(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. Continue reading »

(Today NCS writer BadWolf begins a multi-part series of posts about 2012’s top albums. For newcomers, The Rule to which BadWolf is recognizing exceptions is embodied in the name of our site.)

Normally, I split my end of the year list into the catchiest albums I’ve heard and the most artistic. I’m abandoning that format this year, having lost faith in the dichotomy—I’ve spent too much time writing the same thing about the same band twice, and not enough time respecting you, the reader. Catchiness and artistic value, these are things for you to decide, not me. In addition, I really needed to alter and shift my routines. This will be part of a continued process extending into 2013.

I am changing, my habits are changing, as are my tastes. In particular, comrades, you will note a plethora of doom records below. 2012 was a banner year for doom, but that ignores a thick thread of this particular post’s plot. To be confessional: 2012 was a horrid year for me, personally. I won’t get into details, but due to a series of personal and professional events, I spent most of the year suffering from a serious depression. (This is one contributing factor to my reduced blog output. I apologize.) I have a history of major depressive episodes, but normally they come and go more-or-less unrelated to any external stimuli, but recently, to make a poker metaphor, I was both drawing dead AND playing like shit.

Perhaps that’s a lot of deadweight to place on a simple album list, and if these sorts of confessions upset you, comrade, feel free to stop reading. The fact is, our personal psychic landscapes have a stranglehold on our perceptions of the worlds around us, of arts, of music in particular. In the grips of these dark, restless moods, most of 2012’s more energetic and colorful releases slid off me. What remained was often beautiful, horrifically depressing music. Normally with… gasp… clean singing. I can’t think of a better year in my writing career for clean singing than 2012. Here’s my list of ten records featuring more than a few exceptions to our rule. Continue reading »