Katatonia make it two successive wins this year, with their latest album emulating its predecessor's win -- and much like _The Great Cold Distance_ in 2006, this year _Night Is the New Day_ faced stern opposition from a harsher genre and came out with a narrow triumph. This time it was Deströyer 666 who took their _Defiance_ to the bitter end, only to have to settle for an impressive second place. Katatonia meanwhile deserve all the credit for joining Primordial as the only other band to have won the CoC Album of the Year award twice -- an amazing feat indeed.

The rest of the best we heard in 2009 shows just how diverse the musical tastes in CoC can be: Mastodon and Wolves in the Throne Room could hardly be more different, yet their _Crack the Skye_ and _Black Cascade_ split third place. Spare a thought for Wolves in the Throne Room however; not only was their _Black Cascade_ the most unanimously voted album (appearing in half of our individual lists), they also got two other nominations for their _Malevolent Grain_ EP -- including one as best record of the year. This means they become the first band ever to have two different releases in our top 10 list of the year, as their _Malevolent Grain_ EP also reaches number seven.

Close to the two Wolves in the Throne Room releases, several veterans make an appearance: Candlemass with _Death Magic Doom_ in a very respectable fifth and Nokturnal Mortum in a no less respectable sixth, while Immortal's _All Shall Fall_ had to settle for a perhaps slightly more disappointing eighth place and Amorphis fare no better than tenth with _Skyforger_. Wrapping up the list, Sólstafir and Cobalt make their first appearances with _Köld_ in ninth and _Gin_ in tenth respectively.

Not far from making the list, the likes of Peste Noire and The Ruins of Beverast would always have been underdogs; but for others like Cannibal Corpse, Converge, Drudkh, Napalm Death, Kreator or Marduk, more was to be expected.

Enjoy the lists, and see you again next year...

CoC Writers' Best Albums of 2009

1. Katatonia - _Night Is the New Day_
2. Deströyer 666 - _Defiance_
3. Mastodon – _Crack the Skye_
=. Wolves in the Throne Room - _Black Cascade_
5. Candlemass - _Death Magic Doom_
6. Nokturnal Mortum - _The Voice of Steel_
7. Wolves in the Throne Room - _Malevolent Grain_ EP
8. Immortal - _All Shall Fall_
9. Sólstafir - _Köld_
10. Amorphis – _Skyforger_
=. Cobalt – _Gin_

Pedro Azevedo's Top 10

1. Wolves in the Throne Room - _Malevolent Grain_ EP
2. Code - _Resplendent Grotesque_
3. Deströyer 666 - _Defiance_
4. Fen - _The Malediction Fields_
5. Katatonia - _Night Is the New Day_
6. Insomnium - _Across the Dark_
7. Paradise Lost - _Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us_
8. Candlemass - _Death Magic Doom_
9. Madder Mortem - _Eight Ways_
10. Wolves in the Throne Room - _Black Cascade_

Jackie Smit's Top 10

1. Goatwhore - _Carving Out the Eyes of God_
2. Burnt by the Sun - _Heart of Darkness_
3. Cobalt - _Gin_
4. Deströyer 666 - _Defiance_
5. Cannibal Corpse - _Evisceration Plague_
6. Nile - _Those Whom the Gods Detest_
7. Napalm Death - _Time Waits for No Slave_
8. Behemoth - _Evangelion_
9. Paradise Lost - _Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us_
10. Earth Crisis - _To the Death_

Quentin Kalis' Top 10

1. Immortal - _All Shall Fall_
2. Marduk - _Wormwood_
3. Deströyer 666 - _Defiance_
4. Sólstafir - _Köld_
5. Katatonia - _Night Is the New Day_
6. Candlemass - _Death Magic Doom_
7. The Ruins of Beverast - _Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite_
8. Ahab - _The Divinity of Oceans_
9. Wolves in the Throne Room - _Black Cascade_
10. The Beast of the Apocalypse – _A Voice From the Four Horns of the Golden Altar_

Kostas Sarampalis' Top 10

1. Nokturnal Mortum – _The Voice of Steel_
2. Sólstafir - _Köld_
3. Wolves in the Throne Room – _Malevolent Grain_ EP
4. Samael – _Above_
5. Mastodon – _Crack the Skye_
6. Wolves in the Throne Room - _Black Cascade_
7. Amorphis – _Skyforger_
8. Minsk – _With Echoes in the Movement of Stone_
9. While Heaven Wept - _Vast Oceans Lachrymose_
10. Madder Mortem – _Eight Ways_

