The honorable mentions (the albums that were close but no cigar)
Huoratron - Cryptocracy
This guy makes aggressive electronic music apparently using only Gameboys (or at least he used to). His few EP releases have been awesome stuff but sadly I didn't love his full album as much. Still it's a solid album where all tracks work together very well. There are also stand out tracks like the title track and Bug Party but where are the real killer tracks? More effort please. Though I still highly recommend you to check out this release.
Fear of Domination - Create.Control.Exterminate
This bands first album proved that they had skills but the album was kind of lacking when talking about stand out tracks. It's a great pleasure to notice the band pushing things to the next level on their second album. Now there are several stand out tracks like New World, Pandemonium, Destroy and Dominate and Tool of God for example. Enjoyable album but I hope the band can improve themselves even over this release.
Black Light Discipline - Against Each Other
Black Light Discipline offers really danceable industrial metal with dominant keyboard leads. Their second album Against Each Other continues what begun on the debut album Empire. Empire was a good effort all around but I think the second album manages to raise the stakes. The album feels more varied and the band seems to have developed as artists.
I personally slightly prefer this album over Fear of Dominations Create.Control.Exterminate but I feel the albums are nearly same level great pieces of work. Some stand out tracks here: Against Each Other, Walls Inside Us, Serene, Aggressor and a great industrial metal version of Laura Branigans Self Control.
Morian - Ashen Empire
Like bands like Entwine and HIM? Like melodic metal? Then I highly recommend you to check out the Finnish band Morian. Great gothic style vocals and often great instinct for killer choruses and melodies. Just check out Dawn Brigade and the single The World Ends With You. Ashen Empire works better as a whole than the bands debut album Sentinels of the Sun. Here catchy but aggressive tracks give way to softer melodic songs. Some songs lean more to the guitar riffs and the title track grows progressively in a dark atmosphere.
Unlike with the debut album I actually remember what each song sounds like. Still I really hope the band would get courage to try even more different things with their music. With that I believe they could achieve even bigger success...
Stam1na - Nocebo
Stam1na is one of my favorite bands but this years effort Nocebo didn't exactly blow my mind. That's not to say it's a bad album. Just on Stam1na's standards it's not one of their best. The first half of the album is great work and Puolikas Ihminen is one of the best songs they have written. Sadly the second half of the album lacks a bit with the boring Lepositeet song. Nomad is kind of dreadful and the half English, half Finnish lyrics don't help at all. Fortunately Ei Encorea is a good song and the album closing track Arveton On Arvoton is again some really great Stam1na song writing.
On their previous album (the great Viimeinen Atlantis) the band brought along keyboards to the music. On this album the synths have a more dominant role than on Viimeinen Atlantis where they were only a small detail in the music. I'm glad to say they work really well with the bands music and I hope to hear more...
Die Antwoord - Ten$ion
I rarely like rap music but I have become a fan of Die Antwoord. This glorious combination of South African insanity, rave and rap music is something truly original and new. Also the voice of the female singer Yolandi is very unique. On their second album there is even more "rave" and electronic stuff and that makes me happy.
Their debut album $O$ included some great tracks but was also very uneven. Ten$ion improves on all accounts. It's a more solid album and there are more good tracks than on the debut but I still can't really get into the albums first single Fok Julie Naaiers. Also some interludes are just unnecessary and annoying. Fortunately tracks like I Fink U Freeky and Hey Sexy are instant hits. Baby's On Fire is a total club anthem and Fatty Boom Boom has some real next level beats.
Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood of Color
Enter Shikari's debut album Take to the Skies got me interested about them. Their second album Common Dreads was very uneven piece of work and it felt like the band was confused about which direction they wanted to go in. None the less the album included some amazing songs. The bands third album A Flash Flood of Color sounds like their best and most proper album yet. Finally the band feels ready and seems to know and realize what they want to do.
The band got some critique from adding dubstep sounds to their music but I think it works really well. Meltdown and Sssnakepit are some of the best songs that the band has ever written. There are however in my opinion too many slow and not so amazing songs on this album. There really isn't a bad track here but I can only ponder why they didn't include the awesome singles Destabilize and Quelle Surprise to the album (I heard something about them not being good enough. Rubbish.) Those singles would have made the album a lot more enjoyable experience as a whole.. Oh well. We are still left waiting for that totally amazing Enter Shikari album but the guys are slowly but surely getting there.
