THE ILM METAL POLL 2011 RESULTS (All lurkers/non metalheads welcome to join in!)

and as always the posts of "too low" "why did such and such not place" "wtf voted that in!"

Do you all think this list is diverse?

thought primordial would be higher--that's a great record

i was checking out the today is the day on spotify earlier and it's good too--want to go back in their catalog at some point

My internet has been down for most of the day, so late to the party.
So from 60-26 have:
Liked - Tombs, KEN Mode, Shooting Guns, Barn Owl, Morne, Grayceon
Very Much Liked - Boris, Elder, Sungrazer

Looking frwd to the Top 25 tmrw.

Bummed about Hills not placing, though that record is not metal at all

you can't be too unhappy then. plus look what you did get in!

Did you remember to vote in THE 2011 ILM SUPER-MEGA YEAR-END ALBUMS 'N' TRACKS POLL™ Voting Thread (ends at MIDNIGHT EST on Friday, January 20th, 2012) ?

I'm not unhappy; this poll has ruled so far

Mordy is compiling a spotify playlist for your pleasure everyone.
http://open.spotify.com/user/mordys/playlist/6FNGd20uP6dyX5W1jzFE6Z

things that should still place:

- SubRosa
- Uncle Acid
- Esoteric
- YOB

music aside, this thread has some of the best album covers i've seen in forever and some of the worst

Kerr really wants some predictions. He's worked hard on this, so here's mine.

The top ten I think is probably the easiest to guess. I think I could possibly get as many 8 of them right. In rough order:

YOB - Atma
Hammers Of Misfortune - 17th Street
Mastodon - The Hunter
Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats - Blood Lust
Corrupted - Garten der Unbewusstheit
Liturgy - Aesthetica
Wolves In The Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
The Gates Of Slumber - The Wretch
40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room
Esoteric - Paragon of Dissonance

11-20 is harder. There's probably some obvious black metal album I'm missing. I'll be lucky to get 50% right.

Opeth - Heritage
Pentagram - Last Rites
Subrosa - No Help For The Mighty One
Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination
Brutal Truth - End Time
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
Blood Ceremony - Living With the Ancients
USX (U.S. Christmas) - The Valley Path
Hull - Beyond the Lightless Sky
Dir en grey - Dum Spiro Spero

21-25 I really have no clue. There are so many worthy candidates. There will be omissions that will shock me, but hopefully it will be balanced by surprises that I haven't heard yet. A couple obvious non-metal albums will probably make it, like Graveyard, which I love dearly but did not vote for, maybe Black Cobra and Lo-Pan. If not those, maybe Gentleman's Pistols, Totimoshi, Freedom Hawk or Ancient VVisdom.

TesseracT - One
Graveyard - Hisingen Blues
Black Cobra - Invernal
White Wizzard - Flying Tigers
Lo-Pan - Salvador

I'm afraid none of these massively awesome albums will make it. If I'm wrong and at least one does, I'll be thrilled.

Green & Wood - Devil's Plan
Obrero - Mortui Vivos Docent
Wo Fat - Noche del Chupacabra
Glitter Wizard - Solar Hits
Leather Nun America - Kult Occult
Dopethrone - Dark Foil
Lazarus A.D. - Black Rivers Flow
Maligno - The Funeral Domine
Argus - Boldly Stride the Doomed

I know one of those massively awesome albums got a number 1 placement on one ballot and I'd be happy as hell to see it place.

im pretty damn sure sean would've voted for ken mode

Tombs.. I did not enjoy as much as their last record.. where the last one has maybe 25-30% black metal parts, this new one had like 75-80% it seemed to me. They lost me for sure with that.

Generally speaking, I'm getting kinda tired of this move a lot of bands are doing towards a more BM influence. Its getting too much.. And I don't feel that when a band is playing like that, that it feels very fast. Yeah the drums are playing fast, but it always feels to me that they are just playing the faster/smaller subdivisons of the tempo, thus to create a wall of sound like the rest of ther band does with the strumming, not acually playing a fast tempo.. idk, its just getting long in the tooth.. Maybe its seeing a band like Tombs bring more of that in is whats bugging.

On another note.. How the fuck do you guys have time to go through all this shit!!! lol!! Yopu fuckers are animals with keyboards and mouses, yo!.. lol!!

