Tool - 10,000 Days... Very nice to see that on your list James. Jambi sounds fantastic, that intro is so incredibly heavy. Wings for Marie and the title track are my favorites... Absolutely the best live band I have ever seen, and their Artist collaborations with Alex Grey are simply beautiful.
Clint Mansell - The Fountain, this soundtrack is so incredibly moving. It's with Mogwai and the Kronos Quartet. Listen and be enthralled.
The aforementioned were actually both mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering. I have found that pretty much everything he has touched sounds top notch.
Very nice call on Opeth - Blackwater Park... Damnation not so much, I was very happy to hear that Mikael said that he would never do anything like that ever again. I think Watershed is precisely the route they needed to take. With Mikael Akerfeldt back in Bloodbath it is no surprise that Opeth has taken on a more aggresive approach, I like the new members much more. It seems that alot of people were sad that Martin and Peter left, but as you can see Opeth has had at leat 8 members come and go, so Still Life, Blackwater Park, Deliverance & Damantion were just a phase.... The fact that Mikael can put out such great material with every release is a testament to his artistry.
Heavy metal gets alot of slack and isn't really counted as music by a lot of people. Sure the production is crap 9 out of every 10 albums... But metal is music too!
