Best metal albums of 2011

2011 was a banner year for metal with new albums from Mastodon and Machine Head. Also lots of classic thrash bands like Megadeth and Anthrax released new albums. So here are my top 10 Metal albums of 2011.

10.Amon Amarth-Surtur Rising
Although this was a weak amon amarth album it still kicked alot of other albums asses into next week. Big epic songs, blistering guitar work and brutal vocals these guys never stop being themselves.

9.Stratovarius-Elysium
Youve probably never hears of this german power/prog metal band but i love em and cant get enough of their clean and crisp guitar sound. Their catchy choruses and emotional solos always keep me coming back to this album. The selling point of this album for me is the 18 minuete prog rock epic Elysium. Its a beutiful closer to a beutiful album.

8.Opeth-Heritage
Finally Opeth has stopped being a death metal band. Their longtime death/prog metal fusion has always produced great music but ive never really been a death metal fan so when opeth just went al out prog rock i was excited. Theyve produced a beutiful work of art that although is not as good as blackwater park its better than most of their albums. The keyboard and piano work is emotive and the 70s prog sounding guitars really gell with the keyboards. Even the album artwork is beutiful and emotive.

7.Trivium-In Waves
This is a great album from start to finish and a really fun listen.

6.Korn-The Path Of Totality
Korn have crafted a wonderfull metal album that although isnt my favourite type of metal theyve gotten even me to like it. The production quality is excellent and the guitar work is good for the most part. The songs have brilliant song structure an lyrics. The reason this is only number six is because there are just better albums out there this year.

5.Thirteen-Megadeth
Honestly this album wasn't as great as i hoped it would be. There are just a few bad songs on here and thats something i dont really want or expect from a megadeth release. That aside this album still makes the list because its good old classic megadeth with a slightly punchier new sound. The solos are some of the best of the year and the albums closing track 13 is epic! If this album was perfect it would probably be number 1.

4.Obscura-Omnivium
I agree with everyone out there this is a really stinking good metal album. The guitars soar and from the opening notes you know this is gonna be epic. The production is great the vocals are good aside from my one issue with this album. You cant really hear all the lyrics. Now some of you might argue with this but ok this album in my opinion is just not up to par in musical skill with two of the next three albums. The other album is ranked higher than this cause of the nostalgia factor.

3.Anthrax-Worship Music
This is a brilliant album by one of my favourite bands. This is the album that has the "nostalgia" factor. I love these guys and some of their early stuff is amazing! Then joey left and theyve never been the same since then. Imagine my exciment when i hear that joeys coming back to anthrax. This album is really good though. Every track has something special about it. The production is great. The solos are great. The drums and bass are tight and cohesive. The vocals go from crazy lows to soaring highs. And Scott Ian chugs out riff after riff just like hes back in the 80s.

2.Machine Head-Unto the Locust
This is one of the BIGGEST albums of the year. Robb flynn has kept saying over and over that this is gonna revoulutionize metal. While it doesnt quite do that it comes mighty close. The tracks are long progressive epics remminiscent of Mastodons 2009 release Crake The Skye. The song "the locust" is one of my favpurite songs of the entire year! The production is great as always but whats really good here is the song structure and lyrics. The whole album is just brilliant. The instrumentation is rivalling that of Mastodon or Opeth or even Obscura. I hope machine head keeps chugging out releases like this one.

1.Mastodon-The Hunter
This is definently as good as everyone says. Heck its even better. Theyve traded in the long progressive epics for shorter radio freindly songs but that HUGE stylistic change seems so small because this album is just as dumbfoundinly awesome as every mastodon CD yet. Mastodon are so brilliant and skilled at their instrumentation its like second nature and theyve been topping my lists for a long long time. Hopefully they keep chugging out great metal realeses. No doubt in my mind they will.