Your Top 10 Albums of 2012

tohostudios wrote:

I forgot Sabaton's "Carolus Rex" and Charm City Devils "Sins" from my list. Loved both albums but I think my top 5 still remain the same.

I am a little surprised - I thought you really liked that Sabaton.

I did; I'd rank it 6th this year or maybe 5th, slightly ahead of the Royal Hunt but I was so happy to see DC back in RH that I still think I give RH the nod at #5.

EDIT: Now that I rechecked your rankings, we both put the last Sabaton as #6.

tohostudios wrote:

I did; I'd rank it 6th this year or maybe 5th, slightly ahead of the Royal Hunt but I was so happy to see DC back in RH that I still think I give RH the nod at #5.

EDIT: Now that I rechecked your rankings, we both put the last Sabaton as #6.

now you are freaking me out

I forgot to put Steel Assassin as an honorable mention. Sabaton didn't grab me with their new album and I still haven't checked out that new Royal Hunt enough to judge.

Though I can't narrow things down to a top ten - Hollywood Forever is still my pick for album of the year. And really it's not even a close call.

Forgot about Royla Hunt. I'll need to give that another listen for my year in review.

S.D. wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

Working on a list. This is what it looks like so far...

I was surprised that Clockwork Angels didn't make your list, I seem to remember you mentioned you liked the album.

It just didn't hold my attention like the latest ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Van Halen & Kiss albums. The new Skynyrd didn't make my list either.

Ult, did you get to hear 4Arm? I'd bet their album would be right up your alley.

I'm kinda out of the loop so I'll go for Overkill's Electric. Got a bud in Canada who sends me a lot of stuff - Machine Head etc (not my bag) but Overkill, yeah, it was well good, a bit to thrashy, I prefer em when they were a speed band. But a great record.

I may be making to separate lists. One for AOR/melodic hard rock and one for everything else. It will make it easier to rank them if I remove my bias for my favorite genre.

In no particular order here are my Top 12 of 2012

The Sword - Apocryphon
Gypsyhawk - Revelry and Resilience
Orchid - Heretic
Testament - Dark Roots of Earch
Overkill - The Electric Age
3 Inches of Blood - Long Live Heavy Metal
Van Halen - A Different Kind of Truth
Cauldron - Tomorrow's Lost
Grand Magus - The Hunt
Ugly Kid Joe - Stairway To Hell
Icarus Witch - Rise
Accept - Stalingrad

I have very little time before going off the grid for 10 days, so I can't whittle it down any further, but here is a list of the albums I really really enjoyed this year. Top 10 is in here somewhere. I think all these came out this year.

Arjen Anthony Lucassen - Lost In The New Real
Before The Dawn - Rise Of The Phoenix
Bloody Hammers - Bloody Hammers
Devin Townsend Project, The - Epicloud
Fellwoods - Wulfram
Ginger - 555%
Icarus Witch - Rise
In This Moment - Blood
JD McPherson - Signs & Signifiers
Moonspell - Alpha Noir/Omega White
Nonpoint - Nonpoint
Project 86 - Wait For The Siren
Pro-Pain - Straight To The Dome
Soul Asylum - Delayed Reaction
Strife - Witness A Rebirth
Therapy? - A Brief Crack Of Light
Three Days Grace - Transit Of Venus

And if I'd gotten the new Lich King sooner, it would have made it, I think. Such a kick-ass album!

Here is my list!

