(This is the second of NCS writer BadWolf’s multi-part series of posts about 2012′s top albums. Yesterday, we posted his Top 10 “Exceptions To the Rule”. Today, we get the straight hard stuff. The artwork above is “Assassin nocturne” by Olgenki.)
In all honesty this is what you come here for; what I came here for. My top 10 albums of abrasive and turbulent music reside in this post. Yes, some of these albums feature a few pinches of melodic vocalism, but these are the albums which speak to man’s primitive, violent natures—to paraphrase an album below, they are for wild children.
As much as I think the greatest strength of this blog is its ability to shine a spotlight on incredibly obscure artists, metal is an old man’s game, and my list leans hard on veterans, many of whom dropped, out of left field, pieces of incredible strength and ferocity. It also leans less on black metal and progressive metal—those two genres are perhaps dovetailing out of brief and brilliant Renaissances—and heavy toward death metal and hardcore. The HM-2 pedal’s revival is still soldiering on, as is the producing career of one Kurt Ballou.
Metal music and culture, to me, are about running against the grain of society at large, and the music below does that with aplomb. I tend to shy away from overly violent lyrics, but some of this music is absolutely depraved. Which is not to say that these aren’t intelligent records—some of 2012’s finest works move through tremendous meditations on serious and real evils in our world today, such as the plight of the American miner, our abusive relationship with the environment, and the possibility of a global surveillance state.
Gojira – L’Enfant Sauvage
Four years is a long wait for a relatively lean album, and one that looks less ambitious than its predecessor—that is if you’re judging based on superficial criteria like song length and use of synthesizers. Rest assured, L’Enfant Sauvage is the most challenging record these French environmentalists have penned. Its B-side flirts with post-rock-and-metal territory, shifting between subtly altered segments and wringing more variety out of in-amp distortion than most progressive metal groups get with thousands of dollars worth of pedals. But underneath all the complexity, Gojira have honed in on a simple songwriting ethos: nobody wants to hear a Gojira song without a monster-clobbering caveman mosh riff. You want heavy? Gojira gives you heavy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHaRQzCqv_s
Panopticon – Kentucky
Folk metal is a fickle mistress, and in general Americans cannot please her. Too often the genre falls into power metal’s empty bombast. And let’s be honest—polka beats get fucking irritating. Panopticon skirt all of those pitfalls.
Kentucky is a harrowing hour of technically proficient black metal mixed with bluegrass passages and classic working-class folk songs. A blackgrass album, if you will. Panopticon weave these disparate elements together with a stunning sense of melody, some serious technical acumen (the first series of guitar solos in “Bodies Under the Falls,” holy shit!), and the grim subject matter of the American coal worker.
I may have a bias: I’m from Ohio, and have taken many trips to and through Appalachia. The sound of banjo is never far. Whole towns in my state are dying with the coal industry, and yet I see great wickedness in the practice of mining coal. Still, anyone should be able to appreciate the raw beauty of Kentucky.
High on Fire – De Vermis Mysteriis
And the award for least pronounceable name goes to…
I’ve loved High on Fire since 2005’s Blessed Black Wings album, and unlike seemingly every other critic, I’m quite fond of 2010’s Snakes for the Divine album. I would not call this record some sort of magical improvement over it, as that album was a favorite as well. But what needs to be said is that for all his faults, Matt Pike is one hell of a songwriter. He’s been called the Lemmy of my generation. I disagree: unlike Lemmy his songwriting improves from album to album.
The revelation on De Vermis is just how aggressive High on Fire can be. As pounding and sludgy as Pike was in the past, I never saw his band as the kind of pit-agitating bomb squadron that wrote this record. Seriously, songs like ‘Bloody Knuckles’ and ‘Fertile Green’ feel like needles full of mainlined hatred. Some thanks goes to Kurt Ballou (you’ll read that name again here) for making the snare drum on this album sound like a pneumatic piston, and giving Pike’s guitar some of 2012’s hottest distortion.
