The Best Metal Albums of 2012, As Chosen by Metal Musicians Themselves — Part I
Every year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of fourteen to seventeen musicians at a time twice a day for the whole week.
Below, check out the first group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!
Mikael Stanne, Dark Tranquillity
1. Rush – Clockwork Angels
2. Testament – Dark Roots of Earth
3. Astra – The Black Chord
4. Anathema – Weather Systems
5. My Sleeping Karma – Soma
6. Rival Sons – Head Down
7. Ihsahn – Eremita
8. Marillion – Sounds That Can’t Be Made
9. Baroness – Yellow & Green
10. Katatonia – Dead End Kings
Niklas Sundin, Dark Tranquillity
1. Henric de la Cour – Grenade
2. Ulver – Childhood’s End
3. Deathspell Omega – Drought
4. Thåström – Beväpna dig med vingar
5. Burzum – Umskiptar
6. Enslaved – RIITIIR
7. Swans – The Seer
8. Mgła – With Hearts Toward None
9. Neurosis – Honor Found in Decay
10. Blut aus Nord – 777 – Cosmosophy
Corey Pierce, God Forbid
1. God Forbid – Equilibrium
2. Meshuggah – Koloss
3. Lamb of God — Resolution
4. Goatwhore — Blood for the Master
5. Overkill — Electric Age
6. Down — IV Part I the Purple
7. Kreator — Phantom Antichrist
8. Gojira — L’Enfant Sauvage
9. Shadows Fall — Fire from the Sky
10. V.O.D. — The cursed remain Cursed
Tommy Victor, Prong
1. Killing Joke — MMXII
2. Prong — Carved Into Stone
3. Grand Magus — The Hunt
4. 3 Inches Of Blood — Long Live Heavy Metal
5. Fear Factory “The Industrialist
6. Meshuggah — Koloss
7. Lamb Of God — Resolution
8. Shadows Fall — Fire From The Sky
9. Soulfly — Enslaved
10. Overkill — The Electric Age
Stavros Gianapolous, The Atlas Moth
1. Deftones — Koi No Yokan
2. Converge — All We Love We Leave Behind
3. Sektemtum — Aut Caesar Aut Nihil
4. Muse — The 2nd Law
5. Royal Thunder — CVI
6. Crystal Castles — (III)
7. Millions — Failure Tactics
8. Atriarch — Ritual of Passing
9. Twin Shadow — Confess
10. Pinkish Black — Pinkish Black
Mario Cianci, Diamond Plate
1. Gojira — L’Enfant Sauvage
2. Return To Forever — The Mothership Returns
3. Landmine Marathon — 7″
4. Baroness — Yellow & Green
5. The Prodigy — The Fat of the Land (Expanded Edition)
6. Pat Metheny — Unity Band
7. Meshuggah — Koloss
8. Prince Fatty — Versus The Drunken Gambler
9. Ketzer — Endzeit Metropolis
10. Bonded by Blood — The Aftermath
Scott Flaster, Millions
1. Killing Joke — MMXII
2. Godspeed You! Black Emperor — ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
3. Swans — The Seer
4. Liars — WIXIW
5. Graveyard — Lights Out
6. Neurosis — Honor Found in Decay
7. Atriarch — Ritual of Passing
8. High On Fire — De Vermis Mysteriis
9. Menace Ruine — Alight in Ashes
10. Rush — Clockwork Angels
Drop, Sybreed
1. Katatonia — Dead End Kings
2. Soulsavers — The Light The Dead See
3. Ulver — Childhood’s End
4. Deftones — Koi No Yokan
5. Front Line Assembly — AirMech
6. VCMG — Ssss
7. Borknagar — Urd
8. Tiamat — The Scarred People
9. Infected Mushroom — Army of Mushrooms
10. Da Octopusss — Da Octopusss
Tooth Log, Natur
1. Nekromantheon — Rise Vulcan Spectre
2. Pilgrim — Misery Wizard
3. Occultation — Three & Seven
4. Aura Noir — Out to Die
5. Windhand — Windhand
6. Deathhammer — Onward Towards The Pits
7. Spectral Haze — Demo
8. Hour of 13 — 333
9. Gouge — Doomed to Death 7″
10. Angel Witch — As Above, So Below
Ben Crew, In Defence
1. Municipal Waste/Toxic Holocaust — Toxic Waste Split LP
2. Deviated Instinct — DEVIATED INSTINCT – Liberty Crawls 12″
3. Brain Tumors — Fuck You Forever 7″
4. Media Blitz — Burn The World 12″
5. Oiltanker/No Tomorrow — Split 12″
6. Municipal Waste — Waste in Space 12″
7. Opposition Rising — Aftermathematics 12″
8. Ghoul — Transmission Zero 12″
9. War/Plague — On a Darker Dawn Split 12″
10. False/Barghest — Split 12″
1. Anathema — Weather Systems
2. Periphery — Periphery II
3. Devin Townsend Project — Epicloud
4. Teramaze — Anhedonia
5. Circus Maximus — Nine
6. Alcest — Les Voyages de l’Âme
7. Arjen Lucassen — Lost in the New Real
8. Rush — Clockwork Angels
9. Storm Corrosion — Storm Corrosion
10. Meshuggah — Koloss
1. Accept — Stalingrad
2. Rush — Clockwork Angels
3. Wolfsbane — Wolfsbane Save the World
4. A Sound of Thunder — Out of the Darkness
5. Meshuggah — Koloss
6. Dario Mollo & Tony Martin — The Third Cage
7. Sabaton — Carolus Rex
8. Soen — Cognitive
9. Korpiklaani — Kunnia
10. Squackett — A Life Within a Day
1. Keane — Strangeland
2. Katatonia — Dead End Kings
3. Mark Knopfler — Privateering
4. Van Halen — A Different Kind of Truth
5. Testament — Dark Roots of Earth
6. Pretty Maids — It Comes Alive
7. Paul Buchanan – Midair
8. The Sea and Cake – Runner
9. It Bites — Map of the Past
10. Aeon Spoke — Nothing
1. Teramaze — Anhedoniater
2. Teodor Tuff — Soliloque
3. Spheric Universe Experience — The New Eve
4. German Pascual — A New Beginning
5. Seven Kingdoms — The Fire is Mine
6. Warnot — His Blood is Yours
7. Order of Nine — Seventh Year of the Broken Mirror
8. Prototype — Catalyst
9. End of September — End of September
10. Cloudscape — New Era
