Top 10 Rock & Metal Albums of 2011

10) Machine Head - Unto The Locust (Roadrunner)

How do you follow the widely acclaimed "album of the decade"? With extreme difficulty, though Machine Head have given it a bloody good go on Unto The Locust. The main reason this album doesn't feature higher on the list is that compared to how they sound in the live environment, on the CD a lot of the songs seem to lack power (see my review of their Wembley Arena show for more on this). I'm not sure if its the production or what but it feels like something is missing. That having been said, this album does contain some fantastic songs, particularly opener I Am Hell (Sonata in C#), the title track and especially Darkness Within, which I suspect will go on to be a Machine Head setlist staple for many years to come. Other songs such as Pearls Before The Swine and Who We Are miss the mark somewhat but The deluxe edition of this album also gets brownie points for Machine Head's stonking cover of Judas Priest's The Sentinel. It's not The Blackening but overall it's pretty good.

9) Insomnium - One For Sorrow (Century Media)

Along with Exit Ten and Russian Circles, Insomnium are possibly the band who feature on this list that may produce the most "who the **** are they" remarks. Insomnium are following in the footsteps of bands like At The Gates and In Flames in their early years by flying the flag for melodic death metal, and yes they are Scandanavian before you ask. One For Sorrow sees Insomnium produce their third brilliant album in a row, a collection of fierce death metal knitted together with some stunning riff work ranging from fierce to haunting. Insomnium also make fantastic but sparing use of a keyboard which adds another dimension to their sound. Amongst the highlights are the brilliantly melancholy opener Inertia, the "circle headbanging inducing" Only One Who Waits and the just brilliant Song Of The Blackest Bird. Insomnium are a criminally underrated band and any band who can produce three brilliant albums in a row deserve to feature on a lot more top 10 lists like this one.

8) In Flames - Sounds Of A Playground Fading (Century Media)

In Flames are a band who I think a lot of people thought their best days were behind them (at least from a recording new music point of view, myself included). Sounds Of A Playground Fading is, in my opinion easily the strongest album they've put out in a decade, since 2002's Reroute To Remain or even earlier. Guitarist Bjorn Gelotte, writing the majority of the music solo in the absence of the now departed Jesper Strombald steps up to the plate with an album that's full of brilliant traditional In Flames sounding music but it also feels a lot fresher than anything to come from the band's last couple of albums. The album opening title track and lead single Deliver Us in particular are top notch and favourites of mine but the quality is consistently high with only one or two dips (I could have done without "The Attic"). Where The Dead Ships Dwell is also worthy of a special mention. Couple this album with their re-energized performance on thr Defenders Of The Faith III tour and In Flames have risen from the ashes, seemingly with a lot of gas left in the tank yet.

7) Russian Circles - Empros (Sargent House)

Something of the wild card of this list, prior to Empros Russian Circles are a band I had heard of but wasn't familar with at all. Empros has firmly put them on my radar; It is a stunning six track musical journey through post metal ambience to some very heavy instrumental metal and back again. Sargent House may not be a label that everyone are familar with but with bands like Russian Circles and And So I Watch You From Afar (who narrowly missed joining their label mates on the list) I think that will change. Russian Circles produced the best instrumental album I've heard this year and fully deserve their top 10 slot.

6) Times of Grace - The Hymn Of A Broken Man (Roadrunner)

I think like a lot of other people, when I heard Adam D from Killswitch Engage was once again making music with original KSE vocalist Jesse Leach I was pretty excited and eager to hear the results. The Hymn Of A Broken Man, released back in January 2011 is the end result of their work and what a good album it is. It is almost impossible to categorise it as an album as the songs cover a variety of styles but it does not suffer from its musical variety, it is enhanced by this. Rather than direct anyone wanting more info about this album to my Rocksins review as I have done with other entries on this list, I'll send you to a post written by Trivium's frontman Matt Heafy, who had quite a lot to say about this album and is quite eloquent on the subject. There's some cracking tunes on this album, not least the title track which shows off Jesse's full vocal range. It'll be very interesting to see if this is a project that continues.

