Pandabear

2012 was an awesome year for music in general. There were so many great music releases, I had a hard time keeping up. I did manage to hear most of what I wanted to hear and discovered new bands along the way. Now that another year has more or less gone by, it’s time for this thread once again. Give your list of what you thought were the best albums of 2012. Naturally the lists are subjective to everyone’s personal taste’s and what they managed to hear, but its fun to share and compare and discover new music. For my choices, I've narrowed them down to the ones below. They’re listed in no particular order. And I might be a few weeks early, but if anything mind blowing gets released in these last couple of weeks I’ll be sure to add it in Silversun Picks Up -Simmer 1) Silversun Pickups - Neck Of The Woods Amazing album is amazing. This is like experimental progressive shoegaze. The band really expanded on their sound with dynamics. Lot’s of soft and beautiful shoegaze verses are contrasted with loud and super energetic choruses. The drumming, atmosphere and guitar work on this album is superb. The noise, distortion and atmospheres really have been refined into an elegant form. This is probably the best work the band has put out so far. Cherri Bomb - Act The Part 2) Cherri Bomb - This Is The End Of Control These girls had the best debut of any band I heard for 2012. They’re like a female version of the Foo Fighters except more rockier. Oh yeah and they’re all like 16 years-old. Everyone is really amazing, the vocalist is freaking great and sounds like a seasoned pro, their guitarists have really great guitar riffs and can shred, and their drummer is amazing. I can listen to their album without skipping a single song. Their songs are really well made, melodic and have big choruses. It’s kinda messed up when you have the Taylor Swifts of the world selling millions of copies of their generic crappy music and then you have such young talented girls like Cherri Bomb and no one barely knows them. Deftones - Rosemary 3) Deftones- Koi No Yokan Any best of 2012 music list is incomplete with this album. It’s a work of art and a masterpiece. The lyrics are gorgeous and obscure, the vocals are without fault, the drumwork is amazing and the 8 string guitars are dynamic brushes that paint sonic palettes. They resound delicate melodies, and churn out some heavy guitar drones. There’s a post-metal and metal-gaze sound in this album that the best of its genre and is up there with the likes of Boris and Jesu. I was really surprised at the shoegaze influence on this album, but it works very nicely with the dynamic aspect. Songs move from dream-pop atmospheres and shoegazing jaunts to experimental rock and some real heavy Messugah worthy riffage. Best rock album of 2012 IMO. The Faceless - Ten Billion Years 4) The Faceless - Autotheism I’ll say this right off the bat, this is the best metal album of 2012. That’s not easy feat to accomplish in year when you have giant metal heavyweights like Messugah, Cannibal Corpse and Gojira releasing albums of their own. If your a metal fan and haven’t listened to this album yet, go do it right now. Autotheism is metal masterpiece of brutality and technicality presented in an epic progressive format. The guitars are mind-blowing technical passages as is the drumming and bass work, but the guitar note leading is spectacular, recalling the likes of David Gilmour's work in Pink Floyd. You can hear a blues and jazz influences make their way into the music. The vocals themselves switch between brutal death growls and engaging Devin Townsend inspired cleans. Periphery - Make Total Destroy 5) Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal. I fell in love with this band after hearing their debut. And their follow up is not as strong as their self titled release, but it’s still pretty damn awesome. It has everything the band has become know for, technical guitar playing, awesome drumming, a razor sharp production, being densely layered and the continuation into their experimental progressive metal. The ambient electronic elements are still there, but this time around, they’ve expanded on their experimental side. They’ve taken inspiration from Final Fantasy games (as evidence in their song titles) and influence from Nobuo Uematsu which explains their structures following the evolving aspects of symphonic compositions. Spencer’s clean vocals are at their all time best, and the technical guitar playing is still there. They even got guitar gods like John Petrucci of Dream Theater, Guthrie Govan of Erotic Cakes and Wes Hauch of the Faceless to do guest solos. 