The Top 50 Albums of 2012 - Honourable Mention

We must be running out of words to attach the “post” prefix to. In today’s interconnected world bands and artists are free to sample one another’s work buffet style, and work a vast swath of influences together into familiar but subtly different new packages. In such a world it is impossible for any one sound to be everything to everyone. This, in 2012 the best albums were made by intensely focused artists who inhabited one recognizable sound, and owned it. We don’t have time to waste with musical pranksters these days – everyone’s too busy, and if you’re like me, you already know what you want to hear. In my case it was a lot of metal, lots more hardcore, the occasional psychedelic oddity, some weird electronic music and some drunken anthemic rock n’ roll played by bands who’s lives sounded like they depended on every chord.

This year was a disappointing one for lovers of retrograde rock music. Brandon Stosuy has referred to 2012 as “the year mid-tempo died.” I don’t necessarily agree with him, but I understand his point: While the most exciting heavy music was being made by hardcore bands and doom metallers, the classicist hard rock, heavy psych, space rock and grooving stoner metal bands were largely treading water. Although these styles have always been somewhat backwards looking in their inspiration, in the past decade a number of bands were able to imbue them with enough innovation, creativity and vitality to make something fresh out of old ingredients. It seems that that trend has petered itself out somewhat, with a number of very good bands seeming now to be content with re-hashing familiar styles across a swath of enjoyable but ultimately interchangeable records.

Meanwhile, the ancient oak of heavy metal has finally seemed to fully incorporate the influences of Entombed, Celtic Frost and Meshuggah into its dark, dirty roots. Meshuggah especially has seen a raft of imitators spring up in recent years, few of which have managed to go beyond mere mimicry, but some who have adapted their sound in interesting ways. A number of these younger metal bands have learned to synthesize their antecedents’ advancements and started to find their own paths. The well of Neurosis post metal imitators seemed to finally run dry, even as the originals continue to go strong. A number of the old guard also put out strong albums, be they ‘80s thrash, ‘90s death metal and all the bands mining the legacy of Swedish d-beat hardcore.

A whole bunch of really interesting black metal has been percolating for a number of years now, and I think it’s safe to say the trend has reached its saturation point. I think I’ve gotten burned out a bit on it, but there were plenty of goof albums in the style released this year, and my list reflects that.

Anyways, I’ll start off by pointing out a number of notable records that didn’t make my list. These were all highly enjoyable, but for one reason or another, I didn’t feel like writing about. I’ll continue with the actual list over the course of the next 5 days. Let me know what your favourites are.

Best EP’s
Agalloch – Faustian Echoes
Electric Wizard – Legalize Drugs And Murder
Baptists – Tourettes
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Psychic Love Damage
A Place To Bury Strangers – Onward To The Wall
Inverloch – Dusk… Subside
Deathspell Omega - Drought
Primitive Weapons – The Shadow Gallery
Fucked Up – Year Of The Tiger
Down - Down IV: The Purple EP
Ancients (U.S.) – The Lyra Particle

Best reissues

My Bloody Valentine - EP's 1988-1991
Isis – Temporal

Best reunion of a classic lineup
Six Organs Of Admittance – Ascention (COMETS ON FIRE AS BEN CHASNY’S BACKING BAND!)

Local Vancouver drone bands that deserve a shout

Ian William Craig – Meanings Turn To Whispers, Cloudmarks, Heretic Surface

Hierarchies – Intergalactic Light/Computer Controlled

A really good local indie pop band

The Zolas – Ancient Mars

It’s awesome that these guys got back together and made a record

Tragedy – Darker Days Ahead

It’s sad that there won’t be anymore albums from this band

Woods Of Ypres - Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light

Best band that Mike Noble is in
Young Pacific – Lone Fire

Best case of classic rock bands still kicking ass
Rush – Clockwork Angels
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Psychedelic Pill & Americana

Best records from reunited classic underground, alternative and indie bands who are still pretty good
Corrosion Of Conformity - Corrosion Of Conformity
Dinosaur Jr. – I Bet On Sky
Guided By Voices – Let’s Go Eat the Factory, Class Clown Spots A UFO & The Bears For Lunch

Most surprisingly accessible rock record from a noise rock legend
Lee Ronaldo – Between The Time and the Tides

Garage rock vets who keep gettin’ it done
Ty Segall – Twins & Hair (with White Fence)
Thee Oh Sees – Putrifiers II
Titus Andronicus – Local Business
Gasligth Anthem - Handwritten

