I've written a review of the incendiary True North by stalwart punk rockers Bad Religion for The Big Issue #424. Pick up a copy for $5, get heaps more great reads (such as a feature on Chet Faker) and help out someone in need.
The Top 10 Metal of 2012 #1: Katatonia - Dead End Kings
We hurtle down towards a hellish Earth to take our throne at the Dead End...
#1
Katatonia - Dead End Kings
Katatonia have reached the apotheosis of doom metal. Ten years ago, Viva Emptiness wiped the canvas clean, thumbing its nose at musty genre trappings. They boldly cauterized the powdered wig and opera hall romanticism from doom. Inspiration was found amongst grubby neon dance halls or the back streets of an ultra-modern, concrete-skied Stockholm frozen in perpetual winter within the ruined hearts of these men. Apprehensive, sinister and desolate doom metal flows black from the strings and keys and throat of this elegant Swedish confederacy of mourners. Their music is penned by those who subsist on a belly full of hope; always empty and forever wanting. Blasting riffs rest on one's heart like concrete. Strings are streaked with shuffling electro beats as tradition meets the modern. Guitars in trepidation wind melodies around Renske's longing baritone, lancing through the world's happiness like a dagger of ice. Each cut feels inspired and compelling and every note drips with despair. Such is our humanity on our cold distant journey, racing toward the throne at the dead end.
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The Crushtor.net Top 10 of Metal 2012
#1 - Katatonia - Dead End Kings
#2 - Anathema - Weather Systems
#3 - Deftones - Koi No Yokan
#4 - Woods of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies and Electric Light
#5 - Killing Joke - MMXII
#6 - The Faceless - Autotheism
#7 - Be'lakor - Of Breath and Bone
#8 - Baroness - Yellow & Green
#9 - Rush - Clockwork Angels
#10 - Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve
The Honorable Mentions
The Top 10 Metal of 2012 #2: Anathema - Weather Systems
Sitting alone we contemplate the reason why we're here as clouds gather and rain upon us - in that instant we realise we're alive...
#2
Anathema - Weather Systems
Soviet dissident Yevgeny Zamyatin once said that there are books the same composition of dynamite - except that books can explode thousands of times. This is one album that explodes innumerably and perhaps forever. After I listened to and pondered all three of the Peaceville Doom Triumvirate's (Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride) cuts this year, Anathema's left turn into the wonders of our mind instead of the harshness of what lies beyond is easily the most profound. There's not many records that can draw out a reverence and warmth from the most stubborn of cynics, but every time I load Weather Systems on to the turntable platter (an aside: do not listen to it in mp3 or lesser formats - it's resplendence is dulled to the point of choking the music) I do lie inconceivably transformed. Folky acoustic guitars with the clarity of fresh glass lifts one free from the chains of present life, carried upward by a thousand satiny voices (Untouchable, Part I). In the masterpiece Storm Before the Calm, unrelenting marches of "It's getting colder/colder/Until I can't feel anything/at all" poetically captures the brief moments of life as death claims us. Then almost as if you're dragged beyond the point of no return, you're dropped into a rollercoaster as it gradually gathers pace. As swathes of strings swell, your car suddenly breaks free from the rails as it hurls itself up the crest of a wave. In sheer terror you're rocketed high above the clouds until a gentleness pervades your being, joyous in the knowledge that you're still alive. Anathema deftly unite horripilatory binaural beats and ponderous, heartfelt piano chords creating suites of infinite splendor and melancholy. Guitars merit some mention, creating swirling atmospheres dense with color and light. Some may claim Anathema more soporific than calming, but a record that has the power to make one feel free just as they are is deserving of the highest of praise. Zamyatin again:“All of life in its complexity and beauty is forever minted in the gold of words.” Perhaps they're found in the grooves of this record, too.
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The Top 10 Metal of 2012
#3 - Deftones - Koi No Yokan
#4 - Woods of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies and Electric Light
#5 - Killing Joke - MMXII
#6 - The Faceless - Autotheism
#7 - Be'lakor - Of Breath and Bone
#8 - Baroness - Yellow & Green
#9 - Rush - Clockwork Angels
#10 - Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve
The Honorable Mentions