Top Albums of 2011 (Invisible Oranges poll).

chin_grin

Just got this in my feeds. Should be a good list. (Of course it's not going to be perfect but I like the way it was tallied).

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2011/12/top-albums-of-2011-75-to-51/

Starting next Monday, December 19, and continuing through Friday, December 23, Invisible Oranges will publish its list of the top 50 albums of 2011. We’re featuring 10 albums per day, starting at 50 and counting down to 1.

Our methodology for determining this list was as follows:

All Invisible Oranges contributors and editorial staff (20 people in total) were polled and allowed to cast a ballot. Each voter was given 210 points to divvy up between 20 albums. The hitch: no album could receive more than 20 points or fewer than 1 point. The easiest way to do this was for the voter to allocate 20 points to his or her No. 1 album, while his or her No. 20 album got 1 point (counting down or up from those poles, in one-point increments). Voters choosing to include fewer than 20 albums had their total points allowance diminished commensurately.

When all votes were cast, we added up the total points for each album. The No. 1 album (which will be revealed next Friday) received the most total points; the No. 50 album (which will be revealed next Monday) received the 50th most total points. In all, 229 albums received votes.

In this way, we hoped to achieve something of a democratic system for determining the top albums of 2011. No one person’s taste influenced this list more than that of any other person—it was the result of a collaboration; the sum of our listening habits, personalities and preferences.

Our only parameters were that the albums be somehow characterized as “heavy metal”: EPs as well as LPs were eligible; demos and cassette-only releases were fine, too. We defined 2011 loosely, too: the work didn’t need an official 2011 release date to be eligible—as long as 2011 was the year during which the album made its impact. (We also allowed for consideration albums such as Kvelertak and Opus Eponymous—both of which were released and widely celebrated in 2010 but were released in the United States in 2011.)

Those were the rules we played by. For now, we’re offering a look at what just missed the list: albums 75 to 51. Why start at 75? Well, every one of the 25 albums listed here received at least 20 points: enough to qualify for a single first-place vote, and thus, enough to warrant a mention. But also because, in my opinion anyway, the upper reaches of these lists are often much more interesting than the winners’ circles. Please let us know your favorites of 2011, too, and let us know what we missed. With that, we commence the countdown (and the ensuing arguments)!

— Mike Nelson
75. Crooked Necks – Alright Is Exactly What It Isn’t
74. Ravencult – Morbid Blood
73. Drugs of Faith – Corroded
72. Dornenreich – Flammentriebe
71. Fen – Epoch
70. Russian Circles – Empros
69. Black Tusk – Set the Dial
68. Raspberry Bulbs – Nature Tries Again
67. In Solitude – The World, The Flesh, The Devil
66. Giant Squid – Cenotes
65. Encoffination – O’Hell, Shine In Thy Whited Sepulchres
64. All Pigs Must Die – God Is War
63. Rotten Sound – Cursed
62. Glorior Belli – The Great Southern Darkness
61. Earth – Angels of Darkness Demons of Light part 1
60. Subrosa – No Help for the Mighty Ones
59. KEN Mode – Venerable
58. Antediluvian – Through the Cervix Of Hawwah
57. Wolvhammer – The Obsidian Plains
56. Acid Witch – Stoned
55. Rotted – Ad Nauseam
54. Jungle Rot – Kill On Command
53. Midnight – Satanic Royalty
52. Oranssi Pazuzu – Kosmonument
51. Rwake – Rest

The bands that I've bolded are the albums I've listened to and they're f*ckin' amazing. So I've high hopes for the top 50! Might introduce me to other bands and styles I may have overlooked.

Malice

Well I'm off to a bad start. I don't think I've heard of any of those bands!

chin_grin

Malice wrote: »

Well I'm off to a bad start. I don't think I've heard of any of those bands!

........and you call yourself a mod..........:pac: (Joking! Joking! OW OW OW JOKING!).

Malice

Evidently I need to listen to more music from bands I don't know.

viadah

All blanks to me too, but a lot of it I can imagine what it sounds like ('O’Hell, Shine In Thy Whited Sepulchres' sounds exactly as expected, for example).

Should be an interesting list, as long as Korn aren't top of the list. I vote chin to keep this thread up to date over the next few days!

chin_grin

viadah wrote: »

All blanks to me too, but a lot of it I can imagine what it sounds like ('O’Hell, Shine In Thy Whited Sepulchres' sounds exactly as expected, for example).

Should be an interesting list, as long as Korn aren't top of the list. I vote chin to keep this thread up to date over the next few days!

Well that's what I was going to do! As it was posted on invisible oranges (still a great name!) I was going to copy it here and see what yee think (if that's ok with Malice?). I'd highly doubt that Korn would be top. But sure stranger things have happened.

I'm thankful that Metal Archives exists so I can search and check out a few of each bands tracks (on myspace or facebook).

Only heard of three bands in that list, so I can't slag.

Went to see the Rotted when they supported Grave and Misery Index (amazing show).

SilverScreen

The only album I've listened to from that list is Fen – Epoch. While it's a decent enough album there's better bands out there playing atmospheric black metal than them.

I don't listen to as much metal as I used to but my favourite metal albums of the year are Thy Catafalque - Reneteg, Altar of Plagues - Mammal and Woods of Desolation - Torn Beyond Reason.

chin_grin

Just posted up 50 - 41.

50. Batillus – Furnace (Seventh Rule Recordings, USA)

49. Moonsorrow – Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa (Spinefarm Records, Sweden)

48. Peste Noire – L’Ordure A l’etat Pur (Transcendental Creations, France)

47. Hate Eternal – Phoenix Amongst the Ashes (Metal Blade, USA)

46. Graveyard – Hisingen Blues (Nuclear Blast, Sweden)

45. Nader Sadek – In The Flesh (Season of Mist, USA)

44. Skeletonwitch – Forever Abomination (Prosthetic Records, USA)

43. Oskoreien – Oskoreien (Seventh Seal Records, USA)

42. Barghest – Barghest (Big Mountain/Gilead Media, USA)

41. Cormorant – Dwellings (USA)

I've heard the Skeletonwitch and Hate Eternal ones (great too). If you want links to vids and also to interviews it's on the site.

