MP's Best Of 2011 Year End Wrap-Up

MP's Top 10 CDs of 2011:
1. The Dear Hunter - The Complete Color Spectrum
2. Steven Wilson - Grace For Drowning
3. Anthrax - Worship Music
4. Black Country Communion 2
5. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
6. Symphony X - Iconoclast
7. Arch/Matheos - Sympathetic Resonance
8. Mastodon - The Hunter
9. Machine Head - Unto The Locust
10. Protest The Hero - Scurrilous

MP's Top 10 Films of 2011:
1. The Artist
2. The Descendants
3. Drive
4. Moneyball
5. Shame
6. Melancholia
7. Midnight In Paris
8. Paranormal Activity 3
9. The Tree Of Life
10. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
And because I am sometimes a sick puppy...two honorable mentions:
11. A Serbian Film & The Human Centipede 2

MP's Top 10 TV shows of 2011:
1. Sons Of Anarchy
2. Breaking Bad
3. American Horror Story
4. Louie
5. Curb Your Enthusiasm
6. Lights Out
7. The Killing
8. Rescue Me (RIP)
9. Modern Family
10. That Metal Show

2011 marked a new beginning for me in many ways. It was an incredibly productive and fruitful year in which I was able to spread my musical wings a bit and work with so many great artists and friends.

I was able to release a new studio album (Neal Morse's Testimony 2), 3 live DVD/CD packages (Transatlantic, Yellow Matter Custard & Neal Morse), perform live with 5 different bands (Yellow Matter Custard, Neal Morse, Adrenaline Mob, Stone Sour & Hail - actually, 6 if you count the Metal Masters events!) and record 2 new albums for 2012 releases (Flying Colors & Adrenaline Mob)

I can't thank my fans, friends and family enough for standing by me, supporting me and always believing in me. I will continue to be one of the hardest working artists in the business for YOU and look forward to an incredible year ahead!!  #MPin2012
 
 
Previous MP Year End Wrap-Ups:

MP's Best Of 2010:
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=2624279&mpage=1#2624279
 
MP's Best Of 00's:
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=2462068&mpage=1#2462068

 
MP's Best Of 2009:
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=2462065&mpage=1#2462065
 
MP's Best Of 2008:
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=2216896&mpage=1#2216896
 
MP's Best Of 2007:
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=1900727&mpage=1#1900727
 
MP's Best Of 2006:
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=1504805&mpage=1#1504805
 
MP's Best Of 2005:
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=1112028&mpage=1#1112036
 
MP's Best Of 2004:
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=74&mpage=5#707792
 
MP's Best Of 2003:
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=74&mpage=4#383578
 
MP's Best Of 2002:
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=74&mpage=3#122630
 
MP's Best Of 2001:
http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=74&mpage=2#116
 
 

excellent choices!! I have to see and hear some of these choices
 
greetings from Caracas, Venezuela! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year budy!
 
 

Haven't listened to BCC2 yet.

yesterday was Casey Crescenzo's birthday fwiw.

Nice to see Louie getting props.  Great season, especially since it included another one of my favorites, Doug Stanhope.
 
Congratulations MP for everything you accomplished this year.  You're like a one-man musical dogpile!  To a great 2011 and a greater 2012!

TheShaman


Mike, you wouldn't put A Dramatic Turn of Events in the top 10?

Drop it. Drop. It.
 
Great list Mike, I'm happy to see Steven Wilson up there
Also, cool to see Midnight in Paris in your list, it's my favorite 2011 movie.

No Opeth! I'm shocked.

A51502112


No Opeth! I'm shocked.

Didn't even notice that! Shocking indeed!

Have you checked out the Showtime series Homeland yet Mike?
Top ten material there.

No Opeth? Wow... that's a shocker...

Don't like those film choices.  Particularly #10

The new Opeth is better than most of that list..hmmm

The two things that struck me on the album list are the same as others:  No Opeth and Grace for Drowning so high. 

Grivu

TheShaman


Mike, you wouldn't put A Dramatic Turn of Events in the top 10?

Drop it. Drop. It.

Great list Mike, I'm happy to see Steven Wilson up there
Also, cool to see Midnight in Paris in your list, it's my favorite 2011 movie.

 
No no, I didn't mean it to be a complaint or anything like that. I just thought it was a really good album and should be considered!

For some reason, it does not show up on the mobile edition.

Weren't a fan of Heritage, huh?  Well, to each their own, bro :)
 
Glad to see Grace for Drowning up there... that hasn't been cropping up on anybody's lists.  It really is a great album.

