Near on two weeks into the new year it's safe to assume that we've all had our fill of best of year lists. 2013 was an excellent year for metal, seeing new releases from legends Black Sabbath and Dream Theater plus a plethora of outstanding albums from a variety of bands across the multitudinous sub-genres of metal. Now that we're done looking wistfully back at the year that was the question quickly becomes, what will 2014 bring? What bands are poised to unleash new metal brutality upon an unsuspecting world? Which of all the forthcoming new releases, both scheduled and rumoured, are we most anticipating? A word on the selection process is in order: by no means is this intended to be a definitive list, 'the top 10' or all that sort of thing. The criteria for those chosen are entirely subjective. If we missed a release that you are positively salivating over then by all means, share it with us in the comment section. Without further ado then, read on brothers and sisters in metal; while we can't list them all, here's a look at ten of the year's most highly anticipated heavy metal releases.