Back when I joined the site in 2011, I did a customary top 100 album list. Every year since then, when I've looked back at it it's become increasingly unrecognisable from my own tastes. Seeing bands I once listened to daily vanish from my playlists, new bands emerge as favourites, and bands even come and go in my reckonings during that time period (Iced Earth, Alcest, even Pain Of Salvation and more certainly peaked in my listening habits around 2011-12 to slowly vanish into obscurity). Now that it's just gone 5 years since I did that list, I thought I might do an updated list just to see how much my tastes have shifted. Whilst compiling the list, I pretty much worked on gut instinct, which was weird as I found myself almost disregarding albums I know I like whilst promoting albums I'm honestly undecided on - it almost seemed to veer away from album quality at times to embracing a subconscious effect the albums have had. Anyway, here it is, plus some honorable mentions that I was surprised missed out.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Sylosis - Monolith

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Agalloch - The Mantle

5.Protest The Hero - Kezia

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This serves as a memory note, pretty much.

1.Insomnium - Above The Weeping World

2.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

3.Ghost Brigade - IV - One With The Storm

4.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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My top 3 albums per year starting in 1999.

1.

2.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

3.Finntroll - Midnattens Widunder

4.Shaman (FIN) - Idja

5.

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1.Meshuggah - Catch Thirtythree

2.Vektor - Black Future

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

4.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

5.Opeth - Blackwater Park

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2008 might've been my first proper taste of metal, with the acquisition of albums from the likes of Metallica, Megadeth, Black Sabbath and that most grandiose of gateway bands, DragonForce. 2009 might've seen me expanding my palette, with Iron Maiden, Alice In Chains, Avenged Sevenfold, and more entering my world, and Guns N' Roses triumphantly re-entering it. But 2010 was when I delved into more 'intense' stuff with Machine Head, In Flames, and most notably of all, Sylosis, and saw my relationship with metal shift from ever-increasing interest into full-blown love affair. To commemorate this 5-year anniversary, and because I love making lists, I decided to do a retrospective of the best albums and songs that have been released during this time period, and give brief tributes to them. Yay music!

1.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

2.Sylosis - Monolith

3.Protest The Hero - Volition

4.Orphaned Land - The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR

5.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

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1.Machine Head - Unto The Locust

2.Vildhjarta - Måsstaden

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Shining - VII - Född Förlorare

5.Ghost Brigade - Until Fear No Longer Defines Us

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All Moonsorrow albums (no Tulimyrsky EP),best to worst. Word "worst" isn't maybe best describe Moonsorrow album,because all those are amazing!

1.Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

2.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

3.Moonsorrow - Verisäkeet

4.Moonsorrow - Suden Uni

5.Moonsorrow - V: Hävitetty

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I have listened like 70-80 metal albums released in 2011 until 20 August 2012 and this is my top list of them. Couple of other quite good albums simply didn't make it into selection of 20, it was a bit challenging to select only 20 pieces. But would be pointless to list nearly all or all of them on the other hand...

1.Nightwish - Imaginaerum

2.Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

3.Alestorm - Back Through Time

4.Peste Noire - L'Ordure A L'etat Pur

5.Darkal - Here Comes The Darkness

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Looking at this list I realise that 2011 was a better metal year than I remembered it to be. Interesting year with a lot of surprises. The Shining album is in my opinion awesome, one of their best. Power Quest released their best album since "Wings of Forever". Amon Amarth keep on surprising me with solid releases (and I thought I was over them years ago). Opeth's "Heritage" was way better than my expectations. Amebix gave me some of the best tracks of '11. Overall, a really good year.

1.Shining - VII - Född Förlorare

2.Lifelover - Sjukdom

3.Aquilus - Griseus

4.An Autumn For Crippled Children - Everything

5.Öxxö Xööx - Rëvëürt

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1.Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

2.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

3.Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

4.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

5.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

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1.Obscura - Omnivium

2.Pagan's Mind - Heavenly Ecstasy

3.Born Of Osiris - The Discovery

4.Magic Pie - The Suffering Joy

5.Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

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1.Amon Amarth - Surtur Rising

2.Forefather - Last Of The Line

3.Hell - Human Remains

4.Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

5.Primordial - Redemption At The Puritan's Hand

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1.Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

2.Shining - VII - Född Förlorare

3.Warbringer - Worlds Torn Asunder

4.MyGrain - MyGrain

5.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

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I usually do not like this kind of list because everybody has different tastes and nobody can match completely the taste of somebody else.
Anyway here comes my Top 21 Metal Albums of 2011. Why 21? because it sounds better for 2011...
I did not listen to everything in 2011, I will certainly discover some new good albums of 2011 in the next few months of 2012. But as I have started now, let s go for this Top 21 Metal Albums of 2011!

1.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

2.Visions Of Atlantis - Delta

3.Belphegor - Blood Magick Necromance

4.Peste Noire - L'Ordure à L'état Pur

5.Red Descending - Kingdoms

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1.Turisas - Stand Up And Fight

2.Arafel - For Battles Once Fought

3.Rhapsody Of Fire - From Chaos To Eternity

4.MaYaN - Quarterpast

5.Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

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