Picking a Best of 2015 list wasn’t easy. A few albums were outstanding, but I sometimes had a hard time finding new music that connected.

Uncompromising, unafraid and utterly cool, the late Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister embodied the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll.

‘Condition Human’ marks the full return of the Queensryche that I know and love.

In a year that, for me at least, has been largely uninspiring on the music front, Amorphis’ ‘Under the Red Cloud’ is a glittering jewel.

Glenn Danzig has a pretty good history with covers, and ‘Skeletons’ makes a direct reference to that with another Elvis Presley song.

The campy Halloween film ‘Trick or Treat’ doesn’t hold up so well anymore. But Fastway’s original soundtrack? That’s another matter entirely.

‘The Pale Emperor,’ more than any from Marilyn Manson in the intervening years, seems like the natural successor to ‘Mechanical Animals.’

Does ‘Repentless’ match Slayer’s classics? Not really. But it’s probably the best complete album they’ve done in decades and, for me, that’ll do.

Savatage’s classic ‘Hall of the Mountain King,’ released on Sept. 28, 1987, was an eye-opening experience for first-time producer Paul O’Neill.

Much like Christopher Bowes’ other band Alestorm, Gloryhammer doesn’t take its themes too seriously. The music, however, is another matter.