Best super noisy bludgeon rock records
Metz – Metz
Future Of The Left - The Plot Against Common Sense
Killing Joke – MMXII

Best record from English electronic shoegazers

The Big Pink – Future This

Best example of a unique band still doing their own thing

The Liars – WIXIW
The Black Dice – Mr. Impossible
Swans – The Seer
Some other good hard rock records
Witchcraft – Legend
The Sword - Apocryphon
Greenleaf – Nest Of Vipers
Bloody Hammers – Bloody Hammers
Troubled Horse – Step Inside
Orange Goblin – Eulogy For The Damned
Kadavar – Kadavar
Graveyard – Lights Out

More smoky occult rock bands with female singers

Christian Mistress - Posession
Royal Thunder – CVI
Jess & The Ancient Ones - Jess & The Ancient Ones

Best cosmic doom and heavy psych and space rock records
White Hills – Frying On This Rock
Ufomammut - ORO: Opus Primum & ORO: Opus Alter
Sons Of Otis – Seismic
Electric Moon – Inferno
Ancestors – In Dreams And Time
My Sleeping Karma – Soma
Black Mountain - Year Zero: The Original Soundtrack
Colour Haze – She Said

Some other pretty good psych records
Tame Impala – Lonerism
Moon Duo – Circles
Eternal Tapestry – Dawn In 2 Dimensions & A World Out Of Time
Buffalo Killers – Dig. Sow. Love. Grow.
Woods – Bend Beyond

Best modern ultra prog record
Izz – Crush Of Night

Cool Tool impression from a badass supergroup
Soen – Cognitive

Really popular mainstream rock albums I liked, even though I’m a huge snob
Band Of Skulls – Sweet Sour
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Soulfly - Enslaved
Foxy Shazam – The Church Of Rock And Roll
Jack White - Blunderbuss
Soundgarden – King Animal
Between The Buried And Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence
Lacuno Coil – Dark Adrenaline
The Darkness – Hot Cakes
Smashing Pumpkins – Oceana
Taproot – The Episodes

Best record from a noise rock band who build their own guitar pedals

A Place To Bury Strangers – Worship

Best summertime party rock record

JEFF the Brotherhood – Hypnotic Nights

Some good hardcore records

Early Graves - Red Horse

Wolfbrigade – Damned

Struck By Lightning – True Prediction

Martyrdöd - Paranoia

OFF! –OFF!

Best classic heavy metal records

Dawnbringer – Intro The Lair Of The Sun God

Obsession – Order Of Chaos

3 Inches Of Blood – Long Live Heavy Metal

Wintersleep – Time I

Epica – Requiem For The Indifferent

Best records from thrash lifers still gettin’ it done in 2012

Testament – Dark Roots Of The Earth
Overkill – The Electric Age
Kreator – Phantom Antichrist

Death metal legends who are can still rip your head off

Asphyx – Deathhammer
Incantation – Vanquish In Vengeance
Grave – Endless Procession Of Souls
Nile - At The Gates Of Sethu

More black metal I liked
Atriarch – Ritual Of Passing
Revenge - Scum.Collapse.Eradication
Ash Borer – Cold Of Ages
Forgotten Tomb - ...And Don't Deliver Us from Evil
Mutilation Rites – Empyrean
Bosse-De-Nage - III
Winterfylleth - The Threnody Of Triumph
Alcest - Les Voyages De L'Âme
Nihill - Verdonkermaan
Faustcoven - Hellfire And Funeral Bells
God Seed – I Begin
Nachtmystium – The Silencing Machine
Furze – Psych Minus Space Control

More doom metal I liked

Bell Witch - Longing
Conan – Monos
Hooded Menace – Effigies Of Evil
Pilgrim – Misery Wizard
Evoken - Atra Mors
Anhedonist – Netherwards
Process Of Guilt – Fæmin
Aldebaran - Embracing The Lightless Depths
Eagle Twin - The Feather Tipped the Serpent's Scale
Bereft – Leichenhaus
haarp - Husks

Experimental blackened doom bands that did interesting stuff

Botanist – Botanist III: Doom In Bloom
Menace Ruine – Alight In Ashes

More extreme metal that was good

Pig Destroyer – Book Burner
Lamb Of God - Resolution
Goatwhore – Blood For The Master
Weapon – Embers & Revelations
Sonne Adam – Doctrines Of Dark Devotion & Messengers of Desolate Ways
Acephalix – Deathless Master
Be'lakor – Of Breath And Bone
Necrovation - Necrovation
Zonaria - Arrival Of The Red Sun

