Welcome to PopMatters 2012 metal end-of-the-year list, where we celebrate 20 of the very best albums from the genre this year. Metal presents us with a broad and ever-flowing stream of artists and sub-genres, and only a glimpse of the raft of fantastic releases from 2012 are captured here. As you might rightly point out, there are albums that you’d consider leading contenders for 2012’s list that are entirely absent — we agree too, there are albums we all voted for that aren’t here. But ultimately, it’s that very hot-blooded passion about metal that makes it such a rewarding sphere, and we argue, fuss, and fight about thunderous sounds, crushing albums and, dexterous riff mastery because those elements matter in our lives. Metal is here to provide us with the fire in our bellies, all the cerebral jaunts we require, and is a crucial domain to ceaselessly question stale norms and tired conventions. There’s no doubt 2012 has been another great year for metal in that regard, with releases from veteran road dogs and fresh young bands alike providing endless roaring highs and churning, filth-ridden lows. So, with without further ado, lets dig in.
Album: In Somniphobia
Label: Candlelight
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List Number: 20
Sigh
In Somniphobia
It’s the year of the eclectic. Together with Devin Townsend Project and Diablo Swing Orchestra, Japanese avant-garde metal band Sigh draws from a diverse range of musical genres that are not commonly associated with heavy metal — yet they are one of those talented bands that blends them with heavy metal expertly. Be entertained by how well the slick orchestration, atmospherically malignant synthesizers, jazzy piano parts, sexy saxophone solos, male-female vocal harmonies, and even whistling (heard in “The Transfiguration Fear Lucid Nightmares”) fuse with the heavy metal guitar melodies to concoct an exotic brand of extreme metal unlike anything you’ve heard before. Dane Prokofiev
Album: Pandora’s Piñata
Label: Sensory
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List Number: 19
Diablo Swing Orchestra
Pandora’s Piñata
With its general Broadway vibe and skillful incorporation of a smörgåsbord of unmetal sub-genres (i.e., swing revival, classical music, oriental music, and even nu-metal!), the Swedish avant-garde metal band Diablo Swing Orchestra has cemented its place in the eclectic wing of heavy metal’s Hall of Fame. Their sound can only be likened to a rainbow-colored pony that happily trots towards the horizon in a sweltering desert, leaving behind a glittering trail of microscopic razorblades that will rip up the interior of your lungs when inhaled. It’s cultured; it’s bombastic. It’s so unmetal that it ironically becomes all the more metal because of it. Dane Prokofiev
Album: The Giant
Label: Napalm
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List Number: 18
Ahab
The Giant
Tales of sailing ships and underwater behemoths are not generally thematic motifs used in doom metal, but German quartet Ahab is celebrated for its portentous and tempestuous nautical tales. The band’s 2012 release, The Giant, knots typhoon-sized riffing and thunderous percussion into a maelstrom of monolithic funereal doom. However, breezier and temperate threads of post-rock and balmier vocals see the album expertly balance its squally requiem mass against far more melodic intricacy. Those new rhythmic and harmonic elements offer shade, nuance, and shelter from the storm — setting Ahab on a new tack that will be the key to the band’s endurance. Craig Hayes
Album: L’Enfant Sauvage
Label: Roadrunner
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List Number: 17
Gojira
L’Enfant Sauvage
Constructed in similar style to their previous album The Way of All Flesh, L’Enfant Sauvage further cements Gojira’s reputation as master craftsmen of rhythmically complex compositions. Like their namesake, the boys from Bayonne destroy everything in their path with the jack-hammering, mechanical grooves of “Explosia”, “The Mouth of Kala”, “Liquid Fire”, and the sheer intensity of the title track. With L’Enfant Sauvage honed for the 21st century and beyond, Gojira stand tall as one of the most imposing bands ever to be labelled with the progressive metal tag. Dean Brown
Album: 777 — Cosmosophy
Label: Season of Mist
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List Number: 16
Blut Aus Nord
777 — Cosmosophy
