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- Stagnant Waters - Stagnant Waters
Haha. Damn right I put Stagnant Waters at number one. This is exactly what you would hope a mixture of DHG, Lugubrum, Shining (Norwegian version) and Virus would sound like.
- Witch Mountain - Cauldron of the Wild
Great riffs and great songwriting on this record. A bit more adventurous than its predecessor, which I also thought was brilliant.
- Napalm Death - Utilitarian
Contrary to what most people assume happens, I have got considerably angrier and more left wing as I have got older, and consequently I have loved Napalm Death more and more with every passing year. Genuine heroes of mine.
- Putrevore - Macabre Kingdom
When I reviewed this album I rambled on about paneer curry, I think. To be honest, it probably deserves better.
- Ihsahn - Eremita
Yep, seems like Ihsahn is still good.
- Liberteer - Better to Die on Your Feet than Live on Your Knees
HAHAHA! Anarchist folk-grind for all!
- Panopticon - Kentucky
Koeppe wrote a great review of this, but I expressed my own thoughts in a vastly more longwinded form here: http://utopianblaster.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/panopticon-kentucky/
- Ignivomous - Contragenesis
Abrasive and unfriendly Australian death metal.
- Christian Mistress - Possession
Good retro heavy metal tunes. I enjoyed this a lot.
- Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma
A completely charming album; sort of Hawkwind gone a little bit black metal, but in a whimsical way.
- Bedemon - Symphony of Shadows
Great old-time doom.
- Undergang - Til Døden os Skiller
YES!
- Necro Deathmort - The Colonial Script
Death Deathdeath
- Lord Mantis - Pervertor
Sort of takes that whole 'blackened sludge' thing which has been trendy recently, and makes it into something darker and more oppressive.
- Venus Star - Setyphorus
Well, looked at objectively I could see why someone would describe this album as being a bit crappy. Slow tempos and drum machines, and whatnot. But I really dug it. Nicely blackened grooves.
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- This list has to be read with an obvious disclaimer: something happened in the latter segment of this year that meant I had severely less time to listen to and review new metal music- and even less money to spend on new albums. So, there are some really big releases that simply don’t get recognised here. Propagandhi are one of my all-time favourite bands, for example, and I have barely even heard Failed States. Similarly, I didn’t get a chance to write about the last Ash Borer record. This last one is especially disappointing, because there seems to be nobody else here that has any interest in this band, despite them being easily one of the best black metal acts of the moment.
Normally, I would invest more effort in this list, listening repeatedly to the bands on it, trying to decide which should be at number nine or number ten, and so on. I have been completely unable to do that this year, because circumstances have made it difficult to spend the requisite amount of time blasting Putrevore, Ignivomous and Undergang. So, rather than my exhaustive attempt to compile what I think were the best fifteen albums of the year, here are fifteen albums that I really like that came out in 2012.
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