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My top 5 albums of the year 2012
Since it’s at the end of the year already, I figured I’d write on some of my favorite things this year. This year has actually been a really good year for new albums I find, so there’s a lot to choose from. I might even forget about some that I love anyways, since there’s just so many good releases. So the albums I took into consideration for the top 5 were the following (in no particular order):
- Eluveitie – Helvetios
- Carach Angren – Where The Corpses Sink Forever
- Heidevolk – Batavi
- King of Asgard – … To North!
- Machine Head – Unto The Locust
- Testament – Dark Roots of the Earth
- Kreator – Phantom Antichrist
- Sabaton – Carolus Rex
- Fear Factory – The Industrialist
- Wintersun – Time I
- Lagerstein – Drink ’til we die!
#5 Lagerstein – Drink ’til We Die!
Lagerstein came out of nowhere as it’s their first release and they’re a brand new band. I forget how I even stumbled upon them but their music is just amazing. I’ve since recommended them to some friends and they’ve spread out among friends of friends quickly, which results in a lot of people singing along to their songs. They’re a very non-serious pirate metal band, hell, pirate rock even. Even people who never listen to metal can dig and sing along to Lagerstein!
You can listen to their album for free and if you like it you can order it for a couple of bucks from the band themselves; I did!
My favorite songs from the album are: Dreaded Skies, Harpoon the Sun & Jungle Juice Journey
Free listening
#4 Carach Angren – Where The Corpses Sink Forever
Carach Angren is a band I’ve been listening to for some years, whereas their albums were quite good; they never seemed to ‘grab’ me. This album changed that, when it came out there was hardly anything else I listened to, I even drove 3 hours to go to their album release (which was an excellent show)! They have their own symphonic black metal sound that I’ve seen very few bands being able to pull off. It’s a perfect mix of melody, metal and understandable focus that is outright orgasmic to listen to.
My favorite songs from the album are: Lingering in an Imprint Haunting, Spectral Infantry Batallions, General Nightmare & Little Hector What Have You Done?
#3 Sabaton – Carolus Rex
This album might be a real turning point for the band as the original members broke off, but those are the guys that worked on this album and with that they have just about perfected their particular style of music. That style of course being a very melodic style of metal that has made them extremely popular over the last couple of years, even winning pop-prizes as a metalband because their music is extremely accessible and not “frightening” as most other metal is to outsiders.
This album is overall excellent and there’s hardly a song on it that’s not merely great. They’re all catchy and will have you singing along in no time, meanwhile telling you a story of the Swedish Empire. It tells of a harsh religious doctrine and the many battles and struggles it had, including the eventual collapse. It’s therefore (just like their previous albums) an interesting thing to delve into as it’s all happened.
My favorite songs from the album are: Gott Mit Uns, 1648, The Carolean’s Prayer, Carolus Rex, Killing Ground, Poltava
I have to make special mention of a bonus track they released on the special edition version of the album which I have in which they covered “Twilight of the Thunder God”, a song by Amon Amarth. This song alone is worthy of an album purchase!
#2 Wintersun – Time I
Wintersun, A new album!? Yes! This was the year we finally got a new album from them and bless whatever god you believe in, because they delivered! It had been 8 years since the release of the self-titled album Wintersun which stands as one of the best melodic death metal albums ever. Expectations were incredibly high by fans, but also incredibly low on the other hand since the band could hardly deliver another masterpiece such as they did. It turns out that the album was very well received, even though it’s got a much different focus; it’s far more melodic.
I’m finding it really hard to describe this album, it’s one that carries me on a journey filled with goosebumps. It picks me up and throws me in the north, among the wildnerness with just the stars above me. It… I really can’t explain it; you will have to listen to it for yourself. It’s an incredible album that’s part of a dual-release of which we’ll see the second half (Hence Time I) in 2013.
My favorite song on this album is by far: Sons of Winter and Stars
#1 Eluveitie – Helvetios
So my favorite album is the latest album by my favorite band? That hardly seems surprising in a way. But this album is quite something; it’s boomed Eluveitie even more and has skyrocketed them to the level of headlining tours and getting on a lot of the biggest festivals in the upcoming summer. This album is Eluveitie at what they do best: making beautiful celtic-folk music telling powerful stories and also letting you go wild. It’s a perfect mix between sincere beauty and the wild nature of the past.
This is what I love so much about this album, it really does move from slow and beautiful and will then proceed to make you want to mosh and vent your anger and frustration. Not a lot of bands can make me feel that connected to the music. The thing is that they will also do this live, the sheer embodiment of celts, if such a thing exists in music today.
