THE BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2011, AS CHOSEN BY METAL MUSICIANS THEMSELVES — PART III
FEATURING MEMBERS OF AT THE GATES, TEXTURES, GRIDLINK, FIGHT AMP, MONSTRO, GLORIOR BELLI, VALLENFYRE, HOODED MENACE, AND PORTRAIT
Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.
After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!
TOMAS LINDBERG, AT THE GATES/DISFEAR/LOCK UP
1. Autopsy, Macabre Eternal
2. Maruta, Forward Into Regression
3. Noisear, Subvert the Dominant Paradigm
4. Rotten Sound, Cursed
5. Disma, Towards the Megalith
6. Battles, Gloss Drop
7. Fucked Up, David Comes to Life
8. GridLink, Orphan
9. Liturgy, Aesthethica
10. Craft, Void
STEF BROKS, TEXTURES
1. The Contortionist, Exoplanet
2. Decapitated, Carnival is Forever
3. Elbow, Build a Rocket Boys
4. Peter Gabriel, New Blood
5. Adele, 21
6. Sky Harbour, Chaos and Illusion; Blinding white Noise
7. The Devin Townsend Project, Deconstruction
8. Mastodon, The Hunter
9. Opeth, Heritage
10. Foo Fighters, Wasting Light
JON CHANG, GRIDLINK
Best of 2011, in no specific order:
My cat, Harlock.
The end.
Just kidding.
Music:
Galneryus, Phoenix Rising
Merry, Beautiful Freaks
Sex Machineguns, SMG
Gaming:
Replaying Syndicate and Syndicate Wars in DosBox
Crysis 2 campaign mode
Ace Combat Assault Horizon campaign mode
Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer
Conflict of Heroes : Storms of Steel
Unannounced Echelon Software action game…(been fun making it anyways ^O^)
Books:
Neal Asher, The Departure
Peter Watts, Crysis 2
Charles Duelfer, Hide and Seek: The Search for Truth in Iraq
Zahid Hussain, The Scorpion’s Tail
Lee Allen Zatarain, America’s First Clash With Iran: The Tanker War 1987-1988
Despite being self-serving, getting my graphic novel Black Powder \ Red Earth published this year made 2011 for me.
Other:
Eastern Bikes “The Boss” 2011 model
Cult Deathrow frame
Echelon Software making it to year 6
Disruptive Environments program at Haley Strategic
Skunk Works shit that I still can’t discuss (been fun working through it all)
In no particular order:
400 Blows, Sickness and Health
Hawks, Rub
Saviours, Death’s Procession
Balaclava, Crimes of Faith
American Heritage, Sedentary
Weedeater, Jason… The Dragon
Lady Piss, Streaming
Obits, Moody, Standard and Poor
Harkonen, Shake Harder Boy (vinyl rerelease on Brutal Panda records)
Red Fang, Murder The Mountains
KYLE SANDERS, MONSTRO
1. Gregg Allman, Low Country Blues
2. Mogwai, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
3. Radiohead, The King of Limbs
4. Eddie Vedder, Ukulele Songs
5. Primus, Green Naugahyde
6. Mastodon, The Hunter
7. Lucinda Williams, Blessed
8. PJ Harvey, Let England Shake
9. Anthrax, Worship Music
10. Deer Tick, Divine Providence
JULIEN, GLORIOR BELLI
1. Ulcerate, The Destroyers of All
2. Graveyard, Hisingen Blues
3. Primordial, Redemption At The Puritan’s hand
4. 3, The Ghost You Gave Me
5. Hexvessell, Dawnbearer
6. Pentagram, Last Rites
7. Craft, Void
8. Amebix, Sonic Mass
9. Absu, Abzu
10. The Atlas Moth, An Ache For The Distance
GREGOR MACKINTOSH, VALLENFYRE/PARADISE LOST
1. Rotten Sound , Cursed — A very nice sounding, sludgy, grind album with some great parts — and Orion Landau did their cover, too.
2. Trap Them, Darker Handcraft — I actually prefer the previous album Seizures in Barren Praise, but this is still very good Entombed-ish hardcore.
3. Coffins, Ancient Torture — Buried Death is my favorite album by this truly brilliant Japanese band, but this collection of previously recorded tracks and cover songs is also great. How can you go wrong with a Carnage cover?
4. Lock Up, Necropolis Transparent — A bunch of fellow old-timers from back in the day still doing very relevant and visceral grind.
5. Dishammer, Vintage Addiction (reissue) — As the name suggests, these guys like it old school. Bit of Discharge, bit of Hellhammer, even part Motorhead. Just cool.
6. Bombangrepp, Skuggan av Dodens sandebud — Excellent crustpunk in the vein of Skitsystem/Anti Cimex. I never grow tired of this stuff.
7. Tombs, Path to Totality — I’m not that big of a fan of black metal after the first two Bathory albums, but this is worthy of making an exception. It’s monumental and bleak sounding.
8. Sarabante, Remnants — Lovely Greek hardcore/crust.
9. Craft, Void — Have to say again that I ain’t the biggest black metal fan, but Craft has lots of other elements in there too. Good record.
10. Dragged into Sunlight, Hatred for Mankind — Just for being fucking raw (and English).
LASSE PYYKKÖ, HOODED MENACE
1. Negative Plane, Stained Glass Revelations
2. Loss, Despond
3. Autopsy, Macabre Eternal
4. Necros Christos, Doom of the Occult
5. Morne, Asylum
6. Anima Morte, The Nightmare Becomes Reality
7. Orchid, Capricorn
8. Morbus Chron, Sleepers in the Rift
9. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Blood Lust
10. Amebix, Sonic Mass
RICHARD LAGERGREN, PORTRAIT
1. Hell, Human Remains — The most grand, traditional heavy metal album I heard in years. Doubt it would have been better if they recorded it in the 80s.
2. 40 Watt Sun, The Inside Room — Could as well have been no. 1 on this list. Patrick Walker keeps spellbinding.
3. The Devil’s Blood, The Thousandfold Epicentre — Considerable stronger than the debut. Here the band proves it wasn’t a mere mayfly.
4. Negative Plane, Stained Glass Revelations– Some days I’m tempted to call Negative Plane the only good (real) black metal act around today.
5. Absu, Abzu — A major step-up from the comeback album. A band with true integrity. Underrated.
6. Burzum, Fallen — Another clear improvement from another comeback album. Plenty of classic Burzum atmosphere here.
7. Craft, Void — Better than Fuck the Universe.
8. Antichrist, Forbidden World — Pure destilled youthful metal magic, with a couple of riffs so classic you’ll think the songs are covers. Even better live.
9. Root, Heritage of Satan — Their best since Black Seal.
10. Sonne Adam, Transformation — The death metal album of the year. Heavy as fuck.