1. Testament - Dark Roots Of Earth
2. Accept - Stalingrad
3. Inner Siege - Kingdom Of Madness
4. Kreator - Phantom Antichrist
5. Bloodbound - In The Name Of Metal
6. Overkill - The Electric Age
7. A Sound Of Thunder - Out Of The Darkness
8. Solisia - UniverSeasons
9. Vorpal Nomad - Hyperboria
10. Pastore - The End Of Our Flames
11. Wildestarr - A Tell Tale Heart
12. Threshold - March Of Progress
13. Pharoah - Bury The Light
14. Southern Cross - From Tragedy
15. Flying Colors - Flying Colors
16. Burning Point - The Ignitor
17. 3 Inches Of Blood - Long Live Heavy Metal
18. 4arm - Submission For Liberty
19. Striker - Armed To The Teeth
20. Primal Fear - Unbreakable
21. Seven Kingdoms - The Fire Is Mine
22. Heretic - A Time Of Crisis
23. Dublin Death Patrol - Death Sentence
24. Reverence - When Darkness Calls
25. Hellbringer - Dominion Of Darkness
26. Mob Rules - Cannibal Nation


Metalwargod

1. Meshuggah - Koloss
2. Tourniquet - Antiseptic Bloodbath
3. Demon Hunter - True Defiance
4. Project 86 - Wait For The Siren
5. Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage
6.7 Horns 7 Eyes - Throes Of Absolution
7. Red Lamb - S/T
8. Testament - Dark Roots of the Earth
9. For Today - Immortal
10. Your Memorial - Redirect

Some of these will probably change over time, but at the moment:

1. Anathema: Weather Systems
2. Rush: Clockwork Angels
3. Accept: Stalingrad
4. Testament: Dark Roots of Earth
5. Storm Corrosion: Storm Corrosion
6. Angel Witch: As Above, So Below
7. Joey Ramone: ...Ya Know?
8. The Darkness: Hot Cakes
9. Shadows Fall: Fire From the Sky
10. Loudness: Eve to Dawn (well, the U.S. release was 2012)
...and, since Loudness is somewhat iffy as a 2012 release,
11. Metallica: Beyond Magnetic

Here is my AOR and MHR top 10:

Eclipse-Bleed And Scream
H.E.A.T.-Address The Nation
Jimi Jamison-Never Too Late
Hess-Living In Yesterday
Ten-Heresy And Creed
Hardline-Danger Zone
Trixter-New Audio Machine
Jeff Scott Soto-Damage Control
Gotthard-Firebirth
Pride Of Lions-Immortal*

*I was dissapointed in Pride Of Lions, Crazy Lixx, and especially Sunstorm. PoL was the least dissapointing of those three.

I thought I would join this one and spent some time thinking and ranking my top 10 Christian and non-Christian titles for 2012. While there were many other good ones I found myself frequenting these the most. It definitely was a great year for Thrash, one of my favorite genres of all! SOOOO for what it is worth, here are my personal top 10 choices for 2012...

NON-Christian

Rank Artist Title
1 Testament Dark roots of earth
2 Van Halen A Different kind of truth
3 Springsteen Wrecking Ball
4 Accept Stalingrad
5 Gillan & Iommi Who Cares
6 Overkill The Electric Age
7 Kill Devil Hill Kill Devil Hill
8 Kiss Monster
9 Heretic A Time of Crisis
10 ZZ Top La Futura

CHRISTIAN

1 Demon Hunter True Defiance
2 Saint Desperate Night
3 POD Murdered Love
4 Grave Forsaken Reap what you sow
5 Mortification Scribe of the Pentateuch
6 Tourniquet Antiseptic Bloodbath
7 Tsavo Inc When the lions are hungry
8 Antestor Omen
9 Messenger You Choose
10 Ascendant The Alteration

For what its worth I did not include any Roxx titles for obvious reasons and to not appear biased. Had I done that all 6 of these titles would have been in there, so for honorable mention...

The Sacrificed, Liberty n Justice, Jump Ship Quick, Join The Dead, Ultimatum and InnerSiege (In no particular order)

As all of these were prominent in my personal players all year long.

