METALBALL: PERCEPTION VS. THE REALITY OF OUR TOP 15 LISTS

I am a goofy stats and numbers geek and have been ever since I was a kid, starting when I created my own NFL board game using an NFL Strategy football field and hundreds of 1974 Topps Football cards with plays printed on the back.

Yesterday, I was reading the comments in the compilation of our Year End Top 15 lists and stumbled across “You”‘s request that someone should tabulate and collate our lists. This, of course, appealed to the stat geek in me.

In addition, another reader named “Agschwarzer” created the internet meme you see up top.

So, I was curious. What did the writers at MetalSucks like the most in 2011 and, more importantly, did we completely ignore Mastodon?

Nothing fancy here. No creative metrics or indecipherable statistical BS was used to compile these results. Just simply a reverse point total (ie. #15 = 1 point, #14 = 2 points, and so on…#1 = 15 points) and a vote tally. No honorable mentions are included. Also, if a writer did not include 15 albums, the top pick did not get 15 points. In other words, if a writer only included 11 titles, the #1 title only received 11 points.

And, yeah, I’m too fucking busy to go back and type in all of the album titles, so it’s band names only.

The results may surprise you. Or not. Probably not, except for Agschwarzer.

METALSUCKS STAFF FAVORITE ALBUMS FOR 2011 BASED ON POINTS

1. Revocation – 60

2. Mastodon – 43*

3. Textures – 41

4. Hate Eternal – 37

5. East Of The Wall – 32

6. Decapitated – 30

6. The Human Abstract – 30

8. Havok – 27

9. Absu – 24

9. Skeletonwitch – 24

11. Ulcerate – 23

11. The Devin Townsend Project – 23

11. Saviours – 23

14. The Atlas Moth – 22

14. The Black Dahlia Murder – 22

16. Anaal Nathrakh – 21

17. SubRosa – 20

17. Vektor – 20

17. Wolf – 20

20. KEN mode – 19

20. Dir En Grey – 19

22. Anthrax – 18

22. Scale The Summit – 18

22. Wolves In The Throne Room – 18

22. Touchè Amoré – 18

26. Taake – 17

27. Septicflesh – 16

27. Cauldron – 16

27. Ghost – 16

30. Toxic Holocaust – 15 (multiple votes – mv)

30. Animals As Leaders – 15 (mv)

30. 40 Watt Sun – 15 (mv)

30. Protest The Hero – 15 (mv)

METALSUCKS STAFF FAVORITE ALBUMS FOR 2011 BASED ON VOTES

1. Revocation – 9

2. Mastodon – 4*

3. Textures – 4

4. East Of The Wall – 4

5. Absu – 4

6. Skeletonwitch – 4

7. Ulcerate – 4

8. Hate Eternal – 3

9. Decapitated – 3

10. The Human Abstract – 3

11. Havok – 3

12. KEN mode – 3

13. Toxic Holocaust – 3

14. Black Tusk – 3

15. 29 acts tied with 2 votes each

45. 125 acts tied with one vote

*So much for  Agschwarzer’s claim. This is how bullshit gets spread.

***Nice jumps made by Ulcerate, KEN mode, Toxic Holocaust, and Black Tusk. Noticeable drops from Decapitated, The Human Abstract, and Havok.

#1 ALBUM PICKS THAT NO ONE ELSE PICKED AT ALL A.K.A. “ELITIST SNOB WRITER PICKS”

Anso DF – The Devil’s Blood

Corey Mitchell (Me) – Horned Almighty

Grim Kim Kelly – Bosse De Nage

Leyla Ford – Insomnium

Kellhammer – Black Cobra

Nicholas Pell – Lou Reed & Metallica

Dave Mustein – The Project Hate MCMXCIX

Bob Cock – Frozen

(WO)MAN ON AN ISLAND – METALSUCKS WRITER WITH LEAST AMOUNT OF SIMILAR PICKS AKA “MORE ELITIST WRITER HOO-HA”

1. Gary Suarez – 14

2. “Grim” Kim Kelly – 13

3. Corey Mitchell (Me) – 12

4. Kellhammer – 10

4. Shanbomb – 10

4. Dave Mustein – 10

7. Anso DF – 8

8. Bob Cock – 7

9. Leyla Ford – 6

9. Nicholas Pell – 6

9. D.X. Ferris – 6

9. Vic Vaughn – 6

13. Axl Rosenberg – 5

14. Kip Wingerschmidt – 4

14. Sammy O’Hagar – 4

16. Vince Neilstein – 3

Fun With Numbers!

• Sixteen MetalSucks writers selected a total of 168 acts to their Top 15 lists with an extremely wide range of metal sub-genres in the mix.
• Interestingly, Revocation logged in as the overwhelming overall #1 without receiving a single #1 vote. Or a single #2 vote. Or a single #3 vote. Or a single #4 vote.
• Also, some big names took a spanking this year with only one vote including Machine Head, Dream Theater, Between The Buried And Me, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Iced Earth, TesseracT, and Metallica.
• Furthermore, MetalSucks’ reputation as a djent-only playground does not hold too true. Only Textures and Animals As Leaders made our Top 33, and AAL barely made it on at all. That may change if you consider The Human Abstract and Scale The Summit to be djent. I have no idea. I just know I am no fan of djent.
• BTW, Axl and Vince reeeeaaaalllllyyyyy like The Human Abstract. What’s up with that?
• What does it all mean? Who gives a fuck? Other than the fact that Agschwarzer is a lying poopy pants, of course.

Here’s my 2011 Top 15 in case you missed it the first time around.

-CM

Corey Mitchell is a best-selling author of several true crime books and is currently helping Philip H. Anselmo write his autobiography.

Join Corey at Facebook and Twitter. Oh yeah, circle me at Google+, yet another fucking social network….