Matt's favorite metal releases of 2012

My favorite metal releases of 2012, ordered as best as I can.

1. Rituals of the Oak - Come Taste the Doom: A phenomenal release from Sydney Australia.  Sabine Hamad-Linfoot's vocal work are really what make this traditional doom album such a power house.  There is hands down no record released this year that I have listened to more.  Altogether addictive.

2. Wolvserpent - Perigaea (demo): A solid follow up to their amazing 2010 album Blood Seed.  This demo has only been released by Wolvsperpent online as far as I know, but from what I have heard it is going to be officially released by Relapse in 2013.  I'm really excited for these guys, because they certainly deserve the recognition.  Wolvserpent creates the most amazingly evil and droning soundscapes.  A must listen.

3. Bell Witch - Longing:  After their 2011 demo made a massive buzz, this Seattle doom duo immediately got picked up by Profound Lore and got to work making a gut pounding album of funeral paced sludge highlighted by gregorian-esque chanting.  A very spritual/occult vibe runs throughout the album.

4. Monarch! - Omens:  The album that 2012 forgot about.  French doom varying from drone to sludge.  The fuzzed out guitars are perfectly juxtaposed with Emilie Bresson's serene singing before diving into some of the scariest female vocal screams since Bloody Panda.

5. Horseback - Half Blood:  This album can be divided between two song writing archetype's employed by Horseback's Jenks Miller,  On the one hand you have the cyclical blues-based songs with raspy screamed vocals, while other songs are entirely rooted in experimental drones and ambience.  Both are great, but I tend to prefer the songs stylistically similar to Horseback's 2009 album The Invisible Mountain.

6. Hell - III: Two song album from Salem Oregon rooted in blacked sludge.  A really unique sounding album.  The lo-fi production really compliments the music.

7. Les Discrets - Ariettes Oubliees...:  This is the blackened shoegaze you should be listening to instead of that Alcest album.  The more I listen to it the more I like it.

8. Ahab - The Giant:  Don't go into this expecting the funeral doom of Call of the Wretched Sea.  Ahab's "nautic funeral doom" seems to have evolved to just mean that they like playing slowed down sludge.  But you can't fault them for evolving as a band since their songs are still devastatingly heavy.  

9. Samothrace - Reverence to Stone:  I haven't been giving this album a lot of play this year, I think mainly because I have heard them perform these songs so many times in 2011 and 2012, still this is a great follow up to their 2008 album Life's Trade.  It most certainly deserves its place in best albums of 2012.  

10. Profetus - ...to Open the Passages in Dusk:  Finnish funeral doom that is both sorrowful and beautiful.  There is an oppressive despondence to this album.  The final song "Burn, Lanters of Eve" is one of my favorite songs of the year.
11. Worm Oroboros - Come the Thaw
12. Royal Talons - s/t EP
 
Also worth listening to: Anhedonist - Netherwards, When Nothing Remains - As All Torn Asunder, Saturnus - Saturn in Ascension, Evoken - Atra Mors, Eagle Twin - The Feather Tipped the Serpent's Scale

Chris' Top 40 Metal Albums of 2012

1.     Evoken – Atra Mors: The masters of desolate funeral doom returned in 2012 with arguably their best work to date. Atra Mors is cold, desolate, and painfully beautiful. Masterfully crafted and paced, Evoken deserve your time, money, and first born. Doom or be doomed.

2.     Pallbearer – Sorrow & Extinction: Sometimes a band deserves the hype surrounding them, and Pallbearer’s Sorrow & Extinction is proof of that. Punishing doom coupled with gorgeous vocal harmonies and sweeping crescendos makes this album an absolute joy to experience.

3.     Indesinence – Vessels of Light and Decay: Death and doom merged with care; in 2012 Indesinence showed the metal world that they still matter. Vessels of Light and Decay is a punishing slab crushing doom with just enough death to appease even the most discerning fans.

4.     Knelt Rote – Trespass: Knelt Rote has been around for a number of years and somehow they never showed up on my radar, but that changed in 2012 when the band released Trespass via Nuclear War Now! To say that these PDX death merchants are pushing the boundaries of grind wound be a gross understatement. Listen and be converted.

5.     Windhand – Windhand: Stoner metal done oh so right! Windhand’s debut album is the kind of record that will have you banging your head and raising your fists to the dark one. Black Sabbath meets Electric Wizard without sounding like a clone of either. Brilliant.

6.    Mgla – With Hearts Toward None: Beautiful, icy, droning, melodic black metal from Poland. Mgla absolutely crushed the black metal competition this year.

7.    Eagle Twin – The Feather Tipped The Serpent’s Scale: This follow-up to 2009’s The Unkindness of Crows is a continuation of the story they began on their debut. On The Feather… Eagle Twin sound mightier than ever and their understanding of power and grace is something to behold. There isn’t another band in the world that sound like Eagle Twin, and there likely never will be.

8.    Hell – Hell III: This album was a late arrival on my list, but after a week of constant spinning I can comfortable say that Hell do justice to their name. Hell III  is a droning masterwork of blackened doom.

9.    Anhedonist – Netherwards: These Seattle doomsters have long been a favorite of mine and 2012’s Netherwards was exactly what I wanted it to be. Galloping death fused together with mournful doom, Netherwards hits you like a warhammer and offers you up to the gods of old.

10. Ash Borer – Cold of Ages: Perhaps the most interesting American black metal band currently working, Ash Borer combine hypnotic riffs that drone in the distance with howls that make your flesh crawl. Cold of Ages is the most suiting title this frostbitten amalgam of neo-second wave black metal.

11. Ufomammut – Oro: Opus Alter

12. Profetus - …to Open the Passages in Dusk

13. Samothrace – Reverence to Stone

14. Shever – Rituals

15. Ævangelist - De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis

16. Incantation – Vanquish in Vengeance

17. Dawnbringer – Into the Lair of the Sun God

18. Neurosis – Honor Found in Decay

19. Inter Arma – Destroyer

20. Faustcoven – Hellfire and Funeral Bells

21. The Secret – Agnus Dei

22. Satanic Bloodspraying – At the Mercy of Satan

23. Lord Mantis – Pervertor

24. Pseudogod – Deathwomb Catechesis

25. Aldebaran – Embracing the Lightless Depths

26. Bell Witch – Longing

27. Mongrel’s Cross – The Sins of Aquarius

28. Pig Destroyer – Book Burner

29. Wolvserpent – Perigaea

30. Panopticon – Kentucky

31. Weapon – Embers and Revelations

32. Bosse-de-Nage – III

33. False/Barghest – Split

34. NIGHTSLUG – Demo 2012

35. Atriarch – Rituals of Passing

36. Occultation – Three & Seven

37. Asphyx – Deathhammer

38. High on Fire – De Vermis Mysteriis

39. Pact – The Dragon Lineage of Satan

40. Hooded Menace – Effigies of Evil