This last year has been pretty great in terms of music, but also on a more personal note, 2012 was actually pretty decent. Good things happened and bad things certainly occurred, but 2012 was the year that I realised that I’d found what I wanted to do in life – and now starts the long, hard road to making that a reality. I’ve come across some incredible people in my writing life that have helped me out in more ways than they can ever know. By giving me chances, by allowing me to hear new records, to making sure that I get to see that all important band that I love, and for the people that might actually read the things that I put out there, thank you. This writing lark is a constant learning curve, and I don’t think it ever ends. I’m excited for 2013. I’m excited for the music that I’ve been lucky enough to already hear, I’m excited for the music I’m yet to hear. Despite the fact that my real life job might not exist in six, three maybe even one month, I can’t wait to see what happens in other aspects of my “career.”

Here’s a picture of Darkthrone hanging out to break up the seriousness. Oh, you guys!

With that bollocks out of the way, I’ve put together a list of records that really did it for me in 2012. As per tradition, it’s alphabetical and I’ve also included a link if I reviewed the album online. I’m not a huge fan of giving some albums numerical significance over others, as one record at number 10 say, might give different emotions to the record at number 1, for entirely different reasons. Black metal and doom have been the highlights of the year, and here you’ll find records that span those genres in particular. As usual, Scene Point Blank will have a personal Top 25 that covers other genres – pop music! – and I contributed to a few other lists on the world wide web this year, as well as my very first Metal Hammer End of Year poll (so exciting, you have no idea).

This Is Not A Scene, Ghost Cult Magazine and CVLT Nation have also bore the brunt of my metal love this year and all sites have my sincere thanks for allowing me to continue to say words for them. Although many of my lists haven’t made it to the publication stage as yet or were only used to amalgamate one overall list, I did have two smaller entries posted on CVLT Nation – Top Six Doom Records and Top Six UK Records – and making the lists in general really helped to narrow down and perfect the final list (kinda sick of seeing the word list now, you?).

Anyway, here is said final list. I was going to do a Top 20, but then realised that is was far too difficult to only choose 20 because there were a LOT of really great records last year. So I typed until my brain ran out of albums to remember and as long as they sat within the realm of metal. This tactic meant a couple of things were missed due to their genre not quite hitting the mark or if I just plain hadn’t heard it – which happens quite often when you mostly end up listening to music for work related purposes. I apologise to those bands (if they care?), and genre wise, some of them will end up on my SPB list – and if you’re wondering why something may have made it here and to you it isn’t strictly “metal,” please be aware that if it is here then it’s deemed metal enough in sound, rather than aesthetic or tone. Take Swans for instance, or Pinkish Black. With that out of the way, let’s proceed. And thank you for checking this out. Hopefully I’ll be able to do a lot more with this little blog in 2013!

Acephalix – Deathless Master
Ahab – The Giant
Alcest – Les Voyages de l’Âme
Amenra – Mass V
Anaal Nathrakh – Vanitas
Anathema – Weather Systems
Anhedonist – Netherwards
Ash Borer – Cold of Ages
Baroness – Yellow & Green
Bell Witch – Longing
Blut Aus Nord – 777 – Cosmosophy
Bosse-de-Nage – iii
Dawnbringer – Into The Lair of the Sun God
Dodecahedron – Dodecahedron
Evoken – Atra Mors
A Forest of Stars – A Shadowplay for Yesterdays
Gaza – No Absolutes in Human Suffering
Germ – Wish
The Great Old Ones – Al Azif
High on Fire – De Vermis Mysteriis
The Howling Wind – Of Babalon
Ihsahn – Eremita
Indesinence – Vessels of Light and Decay
Kaevum – Natur
Katatonia – Dead End Kings
Les Discrets – Ariettes oubliées…
Lunar Aurora – Hoagascht
Midnight – Satanic Royalty
Mgła – With Hearts Toward None
Mutilation Rites – Empyrean
Nihill – Verdonkermaan
Obolus – Lament
Pallbearer – Sorrow & Extinction
Panopticon – Kentucky
Pig Destroyer – Book Burner
Revenge – Scum.Collapse.Eradication
The Secret – Agnus Dei
Wildernessking – The Writing of Gods in the Sand
Winterfylleth – The Threnody of Triumph
Worship – Terranean Wake

After some long hard staring at this list, I realised I missed quite a few things out, so here’s an extra rundown of some more excellent metallic releases.

I just really like lists.

Aldebaran – Embracing the Lightless Depths
Atriarch – Ritual of Passing
Bastard Sapling – Dragged From Our Restless Trance
Dødsengel – Imperator
Dordeduh – Dar de Duh
Dragged Into Sunlight – Widowmaker
Enabler – All Hail The Void
God Seed – I Begin
Imperial Triumphant – Abominamentvm
Lord Mantis – Pervertor
Mares of Thrace – The Pilgrimage
Martyrdöd – Paranoia
Menace Ruine – Alight in Ashes
Monarch – Omens
Neurosis – Honor Found In Decay
Old Man Gloom – NO
Samothrace – Reverence To Stone
Witch Mountain – Cauldron of the Wild
Woods of Ypres – Woods 5: Grey Skies and Electric Lights
Year of the Goat – Angels’ Necropolis