80kidz - Mind The Gap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4MIWFo0B5w 6) 80kidz - TurboTown You know you have an awesome album in your hands when you can listen to every single song it without skipping a single track on it. Such is the case with Turbotown. There’s lots of electronic goodness and even some tracks with some very nice vocals and guitars. A lot of songs remind me of something Daft Punk might do, but they’re about 10x better Kyary - Ponponpon 7) Kyary - PamyuPamyu Revolution If there were an award for most fun album of the year, I think this one would win it. Kyary’s style of electro-pop is super catchy and cute. I have a blast listening to her infectious non-sense lyrics, the upbeat electro-pop music, her cute singing and watching her silly music videos. It certainly doesn't hurt that Yasutaka Nakata of Perfume and Capsule fame produces her L'arc~en~ciel - Wild Flower 8 ) L’arc~en~Ciel - Butterfly It was released early in the year and I might have been a little hard on it because of all the singles the album contained, but overtime I came to realize what a solid release Butterfly was. As a whole it’s one of Larku’s stronger and better albums. alice nine - Hanagasumi 9) alice nine - 9 This was also released earlier in the year, but it’s still an awesome release. It shows how much the band has progressed. They’ve gone from a simple guitar, drums, bass and vocals setup to a.... Well they still use that same setup, except the level of musicianship has gone up by like tenfold. The guitars shred and execute challenging riffs and solos, the drums and bass have equally improved and so have Shou’s vocals. There’s more layers, harmonies and improved musical composition. 9 is the epitome of where the band is right now and easily outdid the overhyped Gemini. Plastic Tree／くちづけ 10) Plastic Tree - Ink/Hide and Seek rebuild Just like with ammonite, Ink was another strong release for the band. A good mix of shoegaze, rock and dreamy ethereal pop. It’s got everything that makes plastic tree so great. The same goes for the rebuild version of Hide and Seek. 11) 9Goats Black Out - Calling The album is a masterpiece. Enough said. Enslaved - Thoughts Like Hammers 12) Enslaved - RIITIIR It seems that progressive metal might be the new future era for metal. Not even Norwegian Viking black is safe from it’s influence. And just like Axioma Ethica Odini, RIITIIR is another giant metal achievement for the band. It picks up where Axioma Ethica Odini left off and further pushes the progressive nature of their music. Not only does RIITIIR succeed while keeping the Viking and black metal aspects of the music, but I believe it’s also the longest Enslaved album ever. 2nd best metal album of the year. Tamaryn - I'm Gone 13) Tamaryn - Tender New Signs. Here’s an incredible duo from new zealand who are seriously underrated. Their debut was amazing work of shoegaze and dreampop and their follow up does not disappoint. It’s much more polished and focused, but the music is still as beautiful as it ever was, if not more. There’s so much fuzz, seas of distorted guitars, and warmth to get lost in. Tamaryn’s haunting vocals really keep the listener mesmerized and subdued. I was fortunate enough to see these guys live and they were amazing. I think they’re starting to get more attention, but they still deserves much more recognition than they are getting. AKFG - All Right Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8tizuTbObs 14) Asian Kung Fu Generation - Landmark I heard Lanmark would be the last album the band would put out, and haven’t been able to confirm this, but if it is, I would be okay with it because Landmark is an awesome album. I think this album is easily some of the bands best work and stands out from their discography. It still has an indie feel, the mainstream appeal and that AFG sound. It’s an all around good rock album. AKFG was one of the first J-rock bands I got into and I’m glad they‘ve continued to put out quality music. Baroness - Take My Bones Away 15) Baroness - Yellow And Green An amazing sludge metal band from Georgia. These guys are going to be huge, I know it. They have the sludge aspect of their music down, but yet again a progressive influence sneaks its way into the metal. Yellow And Green is two disc album of pure progressive sludge awesomeness and and a strong psychedelic influence. There are moments when I think I’m listening to a trippy prog Pink Floyd song. I’ve never even heard of a band getting close to sounding like Pink Floyd, but somehow these guys managed to do it. The band reminded me a bit of Mastodon at first, but they have their own epicness going on. The Agonist - Panophobia 16) The Agonist - Prisoners This band has come a long way since their debut. Prisoners is easily the best album they have put out and is the best metal album with female vocals I have heard all year. Other than describing them as metal, I think these guy have evolved enough to be able to categorize them as extreme metal. Their songs are brutal technical works, with odd scale riffs and voicings, crazy drumwork, classical influence and awesome vocals provide by Alissa. One second she can be a sweet angel, the next she can be a beast. She has both her cleans and death growls down. Prisoners is a solid album of furious metal with progressive and classical sprinklings and impressive female vox. Revocation - Bound By Desire 17) Revocation - Teratogenesis This isn’t actually an album, it’s an Ep, but it’s worth mentioning because I consider David Davidson to be the New Devin Towsend of this millennium except with much much more guitar shred skills. In 5 songs you get an addictive dose of technical death metal fused with thrash metal and classic rock *AMENDEMENT* Consider these albums I forgot to mention the first time around. If you’ve made it this far. Congrats, we’re almost at the end. Austin Wintory - I Was Born For This 18) Austin Wintory - Journey Original Soundtrack EVERYONE NEEDS TO LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM. Regardless