• New Music Reviews
• |
• Archives
• |
• News
• |
• Submissions
• |
• About
• |
• 
• |
• 

March 2025

• W.E.T.: Apex
• Alliance: Before Our Eyes
• Ginevra: Beyond Tomorrow
• Phil X & The Drills:
  Pow! Right In The Kisser
• IQ: Dominion
• Heart Line: Falling Heaven
• Gotthard: Stereo Crush
• Defender: Dying To Live
• Streetlight: Night Vision

February 2025

• Robin McAuley: Soulbound
• Perfect Plan: Heart Of A Lion
• Craig Brooks: Desolation Freeway
• Mantric Momentum: Alienized
• Pattern-Seeking Animals: Friend Of All Creatures
• Crazy Lixx: Thrill Of The Bite
• Ginger Evil: The Way It Burns
• Dream Theater: Parasomnia
• Tyran: Tyran's Oath
• Saber: Lost In Flames

January 2025

• Wildness: Avenger
• The Ferrymen: Iron Will
• Labyrinth: In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye
• Bonfire: Higher Ground
• The Big Deal: Electrified
• Landfall: Wide Open Sky

December 2024

• After Lapse: Pathways
• Illusion Force: Halfana
• Powell-Payne: Voilá

November 2024

• Sunstorm: Restless Fight
• Storace: Crossfire
• Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King
• Lionville: Supernatural
• Starchaser: Into The Great Unkown
• Empires Of Eden: Guardians Of Time
• Lonerider: Down In The Dust
• Seventh Crystal: Entity
• Neal Morse & The Resonance: No Hill For A Climber
• Beardfish: Songs For Beating Hearts
• Impellitteri: War Machine
• Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter

[ More Music Reviews ]

2011 was another banner year for all things melodic hard rock and heavy metal, progressive rock and metal. However, after reviewing more than 400 albums, and listening to nearly 200 more submissions, it’s hard, sometimes, to recall what truly stood out, what real cream rose to the top.

But being the glutton for punishment that I am, once more I’ll attempt to pick my favorites of 2011. Here’s my top picks, about 15,  in three general genres: aor/melodic (sometimes hard) rock, heavy metal, and progressive rock/metal. Again, these are in no particular order.

15 Really Good Melodic Rock/AOR Albums:
Tried to include anything from lighter melodic rock and AOR to melodic hard rock in this list.

Hell in the Club: Let the Games Begin
Miss Behaviour: Last Woman Standing
Whitesnake: Forevermore
King Kobra: King Kobra
Journey: Eclipse
Night Ranger: Somewhere in California
Badmouth: Heavy Metal Parking Lot
Crash Diet: Generation Wild
ZombieShakerBox: Encrypted
Shy: Shy
Crash Street Kids: Sweet Creatures
Slam, The: Hit It!
Touchstone: The City Sleeps
Angeline: Disconnected
Eat The Gun: Runner

Top Pick: Crash Diet or ZombieShakerBox

15 Really Good Heavy Metal Albums:
Simply lumping several metal genres together for this list did not make picking favorites easy. Too many good albums to choose from!

Evergrey: Glorious Collision
Artizan: Curse of the Artizan
Images of Eden: Rebuilding the Ruins
Eden’s Curse: Trinity
Hell: Human Remains
Firewolfe: Firewolfe
Sinister Realm: The Crystal Eye
Edguy: Age of the Joker
Hunted: Welcome the Dead
Intense: The Shape of Rage
King, Lance: A Moment in Chiros
Royal Hunt: Show Me How to Live
Theocracy: As the World Bleeds
Dragonland: Under the Grey Banner
Seven Witches: Call Upon the Wicked

Top Pick(s): Artizan, Edguy, and Royal Hunt

 15 or 16 Really Good Progressive Rock/Metal Albums:
2011 was banner year for prog rock and metal at Dangerdog Music Reviews, one of our favorite genres. Picking 15 only neglects another 15 more very good albums.

Jolly: The Audio Guide to Happiness Pt 1
Beardfish: Mammoth
Lost in Thought: Opus Arise
Aura: Deliverance
Symphony X: Iconoclast
Pagan’s Mind: Heavenly Ecstasy
Gno: Cannibal Tango
Leprous: Bilateral
41Point9: Still Looking for the Answers
Dream Theater: A Dramatic Turn of Events
Myrath: Tales of the Sands
Vangough: Kingdom of Ruin
Knight Area: Nine Paths
Agents of Mercy: The Black Forest
Odd Dimension: Symmetrical
Nightwish: Imaginaerum

Top Pick: too many good albums to choose from, but leaning towards Nightwish, Vangough or Dream Theater

Share this review

Once again the choices were tough. Here's Dangerdog Music Review's picks for really good melodic rock, aor, heavy metal, progressive rock and progressive metal for 2011.

Alphabetical Index

Here's a fun fact about Swiss legends, Gotthard: their last 16 releases, excepting their debut album, went to number one in their home country, making them one of Switzerland's most successful acts and ... [ Read More ]