Super epic viking metal battle music
Borkagnar - Urd
Enslaved - RIITIIR

Hey, not everyone is tired of sounding like Neurosis, and this is still a pretty good album

Downfall Of Gaia - Suffocating In The Swarm Of Cranes

Weird electronic music I liked
Two Fingers – Stunt Rhythms
Four Tet – Pink
Squarepusher - Ufabulum
Burial – Kindred
DJ Food – The Search Engine


Brian Eno Being Brian Eno award
Brian Eno - Lux

Some pitchfork-approved indie trash I liked

Sleigh Bells – Reign Of Terror
Plants & Animals – The End Of That
Chrome Canyon – Elemental Themes
Django Django – Django Django

The real list goes up tomorrow!

Exhibition

The Biltmore was packed full yesterday to see a decimating 4 band bill consiting of locals Baptists and Black Wizard, plus Saviours and the legendary Corrosion of Conformity. With intermission tunes heavy on the hardcore and sludgy metal being provided by myself along with my collegues in the Knights of the Turntable, the crowd was in for an ear-bleeding good time. It's just too bad that the place only filled up after the best performance of the night had already finished -- leading things off in front of a mostly empty house, Baptists proved once again that they are the best band going in Vancouver right now.

Their short set was as intense a display of musical aggression and power as you are likely to witness. Baptist's drummer gave an absolute clinic in how to play heavy, covering everything from slow, groovy riffs to ferocious d-beat hardcore. The band has proven themselves equally adept at wallowing in sludgy pits of filthy morass as full throttle breakneck ragers, and on this night they blasted away at the audience with a demeneted ferocity that most bands are simply incapable of matching. As the opener on a 4-band bill, Baptists coming out with all guns blazing was exactly what was needed to kick the show off right.

New Westminster's Black Wizard replaced one of their guitarists within the past year, and this was my first time seeing them with the new lineup. Their 2009 self-titled debut was one of my favourite albums of the year, but I'm still waiting on a full-length follow up. Although they seemed a little shaky out of the gate, their tightened up as the show went on. The highlight was the set-closing holiday themed pean to the messiah - "JESUS WAS A BASTARD CHILD!!!" set to as beefy a riff as you could hope to hear. Their classicist metal still hits all the right pleasure points for me. Great vocals, mean dueling lead guitars, gut punch rhythm section and tons of sludgy riffs. Still a force to be reckoned with onstage once they get going, I look forward to hearing some new music from them soon.

Saviours came on next and proceeded to bludgeoun the audience with their tight, well-arragned groove metal. Like Black Wizard, they seemed to get hotter as their set progressed. They ran the gamut from sludgy lows to thrashy highs, spiced up with some tasty harmonized guitar leads. A particular highlight was a set-closing performance of a track from their most recent album, a song the name of which escapes me. It was a 7 minute riff collossus complete with some shredding leads that Lucifer would surely approve of. Bonus points because three members didn't wear shirts and their bassplayer looks like Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap.

C.O.C. took the stage as a 3 piece, longtime singer and guitarist Pepper Keenan having not appeared on their recent eponymous album. Original vocalist Mike Dean instead handled the mic and bass duties as the band ground out a set heavy on huge, groovy riffs and featuring a few hardcore sprints the like of which the band get their start with. A definate strain of southern sludge is still present in their veins despite the departure of Keenan, bringing to mind one of his other bands, Down. Their faster numbers ignited a moshpit briefly in a venue not known for being particularly friendly to slam dancing or metal or punk shows in general, and a couple of ruffians had to be helped out the door. Corrosion's set was heavy on stuff from their new and quite good new album as well as some '80s tracks that would have pleased longtime hardcore fans. Unfortunately it was a bit of a disappointment not to hear longtime standards like "Albatross" or "Vote with a Bullet." Setlist quibbles aside, it was a solid set from a band who has made a living punching the clock with their particular brand of heavy, fuzzed out hardcore. They left the stage shortly before 1am, after many fans had already decided to head out into the cold Vancouver night with ringing ears and a satisfied craving for the heaviness.

Communique

I think it's hilarious that this exists. It's a 1988 PBS fundraiser featuring Deicide under their original moniker Amon. I'll save you some trouble, the sound quality is crap.

The link is more to prove it than anything else. Dig the guy introducing them. I bet he goes to a lot of death metal shows.

