Before everyone left the office and spent the 10 days over Christmas drunk on mulled wine and expensive chocolates, we asked the Metal Hammer community to vote for their favourite album of 2017.

We already revealed that Mastodon’s Emperor Of Sand was named the Album Of The Year by Metal Hammer staff, but we wanted to know what you think is the best album of the past 12 months… and it appears that great minds think alike! Yup, that’s right, from the hundreds of votes counted, Mastodon’s seventh album was named the best of the year by you lovely bunch of metalheads.

But it’s not all about the riffs, the top ten albums chosen by Metal Hammer readers spans a range of subgenres – from choral black metal to melodic death metal.

Here is the top ten in full.

1) Mastodon – Emperor Of Sand

2) Trivium – The Sin And The Sentence

3) Code Orange – Forever

4) Myrkur – Mareridt

5) The Great Discord – The Rabbit Hole

6) Marilyn Manson – Heaven Upside Down

7) Kreator – Gods Of Violence

8) While She Sleeps – You Are We

9) Arch Enemy – Will To Power

10) Power Trip – Nightmare Logic

It’s fair to say that 2017 has been a great year for Mastodon, but what will 2018 hold for heavy music? Who will everyone be listening to by the time December rolls around? Nobody knows. But we do know that a lot of killer bands have albums lined up and our bodies are ready.

You can read our full 2017 review in the latest issue of Metal Hammer – in stores now. Buy it directly here or become a TeamRock+ member to read it right now.

2017: Metal Hammer's big review