“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.” ~ Moby Dick
Beautiful, beautiful misery: What would we do without your bitter, yet weirdly comforting grip?
Like a number of you out there, I am a person whose life is governed by balance. My goofy, fairly amusing (?) yang is suitably offset by an equal share of solo time spent in the presence of the grimmer yin. (Aren’t I interesting?) And similar to the sea and ol’ fishy Ishmael up there, I often turn to the seemingly boundless ocean of Heavy Metal as one of my “substitutes for pistol and ball.” (Because honestly, I’m about as ship-worthy as your Grammie’s huffy 13yr-old cat, despite the fairly nautical nickname.) Well, “pistol and ball” is unmistakably extreme, but you get the drift. It’s not even that metal provides the “escape” as much as it stands as an imminently willing and suitable companion to any mood that crosses my path, including those oddly comforting stretches of wretchedness. Which brings me to…
:: This Year’s Listening Inclinations ::
Like any other year, 2012 had its ups and downs: I (rather drunkenly) witnessed Manilla Road amidst tornado’ing weather alongside some of my favorite metal comrades; I saw and met Saint Vitus on Wino’s birthday, the day after my birthday; I hit the Bay Area twice to see some of my very favorite people in the world; and I tripped up to Montréal to visit a dear friend and share a fantastic Menace Ruine experience as well.
But a long stretch of 2012 was also spent under the cruel shadow of cancer, whose distasteful visit to my immediate family in early May cast a gloom I had a difficult time shaking. Everything eventually worked out alright, but the months of waiting and wondering and trying to live life as usual under that dark shadow blew heavily, and it definitely affected the shade of music I leaned toward for a good portion of 2012. I suppose some folks — smarter folks than me — turn to “peppier” tunes when the chips are down, but I tend to seek out a more suitably dark and gloomy accomplice. Give me an enabling drinking chum, by hell — someone who won’t judge me for wanting to hit rock bottom before climbing hand over fist back toward the surface.
So yes, a sizable amount of my time was spent listening to deliberately slow, ponderous music dominated by a smothering atmosphere. Call it “The Year of A Clarion Call,” based purely on the amount of times I re-dug out Asunder‘s classic and used its specifications to guide me in my active playlists. I still found time to spin and enjoy a number of the thrashier gems of the year — Vomitor, Mongrel’s Cross, Aura Noir (!!!), Nekromantheon, et al — but they often took a back seat to the moodier, gloomier side of metal.
Also curious, and perhaps even rudely unbalanced to some, is the fact that 14 of my top 20 releases for 2012 arrived via North American bands. I really don’t have a very good explanation for this continuing trend (2011 also produced 14, and 2010 delivered 13), apart from the fact that 1) there’s a hell of a lot percolating over here that’s right at my fingertips, and 2) my personal taste continues to closely align itself with Profound Lore Records, of which a whopping six releases ended up in my top 20, all from North America.
Right. Enough with the clucking…
:: TOP 20 METAL FULL-LENGTHS ::
1. Pallbearer – Sorrow and Extinction
I attribute the stark potency and fortitude behind Pallbearer‘s phenomenal Sorrow and Extinction to two key factors: It delivers a leveling heaviness both in terms of emotion and pound-for-pound riff-weight. The whole shootin’ match offers up ample evidence of a flattening force booming enough to crack the kneecaps of Warhorse‘s As Heaven Turns to Ash. (The 3:45 mark of “Devoid of Redemption,” for example – has there been anything heavier this year?) And for the love of Christ, those weeping guitars! I actually avoided taking a trip to see these guys play live because I was worried about how I’d react to “Given to the Grave” in public. No one needs to see a grown man at a metal show reduced to mewling on his knees like a daisy. (Profound Lore)
2. Eïs – Wetterkreuz
More often than not, it’s the dirty, grimy, misshapen black metal that really blows my hair back these days. Chalk it up to aging incredibly disgracefully, I suppose. But the “true” debut (the prior two releases being reworks of albums done under their earlier Geïst banner) from these Deutschers embodies pretty much everything I’d ever want to hear out of clean, melodic, freezing black metal done pants-soilingly well. Wetterkreuz is equal parts ripping, sharp & fast, and sweepingly epic-as-shit. Additionally, the band flawlessly folds in just the right amount of atmospheric keys that thankfully never-ever tinkle into circus territory. And for anyone keeping score, “Auf kargen Klippen” (“On Barren Cliffs”) flashes the year’s most heroic black metal scream (3:53), so be sure to cue that baby up during the early morning carpool with Fritz from accounting. (Lupus Lounge)
3. Saint Vitus – Lillie: F-65
Who the hell cares about teaching an old dog new tricks when the tricks they’ve capably mastered over the better part of the last 30 years still effectively bulldoze the bejesus out of your head? Vitus‘ first release in 17 years does precisely what fans were hoping it would do after such a long absence: It coils those old familiar fuzzydoomy sprigs about you and squeezes until downers start firing from your eye-sockets. The production is perfect, Wino’s back in the fold, Vasquez thoroughly fills some huge shoes, and Chandler continues to pen the sort of hefty doom riffs leveling enough to have Truckasaurus pitching iron-tent for a week. Oh, and “Blessed Night” is an easy front-runner for metal tune of the year. (Season of Mist)
4. Neurosis – Honor Found In Decay
