Crinn's Top 30 Albums of 2012

Why such a big number like 30 instead of 15 or 20? Because 2012 is one of THE BEST years the heavy metal genre has EVER seen! This was a hard list for me to put together (except for the album that got the #1 spot), but I finally pulled it together. All of these albums are truly amazing, and they aren't the only amazing metal albums that were put out this year. If I've written a review on the album, click on the album title to view the review. Here are the top 10:

10. The Faceless - Autotheism (Sumerian Records) (Technical Death)

9. Eluveitie - Helvetios (Nuclear Blast Records) (Folk Metal)


8. Enslaved - RIITIIR (Nuclear Blast Records) (Progressive Black)


7. Epica - Requiem for the Indifferent (Nuclear Blast Records) (Symphonic Metal)

6. Nile - At the Gate of Sethu (Nuclear Blast Records) (Brutal Death)

5. Katatonia - Dead End Kings (Peaceville Records) (Gothic Metal)

4. Cattle Decapitation - Monolith of Inhumanity (Metal Blade Records) (Death Grind)

3. Dying Fetus - Reign Supreme (Relapse Records) (Death Grind)

2. Overkill - The Electric Age (Nuclear Blast Records) (Thrash Metal)

1. Wintersun - Time 1 (Nuclear Blast Records) (Melodic Death)

The rest of them:

11. Periphery - Periphery II (Sumerian) (Progressive Metal)

12. Nitronoise - Total Nihilism (Self-Released) (Industrial/EBM)

13. Before the Dawn - Rise of the Phoenix (Nuclear Blast) (Melodic Death)

14. Waning - The Human Condition (Self-Released) (Black Metal)

15. Spawn of Possession - Incurso (Relapse) (Technical Death)

16. Attack Attack! - This is War (Rise) (Screamo)

17. Ex Deo - Caligva (Napalm) (Melodic Death)

18. Wide Eyes - Volumes (Self-Released) (Progressive Metal)

19. Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage (Roadrunner) (Thrash Death)

20. Swallow the Sun - Emerald Forest and the Blackbird (Spinefarm) (Melodic Death)

21. Veil of Maya - Eclipse (Sumerian) (Deathcore)

22. Devin Townsend Project - Epicloud (InsideOut) (Progressive Metal)

23. Soulfly - Enslaved (Roadrunner) (Thrash Death)

24. Abominable Putridity - The Anomalies of Artificial Origin (Brutal Bands) (Brutal Death)

25. Miss May I - At Heart (Rise) (Metalcore)

26. Whitechapel - Whitechapel (Metal Blade) (Deathcore)

27. Cannibal Corpse - Torture (Metal Blade) (Death Metal)

28. Rings of Saturn - Dingir (Unique Leader) (Technical Death)

29. Six Feet Under - Undead (Metal Blade) (Death Metal)

30. Mnemic - Mnemesis (Nuclear Blast) (Metalcore)

There are very few "best-of" lists that I've had to do that were harder than this. We even had some AMAZING shows and tours this year, including:

Opeth/Mastodon/Ghost

Summer Slaughter 2012 w/ Cannibal Corpse/Between the Buried and Me/The Faceless/Periphery/Veil of Maya/Job for a Cowboy/Goatwhore/Exhumed/Cerebral Bore

Eluveitie/Wintersun/Varg

Katatonia/Devin Townsend Project/Paradise Lost/Stolen Babies

Marduk/1349/Weapon

Sepultura/Death Angel/Krisiun/Havok

Metal Alliance II w/ DevilDriver/The Faceless/Dying Fetus/Job for a Cowboy/3 Inches of Blood/Impending Doom/Wretched

Dying Fetus/Cattle Decapitation/Cerebral Bore

Origin/Cattle Decapitation/Decrepit Birth/Aborted/Rings of Saturn/Battlecross

Morbid Angel/Dark Funeral/Grave

Epica/Alestorm/Insomnium

SepticFlesh/Ex Deo/Krisiun/Inquisition

And many more that would make this post way too long. 

Albums that I'm looking forward to next year:

Mutiny Within - Synchronicity

Suffocation - Pinnacle of Bedlam

Guttural Secrete - Nourishing the Spoil

Soilwork - The Living Infinite

New Disentomb!