Let’s cut to the chase—2011 was a terrific year for music. Many were its highlights; few were its disappointments. I can ask for no more than that. In the grand tradition, allow me to present, in dramatically-ordered fashion, my favorite albums of the year.

10. Tombs – Path of Totality

Any album that kicks off with a beast like “Black Hole of Summer” is aces in my book. It’s to Tombs’ considerable credit that the album scarcely lets up over the course of its twelve tracks, yet doesn’t wear out its welcome. The riffs are consistently huge, and the feel of the album as dour as any in recent memory. In other words, perfect for me.

9. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

At this stage of their career, it would be boring to note that Mogwai have given unto us yet another quietly brilliant album if that album weren’t so goddamn good. Despite the ominous title, Hardcore feels more upbeat than 2008’s The Hawk is Howling. It’s relaxed, but not relaxing. I would have more to say about it, but I’ve only just gotten it.

8. Boris – Attention Please

Boris and I have come a long way since I bailed out of one of their concerts after four songs—due as much to the moshing assholes as to the somewhat soporific performance. Since then, I’ve come to appreciate the willfully obtuse delights Boris provides as they careen from genre to genre, sound to sound on their stupidly prolific musical journey. Attention Please is, to me, by far the better of the two albums Boris dropped on the same day early in 2011. It ranges from atmospheric weirdness (on the eponymous opener) to ambient soundscapes (“You”) and gorgeous, raw, energetic rock (“Spoon”). None of the songs sounds particularly similar, yet every one sounds natural for Boris. Well done.

7. And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs

A confident sophomore album that retains all of the passion of their self-titled debut and adds a considerable degree of execution. The track-to-track flow is masterful; witness the anthemic opener “Beautifuluniversemasterchampion,” moving to the riotous “Gangs (Starting Never Stopping),” and on into the menacing “Search:Party:Animal.” Centerpiece “7 Billion People All Alive at Once” is alternatingly lush and playful, two feelings one doesn’t expect to get from a band that supposedly plays “math rock.” Album closer “Lifeproof” is worth the price of admission by itself. Can’t wait to see what they do next.

6. Asobi Seksu – Fluorescence

I’m very happy to see Asobi Seksu return to form after 2009’s disappointing Hush. While Fluorescence doesn’t quite see the band attain the lofty heights of 2006’s Citrus, it’s nevertheless a damn fine album. Yuki Chikudate turns in her best vocals to date, although I’m not wild about the production on them. James Hanna’s guitar work boldly recalls My Bloody Valentine, and similarly manages to hold up quite well. Asobi Seksu can be maddening—Fluorescence contains some terrible missteps (“My Baby” is throwaway pop fluff; “Leave the Drummer Out There” takes a bizarre turn through lounge music; and “Deep Weird Sleep” is a pointless instrumental interlude that frankly sounds like it belongs in a Zelda game and leads into the similarly pointless “Counterglow”), but they can hit such amazing highs. As a sucker for shoegaze, masterpieces like “Ocean” and “Pink Light” were guaranteed to slay me, but the album also features a couple of perfect dreampop pieces in “Perfectly Crystal” and “Trance Out.” The ability to swing so easily between those two types of songs has always been Asobi Seksu’s strong point; if they could just drop the filler, I have no doubt they could put together another album for the ages.

5. Sloan – The Double Cross

Sloan shouldn’t be this good anymore. The Double Cross is the tenth album in their twenty-year run. Chris Murphy’s lyrics are somehow getting worse, and Patrick Pentland’s songs aren’t getting better. Yet they continue to hit it out of the park with tightly constructed songs that manage to sound comfortably familiar, yet more nuanced than what they’ve done before. In the Sloan democracy, my vote has always been with Andrew Scott, and here he’s responsible for the album’s brilliant penultimate track, “Traces.” That said, the real standout on The Double Cross is Jay Ferguson’s “Green Gardens, Cold Montreal.” Sorry, Andy.

4. Cave In – White Silence

A triumph. Their first album since 2005’s Perfect Pitch Black, the opening of White Silence literally screams with confidence as Cave In shed the major-label-induced alternative rock of their middle period for a return to the brash, aggressive sound of their youth. The alternative influence isn’t lost, however; for all the dissonance and screaming (of which there is plenty on highlights “White Silence” and “Serpents”), the album is packed with tuneful, melodic brilliance amidst all the cacophony—“Sing My Loves” is probably the best example, and “Summit Fever” packs a slew of monster riffs that skew more Chavez than Converge. And I can’t say enough about closer “Reanimation,” a plaintive, beautiful capstone on a most excellent return.