It will be almost a week before my top list of non-MHR/AOR albums. However, I will list my honorable mentions (I don't count cover, best of, compilation, etc.):

U.D.O.-Celebrator
Ultimatum-Heart Of Metal

Never got around to:

Arjen Anthony Lucassen-Lost In The New Real (forgot about it)
Primal Fear-Unbreakable (forgot about it)
Mob Rules-Cannibal Nation (didn't know about it)
InnerSiege-Kingdom Of Madness (couldn't find one with a low enough price)
Tournique-Antiseptic Bloodbath (couldn't find one with a low enough price)

I finalized my top 10 last night:

1- Testament: dark roots of earth

2- Kreator: Phantom Antichrist

3- Overkill: the electric age

4- Accept: stalingrad

5- U.D.O: celebrator

6- Iron savior: the landing

7- Paragon: force of destruction

8- Primal fear: unbreakable

9- Steelwing: zone of alienation

10- Striker: armed to the teeth

DallasBlack wrote:

Forgot about Royal Hunt. I'll need to give that another listen for my year in review.

Turns out I didn't forget it as it is a 2011 release. I had the same problem with Pop Evil-Lipstick On The Mirror which I thought was a 2012 release too. I did however forget Moonspell which I will give a spin today.

This is my top 40 minus the AOR/Melodic Hard Rock releases from the previous list. I really have a hard time ranking because after the top 10-20, numbering them gets more difficult. This year, after #14 the rankings can easily change from one day to the next (as could #7-14). The only solid order is the first six.

01-Sabaton-Carolus Rex
02-Lillian Axe-XI: The Days Before Tomorrow
03-Adrenaline Mob-Omerta
04-Dragonforce-The Power Within
05-Elvenking-Era
06-Unisonic-s/t
07-Shinedown-Amaryllis
08-Anathema-Weather Systems
09-Kreator-Phantom Antichrist
10-Testament-Dark Roots Of The Earth

11-Kiss-Monster
12-Lita Ford-Living Like A Runaway
13-Grave Digger-Clash Of The Gods
14-Black Country Communion-Afterglow
15-ZZ Top-La Futura
16-Jackyl-Best In Show
17-Threshold-March Of Progress
18-Accept-Stalingrad
19-Vision Divine-Destination Set To Nowhere
20-Overkill-Electric Age

21-Bonded By Blood-The Aftermath
22-Lynyrd Skynyrd-Last Of A Dyin’ Breed
23-Paradise Lost-Tragic Idol
24-Van Halen-A Different Kind Of Truth
25-Charm City Devils-Sins
26-Circus Maximus-Nine
27-Paradise Lost-Tragic Idol
28-Kamelot-Silverthorn
29-Eluveitie-Helvetios
30-Your Chance To Die-Suscitatio Somnus

31-P.O.D.-Murdered Love
32-Jorn-Bring Heavy Rock To The Land
33-Axel Rudi Pell-Circle Of Oath
34-Moonspell-Alpha Noir/Omega White
35-69 Eyes-X
36-Soundgarden-King Animal
37-Epica-Requiem For The Indifferent
38-Kill Devil Hill-s/t
39-3 Inches Of Blood-Long Live Heavy Metal
40-Corrosion Of Conformity-s/t

I still need to check out that Gotthard more.

I didn't realize Shinedown's "Amaryllis" was a 2012 release; I knew I bought it in 2012 but I thought it came out in 2011. That would definitely be my number 2 album for last year.

tohostudios wrote:

I didn't realize Shinedown's "Amaryllis" was a 2012 release; I knew I bought it in 2012 but I thought it came out in 2011. That would definitely be my number 2 album for last year.

I had something similar but opposite. I thought the last Pop Evil was a 2012 release and almost put it in my top 15.

DallasBlack wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I didn't realize Shinedown's "Amaryllis" was a 2012 release; I knew I bought it in 2012 but I thought it came out in 2011. That would definitely be my number 2 album for last year.

I had something similar but opposite. I thought the last Pop Evil was a 2012 release and almost put it in my top 15.

Yeah, I almost did the same thing with that Pop Evil but I checked the release date first.