JORDAN ITKOWITZ

Another amazing year for metal – probably my favorite since 2006 – with more variety and subgenres than ever before. This list came together very quickly, given that some of these have been in my steady rotation since early in the year. That says a lot for their staying power – especially when you look at my #1 pick…

1. Pagan’s Mind – Heavenly Ecstasy. On a year-end list filled with progressive death, black metal, tech death and the like, not only did I choose a power/prog album as my favorite for the year, but it’s also the band’s least proggy, most straightforward release to date. So why pick it? Because no other metal album gave me more sheer listening pleasure this year. Monster hooks, addictive sing-along choruses, and the perfect balance of early 80s heavy-metal bravado with modern progressive flair and production.

2. Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony. Awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, gorgeous cacophony. This album was the most impressive metal experience of the year for me. The debut or EP didn’t do much for me, but here these maniacal Italians have seized on a sound that lets the symphonics carry the songwriting rather than just being a gimmicky garnish, and that makes all the difference for me.

3. Benighted – Asylum Cave. I crave a lot more melody and hooks than the brutal death/grind genre usually offers, but these depraved Frenchmen managed to deliver the perfect blend of both worlds, without losing a single bit of insanity in the process. Sick grooves, memorable tunes and a triple attack of gurgles, screams and bree-bree pig vocals. Addictive, grisly fun.

4. Dream Theater – A Dramatic Turn of Events. Simply put, the band’s best, most electrifying and most importantly, the most fun release they’ve put out in a decade.

5. Scar Symmetry – The Unseen Empire. Like the rest of you, I was disappointed when Christian Alvestam left the band after album #3, and even more disappointed to hear them stumble on the lackluster Dark Matter Dimensions. So I was very pleasantly surprised to hear them back in top form with this one. It may not have the overwhelming guitar pyrotechnics of Holographic Universe, but I think it’s the band’s most concise and solid collection of melo-death ear candy yet, which is why it’s been a steady player for me all year.

6. The Devil’s Blood – The Thousandfold Epicentre. Ghost may get all the attention from this new retro ‘70s revival, but Dutch occult-rockers The Devil’s Blood performs their homage without a hint or irony or kitsch. This new one sees the mysterious Dutchmen (and woman) painting with a more opulent palette, making this their most epic and psychedelic release to date. Wail Satan!

7. Junius – Reports from the Threshold of Death. Calling Jonas Renske – this is how you write memorable doom/post-metal songs. Junius are steeped in the same crushing melancholy as Katatonia, but I found this collection of songs to be more sensible, smartly crafted and packed with melodic hooks than Night is the New Day. Good thing both albums didn’t come out in the same year.

8. Opeth – Heritage. This marks the 2nd year that an Opeth album does not make the #1 slot for me, but they’re still my favorite band and they still delivered a memorable, authentic experience with this new direction. It just took awhile to sink in. Oddly enough, the weirdest, most colorful songs like “Famine” or “The Devil’s Orchard” were the ones that kept me coming back again and again, which gives me hope for an even more expansive journey next time.

9. Obscura – Omnivium. I expected jaw-dropping technicality from this release, but I did not expect it to be so diverse, playful or flat-out bizarre. Each track on Omnivium is different – sometimes dizzingly so – and blasts the band far, far beyond the Cynic and Death worship of their former albums. I can’t even imagine what the next one will sound like.

10. Symphony X – Iconoclast. As with Dream Theater, this was my favorite Symphony X release in a decade. It may not be as fluidly melodic as their earlier material – the result of a purposely darker, more aggressive approach – but there are still plenty of hooks and dramatic crescendos to come back for. Worth it alone for the epic title track.

11. Myrath – Tales of the Sands
12. Omnium Gatherum – New World Shadows
13. Mastodon – The Hunter
14. Dekadent – Venera: Trial and Tribulation
15. Orchid – Capricorn
16. Obsequiae – Suspended in the Brume of Eos
17. Insomnium – One for Sorrow
18. Anaal Nathrakh – Passion
19. Finnr’s Cane – Wanderlust
20. Fen – Epoch

Best EPs
1. Gorod – Transcendence
2. Hessian Crucible – Morbidity
3. Ash Borer – Ash Borer

Best Cover
Ghost – “Here Comes the Sun” (Beatles)

Best Re-Recording/Rework
Gorod – “Blackout” (an amazing, deft gypsy/jazz/flamenco version of the original from Leading Vision)

Best Creative Comeback
Dream Theater

Best Guilty Pleasures
Nightwish – Imaginaerum
Powerwolf – Blood of the Saints
Blood Stain Child – Epsilon
Morbid Angel – “Destructos vs the Earth”

Most-Listened to Album of 2011 Not Released in 2011
The Devil’s Blood – Come, Reap EP

Album I Should Have Named as My #1 of 2010
Iron Thrones – The Wretched Sun

Best Bigfoot Death Metal Album
Troglodyte – Welcome to Boggy Creek…

Cool Albums I Didn’t Get to Spend Enough Time With
Azarath – Blasphemers’ Maledictions
Vektor – Outer Isolation
Sorgeldom – From Outer Intelligences

Albums Everyone Else Loved But Which Bored Me to Tears
40 Watt Sun – The Inside Room
Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestial Lineage
Primordial – Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand

Sorry Guys, the Last Albums Were Better…
Klabautamann – The Old Chamber
Leviathan – True Traitor, True Whore
Memfis – Vertigo
Amorphis – The Beginning of Times
Serenity – Death & Legacy