I started this blog with the idea of sharing music with others.   So, with this goal in mind, I’m blatantly jumping on the bandwagon with every other media outlet on the planet and am releasing some end of the year “Best of” awards.
  
This is the first of three blogs that will recognize the great music and performances of 2011.  This specific blog highlights what I think are the overall top 10 albums that were released in 2011.  The next blog will also focus on albums released in 2011, and will give some less traditional, Random Category awardsto albums that I think are worthy of mentioning but not overall in my top 10.  Finally, the third “best of 2011” blog will discuss my true passion, which is live music and shows, and will take a look at some of the best concerts of 2011 that I was able to attend.  

For the Music Pill Album Category Awards, click here.  
The Best concerts of 2011 blog has not been released.  

On to the Top 10!!

Since my interest is in exposure and not in the actual ranking, and since I have a job, I didn’t bother ranking albums 6-10.  Those five get honorable mention (and are in no particular order) and then the top five are ranked in order based on what I thought was the best.

Here we go.  The inaugural Music Pill awards for top 10 albums released in 2011.  Buckle your seatbelt.  (You can click on the title of the album for a Youtube clip from my favorite song from that album)

Honorable Mention

Asking Alexandria – Reckless and Relentless
As usual, AA uses killer vocals and interesting song elements in this album to set themselves apart in an extremely saturated metalcore genre.  The first 12 tracks are excellent.  However, at the end of the album, AA makes one of those elements (the use of electronics) the focus, and it degrades the otherwise great album.  That transition (from a metalcore album to an LSD-filled rave) pushes this one out of the top 5, but the first 12 are strong enough for this to belong in the discussion among 2011’s best.

 



Staind – Staind
It literally pains me to include a Staind album, as I am NOT a Staind fan, and don’t particularly care for Aaron Lewis.  I tried so hard to ignore it, but the self-titled release is Staind’s strongest effort to date, and it’s just too good.  Full of hard-hitting songs that remind me of Korn’s intensity, Staind (the album) offers listeners a multitude of memorable tracks that helped this album overcome lots of other music, and my major bias, to inch it’s way into the top 10.





Born of Osiris – The Discovery
This is the hardest album on my list, and man is it good.  Born of Osiris is a relatively new band for me, so I can’t speak to their earlier stuff, but The Discovery was quite a pleasant surprise in 2011.  Its sweeping metal tracks and constantly changing landscape make it worthwhile for any metal fan to check out. There are no clean vocals, but with music this intense and full of emotion, there’s no room for those anyway.  Its complexity and multitude of different musical elements sets it apart and makes it an album to remember.

 



Lazarus A.D. – Black River Flow
Another new band for me in 2011, this sophomore effort from thrash band Lazarus A.D. only got decent reviews from the “experts” who say that they are 20 years too late to compete with the Pantera music scene.  I couldn’t disagree more, and thoroughly enjoyed Black River Flow’s ability to bring old school metal into today’s music scene.  This 9 track album grabbed my interest by the balls from the first intro and never let go.  I’m not saying it can stand toe-to-toe with Cowboys from Hell, but I am saying that I haven’t heard anything in that genre that’s this good since.




August Burns Red – Leveler
Those that know more about music than I do criticize ABR (and most of their metalcore counterparts) for being too “simple”.  I’m not denying that this album is dominated by palm-muted chugging, I’m just saying that being simple doesn’t hold this album back from being really well executed.  Leveler (while not quite as polished as their previous effort Constellations), is a great attempt to expand on the traditional metalcore sound.  While it won’t satisfy some metal purists, ABR is talented enough, and Leveler is interesting enough, to convince me that it’s one of 2011’s best.



The five albums listed above are all great in their own regard, however they each have something lacking that left them just a bit weaker than my top five.  The albums below each resonate as 2011’s best albums, and are ranked from fifth-best to Album of the Year.  Quite different with regards to style, theme, and feel, all five of the albums below are exceptionally written, executed, and produced.  The downfall of my top five – not everyone will love all five albums, as many enjoy a narrower scope of music than I.  The benefit – I believe anyone will be hard-pressed to say they can’t find something on this list that they really, really like.



Top 5 Albums of 2011

#5
Kyng – Trampled Sun

This band earned a spot opening for Trivium on their upcoming tour by coming out with this excellent debut album.  Kyng puts a new spin on old-school Sabbath-y metal, exploring everything from hard hitting songs like “Falling Down” to borderline psychadelic rock anthems like the title track “Trampled Sun”.  The album is exceptional throughout, and finishes with a nine-minute masterpiece that nearly puts you to sleep before giving you one last (lengthy) display of their greatness tells me Kyng is a force to be reckoned with.   One of my favorite things to do is to find new music, and thanks to my endless scouring of internet (and The Great Southern Brainfart), this album sits at number 5 from 2011.  You’re welcome!

