FMA Reviews: Engulfed: Through the Eternal Damnation

Originally reviewed here.

I have been able to find virtually no information on Engulfed out there, so I really went into this one blind. The little information I have been able to find is that Engulfed is a death metal band from Turkey and that they are made up of members of Deggial, Burial Invocation, and Decaying Purity.

This is a very short EP, featuring only four songs and being less than 25 minutes in length. But do not mistake its brevity for being an easy album to listen to. Engulfed is brutally intense. Engulfed's style of death metal is most similar to Incantation and Angelcorpse and other more occult death metal bands. The music is a whirlwind of riffs and pounding drums and deep guttural roars. There are some black metal elements thrown in to the point that many will probably call this a blackened death metal band, but for the most part this is just a fast and furious underground death metal band.

Engulfed apparently do not believe in being calm. This EP blasts by with all the subtlety of a jackhammer. It is an absolutely punishing album. One which is bound to cause strained necks and headaches. There are a few moments where the music slows down a bit, but the drums continue to pound away and what the band decreases in intensity, they more than make up for with dissonant chords and atmosphere.

For everyone out there claiming that death metal has become sterile and lifeless, I would urge you to check out Engulfed. It's just a shame this is only an EP and not a full-length.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 71

ARTIST:  Sepultura
ORIGIN:  Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
TITLE:  Chaos A.D.
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1993
GENRE:  Groove Metal/Thrash Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Nomad"
NOTES:  I have actually had two versions of this album.  The first version was the original with a bonus track featuring demonic laughing.  Kind of boring really.  The second version featured "Chaos B.C.", a remix of "Refuse/Resist" and some live tracks.  My first metal t-shirt featured Sepultura's "Territory".  I have no idea what ever happened to that.

Nebraska Metal: Faith Buried in Flames: Scriptures of the Suffering

I recently had an occasion to meet a member of this band, though I will not tell you how or which one.  As a thank you he gave me a copy of his band's CD and a t-shirt.  I like free stuff.

Faith Buried in Flames is a groove metal band from Norfolk, Nebraska, which is the city in which I am currently working.  It is one of only two metal bands from this area I am aware of, though the other one may be defunct.  I am honestly surprised there is even one.

Groove metal is not really a genre of which I am a big fan.  I like some Pantera, some Machine Head, the Sepultura groove metal era, Exhorder, and a few other random bands.  But for some reason Nebraska seems to produce a number of groove metal bands.  Deadechoes and Seppeku are two such bands that were reviewed on this blog.  More than likely this is due to Nebraska being hopelessly behind the times.  Faith Buried in Flames is a pretty decent groove metal band really.  Their music is not the simplistic, meat-headed style that has become synonymous with the genre name.  There are some complexities in this music with some other elements that keep it from becoming a typical and boring groove metal album.

There are the occasional death metal elements to be found in the music.  That in and of itself makes this far more interesting than the stereotypical groove metal album.  Faith Buried in Flames has some impressive death metal riffing going on in several places.  The guitar work for the most part is very entertaining and keeps things from growing stale.  The band also uses the occasional acoustic interlude to break up the otherwise fast-paced and punishing songs.

The album does tend to drag a little bit by the end, but for the most part it is a bit of a wild ride.  I was overall very impressed by this release.  Hopefully they can keep things going and not get discourage by having their home in an otherwise metal-deficient part of the state.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 70

ARTIST:  Fear Factory
ORIGIN:  Los Angeles, CA (United States)
TITLE:  Demanufacture
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1995
GENRE:  Industrial Metal/Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Body Hammer"
NOTES:  I still think this is the best album Fear Factory has ever released.  And I do not think that I am alone in this.  I first heard Fear Factory on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack as I recall.  I liked the song okay, but it was not something that I was incredibly excited about.  I heard a few other songs then picked this up.  I actually have the digipak reissue with a bunch of bonus tracks.

2012 Lists

Okay the 2012 lists are finally done.  I may have overdone them this year, not totally sure.  Let me know in the comments what you thought.  I may try to streamline them more next year.  But I wanted to get a variety of topics thrown out there because some times one long list is a little boring.

Tomorrow I will get back to my normal posting.

Popular 2012 Albums I Listened to Once and Gave Up

I am not going to get into it.  I just do not understand the appeal of these bands.  I tried listening to them and nothing really clicked.  These are groups I have tried to understand in the past and I just don't get it.

