(I again twisted the arm of recording engineer and musician Sean Golyer (Oak Pantheon) to get his year-end list of personal favorites because I had a feeling it would be an interesting one, and he relented.  I hope he doesn’t need both arms for his work.)

I was originally going to go a more traditional route this year and write a bunch of nonsense reviews about why I like each of these releases. However, even I don’t like seeing myself ramble on trying to quantify reasons why I like band “x” over band “y”. I’ve come to realize I can’t explain my taste in a way that would make sense to anybody but me. I listen and I either like it or I don’t. This year also saw a lot of big changes for me and my bandmates regarding what we enjoy listening to now. This includes a lot of non-heavy music, but important none-the-less. They’re each “metal” in their own way.

So, I’ll continue my own tradition as I did last year by simply posting my favorite songs from my favorite releases with a brief description, all in no particular order. Feel free to discuss or debate the music below with me, or discuss something entirely different. That’s cool too.

Porta Nigra – Fin de Siècle

One of my favorite releases of the year. A unique blend of black metal and rock, Porta Nigra’s debut is total debauchery with a late 19^th century spin. Full of memorable hooks, varied vocal performances, and solid song structure, all with just a hint of opium-induced insanity. Continue reading »

Although we’re far along in our own series of Listmania posts by NCS staff and guests (and have more to come this weekend and throughout next week), we’ve continued to keep an eye out for lists appearing at “big platform” sites around the net. Today brought one more we’ve been expecting: a list of the Top 10 Metal Albums of 2012 by NPR.

Once again the NPR list was compiled by Lars Gotrich, who has a good ear for metal and a nice way with words, too. Last year, NPR’s list was 25 names long, so this year’s list reflects even greater selectivity. However, although NPR apparently insisted on 10 and 10 only, Lars included 15 more on his personal blog. So, it’s still really 25. Actually, Lars also named the five best splits on his blog, and that list is worth seeing, too.

The Top 10 aren’t ranked numerically, but alphabetically, and links to full-album streams were provided where available.  I think you have to say this is a highly personal list, rather than an attempt to cover a genre waterfront. And although NPR’s audience is predominantly not-metal, the Top 10 list isn’t an attempt to pander to cosmopolitan (or hipster) tastes.

The list includes veteran names such as Asphyx (pictured above) and Testament, Pig Destroyer earns yet another high finish, and there’s a healthy dose of doom-influenced metal to be found as well. In addition, I was interested to see the appearance of a band I’ve heard about only recently through recommendations by multiple sources — Pittsburgh’s Derketa. In fact, I was writing about them for a post that will appear later today when I saw the NPR list. Continue reading »

(I successfully prevailed upon Ben C, the proprietor of the immensely entertaining Church of the Riff, to share with us his year-end list of 2012’s best albums.)

Were you ready for the end of days? I was stocking up on porn, Cheetos, and liquor since January. Was gonna watch this sucker go up in style.

Anyway.

I hadn’t really intended on making a year-end list, as just the thought of sifting through the heaps of good music released this year was making me feel like taking a nap. However, once I was horribly mutilated – I mean, graciously asked – by Islander, I hiked up my underoos and set to work.

I should probably warn you now that these aren’t strictly metal albums but instead run the gamut of metal’s extended family, from sleazy skate rock to energetic pop-sludge. The majority of the ten albums I’ve picked will hopefully be new to your ears, as only two of them have been featured here on NCS. So without any more jibber-jabber, let’s get to the music shall we? Continue reading »

We’ve been re-publishing the Best Metal of 2012 lists that we’ve seen on other web sites, focusing on sites that have really big audiences — which sorta means, by definition, that they’re not metal-only sites. So far, we’ve reported about the lists on Pitchfork, Exclaim!, Stereogum, PopMatters, and Loudwire (and we also included DECIBEL magazine’s Top 40 list and a list from Amazon.com). You can catch up on all that by using this Listmania link.

Today, we’re reporting on The Top 50 Albums of 2012 as selected by Adrien Begrand for MSN Entertainment. MSN Entertainment (which is owned by Microsoft) is another broad-scope entertainment site that includes coverage of music, film, games, videos, celebrity gossip, and a wide range of music. They claim over 23 million unique visitors to the site every month, narrowly edging out NCS in audience size. Once again, we’re featuring their list of the year’s best metal because we’re curious about what mass-audience outlets are touting from our precious underground genre.

MSN Entertainment has been rolling out their Top 50 list all week in segments, and as of this morning, the list is now complete. To see the list at MSN Entertainment, along with Adrien Begrand’s comments about each album, GO HERE.

A few thoughts about the list, plus the list itself, appear after the jump: Continue reading »