Top 10 2012

I: Top Ten

Hello. Holy shit we did it. We staved off the urge to make multiple end of the year threads. We all took the pledge and we all made it! Big round of applause. Please accept this 10 dollar gift card to any Olive Garden of your choice as a token of my appreciation. Make sure you pick it up from one of the MODS before leaving.

Lets get down to buisness shall we? Like the 3 Month To Go Thread, I will do my best to keep the list of frequently mentioned albums up to date in The Top 10 of the Top 10. This of course does not represent anything but a popular count of albums. Perhaps they will be awesome. Perhaps they will be an abomination to the idea of heavy metal you have crafted. By now you all know I write my own column and my end of the year list is right here.

Tape Wyrm: Top 10 of 2012

Because it is the holidays you can just skip to the short list below without the accompanying text and bonus features or funny picture of my cat in an elf costume. Perhaps next year I will be requiring everyone to sign up for an account for each new entry. Enjoy and be festive.

1. Luca Turilli's Rhapsody - Ascending to infinity
1. Mgla - With Hearts Towards None
1. Woods of Ypres - Woods V
1. Nachtmystium - Silencing Machine
1. Psuedogod - Deathwomb Catechesis
1. Sigh - In Somniphobia
1. Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction
1. Dodecahdron - Dodecahedron
1. Horrendous - The Chills
1. Ufomammut - Oro: Opus Primum / Opus Alter

II: Superlatives:

A few weeks ago, Crono101 came up with the idea of superlatives to accompany top 10 lists as a more unique way to offset lists. Feel free to just list them, write out descriptions or not do this out of sheer boredom and laziness. Well see who gets extra bread sticks with that attitude. Below are categories with my reasoning.

Greatest Vision: Between the Buried and Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence

Yes…let the hate flow through you. Redefinition of metalcore and what it could be desite the accusations that its not metalcore or not metal. Let it define you. Use it. Channel it.

Technical Mastery: Ne Obliviscarious - Portal of I

I am terrible at technicality in music but just the fact this band combines black metal, progressive metal and what sounds like smooth jamband segments is outstanding.

Catchiest Album Devin Townsend Project - Epicloud

This should either go to Devin Townsend or Swedish Dbeat. I am going with Devin Townsend this year.

Most Evil: Nihill - Verdonkermaan

Before Dodecahdron, Michiel Eikenaar explored the occult and darknss in Nihill. Verdonkermaan completes a trilogy of death that was started in 2007. Ohh this was also the last album released on Hydra Head. Evil!

Biggest Disappointment: Baroness - Yellow & Green

I don't want to talk about it.

Biggest Surprise/Underdog - Abigail Williams - The Becoming

Underdog of the decade. This on and the last. Just take this record record it onto a cassette and white out a logo onto the cover it makes you feel any better. It could be an atmospheric black metal record from Croatia. Mortuary Fog….sure whatever. You love it.

Unknown: Spectral Tombs - Carrion

I got this because of the name. It wasn't disappointing. Black metal from Oregon with their band members posing with guns for photos.

Please take a voting sticker in the form of upvoting this for visibility or don't and be a dick who doesn't get any more endless salad. I mark the end of each year with a music list followed by a month of vacation from writing while cradled in the arms of every video game I missed this year. Borderlands 2 and Halo 4 here I come. 2012 is so over. Can we please move onto 2013?

Shreddit's (Almost) Real Time Top 10 of the Top 10s Not reporting honorable mentions or solar system dioramas Holy shit...you guys liked Enslaved. Dorewho?. Is Black Breathe really that good? Holy shit.

Albums with 6 or more votes each.

Enslaved - RIITIIR [11] -- progressive black / viking
High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis [11] -- sludge/progressive(?)
Black Breath - Sentenced To Life [8] -- death/thrash
Psuedogod - Deathwomb Catechesis [8] -- black/death
Dordeduh - Dar De Duh [7] -- atmospheric black
Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction [7] -- doom
Wintersun - Time I -- [7] melodic death?
Carach Angren - Where the Corpses Sink Forever [6] -- symphonic black
Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage [6]
Horrendous - The Chills [6] -- death

Albums with 5 votes each.

Agalloch - Faustian Echoes [5] -- ?...hell, fine...dark metal
Panopticon - Kentucky [5] -- black/bluegrass
Woods of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light [5] -- gothic doom
Mgla - With Hearts Towards None [5] -- raw black
Neurosis - Honor Found in Decay [5] -- post metal
Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind [5]
Between the Buried and Me - Parallax II [5]
Napalm Death - Utilitarian[5]
Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I [5]
Testament Dark Roots of Earth [5]

Albums with 4 votes each.

Devin Townsend Project - Epicloud [4]
Alcest -- les voyages de l'ame [4]
Cattle Decapitation - Monolith of Inhumanity [4]
Be'lakor - Of Breath and Bone [4]
Overkill - The Electric Age[4]
Periphery - Periphery II [4]
Nachtmystium - Silencing Machine [4]
Incantation - Vanquish in Vengeance [4]
Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas [4]
Hooded Menace - Effigies of Evil [4]
Baroness - Yellow & Green [4]
Ihsahn - Eremita [4]
Kreator - Phantom Antichrist [4]

Albums with 3 votes each.

Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron [3]
Sigh - Insomniphobia [3]
Asphyx - Deathhammer [3]
Snailking - Samsara [3]
Om - Advaitic Songs [3]
Luca Turilli's Rhapsody - Ascending to Infinity [3]
Dragged into Sunlight - Widowmaker [3]
Diablo Swing Orchestra -Pandora's Pinata [3]

Albums with 2 votes each.

Pharaoh - Bury the Light [2]
Wilds Forlorn - We, the Damned [2]
Asphyx - Deathhammer [2]
Gaza - No Absolutes in Human Suffering [2]
Candlemass - Psalms for the Dead [2]
Dawnbringer - Into the Lair of the Sun God [2]
Eluveitie - Helvetios [2]
Ex Deo - Caligvla [2]
Ensiferum - Unsung Heroes [2]
Nekromantheon - Rise, Vulcan Spectre [2]
Marduk- Serpent Sermon [2]
Deathspell Omega - Drought EP [2]
Grave - Endless Procession Of Souls [2]
Ash Borer - Cold of Ages [2]
Meshuggah - Koloss [2]
The Safety Fire - Grind the Ocean [2]
Pig Destroyer - Book burner [2]
Ufomammut - ORO: Opus Primum [2]
Mare Cognitum - An Extraconscious Lucidity [2]
Gorod - A Perfect Absolution [2]
Worship -Terranean [2]
The Sword - Apocryphon [2]
Aura Noir - Out To Die [2]
Weapon - Embers And Revelation [2]