NAPALM DEATH - Utilitarian (love it!)
VINDICATOR - United We Fall
KREATOR - Phantom Antichrist is cool too.

A the first listen, Icarus from DEW SCENTED disappoint me...

I'm waiting for the new TESTAMENT, new GRAVE and can't fucking wait for the new VIOLATOR!

I'm well behind on 2012 releases. So far i've listened to

Curse by Wodensthrone
Emerald Forest.... by Swallow the Sun
Stealth by Sleep Research Facility
Koloss by Meshuggah
Al Azif by The Great Old Ones
Elephant Sausage by Gojira
Eternal Turn.... by Drudkh
Unstille by Der Weg Einer Freiheit
Drought by Deathspell Omega
Of Breath.... by Be'lakor
Les Voyages.... by Alcest

My favourites are probably 'Unstille', 'Drought' aaaaaand 'Koloss' was ok.

Anything along those lines i should check out? Cheers.

Good to hear i'm not the only one that found 3 Inches Of Blood their last album quite dull, i did dig all their other efforts, but the latest once seems pretty uninspired... Just listened to the new Testament album, overall pretty good but i like Formation Of Damnation a bit more, probably because FoD is way more coherent, there's just a lot of different things going on Dark Roots Of Earth, a bit too overwhelming if you ask me, still needs some more listens to make a definitive conclusion about it.

Oh boy did I laugh when I realized what you meant.

Checking out Unstille right now and it's pretty fucking good. I like black metal the most whith a lot of melancholy, sadness, despair etc. thrown in. Creating an epic atmosphere without turning into bombast and or losing agressiveness. Especially the more mid-paced sections are really up my sleeve. Could be one of the keepers for this year.

Haha. Yeah i forgot how to spell it 'L'Enfant Sauvage', but i remember 'Elephant Sausage' which was doing the rounds on Last.fm for a while, so lazily used that.



For sure man! Glad you like it. I did prefer their EP 'Agonie', but i really love the sound on 'Unstille', it will be right up there for my favourite in 2012 i think.

Evoken's Atra Mors got released yesterday. Anyone checked it out? From the reviews I've been reading, they're touting it to the be one of the best this year. Can't wait to get my hands on this.

Uh, Of Breath And Bone, hello? Haha. Seriously, I did not think it possible for Be'lakor to so thoroughly top Stone's Reach, but they sure did.

BAN's Liber II has leaked, for those who are interested. I know lord_ghengis is.

God damn, new Evoken and BAN, my internet better not get capped before I acquire them. Basically haven't been excited for any new music for a couple of months and now its all pouring in.

Hmm, new Evoken didn't impress me as much as I thought it would. BAN's new one did though; slightly surpassed my expectations in fact.

That's sad, because I loved the two teaser tracks. Although I admit the reviews I've seen loving it have been just awful and free of any sort of insight.

The teaser tracks were "Descent Into Chaotic Dream" and "An Extrinsic Divide", am I right? If so, then those were indeed probably the best tracks of the album. But take my opinion with a grain of salt; I was really sleepy when listening to it lol. I need to relisten to it asap.

Yeah, the first one for sure, the second one rings a bell, I suck at song names. My internet tends to be borderline useless between 6 and 10pm for some reason, plus I'm very close to getting capped, hopefully it all starts downloading smoothly for me soon, because the anticipation is killing me.

Edit: Only have the first song so far, but I admit the 5 minute intro doesn't exactly put me in the mood for an hour long album, but the song totally fucking rules from about the six minute mark onwards, quite a lot of non funeral doomy stuff, but they've always had a bunch of non FD ideas.

I liked Elderoth's debut album. They're a new band from Montreal, Canada. These guys sounds like a mix of Wintersun/Sonata Arctica and Castlevania all at once. It's interesting.

Aren't Evoken like the only FD band to ever use blastbeats (on In Solitary Ruin)? That alone makes them stand out to me.

Nah, Esoteric use them on pretty much every album too.

Funny enough, that happened to me on my first listen. I got to about the 4th track and started dozing off. I'll have to re-listen again when I get some spare time later this week. Seemed decent from what I stayed awake for, but I have a pretty foggy memory of it, haha.

I'm getting a lot of Mournful Congregation out of it actually, same use of long slow leads. It's certainly good, but not as fully Evoken(tm) as usual.

Based on one listen so far, I'm not crazy about it. They seem to have sacrificed a lot of elements that made them stand out. While listening, I wondered when it would end, not a good sign.

I liked "Carolus Rex" by Sabaton, overall a very solid album

"Into The Lair Of The Sun God" by Dawnbringer, very good but the first track is the only song that really stands out as something special.

"Awakening" by Horse Latitudes, It was good but Ive only listened to it once I need to listen to it more to relly get an idea of what I think of it. Its really slow crushing doom metal.

"Land of the Crimson Dawn by" Freedom Call, silly but had some decent songs. again need to listen to it some more.

This is loosely my top 10 so far:

1. Pandaemonium - "The Last Prayer"
2. Pharaoh - "Bury The Light"
3. Lord Wind - "Ales Stenar"
4. Sabaton - "Corolus Rex"
5. Dawnbringer - "Into The Lair Of The Sun God"
6. Anhedonist - "Netherwards"
7. Horse Latitudes - "Awakening"
8. Lethian Dreams - "Season of Raven Words"
9 .Luca Turilli's Rhapsody - "Ascending To Infinity"
10. Either: Freedom Call's or Baroness "Yellow" half of their double album.