I recently started watching SOA partly because of your enthusiasm for the show, and because my favourite show of all time is Breaking Bad, and you also rate that, so I assumed our tastes would be similar....
 
I'm up to episode 8 of the first season of SOA.... Tis good shit.

Okay, I had to sign up for the forum just to post this:
The Walking Dead isn't on your list?  C'mon, man! Didn't you when Sophia stepped out of the barn?

Paul Sommer


I recently started watching SOA partly because of your enthusiasm for the show, and because my favourite show of all time is Breaking Bad, and you also rate that, so I assumed our tastes would be similar....

I'm up to episode 8 of the first season of SOA.... Tis good shit.

I'm a huge fan of SOA, and I can't stress enough, this last season was far and away the best season of that show.  At one point, in my opinion, Season 2 got a little slow, but don't give up.  The payoff is immense. 

goncalo_viola

A51502112


No Opeth! I'm shocked.

Didn't even notice that! Shocking indeed!

+1
 
But to each his own 

I as well am surprised that Opeth isn't there, but there is some solid releases on there as well. I hope Casey finds out about The Dear Hunter being Number 1, The Color Spectrum really deserves it!

Very cool list. I actually haven't gotten a chance to see or hear ANY of that yet, but I certainly hope to at some point!

Mastodon released the year's best record. Glad it's at least on the list.

The lack of Dexter, The Walking Dead, Fringe, Dream Theater, Scale The Summit, Between The Buried and Me, etc. disappoints me. Come on, Mike!

I had been curious as to what Mike thought of Unto the Locust as I knew he was a big fan of The Blackening but I hadn't heard him comment on Unto the Locust.  Man that album keeps getting better and better for me after each listen, which is good considering I was not blown away when I first listened.  LOVE it now though!

Moneyball is a great movie.
 
Joe Bonamassa grew up about 4 miles from where I lived in Utica.  This guy I check out concerts with in Roch (also from Utica) told me he was in the next room when the classic 1st photo of Bonamassa with a guitar as a young child was taken.  Seems he knows his father from back in the day. 
 

Heritage FTW!

They made Human Centipede 2????????

The absence of Opeth was what I spotted first
 
And I agree with it

thefunkygibbons

And I agree with it

i pity the fool

Grivu

thefunkygibbons

And I agree with it

i pity the fool

Well, it's all in the eye of the beholder. I personally salute TFG for his taste.
 
As for the rest of the lists, great to see some love for Modern Family and American Horror Story.

No Opeth and No Pain Of Salvation!!! Shocked.... did MP really decided to burn up all the bridges that connected him with DT???????

What surprised me the most is not the non inclusion of Opeth or PoS, but...
 
where the heck is the absolutely amazing and georgeus album by Beardfish called Mammoth????

israco_89


Hey, Mike this is my top 10 Cds of 2011:

#1 Dream Theater: A dramatic turn Of Events

Why? only one...?
Because I dont give a shit of any other band or any other album...

Did you honestly register just to say that?

israco_89


Hey, Mike this is my top 10 Cds of 2011:

#1 Dream Theater: A dramatic turn Of Events

Why? only one...?
Because I dont give a shit of any other band or any other album...

Then leave and don't come back!

Anthrax and Machine Head were definite AMAZING album releases this year!

Uhh, it being one of the "best albums of the year" is not a universal fact, I don't accept that and I don't see why anyone else would have to. It's just a list of favorite albums from a guy on the internet, just because your favorite albums don't synch up with it (Opeth, Pain of Salvation etc.) doesn`t mean there should be a big uproar, opinions are opinions.

At least half of all the new bands I have gotten into over the past ten years or so are after hearing about them on MP's top ten lists.
 
Thanks Mike!
 

israco_89


Yeah, Pretty much

Im a truly fan of MP, but i was just angry I feel angry to see he is so not going to accept that the dream theater album  ADTOE is one of the best of albums of the year, just because he is no longer in the band.

Just look at the grammy nominations.... 

You're stating this as if it's a fact. You think it's one of the best albums of the year? Great. I happen to think it's rather mediocre, with the exception of one great song and one or two other decent ones. This has nothing to do with MP being or not being in the band, as I wasn't overly fond of Black Clouds & Silver Linings either (some of the covers were cool though!).
 
I'm not too surprised about the omission of Road Salt Two, but I did expect Heritage to end up somewhere in the list... Ah well, to each his own (as was said earlier).