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10) All Love We Leave Behind - Converge
It's still up for debate whether or not Converge are a metal band or not, but regardless this album just about snuck it's way into the top 10 by proving the converge haven't gone stale (to me at least) after their rather disappointing last few outputs. It's much of the same as before but something feels different like perhaps a new sense of life has been brought to the band and that converge are determined to keep themselves as one of the most reveired and recongised bands in hardcore/metal.
9) Omnipotent Asperity - Visceral Throne
It's no secret that I love crushing slams, but sometimes it's got to be more than that to keep me interested beyond a novelty listen and Visceral Throne's first album release ticks all the boxes by not only having some crazy riff-work but also keeping to the brutal death metal sound without it sounding too overworked and by keeping a mix of songs at different lengths stops it from being too monotonous.
8) Sentenced To Life - Black Breath
If Saxon and Down had a love child it would probably sound something abit like Black Breath. Having only listened to them recently at the recommendation of a friend who assured me it would be in my albums of 2012, I dutifully gave it a spin and my god is it good. The songs albeit too long in some places have this sort of swaggering sound to them that makes me think of riding a motorbike round a desert-town picking fights with the locals and drinking whiskey from a bottle. A southern rock sounding metal hardcore mix that although could be slightly more polished, has all the trappings of a dare I say it, a classic album.
7) The Anomalies Of Artificial Origin - Abominable Putridity
I love slam metal but I absolutely hate the childish/OTT gore/porn side that some bands rely on either to create shocks or to reflect some deep issues their struggling with (i.e why will no girls talk to them or why does their band not have any tourdates and 6 listeners on last.fm) that's why I love Abominable Putridity, they have all that crazy super high detail artwork of people being mangled but their lyrics are something more than just killing women, TAOAO has what I presume is a space theme (which I love, check the lyrics to wormhole inversion) and by keeping away from goofy cartoon descriptions of violence and focussing on having some high-quality produced slams which means that this album isn't just a novelty listen, it could be one of my favorite albums of the genre ever, not just of this year.
6) Witchcult/Drainland Split
The UK Southcoast Powerviolence Crew teamed up with Irish noisemongers Drainland to release a split-tape early this year and it was intense. Spanning around 9 minutes both bands proved different things, firstly that Drainland managed to top their release last year with Trenches by making their side of the split this year even more noisey and manic and secondly that Witch Cult aren't a one trick pony and made something completely different but familar for the split with their side blitzing through 5 minutes of noisey dischordant PV but in a way that feels they were aiming to improve greatly (What they have) since their release last year with Holy Roar.
5) Koloss - Meshuggah
Everyone knows what the deal is with Meshuggah, that they are one of the tightest bands to watch perform live (they've had a years to practice mind) and that all their albums are either incredible (obzen) or pretty naff (catch 33) but the release of Koloss this year marked a return to that incredible Meshuggah formula that makes Koloss not ground-breaking but just really really bloody good, there's not really a word to describe it apart from Meshuggah-ery (a good adjective for something that is heavy, but groovy and also too complex to fathom)
4) Reign Supreme - Dying Fetus
The dark lords of brutal death metal return to show all the young pretenders who is still top dog even after 10 years or so of being around when Reign Supreme dropped the entire world stopped for around 30 minutes to wrap their heads around what was happening. Dying Fetus' 2012 release featured a return to the spine-mangling guitar tones and drumwork that made their previous two outputs so notable and improved them about 10 fold to give some of the crispest production I have heard on a death metal album in ages. Although it may upset some of the people who look back on songs like "kill your mother rape your dog" with fond warm memories, I think that new Dying Fetus has been some of the best Dying Fetus ever.
3) Shellfire! - Water Torture
Powerviolence when done well can leave you breathless with your mind swimming around trying to figure what the hell it just listened to and why was it so short yet so engaging and for this reason that's why Shellfire! gets the coverted top 3 spot at the end of my list. From start to finish you have to keep your hands firmly on your face to stop it being flailed off by the deathly combo of drums too fast to fathom and guitar tones that sound like they were recorded in a shed being set on fire. If you don't believe me, just listen to the song Complete Collapse and it's follow up song Confine and try to not get the smell of burning flesh in your nostrils as your brain slowly melts away.
2) Book Burner - Pig Destroyer
The one thing that appeals to me most about Pig Destroyer is that every album is different in one way or another, from the almost death-metally crazy spasmodicness of Stalker In The Yard all the way through to more recent outputs like Phantom Limb everything is different on the albums that preceed it and after a 5 year wait Book Burner was released and much like the albums name sake the Pig Destroyer book of ideas was ripped up and burnt and started again and we were presented with a whole new sounding album with some of the classic elements of PD with a new twist. Songs like Iron Drunk and Valley Of Geysers particularly stand out to me but even the later songs like Kings Of Clubs and Permanant Funeral still maintain their uniqueness even after the 14 tracks before them have blistered through it's 32.30min runtime. Pig Destroyer came back and blew everyone away but kept to what they know best and for that you have a solid album that's worthy of it's #2 position in this list.
1) Monolith Of Inhumanity - Cattle Decapitation
Apprahension was the only word on my mind when vegan grind madmen Cattle Decapitation announced they were releasing a new album after 3 years of being away touring on the incredibly strong "From The Harvest Floor" which had blown me away previously. So when Monolith Of Inhumanity was released in the middle of the summer I was nervous, then cautious, then excited as I scurried it home from HMV to give it a loud blast through my speakers (the only way to enjoy CD I might add) and what laid before me was 11 tracks of classic Cattle Decapitation but with something that was completely different as it became apparent that the 3 years away from album writing had meant they had come back with a new fresh look on their sound and had polished and renewed it so that they kept all the nuts and bolts of their strongest musical elements and given them a new lease of life. Standout songs like "Forced Gender Reassignment" which starts in the way that being buried alive by bricks would sound like and "Lifestalker" which gently lures you in before bashing your mind to goo with it's flurry of guitar sweeps, Monolith Of Inhumanity isn't just another grind album or another CD album about man's self imposed claim at the top of the foodchain it's a retrospective look at all the past work, handpicking the best bits from everything they have released and putting it on one album, people could percieve it as uninteresting or just more of the same offering from a band whose discography spans back to 1997 but much like numbers 10, 5 and 2 in this list, it's a mark of a new older but more reinvigorated band who could easily break up and leave this as a high note in their back catalogue.
The Four Honorable Mentions:
- Yellow/Green - Baroness the riff wizards return once more to shock and astound you with their blend of high tech riffs and intricate drumwork
- No Absolutes In Human Suffering - Gaza same old gaza with a new twist, blistering, heavy, spooky and doomy.
- Tahoma - Alda black metal is normally really boring but Alda have combined that with some ethereal canadian forest themes to make a super atmospheric sounding album which is great for quiet nights in with some candles and a battleaxe.
- Superstar - Battle For Paris not really a metal band but their brand of polyrhymic madness reminded me of rolo tomassi before they got too boring and for that i congratulate BFP for being different enough to still invoke memories of a happier time in janglecore.
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