Aborted – Global Flatline
Any death metal album sampling The Human Centipede must earn that sample, and Global Flatline does. It’s depraved, rancid, but sports a shining modern production, making it perhaps the most compulsively listenable death metal album of 2012. I haven’t seen any other blogs besides this one represent for Aborted. A shame, really, because this is the most consistent record in their catalog. Global Flatline deals in an array of breakdowns, slams, and surprisingly hooky melodies. It is in every way the record that bands like Job for a Cowboy and Whitechapel have been trying to make since abandoning the deathcore song structure—perhaps in a decade they will achieve what Aborted have done in 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRWODxvSV_g
A Life Once Lost – Ecstatic Trance
I’ve been excited for this album for a long, long time. A Life Once Lost’s catalog was some of my first extreme metal and hardcore. I celebrate their entire catalog, even the much-maligned Iron Gag album. Five years is too long a wait. But after a near-total lineup change, and half a decade of work, Ecstatic Trance represents the purest distillation of what A Life Once Lost is, as a band. The blues scales from Iron Gag, and the punk sneer of Hunter have been replaced with psychedelic undertones.
Oh, and some of the most punishing grooves I can think of. The influences here are obvious: Meshuggah, Ministry, and Killing Joke (the album even comes with a cover of “Asteroid.”). Bob Meadows pulls no punches in his most ferocious vocal performance on record. It is as if the group decided to show every Djent band on the planet precisely how awesome that subgenre could be with a bit of grit and a lot of heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLY4MG8Zr3U
Nidingr – G.O.D.
2012’s finest black metal release came from a bunch of guys who played second-fiddle in Mayhem and Gorgoroth. G.O.D. eschews most genre conventions: there are relatively few blast beats, the production is huge and bassy, and the vocals must be heard to be believed. Cpt. Estrella is the first vocalist I’ve heard in years who could stand next to Attila Csihar and Ihsahn as equally operatic and savage. This is what I wanted Mayhem’s Ordo ad Chao to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM5wz0SDC34
Cannibal Corpse – Torture
2012 was full of great releases by classic death metal bands: Cattle Decapitation, Cryptopsy, Unleashed, Grave, Napalm Death, Nile, and others released some of the best work in their carreers. And I like all of their careers more than Cannibal Corpse’s.
So why do I love Torture so? Because I cannot stop spinning it. “Encased in Concrete,” “As Deep as the Knife Will Go,” “Scourge of Iron,” “Intestinal Crank,” each infest with earworms. I think I can quote half this album, and have done so many times, at inappropriate times. Any record that can make me growl FOLLOWED HOME THEN KILLED in the middle of holiday gift shopping deserves great praise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQRTrC2m8wE
Meshuggah – Koloss
I have nothing to say that I did not in my review. Yet another perfect record in a catalog full of them. Meshuggah may be all of metal’s finest sons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAQNhcWwR7c
Converge – All We Love We Leave Behind
Damn you, Jacob Bannon and your bizzare psychic window into me. Songs like “Sadness Comes Home” and “Shame in the Way” state in simple, quite direct terms, things I’ve felt for years. Converge is one of my bands, the kind that resonate with me on a personal level. They also do not release bad records, and as much as I liked Axe to Fall, I found that its sprawling second act blurred together after the first listen.
But on All We Love We Leave Behind, every last song sounds distinct, with its own flavor. Kurt Ballou, Ben Koller, and Nate Newton must now rank as a hardcore three piece on par with classic Black Flag or Bad Brains, and like those bands they’re mixing new sounds into the mix: classic rock beats and trancelike ambient interludes that make already-strong songs stronger rather than prop them up. Oh and Kurt Ballou reserves his best production tricks for his own group. If Jane Doe was their Reign in Blood, this is their Seasons in the Abyss.
Black Breath – Sentenced to Life
This record dropped in March, two days before my birthday, and what a gift it was. To the rest of 2012, thanks for showing up, now die. I’m so jealous that Islander gets to live in the same city as this force of nature made flesh. Words do not sufficiently describe how much I love this record’s mix of d-beat, thrash, NWOBHM, and Swedish death metal. I’ve reviewed it already, but seriously, if you have not, go buy this album. Satisfaction guaranteed.