NEUROSIS: HONOUR FOUND IN DECAY

CONVERGE: ALL WE LOVE WE LEAVE BEHIND

DEFTONES: KOI NO YOKAN

BARONESS: YELLOW AND GREEN

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 69

ARTIST:  Misery Loves Co.
ORIGIN:  Sweden
TITLE:  Misery Loves Co.
LABEL:  MNW Zone
YEAR:  1994
GENRE:  Industrial Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Sonic Attack"
NOTES:  I heard "Happy?" quite a bit which lead me to pick up this release.  Honestly I forgot about this one.  I used to listen to it a lot but have not played it for quite some time.  This is real industrial metal.  And there are some great songs here.  It is not really a release to make you think, more than anything it just bludgeons the listener.

Best Albums of 2011 I Heard in 2012

 5.  TOXIC HOLOCAUST: CONJURE AND COMMAND
Toxic Holocaust is a band that focuses on a very specific timeframe in creating their music.  They play old school black/death/thrash metal with nods towards Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer, Sodom, and the like.  It is all fast and intense music.  Their albums are short and fun.  This one was no exception.

4.  INSOMNIUM: ONE FOR SORROW
Insomnium's somber take on melodeath can be heart-wrenching.  That much is sure.  The Finnish band has been putting out high-quality albums for years now and they certainly lived up to their past albums with this one.

3.  VADER: WELCOME TO THE MORBID REICH
The pioneering Polish death/thrash metal band has been one of the most consistent bands going for the last couple of decades.  Every album destroys.  You know what you will get with a Vader album, a steamroller of riffs and pounding drums.  They never disappoint.

2.  DISMA: TOWARDS THE MEGALITH
Incantation's Craig Pillard appears as vocalist for this album and the sound is fairly similar to Pillard's other band.  It's grimy, old school death metal with a nod toward the occult death metal that was rising from the grave in the late 1980's.

1.  VEKTOR: OUTER ISOLATION
I am a big fan of Vektor already and this is the only album I have heard to this point.  The band combines styles from Voivod and later Death into a very impressive and original sound.  The album is just a crushing beast of a release.  This one would have easily made my Top 10 in 2011, likely at number two or three.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 68

ARTIST:  Metallica
ORIGIN:  San Francisco, CA (United States)
TITLE:  Load
LABEL:  Elektra
YEAR:  1996
GENRE:  Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
FAVORITE SONG:  "Wasting My Hate"
NOTES:  As I mentioned in a previous post, I remember the massive amount of hype leading up to this release.  Then word starting spreading that Metallica had cut their hair.  Horror upon horrors.  Then the album was released.  I was very disappointed with it personally.  There are some decent songs here, but for the most part, it was completely unlike anything Metallica had previously released.  The thrash was gone completely.  It was some time before Metallica would be good again.

FMA Reviews: Varg: Guten Tag

Originally reviewed here.

Okay this one threw me too. I decided after some bad experiences that I needed to investigate bands before listening to them. Just to get some kind of an idea of what I am in for. So I checked out the ever-reliable Encyclopedia Metallum for some information about this band. I saw that they were listed as a pagan metal band with lyrical themes about Norse mythology and fantasy. I suppose that may have been true at one time, but it is definitely no longer the case.

My first clue was the album cover. It does not look like the kind of moody landscape picture you would normally expect out of a pagan metal band. It looks more like something that a dirty hard rock band would use. So already things are a little strange.

No, this is something else. While the melodies are somewhat folk-inflected, the riffs have an almost NWOBHM quality to them. These are definitely more traditional metal-based riffs. The vocals are more of a black metal-esque raspy growl. The songs are mostly faster-paced and energetic. Not the kind of sullen, atmospheric quality you would expect in a pagan metal band.

So we have established that this is not a pagan metal band. But enough about that. This is a really fun album. The lyrics are mostly in German so I have no idea what they are saying, but it still sounds as if Varg is having a good time creating this album. As I previously mentioned, some of the guitar melodies do have a folk-like lilt to them. And the guitar melodies are surprisingly upbeat for the most part. The happy sound of the melodies does not really match the hateful vocals, so it kind of comes off a little unbalanced, but for some reason it just works.

As the album goes on, more and more folk elements seem to become present, although this is by no means just a folk metal band. The band may use folk melodies, but their foundation is definitely in traditional metal.

