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Time for a big post since it's the middle of the year. I'm doing it a little bit early due to computer issues making it unlikely I'll be able make a post this long when the end of the month finally comes around, it's all pretty self explanatory. 2012 got off to a slow start, I didn't even find anything worth putting on a best of list til mid March, but since then there has been a nice enough flow of great releases popping up on my radar. Still not as good of a start as 2012 was overall, but good enough. I've got a top 10 after 6 months, which is something that doesn't happen often. I will say that the absolutely top tier stuff which was lacking last year (Other than Esoteric) is here which is a good thing though. I'm a bit surprised that death metal is doing as it well as it is, the last couple of years the whole OSDM thing has been feeling like it's run it's course and only really gives two or three rippers per year, as of right now there's already been several excellent death metal albums, with bands like Hour of Penance, Cattle Decapitation, Allegaeon, Desultor, Shroud of the Heretic, Asphyx and Aborted only a short ways beneath being good enough for my list, HoP probably only missing out because of some personal arrogance towards to the style and sound and the similarity to the albums prior to it. Sadly nothing is really giving that "Wow I've never heard this before!" vibe, like Mitochondrion did last year, but hey, the top three here are all worth 94%+ in my eyes, so why fix what ain't broke.
Best
10. Candlemass - Psalms For the Dead
A huge improvement of the boring DMD, has a lot more, how can I put it, "tasteful cheese", in the form of power metal vibes, silly castle theme keyboards, overzealous soloing, silly poetry etc, which actually give the whole thing a bit of charm and flair to the doomy affair. Doesn't pack the same weighty wallop of KotGI, and still has the lame lyrics of DMD, so it isn't their best Lowe album, but it's very good and solid all the way through which is something that I can't say about KotGI even.
9. Acephalix - Deathless Master
In some ways I am a very simple man, and Acephalix proves that because holy shit I love this when it's going. This is pretty straight forward OSDM with nice thick crunchy riffs with a slight punky twist and excellent distant echoing vocals, all driven into the realm of magnificence by simply slamming a shit load of D beats under it. Vomitory do it, Bastard Priest do it, these guys do it but probably function on a slightly higher level than those guys with a few really cool Finn-styled leads and a bit more of a morbid atmosphere rather than just being headbangable as fuck like those bands. But for all that, this is one the best albums I've heard this year because it's headbangable as fuck. One issue that has shown up after a couple of months of listening is that there isn't really enough crust here, that is by far the bands biggest draw card, and things get a little bit too in line with traditional styled death metal through the middle.
8. Pseudogod - deathwomb Catechesis
Simple minded, one dimensional, uninventive, all true statements, but who fucking cares because this has to be close the most destructive thing ever made. Much like Blasphemophagher's take on war metal, these guys take high speed black/death (while there are some war metal elements, it doesn't go that far) and ignore the whole "should be raw" thing, and give it the most massively violent sound you can imagine, topped off with the densest most dominating vocal production I've ever heard. I genuinely can't say that these guys have really done too much new or amazing with their music in terms of notes played or songs written, but the sound is perfect and this is just too dominant not to praise.
7. Embrional - Absolutely Anti-Human Behavior.
Old school, occassionally brutal, occassionally techy, occassionally trem based, always fun as hell death metal with a good production which I find is a nice balance between OSDM and the new, mostly in the vein of Immolation while still being mixed up enough to be derivative. This isn't as muddy as the old stuff or a lot of small label new OSDM bands, but doesn't lose any balls or death metal cred from it's increased listenablity.
6. Mgla - With Hearts Toward None
This has a very simple formula of tremolo riffs with some nice big melodic hooks engrained in them over mid tempo drum work and good lower ranged vocals in the style of Mikko Aspa of DsO, 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 and is really the main blemish of this one.
5. Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron
Not as good as many of the albums on the list overall, but the last four tracks make this one worth a spot praising it specifically. Basically this starts out as one of the more overt later DsO worship albums around, lots of disonnance, low register vocals, jangly sort of stuff interspersed by super fast hectic technical black metal. It's competent, not as good as the original, but it's a bit more direct and will hold attention a little better than some of DsO's lumbering compositions, but overall, not overly important stuff, then comes Descending Jacob's Ladder, a horrific interlude type track which nails a level of terror and nastiness that is pretty much unmatched in the stlye. This is followed by the three part View from Hverfell which is more melodic, while still retaining that DsO sort of production and a bit of the weirdness, but the way it is presented is wholely unique. It's this last half hour that makes Decahedron's debut something that cannot be missed, pity about the derivitive start.
4. Anhedonist - Netherwards
Heavy as hell death/doom with excellent slabs of death metal and mellower atmosphere to break up the crushing misery. The doom is most reminicent of Ophis, diSEMBOWELMENT, and a sped up Ahab, the atmospherics are pretty much Ahab through and through, and the death metal is similar to Disma and again, diSEMBOWELMENT. Stupid heavy, great riffs, solid vocal work, it's a gem.