The first thing people likely noticed about 777 — Cosmosophy, the final instalment in a trilogy that began with 777 — Sect(s) and 777 — The Desanctification, is how different the sleeve art is compared to its predecessors. Cosmosophy opts for a black/white scheme that’s quite beautiful, as well as the most spiritual looking of the three. This spiritual dimension is captured masterfully in the quality of the songs, a collection of gorgeously textured “Epitomes” that bear marked similarities to the increasingly popular “black metalgaze” trend. Make no mistakes, though: this is quintessential Blut Aus Nord, and their best since The Work Which Transforms God. Brice Ezell
15 – 11
Album: Clockwork Angels
Label: Roadrunner
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List Number: 15
Rush
Clockwork Angels
It’s one thing for a band entering its fourth decade to try hard not to sound complacent on its new albums, but to see a band like Rush put out one of its best albums ever, 38 years after its debut, is astounding. The creative and commercial success of 2007’s Snakes & Arrows must have lit a fire under them, because Clockwork Angels is even more ambitious. A steampunk-themed concept album, it encapsulates every aspect of the band’s career, from heavy moments to complex arrangements to lithe progressive moments, delivering 12 vibrant songs that tell a compelling, imaginative tale, while looking back on their career like the sages that they are. 2112, Moving Pictures, Signals, Grace Under Pressure, Clockwork Angels. Believe it. Adrien Begrand
Album: Les Voyages de l’Âme
Label: Prophecy Productions
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Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/review/153316-alcest-les-voyages-de-lme/
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List Number: 14
Alcest
Les Voyages de l’Âme
After the darker tones of 2009’s Écailles de Lune, Alcest mastermind Neige decided to let more light in on the follow-up. Not only does Les Voyages de l’Âme shimmer, but it also marks what could be a turning point for the French artist, where he’s able to completely transcend his black metal past and create universally appealing music devoid of genre restrictions. Translated as “the journeys of the soul”, this record again does an extraordinary job creating something delicate and wistful from such normally harsh sounds, with the beautiful, soaring “Beings of Light” serving as the best indication of what direction Alcest’s music will be headed in the future. Adrien Begrand
Album: Ritual of Passing
Label: Profound Lore
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List Number: 13
Atriarch
Ritual of Passing
Atriarch’s debut, 2011’s Forever the End, mixed minatory doom, wicked black metal, and a post-punk pulse into an intoxicating, hex-bound brew. The band’s 2012 follow-up, Ritual of Passing, is even more bewitching. Intensifying the down-tempo gothic tones, incanted vocals rise from a soul-crushing and brooding mix of ’80s deathrock, frost-bitten punk, and hellfire doom, emanating a profoundly ritualistic aura. Corpulent, throbbing bass lines, heavily ceremonial drumming, and distorting bitter riffs combine in churning, dirge-like conjurations. It’s sonically akin to an amalgam of Swans, Christian Death and Buzzov•en, yet Ritual of Passing‘s snarling and direful atmospherics remain wholly original. Craig Hayes
Album: Koloss
Label: Nuclear Blast
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List Number: 12
Meshuggah
Koloss
Koloss secures the boundaries of Meshuggah’s heavily plagiarized sound, putting the multitude of pitiful imitators to shame with the dizzying, polyrhythmic thrash of “The Hurt That Finds You First”; the lurching Nothing-era movements of “I Am Collossus” and “Do Not Look Down; and the synapses-shattering velocity of “The Demon’s Name Is Surveillance”. The reason why Meshuggah remain unequalled is not because of the band’s capacity for constructing seemingly indecipherable works of metallic art. It is down to Meshuggah’s ability to reconfigure its base approach on each record, the quality of which never dissipates. It just mutates, and Koloss is no different. Dean Brown
Album: Eremita
Label: Candlelight
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Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/review/162180-ihsahn-eremita/
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List Number: 11
Ihsahn
Eremita
Ihsahn may have tried to distance himself from the prog label in the past, but with Eremita, his fourth solo album, it’s near impossible to avoid. Though it is true that Ihsahn’s music isn’t “prog” as typically understood (e.g., long guitar solos, suite-like song structures, references to hobbits and other mythical creatures), his music is undeniably progressive. In its sophisticated arrangements, well-placed guest spots (including excellent contributions by Devin Townsend and Shining’s Jorgen Munkeby), and a deliciously dark mood, Eremita is easily 2012’s most sophisticated “prog” release. One listen to album centerpiece “The Eagle and the Snake” will have you hooked. Brice Ezell
