Natrlhi's 2011 End of Year List Orgy

[mastodon421]

Originally Posted by jd091

Holy shit, I cannot wait to read this.

Me too, except we will have to wait till Feburary 2013 to see the list

[Natrlhi]

So I was driving to work today, thinking about the fact that I got the list of 120 albums I listened to in 2011 finalized yesterday, so I could finally start posting in this thread. I was excited to get started, and wondered to myself why it had taken so long. Then I remembered that in the last two months, I have:

• Taken my older son sled riding one weekend.
• Taken him tobogganing another weekend.
• Taken him "camping" (ok, so we stayed at a lodge with a pool, but still ) for three days.
• Traveled to Las Vegas for work for a week in December.
• Traveled to Birmingham, AL for work for a few days, also in December.
• Traveled to Austin, TX for work for a week in January.
• Hosted various family members at our house over the holidays.
• Worked a lot of overtime trying to get three revisions of the budget for my project done, at management's request.
• Done my P90X workouts on a fairly consistent basis (an hour to ninety minutes per workout, about four times a week on average).
• Paid the bills, put the kids to bed, and occasionally spent some time with my wife.

...and during that time, I've still managed to write reviews for the new Red Fang, Tombs and Black Cobra, not to mention having finalized my Top 25 Albums, Top 5 Live Shows and Favorite Live Release for that same web site as well back in early January (did I mention that the pinnacle of my list has been published elsewhere for about five or six weeks now? no? oops! ).

So then I decided to take it easy on myself and accept that when this shit gets done, it gets done.

[/overlongjustification]

Sssoooooo...here's how this party is gonna go down:

• Fifteen Albums That I Didn't Get Around to Listening To This Year
• Ten Metal Albums That Straight Up Sucked / Pissed Me Off
• Five Metal Albums That Were Good, But Just Aren't My Thing, Man
• Fifteen Metal Albums That Were Just OK
• Fifteen Metal Albums That I Probably Would Have Loved, Given More Time
• Top Ten Live Shows
• Top Ten Live Performances
• Natrlhi's Sexy Sixty (Top 60 Metal Favorites EDIT: and a few non-metal ones )

In all honesty, I should be halfway through the list of 120 albums before the end of this weekend, because they're all figured out now, and I don't plan on providing descriptions for much except the Sexy Sixty (and several of those are already done, too).

[Seventhzealot]

I have to say I'm going to like a lot of what comes up here seeing as how a lot of our musical tastes overlap

Also, kudos for putting all this together man!

[Natrlhi]

OK, so I'll dribble a few of the less momentous lists out there this afternoon. First up is my customary list of stuff I didn't get around to hearing. It's longer this year than ever, which is part of the reason I've gotten off to a slow start. I kept hearing good stuff throughout January, but at some point I just had to cut it off and say "enough".

So here is the list of albums I meant to include, but just couldn't:

Fifteen Albums That I Didn't Get Around to Listening To This Year

• Cave In - White Silence
• Liturgy - Aesthethica
• Children of Bodom - Relentless Reckless Forever
• Chimaira - The Age of Hell
• Deicide - To Hell with God
• Hate Eternal - Phoenix Amongst the Ashes
• Septicflesh - The Great Mass
• Shining (Swe) - VII: Född Förlorare
• The Black Dahlia Murder - Ritual
• Noisear - Subvert the Dominant Paradigm
• Boris - New Album
• Boris - Heavy Rocks
• Boris - Attention Please
• Saviours - Death's Procession
• Gridlink - Orphan

()x3

(Caveat: I actually did listen to a few of these, but not enough that I could render any sort of fair opinion.)

[Natrlhi]

This next list might generate more discussion. I'm not going to post much detail here at first. We can hash it out if there's anything to discuss later - I have a poker game to get to in fifteen minutes.

Ten Metal Albums That Straight Up Sucked / Pissed Me Off

This Will Destroy You - Tunnel Blanket
Who are you people, and what have you done with one of my most favorite post-rock bands EVER?!?