if you’ve never played the game Journey. It’s an instrumental only album (except for 1 track), but it has some of the most gorgeous and emotional provoking songs you will ever hear. You’ll immediately understand how epic this album is from the first few seconds of it’s first song.. Throughout the album you’ll find violins, cellos, drums, flutes, harps - everything you could imagine in a orchestra plus middle-eastern and Asian instruments. The compositions are brilliant and the sound production is astounding. Everything sounds so real. There are grand atmospheric soundscapes , tense action runs with giant crescendos, ominous forebodings and songs that are just so beautiful they will bring tears to your eyes. John 5 - Beat It (Michael Jackson cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1-SneAzkVM 19) John 5 - God Told Me To Most people know John 5 for being a member of Marilyn Manson. In the music industry he’s established himself as one of the more sought after guitarists for his highly skilled and diverse guitar playing. On his second solo album, you get another taste of his amazing guitar skills. It’s an instrumental album of rock, metal and acoustic songs. John plays some sick rhythms, tasty guitar licks and blazes through insane solos. Every other song you have an acoustic track that shows crazy finger style picking, guitar slapping and tapping, or just warm and intimate acoustic passages. The album also contains a shredtastic cover of Michael Jackson’s Beat It. Best guitar album for the year (Sorry Jeff Loomis). Converge - Sadness Comes Home 20) Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind These guys are legends in the hardcore punk scene and they prove to everyone just why on Converge. It’s an album with fast paced crazy drumming, grinding schizophrenic guitar rhythms, blistering riffs and finally, in your face raw vocals. Somehow they manage to make that not only enjoyable, but accessible and offer up some serious musicianship. When your not being blasted by their noisy chaotic sound, they put forth some very brooding sections. It’s great to see this album also ended up on other peoples best of 2012 list. The Birthday Massacre - The Long Way Home http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFy-GrFtQl8 21) The Birthday Massacre - Hide And Seek After the amazing and uber clean release of Pins and Needles, the band continues with their clean production. The magical synths and fantasy lyrics create imaginative worlds and the album marks a return to the more atmospheric work of the band. It’s a blend of the bands polished electronic synth rock-pop-metal and the best of their moody atmospheric side. There are great throwback instances of Nothing and Nowhere or Violet for example. Paul banks - Over My Shoulder 22) Paul Banks - Banks On his sophomore album, Paul banks solidifies the fact that he’s capable of delivering quality original music of his own. It’s not the post punk people are familiar with from his work in Interpol, but his own brand of indie rock that muses with other rock subgenres. The clean guitars and drumming is fresh and original, there’s some skillful use of string sections, pianos, movie quotes and surprise instrumental tracks. The lyrics are well thought out and meaningful and there’s a good range of topics and moods the songs cover. Paul Banks, you are one awesome dude. Zomboy - Vancouver Beatdown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZb_UxGUbd4 23) Zomboy - The Dead Symphonic EP My favorite dubstep artist releases another amazing album. If you like electronic music, dubstep or even if you don’t like dubstep, you need to check this out. Pick up Zomboy’s Game EP while you’re at it too. His work is incredible. There’s so much layers and stuff happening, it’s crazy. The Dead Symphonic Ep is a great continuation from Game Time. You still have a ton of ear candy happening, great dubstep beats and heavy rhythmic motifs, but always with underlying melodies. On this EP there’s lots of sick orchestrations provided by violins, cellos and the like. There’s even cool bass and guitar riffs. It’s a sick dubstep EP. I See Stars - Endless Sky (ft. Danny Warsnop) 24) I See Stars - Digital Renegade In recent years there’s been an explosion of rock and metal acts using synths and electronic music in their songs, and for this year, these guys had the best and most cohesive effort of that particular fusion I heard all year. Think of it as metalcore with electronic dance music and hints of dubstep. The mix of beastly growls, heavy drumming, guitar riffs and great electronic programming with catchy choruses are perfect. The transitions between the genres feels effortless and their are some great textures. It’s a super fun and enjoyable album with as much headbanging moments as their are danceable beats. Plus it features Danny Warsnop and Cassedee pope as vocal guests, which is an automatic win in my book. My other picks for the year: Art-School - BABY ACID BABY Dazzle Vision - Shocking Loud Voice Unite - Calling The Kiddie - 5 Wang Wen - 0.7 Soundgarden - King Animal Katatonia - Dead End Kings The Offspring - Days Go By the Killers - Battle Born Lamb Of God - Resolution Messugah - Koloss Dethklok - Dethalbum III Before the Dawn - Rise of the Phoenix And so much more metal....

