Metal Awards

Goat's Top 15 albums of 2011

  1. Opeth - Heritage
    Yes, Mike and co released their most controversial album, and I've called it the best of the year. Why? Because it's a bloody incredible listen that veers between catchy prog-outs and minimalist tinkering with class and style.
  2. Ulver - Wars Of The Roses
    Genius, as ever, flows in this band's bloodstream. An album that keeps you guessing, keeps you entranced, and reveals something new each listen. Prog as it should be.
  3. Primordial - Redemption at the Puritan's Hand
    Ireland's finest made one hell of a grimy, grumpy album here. Brilliant stuff.
  4. Hell - Human Remains
    One for the old-school. Retro heavy metal at its most silly and enjoyable, just how I like it.
  5. Septicflesh - The Great Mass
    Orchestral metal at its finest.
  6. Ava Inferi - Onyx
    This band just gets better with every release. Onyx is the best of a wonderful string of hits from this band.
  7. Leprous - Bilateral
    More prog-gasms. What Muse would sound like, if they were really any good...
  8. Origin - Entity
    Face-melting death metal from the heaviest band in the universe. Space is the place, man.
  9. Beardfish - Mammoth
    Prog-gasms galore.
  10. Crowbar - Sever The Wicked Hand
    Metal's heaviest band release sludge's best album.
  11. East of the Wall - The Apologist
    Better each time I hear it.
  12. Cavalera Conspiracy - Blunt Force Trauma
    Max's side project is in serious danger of overtaking both Sepultura and Soulfly as ideal format for his grunty riffathons.
  13. Benighted - Asylum Cave
    Death metal doesn't have to be miserable to be fun. Not as good as their last, but still one of the best of the year.
  14. Anthrax - Worship Music
    What a comeback! Thrash's most fun band release the year's most fun thrash/heavy/whatever album. Ignore labels, soak up that songwriting.
  15. Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events
    A grower, but what a grower it is. Dream Theater prove that it takes more than losing a whiny drummer to throw a great band off course.
Goat's Top 5 surprises of 2011

  1. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
    I've always liked them, but this sees the millionaire rockers at the very top of their game.
  2. Within Temptation - The Unforgiving
    Catchy goth-rock at its best.
  3. Absu - Abzu
    WAAAAAAAAH! Texas' finest prove black-thrash and southern charm go together like riffs and blastbeats.
  4. Acid Mothers Temple - The Ripper At The Heavens Gates of Dark
    Not for the sober.
  5. Brutal Truth - End Time
    Grind gone leftfield - weird, yet wonderful.
Goat's Disappointment(s) of 2011

  1. Annotations Of An Autopsy - Dark Days
    A future death metal hope returns to its deathcore roots. Badly.
  2. Chimaira - The Age Of Hell
    A talented band with no idea what to do with it.
  3. Decapitated - Carnival Is Forever
    It's not a bad album, but be honest, it's not what you want to hear from Decapitated, is it?
  4. Morbid Angel - Illud Divinum Insanus
    I tried hard to like it, and I don't think it's as bad as some say. Neither is it what Morbid should be doing.
  5. Old Silver Key - Tales Of Wanderings
    Drudkh and Alcest working together, and this is the best they can do?
Goat's Joke(s) 2011

  1. Limp Bizkit - Gold Cobra
    Aw yeah girl you know you want dis
Goat's words about 2011
  1. It's not been a great year, but it's been a year that has seen plenty of albums released that I seriously enjoyed. Once I listened to metal because it blew my mind - that it doesn't blow my mind any more either means that I'm growing bored with the genre or that it's losing its power to blow minds. It couldn't be that I've been spending more time listening to prog and jazz than delving into the deepest parts of the underground, of course. In any case, my top fifteen may not blow your mind, but you will enjoy them all. YOU WILL. And hopefully my mind will resume being blown in 2012... here's to it, and you, for reading this nonsense.