Witch Mountain - South of Salem
Should have been better, based on other stuff I've heard from them.

Karma to Burn - V
Should have been MUCH better, based on other stuff I've heard from them.

Young Widows - In and Out of Youth and Lightness
Should have been better, based on their previous album.

Blood Ceremony - Living with the Ancients
Should have been MUCH better, based on their previous album.

Pestilence - Doctrine
Wasn't expecting much, but even their last album was better than this.

Junius - Reports from the Threshold of Death
I listened to them once and liked what I heard, but the vocals on this make me ill.

Atari Teenage Riot - Is This Hyperreal?
Who are you people, and what have you done with my favorite aggro-anarcho-electronic punk band EVER?!?

Lazarus A.D. - Black Rivers Flow
Should have been better, based on their previous album.

Morbid Angel - Illud Divinum Insanus
I still don't even know what the fuck to say on this one.

[El Gordo]

Nat, kudos on actually doing this. I can't even imagine where I'd find the time to do something this extensive -- and I don't even have kids. Life is busy! That's why I just post my top ten in the general thread and leave it at that. If it takes you a year to post, then so be it. The fact that you even attempt this shit speaks volumes about the size and metallic nature of your testicles. Or, it may just speak volumes about your bullheaded stubbornness and general idiocy. At any rate, I'm looking forward to what else you've got to say about the year that was 2011.

[illuminatus917]

Originally Posted by Natrlhi

Junius - Reports from the Threshold of Death
I listened to them once and liked what I heard, but the vocals on this make me ill.

Did you hear their split with Rosetta? You might not like it either, because the vocals are obviously the same as they are on Reports From the Threshold of Death, but I thought the split was better than the album. "A Dark Day With Night" is not only unquestionably better than any track on Reports, but it's arguably worth at least as much, if not more, than the sum of all the the tracks on that album. Just a really cool song.

[hellawaits77ny]

Holy shit!!! That is an orgy! Definately look forward to following this.

[Natrlhi]

Originally Posted by El Gordo

The fact that you even attempt this shit speaks volumes about the size and metallic nature of your testicles. Or, it may just speak volumes about your bullheaded stubbornness and general idiocy.

Thanks!

I am most definitely stubborn, and most probably an idiot, so you've got me pegged on those two counts. I won't confirm or deny any details about my testicles, though. That's some private shit right there.

I will say that we are expecting our third kid sometime in August, and this is the third time in a row that we've tried for all of like five fucking minutes (I'm speaking figuratively here, not literally), and BOOM - baby. So you do the math.

Originally Posted by illuminatus917

Did you hear their split with Rosetta? You might not like it either, because the vocals are obviously the same as they are on Reports From the Threshold of Death, but I thought the split was better than the album. "A Dark Day With Night" is not only unquestionably better than any track on Reports, but it's arguably worth at least as much, if not more, than the sum of all the the tracks on that album. Just a really cool song.

It's comments like these that I love, because they make me want to dig deeper and find out more. I will definitely research that one, my brother. Thanks for the tip.

Originally Posted by hellawaits77ny

Holy shit!!! That is an orgy! Definately look forward to following this.

My year-end threads usually are. As I said before, excess is kinda my thing.

[Natrlhi]

So here's another morsel for y'all before I go to bed for tonight. This list includes five albums which I listened to and just could not place anywhere in the Sexy Sixty, simply because while I listen to them and realize there's definitely some awesomeness going on there, they just aren't my cup of tea. Maybe it's the vocals, or maybe it's something else, but each one of these has a fatal flaw that just kills it for me, but I realize why others might love it.

In truth, this list could probably be longer, too. These are just the primary ones that came to mind for me.


Five Metal Albums That Were Good, But Just Aren't My Thing, Man

• 3 - The Ghost You Gave to Me
• Gallhammer - The End
• Hammers of Misfortune - 17th Street
• 40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room
• Crowbar - Sever the Wicked Hand