Top 40 Metal Albums of 2012: 40-31

Well it's that time of year again.  Time for the annual list of the best albums of the year.  I went with 40 this year as I heard a lot of music this year alone.  I will have some random lists after I finish with the Top 40.

40.  GOROD: A PERFECT ABSOLUTION
Gorod has been quietly making a name for themselves in the technical death metal arena for several years now.  This was the first chance I really had to check them out but they definitely made an impression.  Their album was fairly short but there is a lot to hear in it.  The last half with sort of a jazzy style and random outside influences is particularly impressive.  It avoids technicality for technicality's sake and just sounds like a complete album.

39.  SPAWN OF POSSESSION: INCURSO
A lot of what I said about Gorod also applies to Spawn of Possession.  They too have released an album that sounds incredibly complete while avoiding the sterility that plagues a lot of technical death metal bands.  Spawn of Possession is easily one of the most interesting technical death metal bands going today.  Their only flaw is the fact that they take forever to release new material, with this being their first since 2006.  Looking forward to the next one, whenever it comes out.

38.  AHAB: THE GIANT
Ahab was the first funeral doom metal bands I checked out and have persisted as my favorite to this day.  I was somewhat disappointed with the direction they took on this release on my initial listen, but I quickly got over that on repeated listens.  This is a much more melancholic and melodic release from Ahab.  There is a glimmer of hopefulness in their sound on this instead of the utter hopelessness and despair that the band has become otherwise known for.

37.  MONGREL'S CROSS: THE SINS OF AQUARIUS
I once had some concerns that the fertile well of extreme metal in Australia was starting to dry up.  Fortunately, this year brought some more incredible releases from the land down under.  Mongrel's Cross released their debut full-length this year which shows off the blackened thrash metal style that many other groups from the continent have perfected.  Theirs is a strong debut album but there is some room to grown yet.

36.  PATHOLOGY: THE TIME OF GREAT PURIFICATION
I have often referred to Pathology as being a band able to make slam death metal accessible and surprisingly catchy.  This remains true to this day with each new release from Pathology being an exercise in brutality, yet retaining their brutal edge.  I was concerned when this band showed up on Victory Records, a hardcore label, but Pathology has not changed at all.  Their brutality and power increases with each new release.  This is their best album yet.

35.  FINSTERFORST: RASTLOS
This is likely the folk metal album of the year.  I have never been the biggest fan of folk metal but when it is good, it is really good.  Finsterforst is definitely really good.  What I like the most about this release is that it avoids the kind of upbeat "beer metal" cliches that a lot of other folk metal bands fall into.  This is solemn and melodic yet epic and awe-inspiring.  It took a little while for me to get into it, but after a few listens it has really sunk in.

34.  PARAGON: FORCE OF DESTRUCTION
The best power metal album of the year came from Germany, of course.  Long known for great power metal acts like Blind Guardian and Helloween, the country still manages to birth great bands even today.  Paragon has been around for a long time, but not really broken through.  This is their first release for Napalm Records and it is definitely an impressive one.  This is an aggressive and ass-kicking album.

33.  MELENCOLIA ESTATICA: HEL
Great black metal often comes from unexpected places and Melencolia Estatica definitely qualifies.  Hailing from Italy, the band is a one-woman juggernaut with a little bit of help from some friends.  This release is influenced by the cinematic masterpiece Metropolis and just like its influence the album is dark and ominous and profoundly disturbing.  Great black metal it is.

32.  NAGLFAR: TERAS
I have been a fan of Naglfar for several years now, and yes I do strongly enjoy their much more melodic take on black metal that they have taken on since Wrath took over on vocals.  Naglfar is one of those groups attempting to position themselves into Dissection's abandoned throne and they do a damn fine job of it.  This is their first album in several years, but Naglfar has done nothing to lose any of the energy that they brought.

31.  GOD SEED: I BEGIN
It was not my intention to have three black metal albums in a row here, but it could not be helped.  God Seed had a ton of hype leading up to this release, which hype was well-deserved as this is a truly impressive album.  Featuring two former members of Gorgoroth who were engaged in a bitter dispute over the band's name, God Seed is a new beginning.  And they have presented a terrific debut release.

Initial Impressions: Pathology: The Time of Great Purification

I will give Pathology this: they are surprisingly prolific.  I have been at this blog thing for since early 2009 and I have already reviewed three new Pathology albums in that time period.  One each year since 2010, and I missed their 2009 release.  All told, Pathology has already released six full-length albums since 2006.  That's one a year you math scholars.

