Leading up to the end of the year, Revolver has asked some of our favorite artists to pick their Top Albums of 2012 and tell us why each record rules. Here, extreme-metal band Dragged Into Sunlight select their collective faves.
5. Converge, All We Love We Leave Behind
“The best Converge recording since the better parts of Petitioning the Empty Sky, everyone knows that’s “The Saddest Day.” What an evolution of sound. New, psychotic, out of step, off kilter, enjoyable, fucking CONVERGE. It’s possible that watching Jacob Bannon swing the mic 18 foot in the air and cough up chunks of venom and blood has never been this enjoyable. ”
4. Tragedy, Darker Days Ahead
“Tragedy is a crusty craft. A lot of reviewers had their ‘issues’ with this record. It isn’t fast. Oh well. Get a grip, it’s Tragedy, dwell under the intolerable weight. A force to be reckoned with at every level and total punishment from beginning to end.”
3. Be’Lakor, Of Breath and Bone
“This record is a game changer for Be’Lakor. Previously underrated and overly symphonic perhaps routine death metal. Now they make Dolph Lundgren sound Swiss. Swedish death metal to the final breath and bone. A profound listening experience.”
2. Lazarus Blackstar, Hymns for the Cursed
“Tone, heavy. Bludgeoning death. The slick of UK sludge. Faster than their previous efforts but still every bit as punishing. Members of Doom, influences of Medulla Nocte, a bit of Rudimentary Peni. Messy, crusty, grotesquely death metal, part Lazarus Bastard, this the creature that no man can cage. So fucking ugly. Press play and lie in the recovery position.”
1. Inverloch, Dusk/Subside
“Inverloch comprises 50% Disembowelment and 50% total fucking doom. This is what the end of the world sounds like, a before, middle and after. It makes you want to punch yourself in the face like a madman and then when you can’t take anymore. It makes you want to grab the nearest person by the throat and punch them in the face until it’s tough to tell the difference between human and hamburger. Brutal.”
It’s Tuesday–the day that music comes out–and this one sees shit from All That Remains, Geoff Tate, HIM, and more out in stores. Check out the list of releases below and let us know which ones you have already or are planning to pick up.
- All That Remains – A War You Cannot Win
- Anaal Nathrakh – Vanitas
- Bane – The Acausal Fire
- Corrosion of Conformity – Eye for an Eye reissue
- Davey Suicide – Put Your Trust In Suicide EP
- Doomsday – Doomsday
- Doro – Raise Your Fist
- Dragged Into Sunlight – Widowmaker
- Geoff Tate – Kings & Thieves
- Graveyard – Lights Out
- HIM – XX: Two Decades of Love Metal
- Isis – Temporal
- Iwrestledabearonce – A Beary Scary Movie DVD
- Megadeth – Countdown To Extinction: 20th Anniversary Edition
- Otep – Sounds Like Armageddon
- The Seeking – Yours Forever
- Strife – Witness a Rebirth
- Tiamat – The Scarred People
- Underoath – Anthology 1999-2013
- While She Sleeps – This Is the Six
Check out a preview of Widowmaker below:
“Volcanic Birth” is the album highlight, beginning with a haunting sample from an interview, “To even begin to try to live with myself, I must take responsibility for what I’ve done.” The song bludgeons its way through death-metal riffs with all the heart-wrenching appeal of Behemoth. Like most of the songs, “Volcanic Birth” is over nine minutes long, which is tough to pull off in death metal. But the same riffs are revisited, slowed down, and manipulated to create a captivating climax. The same mysterious voice is also revisited, this time almost inaudibly muttering something like, “Tie you down, rape you, shoot you in the head.”
The rest of the album follows suit up until the closer, “Totem of Skulls,” about Ted Bundy and his murders. He may be a tired subject in metal lyrics, but the band backdrops another chilling sample that reveals painfully honest details about the brutal murders with an unsettling atmospheric track consisting of nothing else but feedback; a truly frightening finish to an instant underground classic. CODY THOMAS
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