Listomania: My Favorite Albums Of 2012

It’s obviously incredibly late to be listing my favorite albums from a year that’s been over for almost two months now, but nonetheless, I had to get this post done for pure catharsis sake. I’ve been busy with various projects and haven’t had time to devote to the site in a while. Honestly, this list looks like crap format-wise and probably doesn’t make any sense, but I had to get it done and posted to get that weight off my shoulders and move forward with new stuff for the blog. If you see something on there that sounds interesting, look em up, and if you can’t find any info, message me on Facebook and I’ll link you to their music. Enjoy!

1 Saint Vitus – Lillie: F-65

This is one of the few albums I heard last year that truly is perfect all the way through. Though the album only has five real songs, each one of those songs is one of the greatest Saint Vitus have ever written. I think part of my obsession with this album is because it only has five actual songs, so there isn’t much to take in, and also because I’ve seen all five of those songs played live twice this year and every one of them sound WAY better live than they do in the studio.

2 Napalm Death – Utilitarian

The best grind album of 2012, and possibly one of the best of their career. Every song on here is laden with hooks, but also some incredible blasts of grind fury. Napalm Death have once again claimed their crown of best grind band ever.

3 baroness – yellow and green

This record was my favorite of the year for a while until the very end, honestly. It’s completely different from every other album they’ve ever put out and both discs are a rollercoaster of badassery, without question.

4 converge – all we love we leave behind

The heaviest hardcore band on the planet got heavier and more ridiculous.

5 overkill – the electric age

This album, along with Royal Thunder, was my biggest surprise of the year. I knew Overkill would come out swinging for the fences, because that’s what thrash metal icons do, but I had no idea they’d knock the cover off the ball like they did with this record.

6 christian mistress – possession

I normally don’t dig female vocalists much, but this band is the major exception to the rule. Heavy as balls riffs, coked-up rock n’ roll fury and songs catchier than Jerry Rice in Super Bowl XXIII.

7 testament – dark roots of earth

Testament are one of my favorite thrash bands of all time and this record just goes to show that they still have it. Native Blood might be my favorite song all year.

8 pallbearer – sorrow and extinction

This is one of the greatest doom albums I’ve ever heard, without question. Riffs so heavy they’ll knock the fillings out of your teeth.

9 graveyard – lights out

People always talk about how rock n’ roll is dead, but if they’ve ever heard these Swedish monsters, it’s obvious that rock n’ roll is VERY much alive.

10 royal thunder – cvi

Incredibly bad ass bluesy, southern rock n’ roll. I hadn’t listened to them much prior to this year, so this album would have to be my biggest surprise of the year, without question.

11 deftones – koi no yokan

I haven’t heard a Deftones album since Self Titled that I wasn’t obsessed with, and Koi No Yokan was no exception. They have once again incorporated beautiful vocals and atmosphere with seven-string riffs that kill, and a powerful rhythm section. I would say this is definitely one of the best albums of their career, without question.

12 torche – harmonicraft

Any time Torche puts out a new album, they seem to unleash something new upon the world. With Harmonicraft, they somehow managed to include, ridiculously heavy, signature Torche riffs with elements of arena rock and pop punk. Fantastic driving album.

13 neurosis – honor found in decay

Neurosis have released yet another album that sounds like Neurosis, but doesn’t resemble any other album in their back catalog. It’s one of those albums that has so many elements in it, that you hear something new on each spin, and it can’t be classified under any real genre because it just sounds like Neurosis and not much else.

14 horseback – half blood

2012 was definitely the year of Relapse Records. One reason is because of bands like Horseback who completely pushed beyond genre limitations to create one of the sickest psychedelic rock albums ever. It’s got occasional black metal vocals sung over soothing, trippy, bass-driven rhythms that just melt my heart.

15 pig destroyer – book burner

I am a pretty big fan of Pig Destroyer, but upon hearing Book Burner, I became much more obsessed with them. This record has all of the elements that make them great, but they also added Adam Jarvis from Misery Index on drums, which took them to a completely new stratosphere of heavy.