Top 10 albums of the year 2012 according to Machine Animal
10. Tracedawn - Lizard Dusk
I was always impressed by the playing skills of young musicians in Tracedawn. It was just that their music didn't captivate me. That was until Lizard Dusk. The bands old but good vocalist left and the guitarist stood up to replace the clean vocals. Ex-Amoral singer joined to perform the growling vocals. The previous albums of Tracedawn are not bad but here in songs like Arabian Nights, Breed Insane, Sick Fire and Machine they seem to reach levels they have not reached before. Those four songs are the albums highlights but there is really no bad song on this release. If you like melodic (death) metal be sure to check out Tracedawn.
9. Mors Principium Est - ...And Death Said Live
I have had hard time getting into previous albums of Mors Principium Est. I seemed to always get bored in the middle of the album because of too similar songs. The band always just wants to go really fast and execute the listener with fast melodic riffs. After a five year pause the band returns with two new guitarists. They are unfortunately still slightly plagued by the same old problem.
I probably would have hard time identifying which song is which from this album. The difference is I can listen through this album and then play it again without getting bored. Sign of a great album right there. The guitar work and melodies are really exceptional and the band seems to play with even more intensity than before. Check this out even if you have not enjoyed the band too much before.
8. Kuroshio - Biomechanic
After the great Finnish EBM/industrial act Kuroshio Current disbanded, the band leader aQi decided to form this new act named just simply Kuroshio. Now after few years of work the debut album came out at the end of 2012. The music sounds quite much like old Kuroshio Current but just without the electric guitars.
The album is composed of ten catchy club tracks which should please all the old Kuroshio Current fans. One of the best tracks is Sunburn with it's great atmosphere, melodies and great samples in the beginning to set the mood. There is not a weak moment on this album and it's possibly the best EBM release that came out in 2012. Like 2011's Necro Facility - Wintermute (Not in my 2011 top ten because I only heard the album in 2012) I highly recommend to check this out!
7. Velvet Acid Christ - Maldire
The previous VAC album The Art of Breaking Apart got a mixed reaction from fans and critics. I personally loved the acoustic Cure flavored tracks with clean vocals. Apparently not everyone did. Still for me too the album was far from perfect. Not a bad release but again you have learned to expect more from a great artist like Bryan Erickson.
Maldire is for VAC a return to the roots, to the distorted vocals and more typical industrial style. A lot of people compare VAC to old Skinny Puppy and claim he is a copy of them. I never understood that. I feel VAC has it's own style and I've never been a fan of Skinny Puppy.
Maldire sounds slightly like Calling ov the Dead album mixed with Fun With Knives album. No really big surprises except maybe the occasional cool use of clean vocals like in the track Bend the Sky. There are few weaker tracks but mostly the album is great work throughout. Something I've come to expect from Bryan. Bend the Sky, Ominous Rattle, Inhale Blood and Christ Whore contain the atmosphere what I look for when I listen to VAC. Maybe not his best album but another great one to add to the collection. He deserves to be more successful.
6. Paradise Lost - Tragic Idol
Paradise Lost continues with it's return to the roots style on Tragic Idol possibly growing to be even heavier than on the two previous records. I have always liked Paradise Lost. No matter what the style they perform in. Be it Depeche Mode style synth pop rock or dark and heavy gothic metal (Exception maybe for the really early guttural death metal stuff).
The album begins with quite soft (For the albums standards) song Solitary One which reminds me of In Requiem album. We are off to a good start which is improved upon by heavy tracks Crucify (Took several listens to open up), Fear of Impending Hell and Honesty In Death. The second half of the album is not as good as the first but is all around solid work similar to Faith Divides Us album. I must raise In This We Dwell to be possibly the best song on the album with Honesty In Death. Great work like always from a legendary band.
5. Embassy Of Silence - Antler Velvet
Finnish (gothic?) melodic metal with a female singer. They already caught my attention with their debut album Euphorialight but the second album Antler Velvet improves almost on all regards. Several great songs like the opener track Trickster Queen, The Gemini Ascendant, Conundrum and Touch the Zenith follow. None can however compare with the songs Unconverted and Through Unknown Gateways (except maybe the debut albums song Soul Broken).
Catchy but also progressive metal with some great lyrics and in my opinion the best female metal vocalist in Finland. This band deserves to be more famous and Antler Velvet deserves it's place from the top ten albums of 2012 list.
4. Tenacious D - Rize of the Phoenix
Like I have said before good humor music is funny music which is also good musically. The D has not disappointed before and Rize of the Phoenix doesn't either. Their debut album contains so many classic tracks it's hard to defeat but Rize certainly puts up a good fight. The album pumps out great songs after another where funny interludes melt together with the music. Highly enjoyable stuff even as pure rock n roll.
3. Infected Mushroom - Army of Mushrooms
Infected Mushroom going dubstep worried me because I hated the single track U R So Fucked. However after hearing some of the album tracks live I calmed down and my worry turned to curiosity. On Army of Mushrooms Infected Mushroom seem a bit more inspired than on the previous album Legend of the Black Shuwarma.
