I had a great 2009, which may put me out of step with the Zeitgeist. Keep that in mind if you seek a deeper meaning in this often sunny, often Scandinavian hard-rock and metal list. In the immortal words of April Wine, it means I like to rock.

Leverage
Circus Colossus
Cinematic in its ambition (“Movie Gods”) and epic in its realization (“Wolf and the Moon”), this Finnish sextet’s third album delivers prog-tinged, synth-blessed heavy rock at its finest. If anyone penned a more inspirational anthem than guitarist-songwriter Tuomas Heikkinen’s “Rider of Storm” this year, I’d like to hear it.

Leverage's "Rider Of Storm".

HammerFall
No Sacrifice, No Victory
Like hockey’s Sedin twins, the Swedish power-metal songwriting duo of axeman Oscar Dronjak and vocalist Joacim Cans delivers pure chemistry year after year, not always lauded, but always reliable. Seven albums in, HammerFall still brings a knack for optimistic, defiant sing-alongs (“Life Is Now”), ultra-catchy riffs (“Punish and Enslave”), and colourful covers (“My Sharona”).

HammerFall's "No Sacrifice No Victory".

Amorphis
Skyforger
From the folkloric reveries of “Highest Star” to the soaring cadences of “Course of Fate”, the 20-year metal veterans rhapsodize and roar their way with style through the follow-up to 2007’s Silent Waters. Lyrically, it’s great PR for Ilmarinen, the creator-blacksmith of Finnish legend.

Amorphis' "Sky Is Mine".

W.E.T.
W.E.T.
Ex–Yngwie Malmsteen singer Jeff Scott Soto rebounds nicely here after getting fired from his retirement-fund gig fronting Journey. His cascading-waterfall vocals propel this brand-new trio’s glistening, ’80s-style hard rockers like “One Love” and “Invincible”.

W.E.T.'s "One Love".

3 Inches of Blood
Here Waits Thy Doom
When Cam Pipes shrieks in his Rob Halford–esque falsetto, “Beware the preacher’s daughter,” you wonder if it’s about a night of passion gone wrong in Abbotsford. The Vancouver metal traditionalists unapologetically ram out ’70s chord changes and humorous D&D lyrics on an album that’s a grower.

3 Inches of Blood's "Rock In Hell".