2012 Reissue of the Year

I am going with Xenomorph which has been reissued on vinyl and on CD.  The CD also includes the band's demo.  Xenomorph is from Nebraska, my home state.  This is a terrific death metal album that fans of the genre definitely need to check out.  I picked up the vinyl release.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 67

ARTIST:  Sepultura
ORIGIN:  Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
TITLE:  Refuse/Resist
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1993
GENRE:  Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Refuse/Resist"
NOTES:  At one point I made a decision that Sepultura was my favorite band and I tried to get as many of their releases as I possibly could.  This was my second release by the band and was an EP that was released prior to the Chaos A.D. album.  This features the "Refuse/Resist" track as well as a number of covers of bands like Final Conflict, Ratos de Porao, and Motorhead, and some live tracks.  It is a pretty decent little EP.

FMA Reviews: Spawn of Possession: Incurso

Originally reviewed here.

Spawn of Possession is yet another technical death metal band. The band has been around for awhile now, though I have not previously had an opportunity to check them out. This is the band's third full-length and their first one in six years. I had heard good things about their prior albums, with some calling them a cross between Obscura and Necrophagist. So I was kind of anxious to hear this group.

The first thing that I noticed with this release is that the band bears a much stronger sonic resemblance to Obscura than to Necrophagist. I have mentioned several times my standard for what is good technical death metal compared to bad stuff. Even though I like Necrophagist, their sound can sometimes come off as cold and sterile. It is as if the band exists to be as technical as possible without much concern for crafting decent songs. Again, I like Necrophagist, but some imitators such as Brain Drill come off as far too mechanical. Obscura on the other hand sounds more human, though still very technical.

There is definitely a lot of alternating guitar shredding and noodling. Despite this, the individual band members do a nice job of making it sound interesting. Sometimes the overly technical groups get too bogged down in throwing a ton of riffs and leads in and the whole thing kind of comes apart at the seems. It is often hard to listen music like that for long. The constant interjecting sounds get to be too much to really handle and interest is lost quickly. Spawn of Possession avoid this by at least keeping tracks grounded in one cohesive idea. The vocals do a nice job of keeping things on track too.

Spawn of Possession's biggest gift is their ability to write songs that emphasize the technicality but are not afraid to be melodic at the same time. The band may shift time signatures and throw riffs out of nowhere, but there appears to be a method and reason for everything. That is often lost in other bands that sound like one long technical guitar improvised jam session. Spawn of Possession have crafted their songs to be stand-alone tracks with the technicality something of an afterthought.

I came away from this release very impressed. Obscura and Decrepit Birth have been two of my absolute favorite technical death metal bands for some time. I would place Spawn of Possession up on that pedestal alongside those two groups. This is simply a terrific example of technical death metal done well.

Latest Addition to the 2012 Albums

This one has not had a chance to fully sink in yet, but it likely would have been a Top 20 album, if not Top 10 album.  And I got it on cassette.  That's right.  A new full-length album in 2012 released on a cassette.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 66

ARTIST:  Pantera
ORIGIN:  Arlington, TX (United States)
TITLE:  Vulgar Display of Power
LABEL:  Atlantic Records
YEAR:  1992
GENRE:  Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Mouth for War"
NOTES:  This is the album that really caused groove metal to take over as the most popular metal subgenre for a little while.  The music was much more simplified on this release from the power/thrash metal of the previous release.  Dimebag Darrell's riffs and Phil Anselmo's tough-guy snarl were the driving forces of this release and "Walk" proved to be a very popular song.  I just do not care much for this album.

Albums I Missed in 2012

PALLBEARER: SORROW AND EXTINCTION

GRAND MAGUS: THE HUNT

GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT: BOW DOWN BEFORE THE BLOOD COURT

EVOCATION: ILLUSIONS OF GRANDEUR

INCANTATION: VANQUISH IN VENGEANCE

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 65

ARTIST:  Metallica
ORIGIN:  San Francisco, CA (United States)
TITLE:  Until it Sleeps
LABEL:  EM Ventures
YEAR:  1996
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Until it Sleeps"
NOTES:  I remember the hype for Load.  It was out of control.  Metallica was finally going to release a new album after several years away.  So when "Until it Sleeps" hit the radio and the CD racks as a single, I bought it quickly.  I do like the song, and always have.  The b-side was a cover of the Motorhead classic "Overkill", which also sounded great.  I do not have a lot of CD singles, but I made an exception for this one because it was the first new Metallica song in a long time.