28 Responses to “BADWOLF’S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR: NO CLEAN SINGING”
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“2012′s finest black metal release…”
Disagree with me will you??? Why I oughta…
“It also leans less on black metal and progressive metal—those two genres are perhaps dovetailing out of brief and brilliant Renaissances”
Quite possibly yes though. Should be interesting to see.
Great list BadWolf!!!! need to check out Panopticon and Nidingr
“Gojira have honed in on a simple songwriting ethos: nobody wants to hear a Gojira song without a monster-clobbering caveman mosh riff.” Gold, Jerry, gold.
Black Breath = Fuck yeah. Solid choice.
This is going to ruffle some feathers, but please tell me WHAT has this Gojira done that’s *soooooo heavy* as I keep reading from every metal blog in existence??? I’ve tried several times to give them a spin and I just don’t get why everyone is jizzing over it? Wow, you can repeatedly hit a natural harmonic on your guitar strings….soooo original. Machine Head was only incorporating that into their riffs 20 years ago! Other than that…pretty weak overall sound that its more in-line with light radio rock than it is technical death metal. I can think of 12921092039203920 bands off the top of my head that are heavier, more technical and more *brootal* than this band…and don’t even get me started on the extremely weak, pansy death vocals…..are they supposed to be death vocals? And what monster cave man riffs????? For all the praise, I don’t see any of these purported attributes. So please, draw a straight line in the sand and lead me to the brutality this band is said to display because repeated listens have failed to find it!
Shhhh… No-one wants to talk to you.
I’m asking a serious question. Go back to eating your christmas pudding and blowing the Queen
While Andy is giving the Queen a day she’ll never forget, I’ll chime in simply to say that it’s hard to take the question seriously since it’s unanswerable. You’ve listened to a lot of metal, you’ve listened to Gojira, and you don’t think the music is heavy. Others do (including me). What could anyone say that would make you think, “okay, stupid me, now I get it, it’s heavy”?
I also do think there’s heavier music that’s been released this year, but BadWolf wasn’t claiming that Gojira took the 2012 crown for heaviness. And I for one wouldn’t call most of Joe Duplantier’s vocals death vox. I think they’re very distinctive and powerful nevertheless.
Thanks for the serious reply and I respect that response. In retrospect, I suppose my question is a difficult one to answer. I’m unfamiliar with their back catalogue. I know I’ve tried to listen to them in the past and recall things not *clicking* for me, but I couldn’t tell you what song and from what album. With that said, I didn’t know if someone could say to check out *song A* from album *such and such* for a perfect example of this band and it’s ferocity. And you’re right, Badwolf didn’t claim they were the heaviest *ever*….but he did say, “you want heavy? They give you heavy,”….to paraphrase. It wasn’t this particular review….just my own frustration that has built up with blog after blog tauting this album like the return of Christ. Most have overstated the *heaviness* and *brutality* of the album and I just don’t get it? That’s not to say it’s bad….opinions are just that and everyone has a different one. Haven’t you ever been irritated when the metal community, on the whole, adores something and you don’t understand why because it does nothing for you when you listen to it? I’m just rambling now….
Yes indeed, I’ve been mystified more than once by the adoration showered by metal blogs and fans on albums I don’t get. And I think I’m also subject to a certain kind of perversity that affects other fans, where the more something gets slobbered over, the more I instinctively start to back away from it — even when it’s good.
In Gojira’s case, I’ve had the opposite reaction. Partly I think it’s because I’ve been a fan of their music going back way before they became a household name, and so I’ve been happy for them to see their profile get so big — and to see their profile rise despite the fact that they’re still just making the music they want to make, without consciously trying to adjust what they do in pursuit of sales/popularity.
I also have to say that another reason I’ve been happy to see their success is that the Duplantier brothers seem like such good people — smart, true to their principles, not full of themselves.
