Blog → Top 10 Albums of 2011

This is the first year I really tried to keep up with releases, but it turns out I picked a bad year for that. As I said in my top songs list, 2011 sucked for albums. It was a major release year - a ton of prominent artists released a new album this last year, and almost all of them were disappointments on some level... including ones that are actually making this list. That is what I find most disappointing - that my top 10 list has albums that were, in general, disappointing. It was also a great year for me though, in that I discovered artists I wouldn't have otherwise. Several of those are making this list as well. What's most important though is that I discovered artists this year that didn't release anything new. This proves that, with all the disappointment, there is always great stuff already out which must be heard!

Now, on with the list....



Honorable Mention: Blood Stain Child - εpsilon
I was really surprised by this album. I really was not a fan of any of Blood Stain Child's past albums. Each one had about one or two songs per album that I enjoyed, and the rest was just... boring. Then they released this, and honestly.... I'm not even sure I'd include this in a top 15 list. The reason this makes it as my primary honorable mention is because of how much of an improvement this is. There's nothing incredibly excellent here, but there's nothing bad either. I think most of the success is by including of the new vocalist, Sophia, who has a very beautiful voice (and is quite pretty herself also!). If I recall correctly, she also was a primary song writer of the album, which might have a lot to do with it as well. My one biggest fault with this record is how the metal elements have been downtuned so much. The electronic elements dominate over the entire record, to the point the guitar usually never stands out. For an electronic music fan, this may be album of the year material, and since I do like electronic music, I like this... but as primarily a metal fan... I'm unconvinced. Still, it's a good album for what it is, and hopefully they'll bring out more of the metal in the next release.

Highlight: As I said above, there's nothing that really stands out as better than the rest, but I'd say "Forever Free" and "Moon Light Wave are the best if pressured.



#10: Moonsorrow - Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa
Atmospheric, emotional, full of beautiful folk melodies... all words that describe this album. Unfortunately, another word that really describes this album is REPETITIVE! Often when I listen to this, I just wish they'd cut out the superfluous nonsense and give me a 5 minute version of the four main tracks. Honestly, though, if they did that, this record would likely not be nearly as good as it is. All of that drone really builds up the atmosphere. Sadly, the parts that aren't laced with folk melodies are fairly unmemorable for me... but somehow, that makes me want to keep coming back and listening to it. This is absolutely perfect background music for gaming (especially RPGs and adventure games, because the sense of journey the music conveys goes great with that) and studying, but this is definitely not music for one looking for guitar wankery and complex rhythms.

Highlight: "Huuto" is definitely the best track here, but it'd be foolish to single out one track from the album. The atmosphere comes with the experience of listening to this from beginning to end. As good as "Huuto" is, I'd rarely choose to listen to it alone, or anything else here.



#9: Chthonic - Takasago Army
What reason is there for me not to like this? Symphonic, oriental folk, melodic, and extreme metals all in one? It's like a clusterfuck of my favorite genres! Well, I didn't like this quite as much as I would've hoped, but it was still very good. Considering, from what I've read, this is supposed to be worse than their prior two albums, I am quite excited to check those out as well.

Highlight: Opener "The Island" is amazing, and so is the following "Legacy Of The Seediq."



#8: The Human Abstract - Digital Veil
This is probably number two on my list of "unexpectedly brilliant." Considering these guys are labeled as metalcore, a style I really don't like much anymore, and the vocalist is from my least favorite band of ALL TIME, I did not expect to like this at all. Wow, was I surprised! This is some bloody brilliant neo-classical influenced progressive metal. While the clean vocals are a bit whiny at times, they're typically pretty good. What's particularly noteworthy is that I don't even like the songs "Digital Veil" or "Holographic Sight," and this still made my list! THAT is how good the rest of it is.

