It’s about that time of year for people to start posting their ‘best of 2009′ lists; Decibel’s top 40 list is already being discussed in various forums, and other lists are sure to follow soon. I’m not yet ready to post my own yet (waiting to hear The Ruins of Beverast’s new one first!), but it’s never too early to look ahead to what’s coming out in the early months of 2010. Here are a few of the albums I’m looking forward to, in no particular order:

Dark Tribe - Archaic Visions
Dark Tribe’s follow up to 2004’s disturbing In Jeraspunta should hopefully come out next year.

Lantlôs - .neon
Lantlôs is another one of those post-black metal projects involving Neige. He only contributes vocals in this band though.

Farsot - To Be Announced
Farsot’s killer debut was one of my favorite releases from 2008, so I’m eager to see how their next album turns out.

Imperium Dekadenz - Procella Vadens
Imperium Dekadenz’s third album should come out January 18th on Season of Mist, so fans of this band won’t have to wait much longer.

Forgotten Tomb - Under Saturn Retrograde
Negative Megalomania seems to have turned a fair amount of people off with the addition of clean vocals and some modernization of the trademark Forgotten Tomb sound. Nevertheless it should be interesting to see how the new album turns out.

Forest Silence - Wintercult
Hungary’s Forest Silence, a side project of Sear Bliss keyboardist Winter, are scheduled to release their sophomore album in January.

Gorath - MXCII
Gorath’s last album Misotheism is another that blew me away in 2008. The new track on Gorath’s MySpace page is honestly a bit underwhelming, but hopefully it isn’t representative of how the new album will sound.

Ondskapt - Arisen From The Ashes
Dodens Evangelium was an amazing album, but Ondskapt have gone through some lineup changes since that album came out four years ago, so it remains to be seen whether that will impact the new album.

Tenhi - Saivo
Tenhi is one of those neofolk bands that gets associated with the metal scene, and in my opinion they are by far the best of the bunch.

Nightbringer - Apocalypse Sun
I couldn’t really get into Nightbringer’s last album, but the samples from Apocalypse Sun sound a step above their previous work, so I’m really looking forward to hearing the new stuff from these guys.

Urfaust - To Be Announced
The next full length from crazy Dutch black metal duo Urfaust should come out next year on Ván Records.
What other albums are you looking forward to in 2010? Leave it in the comments.