The Top 20 Albums of 2011

#20
Russian Circles - Empros

Empros was released on October 25 and just like that, in one fell swoop, Russian Circles made all other instrumental post-rock/metal bands completely obsolete. Good riddance, there were too many of them anyway.

Buy it.

#19
Junius - Reports From the Threshold of Death

The missing link between Deftones and Coldplay. Yes, I mean that in a good way. Stop looking at me like that.

Buy it.

#18
Red Fang - Murder the Mountains

In a year that gave us no new Melvins or Big Business albums (only a slightly disappointing single by the latter), Red Fang filled the burly rock gap nicely. Try to think of a more Melvins-ish song title than "Dirt Wizard". Go on, I dare ya.

Ha! I knew you couldn't do it. Neither could I.

Buy it.

#17
Syphilitic Vaginas - Alpha Antichrist

When I want to listen to a Swedish guy pretending to be a whole group of Japanese maniacs who play a god awful old school amalgamation of death metal, black metal, thrash metal, and heavy metal with dollop of good ol' crust punk just for the hell of it, Syphilitic Vaginas is one of the first acts I turn to.

Never has a band name taken from a GISM song felt more appropriate. An album smothered in layers of filth and grime as unsettling as the name of the band would suggest.

Buy it.

#16
Puscifer - Conditions of My Parole

While I've always enjoyed Maynard James Keenan's silly little sideprject Puscifer, I've seldom regarded it as anything but just that: a silly little sideproject. A brightly coloured funhouse for him to play around in when he's not busy with Tool, A Perfect Circle and wine making.

But this year they stepped up to the plate in a most unexpected way and by taking things a bit more seriously (but just a bit - album cover is all kinds of awesome), they managed to produce an album which you don't have to wear irony-tinted glasses to enjoy. The best shit on here is on par with A Perfect Circle's finer moments, and coming from a big APC fan such as myself, that's one helluva compliment.

While we're on the subject: if Tool and APC don't release new material in 2012, I'm gonna have a hissy bitch fit of biblical proportions. This is an official warning.

Buy it.

#15
Giant Squid - Cenotes

Giant Squid's follow up to their masterpiece The Ichthyologist (the fifth best album of 2009 according to yours truly) is leaner, meaner, darker, more stripped down, and more introverted than its wild predecessor.

It doesn't quite massage my prostate like The Ichthyologist did, but if you're looking for psychedelic, proggy, doomy, and sludgy yet sophisticated rock that constantly throws curveballs in your dumb face, these are still your go-to guys. And girls.

Buy it.

#14
Illuminatus - Glasnost

A very late comer to this list who bumped Tombs off the top 20 in the eleventh hour. A band I was literally only introduced to for the very first time this past week. I was told this album sounded like latter day Paradise Lost and mid-era Anathema crossed with early Tool. I was immediately intrigued and fuck me sideways with a broomstick if that description wasn't kind of dead on. Good shit.

Digging the Magritte-esque cover art too.

Buy it.

#13
Cave In - White Silence

Some of the heaviest and noisiest shit they've released in years, then suddenly an acoustic Beatles-y ditty out of nowhere. Awesome. Sing My Loves is a strong contender for song of the year.

Buy it.

#12
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

I admit I wasn't too impressed with Wasting Light when I first heard it. All the talk of their back-to-the-roots approach of recording on two inch tape a garage with Butch Vig and how this process invigorated the band felt exciting until I heard the album and concluded it just sounded like another fucking overproduced radio friendly Foo Fighters record.

But after the dust of disappointment had settled, I realised that this truly is their best album since The Colour and the Shape. Bob Mould is on it. Nuff said.

Buy it.

#11
Entrails - The Tomb Awaits

I'm all for wearing your influences on your sleeve, but Entrails' love for Entombed is just ridiculous. Look at that fucking album cover. Look at that fucking logo. On Unleashed Wrath they even play the outro from Left Hand Path note for note.

Cheeky fuckers.

Buy it.

#10
Ginger Trees - Along With the Tide

Just when we needed no more proof that Swedes do melodic retro rock with psychedelic pop flourishes better than anyone else, this trio runs in and hits you over the head with that simple fact one more time. Just to make sure you get it, pendejo.

Buy it.