Made an amendment to include the Hide and Seek rebuild version, which is incredible. I think there’s something in there for plastic tree fans who enjoy both their old and new sound and for people who have never heard of this band. It’s just amazing. The tracks are reworked in the bands current shoegaze/dream-pop/rock direction, with a modern sound production, but they still retain what made them great songs many years back. Some tracks maybe shorter, other longer, but the rebuilds versions are all for the better. I think that Hide and Seek rebuild is actually stronger than ink, so I would give it a 9/10. And props to the band for being able to put out another great original album like ink and still have time to rework Hide and Seek in the awesome way they did.

I thought this would be a fun poll to run. Personally, like I'm sure most of you out there, don't believe the end is coming. It's not like the planet will spontaneously explode on that date, It would suck if some freak thing did happen that destroyed the planet on that particular day, but I'm pretty sure those chances are extremely small. I do however believe that humanity might be heading for some dark times, with the current wars, economic uncertainties, stupid politics, trying to censor the internet and some other worrisome things that are taking place on a global scale.

One of my favorite tracks from Periphery's new album. Love the guitars, the Wes hauch solo, the vocals and the awesome lyrics. Periphery - Mile Zero dz3E_JNW4oU

Well Sol-Fa is must then. Loop and Loop is on that album along with other equally awesome songs. It really solidified their success and fame. Plus it's a total fan favorite. You might also want to check out Kimi Tsunagi Five M and their most recent release Landmark. Hōkai Amplifier and Mada Minu Ashita ni are mini's you should also give a listen to.

