It’s that time of year when everyone is revealing their lists of top albums of 2011 and it has been awesome to see quite a few of our releases from this year featuring in those lists. Albums that seem to be popping up on a few lists include MASTODON’s ‘The Hunter’, MACHINE HEAD’s ‘Unto The Locust’ and OPETH’s ‘Heirtage’. Other bands who have made the cut on lists revealed thus far include: THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, TRIVIUM, MEGADETH, TIMES OF GRACE and DOUG STANHOPE.

LOUDWIRE TOP 10 OF 2011:

The year 2011 has offered up a diverse range of metal releases, ranging from old-school thrash to new-school metalcore. In the slew of material released in 2011, the greatest impact was felt by the acts who brought progression, innovation and solidarity to their music. Bands featured in this list such as Mastodon, Megadeth and Anthrax continued to live up to their names with their next album in a series of continuously solid material, while others seemed to come out of nowhere with brain-melting surprise hits. This year, the metal world has raised their horns to the groups who allow the genre to flourish. We’ve also counted down the top rock albums the year, but here Loudwire presents the Top 10 Metal Albums of 2011:

9 – ‘In Waves’ Trivium
7 – ‘Dead Throne’ The Devil Wears Prada
5 – ‘TH1RT3EN’ Megadeth
3 – ‘Unto the Locust’ Machine Head
1 – ‘The Hunter’ Mastodon

DECIBEL TOP 40 of 2011:

2 – Opeth- Heritage
3 – Mastodon – The Hunter
31 – Machine Head – Unto the Locust

NOISECREEP‘S TOP 10 OF 2011:

9 – Times Of Grace – The Hymn of Broken Man
6 – Mastodon – The Hunter

Q MAGAZINE TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2011

47 – Mastodon – The Hunter

ROCK SOUND ALBUMS OF 2011:

CLASSIC ROCK ALBUMS OF 2011:

REVOLVER Magazine spoke to various artists about their top 10 favourite albums of 2011 and below is a selection of extracts from that piece with fellow musicians mentioning our artists in their lists:

MIKE SCHLEIBAUM, DARKEST HOUR

10 – Mastodon – The Hunter

SACHA DUNABLE, INTRONAUT/GRAVITON/BEWILDERBIEST

Mastodon – The Hunter: I will never not like a Mastodon record, but this might be my favorite one from them yet. Props for keeping things interesting and making a completely different kind of record. The songs are great and as usual the musicianship is blistering.

DANNY WALKER, INTRONAUT/EXHUMED/MURDER CONSTRUCT

3 – Mastodon – The Hunter

LAUGHSPIN TOP COMEDIAN RELEASES OF 2011:

7 – DOUG STANHOPE – Olso: Burning The Bridge To Nowhere. Click the link to hear an extract from Doug Stanhope — “Dead People’s Baggage” by Laughspin.

Watch this space for our Roadrunner Records Top 20 of 2011 as voted by YOU the fans and for more top albums of 2011 poll reults!