There are plenty of "Best Metal of 2011" lists floating around out there, but almost none of them take the true metal perspective. True metal is that idea that metal has a particular spirit and way of writing songs, and that just adding distortion and power chords does not make metal out of otherwise ordinary music.
Most of the 2011 lists that I've seen have been a godsend for the indie rock fan who likes heavy music, but an utter failure for the heavy metal fan who wants heavy metal. These lists emphasize the nu-styles of "black metal" (with shoegaze and punk drowning out the metal) or the sad indie rock projects that got the metal religion. This stuff isn't metal, and the audience it has brought into metal explains metal's sad decline toward the normmative.
Metal is a spirit. It is unique. It is not a flavor of rock 'n' roll, nor is it a technique or style you add by playing with distortion. It's a type of music in its own right. And if you understand that, this list is for you.
- Esoteric - Paragon of Dissonance
- Gridlink - Orphan
- Death Strike - Fcukin' Death (re-issue)
- Cianide - Gods of Death
- Deceased - Surreal Overdose
- Heresiarch - Hammer of Intransigence
- Morbus 666 - Mortuus Cultus
- Nunslaughter - Demoslaughter
- Ungod - Cloaked in Eternal Darkness
- Apocalypse Command - Damnation Scythes of Invincible Abomination
- Blotted Science - The Animation of Entomology
- Bahimiron - Rebel Hymns of Left-Handed Terror
- Vallenfyre - A Fragile King
- Cruciamentum - Engulfed in Desolation
- Rudra - Brahmavidya: Immortal I
- Abhor - Ab Luna Lucenti, Ab Noctua Protecti
- Primordial - Redemption at the Puritan's Hand
- Beherit - At the Devil's Studio 1990
- Sorcier des Glaces - The Puressence of Primitive Forests
- Obsequiae - Suspended in the Brume of Eos
- Amebix - Sonic Mass
- War Master - Pyramid of the Necropolis
- Blaspherian - Infernal Warriors of Death
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