3. Jesu – Ascension

I had this album pegged as the year’s best long before it even came out, and it very nearly was. Such is my confidence in Justin K. Broadrick’s genius, and, despite my high expectations, he always delivers. Of all his various projects, Jesu is the one that appeals to me most, with its shoegaze-meets-sludge-metal sound that in Broadrick’s mind constitutes “pop.” The opening trio of songs (“Fools,” “Birth Day,” and “Sedation”) is as good as any Jesu has put together, and the rest of the album is dotted with some perfect tracks (“Brave New World”; “Small Wonder”; “December”; and “Ascension”) and some merely average ones (“Broken Home”; “Black Lies”; “King of Kings”). As you can tell from the track titles, this is a bleak record, and I wouldn’t suggest it as an entry point to the Jesu catalog. That said, Broadrick is doing amazing things under the Jesu moniker; tackle the Silver EP and Conqueror LP first, then come wallow with me in Ascension.

2. True Widow – As High As the Highest Heavens and from the Center to the Circumference of the Earth

The guitar sound that opens this album is the stuff of dreams. No album this year created more with less. I had intended at this point to discuss the standout tracks, but that would be silly. This album is a booming, brooding masterpiece from start to finish. It must be heard.

1. Russian Circles – Empros

Russian Circles are the most exciting band going. It’s that simple. As with my favorite album of 2010 (Torche’s Songs for Singles), the only criticism I can level at Empros is that, at six songs running forty-one minutes, it’s not nearly long enough. Where their previous two albums (Station and Geneva, also masterpieces) saw the band slowly evolving its sound, Empros is a quantum goddamn leap forward. “309” opens the album with a daringly raw, driving riff that’s a far cry from the sheen of Geneva, and the song manages quite a few turns before fading out in first menacing, then gentle fashion.

Indeed, Empros is full of twists and turns that I didn’t know Russian Circles had in them. Mike Sullivan’s opening guitar figure on “Mladek” runs away with the Riff of the Year trophy, and earns it even more when the same figure returns two-thirds of the way through to herald the song’s descent into a shrieking, nearly black-metal conclusion. “Schipol” spends a leisurely three minutes wandering through a folk-apocalypse before erupting. “Atackla” also develops patiently, building around Dave Turncrantz’s peerless drumming. “Batu” is all atmosphere—until the 3:50 mark, when it resets to cramped, muted guitars; military-precise drums; and a strident, declaratory bass line. This, too, begins to build, back into the atmosphere, until collapsing abruptly into four minutes of gentle ambiance.

Ambiance that leads into the much-ballyhooed appearance, for the first time ever in a Russian Circles song, of vocals, on finale “Praise Be Man.” That the song, so quiet, beautiful, and simply-arranged, manages to fit so perfectly at the end of what is unquestionably the band’s heaviest and most complex work to date is remarkable. It’s also fitting that the vocals are delivered by bassist Brian Cook, whose excellent playing is easy to overlook amidst the flashier work of Sullivan and Turncrantz. “Praise Be Man” is emblematic of the band itself—far more than the sum of its parts, regardless of how brilliant those parts are.

Honorable Mentions

More than ten great albums in a year? Madness! Yet it is so. Foremost among the almost-best is the excellent sophomore album from Helms Alee, Weatherhead. It’s a big step forward from their rough-but-enjoyable debut (Night Terror, which I nevertheless recommend) and hopefully portends great things for the future. Also worthy of recommendation is that other Boris album, Heavy Rocks. It’s…well, it’s a Boris album. Heavier than Attention Please and quite good, indeed. Finally, ex-ISIS bassist Jeff Caxide, under the moniker Crone, released a splendid, formless ambient album, the aptly titled Endless Midnight.

Also, Battles would probably have made the list if I had yet gotten around to listening to Gloss Drop. One of these days.

And what of the year’s disappointments? One still manages to rate an honorable mention: Mastodon’s The Hunter. I know, I know, it’s their “pop” album and it’s all “concise” and whatnot. It’s no Blood Mountain or Crack the Skye, and it doesn’t try to be. And, really, it’s quite good. I can understand a band taking a step back from monster concept albums, letting their hair down, and just rocking out. Ultimately, unfortunately, The Hunter is good, but not great.

The Future!

I dare not hope that 2012 will deliver so strongly, but there are promising things on the horizon. Pelican have announced a new EP. Jakob, too, have announced a new LP. The oft-rumored new Mars Volta album should finally arrive. Caspian are planning a new release. Most promising of all, Baroness have been working on a new album for quite some time, and with any luck it will drop before the world ends.

More speculatively, ex-ISIS drummer Aaron Harris keeps tweeting about how he’s working on new material with fellow ISIS alums Bryant Clifford Meyer and Jeff Caxide. Be still my beating heart.