#9
Bastard Priest - Ghouls of the Endless Night

I can appreciate modern, powerful and well produced death metal as much as anybody, but in the end I always find myself drawn to the kind that sounds like it was recorded on a boom box in a burnt out nuclear reactor in Poland in 1987. Bastard Priest fit that bill better than most.

Buy it.

#8
Opeth - Heritage

Oh how the metal warriors, puritans of the status quo, huffed & puffed and got their labia in a twist over this one. So it sounds nothing like Blackwater Park or Morningrise, boo fucking hoo. Here's Mikael Åkerfeldt's cock, wipe your tears with it.

With all of the death metal out of the window (though other kinds of metal are still prevalent here and there), the focus instead shifted to the 60s and 70s prog side of the band. Not as easy to get into as their previous efforts, but Heritage is completely irresistable once the penny drops.

Opeth proved for the tenth time that they're leaders, not followers.

Buy it.

#7
Maim - Deceased To Exist

The last few years have seen an ever increasing influx of Swedish death metal, old school style. Bastard Priest was one example, Maim is another, and (as you sneaky assholes who skipped ahead to see what album was at the top of the list already know) there's yet another example in the top 5.

I've already established this is my favorite kind of death metal, so I love said influx more than narrow-minded Opeth fans love posting emo comments about Heritage on Blabbermouth.

Buy it.

#6
Amebix - Sonic Mass

When Stig and The Baron got together with Roy Mayorga to record the first Amebix album in 24 years everyone expected greatness. I wonder how many expected it to sound like Primordial meets Killing Joke. Though spiritually Amebebix is closer to those two than most bands so I suppose it makes more sense the more you think about it.

Comparisons with Celtic Frost are inevitable: both bands are influential on such a basic primal level that most bands don't even know they're influenced by them, the two key figures get back together with some new folks to record the first album in god knows how many years and the result, while fucking fantastic, sounds nothing like you expected.

Strange how we expect bands to sound like they just picked up where they left off all of those years ago when in reality they have evolved as people, musicians, songwriters and music fans like everyone else. If Amebix had never split up, and Stig hadn't moved to the Isle of Skye to become a sword smith (how more metal can you possibly get? Seriously, not even Primordial are that primordial) and instead contiuned to release a new album every two or three years through out the 90s and 00s, I'm convinced they would still sound the way they do in 2011.

Often confused for punks due to the black, spikey hair and leather, they came from the gluesniffing squat scene. The simplest explanation would the simple fact they were bad musicians releasing underprocuded records, but everything about them musically and lyrically were metal. In that sense they are the reverse Motörhead - Lemmy often said they saw them sevlves as a punk rock band and that is certainly what early Motörhead sounded like, but because they had long hair and wore denim jackets with band patches everyone assumed they were heavy metal.

Some even, without any shame whatsoever, lump them together with Saxon, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and other NWOBHM bands. Pathetic. Motörhead have always more in common with Chuck Berry than Iron Maiden, and I don't say that as comicial exaggeration to make a point, I mean it literally. If you ever meet Lemmy, tell him that and I promise to suck half of his warts if he disagrees.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Amebix.

For the same reasons it's folly to lump Amebix together with the crust/anarcho punks bands of the time, like Crass, Chaos UK and Disorder. Yes, I know Amebix shared members with those bands and other punk outfits at various points, but that's irrelevant and you know it.

Fucking hell, halfway around the world to make that one simple point. Not even sure it was worth it. Bottomline: Sonic Mass is great. Brevity is for posers.

Buy it.

#5
Fair To Midland - Arrows & Anchors

I'm not entirely sure just how I was able to completely miss these guys for ten years, but better late than never. I was initially weary because their singer kept rubbing me the wrong way. Well, you blame me? Just look at the spazzy cunt. But the record quickly grew on me, and their singer does indeed possess some mean pipes. He's almost up there with Mike Patton in terms of vocal range.

I keep hearing flourishes of Dredg, Mars Volta, Karnivool, Helmet, Failure, Mew, Coheed & Cambria, Devin Townsend, System of a Down, Faith No More and even Clutch. Sometimes all of them at once, without ever sounding like they're ripping any of them off. A good example is Rikki Tikki Tavi which sounds like someone cut up a Coal Chamber song and a Queen song and pasted them together at random. Sounds fucking retarded, I know, but somehow they not only make it work, but also make it sound great.