Gtreen & Wood? Saw them with Black Breath at a small warehouse show in Oakland, they were terrible.. well maybe not terrible, but certiainly not gonna make the list. The chick guitar player was smaokin hot though, and she was one of the guitarists from Black Breath's nuts, which we found hilarious.. But also, a very Hollywood/L.A. type vibe about that band too that was big turn off..

^ there speaks a drummer, haha

xp

I'm betting Graveyard cracks the top 20, maybe even top 10.

fastnbulbous thanks for your predictions!

There speaks an old man that can't play fast anymore and I'm all bitter about it.. ;P

poor sean wayne. now get your next album out.

To help those who want to make predictions here are some EOY magazine results

DECIBEL EOY List:

1. Tombs - Path of Totality
2. Opeth- Heritage
3. Mastodon - The Hunter
4. In Solitude - The World. The Flesh. The Devil.
5. Brutal Truth- End Time
6. Hate Eternal - Phoenix Amongst the Ashes
7. YOB - Atma
8. 40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room
9. Inquisition - Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual.......
10. Junius - Reports From The Threshold of Death
11. Graveyard - Hisingen Blues
12. Primordial - Redemption at the Puritan's Hand
13. Exhumed - All Guts, No glory
14. False - False
15. Autopsy - Macabre Eternal
16. Revocation - Chaos of Forms
17. Trap Them - Darker Handcraft
18. Obscura - Omnivium
19. Drugs of Faith - Corroded
20. Subrosa - No Help for the Mighty Ones
21. Ulcerate - The Destroyers of All
22. Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
23. Atriarch - Forever the End
24. Disma - Towards the Megalith
25. Moab - Ab Ovo
26. Gridlink - Orphan
27. Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination
28. Vallenfyre - A Fragile King
29. Crowbar - Sever the Wicked Hand
30. Mournful Congregation - The Book of Kings
31. Machine Head - Unto the Locust
32. ABSU - Abzu
33. Negative Plane - Stained Glass Revelations
34. Origin - Entity
35. Darkest Era - The Last Caress of Light
36. Deafheaven - Roads to Judah
37. Hammers of Misfortune - 17th Street
38. Krallice - Diotima
39. Rwake - Rest
40. Graf Orlock - Doom Box

Rock-A-Rolla Top 50 Albums

01 The Book Of Knots - Garden Of Fainting Stars (Ipecac)
02 Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (Rock Action)
03 Earth - Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1 (Southern Lord)
04 Wolves In The Throne Room - Celestial Lineage (Southern Lord)
05 Boris - Attention Please (Sargent House)
06 Obake - Obake (Rarenoise)
07 Black Cobra - Invernal (Southern Lord)
08 Barn Owl - Lost In The Glare (Thrill Jockey)
09 Loss - Despond (Profound Lore)
10 Wooden Shjips - West (Thrill Jockey)
11 Mike Patton - The Solitude Of Prime Numbers (Ipecac)
12 Grails - Deep Politics (Temporary Residence Ltd)
13 Tombs - Path Of Totality (Relapse)
14 Alva Noto - Univrs (Raster-Noton)
15 Asva - Presences Of Absences (Important)
16 Enablers - Blown Realms And Stalled Explosions (Exile On Mainstream)
17 Hexvessel - Dawnbearer (Svart)
18 Today Is The Day - Pain Is A Warning (Black Market Activities/Good Fight Music)
19 Bloodiest - Descent (Relapse)
20 Killl - Killl (Fysisk Format)
21 Fire! With Jim O' Rourke - Unreleased? (Rune Grammofon)
22 Boris - Heavy Rocks (Sargent House)
23 Remember Remember - The Quickening (Rock Action)
24 Hella - Tripper (Sargent House)
25 Årabrot - Solar Anus (Fysisk Format)
26 The Atlas Moth - An Ache For The Distance (Profound Lore)
27 Mamiffer - Mare Decendrii (Sige/Conspiracy)
28 Gridlink - Orphan (Hydra Head)
29 Explosions In The Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (Temporary Residence/Bella Union)
30 Circle - Infektio (Conspiracy)
31 YOB - Atma (Profound Lore)
32 Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones - Metamanoir (Denovali)
33 Blut Aus Nord - 777: The Desanctification (Debemur Morto)
34 A Storm Of Light - As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade (Profound Lore)
39 Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraisoufo - The Ripper At The Heaven Gates Of Dark (Riot Season)
40 Amebix - Sonic Mass (Easy Action)
41 Mika Vainio - Life (...It Eats You Up) (Editions Mego)
42 Birds Of Passage - Winter Lady (Denovalii)
43 Rwake - Rest (Relapse)
44 Conquering Animal Sound - Kammerspiel (Gizeh)
45 Zombi - Escape Velocity (Relapse)
46 Terra Tenebrosa - The Tunnels (Trust No One)
47 Raoul Sinier - Guilty Cloaks (Ad Noiseam)
48 Ovo - Cor Cordium (Supernatural Cat)
49 Rising - To Solemn Ash (Exile On Mainstream)
50 Skullflower - Fucked on A Pile Of Corpses (Cold Spring)

