Yeah finding NEW stuff that sticks out to me is not as easy either, though also find plenty of noise I used to listen to in the 00s to be not as good as I remembered it to be. I'm more excited about anything released before 1985 for most genres of music now, but I also see that as just getting older, personally. By a certain point you know what you want and you go towards that direction, and find it harder to look elsewhere.
This year it's pretty hard for me to make top ten album list, even more so than last year, but hey at least there is a list. The Skeleton Dust Contemporary Harsh Noise series come to mind, Good Area's Dilettante Cassette and this new Vat tape I'm playing and Gene Pick. There certainly isn't a lack of talent but maybe a daunting amount of it, and names I used to follow now play the Boiler Room. Well I still enjoy Container, though maybe that would be too happy for the people around here.
Just for the person asking me why I think NOISE IS DEAD, this year is also the first year I did not self release anything, my tapes put out by 4 different labels and probably played more shows this year than ever, sometimes with enthusiastic audience interactions that have knocked the gear out my table despite people holding it down. For my situation right now, to think noise is dead is just preposterous. Noise is dead to me when I'm dead.