FMA Reviews: Malignancy: Eugenics

Originally reviewed here.

Malignancy has been around for a long time, forming in the early 1990's, but despite hearing of the band several times, for some reason I had just never gotten around to checking them out. Until now that is. Malignancy formed out of the same area of the country and in the same general time frame as Immolation and Mortician. But other than playing death metal, they really do not have a lot of similarity to them. Malignancy is far more technical than their more straightforward death metal peers.

The music on this release is hyperactive, technical, and bizarre. Malignancy is a brutal death metal band that utilizes a lot of very technical riffs and sweeps throughout their songs. But there is just something off-kilter about their brand of technical brutal death metal. The whole thing feels off somehow. Malignancy does not really follow a lot of the cliches and expected ideas that a lot of technical death metal bands do. Though their style is definitely technical, something about them just does not fit in with groups like Necrophagist, Obscura, or any other bands. I am not sure how to explain it really, something is just different about Malignancy.

I suppose for one thing, Malignancy does not write terribly long songs. The longest song on this release is less than five minutes long and most of them do not even touch four minutes. This means that the band does not thrown riff after riff and sweep after sweep for an interminable period. Each song will end, and fairly quickly.

Another unusual aspect is the attention to the rhythm section. The drums and bass really steal the show on this release. The beat and rhythms are constantly evolving and changing throughout the release. It never feels calm and complacent. The whole thing is fairly unsettling and makes this a difficult album to listen to as background music. It simply demands attention.

Unfortunately, after the album is over, it is hard to pick out highlights. Nothing really stays fresh in the mind. That is often a problem for technical death metal, and it shows through here as well. The vocals are also a tad on the boring side as they do not tend to change much throughout the album. But while listening, this is certainly an interesting release. Perhaps it will be a grower.

Reunion Album of the Year

Corrosion of Conformity re-emerged from the ashes in 2012.  This time they reverted to the three-piece band that they were prior to Pepper Keenan's arrival.  Their sound reverted to more of a crossover style as well.  The band was reinvigorated.  This is easily their best album since Deliverance.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 64

ARTIST:  Type O Negative
ORIGIN:  New York, NY (United States)
TITLE:  October Rust
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1996
GENRE:  Gothic Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend"
NOTES:  I have always really liked Peter Steele's voice.  His deep baritone was especially interesting on the track "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend", which was always kind of a joke song to me.  Most of the rest of the album though was softer than the band's previous release.  It was never really my favorite album by the band.  The production was a little bit too slick as well.

Best Metal EPs of 2012

3.  CORROSION OF CONFORMITY: MEGALODON
Following up on a surprisingly good reunion album, Corrosion of Conformity released an EP on Scion that was perhaps even better than the full-length.  There were a couple of vocal missteps, but for the most part this is exactly the kind of crossover stomp with which C.O.C. made their name.

2.  REVOCATION: TERATOGENESIS
Revocation is fast becoming one of the greatest modern thrash metal bands around.  Hot on the heels of their terrific album in 2011, which ranked #3 on my end of the year list, Revocation has released a great little EP on Scion.

1.  DOWN IV: THE PURPLE EP
I always anxiously await any new Down album.  They remain one of my favorite bands, and certainly my favorite side-project.  This album brought back some of the aggression and spirit of the band's first full-length album.  It is short yes, but extremely powerful.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 63

ARTIST:  Paradise Lost
ORIGIN:  Halifax, England
TITLE:  Draconian Times
LABEL:  Music for Nations
YEAR:  1995
GENRE:  Gothic Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Hallowed Land"
NOTES:  I love this album.  I got it for Christmas one year and fell in love with it right away.  And I still listen to it frequently.  It is absolutely haunting.  The songs are all incredible and infectious, the vocals sound amazing, and the music sounds terrific.  I first heard the band when the local rock radio station started playing "Enchantment" and "Once Solemn".  I liked the tracks and began looking for it myself.

Worst/Most Disappointing Albums of 2012

5.  BONDED BY BLOOD: THE AFTERMATH
Bonded by Blood was once one of the more impressive retro thrash metal bands out there.  Their last release was very good.  Unfortunately, they went through a change in vocalists and basically phoned in this album.  A shame.

4.  ELUVEITIE: HELVETIOS
When I first heard Eluveitie, I was blown away by them.  Their combination of melodic death metal an Celtic folk metal was extremely impressive.  But since then, Eluveitie has been trying desperately to remake that same album to increasingly lackluster results.  I am not sure I will give them another chance.

