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For an explanation of how we determined our Top 50 albums of 2012 (and for a look at albums 75 to 51), see our first post in the series, Top Albums of 2012, 75 to 51.
30. Revenge – Scum.Collapse.Eradication
2012 was one of the most chaotic years of this present decade. It was also an appropriate year for Revenge to release their fourth full length Scum.Collapse.Eradication. The barbaric war metal onslaught and the misanthropic themes of founding member J. Read (also of Blood Revolt, ex-Conqueror) reflect the chaos that has engulfed the world and the slow but inevitable disintegration of humanity. Despite the departure of co-conspirator Pete Helmkamp (also of Order From Chaos, ex-Angelcorpse), J. Read has strengthened Revenge’s brand of savage war metal into something that is more feral and sinister. — Carmelo Espanola
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Revenge – “Parasite Gallows (In Line)”
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29. Sigh – In Somniphobia
If you’ve ever wondered what Crystal Meth M&Ms taste like, the new album by Japan’s premiere blackened confusion artists is for you. Two parts cartoonish orchestral whirlwind and one part oozing venom, Sigh’s latest masterpiece mixes black metal with everything from gospel and jazz to mariachi music to create a far-out masterpiece. Swaying on its feet and glistening with drug sweat, In Somniphobia is a bizarre and satisfying ride.
— Scab Casserole
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Sigh – “The Transfiguration Fear”
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28. Young Hunter – Stone Tools
Every once in a while musical sounds and influences will combine, resulting in a potion with a lot more power than it should. Young Hunter’s Stone Tools is such magic. Blending desert heat (they’re from Tucson), Kyuss-style heaviness and dust storm doom, this follow-up to their debut EP Children of a Hungry World, is beautiful, mesmerizing, and strange. — Vanessa Salvia
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Young Hunter – “Drought”
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27. Unsane – Wreck
For the past two decades, New York City has been growing gradually cleaner and safer. Lifer Manhattanites marvel at the once-seedy Times Square’s touristy sheen. Unsane, who got their start in the Lower East Side back in ‘88, have preserved the old-time NYC feeling. Their bluesy noise rock is just as it ever was: beefy as hell, louder than a jackhammer, and rife with self-loathing. This is their best set since their classic ’90s material. — Doug Moore
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Unsane – “Decay”
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26. Cattle Decapitation – Monolith of Inhumanity
To put it bluntly, Cattle Decapitation used to be death/grind also-rans. That’s part of why The Monolith of Inhumanity is such a shock . . . I can’t remember the last time a band’s songwriting ability suddenly skyrocketed like this. The other reason The Monolith is such a shock is because it’s so fucking good. Between a brilliant album, two notable videos, a violent encounter with Chris Barnes, 2012 was the year of Cattle Decapitation. — Richard Street-Jammer
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Cattle Decapitation – “Kingdom of Tyrants”
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25. Panopticon – Kentucky
I remember a time in my life when only Europeans, or musicians imitating Europeans, wrote folk metal. That age is over—Panopticon is as American as metal gets. Sole member Austin Lunn’s work is servant to two masters: on the one hand black metal with a pastoral and melodic sense of sweep, and Appalachian bluegrass, complete with traditional protest songs and dextrous acoustic passages on the other. Rhys Williams’s editorial on this remarkable album is essential reading. — Joseph Schafer
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Panopticon – “Bodies Under the Falls”
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24. Mgła – With Hearts Toward None
Mgła, like Rodney Dangerfield, can’t get no respect. Their debut, Groza, was really good and really ignored by the scene. With Hearts is also really good, and is really starting to look like it will be ignored as well. If you like second wave style black metal with big melodies that somehow haven’t found their way onto a Taake album yet, then you need to give With Hearts a listen. — Richard Street-Jammer
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Mgła – “II”
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23. Ash Borer – Cold of Ages
Cold of Ages manages to be both denser and more intricate than Ash Borer’s self-titled debut full-length of last year—each song artfully navigates cold black metal blasts and doomy atmospheric interludes that come together to form some of the best USBM of late. There are just four songs on Cold of Ages, and all but one clock in at over 15 minutes (the other breaks 11). Epic by any standards, but don’t let the track lengths scare you off. — Wyatt Marshall
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Ash Borer – “Descended Lamentations”
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22. Hooded Menace – Effigies of Evil
Effigies of Evil is another dose of catchy, riffy, undeniably fun horror-inspired death-doom from the Finnish quartet. They’re one of the rare bands that can use samples of dialogue without it sounding trite and hackneyed, too. As serious as Peter Cushing covered in Kensington gore, as entertaining as a midnight showing of The Brides of Dracula after several beers: by marrying death and doom, Hooded Menace have created a Frankenstein’s monster that is much more than just musical corpse parts sewn together. — Jo Tacon
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Hooded Menace – “Evoken Vulgarity”
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21. Swans – The Seer
There’s debate as to whether or not Swans qualify as metal. In the narrow sense of the term, absolutely not, but from a liberal and studied interpretation they’ve been able to reach heights of depravity that only Scott Walker could comprehend. The Seer is an exhausting ride through Michael Gira’s psyche that’s disturbingly loud, genuinely twisted and uncomfortably soothing. If that doesn’t qualify as metal, then this should do the trick. — Aaron Maltz
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Swans – “The Seer”
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Glad to see the Sigh album in here, it’s probably my favourite of the year. Seem to remember it getting mockingly dismissed by this site when it was released!