A king among weekends
So my past weekend was pretty great. I took the friday off and on thursday after work I drove off to Utrecht (Tivoli) to see Killswitch Engage with AxeWound as opener. This was actually AxeWound’s first show ever and especially knowing that, they did very well. Though they were extremely metalcore, they did have some songs with some thrash influences which were quite enjoyable.
Then Killswitch Engage came on stage and the venue rather exploded. This was the original singer’s 2nd show back with the band and you could tell he was excited to be there again. Him being there was also the reason for me to go to the show as I dig the albums the band put out when he was there and the new singer definitely changed their style.
It was a great concert and really physical, full of crowdsurfers and a real enthusiastic crowd. During some songs there would literally be 5 crowdsurfers jumping over/on me (I was standing at the very front, right before the pit). The singer at one time just said he felt like moshing and then jumped into the crowd and ran in the moshpit. Definitely not a show I”m going to forget anytime soon!
After that I drove over to a friend’s place and caught her while she was showering, kind of an awkward moment to ring the doorbell, but hey. So lots of talking and drinking ensued followed by roughly 3 hours of sleep. The next day I drove us over to Heerlen (De Nieuwe Nor) for the album release of Carach Angren‘s “Where the corpses sink forever”.
The show started with The Unknown, who started playing without a singer and it sounded really good, some nice thrash/deathmetal. But thenafter the first song the singer came onstage and.. his attitude really mismatched with the music. The music I have to say was good, but the performance was a bit weird with the vocalist.
After that Carach Angren put on a great show, a lovely mix of melody and black metal. I really can’t criticize them in any way other than that they didn’t play “Little Hector what have you done?”, which I think is a fantastic song. One funny thing was that me and my friend were almost the only ones headbanging where the music allowed it. The only others were standing around us, the rest of the hall just stood there nodding.
So after that show we went over to a friend’s place and had some drinks and laughs until again late in the morning and I had another 3 hours of sleep before I/we had to get up and then I drove back to my town and dropped my friend off at the train station and then I dropped my car home and immediately started walking to Fortarock.
Fortarock has a lineup that’s basically a mini-Graspop, not saying that that’s a bad thing at all. It’s a nice warmup for Graspop which is a couple of weeks after that, but bigger. When I got there I ran into some friends in the queue and hung out with them for a little while until I either lost them or saw some other friends and that’s basically what I did throughout the day. I hung out with different friends from time to time and that was definitely fun.
It was a great day and the weather couldn’t have been better, a nice ~20C and it being rather sunny. Not too hot, not too cold. Among others I saw Solstafir, Meshuggah, Machine Head, The Devin Townsend Project, Lamb of God, Steel Panther and Slayer. All-in-all it was a terrific day and afterwards I hugged some new friends goodbye and walked home for another 30 minutes. Afterwards I was so tired from the lack of sleep and standing/rocking out all day for the last couple of days that I wanted to take off my shoes, but fell asleep before I even could.
tl;dr
I had a great weekend filled with concerts, laughs and drinks. 
Carach Angren – Little Hector what have you done?
This song when I first heard it sounded great to me. Nice speed, symphonic. However I started listening to the lyrics and found quite a shocking tale being told here. I love it when songs make you think/shock you.
Here’s the lyrics as far as I can make them out (No official lyrics are out yet/ neither is the album).
Lyrics:
“Hector was 9 years old, old for his time. One day he made this horrible portrait of a dead man and his child. The teacher was shocked, how could such a young lad draw a picture so sad? Hector was asked to explain. He replied; it is me and daddy in the attic; Hanging.
When we are dead, cold and dead. Cold and dead. Cold and dead.
Later that day, the boy left school early, had to run away. When he came home, he found his daddy’s revolver. Now it’s time to play! When his father slept, his son blew his brain all over the bed. Then he went upstairs to the attic there he capped himself through the head.
Cold and dead.
Mother, a moment’s song. Lost her husband, mother came home and saw her son, her soul collapsed and her heart froze. After the funerals, she took an overdose.
It is the house. It is the house, Haunted! The house is cursed, the house is damned, bewitched! Touched, by the devil’s hand. The house is bitter and sad; Bewitched. It’s somehow proof in real torment?
Once upon a time during the war; the Nazi’s came and breached down this door; AUFSTEHEN! The men had to stand and see; ?????? All their women get raped, so brutally… so hard *maniacal laughter*
Cold and dead
Father resisted and for that he was taken upstairs, after his boy with his hands tied to his back and another rope around his neck. They made him stand upon the shoulders of his own dear son. Unfortunately the child could not hold his dad back up. For several days he stood among his ravished and executed family. Eventually he flingered? a rope out of his bedsheets and hung himself next to daddy.”