To me, heaviness is irrelevant to whether and how much I like a metal album. Granted my definition of a metal is more tied to the band’s history/roots (e.g. Anathema, Paradise Lost) and aesthetic (e.g. Katatonia, Woods of Ypres) rather than sound proper. \
That said, I can also relate to the sentiment. I can think of a few albums this year that got rave reviews, whether in the semi-mainstream (Converge), or in the “underground” (Asphyx, Unleashed), for which I though the hoopla was undeserved. And while I can understand it in the case of Converge (I dislike hardcore), I’m confused by the cases of Asphyx & Unleashed (since I adore old-school Swedish DM-style, but found the releases boring). Then again I always remember that objective as I think I might be, my ears are too hairy to be trusted…
Not really getting the meaning of “Shhhh” are you?
Still I commend Islander for attempting to actually engage with you.
I have to admit, I laughed at the “blowing the Queen” line. Classic.
He just doesn’t understand how hard it is (lol)…
That lady is HUNG.
I laughed too. I have a vivid image of Andy on his knees with his head up under the royal skirts giving it all he’s got.
Working my way towards a knighthood.
Knighthood is a deep dive. I admire your ambition. Thanks for coming up for air long enough to leave a comment.
The only Gojira album I’m really crazy about is From Mars to Sirius. To me that one has the best, and probably heaviest, riffs. And no, I don’t believe the vocals are supposed to be death vocals. I think of Gojira as more of a hybrid death/groove metal band. Maybe your issue with them is that you were expecting more of a death metal sound? Maybe you hate groove metal (a lot of people seem to)? I would recommend “The Heaviest Matter of the Universe” and “From the Sky” off of FMtS, if you haven’t heard it. It took awhile for them to click with me too, and even still it’s only that one album that I get excited over, although I think their new one is solid.
I’m with you. FMtS is the only one I really enjoy and it took a while to grow on me. I’m with morbidcorpse a little, too. Even FMtS isn’t that “heavy”, Meshuggah is also like that for me. Two very good bands that don’t seem to fit with expectations formed from most reviews.
I have a theory: I don’t think there’s any uniform definition of heaviness. I think it’s a relative term, in the sense that it depends on what you’re used to and what you listen to most of the time. And so, to make up some examples, someone who’s really into the kind of death metal that Disma or Diocletian play isn’t going to think Gojira is as heavy as someone who’s really into Lamb of God.
Having said that, I still think Gojira is heavy. 🙂
I’m sure that’s a pretty accurate theory. I think tone plays into it a lot, too. Morbidcorpse said “pretty weak overall sound” and I might describe my feelings similarly. Kinda heavy but fragile, if that makes any sense.
Was Gojira among your earliest exposures to extreme metal? If so, maybe starting points have a lot to do with it, too.
No, not among my earliest exposures.
Then my theory sucks 😉
I do believe they are talented musicians and good people, and it’s good to see them doing well, even though they aren’t among my favorites.
not among my earliest exposures no.
I feel they have a crisp, bass-heavy sound. That is, in and of itself, heavy o me. By contrast, the sort of thin, 2nd wave norwegian sound to me, is not very heavy. Darkthrone albums sound like air hissing out of a hose. But i still love them.
Haha, early Darkthrone does kinda sound like air hissing out of a hose. I love them, too, though.
I’ve gotta agree with this. I can’t really describe what makes an album “heavy” to me in the slightest. Sometimes it’s groovy riff, other times it’s a specific breakdown in conjunction with lyrics that resonate with me, and other times it’s simply a really low tone. I mean one of the heaviest moments in music for me in recent memroy was No Love by Death Grips. The main…whatever the fuck you call a riff in electronica/rap in that song is like a controlled demolition of my frontal lobe. Other moments include the entirety of Converge’s Trespasses and the riff near the end of Pig Destroyer’s Book Burner. There’s just no rhyme or reason to it.
Man, writing that out made me realize I’ve really not gotten a good enough dose of OSDM or black metal in the past couple months. Fuck.
Overall, an excellent list. I’m more than with you on the Black Breath album, that was one hell of a kick. High On Fire’s album was also good fun, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around Panopticon’s. Still not utterly sold on Meshuggah’s, and I’ll be sure to check out A Life Once Lost’s release.
Sorry to be That Pedant, but the spelling of Black Flag in the Converge section is bugging me. Any possibility to edit it slightly?
Ugh. Don’t know how I misssed that Blag Flack typo. Now fixd.