Summary of The Year 2011 in Heavy Metal

Though the year 2011 in heavy metal lacked a number of stellar releases by big names like it did last year, there were still a number of quality releases that displayed a good quality of depth.  There was a lack of quality in terms of atmospheric releases, but this was made up for a solid showing in the death metal and melodic death metal genres.

In terms of atmospheric releases, there was a slight lack of quality compared to what bands like Enslaved, Ihsahn, Intronaut and Triptykon were providing last year.  Primordial put out a stellar album in Redemption to the Puritan’s Hand, but beyond that there was a great deal to get excited about.  In terms of progressive metal, there were great albums by the likes of Wolverine, Anubis Gate, Arch/Matheos and Cynthesis but nothing to fuss about compared to other years. 

There were many quality releases by the likes of Vader, Decapitated and Ulcerate to bolster the death metal genre, as well as some slightly less stellar, but still great ones.  Omnium Gatherum and Insomnium provided the spice in the melodic death metal genre with what are a couple of the top entries the genre has ever seen.  There was a lot of great material that spanned many genres, but nothing really stood out in particular.

On the whole, it was a fairly middle of the line year for the metal genre.  While the death metal genre had some great stuff and there was a lot of depth to the quality releases, there were some flaws as well.  A number of big name bands like Opeth and Amorphis didn’t quite live up to high standards as did much of the atmospheric releases in general and sub-genres like thrash weren’t up to incredibly huge quality.