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2011/12/top-albums-of-2011-50-to-41/

devildriver

It's a fairly eclectic list to say the least and seems to be a bit biased towards black metal.

I've never even heard of 95% of the bands so it's a great place to start discovering some new music.

Thanks to some diligent individual who has put as many of the bands as possible together on a Spotify list - I'm now knee deep in some very strange and interesting stuff.

Standouts so far are Acid Witch, Fen, Black Tusk (superb!!!) and Russian Circles (whom I had heard previously).

Spotify lists:

http://open.spotify.com/user/theblacklaser/playlist/66QBaAEWoLyCN8Bli8EXmY

http://open.spotify.com/user/chrisj1668/playlist/0vadc8T9KpZcg76tsZfXM4

chin_grin

40 - 31 up. (Vids on page).

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2011/12/top-albums-of-2011-40-to-31/

I'm going to be controversial here and go Absu, yes. Mastodon, hmmmmnah.

For an explanation of how we determined our Top 50 albums of 2011 (and for a look at albums 75 to 51), see our first post in the series, Top Albums of 2011, 75 to 51.


40. Deafheaven – Roads to Judah (Deathwish, USA)
“But, it’s not true black metal!” cry the traditionalists. “Who cares? It’s beautiful,” counter the believers. Thus, having birthed the largest cluster of “blackgaze” acts yet, 2011 saw the melée between the both ends of the underground reach Homeric proportions, with Deafheaven the band that launched a thousand ships. Roads to Judah vindicated both sides – its blown-out and sped-up hardcore riffing and distant howling has more in common with Envy than Emperor, actually warranting the use of the often mis-assigned screamo tag, while its constant snare and cymbal punishment kept one foot in the kvlt for most of its runtime. The San Francisco duo-turned-quintet didn’t set out to write the sequel to De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, but we couldn’t be happier. —Greg Majewski


39. Exhumed – All Guts No Glory (Relapse, USA)
A good album should be like a good meal: both enjoyable to the senses during its intake, and wholly satisfying upon completion. Such a blood-soaked flesh-feast is All Guts No Glory, the first album in six years by California-based gore metal innovators Exhumed. Clocking in at a concise 36-odd minutes, Guts is an unstoppable blast of old-school death metal, with heaping helpings of ominous breakdowns, neck-snapping leads, and power-punch choruses that keep the listener grinning from start to finish. And while the lyrics revel in gore – the last song has the amazing title “So Let It Be Rotten… So Let It Be Done” – the music branches out from typical goregrind with bursts of groove and atmosphere. Non-believers beware—the saw is alive. —Scab Casserole

Read the Invisible Oranges interview with Exhumed.


38. Circle of Ouroborus – Eleven Fingers (Handmade Birds Records, Finland)
Circle of Ouroborus’s Eleven Fingers found the Finnish group expanding on the ethereal sound of 2010’s Unituli, resulting in their most refined album to date. Instrumentalist Atvar highlights the more subdued and melancholy aspects of black metal with atmospheric keyboards and meandering guitar melodies; vocalist Antti Klemi’s delay-drenched lamentations and raw howls complement the ghostly dirges with a sense of longing and uncertainty. Tracks like “Warpath” display their more developed songwriting, with catchier hooks and post-punk drumming, but droning tracks like “Staining the Paper to Create” don’t stray far from the duo’s experimental nature. Eleven Fingers is essential listening for adventurous headbangers, as it reveals the hidden beauty of lo-fi black metal often obscured by tape hiss. —Tom Brandow


37. Absu – Abzu (Candlelight Records, USA)
Black metal is getting more popular. It’s also growing ever more serious. That’s why we need bands like Absu. Abzu is the second record in the band’s ongoing trilogy of self-titled records. It falls between Absu and the upcoming Apsu. Theirs is a silly naming convention, and in many ways, Abzu is a silly record: drummer/vocalist “Proscriptor” McGovern kicks things off with a wry Tom Araya shriek. But there’s nothing silly about his blasts, or about Matt “Vis Crom” Moore’s flensing guitar work. Even in 2011, you can still build an awesome album on three-minute black/thrash rippers. Abzu is proof in plastic. —Doug Moore


36. Loss – Despond (Profound Lore, USA)
In many ways, 2011 was not a great year for Loss. The Nashville band were forced to cancel numerous tour dates due to a recurring injury to guitarist/vocalist Mike Meacham; they had to pull out of an appearance at the Rites of Darkness festival due to “the promoter’s failure to follow through on his promises and obligations”. That’s too bad, because it prohibited the band from effectively promoting a masterpiece. Deliberate and precise, lingering on almost every note and syllable, Despond revels in grief – its song titles read like an especially melodramatic suicide note. But Loss draw out the delicate beauty of emotional agony with intricate, intertwined guitars and climactic instrumental melodies. Despond is as slow and heavy as a battleship, as enveloping and magical as a thick fog. —Mike Nelson


35. Mitochondrion – Parasignosis (Profound Lore, Canada)
In contrast to its recent djent-riff-ication, death metal was once an unsettling sonic mass of bands willing to push boundaries while always keeping the principles of songwriting in mind. Thanks to bands like Mitochondrion, and albums like Parasignosis, death metal’s reclaiming its chutzpah, one non-Euclidean riffscape at a time. The shady Canadian trio’s second album resonated with old souls and next-genners alike, with its back-asswards guitar exploitation and throbbing percussion as organic as the band’s cellular name. Drummer Karl Godard earns top honors throughout, but specifically on “Banishment”, where his lurching death march mutates into a half-time groove so catchy, it’ll make Pete Sandoval think twice before sticking around for the “J” album. It’s been out for almost a year and yet Parasignosis remains an unpredictable and harrowing journey. —Greg Majewski


Read the Invisible Oranges review of Mitochondrion’s Parasignosis.