Shortly after Times of Grace dropped, Neurosis became a band I preferred to see live as opposed to keeping up with every new physical release. That’s not to say that I’ve found any of their output to be subpar, just… moderately surplus amongst an assembly of about five albums I’ve contentedly reached for over the years. But Honor Found in Decay kicked the door in again, and I’d certainly give the ever-so honorable Danhammer Obstkrieg a tip of my hat for spotlighting the album’s “rootsiness and gestures of Americana” as one of the album’s true strengths. Beyond that, I’d also credit the fact that Noah Landis (keys, piano, effects) comes up HUGE this time around – more of that in the future, please. (Neurot Recordings)
5. The Howling Wind – Of Babylon
Sex and violence: We all dig it on some level. And it ain’t just HBO that knows how to package it in an entertaining manner, either. Of Babylon crudely bangs your ears like a filthy hobo (hoboette?) drunk on Listerine ‘neath the warm glow of a romantic barrel-fire. Fast/slow/fast/slow surprisingly burly black metal that’s continuously crammed into your cranium with the brutish force of Ryan Lipynsky’s (sadly defunct) Unearthly Trance‘s vision of sludge abusing the edges for good measure. And putting it over the top for yours truly is the overflow of scribbly-yet-melodic soloing that crops up around nearly every corner. Of all the albums that managed to jump into my top ten this year, this is the one I’m most surprised to see absent from my peers’ repective lists. Churlish und wunderschön. (Profound Lore)
6. Menace Ruine – Alight in Ashes
Folks who know me well know I like a lot of peculiar shit, and Alight in Ashes definitely scratches that itch. Also, outside of Pallbearer‘s “Given to the Grave,” I don’t think there was another tune in 2012 that better embodied my overall state of mind than opener “Set Water to Flames.” And what exactly should we call this duo’s particular brand, anyway? Clamorous droning heft that’s somehow made smooth as silk at the hands of a neofolk/martial style of rhythm and Geneviève’s morbidly soothing voice; I just could not get enough of it. In fact, I was so entranced by these songs over time that I hauled up to Montréal in order to catch them performed live. And glory be, it was every bit as magnificent from the stage as it is on this fantastic record. (Profound Lore)
7. Towards Darkness – Barren
C’est quoi? Another band from Montréal? You bet your ass, jacques. Barren is one of two albums in my top ten that I’d consider a sleeper hit for 2012 (alongside the soon-to-be mentioned III from Monolith). The band’s sound is most often described as funeral doom — a tag that’s certainly understandable, thanks to its sprawling & crawling darkness — but alongside the nods to outfits such as Skepticism and Colosseum (particularly in those epic, atmospheric keys), we also hear sludgy, post-y elements akin to bands such as Process of Guilt and Suma. Regardless of the varied correlations, the conclusion is undoubtedly something engrossing and pleasingly smoothering, particularly when properly cranked. (Avantgarde Music)
8. Eagle Twin – The Feather Tipped…
Ahhhh, another dip into the bludgeoning weirdness that is Utah’s most kingly twosome, Eagle Twin. “We are brothers to serpents and owls. We have tasted the trees.” I’m a couple peyote buttons short of having the necessary circuitry to fully resonate with a fair bit of what’s said on this album, but when those mescaline-powdered words get delivered on the business end of an iron hammer of noisy/droney/sludgy riff & rhythm such as this, the end result is heavier than John Goodman’s jowls at a Vegas steak buffet. The Feather Tipped the Serpent’s Scale is beautifully trippy, gutturally enticing, and bone flatteningly heavy. (Southern Lord)
9. Necrovation – Necrovation
Sure, I probably would’ve been satisfied hearing Breed Deadness Blood Pt. II – that record soundly confirmed that these Swedes understandably capiche true Swedeath nailed to the T. Despite their ‘root’ talents, however, and despite the fact that ye olde Swede-style continues to score huge amongst the collective metal ear, Necrovation decided to follow their merciless debut with something that would challenge greater expectations. Job well done, lads: Album #2 folds just the right amount of quirk into the formula to stir up an equal share of discomfort and fascination amongst fans of the style. Burn in Hell, tradition. (Agonia Records)
10. MonolithE – III
Album number three from these French plodders picks up precisely where their previous efforts left off: one (mostly) crawling tune clocking in at over fifty minutes long. It probably seems a bit crazy to expect folks in today’s ADD-ravaged world to sit still through any full hour that doesn’t involve an assault on the eyeballs through zombie drama, but III is worth the stab, people. And although the album definitely has a unifying theme throughout its full stretch of enveloping death doom, there are enough twists and turns by way of moogish bleeps & bloops, bits of discordance, mellow measures, and all manner of other sleeved tricks to ensure that boredom is never an option. (Debemur Morti)
:: THE REST OF THE BEST ::
11. Hellwell — Beyond the Boundaries of Sin
12. Evoken — Atra Mors
13. Christian Mistress — Possession
14. Árstíðir Lífsins — Vápna Lækjar Eldr
15. Ash Borer — Cold of Ages
16. Bell Witch — Longing
17. Incantation — Vanquish in Vengeance
18. HELL — III
19. Pharaoh — Bury the Light
20. Master’s Hammer — Vracejte konce na místo
:: TOP THREE EPs ::
1. Agalloch — Faustian Echoes
2. Gospel of the Horns — Conquering Self
3. Anatomy of Habit — Anatomy of Habit
:: TOP THREE DEMOS ::
1. Torture Chain — Time is but a Doorway to the Incinerator
2. Wolfshead — 2012 Demo
3. Die Young — 2012 Demo
:: TOP 10 NON-METAL ALBUMS ::
1. Worm Ouroboros — Come the Thaw
2. John Talabot — Fin
3. Pinkish Black — Pinkish Black
4. Goat — World Music
5. Pins of Light — II
6. Ulver — Childhood’s End
7. Aluk Todolo — Occult Rock
8. Earth House Hold — When Love Lived
9. SWANS — The Seer
10. Silent Servant — Negative Fascination
• • • • •
And as always, a special thanks goes out to all our readers who make this sort of high-paying gig so worth while. You guys rule.
