Top 10 Albums Of The Year - 2011 (Part 1)

It’s that time of year again. With 2011 going off into the sunset, its time to reminiscence the awesome year it was for music. And believe me, it WAS an awesome year in music!

The amount of albums I've heard this year was immense! I'm pretty sure I've heard about 50+ albums this year. That might be a small number for some people, but that's a lot of music for me considering its all albums. Many thanks to HeavyBlog for recommending me some of the most amazing music I've heard in a very long time and keeping me up to date on the entire metal scene.

2011 was basically djent filled for me. With the djent-scene quickly catching everyone's attention with more and more bedroom-projects coming to light. Its amazing what just one person can come up with while sitting in their room.

I'll divide the list into 2 parts, with this being from No.10 to No.6 and then Part 2 from No.5 to El Numero Uno!

So without much further ado, here's my Top 10 Albums of 2011.

Let the countdown begin!

10. Xerath - II

I haven't heard a lot of symphonic-metal, but when a friend recommended 'Xerath' and told me its "symphonic-djent", I had to have a look. And I am so glad I tried it out. Their first album "I" completely blew me away. The riffs were heavy, the groove was groovy, the musicianship was spot on, and the tracks were epic.With their 2nd album, aptly titled "II", Xerath worked upon their successful formula and brought it to perfection. With songs like "Reform Part III", "Unite To Defy" and my personal favorite "Machine Insurgency" this is an album that'll take a lot of listens to fully comprehend. The only problem I had was with the constant high-pitch screaming which got annoying after a while. Their vocalist can do some amazing low-pitch growls but is strangely scarce on this album compared to the 1st. Aside from that little problem, this is an amazing album with great musicianship. Xerath are leading symphonic-metal to a new path and this album is a must listen to whoever appreciates metal with a tinge of orchestral music.
Stand out tracks are "Reform Part III", "Unite To Defy" and "Machine Insurgency".

9. Title Fight - Shed

I've never heard a lot of punk-hardcore but when I saw Title Fight's video for "Symmetry", I knew these guys did great D.I.Y.- Punk, being just a bunch of kids. Their sound was tight and their song-writing was solid and from the heart, just like a teenager. But their music sounded a lot mature than they looked. So with their 2nd album "Shed" they really shed (geddit?) their soul on this one. Its a very emotional album with just a few fast punk-ish songs. All the songs are heart-felt and emotional with just a few tracks where they seem to be having fun, but its all mostly touching stuff. 
Stand-out tracks are "27", "Shed" and "Flood Of '72".

8. Corelia - Nostalgia

This obscure band's EP I found completely by chance while traversing through the depths of the Internet. I heard a lot of good things about this band from a lot of other sources and thought to myself "I should give it a go". Disappointed, I was NOT! The songs were heavy yet beautiful. The riffing was fast and complex yet still kept that melody. I've only seen one other band do this and that band is Protest The Hero. So picture this, if Protest The Hero did djent, then this is probably what it would sound like. I was particularly blown away when I found out that the production was completely in-house with AxeFx II for the guitars and Superior Drummer 2.0 for drum tracking. And they made it sound THIS professional?! Amazing. 
Stand out tracks are  ... pretty much the entire EP since its just 5 songs. But if you still want to know which ones you should try out then, "Glass Faces", "Aviation" and "Blood Petals" would be the ones I'd recommend.

7. Mastodon - Hunter

When a band like Mastodon comes out with an album, its BIG news. They write some of the most intelligent music, give amazing performances and have some of the most epic/funniest music videos ever. No wonder they're one of the biggest progressive-metal bands at the moment. So when they come out with a new album, we should pay attention because "Hunter" is great! Its not a concept album like the previous ones, but its still got that Mastodon thing going for it. Crazy lyrics, epic sequences and just a whole round o' kick ass metal. That's what Mastodon is, really. And they've just let the steering wheel go on this one, oh what fun! 
Stand out tracks are "Curl Of The Burl", "Stargasm", "Black Tongue" and "The Hunter".

6. Decapitated - Carnival Is Forever

After the tragic accident that killed their drummer Vitek, brother to lead-guitarist Vogg and one of the greatest drummers to come out of the new age of death metal, and leaving their vocalist Covan in an indefinite coma, Decapitated seemed to be at a point where all hope was lost and they probably would have disbanded. But Vogg kept it on and found another amazing drummer Krimh, who completely filled Vitek's shoes. Then it was only a matter of time till they wrote their next album Carnival Is Forever, the follow up to one of my favorite albums, Organic Hallucinosis. The album was mostly written by Vogg and Vitek prior to the accident. But even then, you can hear the hurtfulness in the album and how the tragedy affected Vogg. For a death-metal album there are a lot of low points, where the listener is left to introspect. That is it seems more of progressive-death than straight out death-metal, but then again, I'm not complaining. This is really an amazing album. Though not as good as their last album Organic Hallucinosis, it is still a step forward for Decapitated.
Stand out tracks are "Homo Sum", the Gojira inspired "404", "Knife" and "Pest".

Well, we're down with the bottom 5 of the Top 10. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post where I reveal my Top 5 Albums Of The Year – 2011.