GMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 2012

1. Hades Archer - The Curse Over Mankind
2. Faustcoven - Hellfire and Funeral Bells
3. Bölzer - Roman Acupuncture
4. Deathhammer - Onward to the Pits
5. Kaevum - Natur
6. Resurgency - False Enlightenment
7. Ataraxy - Revelations of the Ethereal
8. Horrendous - The Chills
9. Incantation - Vanquish in Vengeance
10. Antedlluvian - λόγος
 
1. Ash Borer- Cold of Ages
2. Ne Obliviscaris- Portal of I
3. Furia- Marzannie, Krolowej Polski
4. Dying Fetus- Reign Supreme
5. Galneryus- Angel of Salvation
6. Enslaved- RIITIIR
7. Winterfylleth- The Threnody of Triumph
8. Panopticon- Kentucky
9. Cattle Decapitation- Monolith to Inhumanity
10. Ihashn- Eremita

Honorable mentions:
Fauna- Avifauna
Mgla- With Hearts Towards None
Incantation- Vanquish in Vengeance
Laster- Wijsgeer & Narreman
Flesh Cathedral- Svartidaudi
 
1. Panopticon - Kentucky
2. Dordeduh - Dar de duh
3. Árstíðir Lifsins - Vápna lækjar eldr
4. Elderwind - Волшебство живой природы
5. A Forest of Stars - A Shadowplay for Yesterdays
6. Faustcoven - Hellfire and Funeral Bells
7. Wrathprayer - The Sun of Moloch: The Sublimation of Sulphur's Essence Which Spawned Death and Life
8. Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma
9. Derkéta - In Death We Meet
10. Horrendous - The Chills
 
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Simplified Results:

1st. Pallbearer - Sorrows and Extinction (26 points)

Genre: Doom Metal
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2nd. Hexen - Being and Nothingness (25 points)

Genre: Prog/Thrash Metal
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3rd. Panopticon - Kentucky (20 points)

Genre: Atmospheric Black/Folk Metal
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4th. Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I (19 points)

Genre: Progressive Metal
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5th. Faustcoven - Hellfire and Funeral Bells (18 points)

Genre: Black/Doom Metal
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Tied for 6th. Black Breath - Sentenced to Life (17 points)

Genre: Crust/Crossover Death/Thrash
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Tied for 6th. Dying Fetus - Reign Supreme (17 points)

Genre: Brutal Death Metal
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Tied for 6th. Spawn of Possession - Incurso (17 points)

Genre: Technical Death Metal
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Tied for 9th. Orange Goblin - A Eulogy For The Damned (16 points)

Genre: Stoner Metal
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Tied for 9th. Kreator - Phantom Antichrist (16 points)

Genre: Thrash Metal
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No quotes, no individual posts for each album, no tags (you know what you voted for). Can't be bothered and the turnout makes it not really seem worth the effort. Personally happy about the top 3 here though, good shit.

Next we're doing 2015 and then I guess we're done, unless we want to dip into 70's metal? Up to you cunts.
 
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1. Inanna - Transfigured in a Thousand Delusions
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2. Horrendous - The Chills
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3. Necrovation - S/T
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4. Nekromantheon - Rise, Vulcan Spectre
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5. Hellbringer - Domion of Darkness
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6. Overkill - The Electric Age
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7. Angel Witch - As Above, So Below
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8. Grave - Endless Procession of Souls
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9. Skeletal Remains - Beyond the Flesh
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10. Master - The New Elite
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1. Denial of God - Death and the Beyond
Favourite song: "Behind the Coffin's Lid"

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2. Deathhammer - Onward to the Pits
Favourite song: "Seduced by the Flames"

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3. Skullhog - The Evil Dead
Favourite song: "Tusks of Gore"

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4. Diskord - Dystopics
Favourite song: "Rambling Words from a Sore Throat"

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5. Your Kid's on Fire - Chainsaw Devil
Favourite song: "Cannibal Ferox"

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6. Christian Mistress - Possession
Favourite song: "There is Nowhere"

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7. Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma
Favourite song: "Into the Gates of Time"

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8. Derkéta - In Death We Meet
Favourite song: "Rest in Peace"

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9. Undergang - Til døden os skiller
Favourite song: "Orme Orgie"

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10. Church of Misery - Minstrel of Mourning
Favourite song: "Despair (At the Cemetery Gates)"
 
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01. Dragonforce - The Power Within
Favorite song: "Wings of Liberty"

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02. Dragony - Legends
Favorite song: "Alcador"

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03. Sabaton - Carolus Rex
Favorite song: "Lejonet från Norden"

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04. Trick or Treat - Rabbits' Hill Pt. 1
Favorite song: "Rabbits' Hill"

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05. Freedom Call - Land of the Crimson Dawn
Favorite song: "Back into the Land of Light"

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06. Dawn of Destiny - Praying to the World
Favorite song: "Miracles"

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07. Last Kingdom - Chronicles of the North
Favorite song: "Chronicles of the North"