34. Mastodon – The Hunter (Reprise Records, USA)
While Mastodon progress stylistically with each album, The Hunter captured the Atlanta rockers at a major crossroads. After running the gamut of metal styles, Mastodon have taken their stoner heaviness (Remission), frantic riffing (Blood Mountain), and prog tendencies (Crack the Skye) and synthesized them into their most accessible record yet. The “four classical elements” concept album cycle is finished, and gone are the eight-minute songs and Paul Romano artwork. But it’s still the Mastodon we know and love, with impeccable lead guitar work, dexterous drumming, and strong, collaborative songwriting. The Hunter is not only a great addition to Mastodon’s catalogue: it also represents a step forward in their journey towards becoming America’s next great heavy metal band. —Tom Brandow


33. Hammers of Misfortune – 17th Street (Metal Blade Records, USA)
Often, metal bands incorporating disparate influences into their sound must make sacrifices, trading instrumental mastery for a “retro” or “underground” sound. But on 17th Street, this Bay Area sextet juggles significant handfuls of classic hard rock, modern prog, and pagan folk metal with ease, creating a strange and enthralling record that’s both technically accomplished and charmingly human. On heartbreaking anthems like “The Grain” and “The Day the City Died”, guitarist and band mastermind John Cobbett (also of bleak black metallers Ludicra) chugs and bounces along with infectious vigor, while new vocalist Joe Hutton belts and croons alternately, his soaring power-metal vocals both standing strong on their own, and blending effortlessly with the parts encompassing them. —Scab Casserole


Read the Invisible Oranges retrospective of Hammers of Misfortune.


32. Virus – The Agent that Shapes the Desert (Duplicate Records)
Virus is an odd addition to a best-of metal list, because they’re not really metal, other than by virtue of leader Carl-Michael Eide’s association with Ved Buens Ende and Ulver, among others. Their sound rests between a darker King Crimson, and the bizarre funk of SST bands like Saccharine Trust and The Minutemen. Eide speaks his vocals more than sings them, and at times sounds like a cross between Ian Curtis and Peter Murphy, while bassist Petter Berntsen grooves and slides around the fusion flares of drummer Einar Sjursø. But the Virus sound comes from Eide, who provides dark angular guitar riffs that are beautiful in their dissonance, and unpredictable in their resolution. It’s truly a unique sound that has no better home than amongst metal fans. —Aaron Maltz


31. Gridlink – Orphan (Hydra Head)
When Gridlink shrieker Jon Chang warned fans that the sequel to 2008’s Amber Gray would take a while, given the members’ locations spread across the globe, we should have known he was on Grind Time. Considering Orphan’s 12-song whirlwind of fast guitars and even faster drums condenses down to 12 minutes, the three-year layover is damn near superhuman. All-star skinsman Bryan Fajardo’s “click-click, click-click” stick count at the beginning of each track is the instrumental equivalent of loading two double barrel shotguns of stupefying complexity and delirious speed, while guitarists Takafumi Matsubara and newcomer Steve Procopio’s conjoined six-string buckshot blow both eardrums and minds with intertwining leads and subtle melody beneath the supersonic bedlam. —Greg Majewski

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Gridlink’s Orphan.

Angron

So far, the ones I've listened to and liked are Rotten Sound, The Rotted (one of my favourite albums of the year), and Skeletonwitch.

And Chin, I was at that Rotted/Misery Index concert too, loved it

SilverScreen

I still haven't even listened to the new Mastodon album. I thought Crack The Skye was a bit mediocre and it made me lose interest in them a bit. Is The Hunter any better?

devildriver

Still working through the list!

Jungle Rot are quite good with an old school death metal type of groove.

Batillus and Rwake are not cutting it for me.

chin_grin

Zero1986 wrote: »

I still haven't even listened to the new Mastodon album. I thought Crack The Skye was a bit mediocre and it made me lose interest in them a bit. Is The Hunter any better?

If you like listening to an album of drum rolls. Yeah. There are two decent songs on the whole album.

devildriver wrote: »

Batillus and Rwake are not cutting it for me.

Aw, they're my favourite on the list!

EDIT: Ooh! 30 - 21. http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2011/12/top-50-metal-albums-of-2011-30-to-21/

For an explanation of how we determined our Top 50 albums of 2011 (and for a look at albums 75 to 51), see our first post in the series, Top Albums of 2011, 75 to 51.

. . .

30. The Atlas Moth – An Ache for the Distance (Profound Lore, USA)
In their rookie season, Windy City sludge slingers The Atlas Moth wowed the crowd with starry-eyed highs and lows murkier than Lake Michigan. An Ache for the Distance saw the quintet reach the next level, obliterating the sophomore slump as they broke bones like Urlacher on “Horse Thieves”, swung like Sosa on the infectious title track and scraped the stratosphere like Air Jordan on “Holes In the Desert”’s cosmic excursions. It’s easy to visualize guitarist/co-vocalist David Kush doing his best dunk face as he belts hook after stellar hook, massaging those aches into sweet relaxation. —Greg Majewski

Read the Invisible Oranges review of The Atlas Moth’s An Ache for the Distance.


