Checked out all the competition now. As predicted I liked Xerath and The Ocean. Liked The Ocean more and can see why it won the round. As Mike said, I like the sound of the concept of the album and will be checking that out soon.
I quite liked the track by The Sword too. Heard them way back on one of the Guitar Hero games and liked them, they seem in the vein of bands like Wolfmother and Priestess. I'll get around to them one day, really like the cover art to the album too.
Listened to some Shining before and this song was anything but predictable, has me interested but may take a while to get around to it.
The rest was cool but nothing else I will necessarily check out, already have that Angra album and may get some more in the future.