With ammonite I feel the band struck a good balance of styles they had previously explored and were exploring. It marked a return to their more shoegaze material, while still retaining their more recent dreamy pop sound and remained faithful to their alternative rock side. For me Ink sounds like a logical progression from ammonite. Rorschach (Left) starts off the album and is s whimsical introduction with Ryutaro’s whispered vocals and an acoustic guitar. Ink really kicks things off with Pura’s signature shoegaze rock sound. It’s big, its catchy and it just oozes awesomeness. Kuchizuke follows and it might be a more mid tempo song, but there’s a lot of atmosphere and it really sells the ethereal dream-pop sound. Piano Black still has that ethereal sound thanks in part to Ryutaros vocals, but with the hurried drumming and the obvious chiptune electronica influence, is a bit more daring and experimental. Avante Garde is probably the fastest song in terms of tempo, but what really shines here is the drumming. The beats swiftly change rhythms and there’s even some short lived double bass drumming and blast beats. Life Is Beautiful is the only track on this album I didn’t really care for. The chorus which has awful vocals just totally killed it for me. They’re just really bad, on purpose no less, which I guess was the band’s attempt at being silly. But there’s nothing silly about this track. Funny thing is the rest of the song is pretty good. The rest of the songs shape up to be Pura tastiness. They sound like the band, with the ethereal vocals, akira’s solos, some acoustic guitars and the traditional shoegaze goodness. Something that’s apparent on songs like Butterfly or even the instrumental 96Bars. Long Absence. Standout things to mention about the album is again the drumming and the sound production, which sounds much different than their recent releases. It’s cleaner, more sparkly and I think it might have to do with the mixing. Love how I can feel like Tadashi’s bass is right in the room with me at times. I consider this another successful Plastic Tree release. 8.5/10

This album proves the significant loss the vk scene and the Japanese rock scene will experience without 9goats black out. From the very beginning they eschewed the typical VK sound of nasally vocals, trying to sound brootal, or like be like any other vk band and have developed their unique sound. Their music has flowered into amazing tracks of evolving song structures, chord progressions and a talent for incorporating refined genres. The members definitely have musicianship and it backs their releases, yet there’s also sonic variety and a set standard of quality. All characteristics that Calling has. I found the album to be a an amazing journey of sounds. There are moments when I think hear psychedelic, shoegaze, jazz or flamingo music, but there all the subtle nuances the band has borrowed from those genres. There isn't a bad song on this album, but the highlights for me were you, dye an unease, Canaria, Asche, 揺り籠, and rip current Instrumentally, the album is awesome. The guitars are elegant with the cleans, intimate with acoustic work, vicious with the little heavy material present, and spectacular with the solos and note leading. The drumming is offbeat and just like the bass, manages to provide the essential backing rhythm section but also stand out on their own. Ryo’s unique vocals are great and are a good match with the music. His falsetto’s harmonies really add some atmosphere to the music. So with so much awesomeness packed into 11 tracks totaling 40 minutes I think the album deserves a 10/10. I’ve never given out a perfect 10 out of 10 but I think Calling is one of those rare releases that is damn near perfect. I’m gonna miss this band

Chunk No Capatain Chunk - Captain Blood

I just discovered this band. I've never heard a metal band use salsa music in a song before this. Like how they have a silly and a serious side. Twelve Foot Ninja - Coming For You -ST85Sui43Q

Taken from the bands site: This is cool. I'm guessing they'll be releasing a new song soon. Don't know if that's what they mean when they say then hear and become hollow, but I'm glad they're beginning to get active again.

Thanks for the review. Glad you liked it. And yeah, when I was making the mixtape, I went for the more heavy stuff. And this reminds me, I have yet to post reviews for the other mixtapes. I wrote them, but never posted them. And maybe I'll make a new mixtape now. Metalz 2.0 or something else entirely.

Yeah, this is one of the new games for 2013 I've been looking forward to. I don't get all the hate toward the new Dante though. His character design is pretty bad ass in my opinion.

