High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis
Beyond Terror Beyond Grace - Nadir
Mgla - With Hearts Towards None
Pharaoh - Bury the Light

De Vermis Mysteriis is practically flawless. Nadir is an amazing death/black album in the vein of Ulcerate. With Hearts Towards None is a very very good record, the drum work really stands out to me with some of the accenting going on. Bury the Light is a great power/heavy album, Aymar smokes.

http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=2004

All right, I'm now up to 120 albums on my 2012 list. Any major ones missing?

That's insane. Do you listen to music 24/7?

Haha, pretty much.

I've actually slowed down a bit and gotten behind recently, though.

Asphyx -Deathhamer
Chrisitan Mistress - Possession
Desaster - The Arts of Destruction
Descravity - Implicit Obedience (definitely an excellent brutal death metal debut from Japan)
Hour of Penance - Sedition
Soen - Cognitive Web
Swallow the Sun - Emerald Forest and the Blackbird
Undergang -Til Døden os Skiller
Xandria - Neverworld's End (new album is a reminiscence of early Nightwish, Tarja era)

The only album I have in my top 5 which you don't have is Embrional's absolutely anti human behaviors . I seem to like it more than other reviwers, and our taste in dm seems to be very,very different but I think its a ripper. Also you think Undergang sounds like Incantation at all?

Yeah, I've been meaning to get that one and totally forgot about it. Thanks!

And as for the Undergang question, I don't necessarily think it sounds exactly like Incantation; I could just see fans of the band enjoying them, so I thought to include a loose recommendation. Undergang's rawer and generally faster in my opinion, though.

Your taste differs greatly from mine, haha. Nonetheless, I'll be sure to check some of these out.

As hoped, Anhedonist's Netherwards is excellent. Dirty, heavy, the death metal bits are extremely cool and mix things up well on more than just a superficial level. Androdion's comparisons to Ahab are pretty good, imagine Ahab's debut if it were quite a bit faster and had more thrills in it, plus the death metal, which is just weighty as hell, reminding me of a rawer take on last years Disma. It isn't as good as Ignivomous, Undergang or Pharaoh for mind, but it is definitely a great album.

And while this post is mostly about Anhedonist, the first song aside, Mgla's With Hearts Toward None is fantastic, fuck that first song is dull though. Really a very simple formula of big melodic tremolo riffs over mid tempo drum work and good lower ranged vocals, but it works very nicely. Not particularly forward thinking, but the open and clear production makes this sound like more than just an early 90's rehash. The first song doesn't have the nice big melodic hook though, it's just mid paced trem riffs and plodding drum work.

Edit: Also, I'm like 45 seconds into Acephalix's Deathless Master, and if there is one thing Vomitory and Bastard Priest have told me, it's that I fucking love death metal + D beats, this is a confirmation right here. Get on it.

New Meshuggah is quite interesting and I would definitely recommend it

Ok, so I've totally finished Acephalix now, I love it, best thing I've heard all year on first listen. Very simple, but god damn, I haven't found anything so straight forwardly headbangable and addictive since Vomitory's Revalation Nausea, and I think it beats out that album for atmosphere, although it is still slightly less cranium destroying.

haven't listened to many albums from this year but my copy of Bloodshot Dawn's s/t debut came in the mail today. On my second listen now, and I love what I'm hearing so far. Shit loads of lead work, technical drumming, lots of hooks, etc. The only lame part about it is the vocals. They sound a little out of place with the music. More traditional death growls would've been better suited imo.

Well damn, I'm gonna use this as a guide.

I would place Angel Witch a bit higher and Alcest would be in my top five. I totally agree with Lacuna Coil and Adrenaline Mob, what loads of shit.

