My Favorite Releases Of 2011 (Owen)

2011 has been another year of ups and downs in the world of music, with ups including the reuniting of American Nightmare, Bright Eyes, Beyonce having a baby and Hevy fest and lows including bands like Wardogs and Deal With It breaking up and the release of LULU by Metallica.

Anyways this is my top 5 releases of 2011, so enjoy and reminisce over the last 12 months (in no particular order)

1. Basement "I Wish I Could Stay Here" : for those who aren't aware, in the last two years Basement have become one of the biggest UK pop-punk bands since Busted and their full length which was released this year just proves how mighty they are. Every song on this album is a killer with my favourite being "Crickets throw their voices" and even the slower songs still pack a punch which is hard to do sometimes. With sing a long choruses and some neat guitar work this album is defiantly one to be picked up and listened to on rainy days.
2. State Champs "Apparently I'm Nothing": very early on this year I stumbled across this band being plugged on the notorious spam/music arguments site LAST.FM and on a off chance I decided to download it and give it a listen and boy did it pay off. This album has been on constant rotation since March and with a good reason, it’s a return to the kind of sunny bouncy pop punk that bands like New Found Glory have been doing for years. Plenty of angsty songs about girls and plenty of semi- pop mosh breakdowns, its perfect skating music and it's perfect head-bopping music too.
3. Handguns "Don't Bite Your Tongue": another offering of smooth cheesy pop punk with a serious edge, is the almighty Handguns who I have loved since their previous release "Anywhere But Home" and when this came out early this year I was so unbelievably happy that it was good. It is 7 songs of blistering fun with songs like "Wait Up" making me scream the words at the top of my lungs when no-one is in.
4. Wardogs "Outcast Behaviour" imagine your face has just been kicked off, picture the agony in your mind as your beautiful face disappears off into the distance and you’re just left with teeth and muscle, that pain is the level of intensity the Wardogs 7 inch gave me this year. Heavy as hell itself and played at a loud volume can make grown men infertile, it's angry, violent, pissed off hardcore with enough punch to actually make your face hurt from mere audio alone.
5. The Black Dahlia Murder "Ritual" if your favourite things include: witchcraft, satanic chanting, cutting yourself, head banging, sexual offences on minors and playing guitar in a tomb, then Ritual is for you. I love TBDM and the pre-order package for this album (including a ouija board and coffin nails) alone suggests that this is one evil album. Songs about sexual offences and making deals with the devil feature heavily on this album and the drum tones alone enough to make you want to put on a robe and dance through the fog in your local graveyard. Heavy, Fast, Riffy and with a line so ridiculous that you just can't say no to (I implore kill your parents then yourself push your life right off the shelf die for metal) just shows yet another perfect TBDM offering

An honourable mention to both: SPEAK UP (24 hour demo) and Yellowcards (When you are through thinking say yes)

Let’s hope 2012 has an even greater year than this one.

Owen XOX