Animals as Leaders has three of the most talented musician’s I’ve ever seen on a single stage.  This instrumentalist group has two guys that play the eight string guitar like they have fifteen fingers who are kept in time by a dominating drummer that just crushes his kit.  Weightless, which is a follow-up to their debut album in 2009, reassures Animals as Leaders as one of the best, and most creative, prog metal bands around.  It twists time signatures to the point of brilliance, and constantly finds new ways to sound like something totally new.  The complete absence of vocals allows the instrumentation to be on full display, and every time through this album uncovers a new mind-blowingly difficult composition that is just really impressive.  Some might think that instrumental metal is a weird concept, and I’m not arguing that it’s different.  But it’s different in all the right ways and makes for an exceptional album, and after all, isn’t that what we are all endlessly searching for?  If you are looking for something creative, interesting, or downright incredible, check out the latest Animals as Leaders masterpiece.
Shoutout to Kerrang! magazine for introducing this post-hardcore album (and band) to me in the middle of 2011.  On this album, letlive – part of Epitaph records – push the boundaries of a genre that is usually identified as being relatively one-dimensional and sometimes boring.  Fake History is anything but that, riding along the waves of a really, really talented vocalist that “covers both the extremes of harsh and clean, frantic and mellow singing perfectly”.  They support those vocals with solid instrumentation that at some points add even more to the song, and at others simply stay out of the way of the brilliant vocalist.   The result is an exceptionally good and unique sound.  This album came out of nowhere for me, and while many metal fans will be hesitant to admit that a “scene” band put out such a great album, Fake History is worthy of breaking your rules.  Even as I write this review, I’m resisting the urge to bump this album up because of its consistently rich content and annoyingly catchy songs that most everyone will love (whether they like it or not).

(Author’s Note:  Quote from this Sputnik review, because I couldn’t 
find the words to describe the singer’s incredible voice, and this guy nailed it.)

 

Mastodon was already a heavyweight in the metal scene, but The Hunter saw them yet again take giant strides towards genius.  This album has more of a radio-friendly feel to it than their previous albums, which only shows their versatility, creativity, and evolution as a band.  Everything about this album, down to the award winning artwork on the album cover, is excellent.  Songs Curl the Burl and Blasteroid are some of the best Mastodon tracks yet, and the fact that this great band is continuing to get better is refreshing in a sometimes stagnant music industry.  This album converted me from Mastodon appreciator to borderline fanatic, and the fact that they deliver it so creatively live (*COUGH* /foreshadowing) makes this a staple in my music rotation.  In five years, if you ask me what was great about music in 2011, no doubt this will be the first thing that comes to my head, as it was good enough to really challenge me as a music fanatic to explore a different side of metal.  (#sortofabigdeal)  If I was rich, I’d buy a thousand copies of this album and just start handing it to people, because if you’re still reading this (and you’re not my mother), you just can’t miss this album.

 

Album of the Year
Trivium – In Waves

Although it quite doesn’t have the depth that The Hunter boasts, quite simply this Trivium album is epic.  In trying to decipher what the album of the year should be, it came down to this simple question:  What album did I spend the most time enjoying in 2011?  Put in that context, In Waves barely notches out Mastodon’s latest effort as The Music Pill’s 2011 Album of the Year.  Trivium, who has captivated metal since they were barely out of high school, has always been one of my favorite bands, and with In Waves, they release their best album to date (barely edging out Ascendancy).  This album combines Trivium’s exceptional song writing and instrumentation with a slightly increased focus on clean vocals (and harmonies) to solidify Trivium as giants among men.  Once you take stock of the individual elements of this album, you come to what makes it truely great – its consistency:  There simply isn’t any filler.  You can listen to individual tracks or the album from front to back and never miss a beat.  It starts off setting the bar high, with seven straight excellent tracks (songs like In Waves, Dusk Dismantled, Black, and it goes on and on), and then barely takes a break (Ensnare the Sun), before unleashing the first single and arguably the best track on the album, Built to Fall.  The rest of the album continues to impress, and all-in-all, In Waves gives us eighteen songs (including bonus tracks) without a weak spot to be found.  Hard hitting, and consistently great, Trivium’s fast paced 2011 album is an instant classic.

So there you have it!!  The top 10 albums released in 2011.  Hope you enjoyed some of these albums as much as I did, and that you found a few new ones to check out!   Stay tuned for the next two “best of 2011” blogs which will be coming out shortly!!

“Watch the world burn / It sets the air on fire / Watch the world burn / We are the arson.”