Terrorizer Top 40 Albums

1 Mastodon - The Hunter
2 Autopsy- Macabre Eternal
3 Trap Them - Darker Handicraft
4 Devin Townsend - Ghost / Deconstruction
5 Amebix - Sonic Mass
6 Altar of Plagues - Mammal
7 Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
8 Blood Ceremony - Living With the Ancients
9 Necros Christos - Doom of the Occult
10 In Solitude - The World. The Flesh. The Devil
11 Today Is The Day - Pain Is A Warning
12 Primordial - Redemption at the Puritan's Hand
13 40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room
14 The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
15 Solstafir - Svartir Sandar
16 Fucked Up - David Comes To Life
17 Tombs - Path of Totality
18 Machine Head - Unto the Locust
19 Negative Plane - Stained Glass Revelations
20 Vallenfyre - A Fragile King
21 Ancient Vvisdom - A Godlike Inferno
22 Opeth - Heritage
23 Craft - Void
24 Sonne Adam - Transformation
25 Brutal Truth - End Time
26 Disma - Towards The Megalith
27 Leviathan - True Traitor, True Whore
28 Yob - Atma
29 All Pigs Must Die - God is War
30 Cave In - White Silence
31 Steven Wilson - Grace For Drowning
32 Will Haven - Voir Dire
33 Decapitated - Carnival is Forever
34 Obscura - Omnivium
35 Rwake - Rest
36 Morbus Chron - Sleepers in the Rift
37 Maim - Deceased To Exist
38 Absu - Abzu
39 Esoteric - Paragon of Dissonance
40 Shining - VII: Fodd Forlorare

Metal Hammer Top 50 albums of 2011

50 Trap Them - Darker Handcraft
49 Primus - Green Naugahyde
48 Arabrot - Solar Anus
47 Hammers Of Misfortune - 17th Street
46 Cerebral Ballzy - S/T
45 YOB - Atma
44 TessaracT - One
43 Steven Wilson - Grace For Drowning
42 Vallenfyre - A Fragile King
41 Times Of Grace - Hymns Of A Broken Man
40 The Dwarves - The Dwarves Are Born Again
39 Anvil - Juggernaut Of Justice
38 Ken Mode - Venerable
37 Altar Of Plagues - Mammal
36 Blood Ceremony - Living With The Ancients
35 Will Haven - Voir Dire
34 Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination
33 Wormrot - Dirge
32 Nightwish - Imaginaerum
31 Devin Townsend - Ghost
30 Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events
29 Solstafir - Svartir Sandar
28 Foo Fighters - Wasted Light
27 Trivium - In Waves
26 Jane's Addiction - The Great Escape Artist
25 In Solitude - The World,The Flesh,The Devil
24 The Damned Things - Ironiclast
23 Pentagram - Last Rites
22 Autopsy - Macabre Eternal
21 Steel Panther - Balls Out
20 Motorhead - The World Is Yours
19 Black Stone Cherry - Between The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea
18 Ancient VVisdom - A Godlike Inferno
17 Primordial - Redemption At The Puritan's Hand
16 Wolves In The Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
15 Devildriver - Beast
14 Amebix - Sonic Mass
13 The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
12 Gentleman's Pistols - At Her Majesty's Pleasure
11 Evile - Five Serpents Teeth
10 Graveyard - Nuclear Blast
9 Skindred - Union Black
8 Black Spiders - Sons Of The North
7 Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction
6 Hell - Human Remains
5 Megadeth - Thirt3en
4 Opeth - Heritage
3 Anthrax - Worship Music
2 Machine Head - Unto The Locust

1 MASTODON - THE HUNTER

Djevel, Turisas, Absu, Vastum and Burzum also still to come I guess?

smh at there being a band called Dopethrone

they had *better* be good with a name that uninspired

not heard it.
Got any predictions mr mencap? I would like to see all of you have a go at predictions so we can see who is closest!