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08. ReinXeed - Welcome to the Theater
Favorite song: "Temple of the Crystal Skulls"

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09. Ascension - Far Beyond the Stars
Favorite song: "Somewhere Back in Time"

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10. Unisonic - Unisonic
Favorite song: "We Rise"
 
1. Necroripper - Necrometal

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2. Desecresy - The Doom Skeptron

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3. Coffin Texts - The Tomb of Infinite Ritual

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4. Faustcoven - Hellfire and Funeral Bells

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5. Hades Archer - The Curse Over Mankind

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6. Avenger - Bohemian Dark Metal

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7. Resurgency - False Enlightenment

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8. Gorephilia - Embodiment of Death

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9. Necrovation - Necrovation

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10. Deathhammer - Onward to the Pits

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Top Ten Metal Releases of 2012
10. Over Your Threshold - Facticity
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this is a 3.75 star album, which is to say it isn't really worthy of an end of year list, but this is one of shittest years in metal history and despite burrowing deep into the 2012 weeds i'm just not that enamoured with the other candidates either. i'd recommend it to those who fuck with clean, fluid tech death with great performances and off-kilter riffs galore. could just as easily have chosen altar of oblivion or testimony instead, or filipino prog-power band lavos beckon if only because they had a (merely decent) song based on the claymore animé/manga and that probably gave me the biggest rush of excitement of anything i discovered from this year.

9.
Necrovation - Necrovation
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90% of the time when a savage death metal band goes cerebral they end up sacrificing the riffs and spirit, but these guys did progressive evolution the right way and came up with something classy and adventurous while remaining crushingly heavy and sinister. i'm not sure it ever hits truly great heights but it's almost always doing something cool or surprising.

8.
Thy Darkened Shade - Eternvs Mos, Nex Ritvs
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speaking of which, this is a band better known for its even better, more expansive later work, but their debut is simply a fucking black metal riff machine churning out 42 minutes of infernal whiplash-inducing goodness with no let-up.

7.
Acrimonious - Sunyata
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these guys don't exactly reinvent the wheel but they're superior songwriters among the 21st century black metal hordes, taking the conventions and weaving them into suffocatingly dark, intense, winding compositions that i find extremely immersive. the only knock is that, like a lot of bands i'm mentioning here, they'd get better later--eleven dragons is one of the best BM albums of this century for my money, and i wouldn't go that far here, partly because the production is more muted and partly because the songs are more atmosphere-based.

6.
Wrathblade - Into the Netherworld's Realm
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again we have an album that tends to be overshadowed by its successor, but even at this stage they stood alongside doomsword as one of the best operating in this style. this would actually be one of the first bands i'd point to across the entirety of metal history as defining what 'epic metal' means, it's just a pure undiluted expression of that sound.

5.
Trial - The Primordial Temple
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yes, another band better known for later releases, but in this case i think they may have peaked here; there's a little more freedom and heedlessness which combines real well with their bleaker, tenser side. has a bit of a quiet start but from track 3 onwards it's wall-to-wall excellent moody trad which nods to mercyful fate without trying to ape them.

4.
Colossus - ...And the Sepulcher of the Mirror Warlocks
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these guys weren't on my radar back in 2012, but have since become one of my favourite modern trad bands, and it's surprising how little their sound has changed between this and 'showdown'. that album had indiana jones, face/off and mad max: this one has three songs based on dune and a gem based on the secret of nimh of all things. it peaks lower but also troughs higher (one stray miss aside); i at least minor key love 5 out of the 6 songs here.

3.
Athanatheos - Alpha Theistic
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dammit, the dream of ten perfectly sized covers is over (shame 'cause that art kicks ass), but that's just a testament to how sadly underappreciated this album is online. it's basically what morbid angel would sound like filtered through the sneering, grandiose anti-religiosity of immolation and the runaway compositions of the chasm, which is obviously gonna be my jam. a couple of the songs are overreliant on angsty chugging, but the rest of the time it's a modern classic finishing on a crowning 16 minute epic that in a just world would be the stuff of legend by now.

2.
Urfaust - Ritual Music for the True Clochard
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i had no intention of including this as it's a compilation, but the year just sucks so much ass i needed it to bolster my list (i did draw the line at including the timeghoul comp though). it is at least arranged to be a proper album, combining four remastered tracks from a previous record i haven't heard and a bunch of stray songs from splits. the result is an example of what atmo-black might've been had it taken more cues from early burzum and less from the likes of ulver and enslaved, an equal parts unnerving and spellbinding howl from the depths which only an orc with a kaleidoscope of mental disorders could come up with.

1. Inanna - Transfigured in a Thousand Delusions
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maybe the truest successor to the chasm, inanna have become canonised in record time over the past half-decade and they deserve every one of the plaudits that's gone their way. this is in some ways a transitional record but it may also be the one which best showcases the breadth of their talents: it's emotional, it's vast and cosmic, it's thrashy and riffy, it's weird and obscure, and it's the only 2012 album under serious consideration for a 4.5 star rating from me.