Saturday, January 5, 2013

Favorite Albums of 2012

Well another year has gone by, as usual there will be a ton of people saying,"It wasnt a good year for metal". In my opinion if you say that you either haven't been paying attention or simply have shitty taste. Ha! Last year i made the mistake of trying to do this post by post and ended up omitting like 7 of my absolute favorite albums (Vektor, Flourishing, etc.). So i'm just lumping them together this year. Anyway, heres my top 30 metal/hardcore releases of 2012 in no particular order. I'm leaving out the albums by Converge and Neurosis, even though they were both incredible, because if you're a fan of heavy music then surely you've heard them by now and they get plenty of attention anyway. Some albums that didnt quite make the cut for whatever reason were - Dordeduh - Dar de Duh, Hell - III, Torch Runner - Committed to the Ground, Mutilation Rites - Empyrean, Eagle Twin - The Feather Tipped the Serpents Scale - to name a very few. The biggest disappointment for me was the Graveyard LP. Its not bad at all, but after last years Hisingen Blues (which i felt was one of the best rock albums of the last decade), i was expecting a lot more. As an added bonus i'm including my top ten less-metal albums that i absolutely loved but either just felt out of place, or didn't belong at all, on the other list. These lists are very relative. The first list is dominated by black and death because thats what i listenened to this year, if i had written this in 1989 it would've been filled with thrash metal.

Top 30 Metal/Hardcore Albums
Charon - Sulphur Seraph (The Archon Principle)
Desolate Shrine - The Sanctum of Human Darkness
Pinkish Black - Self Titled
Necrovation - Necrovation
Tempel - On the Steps of the Temple
Propagandhi - Failed States
Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma
Spectral Lore - Sentinel
Cowards - Shooting Blanks and Pills
Putrevore - Macabre Kingdom
Krallice - Years Past Matter
Dephosphorus - Night Sky Transform
Evoken - Atra Mors
Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction
Ysengrin - To Endotaton
Pharoah - Bury the Light
Blut Aus Nord - 777 - Cosmosophy
Witchcraft - Legend
Wreck and Reference - No Youth
Panopticon - Kentucky
Aevangelist - De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis
Jute Gyte - Isolation
Ghostlimb - Confluence
Knelt Rote - Trespass
Bosse de Nage - III
Pseudogod - Deathwomb Catechesis
Dawnbringer - Lair of the Sun God
Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron
Incantation - Vanquish in Vengeance
Royal Thunder - CVI

Top Ten Less (or Non) Metal
Caspian - Waking Season
Om - Advaitic Songs
Swans - The Seer
El-P - Cancer 4 Cure
James Blackshaw - Love is the Plan , The Plan is Death
Gifts from Enola - A Healthy Fear
Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 2
Wovenhand - The Laughing Stalk
Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory
Balmorhea - Stranger

3 comments:

Chris DAlessandro said...

Sweet dude, I nodded in accordance with many of them. I'm putting a very lax top 30 on SHOM now, the ship has already sailed but fuck it. I'll have to look into some of those I haven't heard. (Ghostlimb, Spectral Lore, Temple)

weak-moon said...

great list, thank you, found a lot of great new stuff

Chris DAlessandro said...

Who do I have to fuck to get an updated post around here? What the fuck Valis!