16 conan – monnos

Words can’t express how disgustingly heavy this album is. It’s got the hugest, fattest tones i’ve ever heard on a doom album. These guys are the Yokozuna of British doom metal.

17 meshuggah – koloss

Meshuggah are one of my favorite bands on earth, so it wasn’t surprising how good their new record was. What did surprise me, however, is how they were able to slow it down and change their pace just enough to avoid sounding like they were ripping off the genre they unintentionally created.

18 cattle decapitation – monolith of inhumanity

I’ve always had respect for this band, but this is the first album of theirs that really blew my doors off. It’s got all of the usual brutal death/grind riffs going on, but the real star of the show is Travis Ryan’s version of clean vocals, which consists of disgusting, undead howls.

19 liberteer – better to die on your feet than live on your knees

When I first heard this album, I was completely floored. The stunning mix of HM2 death metal with grindcore and civil war type passages is absolutely crushing.

20 asphyx – deathhammer

This album is part two of Martin Van Drunen’s brutal death metal assault in 2012. It sounds like an Asphyx record, obviously, but with the fantastic production of the record, it’s helped them continue to reign as one of the heaviest bands on the planet.

21 black breath – sentenced to life

The cool thing about this band is the fact that they took a style like old school Entombed-style death metal that’s very old and familiar, and they added their own hardcore influence to make it even more intense and pummeling. This is a perfect mosh-pit album.

22 municipal waste – the fatal feast

At this point, it’s very easy to lump Municipal Waste in with the 80′s thrash bands as one of the best thrash bands of all time. Their new record continues that legacy with a ton of awesome thrash/punk anthems, as well as an appearance by John from Nuclear Assault which rules.

23 corrosion of conformity – corrosion of conformity

This is the first COC album in forever without Pepper on guitar, and in my opinion it’s one of their best. The mix of their doomy rock n’ roll era with their hardcore punk/thrash roots is just delicious.

24 incantation – vanquish in vengeance

This is another album that caught me by complete surprise. It’s an old school death metal album, but it’s also got a lot of slow, devastating doom riffs that add an extra 100 lbs to their already insanely heavy death metal.

25 pilgrim – misery wizard

In my review of this record, I stated that this band is like the football team that wins by running the ball up the middle and playing violent defense. The reason I said that is because this album is a slow, plodding, thick slab of doom that rarely changes pace and beats you to death every step of the way.

26 grave – endless procession of souls

I’m obviously a sucker for old school death metal and Grave are one of my favorite bands of the genre. This new record is just another gory chapter in their fantastic discography.

27 grand magus – the hunt

This album caught me by complete surprise with how catchy it is. It’s got a lot of heavy, bone-crushing riffs, as well as some epic Norse-themed lyrics, and it’s impossible to not headbang to.

28 the sword – apocryphon

I’ve always been a big fan of this band, and this record is another flawless part of their discography. It’s got all the foot-stomping classic rock/doom influence, as well as the cool sci-fi element that makes them continue to be interesting.

29 enslaved – riitir

Enslaved are a band that has been able to continually change and progress over the years, and with this record, they brought that progression to it’s highest peak yet. The vocals on this album are much cleaner than on previous records, which actually gives it a bit of beauty at times.

30 inverloch – dusk subsides

This band was formed in the ashes of dISEMBOWELMENT, and they picked up right where they left off. Slow, plodding funeral-esque passages lead to huge, monstrous doom riffs and back to a crawl again. It’s a shame this album wasn’t a full length, because it is truly intense.

31 paradise lost – tragic idol

Though they are a legendary British doom band, Paradise Lost have taken on a much stranger tone with their newer albums, but I love it. The biggest thing for me was the hooks all throughout this album, it’ll stay with you for MANY days after you hear it.

