 10.  I had a pool of over 100 albums to sift through!  I thought I would be so amazing and clever and make it my Top 15 of '15. Unfortunately, it didn't make it any easier to narrow it down.  

I also paid more attention to non metal/prog, and I gotta say that I've been missing out all these years with my head down deep in the metals.  As a metalhead I guess I'm supposed to hate pop/rap/commerical BS, but I grew up on that stuff and also who cares what you think don't judge me.  I created a separate best of list for it because:

• I obviously love metal a helluva lot
• I don't pay as close attention to non-metal
• I want to show off how diverse and amazing I am
• STFU that's why

Little did I know that the year ahead of me was going to pretty awful, losing several music and pop culture icons and that whole WTF America thing in November.  I was looking forward to the new Dream Theater, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Gojira, Kvelertak, Hiromi, Meshuggah, Fallujah, Haken, and BABYMETAL!  

Looking ahead to 2016, I wanted to expand my face even more.  I listened to one song in every genre in Spotify and The Guardian's 101 Strangest Records on Spotify.  More on these things later.

Best 15 Albums of 2015

1)  Ghost Bath - Moonlover
2)  Periphery - Juggernaut
3)  Kauan - Sorni Nai
4)  Enslaved - In Times
5)  Ghost - Meliora
6)  Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase. 
7)  Native Construct - Quiet World
8)  Between the Buried and Me - Coma Ecliptic
9)  The Gentle Storm - The Diary
10) Deafheaven - New Bermuda
11) Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful
12) Earthside - A Dream in Static
13) So Hideous - Laurestine
14) Galar - De Gjenlevende
15) Alkaloid - The Malkuth Grimoire

Honorable Mentions:

Cyrax - Pictures
Secrets of the Sky - Pathway
Voices - London
The Armed - Untitled
Beardfish - +4626-COMFORTZONE
Maladie - Still
Chaos Divine - Colliding Skies
Vola - Inmazes
Thurisaz - The Pulse of Mourning
Leprous - The Congregation
The Hirsch Effekt - Holon: Anamnesis
The Night Flight Orchestra - Skyline Whispers
District 97 - In Vaults
Nile - What Should Not Be Unearthed
Dreadnought - Bridging Realms
Void of Sleep - New World Order
Shining - International Blackjazz Society
Intronaut - The Direction of Last Things
Wilderun - Sleep at the Edge of the Earth

Yeah yeah, I'm missing Napalm Death, Soilwork, etc.  There's just way too many more to list here.

Best Non-Metal Albums of 2015

1)  Dr. Dre - Compton  
2)  Gost - Behemoth
3)  Jaga Jazzist - Starfire 
4)  The Aristocrats - Tres Caballeros
5)  Meghan Trainor - Title
6)  Duran Duran - Paper Gods
7)  Skrillex and Diplo - Jack U
8)  Anna Von Hausswolff - Miraculous
9)  Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly  
10) Kamasi Washington - The Epic

Honorable Mentions:

Ibeyi - s/t
David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock
​Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion