The unavoidable "Best Album of 2012" Thread

[AndrewB]

I got out of metal a little bit this year, so here's my completely non-metal list :

The 2nd Law - Muse
Some Nights - Fun
Night Visions - Imagine Dragons
Celebration Rock - Japandroids
Living Things - Linkin Park

 

[Djabthrash]

Late to the party but eh :

Dying Fetus - Reign Supreme
Every Time I Die - Ex Lives
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Born From Pain - The New Future
Dehumanized - Controlled Elite
7 horns 7 eyes - Throes Of Absolution
Gojira - L'enfant sauvage
Lamb of God - Resolution
Length Of Time - Let The World With The Sun Go Down
Lokurah -The Time To Do Better
Napalm Death - Utilitarian
Revocation - Teratogenesis EP
Sai Nam - Crush
Sylosis - Monolith
Testament - Dark Roots Of Earth
Vision Of Disorder - The Cursed Remain Cursed

very good but not awesome :

Necroblaspheme - XXXI - The Deeper The Better
Aborted - Global Flatline
Jeff Loomis - Plains of Oblivion
Backfire - My Broken World
Kill Devil Hill - Kill Devil Hill
Cryptopsy - Cryptopsy
Nile - At The Gate of Sethu
Biohazard - reborn in defiance
Down - IV Pt.1 - The Purple EP
cannibal corpse - torture


Major props to Aaron Smith for being involved in 2 of those albums

 

[DanLights]

Aborted - Global Flatline
Daylight Dies - A Frail Becoming

Haven't had a chance to listen to/buy Katatonia, Swallow The Sun or My Dying Bride, I'm always late to new albums, but I'm sure they're gonna kick my ass when I get them

Was October Tide's A Thin Shell released in 2012 or 2011? Don't remember, only got it recently, but it's ridiculously good

 

[Terminus]

Was October Tide's A Thin Shell released in 2012 or 2011? Don't remember, only got it recently, but it's ridiculously good

November 2010 actually. And yeah one of my favorites from this past few years. New one out soon, different vocalist though. Hard to beat Tobias.

 

[XxSicRokerxX]

 

[DanLights]

November 2010 actually. And yeah one of my favorites from this past few years. New one out soon, different vocalist though. Hard to beat Tobias.

Oh wow didn't realize I was so late haha. Yeah the vocalist is one of the best I've heard. Damn, that would mean 4 albums with a different vocalist on each.

 

[Ermz]

Don't have any albums from this year on my playlist. Haven't been keeping track of late. So for me it'd have to be a CD I worked on earlier in the year.

Knightmare - In Death's Shadow

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Turns out I'm the only one here that likes post-rock haha

Caspian - Waking Season



If These Trees Could Talk - Red Forest



Gojira is my third fav of the year.
Honorable mentions: Katatonia, The Safety Fire, Meshuggah, Toundra, TITAN

 

[AudioGeekZine]

oops I killed the thread

 

[Virgil.]

Turns out I'm the only one here that likes post-rock haha

Caspian - Waking Season

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KISx8cXHnuQ

If These Trees Could Talk - Red Forest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQSiSqCiaDM

Gojira is my third fav of the year.
Honorable mentions: Katatonia, The Safety Fire, Meshuggah, Toundra, TITAN

No way dude, I LOVE post rock. I just didn't really enjoy any of the releases this year. Although "Red Forest" is a decent album, not my fav. :\

 

[Jind]

Turns out I'm the only one here that likes post-rock haha

Now there's a categorization, that while I understand the intent, I still can't stand. Call me a simple man - but just like the sub genre-ization of heavy metal to the point where we have to add slashes between how we describe a band if they happen to not fit neatly into a single category, the term post-rock always rubbed me the wrong way (as it did many of the bands who were originally labeled as such).

It's still rock, just like metal is metal regardless all the core or black, this and that, you want to add to it almighty deathness and darkness...

By the way I like the songs you referenced; this is not a rant about the actual music that gets called post-rock - just me being crotchety.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

I never looked into when or why it was named post-rock but to me there's a strong difference between Rock and post-rock. With Rock it's all about the ego, everyone knows the singer, the guitarist etc. With post-rock it's all about the music, the people making it are basically nameless, faceless because it doesn't matter.

I actually like the micro genre classification going on even if the names are silly. If I told someone I liked rock music, they might think Journey, Nickelback, Creed, Aerosmith, The Beatles, but I actually mean 65daysofstatic (experimental post-rock), Marilyn Manson (hard rock), Nine Inch Nails (industrial rock). I like specificity.

 

[Dimaura]

wow.

Nobody mentioned Gorod - A Perfect Absolution

the best IMO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3009z1wWf3o

EDIT: p.s. props to AudioGeekZine for If These Trees Could Talk. Those are my homies!

 

[Dave1978]

I run a German music blog called gothic-metal.com and here is my choice:

http://gothicmetalofficial.wordpres...-2012-gothic-metal-com-die-top-10-des-jahres/

 

[Jind]

I never looked into when or why it was named post-rock but to me there's a strong difference between Rock and post-rock. With Rock it's all about the ego, everyone knows the singer, the guitarist etc. With post-rock it's all about the music, the people making it are basically nameless, faceless because it doesn't matter.