Good choices, Animator. Pharaoh, Lord Wind, and Anhedonist released some of my favorite albums this year.

If you liked Anhedonist you might want to check out Horse Latitudes if you haven't already, the vocals are clean as apposed to the death growls of Anhedonist but its a bit heavier sounding and slower
Their bandcamp:
http://horselatitudes.bandcamp.com/

I'll listen tomorrow. Thanks for the rec!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL4g9jGnYKE
Angelus Apatrida, thrash from Spain. A bit more "modern" sounding than Violator, Evile, and all their ilk, but still really good.

I've been enjoying Windhand, Pallbearer, and Superchrist's newest records quite a bit.

Windhand - s/t
windhandva.bandcamp.com

Superchrist - Holy Shit
http://hellsheadbangers.bandcamp.com/album/holy-shit/

Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction
http://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com ... extinction

Update: I decided Baroness holds the tenth place on my list.
After listening to Freedom Call again I decided the bad outweighed the good. Its about 30% decent power metal and 70% Word Of Warcraft playing party rock circle jerk. This is the only Freedom Call album I have but I assume they probably had a good album or two in the past. This one just really comes off as a metal band trying to be annoying pop stars.

*edit:

Oh yeah and I misread the lyrics on their song Power & Glory as: "happy meal party" at first instead of "happy metal party". Now I'm picturing the McDonald's characters in a Hevisaurus style children's band.

Got another listen in to the new Evoken (awake this time) and I have to agree with the above points. It just doesn't quite have the same feeling as their older work and I can definitely see where one might make comparisons with the likes of M.C. Still solid, nonetheless.

Found a new Khors song online today and was rather impressed with it. It seems they've gone in a bit of a new direction that sounds halfway between Return To Abandoned and a more spacey, ambience akin to the likes of Walknut. I see Helg has abandoned the growls for the more typical black metal vocals they had with their older stuff which is kinda lame, but regardless I think I'll be enjoying this full release.

EDIT: I just noticed the track listing for the new Khors contains like, 4 interludes. I hope they aren't going for some half-assed, "let's just throw a bunch of lazy synth passages in between the songs because fuck the police" approach. Oh well, we'll see how it plays out. Can't see this topping their last, however.

Hmm, Evoken do give me a bit of a MC vibe, but they're far more death-oriented methinks. They've got a few dark chugging parts here and there, which are probably my favourite moments of the album. Well, all in all, an almost great album, but not spectacular. I definitely prefer Antithesis of Light, even if only for In Solitary Ruin (the best song they've ever done IMO).

Anything along those lines i should check out? Cheers.[/quote]

Checking out Unstille right now and it's pretty fucking good. I like black metal the most whith a lot of melancholy, sadness, despair etc. thrown in. Creating an epic atmosphere without turning into bombast and or losing agressiveness. Especially the more mid-paced sections are really up my sleeve. Could be one of the keepers for this year.[/quote]

I agree! Ive been getting into a few black metal albums in that kinda vein! Their are tons of Canadian bands that are owning that meloncholic mid-paced ambient melodic black metal sound!

I agree, the lasted Freedom Call has some nice rollicking power metal moments but there is way to much rock star bullshit. They used to be good, Eternity is a nice album. They got me with the track 'Return to the Land of Light' which turns out to be not half as good as the original 'Land of Light'.

I haven't listened to much from this years so far but the best is either Luca Turilli's Rhapsody or Reinxeed (power metal is law). The Reinxeed is their best yet which is saying a lot because their previous 2 were also killers. Lots of fucking catchy as fuck choruses on that one, especially the song about Back to the Future.

The new Turilli is also really good, I was worried that he'd add to many techno-garbage elements but they are thankfully absent. Way better than his last few solo works, also better than the last few Rhapsody albums. He still has the biggest ego aside from Joey DeMaio though.

The new Luca Turilli is awful, and ReinXeed are fun, but what I've heard from em wasn't great - albeit never a full album. It just sounds like a rather dated rehash of an old sound with too much self conscious imitating, without the real spirit. But I do like it well enough to possibly hear the full thing in the future.

Just a heads up if you dont already know about them, Trick Or Treat have a new album coming out some time this year called “RABBITS’ HILL Part 1”. Its the same vocalist from L.T.'s Rhapsody and if the it's as good as their previous albums there is a chance it could replace "The Last Prayer" as my favorite album of the year.


*edit
Oh, and good about Reinxeed I ordered it but haven't got it yet.

God, I despise ReinXeed. They're a total hack job and bring zero ideas to the table. I could barely suffer through their entire new album. Awful, awful stuff; generic power metal at its (near) worst. Black Majesty's album was decent at least, even if I couldn't quite get into the hype for that.

If by decent you mean AWESOME, then yes.

i gotta say that the album by levitation hex has to be one of the best things i have ever heard imo, and the new a million dead birds laughing album is great too

Yeah Black Majesty's effort was better than their last couple, and its at least a little bit riffy instead of the total euro style wastes they've been doing of late, still not as good as the early stuff.

I think the early stuff was more unique sound-wise and they had a more convincing atmosphere, but these days they just sound like a more experienced band, and their last two albums have both ruled. Stargazer is one of the best PM albums of the year I think.

Horrendous - the chills. Only album I can think of at the moment. I guess the timeghoul reissue. If that counts.

The Levitation Hex is indeed awesome, it's definitely a lot better then the final Alchemist album (Tripsis) but I don't think it's going to beat Austral Alien and Organasm. Time will tell though, I have only listened to the album once so far.