Welcome, no matter if you're a long-term MS member or an Avenged Sevenfold listener. Don't know what to vote for? Here's ANOTHER yearly best-of list for you to go through, or, more likely, for the usual tl;dr. But, wait - what makes this one different: 1) unqualified and totally subjective two-line reviews, 2) conscious restriction to the litte-more-than-20 most impressive albums, 3) an aversion against the much too generic thrash & power metal genres and anything without recall value.

1.Amaranthe - Amaranthe

2.Alestorm - Back Through Time

3.Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

4.Fair To Midland - Arrows & Anchors

5.The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

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Thanks to digital media, I have been exposed to a large number of great metal albums from female vocalists, especially over the last 5 years. 2020 saw a number of these super releases, and lead me to make this list to celebrate my favourite women of metal.

1.Royal Thunder - CVI

2.Konvent - Puritan Masochism

3.Julie Christmas - Mariner [Collaboration]

4.L7 - Smell The Magic

5.In This Moment - Blood

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Purely subjective list based on personal preferences for the year, unrelated to mass opinion of an album or a band's abilities (e.g. Trivium, Oranssi Pazuzu) - many albums lined up to listen to so will increase in size. Also, not entirely in order, middle order mainly just an approximation.

1.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

2.Protest The Hero - Scurrilous

3.Infestus - E x I s t

4.Amorphis - The Beginning Of Times

5.Ouroboros - Glorification Of A Myth

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Even in 2012 (update: 2013), 2011 still isn't too hot a year for me. Still, new stuff keeps on coming, and 2012 itself is looking pretty good, so I'll forgive it. New in the new year is the lack of ratings. It's bothersome, especially since I've decided to sacrifice a few newborns and (retrospectively and retroactively) rate on RYM.

1.Hell - Human Remains

2.SubRosa - No Help For The Mighty Ones

3.Anubis Gate - Anubis Gate

4.Hammers Of Misfortune - 17th Street

5.Mastodon - The Hunter

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Ordered best to worst. This is entirely my opinion.

1.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

2.Graveyard - Hisingen Blues

3.Havok - Time Is Up

4.Toxic Holocaust - Conjure And Command

5.Deafheaven - Roads To Judah

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This is a list of the bands and albums I listen to most often. The order in which they are listed was only determined by the order I was able to recal them. I suspect most of them wont be archived on MS. The Thumbnail for this list is my own work entitled "Essence".

~Jacob Britt

1.Circle Takes The Square - Decompositions: Volume Number One

2.Gris - À L'Âme Enflammée, L'Äme Constellée...

3.Ibrahim Maalouf - Kalthoum (Alf Leila Wa Leila)

4.Mars Red Sky - Mars Red Sky

5.The Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath

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1.Black Cobra - Invernal

2.Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

3.In Solitude - The World. The Flesh. The Devil

4.SubRosa - No Help For The Mighty Ones

5.The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

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This is retrospective ranking of the albums I listened to in 2011. The list is a work-in-progress and the order is likely to change.

10 - Godly Album. Will likely listen to at least once a week for a decade.
9 - Fantastic Album. Will be a classic I remember even in senility.
8 - Great Album. Will recommend to friends.

1.Obscura - Omnivium

2.SubRosa - No Help For The Mighty Ones

3.Paul Wardingham - Assimilate Regenerate

4.Blotted Science - The Animation Of Entomology

5.Protest The Hero - Scurrilous

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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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