10 – 6
Album: Years Past Matter
Label: self-released
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List Number: 10
Krallice
Years Past Matter
Now four albums in, Krallice’s musical identity is set. The initial surprise of the Brooklyn band’s landmark debut album worn off, Krallice has been subtly expanding it music outward while retaining that unmistakable sound that sets it apart from every other band. On Years Past Matter, the focal point as usual is the repetitious, trance-like, tremolo-picked playing of guitarists Mick Barr and Colin Marston, but the difference here is how well the rigidity of the rhythm section and the elasticity of the guitars play off each other, a constant push and pull that climaxes on the stunning 16-plus minute closing track. Adrien Begrand
Album: Epicloud
Label: Century Media
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List Number: 9
Devin Townsend Project
Epicloud
Read the album title again. It says, “Epic Loud”, and sure as heaven that’s an apt description. Devin Townsend is one of the most eclectic and talented hard rock/heavy metal vocalists of all time, and he returns with an album so majestically deafening that the “Epic Rock” sub-genre has officially materialized. Grand orchestration, angelic choir singing, and Townsend’s soulful, clean vocals provide a heavenly backdrop for the Canadian’s bone-reverberating bass and electric guitar. An intriguing snapshot of the happier extreme of Townsend’s BD-afflicted mind, Epicloud has the power to make jaded extreme metal fans feel briefly spiritual, and maybe even optimistic about life in general! Dane Prokofiev
Album: Widowmaker
Label: Prosthetic
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List Number: 8
Dragged into Sunlight
Widowmaker
Dragged into Sunlight’s Widowmaker contains a single three-part, 40-minute long track — putting it into the company of epic explorations such as Sleep’s Dopesmoker. Similarly, Widowmaker is a bone-rattling journey, and a traumatic one at that. Fifteen minutes of lugubrious strums and drone construct the initial jittery tension. Then apocalyptic howls, twisted samples and filthy sawtoothed riffs arrive, followed by grinding bass and battering percussion. Desolate, filth-laden doom is heaped upon devastatingly heavy, godforsaken, and pitch-black gloom — and while the Liverpool-based band was praised for its abrasive debut, Hatred for Mankind, Widowmaker puts that album to shame. Monstrously intimidating, and deliciously harrowing, Widowmaker slices right to the marrow of wretchedness. Craig Hayes
Album: RIITIIR
Label: Nuclear Blast
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List Number: 7
Enslaved
RIITIIR
Enslaved’s perennial quest to blur the lines between black metal and progressive rock continues on RIITIIR, the most gruelling album of its illustrious career. Once immersed deep inside the eight labyrinthine arrangements that comprise RIITIIR, it becomes apparent that Herbrand Larsen — whose velveteen vocals partner with Grutle Kjellson’s deadly rasp better than ever before — has been gifted the role of light-bearer, leading the way through the dense, immaculately woven instrumentation. RIITIIR requires persistence and attentiveness from its listener, but once the brilliance of its blackened, Voivod-ian metal is finally understood, this record reveals itself as another thoroughly rewarding metal monument erected by the crimson kings of Bergen. Dean Brown
Album: All We Love We Leave Behind
Label: Epitaph
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Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/review/164494-converge-all-we-love-we-leave-behind/
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List Number: 6
Converge
All We Love We Leave Behind
Sometimes a great title really grabs you. Though I already had high expectations for Converge’s eighth studio LP, that’s exactly what happened to me with All We Love We Leave Behind, a title that reflects the poignancy that’s always been present in the style of hardcore that has come to define Converge. This isn’t the game-changing force that Jane Doe was in 2001, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less effective. Converge excels at conveying beauty through brutality, and All We Love We Leave Behind continues this hot streak quite impressively, revealing the best might have yet to come. Brice Ezell
5 – 1
Album: Yellow & Green
Label: Relapse
