These are the 3 BANDS that really surprised you this year by coming totally out of left field and wowing you with their work. It may not have been your favorite, but perhaps it's something to look forward to for the future.

1. No Trigger: I saw these guys live opening for the Aquabats and they blew my mind, then I got their album and it was even more stunning. The best punk act this year in my opinion and they're only going to get better.

2. Keep of Kalessin: These guys and Naglfar really got me going into the more melodic black metal thing. Very talented group and fun to listen to while still keeping the elements of old school blackness.

3. Dark Lunacy: These guys are pretty damn awesome, very gothic and gloomy while still keeping an up-tempo death metal feel to them. Very underrated band in general.

Honorable mentions:

Madder Mortem
Burn In Silence
The Phenomenauts

The Sword - ASDF, smoke more pot and listen to Age of Winters, probably my favorite metal album this year besides Pink

moe. - Jam bands suck. The Conch is a good album (I know it's 07 but who buys albums anymore).

Saves The Day - finally good again, maybe Dreamworks restricted them?

also: Slayer - Dave Lombardo needs to drum for every album, ever. I don't care what band or genre it is.

The Sword's record is good. I wasn't really surprised by anything this year, I guess. Anything that I figured would be good was.

EDIT: Actually, I was surpised by how fucking kick ass The Melvins managed to make their new record. Probably the best of 2006.

1. Raunchy - Up until now, the only metalcore band I ever liked was Despised Icon, and my interest in them is very casual. Death Pop Romance just pulled me in completely, though, no idea why.

Umm... I can't really think of anything else. Did they need to have a release in 2006 to qualify?

Les Claypool and his Fancy Band - Of Whales and Woe is a great album, and their live sound is really good. I'm liking this new lineup more than I ever liked Primus.

Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood - MMW has always been a good band, but adding Scofield was epic. They've been making some seriously good music lately.

The Rhythm Devils - The fact that this band exists surprises me. Both drummers from the dead, Gordon from Phish, and new lyrics by Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. Probably the closest to new Dead we'll ever see.

Not necessarily. Dark Lunacy and the Phenomenauts didn't on my list.

Just bands that did have some activity this year and caught your interest. It would be recommended that they released an album at least in 2005.

moe.- The Conch: See igotit4cheap's reply.

From First to Last- Heroine: I know I'll probably get a lot of hate for this but I was expecting more pop punk like "Dear Diary, My Teen Angst has a Body Count" but this CD is completely different and it's fantastic.

..That's about all I can think of for now.

moe. - The Conch - I'm not much of a fan for jam bands, but I love the album.
Diablo Swing Orchestra - The Butcher's Ballroom - I normally hate operatic female vocals, but this new group really caught me off guard with some pretty awesome stuff.

I don't have a third yet.

Oh, I got another one. Deicide - The Stench of Redemption is fucking awesome and I don't even like Deicide. Not even Legion or the s/t really. Ralph Santolla wins.

I can't get into Deicide. Glen Benton annoys the hell out of me.

I think he's an okay vocalist, but the general themes of his life (and subsequently Deicide's lyrics) are cartoonish at best. This album is seriously good, though, unless I'm just weird

Blood Brothers- Young Machete

They used to annoy me, but that was....a year or two ago. The album got leaked, so I checked it out, and I loved it.