At last, your favorite retrospective trip down metal memory lane has returned! We promise you it was worth the wait. Much like 2010, 2011 was a seminal year for this here headbanger. I was a wee lad of 12, spending my weekly allowance at Best Buy on any new metal releases I could get my grubby paws on. This, children, was back in the days when Best Buy still sold these ancient artifacts called CDs. When I wasn’t blasting my eardrums in the privacy of my room/growing metal cave, I was treated to the likes of Rush, UFO, Mötley Crüe, and various other heavy metal heroes live! Indeed, 2011 was a year for the history books. Here are its 10 greatest moments.
10. Skeletonwitch – Forever Abomination
I’m sorry, but the rise and fall of Skeletonwitch is something that needs to be studied by metal scholars. These blackened death thrashers came storming into the late ’00s with such modern day classics as Beyond the Permafrost (2007) and Breathing the Fire (2009). 2011’s Forever Abomination saw them go for a threepeat which rivaled that of the Chicago Bulls, and it was downright glorious. Short and anything but sweet, Forever Abomination kicked junior high Joe’s ass and left him wondering why the other kids his age wasted their time with dorky pizza thrashers like Municipal Waste and Havok. As an adult, I can revisit this album and appreciate its subtle balance of musical maturity, yet without sacrificing the band’s core savagery. That would unfortunately come later.
9. Antichrist – Forbidden World
Unfortunately, my introduction to Antichrist didn’t come until much later than 2011. It wasn’t until the release of their sophomore album, 2017’s Sinful Birth, that these Swedish thrashers crossed my path, imploring me to go back in time and explore their debut, Forbidden World. If I had known about this album upon its release, it would’ve rocked my world, no pun intended. This band’s feral brand of blackened thrash doesn’t get enough love. Forbidden World channeled the chaos of Show No Mercy era Slayer, early Destruction, and Endless Pain era Kreator, without sounding overtly like a knockoff of any said influence. The songs are hotter than hell and the performances are even hotter.
8. Opeth – Heritage
Alright, here me out: Heritage was my introduction to Opeth. Yes, I was aware of them beforehand, but had never listened to a full album of theirs prior to this one. As a youngster diving as deep down the prog rabbit hole as I was the metal rabbit hole, Heritage had me hook, line, and sinker. I loved this album so much that I had a poster of it on my wall (I wish I could find it). Admittedly, Heritage owed more sonically to Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes than any metal band. At its heaviest, it channeled Deep Purple at their proggiest, which tells you everything you need to know. Is it even a metal album? That’s up for debate, but considering the history and context of Opeth, we’re rightfully including it here at #8.
7. Saxon – Call to Arms
Could there have been a better title for Saxon’s 19th studio album than Call to Arms? I think not. After a long absence, this was the band’s first attempt at breaking back into the American market in a big way since the AOR curveball that was 1988’s Destiny. Much like Opeth’s Heritage, I vividly remember purchasing this album upon its release and wanting to catch its subsequent tour at the Arcada Theatre. Why I missed it is beyond me, although I’m sure being a broke tween had something to do with it. Anyways, Call to Arms mostly stripped back the power and prog metal intricacies of ’00s Saxon releases in exchange for the straightforward attack of their early ’80s and late ’90s output. The end result was pure “Heavy Metal Thunder”.
6. Toxic Holocaust – Conjure and Command
I’m sure I’ve regaled the tale in the past of discovering *insert band here* via Music Choice’s Metal channel as an impressionable young headbanger. Toxic Holocaust was one of those bands. I’ll never forget the first time I heard “Bitch” upon its single release and being absolutely hooked by such filthy Venom worship. To this day, the opening d-beat gives me goosebumps. Upon its release, Conjure and Command became a staple of my growing collection, being spun to the point of oblivion. In the scope of Toxic Holocaust’s catalog, it sees the band become exactly that, a band. Gone were the days of Joel Grind’s one man bedroom band. Joining him for this new metallic voyage was bassist Phil Gnaast and drummer Nick Bellmore. Together, these three lit ’em up with the same hellish rage as Cronos, Mantas, and Abaddon in their prime.
