Without question,
Krisiun - Southern Storm
No other album this year has come close to flooring me. I was only midly interested in Krisiun before this release, all their past albums sounded very average, middle-of-the-road death metal. But somehow everything clicks on Southern Storm, not a weak song to be found. The monstrously heavy riffs, warping and twisting guitar solos, relentless yet well-placed blastbeats, in-your-face production job....WOW.
This is aural devastation, the true essence of death metal in 2008. If you're even remotely into death metal, you'd be missing out if you didn't pick this up.