29. Kvelertak – Kvelertak (Indie Recordings, Norway)
A critical darling two years in a row (released in the States in 2011, hence its inclusion on this list), Kvelertak’s self-titled has the intellectual depth of a biscuit… but that’s half the fun. How can any 11 songs meet the hype of a debut record mixed by Kurt Ballou, illustrated by John Dyer Baizley, and backed by nearly the entire blogosphere? With hooks. More hooks than there are fish left in the oceans. These Norse party rockers drag listeners through the catchiest aspects of black metal, hardcore, thrash, and classic rock for 50 moonshine-soaked minutes. It’s the closest thing metal has to Girl Talk, except Kvelertak write their own music (until they decide to play “Foxy Lady” for no reason). Kvelertak is both a reason to celebrate, and the soundtrack to any celebration. —Joseph Schafer


28. Autopsy – Macabre Eternal (Peaceville, USA)
Macabre Eternal makes good on the promise of a worthwhile comeback, hinted at on Autopsy’s The Tomb Within EP. The band sound crisper, and take more time with songs than in the past. Macabre Eternal doesn’t steamroll you; it spreads out the pain. You can’t expect Chris Reifert and co.’s long tenure in Abscess not to change their delivery. But the things that make Autopsy a death metal cornerstone remain. Macabre Eternal merges the best of vintage Autopsy with hard-learned musical lessons. Reifert and guitarist Eric Cutler are like crazed scientist Herbert West in Re-Animator – they’ve sewn together body parts and created a monster. —Justin M. Norton


27. Blut Aus Nord – 777: Sect(s) (Candlelight Records, France)
Blut Aus Nord are many things to many people. I like them best when they torture their instruments to the point of screaming, as they did on The Work Which Transforms God. 777: Sect(s) is a return to that form. BAN’s industrial vibe is thick here. Guitars clatter endlessly through steel corridors, and the compositions are painfully knotted. Sect(s) oppresses the listener with the best of ’em. But at times, this album blooms into nigh-improvisational openness; witness the bent vamping of “Epitome IV”. 777: The Desanctification, a companion album which didn’t make this feature, takes this tactic to its logical conclusion. It seems we prefer the torture and screaming. —Doug Moore

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Blut Aus Nord’s 777: Sect(s).


26. Crowbar – Sever the Wicked Hand (E1 Entertainment, USA)
New Orleans breeds two things: metal and perseverance. Sludge vets Crowbar embody both on Sever the Wicked Hand, their first LP in six years. It’s been the soundtrack to ****ty days and new beginnings, a go-to album for light at the end of some very dark tunnels. Kirk Windstein bellowed from his blackened heart with painful truths, something everyone can relate to. Why reinvent the wheel when you can drive it through endless fields of drop-tuned, monolithic muddy riffs? Crowbar have kept the bar set high whilst plumbing the lows. —Chris Rowella

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Crowbar’s Sever the Wicked Hand.


25. Seidr – For Winter Fire (Flenser Records, USA)
With their debut full-length, Kentucky’s Seidr craft a perfect melding of Old World and New World doom tropes. The funereal, yet somehow ethereal weight of Euro-style funeral doom comes crashing down amongst burly American sludge riffs, as the band’s Norse heritage and lyrical content blend with their Southern environs to craft a singular vision. There are elements of Neurosis-style post metal, “ambient” black metal, and sparse neofolk, but throughout it all the power of doom carries through. That slow, crawling beat, those hefty open chords: Seidr expands the sonic template of doom while carrying with them the legacy of doom bands past. Their sound can be as expansive as the night sky and as heavy as a standing stone – or, for that matter, as claustrophobic as a summer night. To hear this record is to hear the march of glaciers: inexorable, terrible, slow, yet strangely beautiful and purifying, a true blast of winter’s flame. —Rhys Williams

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Seidr’s For Winter Fire.


24. Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats – Blood Lust (Killer Candy Records, UK)
Lo-fi invocations of proto-metal horror rock haven’t sounded this good in a long time. With a sonic aesthetic that recalls early ’70s grindhouse flicks, Cambridge’s Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats brought the spooky devil jams hard. Tracks like “I’ll Cut You Down”, “Death’s Door” and “13 Candles” hammer home the effect, layering heavy buzz-saw psych riffs over paint-peeling vocal yowls. And, just for that added tinge of subversive ‘authenticity’, the album’s mixed just barely to redline, bringing forth the slightest of clips that evoke the feeling of listening to some long-lost, randomly-found occult-rock show on your AM dial. —Kyle Harcott

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats’s Blood Lust.


23. Ash Borer – Ash Borer (Psychic Violence, USA)
While Southern California has its Black Twilight rituals, and the Pacific Northwest has settled gently into Cascadian bliss, the northern half of California has developed a bitingly potent, wonderfully innovative black metal circle of its own. In league with like-minded peers Fell Voices, Necrite, and Bosse-de-Nage, Arcata four-piece Ash Borer have smashed genre conventions and created one of the most epic releases of the year. Cathartic, hypnotic, and achingly honest, the three songs contained within this self-titled recording take the blueprints of black metal’s second wave, gently break and tear away the most desolate, atmospheric moments, wrap them up tightly in a shroud of Burzum-esque despair, and leave them to the elements. The result marries primitive thrashing with refined clarity, twisted chords with furious tremolo, gossamer melodies with guttural cries, giving rise to – above all – an atmosphere of overwhelming urgency. —Kim Kelly


22. Liturgy – Aesthetica (Thrill Jockey, USA)
Isn’t it odd that people tear Liturgy a new asshole over frontman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s “transcendent black-metal” manifesto, while NSBM bands are constantly defended on the basis of their musicianship? It’s revealing when ideas that are intended to spark discussion are met with such hostility, possibly exposing an unspoken insecurity. Liturgy play undeniably progressive black metal, and, subsequently, have some academic beliefs about their role in the genre; how is that any more pretentious than wearing corpse paint and cutting yourself? So they’re from Brooklyn, they look a little hipster, and they cross over into Pitchfork territory; what’s any of that got to do with their music? If anything, that reaction reflects a degree of anti-intellectualism within the metal community and ignores the explosive power of Aesthetica. —Aaron Maltz


21. Woods of Desolation – Torn Beyond Reason (Northern Silence Productions, Australia)
When it came out in February, Torn Beyond Reason cut through me like a gust of winter wind. Its sweeping, melancholic and majestic riffing, laid over furious drumming and tortured screams, was just what I needed to hear as I dodged ice-crusted puddles on the streets of New York. Melancholic black metal albums are a dime-a-dozen these days, but the enraged passion and beauty of Torn Beyond Reason sets it apart from the pack. The Australian firepower behind Woods of Desolation, D., weaves into Torn Beyond Reason’s mid-length songs an inescapable sense of despair and sadness. While the playing isn’t exactly mathematically tight, the slippery, not sloppy, quality to the album has an impressionistic feel that undulates from one memorable measure to the next. —Wyatt Marshall

. . .