Jesus Christ, dude.

finally got to listen to the entire Anhedonist album, and.... wow. love it. it's jumped up to the top of my best of. i've only listened to it a couple times all the way through so it hasn't completely sunk in yet, but i'm pretty confident it will remain my favorite.

my top 5

1. Anhedonist - Netherwards
2. Charon - Sulphur Seraph (i've only seen this album mentioned a few times, more people should check this out, slightly better than Contragenesis imo)
3. Ignivomous - Contragenesis (why isn't this album on their Metal Archives page?)
4. Undergang - Til Døden Os Skiller
5. Horrendous - The Chills

some EP's that are honorable mentions: Inverloch - Dusk | Subside, Muknal - Muknal, and Hesper Payne - The Strange Tale of Samuel Gonzalez.

Abominable Putridity - Anomalies of Artificial Origin
Aborted - Global Flatline
Meshuggah - Koloss
Naglfar - Teras

The new Jeff Loomis album is good, been listening to that a lot lately. Reminds of me the James Murphy solo records.

Surely you jest.

It's allright, but it's a massive dip in quality from his first.

Lanfear, Lyriel, Lunatic Gods, Master's Hammer, and Evenoire I enjoyed.

Cool list, it's missing the new Lunar Aurora though. Check that one out, it's excellent.

Haha, it's not mind blowing or anything but I do enjoy it. I've always liked his work in Nevermore and it helps that I didn't pay anything for the copy I got from CM.

Just checked out the new Pallbearer. I din't really like their demo, but on first listen the album sounded pretty awesome. Just a great doom release. I'm loving the Anhedonist album. Truly crushing stuff. Black Pyramid's sophomore is the only other 2012 album that I've heard and liked that I can think of off the top of my head. Not as good as their debut, but still really awesome stoner doom. Looking forward to the new Neurosis and Naam.

I'm the opposite with Pallbearer, I liked the demo well enough but found their album to be some of the most boring stuff I've ever heard.

I think it has enough good stuff to be better than a lot of boring as shit popular doom, but it still has huge periods of time where nothing bloody happens for like 6 tedious minutes

New Vomitor and Anatomia will be pretty special i think.

Sabazius' The Watchers EP (though it's actually over an hour long) is some damn fine drone/doom. There are like 10 riffs on that album at most, but it's addicting as fuck.

Listening to the new Vesperian Sorrow right now. I'll be writing a review for Global Domination but the first listen is just to sit back and enjoy. Goddamn is it good.

Huge, pompous, grandiose symphonic black metal with plenty of guitar melody and some death metal percussiveness. I know a lot of people categorically dislike stuff like that on here but I love it. I need to pick up that last Opera IX and I'm betting on Carach Angren to knock it out of the park.

Pretty nice list. Have you tried Ketzer's Endzeit Metropolis yet?

Wow, Metal_Detector, thats a crazy list. I've only heard about 15 metal albums so far. Personally disagree with a lot of your choices, though. I love the new Worm Ouroboros album, and although I thought the Horrendous album is pretty good, I wouldn't put it near the top of my list. Interesting list though, saw a lot of bands that I didn't even know had new releases.

Great album as well, was on my top list until I heard Burzum's Umskiptar.

All right, thanks for all the responses and suggestions, guys. Will get to them when life gets less hectic.

geeze dude, stop slacking so much

lots of enjoyable stuff this year, most has been covered already.

I'm going to guess that no, no surely he doesn't.
I like it as well, good times...

The track with Ihsahn seemed alright to me, pretty much exactly what you would expect. Haven't heard the rest.

Torture- Cannibal Corpse

Hated the new Jeff Loomis cd aside from the Ihsahn track. But then again what did I expect, it's just a wankfest and nothing more... probably good as an audio test cd for venue sound. That's about it.

New Acephalix is fucking killer though and Paradise Lost's Tragic Idol is their best album since Icon imo.

Hooray someone else mentioned Acephalix

I must say I'm really impressed with Dodsengel's Imperator. I was initially daunted by the 2 hour + running time, but it's actually a great refinement of their sound, and a really worthwhile listen, especially the first disc.

Damn, I had forgot about the new Dødsengel. Their other material is stellar, so out record hunting I go...

This year's been great this far with top notch releases all around the place. I'll have to mention Mgła's full-length. Love all their earlier stuff, and this one is no exception.