A very strange record. And very, very good. I could've done without the four little interlude thingies though. On iTunes I had them taken out, making this a nice and tight eleven track forty-nine minute album. I suggest you do the same.

Buy it.

#4
Morbus Chron - Sleepers in the Rift

Not only the death metal album of the year, but by far the album cover of the year. I want it on my wall, that shit rules. Lovecraft ftw.

Buy it.

#3
Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus - Bloom

The biggest discovery of 2001 for me, along with Illuminatus and Fair To Midland. Lush 70s retro rock which also manages to sound completely modern, and a singer who sounds virtually indentical to Jeff Buckley. Love at first sight.

Looking forward to following these guys and their careers for many years to come. Also looking forward to the copyright infringement lawsuit undoubtedly on its way from Jeremy Irons' legal team.

Buy it.

#2
Graveyard - Hising Blues

The big hype of 2011, and it's not hard to see why. A truly timeless record, which could've been released at any time in the last 40 years.

Buy it.

#1
Mastodon - The Hunter

Not entirely sure why the, for lack of a better word, "playfulness" of this album came as a surprise to so many people. Anyone who's paid any kind of attention to Mastodon since day one would know that these are a bunch of goofy fuckers. Bearded, Star Wars-obsessed goofy fuckers with John Travolta tattoos.

No theme this time, just fucking 53 minutes of rocking out. No doubt the party album of the year - this album does many things to me, but the main thing is it quite simply makes me happy. Puts me a right fucking good mood. Every time I hear it I have a big, stupid grin on my face that just won't go away.

It's got the spaceyness and the maturity of Crack the Skye, the quick riffy goodness of Leviathan and the wild anything-goes wackiness of Blood Mountain. This album is too good for words. Some of the choruses on here are fucking HUGE.

In addition to perfectly combining the very best bits of the last three albums it sounds like they have, not unlike their Georgia brothers (and sister) in Kylesa, embraced their inner 90s alternative rock selves. But where Kylesa looked towards Nirvana and The Pixes, Mastodon turned to Soundgarden (Black Tongue), The Smashing Pumpkins (Thickening) and Alice In Chains (Dry Bone Valley). There's plenty of Queens of the Stone Age (Curl of the Burl), and spank my ass and pretend I'm your dad if Blasteroid doesn't sound like Foo Fighters at their most riotous.

Troy has stepped to up the plate big time, and appears to be channeling Chris Cornell in all the right places. His robot vocals on Bedazzled Fingernails are tits. Speaking of vocals, Brann's leads on Dry Bone Valley are fucking astonishing. Speaking of Dry Bone Valley, how fucking sweet is that Vangelis intro? Sounds like something straight out of Blade Runner.

I also hear lots of Pink Floyd in the slower tracks, like the Gilmour-ish tones in the intro to The Sparrow and the very On The Run-esque intro to Creature Lives. Which is probably my favorite track at the moment. It sounds nothing like Mastodon and I have no fucking clue what to make of it. I just know it kicks me in the nuts and reminds me of Arcade Fire.

I know nothing about deceased Brent's brother Brad, to whom the album is dedicated and named after, but the title track does seem like a helluva tribute. You can tell he's pouring his heart out completely in those two (three? four? I keep losing count) solos. Fuck those who say The Hunter doesn't have the emotional depth of Crack the Skye. Y'all niggas are wack. So wack.

The best album I've heard in years and it gets better every time I hear it. This could just as well be the album of the century for all I care. Fuck.

Buy it.

(zip) Metal Bastard's Top 20 of 2011 (140 mb)

1. Mastodon - All the heavy lifting
2. Graveyard - Ungrateful are the dead
3. Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus - IAOA
4. Morbus Chron - Red Hook horror
5. Fair To Midland - Whiskey & Ritalin
6. Amebix - God of the grain
7. Maim - Cover death
8. Opeth - Famine
9. Bastard Priest - Last scream
10. Ginger Trees - Ghost of another age
11. Entrails - Unleashed wrath
12. Foo Fighters - I should have known
13. Cave In - Sing my loves
14. Illuminatus - Cave in
15. Giant Squid - Tongue stones
16. Puscifer - Toma
17. Syphilitic Vaginas - Black chrome supremacy
18. Red Fang - Dirt wizard
19. Junius - The meeting of pasts
20. Russian Circles - Mlàdek

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