Of the 50ish to 25 run, I really liked Barn Owl, Earth, Old Silver Key, Elder, Cauldron, Grayceon and Blut Aus Nord. I want to hear Morne, In Solitude and Autopsy.

Top ten prediction (rough order):

Liturgy
YOB
Uncle Acid
Mastodon
Corrupted
Wolves in the Throne Room
Tombs
Gates of Slumber
Skeletonwitch
Esoteric

Wildcards: Fen, Hammers of Misfortune, 40 Watt Sun

Tombs was #52

Would have started a bit earlier 2 but I had to make a doctors appointment and its for 12 so I'll start when I get back.

lol oh dear maybe swap out for Gates of Slumber?

lol again, make that Hammers of Misfortune. It's too early!

Guessing that Arabrot is still to come. Maybe Batillus?

69. Witch Mountain

It’s getting called doom because it leans toward the slow and heavy sound of the early 70s, but there are some things they do that other doom bands rarely aim for or achieve. Firstly, they swing like motherfuckers (something Sabbath doesn’t get enough credit for, by the way). Nate Carson’s drumming and Dave Hoopaugh’s bass are one unit, the pocket so enveloping it’s like a 40 Hz womb. Secondly, Rob Wrong’s guitar is one of the least Iommi-inspired of anyone mining that “Hand Of Doom” vein; there is a lot of psychedelic rock in his sound (listen to that fuzz and feedback), to these ears owing more to the Hendrix/Uli Jon Roth lineage than the Iommi/Wino side of things. Top that off with vocalist Uta Plotkin’s power blues delivery and this ain’t your everyday doom band.

EZ Snappin -- you get it, and you are too kind!

One last reminder to vote in the big ILM poll. Voting closes tonight and without giving anything away, there are a good number of metal albums that would benefit from one or two extra votes...

Glad you liked my description Nate! A year after our long talk about "the pocket" it was nice to see you guys come out with the best example in ages.

Yeah I forgot about Arabrot and Amebix. Substitute them for Lo-Pan and White Wizzard in the 21-25 slot. Maybe Megadeth? Didn't even know Anthrax had an album. I forgot to check out the Shining album. It must not be making as much impact as Blackjazz.

xp I love the sound of that Green & Wood album, just the kind of rough around the edges distortion I like. They sure don't sound very L.A. to me. I wish I were in L.A. right now. I hate snow.

25. Loss - Despond (670 Points, 24 Votes)
http://luminousdeluge.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/loss-despond.jpg
http://www.last.fm/music/Loss

Funeral Doom

on profoundlore. Awesome album.

Profound Lore will probably have the most entries in this year's poll, I think?

Of course that made it, dammit. I had that sandwiched between Skeletonwitch and Machine Head on my metal list, but didn't make my top 50.

Direct Link to poll recap & full results

24. Burzum - Fallen (699 Points, 22 Votes, 1 #1)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EXihUu7bbR0/TVqATWwM_eI/AAAAAAAAA2g/gd99UYmGI44/s1600/burzum-fallen.jpg
Spotify
http://www.last.fm/music/burzum