3.  SONATA ARCTICA: STONES GROW HER NAME
Like Eluveitie, Sonata Arctica was a band that I was so impressed by when I first heard them that I still check them out on new albums despite not being horribly impressed by anything they have put out since I first heard them.  This is their worst one yet.  It's basically modern rock at this point, there is very little power metal left.

2.  TIAMAT: THE SCARRED PEOPLE
I do not care for Tiamat's take on gothic rock.  But with seemingly each new release I hear something about the band incorporating some of their atmospheric death metal elements that the band did so well early on.  Each time it is false.  This time is no exception.

1.  THE SORROW: MISERY-ESCAPE
Run-of-the-mill metalcore with Christian lyrics.  Need I say more?

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 62

ARTIST:  Soundgarden
ORIGIN:  Seattle, WA (United States)
TITLE:  Badmotorfinger
LABEL:  A&M Records
YEAR:  1991
GENRE:  Stoner/Grunge Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Room a Thousand Years Wide"
NOTES:  This is to this point my favorite Soundgarden album, but it is not something I listen to often.  It just does not really interest me all that much.  It tends to drag a lot and there are a lot of filler tracks.  But it is still better than their other releases.  Chris Cornell does sound amazing on the album, in particular the opening scream on "Room a Thousand Years Wide".  "Rusty Cage", "Outshined", and "Jesus Christ Pose" are also highlights.

FMA Reviews: Satan's Wrath: Galloping Blasphemy

Originally reviewed here.

Greek band Satan's Wrath make their debut on this release. The band is the new project of former Electric Wizard bassist Tas Danazoglou who appeared on EW's last full-length release but has since moved on. Satan's Wrath is very much Tas's project as he performs the bass, drums, and the vocals with only Stamos K making up the rest of the band on the guitar. Tas has always been something of a menacing presence in EW so this project promised to be intriguing.

Things definitely start out ominously with some bass strings being plucked along with the screams of some poor tortured souls. This immediately leads into an opening guitar melody that would not sound out of place in the opening strains of a Slayer album, just to set the mood.

It is clear that Satan's Wrath was created for Tas to pay tribute to his musical idols. Elements of Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer, and many other bands who helped lay the groundwork for more extreme styles of metal show up at various points on this album. The main riff in "Between Belial and Satan" sounds like it was lifted directly from a Megadeth song, with another one sounding more like Possessed. So Satan's Wrath is clearly a product of a number of early extreme metal influences.

The music here is not meant to be technically impressive. The songs are fairly straightforward without a lot of changes in riffs or tempos. The guitar and vocals drive the album. Tas is a talented bass player though and he does show off this ability frequently over the course of the album. There is an air of the occult to most of the music. Tri-tones and minor chords are used frequently in order to drive home the Satan-centric lyrical themes. The vocals are done in sort of an early Quorthon-meets-Tom G. Warrior grumble, which fits well with the music.

I have just a couple of complaints. The first is the production. There is not a lot of bottom end here. Perhaps it was done that way purposely as metal in the early 1980's did not have a lot of bottom end to the albums. But when the main member of the band serves as the bassist and drummer, it seems like kind of waste to not emphasize his contributions. The other is that there have been more and more groups doing metal in this style and I am not sure Satan's Wrath has really done enough to distance themselves from the pack.

Beyond those two issues, I enjoyed the music on this album quite a bit. This is an impressive debut and I will be anxious to see if Tas keeps this project going or not.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 61

ARTIST:  Iron Maiden
ORIGIN:  London, England
TITLE:  Fear of the Dark
LABEL:  EMI Records
YEAR:  1992
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Fear of the Dark"
NOTES:  This was my first album by Iron Maiden, and though it is by no means my favorite album by the band, I still find myself going back to it frequently.  Bruce Dickinson sounds great on the album and the guitar and bass work is once again terrific.  The only problem is that a lot of the songs sound somewhat uninspired. It's a shame, but there are still some great songs on it.

Best Metal Songs of 2012

TESTAMENT: "NATIVE BLOOD"


ARKHAM WITCH: "ON A HORSE CALLED VENGEANCE"
I could not find a video for this one, so here is another song from Arkham Witch.


