Here is my top 50 of 2011. Albums rated 8+

In 2011, I started my second MS account after losing the first to the discontinuation of my Uni email address.

"But your account says you joined in 2020" I hear you say. Yes I also lost access to my second account you see. Be welcomed on my third you smartass

Album count: 248
Average rating: 6.69 (so close but still nice)

1.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

2.Mastodon - The Hunter

3.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

4.Leprous - Bilateral

5.Helheim - Heiðindómr Ok Mótgang

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1.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

2.Mastodon - Leviathan

3.Mastodon - Blood Mountain

4.Mastodon - The Hunter

5.Mastodon - Remission

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Last updated on 11 April 2024.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

3.Wintersun - Wintersun

4.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

5.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

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1.Alice In Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here

2.Audrey Horne - Audrey Horne

3.Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare

4.Baroness - Yellow & Green

5.Bring Me The Horizon - Amo

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I began this decade in my final year of high school, in the early phases of my metal journey (Mastodon, Machine Head, Dream Theater, Pantera and Avenged Sevenfold were still recent discoveries). One Masters degree and one PhD later, I'm now a tax-paying Londonian, and have ploughed through what must be comfortably over 2000 new releases during the previous ten years. To commemorate the end of a turbulent decade, I've put together a list of the albums that have stuck with me throughout this decade - I wouldn't consider this to be a 'best albums' list, as there have been some truly ingenious works released in more avant-garde territories, but ultimately these are the albums that have ended up dominating my listening habits, or otherwise making a sufficient impression to make this list.

1.Sylosis - Monolith

2.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

3.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

5.Cult Of Luna - Vertikal

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While the order in each decade is purely personal preference, there are several rules for a song qualifying for the list. First off, the band has to be notable. I'm not going to define what that means, but I'm sure you'd agree all the bands in the list are notable. There are plenty of riffs from obscure bands I'd rather put, but I know my love for Tarby doesn't make him the greatest riff maker of the 21st century. Second, each artist can only appear once in a decade, this is to prevent the best riff makers from hogging the list and adding some variety, showing how metal has changed over time. Decades are measured by when the song was recorded, not released, and when it's unclear the beginning of recording is used. This is mainly because a lot of definitive early metal songs were released in 1970, but recorded in 1969. Third, the song itself has to be notable. Here are things that can qualify as being notable: the song was release as a single, has music video made for it, was released as a single, was the title track for an album (note that Crawl through Knives meets this criteria because it was the original title for Come Clarity, and there is no way in hell Come Clarity is getting best riff of the decade ), is included on a greatest hits compilation album, was nominated for a Grammy or musical award of similar caliber, was included as a track in a notable film or video game, was covered by a notable band, or has a Wikipedia page for some miscellaneous reason. Finally, the song needs to be metal. Misirlou gets the pass despite predating metal as it was probably the single most influential song on the development of metal, and while many of the other songs in the other songs are better classified as hard rock, I can find a source listing them as heavy metal.

1.

2.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

3.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

4.Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

5.Deep Purple - In Rock

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My personal favorite studio albums of 2011

1.Ghost Brigade - Until Fear No Longer Defines Us

2.Haken - Visions

3.Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

4.Machine Head - Unto The Locust

5.Mastodon - The Hunter

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Back when I joined the site in 2011, I did a customary top 100 album list. Every year since then, when I've looked back at it it's become increasingly unrecognisable from my own tastes. Seeing bands I once listened to daily vanish from my playlists, new bands emerge as favourites, and bands even come and go in my reckonings during that time period (Iced Earth, Alcest, even Pain Of Salvation and more certainly peaked in my listening habits around 2011-12 to slowly vanish into obscurity). Now that it's just gone 5 years since I did that list, I thought I might do an updated list just to see how much my tastes have shifted. Whilst compiling the list, I pretty much worked on gut instinct, which was weird as I found myself almost disregarding albums I know I like whilst promoting albums I'm honestly undecided on - it almost seemed to veer away from album quality at times to embracing a subconscious effect the albums have had. Anyway, here it is, plus some honorable mentions that I was surprised missed out.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Sylosis - Monolith

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Agalloch - The Mantle

5.Protest The Hero - Kezia

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not in the most favorite or alphabetic Sort
Just there
few of the best things i did hear in my entire life include the sound of nature

1.Saturnus - Saturn In Ascension

2.Leprous - The Congregation

3.Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun

4.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

5.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

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1.

2.Fates Warning - The Spectre Within

3.Slauter Xstoyes - Winter Kill

4.Watch Tower - Energetic Disassembly

5.Trilogy - Life On Earth

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2008 might've been my first proper taste of metal, with the acquisition of albums from the likes of Metallica, Megadeth, Black Sabbath and that most grandiose of gateway bands, DragonForce. 2009 might've seen me expanding my palette, with Iron Maiden, Alice In Chains, Avenged Sevenfold, and more entering my world, and Guns N' Roses triumphantly re-entering it. But 2010 was when I delved into more 'intense' stuff with Machine Head, In Flames, and most notably of all, Sylosis, and saw my relationship with metal shift from ever-increasing interest into full-blown love affair. To commemorate this 5-year anniversary, and because I love making lists, I decided to do a retrospective of the best albums and songs that have been released during this time period, and give brief tributes to them. Yay music!

1.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

2.Sylosis - Monolith

3.Protest The Hero - Volition

4.Orphaned Land - The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR

5.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

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I've always been a huge fan for psychedelic music of any and all kinds. The enveloping atmosphere, the ability of minimalist solos to create a grand sense of harmony, and all those deliciously trippy effects that you can zone out with... they all come together for such a stimulating, otherworldly experience. This is often the type of music I'm most comfortable with: dazing, mind numbing, and hypnotizing.

My psychedelic definitions (including, but not limited to)
1. Very free flowing and (often) formless guitar playing. Specific soloing style of focusing more on the individual notes themselves to create a grand harmony around the main rhythm at hand.
2. Intense manipulation of guitar tone, including feedback, delay, looping, etc.
3. Heavy use of electronic effects. This is something that goes back to the earliest psychedelic bands of the 60s who used hammond organ and harpsichord, but today it's evolved into a wide range of keyboards, synths, equalizers, etc.

Recs both encouraged and appreciated.

1.Aarni - Bathos

2.Æthenor - En Form For Blå

3.Angst Skvadron - Sweet Poison

4.Atomikylä - Erkale

5.Bong - Stoner Rock

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1.Machine Head - Unto The Locust

2.Shining - VII - Född Förlorare

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

5.Beyond Creation - The Aura

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1.Machine Head - Unto The Locust

2.Vildhjarta - Måsstaden

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Shining - VII - Född Förlorare

5.Ghost Brigade - Until Fear No Longer Defines Us

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1.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

2.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

3.Symphony X - Iconoclast

4.Concerto Moon - Savior Never Cry

5.Brymir - Breathe Fire To The Sun

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