In other news I'm still alive. Here's some rekkerds I've been spinning lately.  

Xibalba - Hasta La Muerte These guys remind me of Sepultura and Morbid Angel, but their straight ahead churn and the shouted gang vocals make the band much more of a sludgy hardcore unit than anything resembling those technically advanced cousins. These tunes stomp and rage with perfect aggression. Prepare for some blunt force trauma with a side of throat shredding vocals.  

Ash Borer - Cold Of Ages A shifting, multifaceted black metal epic. Just 4 songs, each one clocking in around 15 minutes. I think I liked the first record better, but this is a band with ambition, compositional skill and an excellent grasp of dynamics. Some of the quiet passages are just as intense as the blasted-out frightening bits.  

Black Breath - Sentenced To Life This sludgy hardcore unit has been damaging ears for a few years now, but I think that this new record is probably their best to date. Their guitar tones here are thick and devastatingly heavy. There are enough metal infused leader guitar breaks to demonstrate obvious technical skill, but the floor punching aesthetic remains. You'll be in for a pummeling.  

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! Their first record in 10 years came out with very little advance warning. In fact they've been honing some of this material since making their return to the live arena two years ago. It sounds like the work of a touring band, with the guitar taking center stage throughout and a minimal number of orchestral swells. This is as heavy or rocking as the band have ever sounded on record, but it is still a Godspeed record. You can expect 20 minute songs and no lyrics. It gets very loud and then very quiet. Sounds good to me.  

Samothrace - Reverence To Stone Consisting of just 2 tracks and a runtime under 40 minutes, Samothrace's first album in 5 years leaves me wanting more. Epic doom metal with some quite beautiful quieter sections and some good old-fasioned lead guitar heroics thrown in for some good measure. An addictive listen.

Suggestion

Sometimes I think those Christian Children's Fund commercials would be more effective if they used music by Sepultura.

Obvious

The stupidest thing the rock critics of the late 60's and 70s did was assume that rock n' roll would remain the dominant force in pop music forever. Boomers took it for granted that their music would stand the test of time. Of course, this was wishful thinking, as subsequent generations have developed their own unique musical pathways. Every generation does this, and it's silly to expect that people born in the 40s and 50s were somehow exceptional, that their music was automatically superior to any that came before or after. The more politicized and idealistic among these people even dared hope that the music could be used to rally and radicalize the masses for political action. I suppose this made sense in the context of the late 60's global youth movement that saw radical student and youth-led political movements in Canada, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Japan, France, Vietnam, China, Great Britain and elsewhere. The end result was that the ideal of rock as a force of societal change took on so much import in the minds of many that its meaning in a musical context was lost. A couple of fallacies that resulted from this was the belief that rock and pop were one and the same, and that all truly great rock music must resonate with a mass audience. The reverberations of this generation-wide inability to grasp the musical changes underway are still being felt today. Now, it's hip-hop, dance music and country that dominates the pop charts, and really it's been this way for decades. Most people don't have a clue what they actually like about the music they listen to. Go ahead, ask someone some time. It's like they've never thought about it. The problem is that the bands who really were playing rock music in the musical sense (the only one that matters) of the term were left behind as popular tastes changed. As they pursued their muses down through various spacey, progressive, hard rock, avante garde, proto metal, punk rock, blues and psychedelic avenues and began to evolve away from their source musics, bands focused on musical concerns rather than political posturing. After Vietnam it became less profitable for a band to do so anyways. As time went on through the late 70s, critics declined to champion such bands because of what they weren't: ie, mass cultural forces that could be used to rally the masses. Nevermind that Black Flag, Metallica, Husker Du, The Replacements, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, The Wipers, Mudhoney, Saint Vitus, the Melvins, Slayer, Motorhead, D.O.A. and many, many others were making rock music that was aesthetically very close to what the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had done in their days... small band music with a focus on the aggressive interplay between a rhythm section and one or two guitar players. I once helped finance a DVD called Such Hawks, Such Hounds At one point legendary Seattle producer Jack Endino says something to the effect that there will always be an audience for heavy rock, but it will never be at the top of the charts. I agree with him, but i still think today's rock writers have a responsibility to document the careers of relevant rock bands from past and present. The flame of rock will keep burning, but it's continued vitality will take rigorous aesthetic thought on our parts. Pretending rock is something it's not doesn't help anyone.