Highlight: "Antebellum"



#7: Vintersorg - Jordpuls
I must confess my dislike of black metal and all of its related sub-genres. I really don't know why I dislike it all so much; I love most death metal sub-genres (though I don't much care for straight death metal). Vintersorg, though, is my guilty pleasure, and I'm not sure why that is either... perhaps it is because the beauty of Vintersorg's black-influenced folk is so damn entrancing. Whatever the reason, I do love Vintersorg. That said, Cosmic Genesis is one of the best albums of the last decade, but he hasn't released such a solid album since. Jordpuls is no exception, yet even considering that, this is a beautiful album. The folk stuff is fantastic, there's enough progressive elements to dig into the music, and the black metal adds just the right amount of extremity. Unfortunately, this album is still guilty of some of the black metal stuff I dislike, such as the empty production and occasional need to senselessly bash the drums. The folk melodies often are buried too deep in the mix and sound exceptionally synthetic. The fact that the album has all of these flaws and still manages to make it this high in the list says a lot about Vintersorg's songwriting capabilities.

Highlight: "Klippor Och Skär" is so good it makes the other great songs of the album - most notably "Mörk Nebulosa" - seem weak. Easily one of Vintersorg's best. THE CHORUS IS STUCK IN MY HEAD, AND IT WON'T GET OUT!



#6: Anubis Gate - Anubis Gate
It's been years since I was so pleased with such an unknown band. HOW ARE THESE GUYS NOT MORE POPULAR?! This is the greatest in their great discography and they seriously need more recognition. They deserve it.

Highlight: "Hold Back Tomorrow" - I also happen to love "World In a Dome" and "Desiderio Omnibus."



#5: Septicflesh - The Great Mass
I'd like to call this "symphonic horror music." Some of this stuff is so freak it's unbelievable. What really gets me though is how catchy it all is, without losing the sophistication of the symphonic elements and the brutality of the death metal elements. My only real problem with this album is that the middle wanes down a bit, hitting its low with "The Undead Keep Dreaming" before continuing more mind-blowing freakiness right after to the end.

Highlight: "Therianthropy" by far. "The Vampire from Nazareth" is also great (soundtrack to a psychopath indeed!), and so is "Pyramid God."



#4: Rhapsody of Fire - From Chaos To Eternity
I must also confess something else: despite the fact I quite enjoy power metal, I could never get into Rhapsody of Fire. I wasn't convinced I'd like this album very much either... until I actually heard it. I don't know if this is much different from their past material, but the material here has so much.... power! It's been a long time since power metal has grabbed me up this way. Again, the early-middle of the album wanes down (why do so damn many albums do that?!), but even those tracks are better than most stuff released this year, and a lot of the songs on albums already on this list. This is truly great, and I will be checking out their backlog immediately.

Highlight: "Heroes of the Waterfalls' Kingdom" for all the reasons listed in my top 10 songs list, but the album starts delivering top notch stuff right from "Aeons of Raging Darkness" and does not stop until the entire album is over. "I Belong to the Stars and "Tornado" are just as good.



#3: Amorphis - The Beginning of Times
Now here's one album that has been undeservedly ignored. Most fans seem to think it's not nearly as good as their last three, and I don't understand that. Maybe it's because I just started listening to Amorphis right before this came out, but I definitely enjoyed this just as much as Eclipse, Silent Waters, and Skyforger. I won't deny that there's some obvious filler in here (most notably in the three tracks before "Beginning Of Time"), but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that this is a 12 track album instead of the usual 10. I'd also say that their three prior albums had a bit of filler as well. Besides, honestly, Amorphis filler is better than the non-filler of a lot of other bands. As time has passed, I can kind of see how this album can be considered slightly worse than their last stuff, but this is still fan-freakin'-tastic. You should know Amorphis by now, and you should know what to expect with this.

Highlight: "Mermaid" is indeed the best, but "Song Of The Sage" could have easily made my top 10 list as well. So could three or four other songs on this album, actually... hmmm.



#2: Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows
This is my number 1 biggest surprise of the year. I have almost every one of their past albums, and just like Blood Stain Child... I didn't care for most of them. A good track here and there, that's what it amounted to. While The Redshift was pretty decent, it still wasn't anything to write home about for me. Then comes New World Shadows... and just... wow. I was so freakin' amazed by this album. Melodic death metal is a genre that has SERIOUSLY stagnated in recent years, and Omnium Gatherum came up and released one of the best albums of this style - not just in recent years, but ever. It has an immediate appeal, but it's has a growing appeal as well. That is what every album should be. I'll be surprised if they can top this, but at least they released one superior album.

Highlight: I'm pretty sure I made it clear that "Everfields," "New World Shadows," and "Deep Cold" make a trilogy of awesome for me, but everything here is great.



