(We welcome back Denver-based writer Mike Yost, who amiably agreed to my request for his year-end list. I have a feeling that everyone is going to find something new in here.)

I’m a writer, which means I spend most evenings bent over a keyboard, starving from lack of funds.  Crafting resplendent prose consumes time and regurgitates very little money.  Please don’t ready the gallows if an album slipped beneath my radar this year (many have).  So, with that said, here is my 2012 list of the best fucking metal albums I discovered between bouts of writing, reading rejection letters from publishers,  drinking, rereading rejection letters while weeping on the floor in the fetal position, drinking more, masturbating, self loathing and sleeping (usually in that order).

A few caveats:

First, some of the albums on this list were released in 2011, but I didn’t discover them until 2012.  In my book, that counts.  If you don’t agree, I’ll throw my book at your head.  And it’s a heavy book, too.  Over 1,000 pages.  Bound in metal (of course).  Sure to leave a welt.

Second, my list has thirteen albums.  Not ten.  Why?  Because FUCK the number ten, that’s why.  It’s a conceited attention whore constantly demonizing other numbers.

Third, random these in are albums order.

Finally, my cat told me last night if I didn’t include one of his favorites, he would claw my face off while I slept.  I dare not call his bluff.  Some mornings I wake up with my feline friend sitting on my chest, kneading the blanket with those sharp claws, staring at me with unblinking, haunting yellow eyes that say to me without words, “If I were bigger, I would eat you.” Continue reading »

(Tommy Wills is a talented vocalist for a talented multi-national band with the hard-to-pronounce name of RXYZYXR, whose latest album LMNTS we reviewed here. He also has diverse tastes in music that run in directions we don’t often follow at this site, including a lot of metal that doesn’t conform to the normal “no clean singing” rule around here. I thought it would be interesting to find out his picks for the year’s best albums, and he accepted my invitation to share them in this guest post, along with sample songs from each album.)

2012 was a banner year for metal, probably the best for the genre since I started listening to music with a critical ear. This year saw many of the established names in extreme music putting out their most refined and focused statements EVER. It’s all so exciting!

I realize the site is called No Clean Singing and focuses almost exclusively on metal–but this is mostly metal and completely awesome so spread your wings a bit! Without further ado: a definitively wholly subjective list! Hope you HAVE A BLAST! 😉 Continue reading »

(In this third of NCS writer Andy Synn’s week-long series of year-end lists, he identifies a group of 2012 albums that were disappointments. To see his lists of the “Great” and the “Good”, go here and here.)

Well this is always the hardest one to write. You know we don’t like to be negative here at NCS. We rarely post about albums/bands we don’t like, and we always try to be constructive with any criticisms we do have.

But this is part of the yearly round-up, and it’s an acknowledgement that certain albums… just weren’t that good. Not terrible, just not meriting a description as ’Good’ without an unspoken “but…”

Now, to set the record straight, none of these albums is ‘Bad’. They’re just lacking something. Since there’s only a few this year (some previous ‘Disappointing’ bands have actually dropped so far in my estimation that there’s no longer even any point in pretending that they’ve let anyone down), I’ve gone into a little bit of detail about each. Not much, but enough to give you a sense of why they’re on THIS list, and not the ‘Good’ list.

Again – these aren’t ‘Bad’ albums. ‘Bad’ albums wouldn’t even get a mention. These are albums that were objectively (or as objectively as I can assess them) a disappointment. So try and keep the flaming comments to a minimum, eh? Continue reading »

As I assume everyone knows by now, our philosophy is not to crap on metal bands whose music sucks. Instead, we pretty much just ignore them. About the only exceptions are big, famous, wealthy, arrogant bands who just won’t shut the fuck up (I’m looking at you, Dave Mustaine and Axl Rose). But when it comes to just about everyone else, our philosophy is to stay positive and spend our time talking about music we like and want to recommend.

BUT, since we’re nearing the end of the year, other sites are making lists of the worst metal albums of 2012, and once again we’re featuring one of those lists here, to go along with all the “Best of 2012″ lists we’ve been posting. And once again, to get the conversation-started, we’re turning to Adrien Begrand’s column for MSN Entertainment.

MSN Entertainment is another one of what I’ve been calling “big platform” sites, i.e., websites that have huge amounts of traffic but cover metal as only one of dozens of interests. As in the case of other big-platform sites whose Best of 2012 lists I’ve been featuring, I’d be surprised if any of you visit MSN Entertainment to get guidance about good and bad metal. But Adrien Begrand knows his stuff and is worth reading.

So, after the jump, we’ll take a look at his list of the 10 Worst Metal Albums of 2012, and then we’ll open up the Comments for discussion. This year we don’t have world-class stinkers like Lulu and Illud Divinum Insanus, but I bet there have been some others you’ve been detesting almost as much. And if you thing Adrien was wrong-headed in including some of the albums on his own list, feel free to say so. He’s not here to defend himself. Continue reading »

(This is the second in NCS writer Andy Synn’s week-long series of posts looking back at albums released in 2012.) 

Ok, so there’s a variety of releases on this list. And not just in terms of genre. The albums featured here range from ‘Good’ to ‘Very Good’, some of which teeter on the edge of greatness but which, for reasons I might just explain if you’re all on your best behaviour, didn’t quite make the cut for the list of the year’s Great albums.

Try not to blow a gasket if your favourite album is on the ‘Good’ list, rather than the ‘Great’ list – I’ve simply tried to be as objective and impartial as possible. The albums on this list (to paint a broad picture) simply had a few too many flaws, or were perhaps a tad lacking in ambition, to really reach the pinnacle of greatness.

Similarly don’t worry if there’s an album you don’t see on either of the two lists. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be on the ‘Disappointing’ list (though try and forgive me if they are). There’s only so much time in the day/week/month/year, so certain albums I either simply haven’t heard yet (Nachtmystium, Antestor, for example) or haven’t listened to enough to form a reasonable opinion.

After the jump… all the ‘Good’ albums from this year of manic metal. Continue reading »