Review

by Eduardo Rivadavia

Varg Vikernes' real-life rehabilitation for murder may have taken close to two decades (in case you've been living under a rock, he's that Norwegian black metal dude who stabbed that other Norwegian black metal dude in 1993), but the creative rehabilitation of his lonesome black metal enterprise, Burzum, took just a few years. Yes, loathe him or loathe him there was simply no denying the return to musical form exemplified on 2010's maddeningly brilliant Belus album, and the same is almost but not quite true of its quickly recorded and suggestively named successor, Fallen, which arrived in stores by early 2011. Here, once again, Vikernes methodically assembles a series of mid-paced, gradually developing black metal movements (see "Jeg Faller," "Valen," "Enhver til Sitt," "Budstikken") out of multiple layers of interlocking riffs and melodies over which he can then improvise additional guitar runs and grunt or shriek or murmur or whisper his Norwegian lyrics to his dark heart's content. The resulting hellish hymnals are at once hypnotically successful (for the most part, barring some odd vocal choices and iffy repetitions) yet also border on predictability by now, and for all their individual merits, all of them uniformly fall short of career-defining precursors like "Stemmen Fra Taarnet," "Jesus' Tod," or even Belus counterpart "Glemselens Elv." For anyone who's wondering, Fallen's only blastbeats are housed in the otherwise like-minded "Vanvidd," and the biggest surprises are found in the meaningless percussive twaddle (some drums, some mysterious stringed instruments) that bookend the album as intro "Fra Verdenstreet" and outro "Til Hel Og Tilbake Igjen." This combination of staying the course and failing to impress when risks are taken ultimately gives Fallen something of a leftover taste and suggests that Varg might want to invest a little more time in conjuring Burzum's next opus…after all, he is now finally free to do so at whim.

noone ever seems to have an opinion on Burzum, just varg

That particular Burzum album is not too shabby, but I didn't vote for it.

23. Opeth - Heritage (786 Points, 22 Votes)
http://bandmill.net/bandmill/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Opeth-Heritage.jpg
Spotify
http://www.last.fm/music/opeth

Review

by Thom Jurek

Heritage, Opeth's tenth studio offering, finds the Swedish band abandoning death metal: no growled vocals, no blistering fast power riffs, no blastbeats. Mixed by Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson) and engineered by Janne Hansson, Heritage is easily Opeth's most musically adventurous -- and indulgent -- recording. Written primarily by vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt, these ten songs are drenched in instrumental interludes, knotty key and chord changes, shifting time signatures, clean vocals, and a keyboard-heavy instrumentation that includes Mellotrons, Rhodes pianos, and Hammond organs -- ironic since keyboardist Per Wiberg left the band after Heritage was completed. Opening with the title track, a haunting solo piano instrumental, it careens into the explosive "The Devil's Orchard," with spectacular, arpeggiatic guitar work by Fredrik Åkesson and matching drums by Martin Axenrot. With a huge, swirling B-3 in the backdrop, it melds progressive metal to prog rock, with Åkerfeldt's clear, clean singing. "I Feel the Dark" marries Åkerfeldt's classical guitar to piano, flute, a droning Martin Mendez bassline, and double-timed, quietly tense drum kit work. "Slither" sounds like Motörhead meeting early-'70s Deep Purple. "Nepenthe" begins as a ballad but shifts toward jazz-rock in the instrumental break before finding its way back to a middle ground with sparse instrumentation and taut dynamics. "Haxprogress" draws real inspiration from King Crimson; Mellotrons and nylon-string guitars give way to Åkerfeldt's crooning, thundering basslines, and syncopated drums. At eight-and-a-half minutes, "Famine" is the album's most abstract cut, with guest Alex Acuña adding Latin percussion to the mix, creating spaciousness in a long intro before giving way to colliding prog rock at the seam where King Crimson's "Larks Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 2" meets Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick." "The Lines in My Hand" is the set's most aggressive cut, with a deeply satisfying guitar crunch. "Folklore," with its myriad instrumental and vocal parts, complex melody, and breakbeats, comes off as an eight-minute suite before closing with another jazz- and folk-inflected instrumental entitled "Marrow of the Earth." Love it or hate it, Heritage, for its many excesses -- and stellar conception and execution -- is a brave album. It opens the door for Opeth to pursue many new directions and reinvent themselves as a band.

I've not heard this record, but the consensus was it was a bit underwhelming, correct? Amazing/ terrible cover though!

I was initially disappointed, but it ended up really growing me. The band is pretty much 0% metal at this point, but thats not a bad thing.

reception was mixed. Lack of metal pissed off a lot of people but was welcomed by others.

This is the Opeth record I've been waiting for them to unleash; same themes as always, minus the death metal trappings that have, at times, seemed tacked on to the last couple of records. Great dark prog with heavy moments and motifs.

Plus they wrote a song for Ronnie James. Can't get more metal than that.

Consensus is that it's #23! It's my #4. Mainly 70s inspired prog, but still sounds modern, and Opeth will always be metal, even with acoustic guitars.

Was my #9.