32 down – down iv part 1 purple ep

With this first of four EP’s, the boys from Nola seem to have gotten in touch with their Saint Vitus influence and I couldn’t be happier. I just hope the next three EP’s sound this awesome.

33 dying fetus – reign supreme

2012 was an amazing year for brutal death metal, particularly when a band like Dying Fetus comes out with a back-to-basics death metal album full of the slams and monstrous blast beats their fans know and love them for.

34 norska – norska

Though this album is a reissue, it was one of the finest doom albums I’ve heard all year thanks to their incredibly creative riffs. These guys definitely offer up a fresh take on a genre that is sometimes lacking in the freshness department.

35 unsane – wreck

Some people call Unsane noise rock, but it’s more than that. It’s a heavy, groovy, bruiser of an album. Chris Spencer’s voice is also incredibly grating and it never gets old to me.

36 prong – carved in stone

Tommy Victor perfected the art of “groove metal”, and when you hear this album, you’ll understand why. The man can also still write a hook like nobody’s business.

37 bison bc – lovelessness

Though these guys are a mix of stoner metal and Mastodon, they have managed to progress more and more with each album, culminating in one of the best albums of their career. This is another album that’s great for drinkin heavily and drivin fast.

38 ihsahn – eremita

The former Emperor main man has always managed to stay ahead of the curve as far as prog metal goes. “Eagle And The Snake” is one of my favorite songs of the year.

39 Nile – At The Gates Of Sethu

Another burly, technical, semi-eerie slab of Egyptian death metal from the only band in America that knows how to do it.

40 The Faceless – Autotheism

Definitely a change of pace for these guys from their previous albums due to a new vocalist, but still just as proggy and brutal as ever, with a touch of Opeth for good measure.

41 Grand Supreme Blood Court – Bow Down Before The Blood Court

One of the loudest albums I’ve heard all year. Seriously, it’s impossible to turn it up very loud without blowing out your ear drums. It’s brutal, old school death metal featuring current and former members of Asphyx.

42 Kreator – Phantom Antichrist

This album features a legendary German thrash band doing what legendary German thrash bands do…playing fast, infectious thrash metal.

43 Katatonia – Dead End Kings

This album is absolutely gorgeous at times. It seems that this album is quite a bit more melodic than previous records, and they also don’t sound like Chevelle anymore, thankfully.

44 Murder Construct – Results

Absolutely bloody grind/death metal from members of Pig Destroyer, Intronaut and more. Fast and violent win the race.

45 A Life Once Lost – Ecstatic Trance

This is their first new album in a while, but stylistically, they are just as nuts as ever. The manner in which they layer a crap-ton of awesome solos and leads over a huge, monstrous groove is just amazing to me.

46 haarp – Husks

These guys are one of the best bands going in New Orleans these days, so it’s not a surprise that this album is awesome. What did surprise me, however, was the fact that it only has three songs…three very long, brutal, depressing songs.

47 Bereft – Liechenhaus

This band features current and past members of bands like Intronaut, The Faceless and Abysmal Dawn, so I didn’t know what to expect from them style-wise. The end result is a ten-ton mountain of soul-crushing doom.

48 Nachtmystium – The Silencing Machine

The boys from Chicago broke away from the Meddle theme of their last two albums and went back to making hateful black metal. The results are exactly what you’d expect, only a little better due to better production, as well as a still-lingering Floyd influence.

49 High On Fire – De Vermis Mysteriis

Matt Pike is a complete monster, plain and simple. When you combine his amazing songwriting abilities with Kurt Ballou’s incredible production, good things are bound to happen.

50 Burning Love – Rotten Thing To Say

I listened to this album because their singer is Chris Colohan from Cursed. I fell in love with it because of their hardcore-punk mentality with some rock n’ roll thrown in for good measure.

51 Cannibal Corpse – Torture

If you have ever heard Cannibal Corpse, then you know what this album sounds like. Brutal lyrics and an uncompromisingly punishing form of death metal have been their calling card for 20 years.