Infected Mushroom usually start their albums with a really impressive and catchy fast track to show they mean business. This time it's a midtempo track that took few listens to open up for me. Same thing with the rest of the album.
The album combines dubstep, electro and drum n bass to the psychedelic vibe of Infected Mushroom. Sadly this time there is not much trance on offer except on the highlight of the album which is surprisingly a Foo Fighters cover. The Pretender mixes energetic trance and rock and is simply irresistible. Infected Mushrooms Duvdev is no Dave Grohl as a front man or a rock singer but otherwise the cover even improves on the original song. Responsible of this are mostly the amazing keyboard melodies by Erez. The track is crowned with awesome C-64 style bleeps at the end.
In the end after several listens even U R So Fucked has opened up and sounds good (The track works great live and in DJ sets). For me Army of Mushrooms feels like a small step up from Legend of the Black Shuwarma where some of the tracks felt a bit uninspired and not up to the standard usually expected from the Mushrooms. Army of Mushrooms is mostly very enjoyable from beginning to end, inspired and varied in style. Just more trance next time, please.
2. Celldweller - Wish Upon A Blackstar
Klayton effortlessly combines industrial, techno, metal and now dubstep to create what is called Celldweller. He plays most of the instruments on his albums and has a great singing voice. What a man. Wish Upon A Blackstar finally rises to the sky after about nine years of work since the bands self titled debut album (Which was easily five star material and surely one of the best albums of the year 2003).
Wish Upon A Blackstar doesn't disappoint and is as amazing as you would hope. Different songs flow together seamlessly, the production is marvelous, all the songs seem to have hundreds of small details in them and all the while the songs remain progressive and catchy.
Few things have changed since 2003. The band is less metal and more electronic now which essentially means less guitars and no growling vocals (No songs like One Good Reason on this album). Celldweller had previewed many songs of the album on EP's during the years. There was also a live album with different versions of some of the new songs. I think on that release were the worst versions of the new songs and that got me slightly worried about Wish Upon a Blackstar. Everything sounded too much like some bad Pendulum rip off on that release.
I was extremely happy to find out the album contains best versions of these songs. It really is a masterful work which doesn't get boring in any point and more than satisfied my expectations. Though in the end I must say that I hope Celldweller doesn't completely abandon it's heavy industrial metal roots. I want to hear more of that and less dubstep.
1. Machinae Supremacy - Rise of a Digital Nation
I had to actually think for a few minutes which would be the album of the year 2012 for me. Celldwellers Wish Upon a Blackstar is a amazing album but so is Rise of a Digital Nation by Machinae Supremacy. In the end it all comes down to the lyrics. While by no means bad, the lyrics of Klayton just can't compare to the deep, clever and awesome lyrics of Machinae Supremacy's Robert Stjärnström.
Too few critics give the bands great lyrics the credit they so much deserve. Though pretty much all fans value and love them. They can cheer you up and be positive without being cheesy but they can also be political. They have multiple layers and meanings with some references to gaming and internet culture as a wink of an eye.
Besides great lyrics Rise of a Digital Nation is also musically a great album. Returning from the darker tones of View From the End of the World to the more lighter sound of Overworld. However the song writing is even better on this release than on Overworld.
The album begins with Overworld style quite typical MaSu song All of My Angels. Things get better on the second song, Laser Speed Force, which is truly intense with a great keyboard riff and additional vocals from the guitarist Ghibli. Mid-tempo song Transgenic charms with it's catchy SID arp. However the best songs of the album are still to come. The title track of the album is one of the best with epic guitar work, catchy chorus and some more superb SID. Next is very melodic song Pieces, again catchy and heartfelt, not forgetting the bands trademark SID melodies. Cyber Warfare is a short instrumental, reminding of the bands early days leading to Republic of Gamers. Very typical Machinae anthem but again it's catchy as hell. Battlecry has a short dubstep part and some acoustic guitar. One of the best tracks on the album with those great lyrics in place. 99 is one of the bands best slow songs. Of course it's about the 1% and how they view the world. Great lyrics, amazing chorus and some SID to seal the deal. As a last track of the album is a remake of their old song Hero. More polished and professional, cheerful and powerful song. What Machinae Supremacy is all about.
For me the bands best work is still the epic and a bit darker View From the End of the World. However Rise of the Digital Nation comes next. It feels like an upgraded version of their Overworld album. Can't wait for more from my favorite band.
So that was it. My favorite albums of 2012. Another great year for music behind us. Let's see what 2013 has in store...