Nice to see Crowbar getting up there. Also I'd recommend Kvelertak.

SilverScreen

Aye, that Woods of Desolation album is pretty good. They're similar enough to Agalloch and I actually find their music beautiful and a bit uplifting rather than depressing and melancholic. There's a nice urgency and passion to their music and the album's relatively short running time means it doesn't outstay it's welcome.

chin_grin

Apologies for the length! But here's the 20 - 1 list! Glad to see YOB in the top five. Absolutely phenomenal band and album. Also Primordial getting in there at 11! I've never gotten in to any of their stuff (my belief that metal should not have any folk music in it at all!).

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2011/12/top-50-metal-albums-of-2011-20-to-11/

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2011/12/top-50-metal-albums-of-2011-10-to-1/

20. Inquisition – Ominous Doctrines of The Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm (Hells Headbangers, USA)
Precious few bands that claim to invoke Satan or ancient Pagan deities through their music actually live up to the boast. Inquisition claims, and Inquisition succeeds. Ominous channeled the majestic, the arcane, and the vast through big bold melodies and Dagon’s unmistakable croak. I see Inquisition as travelers on a path leading outside our mundane realm, and each album a missive to mere mortals. Technically, Ominous was a late 2010 release, but it’s worth celebrating again. As far as I’m concerned, it’s better than any black metal album released in 2011.—Richard Street-Jammer

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Inquisition’s Ominous Doctrines.


19. Burzum – Fallen (Byelobog, Norway)
Yes, yes, along with being the most influential figure in black metal history, Varg Vikernes is still a reprehensible bigot who espouses his hate with the slightest provocation. And 2011 was a busy year for The Count: He released Fallen–a totally essential inclusion in the Burzum canon–he re-recorded and released some of Burzum’s early work–a totally inessential inclusion–and he wrote a paranoid, antisemitic, 800-word rant in late July, when an extreme-right-wing Norwegian psychopath killed 77 of his countrymen and injured 151 more. It’s not related to the music, no, but it was published on the Burzum website, ostensibly a place for fans to find information on the musical act Burzum, so…ugh. So much for a kinder, cuddlier Varg. But the art cannot be denied. Post-prison Varg is producing massively compelling work; Fallen is even better than its predecessor, 2010’s outstanding Belus. Texturally, Fallen is the most diverse Burzum album—incorporating clean vocals here, Metallica riffs there, and crisp, robust production throughout—but it holds firm on those ambient elements essential to Burzum: a gray, enervating despair; a bleak, menacing chill.—Mike Nelson


18. Ghost – Opus Eponymous (Metal Blade, Sweden)
When last did you hear blasphemy crooned? Has evil ever smiled its way into your heart? Croaking and shrieking and burning churches does not grow the Satanic flock like a wink and a catchy tune. If Satan actually tried using rock and roll to steal hearts, Opus Eponymous would at least give him a Ghost of a chance. Some called this pop and pap alike. I don’t care, and I don’t think it matters. Take it away, Langston Hughes, because you said it best:

Cheap little rhymes
A cheap little tune
Are sometimes as dangerous
As a sliver of the moon.
A cheap little tune
To cheap little rhymes
Can cut a man’s
Throat sometimes.

Consider my throat well and truly cut, and Opus Eponymous the knife and altar alike.—Richard Street-Jammer


17. Septicflesh – The Great Mass (Season of Mist, Greece)
Many bands try to marry extreme music to symphonic instruments and arrangements, yet the marriage often yields mediocre results. The Great Mass from Grecian death metallers Septicflesh not only brings both sounds together, but does so by using European orchestral music as a blueprint through which the band assembles their metal. Heavy, distorted guitars and thudding bass lie entwined with classical string arrangements and wind instruments, drawing out an ominous flavor from each song that is strong enough to rise into fantastical, epic territory. Due to guitarist Christos Antoniou’s background as a composer with orchestral experience, Septicflesh are able to push their own classical music leanings even further than the previous symphonic sparks shown on their 2008 album, Communion. —K. Ann Sulaiman

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Septicflesh’s Communion, and an interview with Septicflesh.


16. Origin – Entity (Nuclear Blast, USA)
Entity opens with “Expulsion of Fury”, sending the listener down The Descent into Purgatory. Each Origin song is about Conceiving Death, each song Committed to a Swarm of riffs and speed. Many have accused Origin of being Forever incapable of writing a decent song. Entity and Antithesis before it are the answers to that accusation, and the Consequence of these Solutions is the Banishing Illusion that Origin is just endless blastbeats and noise. Obscura wanted to politely show us their chops. Origin needed just 36 minutes to chop us into oblivion. No widdling, no pretty melodies, and no jazz, because Entity is the Evolution of Extinction.—Richard Street-Jammer


15. Mournful Congregation – The Book of Kings (20 Buck Spin, Australia)
While Australia’s not known as a hotbed of doom, anticipation was high for Mournful Congregation to return to the monolithic form of their earlier work. And when their fourth full-length The Book of Kings finally arrived, the near-80-minute slab of funeral doom released its allure like a poisonous flower. These four songs are 12 to 33 minutes in length, are beautifully crafted, and create a solemn, ritualistic atmosphere. But though immersive, it’s not the length or pace, necessarily, of these songs that’s so appealing. The band’s music emerges in tendrils of whispered vocals, acoustic guitar flourishes, and droning passages. Coupled with a thunderous bottom end, the dynamics of how this all unfolds is gripping through the last second. Mournful Congregation are aware of the accepted blueprint of doom—and funeral doom, especially—yet do it their own way. —Vanessa Salvia

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Mournful Congregation’s The Book of Kings.