52 Car Bomb – w-^-w-^^-w-^-w

This album reminds me of a mixture of Dillinger and Meshuggah, but at times fastier and groovier and a little more insane.

53 Castle – Blacklands

This album has a bit of a thrash metal influence, but it’s tuned way down and has a cool doom-rock vibe to it.

54 Bell Witch – Longing

Very emotionally-draining, super intense funeral doom. It’s made by just two guys, but you sure can’t tell due to the intense, soul-eviscerating riffs.

55 Horrendous – The Chills

Many bands try to sound like Entombed, few manage to pull it off the way these guys do. I’m a big fan of old school death metal, and apparently these guys are too, because this record could have come out in 1991, easily.

56 Angel Witch – As Above, So Below

I’m so glad that these guys got a real record label, because the production on this album is amazing. Music-wise, it’s exactly the kind of old school, epic metal you’d expect from one of the O.G. NWOBHM bands.

57 Candlemass – Psalms For The Dead

Epicus. Doomicus. Metallicus. This is supposedly their last album, and it’s got all of their typical bells & whistles to leave fans with a good taste in their mouths.

58 Pelican – Ataraxia Taraxis

Though this isn’t really the Pelican I’ve grown to love, I think I can appreciate what they were going for with this Ep. It’s way more rock n’ roll than their previous albums to say the least.

59 Dawnbringer – Into The Lair Of The Sun God

The only genre I could really give this album would be “heavy metal”. It’s throwback, epic metal with classic rock vocals, basically.

60 Gaza – No Absolutes In Human Suffering

It seems these guys get angrier and nastier with every album. At this point, they remind me of a hardcore band who tried to make technical death metal.

61 Gojira – L’Enfant Sauvage

I assumed that signing to a huge label would ruin these guys, but it actually made their unique brand of groovy, technical metal even heavier and more preposterous.

62 D.I.S. – Becoming Wrath

The letters in their name means destroyed in seconds, which is kind of a fitting band name for this incredibly mean-spirited mix of black metal, death metal and hardcore.

63 Cryptopsy – Cryptopsy

They finally got back to making violent, dizzying technical death metal, and it paid massive dividends.

64 Hooded Menace – Effigies Of Evil

A very cool mixture of death and doom metal, with a dash of horror samples to make it even more terrifying.

65 Swans – The Seer

This album was almost too much for me to take in due to it’s length. It’s not really metal by the standard definition, but it’s the kind of sprawling, gorgeous album that is very rewarding when you let it sink in.

66 Anaal Nathrakh – Vanitas

Loud and abrasive would be the operative words to describe this album. It’s blackened death metal with a sprinkle of weirdness.

67 Evoken – Atra Mors

Slow, plodding, depressing funeral doom. The perfect album to listen to while walking through the woods at night.

68 Dysrhythmia – Test Of Submission

Brain-rattlingly technical instrumental metal. Colin Marston knows how to make instrumental metal not boring.

69 Ancestors – In Dreams And Time

Very dreamy, sludgy post-metal. Great music to sleep to.

70 Daylight Dies – A Frail Becoming

A nice mixture of doom and death metal. It could be said that this is what Opeth should sound like these days.

71 Spawn Of Possession – Incurso

Insane, technical death metal. They seriously cram like 5,000 riffs into each song. Incredibly brutal.

72 Fight Amp – Birth Control

This album is also very hard to classify. I would say they are like Torche, but with maybe a bit more of a Jesus Lizard influence.

73 Evocation – Illusions Of Grandeur

More old school death metal that uses the crap out of the HM-2 pedal. Incredibly heavy and awesome.

74 Dragged Into Sunlight – Widowmaker

A nice, depressing, terrifying mixture of death and doom, but it’s more like the soundtrack to a serial murder, honestly.

75 Agalloch – Faustian Echoes

One twenty minute song of melodic, gorgeous, Agallochian black metal.

76 Gypsyhawk – Revelry And Resilience

Upbeat, throwback rock n’ roll just the way I like it. They have an amazing Rick Derringer cover on here as well.