#1: Scar Symmetry - The Unseen Empire
Pretty much everyone who knows me probably saw this topping my list... and that is because I am a major Scar Symmetry fanboy. I guess they can do no wrong with me, and this proves it! While I'm one of the few people who seriously enjoyed Dark Matter Dimensions while still recognizing it as inferior to their previous efforts, I'm not sure I would've been ready for them to stick with that technical-driven approach ahead of their usual melody-driven approach. Well, I'm happy they didn't, because they released a real piece of work with this one! This is prime material, and up there as one of their best. It's almost as good as Holographic Universe! This also is probably cover art of the year for me.

Highlight: EVERYTHING! "The Draconian Arrival" is the best one on here though, and indeed one of their best period. I also happen to consider "Domination Agenda" and "Astronomicon" as auralgasms.


Biggest Disappointments of 2011:

#1: Opeth - Heritage
I stuck with Opeth when everybody was saying Watershed sucks, but I can't stick with them through Heritage. It has nothing to do with the style - Damnation is my favorite album of theirs. It has to do with the BORING songwriting. Yeah... no. I expect better from Opeth. This album is "average" at best.

#2: Protest the Hero - Scurrilous
This is probably one of the worst albums I've heard in 2011. Aside from "C'est la Vie," I could hardly stand to listen to anything from this album once. In retrospect, I'm not surprised. I loved Kezia because of how well it mixed the crazy riffs with poppy melodies, but Fortress already showed signs of weakness. It showed signs of maturing. I forgave it of its weaknesses though, because it contained my two favorite Protest the Hero songs ("Bone Marrow" and "Sequoia Throne"). Scurrilous is just a further progression into that more mature sound, but that didn't mean it had to be so generic. I can't forgive this one of its mistakes. I will say though that this is runner up for cover art of the year. Very cool, especially knowing the background and meaning of the painting.

#3: Iced Earth - Dystopia
Pretty much the same thing going on here as Heritage. I loved their last album despite most hating it. Somehow, everyone is seeing this as some awesome "return to form" for Iced Earth.... I'm still unconvinced. It's a good album I guess, but The Crucible Of Man was fucking awesome, and this isn't.

#4: In Flames - Sounds of a Playground Fading
Yet again, I really enjoyed all of their last albums, including A Sense of Purpose. Then they released this monstrosity....

#5: Battlelore - Doombound
Another one of the worst albums I heard in 2011, but it wasn't nearly as much of a disappointment, as my only other experience with them was with their album Evernight. I thought Evernight was quite good though, and this is not.


Other Cool Albums:

Voyager - The Meaning of I — Never has progressive metal been so fun.
Insomnium - One for Sorrow — A simultaneous disappointment and honorable mention - not quite as good as their prior stuff, but still a solid album. I just wish parts of it didn't feel so happy, because that's not an adjective that is supposed to go with Insomnium.
Leprous - Bilateral — You could say this is what I wanted Scurrilous to be. More fun prog with crazy, addictive, poppy melodies.
Nightwish - Imaginaerum — Great album, and much more solid than their last release.
Theocracy - As The World Bleeds — Let's just call this a Christian version of Anubis Gate. Anubis Gate made the list and not this because more of the material falls flat during the middle.
Fleshgod Apocalypse - Agony — Let's call this a more brutal version of The Great Mass. With the drums pissing so much all over everything, it didn't really appeal to me, but the orchestration is very tight.
Falconer - Armod — Folky power metal! YEEHAW! I didn't quite enjoy this as much as many others, but it's quite good nonetheless.

It's always a difficulty picking the #10 spot. Really, almost any of these could've been it instead, but were booted off by Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa for one reason or another.

Well, I've noticed that it's difficult to hear everything the year has to offer, and by that I mean it's impossible. I'm still discovering stuff from previous years (if that wasn't obvious already), so perhaps, as I eventually uncover more muck from 2011, I'll uncover a few gems as well that will worm their way into this list. I can think of a few albums already that I never got the time to check out.

My top 10 songs of 2011 and some honorable mentions.
My 2011 albums, so you can perhaps suggest something I don't have.
Some 2012 albums for you to look forward to.

Now, let us hope for a much better year in 2012 (musically and otherwise), and that we do not die at the end of it!