14. Disma – Towards the Megalith (Profound Lore, USA)
Metal musicians, the riff is your stock and trade; it is the indivisible atom. Disma know this. Without riffs there is no metal. Old-school enthusiasts (see labelmates Antideluvian) focus so utterly on early ’90s aesthetic that they forget this simple fact. Where there are no riffs, there are no songs, and where there are no songs there is nothing. Critics piled compliments onto Craig Pillard and company’s collective shoulders because they wrote actual songs before cocooning them in Marianas Trench distortion. One can easily listen to Towards the Megalith, despite (or because of) its near-glacial pace. In fact, Towards the Megalith might be a better listen than the records that paved its way.—Joseph Schafer


13. Flourishing – The Sum of All Fossils (The Path Less Traveled Records, USA)
The New York City metal scene is populated by numerous bands with no apparent allegiance to genre, but few are quite as hard to pin down as Flourishing. The band’s debut LP, The Sum of All Fossils, was brutal and delicate, grotesque and melodic, fast and slow and everything in between; the only constant elements were the thrills it provided. (Flourishing frontman, Garett Bussanick, also plays guitar in Wetnurse, perhaps the sole metal band in NYC with fewer musical boundaries.) Fossils was a blisteringly hot steel cauldron bubbling over with several decades’ (and countless subgenres’) worth of death metal, grind and industrial, among other influences. But it somehow avoided sounding freakish or Frankensteinian. Er, that is to say it didn’t sound unnatural or patched together; it sounded plenty ****ing monstrous. —Mike Nelson

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Flourishing’s A Momentary Sense of the Immediate World.


12. Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising (Metal Blade Records, Sweden)
Nearing their two-decade anniversary, Amon Amarth have built a signature sound that has earned them a spot in the golden hall of metal greats. Surtur Rising had all the elements we’ve come to love: the monumental riffs; the rallying vocals; the welding of catchiness, ferocity, and bright melodies. But it also had more intricate solos and drumming. With a new level of musicality, Amon Amarth went from being prolific to undeniable. The widespread appeal of this record was best seen live, as the band whipped through it night after night on their extensive, sold-out tours, with such purpose, as though each show was as crucial as the battles about which they sing. Yes, songs about swords and Odin still sound pretty damn good. —Julia Neuman

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Amon Amarth’s Surtur Rising.


11. Primordial – Redemption At the Puritan’s Hand (Metal Blade, Ireland)
I’m gonna go ahead and agree with IO’s K. Ann Sulaiman here and say that Primordial have released no bad albums. A stew of black metal, doom metal, and Celtic folk themes is alchemically transformed via Alan Averill’s inimitable voice and haunting melodies into something uniquely compelling. Redemption saw Primordial turn from historical drama to mortality, focusing their already formidable songwriting and storytelling skills on the more personal realm. The melodies were some of the most powerful they’ve done so far, and every aching howl from Nemtheanga could not fail to demand response from the listener. Complex and increasingly interesting with every listen, Primordial have written perhaps their strongest album yet–easily one of the best of the year. —Tim Hunter


10. 40 Watt Sun – The Inside Room (Cyclone Empire, England)
Even as it’s drowning in gauzy, self-indulgent gloom, The Inside Room envelops the listener with a warm blanket of hope; a sliver of silver-lining sunshine poking through on a miserable day. It’s impossible to come away from the album without a bright-and-shiny-eyed view after wallowing in its sublime saturninity. Patrick Walker has crafted an album of supreme beauty, lachrymose cheer masquerading as caterwauling dejection. Song after heart-wrenching song, The Inside Room provides a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel–or a light-switch to turn it off, if you’d prefer to wallow just a little longer. —Kyle Harcott


9. Bosse-de-Nage – II (The Flenser, USA)
To call Bosse-de-Nage “unknown” prior to 2011 would be an understatement. The project had languished in abject obscurity since its 2006 inception and was only recently inflicted upon a larger audience thanks to the efforts of Aesop Dekker (who released their two demos via his tape label Funeral Agency) and The Flenser, who released their debut LP last year. The follow-up, II, is a bizarre journey through sadism and filth, complete with unnerving, harrowing, howled vocals and dense, crisp guitar harmonies. Taking musical cues as well as depraved inspiration from the French–Mortifera, Celestia–as well as from post-punk architects Slint, Bosse-de-Nage embrace minimalism and madness, creating dense layers of fragile melody and shuddering heaviness. This is warped black metal borne of syphilitic lust, gleeful perversion, eccentric genius, decadence, and decay.—Kim Kelly

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Bosse-de-Nage’s II.


8. Krallice – Diotima (Profound Lore, USA)
My metal BFF recently told me, “Krallice should be preserved in museums for future generations”. Considering how much metal gets released in a year, there aren’t many bands lucky enough to be labeled “epic” without some doubt applied to the term. Even if a group achieves greatness for an album or two, it’s exceedingly difficult to remain consistent in such a dynamic genre, a trait which separates the good from the great. On their third full-length, Diotima, Krallice continue their string of progressive releases worthy of the term “epic” and solidify themselves as one of the greatest forces in black-metal history. They don’t write songs in the simple sense of the word; they write compositions with enormous hooks and developed melodies that reflect classical music as much as black metal. Both Mick Barr and Colin Marston continue to dazzle listeners with musical ideas that speak volumes; and much like with classical music, your intelligence increases the more you absorb their language . . . or at least, it feels that way. What Krallice creates exceeds talent alone and instead crosses over into a new form of speech that will presumably continue to develop with every ensuing album. —Aaron Maltz


7. Altar Of Plagues – Mammal (Profound Lore, Ireland)
Mammal is a perfect title. The album is warm-blooded, a deceptive predator. The more you listen, the more you realize that it doesn’t seek to render you numb but rather to make you feel. It’s moving because it speaks to what makes us human. Altar of Plagues is frequently compared to Wolves in the Throne Room. There’s a palpable difference. Wolves compress every possible note into songs. It’s like running through a dense forest with brambles hitting your face. Mammal offers an opening into that forest. Many rewards await those willing to spend time with Mammal. Listening to it is like walking down an empty street with a friend after a blizzard. It looks like the end of the world, but there is an anchor to keep you connected to humanity. —Justin M. Norton

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Altar Of Plagues’s Mammal.