How are the new periphery songs live? I saw them last year on their Frak the Gods Tour and they were great then too. I've been meaning to catch them again this year since I want to hear their new material live which had tons of awesome clean vocals from Spencer. As for me the last band I went to was The Birthday Massacre in NYC. It was a great show. It sold out. It was my 2nd time seeing them. Saw them for the first time when they were opening for Dir en grey. They had 3 opening bands. Creature Creature. A horror-comedy quirky goth indie act, who were okay. But to be fair I was busy buying a ton of TBM merch when they were playing. Like this awesome shirt. Aesthetic Perfection was the 2nd opening act. An electronic industrial dance duo who are great on record although the vocals were a bit rough live. Then William Control followed. The solo project of Aiden’s William Francis. He' came out dressed as some sort of cool vampire priest smoking a cigarette. He put on a great show and was real fun to watch. Then finally came TBM. Chibi was actually carried out on stage since she had an injured knee. And despite her bum knee, she managed to put on a good show. Some of the cool pics I snapped: It was a pretty awesome show. They played songs from their new album, and even Nothing and Nowhere. Here's a live performance of Blue from the show. When Owen jumped into the audience, I managed to touch him and his keyboard.

Soundgarden Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun 3mbBbFH9fAg Soundgarden - Been Away Too Long NeBjhpw_Ee0 Anybody hear the new album yet? It's a great comeback. There's not a single bad song on there. The guitars are awesome and so is Chris Cornel's godly vocals.

I love Code Geass. Watching Sword Art Online. Almost at the end now. And started on K-on season 2. Hopefully I'll be able to get to Beck after that.

Cool stuff you got there. And props on having your own unique sound. That's always important. It's always cool to see a band starting out like this and then playing shows and recording. I had no idea you guys were playing in NYC. I might have gone to check you guys out since I live in the area. Like others have mentioned before, the only real issue is the production. It's not that great, but that's understandable considering the circumstances. It's still worth checking out different producers and listening to what they have already done, so you end up with a sound that makes you happy, if your going to go with that route. And it might also be worth doing some research into audio production. You don't have to become an audio engineer or producer, but some basic knowledge helps in stuff like developing tone, the best way to record it and preserving the original sound of your instrument. It also shapes how you compose and arrange the music for the best sound when you have limited resources. Would have loved producing you guys, but I have no real experience in production other than doing a couple of songs for some friends and my incomplete electronica EP, nor do I have a complete home studio yet. By the way, awesome muscles.

OMG. It's so much better than the original song and more fun. Chunk, No Captain Chunk - We Are Who We Are GXa8MNo4kfY

The new album is incredible. I finally got my copy and it's safe to say it's easily one of the best albums for 2012. Diamond Eyes was already better than White Pony and KoI No Yokan surpassed Diamond Eyes. Deftones never disappoint. Will be back for an album review.

They're last album - Ammonite-was great, and it was actually one of the best albums released on 2011 IMO. It was a nice return to their shoegaze sound. I've only heard kuchizuke as a single, but I'm still looking forward to this album and the rebuilds. Will probably buy this.

tyDi - Glow In The Dark (Feat. Kerli)

^I've only played the first halo, so that's why i ask. Guess it won't really matter for me then.

The release date of her album keeps getting pushed back. It's kinda of annoying. >.< I hope this will be the actual time they release the album and don't change it again. The Lucky Ones is a good song, but it's the most mainstream sounding song she's done in her career. Kinda preferring the collaboration she did with tyDi better. This sounds pretty amazing... M1B6bL2YFy4

Glad to hear it's good game and about the multiplayer. That's always tons of fun with friends. I'm definitely getting this now. What about the story line? is it any good?

My favorite new metal band. Technical Death Metal + Thrash Metal + Classic Rock = Revocation!! Revocation - No Funeral _bOHF9m0m8k

Whoa, releasing a tribute of one of the most influential shoegaze albums ever? Yes, please. I'm excited for the mentioned bands. Boris, Tokyo Shoegazer, Shounen Knife, total awesomeness right there. Would have loved for Plastic Tree to be included too.