Nogod - Love & Stand Up
I have no recollection of these songs. 

Pelican - Ataraxia Taraxis
The dilemma here is that nothing Pelican releases will ever be The Fire in Our Throats again. But this EP is the closest they’ve come since 2006.

The Pretty Reckless - Hit Me Like a Man
Not bad, but I want more raunchy riffs and clever wordplay! 

Rogue Sounds - Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite
Unfocused, and too much digital/computery blooping forsakes some decent guitar riffing. “25th Parallel North” is cool tho.

Ruiza - Abyss 
Um, I think he plays … guitar … on this? VK solo albums have a pretty spotty track record.

Sex Machineguns - Remix Best
Has that extremely dated Velfare eurobeat thing going on. 

Six Magics - Falling Angels
Rocks.Bonus points for possibly naming themselves after Megadeth’s “Five Magics”. 

Testament - Dark Roots of Earth
Just off the top of my head: has there ever been a year when a new album by Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, or (the fifth of the Big Four, imho) Testament wasn’t released? This one’s alright, heavy as usual, but I prefer the Practice/Souls era.

Tori Amos - Gold Dust
Tori + orchestra redoing her classic hits. I prefer her classic hits the old way. 

Van Halen - A Different Kind of Suck
The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull of rock. 

Various Artists - L’Arc~en~ciel Tribute
Japan loves tribute albums, and this one collects a fair number of second-rate western talents, and manages to come up with some decent second-rate covers. But enough with the tributes already, it’s so turn-of-the-millenium!  

What the Blood Revealed - Harbour of Devils
Rusty, jagged post-metal, sometimes swampy, sometimes jazzy.  

~fin~