It’s that time of year again, where everyone goes all out to prove their exemplary credentials as a music lover and that they indeed are, the most metal. A time of year where lists abound – “Look at my fantastic taste everyone! Look at all the things I listen to that you’ve never heard of! Look at how obscure my musical interests are!”

It’s with that in mind, that I bash out a list of my own. If you’re interested in what my top six demo releases of the year are, check ’em out here: http://www.cvltnation.com/topsixdemos/

And for a list featuring things that aren’t metal at all (although yes, a lot of what you see below is on it), this is a link that has my personal top 25 on it: http://www.scenepointblank.com/features/music/scene-point-blanks-favorites-year-end-2011/2

As an aside, my top album of the year is Rome – Die Æsthetik der Herrschaftsfreiheit. I’m not including it here, because it isn’t metal and afterall, this is a metal blog right? I made a review of it, which you can read by clicking the title. Cool!

Again, for reasons of fairness, this will be alphabetical. Also, I just really like to alphabetise. Who knows how many will end up on this.

Absu – Abzu

Altar Of Plagues – Mammal

Aphrenous – Ravaged By The Incessant Scourge Of Deception

Arckanum – Helvítismyrkr

Ash Borer – Ash Borer

Barghest – Barghest

Bestial Raids – Prime Evil Damnation

Bosse-de-Nage – ii

Brocken Moon – Huffnungslos

Caïna – Hands That Pluck

Circle Of Ouroborus – Eleven Fingers

Cold Body Radiation – Deer Twillight

Corrupted – Garten Der Unbewusstheit

Craft – Void

Esoteric – Paragon Of Dissonance

40 Watt Sun – The Inside Room

Giles Corey – Giles Corey

Goatmoon – Varjot

Gottesmorder – Gottesmorder

Lake Of Blood – As Time And Tide Erodes Stone

Light Bearer – Lapsus

Mournful Congregation – The Book Of Kings

Necros Christos – Doom Of The Occult

Negative Plane – Stained Glass Revelations

Panopticon – Social Disservices

Sutekh Hexen – Luciform

Taake – Noregs Vaapen

Ulcerate – The Destroyers Of All

Woods Of Desolation – Torn Beyond Reason

Wreck & Reference – Black Cassette