6. The Gates of Slumber – The Wretch (Rise Above Records, USA)
This Indiana trio has been keeping what Fenriz would refer as “the Church of Real Metal” alive and well for almost 15 years, not once descending into self-parody in the way lesser bands might have. On the grueling The Wretch, GOS lay testament to their down-to-earth nature with an album of unease and uncertainty, supported by some insanely massive riffage. Frontman Karl Simon almost seems to be one of the few individuals to actually get what Black Sabbath was about: both gnarly licks and dour doomsaying. Songs about alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicide temper the obligatory “metal” tracks, thus proving that GOS have a substance beyond mere metallic throwback. Previous albums of theirs have tended to the more fantastical, but with The Wretch GOS demonstrate the ability to rock out while still remaining grounded in the real world, a quality that lesser bands would do well to emulate. —Rhys Williams

Read the Invisible Oranges review of The Gates of Slumber’s The Wretch.


5. Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All (Willowtip, New Zealand)
There isn’t much middle ground between brutal death and atmospheric post metal, but whatever there is has been claimed and colonized by New Zealand’s Ulcerate. Their looming riffage–sometimes droning, sometimes fractured, often, amazingly, both–is pushed along by hyperactive, hyperdetailed drum work. The blasting will cease for a moment, reprieved by a melody, only for it to be shattered and the chaos returned. But The Destroyers of All’s distinct style isn’t new, having already been explored on 2009’s Everything is Fire. What separates the two albums is that, while Everything Is Fire delineated Ulcerate’s two tendencies–brutal and atmospheric–The Destroyers of All embraces the contradictions and merges them. It helps that the band has become much better songwriters over the past two years, evidenced by the monolithic climaxes of “Cold Becoming” and the titular track, moments that might feel triumphant were it not for the enveloping bleakness (both lyrical and musical) that surrounds them. In a year of death metal dominated by the two poles of old-school throwback and the self-conscious avant-garde, Ulcerate is a singular voice. Yes, they’re experimental. Yes, they’re harsh and uncompromising. But these traits aren’t the result of a willful attempt to sound like something; they’re the result of a slow refinement, and an authentic vision. All of the overused comparisons (so overused they do not bear mention here) that get thrown in Ulcerate’s direction should finally be discarded. The only thing they sound like now is themselves. —Michael Cacciatore


4. YOB – Atma (Profound Lore, USA)
Metal too often revels in destruction, death, and chaos. YOB instead revels in the act of creation, the search for insight, and the spiritual mysteries that bind us. Atma pulls off the seemingly contradictory goals of unrelenting heaviness paired with introspection. “Prepare The Ground” ask listeners to hold each individual moment sacred with a mantra-like riff. “Before We Dreamed Of Two” adds to the mystical feel with a Middle Eastern-flavored opening and abrasive vocals from Neurosis’ Scott Kelly trading with Mike Scheidt’s nasal voice. Decades of meditation and studying Eastern mysticism have equipped Scheidt with the ability to write riffs that seem to have existed for thousands of years. He unearths them like a scientist finding ancient artifacts in hardened amber. Unlike museum pieces, though, they are living, breathing things, signposts to find solace through heaviness. You don’t listen to the riffs as much as you inhabit them. Atma shows that you don’t need a chiming bell to answer the call to meditation; the search within can start with distorted guitars. —Justin M. Norton

Read the Invisible Oranges review of YOB’s Atma.


3. Amebix – Sonic Mass (Easy Action Records, UK)
Amebix returned, and returned in a big way with Sonic Mass. The Baron spent over two decades in the Scottish hills tempering steel blades, and with Sonic Mass as the sonic proof, the Baron learned how to sharpen Amebix’s steel as well. No Gods, No Masters? More like No Rust and No Filler.

Some have claimed Amebix drew inspiration from Joy Killer and went alt-metal, but I don’t hear it. What I do hear is Amebix’s best album to date, a chugging assault tempered with subtlety, melody, and even greater intelligence than before. Some whined about the production, but the Baron is on record that the classics sounded thin due to circumstances beyond artistic control. Prior Amebix albums were collections of songs. Most of the songs were great, but there was never a sense of total cohesion or linear flow. Sonic Mass is truly heavy metal mass, a series of events, each song indelibly linked to the one before it and after it. “I.C.B.M.” and “Arise” were self-contained messages. Sonic Mass is the message.

Sonic Mass is Amebix growing and progressing without becoming prog or leaving its roots behind. Amebix’ hallmark is the contradiction, the diametrically opposed: depressing yet hopeful. Angry, yet positive. Horrified, repulsed, sad, and disappointed in Humanity, yet finding solace in our collective embrace. Amebix still bring The Contradiction. Intelligent, affecting, unique. That is Amebix in 1987, and that is Amebix in 2011. —Richard Street-Jammer

Read the Invisible Oranges review of Amebix’ Sonic Mass.


2.Tombs – Path of Totality (Relapse Records, USA)
Metal becomes more heterogeneous with each passing year. The days of discreet subgenres and cloistered scenes are long gone. Many of metal’s most exciting current bands are exciting precisely because they defy convention.

Tombs are such a band. This New York City trio culls from across the metal spectrum to craft their music. Black metal, doom, and Neurosis-style crescendos all figure prominently here. So do non-metal influences, like hardcore and ’80s postpunk/goth rock.