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Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/review/160708-baroness-yellow-green/
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List Number: 5
Baroness
Yellow & Green
Yes, you read it right, Yellow & Green is sitting pretty in PopMatters’ “Best of Metal” list for 2012. Detractors will scream for its exclusion on the basis that this sprawling, expertly conceived and sublimely executed double LP is not strictly metal. Granted, this record does disappear down the hallowed halls of prog/folk/indie rock, but Baroness’s metal origins remain ingrained in its spirit. Whatever your thoughts about this record are, one thing is irrefutable: Yellow & Green is the sound of Baroness attempting to satisfy their own selfish aspirations and successfully achieving them through bold displays of musical bravery that knows no bounds. Dean Brown
Album: Ursus Americanus
Label: Seventh Rule
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List Number: 4
Author & Punisher
Ursus Americanus
Tristan Shone makes music with sci-fi looking instruments of his own making. One might chalk this up to being merely a really cool science project for grown-ups, but Ursus Americanus proves that Shone isn’t kidding around. His music under the Author & Punisher moniker is terrifying, jarring, and intensely rhythmic; by merging doom, electronic, and industrial into an entirely digital sonic, Shone advances every single one of the genres involved. The Luddite fear that technology and humankind must be oppositional forces is entirely disproved by this album, which, while entirely the result of machines, is a tribute to human ingenuity. Brice Ezell
Album: Kentucky
Label: Pagan Flame Productions
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List Number: 3
Panopticon
Kentucky
Although born in Tennessee, multi-instrumentalist Austin Lunn has always had more of an affinity with the mountains and forests of Kentucky, and he taps into the state’s musical and cultural heritage to brilliant effect on Panopticon’s fourth album. Black metal musings on nature coalesce with bluegrass instrumentals and renditions of old coal miner protest songs, as this sprawling record leaves listeners with a much richer appreciation for the region than they expect. Adventurous and soulful, Kentucky can justifiably be called an extreme metal version of the great film Harlan County, U.S.A. Adrien Begrand
Album: Book Burner
Label: Relapse
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Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/review/162454-pig-destroyer-book-burner/
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List Number: 2
Pig Destroyer
Book Burner
Pig Destroyer returned in 2012 with its highly anticipated fifth full-length, Book Burner, a notably leaner, though no less decimating, album than 2007’s grindcore classic Phantom Limb. Five years is a long time to wait for new material, but Book Burner is a masterful return. It’s a broadside of pulverizing, uranium-tipped riffs and blistering percussion wrapped around warped samples and utterly demented lyrics. A true lesson in corporeal and aural intensity, Book Burner is a painstakingly precise bombardment of dissonant violence. While its torrents of death, thrash, and power-violence are combined with stripped-down grinding hooks, the technicality that Pig Destroyer has long been famed for is dispensed in a ferocious and pitiless fashion. Craig Hayes
Album: Into the Lair of the Sun God
Label: Profound Lore
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Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/review/160740-dawnbringer-into-the-lair-of-the-sun-god/
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List Number: 1
Dawnbringer
Into the Lair of the Sun God
Traditional heavy metal retains a special place in the secretly sentimental heart of almost every appreciator of the genre. Chris Black’s dreamy tenor voice performs such heartfelt singing that it single-handedly evokes a keen sense of heartache that suits the strange yet tragic tale presented by Into the Lair of the Sun God‘s conceptual story. Bold and poignant, the lyrics follow a man’s ambitious quest to slaughter the Sun God, and such fantastical stories need to be utilized as heavy metal album themes more often! The guitar melodies alternate between furious and melancholic to fit the many different stages of the narrative, and, needless to say, it complements the epic tale excellently. Dawnbringer may not be as famous as Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden, but the band sure knows how to spice up traditional heavy metal without it becoming radically indigestible. Dane Prokofiev