The big moment! The top four of albums I’ve reviewed this year. If you’ve missed what came before this, these four were preceded by eleven other albums in Part 1 and Part 2 of this list. Today’s four are the absolute cream of the crop.

As you’ll read on, there’s one thing you might notice: Finland’s the winner. Each and every single band in this top 4 hails out of the most Metal nation on the planet. Something I only just discovered myself. I think the Finnish are to Metal what American are to hamburgers. What Germans are to cars. And what Dutchmen are to drugs and prostitutes.

Anyfuck, I can make this a long and boring speech up front, like they do with most award shows, but I think everyone would just prefer to fuckin’ get going with this! After all, it’s Christmas Eve tonight and I’m sure you’ll want to get back to spinning Metal albums sitting under the Christmas tree.

Yes! Part 2 of the most important list in the whole wide world of Metal. The list of best albums I have reviewed all year. You can’t possibly get a more complete overview of what happened in the Metallic world, anywhere.

Seriously though, this is just a list. My own little list of fifteen albums that struck a special chord with me this year. But then again, I do hear a fuckload of Metal over the course of a year and the fact that these fifteen stood out as the top albums does make them a little special, don’t you think? Hence they are albums that I highly recommend you to listen to, and buy when you can get your grubby hands on them and have no more fuckin’ debts to pay off.

So, after our recent announcement of the list of lists, today marks the first part of three of our list. We’ll start with a grouping of six albums. Albums that are ‘good’, to such an extent that they should really be in any Metalhead’s collection.

These first six are in no particular order. In fact, to express this, I’ve put them in alphabetical order based on band name – and so actually they are in a particular order, but it has nothing to do with how high I would rank each.

By the way, to cover my ass, my list entries may not necessarily match up 100% with the grading given or the reviews themselves. The reason is time. Sometimes hearing something the first few times can be an amazing experience, but as time passes and you hear something more often, the experience wears off. Obviously a review should incorporate this possibility, but the simple truth is you can never be completely right or accurate. And tastes and preferences shift, in my case quite heavily over the course of this year.

So, what this list captures is longevity. An album’s capability to continue to capture its listener. In that sense, these are all albums that will stay interesting. Albums that need to be taken out of your huge motherfuckin’ album rack regularly or from time to time, because they will keep on tickling pleasure bones.

Lists. I generally don’t make them, unless I’m going out to get fuckin’ groceries or something. But it’s the end of the year and apparently that seems to mean all Metal blogs must publish lists. Any lists, doesn’t matter, as long as it reflects the past year. Lists of best albums are the most frequently features ones, but I don’t think any site’s readership would plummet in case there were lists of Shittiest Albums of the Year, Most Unspoken of Underground band of 2011 ,or 2011 Best Shag Had.

I’ve considered those options, but then again, my list of shitty albums doesn’t exist because I don’t condone the self-torment of listening to shitty albums in the first place, I haven’t heard anything about the most unspoken bands at all, and I’ve only had one shag all year – or ever really – so that wouldn’t be what you’d call a ‘list’ either.

And so I’m making a list of shit I know about, have enjoyed and is actually more than one: the best albums I’ve reviewed in the past twelve months. Simple!

Ha! I just this moment realised that with these last two inclusions the little freebie list is split with a five-to-five mix of LPs and EPs. How did I not notice that? Anyway, these are my top two favorite freebies of the year and they both happen to have been introduced to me by TNOTB.

The list so far:
10. – Savage Messiah – A Plague of Conscience
09. – Blastanus – Collapse
08. – Meankind – 22.Zero
07. – The Apocryphal Order – S/T
06. – Incise – From the Crypts They Rise
05. – Immolation – Providence
04. – Ära Krâ – Ferne Tage
03. – Oak Pantheon – The Void

02. – Apocryphon – S/T

So, the list currently stands at three LPS and three EPs with Part 4 adding another of each.

The list so far:
10. – Savage Messiah – A Plague of Conscience
09. – Blastanus – Collapse
08. – Meankind – 22.Zero
07. – The Apocryphal Order – S/T
06. – Incise – From the Crypts They Rise
05. – Immolation – Providence

04. – Ära Krâ – Ferne Tage

So far we’ve had two LPs and two EPs on the list. Part 3 will add one more to each column.

The list so far:
10. – Savage Messiah – A Plague of Conscience
09. – Blastanus – Collapse
08. – Meankind – 22.Zero
07. – The Apocryphal order – S/T

06. – Incise – From the Crypts They Rise

Where Part 1 of my favorite 2011 freebies covered two full-length releases Part 2 looks at two EPs which by coincidence both found their way to my ears via NCS.

The list so far:
10. – Savage Messiah – A plague of Conscience
09. – Blastanus – Collapse

08. – Meankind – 22.Zero

List season has arrived. Soon the internet will be littered with countless lists of the year’s best albums. After pondering what my own list might be I realised that I couldn’t possibly come up with a truely ‘best of’ list. I haven’t even heard every album that’s come out this year, I imagine no one has. So, to do something a little different I’ve put together a list of my favorite releases from 2011 that were offered for free, including some with a name your price option. Remember, this is a ‘favorites’ list not a ‘best of’ list, I haven’t heard all the free ones either. Of the freebies I’ve heard these are the ten that have kept me coming back and I’ll present them two at a time.

10. – Savage Messiah – A Plague of Conscience