5) Sylosis - The Edge Of The Earth (Nuclear Blast)

Narrowly pipped to the sub-award of "best British album" by the band next in the list (who also happen to be from Reading), Sylosis have nevertheless followed up their fantastic debut Conclusion of an Age with a stormer of a second album. The oft-repeated criticism that the album is too long for its own good is somewhat justified but there is quality in depth to go with the quantity on The Edge of The Earth. The band's transition to a four piece with Josh Middleton assuming dual responsibility for vocals and lead guitar hasn't affected them one bit, though some people may have found Josh's vocals slightly less accessible. The album is full of quality modern metal, particularly the live favourites Sands Of Time and Altered States of Consciousness. A Serpents Tongue is also guaranteed to generate headbanging wherever its played but some of the longer slightly different songs such as the album title track and Where The Sky Ends deserve highlighting too. If they can maintain the quality but slim it down slightly for album three it promises to be the best one yet. (Read my Edge of The Earth review over at Rocksins here).

4) Exit Ten - Give Me Infinity (Deep Burn Records)

Like the band who sit directly above them in this list, Exit Ten are a hugely underrated band who properly re-emerged onto the scene this year and brought with them what I think is the best British album of the year in Give Me Infinity. Exit Ten have altered their song somewhat on the journey from debut album Remember The Day to Give Me Infinity but they sound all the better for it. Opener Life for me is a serious contender for song of the year, being one of the best alternative rock / hard rock / whatever you want to call it songs I've heard in a very long time. There are fantastic songs all the way through the album such as Suggest A Path and How Will We Tire before Lion finishes it off in magnificent fashion. Having missed their late 2011 UK tour, I cannot wait to see Exit Ten do these new songs live. A brilliant rock album. (Once again, if you want to read the in-depth review, head to Rocksins here).

3) Bowling For Soup - Fishin For Woos (Brando Records)

A criminally underrated band who deservedly have an amazing live reputation, Bowling For Soup really hit the heights on their most recent album Fishin For Woos. An album recorded solely by the band without the influence of a record label allowed for the making of "a very traditional Bowling For Soup record, just two guitars bass and drums" is how bassist Erik Chandler put it when I interviewed him when the album was being written in late 2010. The fun factor is maintained right the way through the album, from the hilarious and catchy I've Never Done Anything Like This to new live staple SS-Saturday to the fan favourite Guard My Heart which has been waiting nearly a decade to make an appearance on a Bowling For Soup album. Whilst not quite in the vein of the rest of the albums feel good factor, Turbulence emerges as one of the finest songs Bowling For Soup have recorded to date showing they can take things seriously, but only for a little while before the fun kicks in again. One of the finest pop punk albums I've ever heard by one of the genre's veterans, they will have their work cut out to top this one. (If you so wish you may read my review of Fishin For Woos over at Rocksins through this link).

2) Trivium - In Waves (Roadrunner)

Anyone who knows me knows that this was always likely to feature high on this list, though admittedly the first time I heard the title track of Trivium's fifth album, I absolutely hated it and was similarly unimpressed by a couple of the other songs I'd heard. Fortunately I came to my senses on the title track which is like a punch to the face in its forceful impact, and there are some fantastic songs throughout the full length of In Waves. Aside from the title track, At Skyline Severance is another top track from the heavy end of the Trivium spectrum, while songs like Watch The World Burn and the immense Black find them sitting very nicely on the borders of "heavy and commercial" and getting it just right. The vocals are balanced better than on previous albums and there are still tons of great headbanging inducing riffs. A fantastic album that was only kept off top spot by what I think is a masterpiece. (Anyone who wants to read my full review of In Waves for Rocksins can click here for the review).

1 Symphony X - Iconoclast (Nuclear Blast)

My album of the year is the absolutely magnificent Iconoclast by a band that may be unknown to some, the American power metal maestros Symphony X. Power metal has always been one of my favourite sub-genres of metal thanks to bands like Sonata Arctica and especially Kamelot and Iconoclast is a massive contribution to the sub-genre. Whilst I'll try not to repeat myself too much from my full album review on Rocksins (again, read that through the link here), it is for me such a fantastic album from start to finish that any praise for it is deserved even if I've said it before. Russell Allen's vocals for me have never sounded better, carrying an aggressive tone compared to some of the other Symphony X albums and Michael Romeo's guitar work ranges from the utterly sublime to the incredibly rediculously good. The songs are almost all top notch, but the opening title track and the closing When All Is Lost are two of my favourite metal songs ever of any sub-genre. The former is a ten minute shred fest showing off everything thats great about power metal and the latter is one of the ultimate metal ballads of recent times. There's other great songs along the way, most notably the fantastic Dehumanized and the wonderfully melodic The End of Innocence, but I don't have a bad word to say about this album, and so it takes my crown for best album of 2011.