Yowser, you are indeed prolific. Looks like I don't have to hunt any more this year. Thanks for the effort!

Quite a lot I like fr here. +1 for the inclusion of Ampere.

You sure do listen to a lot of varied non-metal, plenty here I might check out.
Happy to see the new Grails album, that one's a beauty.

The best thing about this list is that the majority seems to be on Spotify. I've made a playlist of everything here that I can find so I don't forget about stuff xD

Oh, my... D:<
I expect a list like this every year from now on, Iron. Maybe a few retrospective lists too, yes?

Metal is fairly easy to keep track of, it's the non-metal shizz that needs to be featured in lists like these so I can dig up more.

What's Acid Witch - Stoned doing up there? That one is from 2010

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 15.10.2011 at 14:54

What's Acid Witch - Stoned doing up there? That one is from 2010

Oh! I thought it was 2011, but looking around Discogs it seems it was out vinyl only in 2010, and the CD is this year. Hence the confusion, I guess. Better add a special note about it.

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments. It's not that special of a list, I haven't been hunting for too much underground stuff. I can't be bothered with the hassle of ordering stuff from obscure net labels and directly from the bands through dubious e-mails and stuff, and I feel kinda bad for downloading something from a small band; double standards are a wonderful thing.

I'll keep updating it until I start the real work of narrowing it down to the 25-50 best albums. Things I definetely look forward to are new albums from Isole, Tom Waits, Kate Bush and The Gathering. For obscure metal, I'll probably have to rely on your lists.

I just realised I was missing a handful of metal albums for whatever reason. Gotta add A Million Dead Birds Laughing, Betraying The Martyrs and Loss. I have yet to decide whether I like Mastodon or not. They're kinda nice, but there's something annoying about them.

EDIT: I will be adding new albums to the end, genre associations be damned. Makes it easier for everyone (not least myself) to keep tabs on what's been added.

Devin - (Masturbatory Metal). Good description!

On a more serious note, I like this list. It has a lot of sludge and post-rock which I'm digging a lot lately, so I will probably jump on a lot of these releases.

Superb List. Love the emphasis on non-metal here. I may have a dig at some of them to see if they tingle my taste buds or not. Good job.

I see you have some video game music on the list. Although not all from this year I will recommend the following:

Sonic Mayhem - Quake 3 Arena Noize
Unreal soundtrack
Deus Ex: Human Revolution soundtrack (composer Michael McCann; Transmissions - It's my world song & video game trailer)

Written by tea[m]ster on 24.12.2011 at 03:58

I see you have some video game music on the list. Although not all from this year I will recommend the following:

Sonic Mayhem - Quake 3 Arena Noize
Unreal soundtrack
Deus Ex: Human Revolution soundtrack (composer Michael McCann; Transmissions - It's my world song & video game trailer)

Nice, thanks. I haven't played much video games lately, so I've kinda lost touch with the soundtrack scene. Akira Yamaoka is my number one fave, but I just stumbled on that Darren Korb score for Bastion. I really liked it. I'll dig into these.

Working on my final rankings now, I'll probably put the top-50 into order of preference. On RYM, I have reviewed about 30 of these albums so far, I might post links in the descriptions once I'm done.

For some spoilers, the top-10 will include an English singer-songwriter, Norwegian post-rock/chamber pop, some violin-sludge, possibly two slowcore albums, one (basically) renamed doom band, and Finnish experimental/prog pop!

Written by IronAngel on 24.12.2011 at 13:03

Written by tea[m]ster on 24.12.2011 at 03:58

I see you have some video game music on the list. Although not all from this year I will recommend the following:

Sonic Mayhem - Quake 3 Arena Noize
Unreal soundtrack
Deus Ex: Human Revolution soundtrack (composer Michael McCann; Transmissions - It's my world song & video game trailer)

Nice, thanks. I haven't played much video games lately, so I've kinda lost touch with the soundtrack scene. Akira Yamaoka is my number one fave, but I just stumbled on that Darren Korb score for Bastion. I really liked it. I'll dig into these.

Working on my final rankings now, I'll probably put the top-50 into order of preference. On RYM, I have reviewed about 30 of these albums so far, I might post links in the descriptions once I'm done.

For some spoilers, the top-10 will include an English singer-songwriter, Norwegian post-rock/chamber pop, some violin-sludge, possibly two slowcore albums, one (basically) renamed doom band, and Finnish experimental/prog pop!

Haven't played Bastion yet. I have read good things about it. One of the things mentioned was how good the music is, I shit you not! Lol
Also, I am a sucker for the music in the Final Fantasy series.

Yes. when you are finished with your top 50, please include the links to the reviews!

I have no idea why you are not staff/elite...do you have to apply or something? Do you need reps?

Written by tea[m]ster on 24.12.2011 at 18:28

I have no idea why you are not staff/elite...do you have to apply or something? Do you need reps?

I don't know the process. I haven't contributed any news, reviews or articles, and I'm not interested in a token title anyway. I was also away for several years. Plus I'm not exactly an expert in any kind of metal. Not sure what a hipster like me could contribute to a respectable zine like MS. But thanks for the vote of confidence!

And yeah, I love Nobuo Uematsu too. I picked up the FFVI and VII piano collections when I was in Japan, I really like those versions.

Shameless advertising: I have updated the list to feature the top 50 albums in order of preference. I've also provided links to my reviews and the full list of 150 organized albums in the list description. Hope you find something new and interesting.

The top 20 are really fucking good, by the way. Everyone should hear those albums.

Written by IronAngel on 06.01.2012 at 03:01

Shameless advertising: I have updated the list to feature the top 50 albums in order of preference. I've also provided links to my reviews and the full list of 150 organized albums in the list description. Hope you find something new and interesting.

The top 20 are really fucking good, by the way. Everyone should hear those albums.

Ooh, lots of reviews o.0 I haven't done that since an end of year list I did on Last.fm about 4 years ago. It took it out of me big time, took about 3 weeks. Well done though, I'll have a read through soon.

I had no idea Tycho had a new album out too. I'm finding an alarming amount of stuff just after the end of the year.

Written by IronAngel on 06.01.2012 at 03:01

Shameless advertising: I have updated the list to feature the top 50 albums in order of preference. I've also provided links to my reviews and the full list of 150 organized albums in the list description. Hope you find something new and interesting.

The top 20 are really fucking good, by the way. Everyone should hear those albums.

Excellent job my friend...one omission in your top 20: Junius's release MIGHT be my album of the year

Written by Guest on 06.01.2012 at 03:38

I had no idea Tycho had a new album out too. I'm finding an alarming amount of stuff just after the end of the year.

Yeah, that's rather depressing. I have like 10 albums I've discovered too late, either in the last week of 2011 when all the lists were published or just now. Oh well, it's not like they won't get played this year too. I just wish my list was perfect. >_<

New Tycho is nice. Don't remember its ranking but it's pretty high. I've never known them too well so I can't really give an enlightened comparison to previous stuff.


Come on, Junius is good but not that good. Or maybe it'll grow on me; I've started liking it more and more lately.