Rantings

Everyone should have access to any music they want to hear. I'm not going to shut myself off from culture just because I make minimum wage. I have a right to explore digital media. I think everyone does. And many, many people will take advantage of that freedom to enjoy the creative output of an artist without giving anything back. That's too bad. Not everyone can afford it, and not everyone cares enough. Of course I believe that artists deserve to be compensated for the things they create. Thankfully, I do have a small amount of disposable income, and I use some of it to support artists I like by buying records and seeing their shows. I see myself as a patron of the arts. I can't possibly buy all the records I want, but I'm working on it. Knowing how to prioritize becomes a necessity then for the serious music fan. The internet is an invaluable tool. I can have any music I want, so I choose what I really think is truly excellent to spend my money on. I know I'm not like most people, but that's how I roll. The problem is that in decades past our idea of the value of music has fluctuated wildly. Today we are awash in talented music. It's a devalued resource. Kids today won't pay for music -- or will they? My peer group isn't representative of most 20-somethings, but many of my friends do see shows or buy music or merch. What's more, even though many bands don't ever make money and people seem to be more jaded about major-label success than ever before, people are still forming bands. Music isn't in trouble, it's the industry that's suffering. Even then it's the bigger, larger, slower beasts with incredible overheads that are wallowing in tar-black sales figures. Smaller, more flexible labels who operate with skinnier budgets are devising innovative ways to succeed in the marketplace. Isn't that what capitalism is all about? Until the 20th Century, people enjoyed music only one way -- live. But just about anyone could practice enough to be semi-proficient, and even if they couldn't, people would still get together and make music with each other for the sheer enjoyment of it. The recording process changed our relationship with music. When we learned how to record and play back music, we made it possible for the moment of spontaneous performance to be immortalized. This in turn caused the creation of an industry which could finance the recording process and pay for the increasingly sophisticated equipment that followed. In doing so, they also worked with the mass media, particularly radio, to create a bottleneck; for the most part, only music that they released reached the ears of the public. The gatekeepers of the media then decided who got played to the general public. Many people -- bands, managers, executives, corporate shareholders etc. -- got very wealthy this way. Music that sells is a much rarer thing than just music by itself. In doing so they also changed our perception of how musicians perform their art. It was recorded music, not live music, that fixed in the audiences' mind the idea of how music "should" sound. This allowed them to insist upon the recording process sounding just so. Modern music that doesn't have a digital sheen doesn't have a prayer of making the jump into the major media marketplace. This does not mean, however, that people have lost the ability to respond when faced with music in a live setting. The trick, as Carducci says, is getting them there in the first place. The industry has taught us to venerate the cult of the star. It was in their interests to do so, because then they could sell us the name/face/image of their latest act. That's a lot easier for them to do if they've conditioned us to believe that whatever shiny product they are foisting on us couldn't possibly be equaled by any four random people in a garage somewhere. Unfortunately for them, the internet taught us that many many people could in fact equal the output of major labels. Go ahead and check youtube and see how many videos of guitarists there are doing a pretty fair version of "Eruption." Bands have also had their worldview warped by the boom years of the record industry. Traveling musicians and minstrels in years past knew how difficult it was to ply their trade, but they did it anyways, even if allowing that they were not likely to ever achieve wealth (fame was another story). The ideal that some people still aspire to now is unrealistic. Bands, many very good ones, still believe in the fantasy of the Led Zeppelin-Rolling Stones jetliners-supermodels-trashing hotels-mountains of cocaine rock n' roll fantasy. Real bands today can spend 20 years working their asses off to make a living, and still never passing through that glass ceiling defined by exposure in the mass media. The few that do break through without the media's help are labelled "cult acts" precisely because their situation differs so starkly from the norm. Usually you have to be pretty damn good to attract a following the old fashioned way, by relentless touring. To accuse a band like Nickelback of not having -any- talent is off base. I'm not going to tell you that they make good music, just that they have a talent for scamming the music-buying public and playing BIG MUSIC's industry game. Chad shits out hits, and people eat it up, with radio happy to supply the snow shovel. Nickelback don't suck any more than any other group of artisans raised on commercial 90s "modern rock" radio that DOESN'T fill stadiums. They write generic rock songs with good hooks and a huge production budget. Stylistic consolidators, astute racketeers and hack opportunists have formed and supported bands like Nickelback in the past and it's just lazy to blame them for everything that's wrong with the industry. I'm sure Nickelback put on a suitably professional arena-rock show with explosions and lasers and play all their hits exactly the way they sound on the radio. In other words, "Don't hate the playa, hate the game!"