With the year in music just about over, Metal Insider‘s staff and contributors are taking a look back and naming their top ten albums of 2012.Today’s list comes courtesy of Metal Insider contributor and college station KSSU/Sacramento CA metal director Daniel Cordova. We’re also including a Spotify playlists with a song from each album, if available. We’ll also be sprinkling in other lists from artists over the next few days as well. What are your top ten? Weigh in in the comments section.
10) Cloudkicker, Fade (self)
Ben Sharp is a genius. He is a genius that apparently cannot sit still. Nine months after last year’s calmer, but still amazing, effort Let Yourself Be Huge, Sharp hit the distortion pedals again and returned with a hypnotizing ambient instrumental metal record. What I adore about Cloudkicker is that he is able to create instrumental guitar-driven music that doesn’t require guitar wanking. Sharp knows how to craft a song and keep your attention without a word. Cloudkicker’s entire catalog is flawless, and Fade is the icing on the great cake he has been making.
Recommended tracks: “Seattle” & “The Focus”
9) Sigh, In Somniphobia (Candlelight)
My last words before playing any album by Sigh have always been, “And now for something completely different,” and the band really does something completely different on In Somniphobia, even different for Sigh. They’ve done the avant-garde black metal with a saxaphone thing for quite sometime now. So the band likely figured, why not add every instrument you can imagine and more metal subgenres than you can recall into the mix? Bongos? Check. Jaw harp? Check. Surf guitar? Check. Glockenspiel? Check. Recorder? Check. Kitchen sink? Probably!
Recommended tracks: “L’excommunication a Minuit” & “Far Beneath the In-Between”
8) Royal Thunder, CVI (Relapse)
Royal Thunder are a stand out in what seems to be the growing metal subgenre of female-fronted stoner/doom bands. Mlny Parsonz has a great voice for the music. She has a classic sound, without sounding dated. The music itself brings some other bands like Clutch or The Sword to mind, but it does so by sounding like an equal, rather than a copycat.
Recommended tracks: “Whispering World” & “Parsonz Curse”
