So, here we are again. We've completed yet another circle around the sun and passed along the twelve signs of Zodiac and tons and tons of releases have avalanched down upon us and we are once again faced with the monumental task of trying to sift through them all and try to make some sort of sense of them. By sheer statistical force any attempt to make some sort of proper and fair year end-list will and must ultimately fail. A milion things can and do go wrong: you fail to include some obvious choice because you simply forgot it; the album you obssessed about and hailed as the Second Coming of Jeebus in January has quickly faded into mediocrity not necessarily because it was bad, but perhaps because it paled compared to other, newer releases; the black metal or sludge tip you were on in spring has settled down and now you're mostly into grindcore which naturally colour you selection. And so on. On the whole 2011 was a pretty decent metal/hardcore year in my opinion. We had some new and amazing albums come out from many of the respective genre's seasoned luminaries and quite a few from some of the strongest newcomers as well. My year end list is in no way a complete one, there is no ranking system here, just a selection of albums that were released this year that I was highly impressed with. You might argue that some of the bands presented here do not belong in whichever genre I have put them. This is mainly because so many of them defy classification and that is one of the great things about many of the new bands out there; their music is their own. It's not moulded from some blue print of what everybody else thinks is black metal or grindcore or punk. I guess there is a case to made for not including genres at all, but since this is my list and not yours or anybody else's, I choose to ignore it. If you don't like it or do not agree, I refer you to the image above. Here we go:GRINDCORE:
HEXIS - XI
AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED/DESPISE YOU - ON AND ON
FUCK THE FACTS - DIE MISERABLY
BRUTAL TRUTH - END TIMES
GRIDLINK - ORPHAN
NOISEAR - SUBVERT THE DOMINANT PARADIGM
BLACK METAL:
LEVIATHAN - TRUE TRAITOR, TRUE WHORE
TERRA TENEBROSA - THE TUNNELS
GORGOROTH - UNDER THE SIGN OF HELL
MHORGL - HERESIARCH
RAVENCULT - MORBID BLOOD
CARA NEIR - STAGNANT PERCEPTIONS
WOLVHAMMER - THE OBSIDIAN PLAINS
DEATH METAL:
CORPSESSED - THE DAGGER & THE CHALICE
THE ROTTED - AD NAUSEAM
SONNE ADAM - TRANSFORMATION
IMMOLATION - PROVIDENCE EP
NADER SADEK - IN THE FLESH
SVART CROWN - WITNESSING THE FALL
DEMONICAL - DEATH INFERNAL
METAL/HARDCORE:
UNREST - ST
TODAYS IS THE DAY - PAIN IS A WARNING
HAIL HORNET! - DISPERSE THE CURSE
HARM'S WAY - ISOLATION
AMERICAN HERITAGE - SEDENTARY
TOMBS - PATHS OF TOTALITY
TRAP THEM - DARKER HANDCRAFT
TOXIC HOLOCAUST - CONJURE & COMMAND
CLINGING TO THE TREES OF A FOREST FIRE/NESSERIA - SPLIT
HARDCORE/PUNK:
DEAD LANGUAGE - ST LP
TRENCHFOOT - ST EP
GRAF ORLOCK - DOOM BOX
HESSIAN - ST EP
PULLING TEETH - FUNERARY
WITHDRAWAL - FAITH FLESH AND BLOOD EP
BLACK GOD - ST EP
THE DWARVES - ARE BORN AGAIN
DRUGS OF FAITH - CORRODED
LOW THREAT PROFILE - PRODUCT #2
JAPANTHER - BEETS, LIME AND RICE
ELECTRO:
OHGR - UNDEVELOPED
BROTMAN & SHORT - HEIGHTS LP
BROTMAN & SHORT - RANKING VATS CS
SKINNY PUPPY - HANDOVER
CONTREPOISON - ...UNTIL THE NEXT MORNING
LUST FOR YOUTH - SOLAR FLARE
CRUST:
AMEBIX - SONIC MASS
BOOK OF BLACK EARTH - THE COLD TESTAMENT
ALPINIST + MASAKARI - SPLIT
PROTESTANT - STALEMATE
DOOM/SLUDGE:
BÄDR VOGU - EXITIUM
YOUNG HUNTER - CHILDREN OF A HUNGRY WORLD
KEN MODE - VENERABLE
DOPETHRONE - DARK FOIL