But to focus on Tombs’ influences is to miss the forest for the trees. On Path of Totality, their second album, they cement the identity that they began to codify on their debut. They’re as individual as metal bands get. At first, Tombs seem to deal with familiar metal themes: biblical plagues, social decay, and cosmic retribution. But beneath the apocalyptic imagery lies resignation and even vulnerability. Mike Hill, the band’s imposing frontman, hints at his anxieties in sere, McCarthy-esque terms: “Black iron cell isolates the beast inside / The body dies, yet the soul remains.”

This tension manifests in Tombs’ music as well. Path of Totality is violent and volatile; you can feel its John Congleton production pounding in your chest even at low volumes. But for every rhythmic drubbing, there’s a delicate guitar layer or emotive vocal. Tombs are grim and gorgeous all at once. Theirs is the kind of fusion that really matters.—Doug Moore


1. Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestial Lineage (Southern Lord, USA)
The appearance of authenticity in black metal is often awarded a higher value than, say, the actual merits of the music itself. No, not every black metal fan is so . . . stuck up, I guess, as to reject certain bands due to some perceived falseness, but even at its largest, the black metal community is small enough that the voice of pretty much every faction is heard. Outside of Liturgy, in 2011, no band heard it louder or more frequently than Wolves in the Throne Room. The band’s fourth LP, Celestial Lineage, earned them a 1,400-word profile in The New Yorker, a Best New Music nod on Pitchfork, and the animosity of a sub-subculture constantly hunting darker, more obscure corners for some increasingly elusive, rarer form of purity.

But as Søren Kierkegaard said, “Tr00th is subjective”. Here’s how I see it: Wolves in the Throne Room—comprising brothers Aaron and Nathan Weaver (who respectively play drums, synth, bass, guitar; and guitar, lead vocals)—have made some amazing music over the course of their career but they had never released a truly great album . . . until this year. Celestial Lineage was a galaxy of sounds all somehow in perfect alignment. Its opening track alone, the 12-minute “Thuja Magus Imperium”, had more textures and tones than some bands employ in their entire career. The track opens with bells and chimes and the ethereal, Middle Eastern-influenced female vocals of Jessika Kenney. It’s gorgeous and spacious, and it builds momentum slowly, until the guitars and drums tear through the serenity like a swarm of locusts filling a cloudless sky with a buzzing, predatory darkness. At the center of the song is a simple cascading (Cascadian?) riff, which is presented a few times, altered slightly each time. The song swells and sighs and roars like Kurosawa’s Ran, almost operatic in its swaying grandeur.

Not every song here is so ambitious, but Celestial Lineage is definitely an epic work. Its smaller pieces fit into the massive whole to build the mood or slow the pace, and all of the longer songs have numerous digressions built into their structures. Like much of the very best black metal, from Filosofem and Nattens Madrigal to Marrow of the Spirit and Mammal, Lineage connects deeply with the natural world, presenting sound with a scale and wonderment matched only by the wilderness: sound that feels like a forest floor dappled by sunlight, like the sudden wind before a hard rain, like an endless black sky lit by moonlight and stars.

According to the band, Celestial Lineage is the conclusion of a trilogy that began with their second album, Two Hunters. After 2011, if the intimations of the Brothers Weaver are to be taken at face value, Wolves in the Throne Room will break up, or stop touring, or something. They are going to be something different. Not black metal anymore, maybe. Maybe they never were. And people are free to say whatever they want about whatever, but I can’t see how you can question the authenticity of these sounds, this music.—Mike Nelson

. . .

Aeternitas

22. Liturgy – Aesthetica (Thrill Jockey, USA)
Isn’t it odd that people tear Liturgy a new asshole over frontman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s “transcendent black-metal” manifesto, while NSBM bands are constantly defended on the basis of their musicianship? It’s revealing when ideas that are intended to spark discussion are met with such hostility, possibly exposing an unspoken insecurity. Liturgy play undeniably progressive black metal, and, subsequently, have some academic beliefs about their role in the genre; how is that any more pretentious than wearing corpse paint and cutting yourself? So they’re from Brooklyn, they look a little hipster, and they cross over into Pitchfork territory; what’s any of that got to do with their music? If anything, that reaction reflects a degree of anti-intellectualism within the metal community and ignores the explosive power of Aesthetica. —Aaron Maltz

No No No No NO NO NO NO.

**** Liturgy and his rage inducing ''mannifesto''.

chin_grin

Aeternitas wrote: »

No No No No NO NO NO NO.

**** Liturgy and his rage inducing ''mannifesto''.

Never even copped this!

Heh, latest got 41% on Metal Archives. I'm starting to question this poll now.

http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Liturgy/3540287759#band_tab_discography

Mushy

Not into the type of metal, but great to see an Irish band up there.

Knifey Spoony

Mushy wrote: »

Not into the type of metal, but great to see an Irish band up there.

There are two Irish bands up there: Primordial and Altar of Plagues. AOP are from Cork I think (or possibly Waterford) so it's great to see that our sence here in Ireland is getting some recognition.

Must now go and listen to some more of AOP, never really heard much from them.

Angron

Severe lack of Anaal Nathrakh on that list :mad:


And Liturgy should not be there, not in the slightest.

chin_grin

Knifey Spoony wrote: »

There are two Irish bands up there: Primordial and Altar of Plagues. AOP are from Cork I think (or possibly Waterford) so it's great to see that our sence here in Ireland is getting some recognition.

Must now go and listen to some more of AOP, never really heard much from them.

Never knew that! Will check out more of their stuff so.

Denny M wrote: »

Severe lack of Anaal Nathrakh on that list :mad:


And Liturgy should not be there, not in the slightest.

Oh f*ck! Yeah!

Knifey Spoony

chin_grin wrote: »

Never knew that! Will check out more of their stuff so.

After further research they are from Cork alright. I'm really liking what I've heard of "Mammal" so far. Might pick up the album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzzuaFZJHf4

BlaasForRafa

Not having Vektor on it makes this list incomplete. Dying World was easily album of the year