Metal Mark's top 35 albums of 2011

What a year 2011 has been for music. It's been such a spectacular year that instead of doing my usual top 25 albums of the year I had to expand it to 35 and it was still hard to narrow it down.
It was definitely the year for stoner rock, doom and experimental metal. However there were also good classic style metal albums, hard rock, thrash, prog-metal, death metal, power metal and I even considered two AOR albums for this although they didn't quite make it. It was a just a fantastic year for music and weak albums were few and far between. So like them or not here are my top 35 albums of 2011.



1-Black Cobra-Invernal
A slightly different approach for them, but still amazing.
2-Admiral Browning-Battle Stations
More great instrumental stoner, prog-rock from this trio.
3-In Solitude-The world the flesh, the devil
Total Mercyful Fate worship but so well done.
4-Beehoover-Concrete catalyst
Beehoover have gotten better with each album.
5-Grand Astoria-Omnipresence
Powerful rawk and roll madness.
6-Lo Pan-Salvador
Fuzzed out goodness.
7-Alice Cooper-Welcome 2 my nightmare
A big surprise and a great effort from Alice.
8-Ethereal Riffian-Shamans visions
Slow and thick layers of stoner rock and doom.
9-Roadsaw-s/t
Six years since their last album and they come back better than ever.
10-Across Tundras-Sage
A mass of surging tones.
11- Saxon-Call to arms
Metal veterans still have plenty left in the tank.
12-Pentagram-Last Rites
Welcome back to the fold, Victor Griffin.
13- Argus-Boldy stride the doomed
Even better than their previous album.
14-Megadeth-TH1RT3EN
Their best album in some time.
15- Brotherhood of sleep-Dark as light
Hypnotizing doom.
16-Earth-Angels of darkness, demons of light 1
Spectacular tones throughout.
17-Gypsy Pistoleros - Duende :Last of the Pistoleros
Lee Pistolero and his backing band still pull this one off.
18-Scale the summit-The collective
Not always a prog-rock fan, but these guys are easy to get into.
19-Enablers-Blown realms and stalled explosions
A wild mix of off the wall sounds, scattered music , spoken word and more.
20-Blaspherian-Infernal Warriors of death
Pure raging death metal.
21-The Rotted-Ad Nauseum
One of the best at mixing death metal and old style hardcore.
22-Mastodon –The Hunter
A disappointment for them, but still solid enough.
23-Jag Panzer-The scourge of the light
Impressive outing.
24-Brainstorm-On the spur of the moment
Still one of the best power metal bands around.
25-Amon Amarth-Surtur Rising
Predictable, but heavy.
26-Wino-Adrift
Different from his usual work, but still engaging.
27-Vektor-Outer Isolation
Great blend of technical talent combined with old style thrash.
28-TYR-The lay of Thrym
Viking themed power metal with incredible melodies.
29- Between the buried and me- The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues
Only EP, but these guys are still brilliant.
30-Wolves in the throne room-Celestial Lineage
Drone done right.
31-Twisted Tower Dire-Make it dark
Another solid outing from this classic style metal act.
32-Dixie Witch-Let it roll
Southern fried, groove driven rock.
33-Portrait-Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae'
The second best Mercyful Fate inspired album of the year.
33-Iron Claw-A different game
Their first album since the 1970’s and what a great comeback.
34-Einvera-In your image
Constantly changing chaos.
35-Witch Mountain-South of Salem
Slow and noisy works for this band.