Yeah, I called it Japanese circus music. That opinion still stands.
Dissent amongst the staff goes a long way ’round these parts.
I liked Sigh up until Hangman’s Hymn. I can still listen to Imaginary Sonicscape on a regular basis though. That album is so drugs.
case in point: our lists are full of war metal and more than a few of us can’t stand the stuff.
Those silly gas masked black hooded goats and their war metal!
Let’s get this list up on Spotify . . . I would, but I’m stupid.
The new Sigh album is probably about as close as they’ve ever been to Imaginary Sonicscape. Interested to see what makes the top 5…most websites are full of dirgey doom and funeral metal this year…can’t stand the stuff!
I quite enjoyed that Revenge album. I got it from a blog earlier in the year. I really never expected to hear about it again, but I’m glad I did.
Some great albums in this stretch of the list. Both _The Seer_ and _Kentucky_ are immersive records that have continued to command my interest after repeated listens. Although I haven’t crunched the numbers, I’d imagine both would make my personal top ten. (_The Seer_ would probably be number one if it weren’t so exhausting to get through in one sitting). And _Wreck_ is about as satisfying as a punch in the face can possibly be. A few tracks on it are a little too similar to previous Unsane songs, but I like how they mix it up with a couple of quasi-ballads. And the Flipper cover is my favorite oddball Unsane track since they did the Cows’ “Hitting the Wall” on their Amrep Christmas album.
Swans topped my personal list. The exhaustion is half the fun in my mind, but I hear ya.
Fun fact about _The Seer_: I got the triple vinyl version, and it came with a download card. I’ve listened to both versions, and I was surprised to discover that the sequencing on the vinyl is different than on the digital album. And yet, both sequences work. Weird, huh?
Weird indeed. I bet it’s a consequence of the per-side run time limitations of the vinyl. What’s the alternate track order?
Side One: 1) Lunacy 2) The Apostate, Pt. 2
Side Two: 1) The Apostate, Pt. 2 2) A Piece of the Sky, Part 1
Side Three: 1) A Piece of the Sky, Part 2 2) 93 Ave. B Blues 3) The Daughter Brings the Water 4) Song for a Warrior
Side Four: 1) Mother of the World 2) Avatar
Side Five: 1) The Wolf 2) The Seer, Part 1
Side Six: The Seer, Part 2 2) The Seer Returns
Swans Fun Fact #2: Having to get up to flip the record to hear part 2 of a song kind of sucks. Obviously, this is an album made with the CD and digital format in mind. I’ve stop buying CDs though, so it was the vinyl for me.
Swans Fun Fact #3: Avatar the song is better than Avatar the movie by several orders of magintude, and cost about a billion dollars less to produce.
Obviously, Side One features The Apostate, pt. 1, not The Apostate, pt. 2. My bad.
Interesting. I’m gonna pop my version into a playlist (un-tr00!) that follows that order and see how it sounds. The Seer is one of my favorite albums of the year, but I didn’t vote for it here because I don’t consider it a metal record.
Incidentally, my band has never pressed a vinyl version of our first album in part because we’d have to reorder the tracks to do it. Otherwise, the side flip would come at a really awkward moment in the proceedings.
Curious to hear what you think about the vinyl sequencing. And I agree that Swans isn’t a metal band. But their music, in addition to being quite beautiful, is also ugly and noisy and confrontational, so I’m fine with them being in the conversation. Plus, they’ve influenced countless actual “metal” bands, even if a lot of those bands are probably deriving the Swans elements of their sound from some combination of Neurosis and GSYBE.
Unrelated question: what band are you in? Because I asked, it doesn’t count as you plugging your band if you choose to reply. I figure based on the stuff you tend to review I might like what you’re doing musically. Or maybe I’m wrong and you moonlight in a Hatebreed cover band, which would be fine too.
Agreed about Swans’ metal relevance; you can draw a pretty straight line from them through Neurosis and Godflesh to a lot of contemporary metal bands. I was actually going to write up The Seer for IO, but dropped the assignment because it was being covered so thoroughly by other, non-metal outlets.
I do vocals for Pyrrhon, a death metal band. (We were actually written up by IO back in the Cosmo days, before I became a contributor.) You can stream our first album and a few newer demo tracks here: http://pyrrhonband.bandcamp.com/
Thanks! In case you can’t guess from the frequency of my comments, I’m off work today, and will stream some Pyrrhon ASAP.
Made a strong first impression with me. And, back on topic, I hear some Swans in it, particularly toward the beginning of “White Flag.”
Perhaps this goes without saying, but I’m now going to imagine all of your IO articles delivered in your death metal voice.
Thanks for listening, man! The Swans comparison is a major compliment. Not many death metal bands get to hear that.
Stoked to see Mgła make the list. Probably the best “traditional” sounding Black Metal album this year.
Agreed! And I also can’t believe how ignored it has been!
A bit sad to see 3 of my top 5 (Panopticon, Ash Borer, Mgla) so high on the list. My prediction for #1: Pallbearer.
VERY happy to see Unsane getting a little love here.