MORTALICUM: "THE ENDTIME PROPHECY"


GOJIRA: "EXPLOSIA"


WITCHCRAFT: "IT'S NOT BECAUSE OF YOU"

Best Album Art of the Year

This is an utterly incredible album cover.  The hopelessness and despair that it elicits are incredibly powerful.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 60

ARTIST:  Dio
ORIGIN:  New York, NY (United States)
TITLE:  Holy Diver
LABEL:  Warner Bros. Records
YEAR: 1983
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Rainbow in the Dark"
NOTES:  I picked this up on the strength of the title track and "Rainbow in the Dark".  At the time, it did not really click with me.  I enjoyed several songs on the album, but the album as a whole was kind of lost on me for awhile.  It is an album that I love now but it took some time for me to get into.

Top 40 Metal Albums of 2012: 10-1

10.  RUMPELSTILTSKIN GRINDER: GHOSTMAKER
The best pure thrash metal album this year came from a very unexpected source.  Rumpelstiltskin Grinder had previously been kind of an anomaly in the wave of retro thrash metal bands, a band with a strong sense of humor and some non-thrash metal elements thrown in for good measure.  Their sound really came together on this release.  It is a shame so few people have been willing to give them a shot because they really deserve it with this one.

9.  AURA NOIR: OUT TO DIE
Australia has mostly become known for this style of blackened thrash metal, so it came as a bit of a shock to hear a terrific blackened thrash metal album from Norway.  This is an incredibly grimy and dirty sound that kicks ass and takes names.  It is short and raw and a wild ride.

8.  EVOKEN: ATRA MORS
This release shows just how morose and despairing funeral doom metal can get.  Ahab remains my favorite funeral doom metal band, but this release may be one of my favorite albums from the subgenre, joining prior Ahab material and the Catacombs album.  This album is utterly hopeless with an incredible sense of despair hanging over the entire album.

7.  HOODED MENACE: EFFIGIES OF EVIL
The best pure doom metal album this year, Hooded Menace's lyrics mostly deal in horror themes.  There is definitely a market for this style and lyrical theme.  Hooded Menace craft extremely impressive traditional-styled doom metal with infectious riffs and incredibly catchy songs.  The vocals may be death metal-styled but the music is pure doom.

6.  GOATWHORE: BLOOD FOR THE MASTER
I can always count on Goatwhore to release an album of purely chaotic and menacing black/thrash/death/extreme metal.  They have not disappointed me yet.  Perhaps the most impressive thing about Goatwhore though is that the band continually gets better.  Each time they release a new album, it is the best album they have ever done.  That continues with this release.  This is the best Goatwhore album ever.  Though that will only last until the next one if history is any indication.

5.  MORTALICUM: THE ENDTIME PROPHECY
Every year it seems like a traditional metal album comes out of nowhere to completely shock me and make it very high on my end of the year countdown.  This is not the only one this year, but it is perhaps the most shocking.  This one was sent to me to review from Metal on Metal Records and I have not been able to stop listening to it since.

4.  GOJIRA: L'ENFANT SAUVAGE
I once said that Gojira released one of the heaviest songs of all time.  Now they have released one of the heaviest albums.  The French band continually puts out ridiculously heavy material.  This is my favorite album that Gojira have released so far and it came damn close to taking the top album of the year.  The band is almost unclassifiable, but that is not important when the music is this good.

3.  ATARAXY: REVELATIONS OF THE ETHEREAL
I have said it before in this list, 2012 was a great year for death metal.  Ataraxy is a Spanish death metal band that has released an utterly terrific raw and grimy album.  Not bad for a debut album.  I owe my knowledge of this band to Full Metal Attorney.

2.  NEPHELIUM: COILS OF ENTROPY
Almost everything I said about Ataraxy could be said about Nephelium, except that they are from the United Arab Emirates originally before relocating to Canada.  This is a death metal album on par with just about any other death metal album of the last several years.  There is just something about this release that grabs the listener and refuses to let go.  It is an incredibly raw and brutal death metal album that is fresh and exciting.  2012 was a great year for death metal and Nephelium is the biggest reason why.

1.  CHRISTIAN MISTRESS: POSSESSION
Here it is, the best metal album of 2012 and this is definitely from an unusual place.  As I said with Mortalicum, every year it seems like a traditional metal album comes out of nowhere and blows me away.  Christian Mistress have released the best metal album of the year.  Their sound can be traced back to the NWOBHM.  The vocals are simply incredible and are a large reason why this album is so impressive.  And there you have it, Metallattorney's Album of the Year.