3. Pharaoh - Bury the Light
Excellent power metal, which I guess I'd put in the same kind of boat as the last Charred Walls of the Damned album, it has enough really heavy and really fast parts to keep this from being flowery and keep me entertained, but in the end it's the quality of the gruff yet epic vocals of Aymar, the extremely intricate guitar work in every riff, and the magnificent hooks and melodies that really make this album a winner.
2. Undergang - Til Døden os Skiller
Backing up the high speed excellence of my number one pick is Denmark's Undergang bringing us, in both the most simple and most complex way possible of putting it, the most stupidly crushing mid paced DM you can imagine. Like Slugathor these guys are sheer weight incarnate, but this is more old school in sound and riffing style overall than that band. It's heavy as shit, it's riffy as hell, that's as much detail as I can really give.
1. Ignivomous - Contragensis
Anyone who has heard these guys' debut or demos would be aware of the riffing chops these guys have, and the new album certainly lives up to it's predecessor in that regard. Again, it's very much fast Incantation with less and shorter slow parts, but the quality of the riffs and the sheer viciousness of the constant high speed swirling blast beating assault all come together to make this stand out from the other bands which don't throw much in the way originality at us from the modern OSDM scene. The production is a bit clearer and nicer on the ears than last time too, so that's another big plus. Riffs. Just riffs. All of them. Yes.
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Surprises
Abigail Williams - Becoming.
Notoriously shitty deathcore band becomes notoriously shitty Emperor worship band becomes surprisingly passable drawn out minimalist black metal band. Easy to listen to with nice sound and solid riffing.
Aborted - Global Flatline
I had only heard the last two borderline deathcore failures but this goes close to kicking ass, lots of energy, awesome soloing, as far as modern production goes a brilliant sound, lots of variation in music and vocals, but sadly it brings fuck all to the riffing department, with the guitars simply churning out masses of energetic but indescript dadadadadadada stuff. Cattle Decapitation kind of handed this thing it's ass in this sort of high speed, high production, yellow cover violent death metal thing though,
Ahab - The Giant
This is pretty much exactly what I had feared it would be, but I still quite like it. It's mostly soft, it's at least 80% cleans, even on a lot of the heavy stuff, said heavy stuff is brief when it does appear, but I like it. The melodies are suitably aquatic, and it's a fair bit less psychedelic and meandering than last time, mercifully giving these songs some sense of movement. Not a classic, but it's worthwhile.
Ea - Ea
I've never really cared for these guys outside of their excellent debut, but this effort is pretty damn solid. Doesn't live up to their one classic, but it is one of the stronger entries into the flailing funeral doom genre this year. There is a surprise in the middle with is pretty unexpected for this band, and is a welcome touch.
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Disappointments
Alcest - Les Voyages De L'Âme
Boring as watching grass grow. None of the overt hookiness of the previous album, and lacks the simple childish beauty of the first, this just twangs away on a loose chord over and over while pedophiles hum sweetly over it. Very freaking boring and devoid of substance.
The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet
TMV are extremely hit and miss for me, with the debut and last albums being the only albums I've really liked, but both of those albums are among my favourite non-metal albums, so I was eager to see what they did here. There are some ok songs on here like Dyslexicon, but some really, really horrible ones too. The most striking thing is that this album is probbaly the first one of their that just feels like a collection of songs rather than a cohesive album.
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As an extra aside, I'd like to draw attention to a couple of freaking excellent EP's put out thus far into the year. I don't usually put EP's (Or splits for that matter [Sorry Undergang, the brilliance of your split track can't make up for a disappointing Funebrarum one and a 10 minute run tome])into my end of year lists simply due to the usual lack of length to them, but a couple have been put on there if they were 10 minutes longer. Inverloch and Deathspell Omega's EP's are both fantastic, Inverloch obviously sound like diSEMBOWELMENT and the music offered up is absolutely stunning. There is like 4 minutes of absolute silence in that 21 minute run time though. DsO pretty much shit all over everything I praised Dodecahedron for, it's songy, it doesn't meander, it's got some fresh melody, and most importantly it's musically brilliant. Check them both out if you haven't.
Well that's the first half of 2012 in my eyes, pretty damn fantastic, probably not quite as good as 2011 just yet, due to that year simply having a higher number of great releases, while a larger portion of this year is more "good" or "passable", not too many total duds. Currently the total breakdown of albums I've heard is: 10 worthy of being on the list, 18 quite good, 13 get a passing mark, and 17 I actively dislike to hate. Not a bad ratio by my standards to be honest.
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Naamath wrote: No comments, no words need it, no BM, no compromise, only grains in her face.
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