Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas

 

2012

Pissed Grind/Blast/Black/Death Metal. It's like a Black Metal Pig Destroyer. This kicks my ass all over the place.

Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma

2012

Folky somber depressed Black Metal with good production. Probably more in common with 80's Goth music than 80's Metal. More for the girls than the guys except there are some scary Black Metal vocals that will scare all girls away. There's also clean Eddie Vedder type Black Metal vocals that will scare the teenage boys away.  The interesting thing here is the touches of psychedelic sounds. Similar to late 60's Pink Floyd.

H.E.A.T. - Address The Nation

2012

These guys have really got the Bon Jovi thing down. The keyboards drive the cheese factor through the roof.

The Faceless - Planetary Duality

2008

Progressive/Technical Death Metal. First impression made me think about the inhumanly fast drums and super human starts and stops, but after more listens I forgot all about that stuff. Now it's just nutty Technical metal that does not suck. These guys make it work. Album seems pretty short which actually helps.

Demonic Death Judge - SkyGods

2012

Falling somewhere between Bongzilla and Acid King, Demonic Death Judge do it up right. Their previous album, The Descent,  was one of my favorites from 2011. They don't express as many ideas here, but let you get lost in the groove vibe of the riff instead.

Witchchrist - The Grand Tormenter

2012

Rumbling wall of heavy crushing that is blackened and crushing and it goes really slower for a while and goes really fast for a while tempo changes happen when you need them. The guys remind me a bit of Acid Witch, but Witchchrist seem more "serious". I hear the Entombed influence burried in there as well.

-Blackened Sludge and Death Metal.

Saint Vitus - Lillie: F-65

2012

Traditional Doom or whatever. It's all about the vibe and this one's got it.

Cattle Decapitation - Monolith Of Inhumanity

 2012

Cattle Decapitation have turned it up a notch! They've gone beyond the generic Death/Grind and added some elements and all of a sudden they've distanced themselves from the crowd.

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

 2012

This is the first Deftones record that I've listened to all the way through. Soaring vocals dominate. Heavy tunes that feel mostly sad. Sad teenage girl songs with heavy music for teenage boys. This one doesn't feel quite a monotonous...As far as I know there's no other bands that sound quite like the Deftones. Mostly because of the vocals. These songs are instantly recognizable as the Deftones. This album creates a nice atmosphere psychedelic metal.

Stone Sour - House Of Gold And Bones Pt. 1

 2012

American Idol

Crazy Lixx - Riot Avenue

 2012

I read on the internet that 2012 wasn't a good year for Glam Metal. Well obviously the internet hasn't heard the new Crazy Lixx.

Grand Magus - The Hunt

 2012

If Judas Priest covered Deep Purples' Perfect Strangers. Epic and Triumphant NWOBHM rockin'. Grand Magus is an Awesome band.

Diesel King - The Ancient And The Nameless

 2012

Pantera/Eyehategod Groove/Sludge/Stoner Metal.

Deathspell Omega - Drought

 2012

Post Black Technical Progressive Chaos Metal.

Coffins - March Of Despair

2012

Sludged up early Death Metal. Coffins scrape the gutter.

Snail - Terminus

 2012

Snail are really good. Good enough to be on the radio or something. Too heavy for the radio I suppose. Heavy riffs killer songs cool melodies...stuff you night say to describe Soundgarden. Snail doesn't sound like Soundgarden though they don't sound like Alice In Chains or Kyuss either, but they got that vibe where they can fit right in there. Heavy melodic stoner psyche metal.

Moonless - Calling All Demons

 2012

These guys combine the heavy grooves of Sleep and a classic rock doom Cathedral type vibe. Moonless  do it good and bring their own entree to the Sabbath groove table. One of the better straight up Stoner rock releases of 2012.

Major Kong - Doom For The Black Sun

 2012

Sabbath inspired Doomy Stoner rock. Similar to bands like Bongzilla, Sleep, Weedeater, ect but not pushing any boundaries or getting excessive  like those bands tend to do. These guys are solid and sound good. Theres nothing here that really sets them apart. No vocals don't really help in that department either. The guitar does take of occasionally in an Earthless trip out kinda way.

Plague Widow - Plague Widow

2012

Primitive blackened death grind. Dizzy.

Aborted - Global Flatline

2012

Frantic crazy brutal grind death. It will take several listens for this to sink in. Slick production.

-Carcass, Brutal Truth, Exhumed side of Metal going on here.

Mammoth Mammoth - Hell's Likely

2012

High energy rock meets sleazy metal.  Fancy production. Fancier than you'd expect for this type of music. Stoner rock with an attitude.

Samothrace - Reverence To The Stone

2012

NeurosisCore/Post Rock. Personally I don't much have the patience anymore, but this one is really good.    Super heavy and super mellow in it's epicness. Well done!

Armageddon - Armageddon

1975

Progessive rock with lots of rockin guitar.

Agnes Strange - Strange Flavour

 1975

Post blues rock blending into mid 70's Hard Rock. Tasty guitar rockin' with an English vibe. Gets a little trippy too. Excellent record. Sometimes the guitar gets pretty aggressive in tone and playing.

-This gets compared to bands like Frigid Pink, Budgie, The Groundhogs...

Angel - Sinful

1979

Late 70's pop rock. Sometimes it's terribly bad in a high cheese factor kind of way. At their best they've got a Boston/Cheap Trick vibe happening, but sometimes it's not that good. Bay City Rollers keep coming to mind. This is a guilty pleasure type thing. it's not cool to like the Partridge Family or Styx. Is it? This album seems a bit ahead of it's time.

-Sweet/Runaways/Alice Cooper glam rock. The keyboard/synths kill are way overbored on the first song then they just kinda go away.

-Killer Bubblegum pop/rock record.

Jeff Beck Group - Beck-Ola

1969

Very similar to Led Zeppelin. Except this is more stiff and white sounding. Good record with good players. I wish it was more balls out.