If you say so - I'd simply contend they are nameless and faceless simply by the fringe nature of it all, but the same could be said of much of indie and alternative and a shit ton of metal where the music has been so homogenized that many times it's difficult to tell one artists from another. Once a fringe band becomes popular that nameless faceless feature fades.

I actually like the micro genre classification going on even if the names are silly. If I told someone I liked rock music, they might think Journey, Nickelback, Creed, Aerosmith, The Beatles, but I actually mean 65daysofstatic (experimental post-rock), Marilyn Manson (hard rock), Nine Inch Nails (industrial rock). I like specificity.

But the fact is you probably like a large variety of music so why worry about the sub-categorization. I tend to think most people are like I am - when you really think about it you really like individual bands not the genres they belong to as there are probably a bunch of bands in that sub-genre you hate.

I love some rock bands, I hate others. I love lots of metal, can't stand quite a bit of it though. Hell, I even like certain, what could be called, pop artists, but dislike many more. I very rarely leave it at "I like metal" when I tell someone the music I like because it's simply not that I like all metal, or even all death metal bands - I like some metal, I like some rock, I like some indie, I like some pop so I tend to tell others the bands I like and let them figure out my tastes which are far to eclectic to use such broad strokes as genre definitions.

 

[egan.]

I run a German music blog called gothic-metal.com and here is my choice:

http://gothicmetalofficial.wordpres...-2012-gothic-metal-com-die-top-10-des-jahres/

Wow. Thanks Dave. We're really proud of the record and hopefully we'll get some more people listening to it in 2013.

 

[xplanet2112]

Katatonia, Dead End Kings
Junius, Reports From The Threshold of Death

I can't decide which one I like best for number one of the year out of the two above because they are both outstanding, The rest of a 'top 5' would be:
Paradise Lost: Tragic Idle
Enslaved : RIITIIR
Daylight Dies: A Frail Becoming

Overall a brilliant year for me in metal as everyone of my favourite bands released an album (even though I spent most of the first half of the year listening to Duran Duran and APC LOL).

I did think it was a shame that Daylight Dies, Katatonia, and Enslaved released their albums so close together. I was overfaced with all this greatness all at once and it was a stuggle taking them all in tbh what with being a busy NHS worker, parent, and bedroom warrior!!

Just like to say that I think best of threads are brilliant for catching up on stuff you/I may have missed.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Junius, Reports From The Threshold of Death

Would have been in my list if not for it's 2011 release...

I accidentally left off Leech If we get there one day, would you please open the gates? Really awesome album as good as If These Trees Could Talk.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

Nile - ATGoS (was easily my favorite)
Dying Fetus - Reign Supreme
Spawn of Possession - Incurso
Resurgency - False Enlightenment (kicked my fucking ass!)

Wintersun - Time I (over fucking rated, over fucking produced)

 

[DanLights]

Now that I've finally caught up with most 2012 releases of bands I love, some bought and some thanks to Spotify, I can say, the only thing missing last year was an Opeth and a Tool record and it would've been the best year ever.

Besides the already mentioned Daylight Dies and Aborted,

Swallow the Sun - Emerald Forest and the Blackbird. Brilliant album, probably better than New Moon,and New Moon was my favorite so this band is getting better every time in my eyes (and ears).

Katatonia - Dead End Kings. Probably way too keyboard dependent for my taste, but still a great album, specially love Lethean and Dead letters. Katatonia are now kings of their own genre, of their own "dead end" as they say, and no one can beat them at that game.

My Dying Bride - A map of all our failures. IMO it doesn't beat the masterpiece that was 2009's "For Lies I Sire", but with the Ep "The Barghest O' Whitby" and this full length, it's clear they are going back to a very raw, guitar based type of writing style, which makes some songs sound a bit repetitive but also gives a super creepy atmosphere that has always been so important for this band. In FLIS Aaron did a lot of vocal harmony work he hadn't done before, but in this one he really innovated as far as vocal harmonies, I'd say the different harmony lines throughout the album are definitely a big highlight that kept me interested throughout the whole listen.

Paradise Lost - Tragic Idol. 2012 was the year I became a huge, raving PL fan, sometime before seeing them live at Sonisphere in their tour for this album this band just finally clicked with me, first with their previous album "Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us", and slowly back to their whole discography, it is now one of my favorite bands ever, and this album clearly follows the trend the "new" Paradise Lost started with FSUDUS, pleasing their metal fans. Some great memorable songs on the album, and it doesn't fall prey to their biggest weakness of filling an album with 13/14 songs which always makes it sound repetitive and a chore to listen to completely. Albums like Draconian Times, One Second and pretty much all of them before "Faith" would've been so much better if they simply cut out two or three songs and left them as b-sides or something. They also need to learn how to write album closers, that's just so important to give the feeling of "album" instead of "a bunch of songs recorded together". Oh yeah, about Tragic Idol, great album. Fear of Impending Hell, Honesty in Death and the title track stand out but all are great. As a plus, we have the great Adrian Erlandsonn performing on it, whoever the session guy on Faith was did a great job, but Adrian lives up to his legendary status.

Edit: I had high hopes for Nile after hearing the song "fiends that blablabla tl;dr" as a free mp3 on last.fm, but after checking the whole album I'm sad to say it doesn't make my list, everything since Ityphallic has been mostly boring and uninspired except for a few great songs on each album. I still think "fiends" is the best song they've written in years, but the rest of the album isn't nearly as good IMO.