5. Deceased – Surreal Overdose
It had been 6 long years since the release of Deceased’s last death/thrash opus, As the Weird Travel On. As one of the earliest death metal bands period, they had already executed the ’80s, knifed the ’90s, and obliterated the ’00s. Now it was time to terrorize the ’10s! King Fowley and company did exactly that with the absolutely relentless Surreal Overdose. Sonically speaking, it was their deadliest and most unhinged since 1995’s The Blueprints for Madness, sacrificing the complexities of Fearless Undead Machines (1997) in exchange for brute force. What can I say? Deceased is a band who could do it all and leave your favorite “brutal” cookie monster death metal band in the dust, this album being no exception.
4. Riot – Immortal Soul
Riot are one of the few bands in metal history to have multiple classic lineups with multiple classic albums. In 2011, the Thundersteel era incarnation of the band got together one last time for the aptly titled Immortal Soul. From the opening blitz of “Riot”, it was as if no time had passed at all since 1990’s The Privilege of Power. This album is, from top to bottom, a US power metal masterpiece with all the earmarks one would expect from a release of this nature. Soaring vocals? Check. Huge choruses? Check. Absolutely triumphant guitar work? You better believe it. Less than 3 months after Immortal Soul‘s release, founding Riot guitarist Mark Reale passed away at the age of 56 after a valiant battle with Crohn’s disease. It’s as if, in some eerie way, the title of this album was foreshadowing. Indeed, Reale’s music and soul is immortal!
3. Autopsy – Macabre Eternal
2011 was an excellent year to be a death metallist. Not only were Deceased back with new audio sickness, but so were the masters of this perverse art, Autopsy! After a handful of well received reunion shows, the disease ridden mutants regrouped to pick up where they left off with 1995’s Shitfun. In an age where death metal was becoming more generic, refined, and safe, Autopsy came back just in time to take the genre back to its ruthless roots. Macabre Eternal is a masterclass in death metal devastation, boasting all the grime of Severed Survival (1989) and dread of Mental Funeral (1991). It’s no surprise they’ve been killing it ever since.
2. Midnight – Satanic Royalty
After a string of rowdy little splits and EPs throughout the ’00s, Midnight, the bastard spawn of Motörhead and Venom, struck in 2011 with their debut full length, Satanic Royalty. While Midnight still has yet to disappoint, there’s no doubt in my mind Satanic Royalty hits the hardest. Every song on here is a bonafide banger, daring you to get blackout drunk and start a fistfight on a Saturday night, even if it’s a Tuesday afternoon. Only the deranged violator that is Athenar could crank out such raucous anthems as “You Can’t Stop Steel”, “Rip This Hell”, and the absolute greatest Midnight song of all time, “Lust, Filth and Sleaze”. OUGH!
- High Spirits – Another Night
I have a very personal story about this one, so bear with me. Alongside going to shows and buying records, one event that became a bi-monthly ritual of this coming of age metalhead was going to the area record convention. It was there that I befriended a handful of dealers who were isolated to an area known as the “metal corner”. One of these said dealers was Chris Black. At the time, things were winding down with Black’s Motörhead worship band, Superchrist. He had just released his first album with his new vehicle, High Spirits, Another Night, and gave me a copy, adding, “I think you’ll like it.”
Fast forward 13 years later and Another Night is as fresh today as it was back then. The nerds can nitpick all they want about it being too hard rock or melodic to be metal in the traditional sense of the term. As far as I’m concerned, sonically speaking, it’s the closest thing to Boston’s legendary self titled debut since Boston’s legendary self titled debut. Every song is a “hit”. Every riff is air guitar worthy. Every hook stays permanently ingrained in your head. It is, without question, the greatest metal album of 2011, and the greatest album of the ’10s period. “Let’s give this city life!”
Honorable Mentions
- Absu – Abzu
- Exhumed – All Guts, No Glory
- Pentagram – Last Rites
- Primordial – Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand
- Skull Fist – Head öf the Pack
Great list, my dude!