Jeremy Ulrey's Top 10

1. Sunn O))) - _Monoliths and Dimensions_
2. Wolves in the Throne Room - _Black Cascade_
3. Converge - _Axe to Fall_
4. Jesu - _Infinity_
5. Candlemass - _Death Magic Doom_
6. Napalm Death - _Time Waits for No Slave_
7. Clutch - _Strange Cousins from the West_
8. Immortal - _All Shall Fall_
9. Marduk - _Wormwood_
10. Behemoth - _Evangelion_

Alexandra Erickson's Top 10

1. Skogen - _Vittra_
2. The Ruins of Beverast - _Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite_
3. Destruktor - _Nailed_
4. The Gates of Slumber - _Hymns of Blood and Thunder_
5. Funeral Mist - _Maranatha_
6. Deströyer 666 - _Defiance_
7. Drudkh - _Microcosmos_
8. Beherit - _Engram_
9. Mournful Congregation - _The June Frost_
10. Isole - _Silent Ruins_

Colleen Burton's Top 10

1. Amorphis – _Skyforger_
2. Wardruna – _Runaljod - Gap Var Ginnunga_
3. Altar of Plagues - _White Tomb_
4. Candlemass – _Death Magic Doom_
5. Cobalt – _Gin_
6. Revocation – _Existence Is Futile_
7. Absu – _Absu_
8. Arkona - _Goi, Rode, Goi!_
9. Blut Aus Nord - _Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars_
10. Kylesa – _Static Tensions_

Aly Hassab El Naby's Top 10

1. Between the Buried and Me - _The Great Misdirect_
2. Isis - _Wavering Radiant_
3. Mastodon - _Crack the Skye_
4. Kreator - _Hordes of Chaos_
5. Lamb of God - _Wrath_
6. Converge - _Axe to Fall_
7. Napalm Death - _Time Waits for No Slave_
8. Slayer - _World Painted Blood_
9. Gazpacho - _Tick Tock_
10. Callisto - _Providence_

Mark Dolson's Top 10

1. Synestesia - _Feeniks_
2. Barren Earth - _Our Twilight_ EP
3. Hearse - _Single Ticket to Paradise_
4. God Dethroned - _Passiondaele_
5. Novembers Doom - _Into Night's Requiem Infernal_
6. Arthemesia - _a.O.a_
7. Immortal - _All Shall Fall_
8. F.K.Ü. - _Where Moshers Dwell_
9. Autumnblaze - _Perdition Diaries_
10. Black Sun Aeon - _Darkness Walks Beside Me_

Aaron McKay's Top 10

1. Katatonia - _Night Is the New Day_
2. Obituary - _Darkest Day_
3. Cynic - _Traced in Air_
4. Cannibal Corpse - _Evisceration Plague_
5. Asphyx - _Death... The Brutal Way_
6. Kreator - _Hordes of Chaos_
7. Nachtmystium - _Doomsday Derelicts_
8. Brutal Truth - _Evolution Through Revolution_
9. Novembers Doom - _Into Night's Requiem Infernal_
10. Drudkh - _Microcosmos_

Nikola Shahpazov's Top 10

1. Mastodon - _Crack the Skye_
2. Nokturnal Mortum - _The Voice of Steel_
3. Drudkh - _Microcosmos_
4. Katatonia - _Night Is the New Day_
5. Amesoeurs - _Amesoeurs_
6. Wolves in the Throne Room - _Black Cascade_
7. Peste Noire - _Ballade cuntre lo Anemi Francor_
8. Paradise Lost - _Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us_
9. Sunn O))) - _Monoliths and Dimensions_
10. Marduk - _Wormwood_

Simon Martin's Top 10

1. Portal - _Swarth_
2. Peste Noire - _Ballade cuntre lo Anemi Francor_
3. Wrath of the Weak - _Perrse_
4. Alcest / Les Discrets - split vinyl
5. Infernal War - _Conflagrator_
6. Amesoeurs - _Amesoeurs_
7. Austere - _To Lay Like Old Ashes_
8. Plegma / Stagnant Waters - _Sea of Abandoned Polaroids_
9. Wolves in the Throne Room - _Black Cascade_
10. Glorior Belli - _Meet Us at the Southern Sign_