Detractors will probably say something to the effect of it being easy to be prolific when you basically re-write the same album over and over again.  And there probably is something to that argument.  Pathology's music is not the most complex music in the world.  It is all heavy slamming riffs, guttural vocals, and pounding drums with a major emphasis on brutality.  But Pathology does all of this with a fairly strong ability for songwriting.  What results is some of the catchiest slamming brutal death metal imaginable.  And that is just plain weird.

Pathology's albums all basically follow the same formula.  They are there to brutally pound on the listener's ears for 30 minutes or so and then the album is over.  None of the songs are terribly long.  Dynamics are not incredibly important.  It is simply pounding riffs upon pounding riffs, bludgeoning brutality.  But they are the most accessible of slamming brutal death metal bands.

It continues to floor me that Pathology is on Victory Records, a label mostly known for hardcore acts.  This is a very brutal band for that label.  But I have basically given up on attempting to understand it.

Pathology has released yet another album of slamming insanity.  And I eat this stuff up.  As long as they do not change, I probably will not fail to pick up their records.

Initial Impressions: Pathology: Awaken to the Suffering

I recently started listening to a lot of slam death again, after a few months hiatus from it. And when I went to the music store to see about getting the new Anthrax album, they also had the new Pathology album. I enjoyed their last album quite a bit so I decided to get this one.

First off, it's pretty bizarre to find a slam death album in a store like Hastings, but that has more to do with the weird fact that Pathology is on Victory Records, a well-known hardcore label. Also, Pathology is a bit more accessible than most other slam death, a point that I discussed at length in the review for their album last year.

Pathology exists on the border between slam death and plain brutal death. The riffs are definitely influenced by Devourment but there is a lot more going on musically as well. For one, you will actually hear the occasional guitar solo in Pathology's stuff. This has basically always been the case with Pathology, the band really is not easily pigeonholed as a simple slam band as groups like Abominable Putridity or Katalepsy or Vomit Remnants. They utilize a lot of slam parts, but there has always been more to it than that.

Pathology is also more accessible than other slam bands because of their lyrical focus. Pathology is not devoted to gore and misogyny, opting instead to focus on other matters. Song titles like "Media Consumption", "Society's Desolation", and "Opposing Globalization" probably will not appear on the next Putrid Pile record.

With all that said, Pathology is a decent band and this is a decent record. There is a lot going on here. Huge fans of Suffocation probably are not going to be terribly impressed because the band does not do some of the things Suffocation does as well, but in a slam context, this is a pretty good album.

Initial Impressions: Pathology: Legacy of the Ancients

I've been in a slam death mood for a little while again. These phases come and go I guess. I have been trying to avoid placing too many online orders for albums so finding this CD at Hastings was a pleasant surprise. As far as slam death goes, this group is surprisingly accessible and definitely not as gore-obsessed or misogynistic as other bands. Which means they are probably not well-received by some of the more hardcore fans of the genre.

One other strange note before launching into the music. This band is now on Victory Records, a label heretofore known as more of a hardcore label with groups like Hawthorne Heights, Atreyu, Taking Back Sunday, and lots of other terrible bands. So seeing a slam death band on the label is pretty shocking. This kind of thing usually gets released on Sevared, Comatose, Amputated Vein or occasionally Relapse.

Anyway, things start off melodically and eerie with a string intro and then it launches directly into the first slam early in the second track. The production is extremely beefy with lots of bass. It's otherwise clear and you could almost make out the lyrics if not for the incredibly deep guttural vocals at work. Fairly typical for slam so no complaints here. This album sounds great, it is not nearly as raw as many other slam albums.

As I mentioned before, this is a bit more of an accessible slam album. The slams are all still there, but they are complemented by slightly technical riffing and leads. The musicians are all talented and play well. The songwriting is impressive and these songs are surprisingly memorable and don't blend in with each other, which has sometimes been the downfall of many slam bands.

Lyrically, the band deals with horror themes, as evidenced by the zombie cover art. They do not have the same gore obsession or irritating misogyny as other bands, which is a big plus. Sometimes that makes it extremely difficult to listen to this style.

If I had to point to a new album to look into to get into this genre, this album by Pathology would be the one. It does not possess many of the elements that make slam an intense genre and it sounds close enough to technical brutal death to be interesting. This is a good gateway album into the world of slam.