77 Samothrace – Reverence To Stone

This album has just two songs, but both of them are thick, depressing and heavy as hell doom.

78 Kowloon Walled City – Container Ships

Very sludgy metal that’s hard to define, but they remind me of bands like Torche that have a rock n’ roll influence mixed in with doom.

79 Mutilation Rites – Empyrean
Very dense black metal, but also got elements of crust and thrash to keep it interesting.

80 Aborted – Global Flatline

Brutal Swedish goregrind/death metal with some…creative song titles. This record also has some cool guest vocalists like Trevor Strnad of Black Dahlia.

81 Old Man Gloom – NO

This album wasn’t as awesome as I initially thought it’d be, but when it hits the heavier songs, it definitely brings enough thunder to make up for the slower parts.

82 Chrome Waves – Chrome Waves

Can’t decide if this album is black metal or not, but it’s definitely fast, chaotic and intense. Stavros from Atlas Moth does an insane job on the vocals, the most unique part of the album.

83 Ram – Death

Traditional heavy metal in the vein of Judas Priest or Dio-era Sabbath.

84 Dethklok – Dethalbum III

Their last album was incredibly boring, so I was shocked to hear how brutal this album turned out to be. Then again, anything with Gene Hoglan is going to be at least a little awesome.

85 Mares Of Thrace – The Pilgrimage

Very eerie stoner/doom similar to The Melvins, but with a lot of shred and a lot of very intense passages.

86 Wizard Rifle – Speak Loud Say Nothing

Spastic mix of garage rock and sludge metal. Reminds me of a more spastic version of Pissed Jeans

87 Enabler – All Hail The Void

An insanely fun mix of black metal, punk and hardcore.

88 Zombiefication – Reaper’s Consecration

Incredibly vicious old school death metal. They’re clearly fans of Entombed and Autopsy.

89 Sons Of Tonatiuh – Parade Of Sorrow

A raw mixture of sludge/doom and punk from Georgia, but they sound like a band you’d hear opening for Eyehategod or Crowbar in New Orleans.

90 Hour Of Penance – Sedition

Insane technical death metal, but unlike some bands who just wank it Necrophagist-style…they are more hellbent on speed than anything.

91 Unconscious Disturbance – Mind’s Corner

Creative progressive rock with a jazzy touch, as well as Human-era Chuck Schuldineresque vocals.

92 Antigama – Stop The Chaos

Straight up face-smashing, creative grind.

93 Acephalix – Deathless Master

Brutal old school death metal done the right way.

94 Aura Noir – Out To Die

Awesome mix of old school thrash and black metal. Very similar to Venom or Celtic Frost.

95 Tiamat – The Scarred People

An absolute classic from the old school progressive death metal band turned into semi-gothic doom metal stalwarts.

96 National Sunday Law – Festival Of The Horned God

Ridiculously crushing atmospheric doom. Nice, beautiful acoustic passages one minute, insanely heavy doom riffs crashing down the next.

97 Vaginal Bear Trap – Just The Tip

Incredibly catchy goregrind/death metal. Also, best band name ever.

98 Martyrdod – Paranoia

Blistering blackened crust punk/thrash.

99 Grave Disgrace – Grave Disgrace

Very obscure Russian sludge/stoner doom that I stumbled on randomly, but fell in love with.

100 Abigail Williams – Becoming

Surprisingly good, epic black metal. Definitely their best album.

February 24, 2013 | Categories: Albums Of The Year, Listomania, Uncategorized | Tags: asphyx, baroness, black breath, cattle decapitation, christian mistress, conan, converge, corrosion of conformity, deftones, enslaved, grand magus, grave, graveyard, horseback, incantation, inverloch, liberteer, meshuggah, municipal waste, napalm death, neurosis, overkill, pallbearer, pig destroyer, pilgrim, royal thunder, saint vitus, testament, the sword, torche | 2 Comments »