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So, yet another issue of the Year End Summary is about to amuse and bewilder you. It was an awesome year for music, and it was also a totally magnificent year for my other passion, cinema, but that's not the place to speak about it. Anyway, for quite some time I've had this thought that this summary business is kinda stupid – suddenly in December you realise how many potentially awesome albums you've missed and then you desperately try to make up for it by listening as much as you can, neglecting your work, studies, family, girlfriend, cat or whatever you've got to care for. Not that I intend to drop doing this or something, I guess I just like doing pointless stuff nobody cares about. Oh well, I start to blabber here. So, let's get ready to rumble!


3/10:
This Or The Apocalypse – Dead Years (The Worst Album of the Year and The Disappointment of the Year; it's actually really, really sad how this band managed to stoop so low after two great releases...)
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I tried my best to add some commentary this year. It's not much, but at least there's something about every release. Writing an in-depth analysis on 95, or even 30, releases is not my idea of a good time.

Some of the releases can be downloaded legally for free from Bandcamp. I will not check which ones specifically, but thedowngoing, USKO and Dark Cloak should be there. Some others, like FALSE LIGHT, Syntax and Water Torture, can be downloaded for free from Grindcore Karaoke. I just revealed 1/3 of my EP list... oh well.

Honorable mentions: A Place to Bury Strangers, Alcest, Alkerdeel, Arkhamin Kirjasto, Baroness, Bastard Deceiver, Bosse-de-Nage, Cattle Decapitation, Coffins, Deftones, Desecresy, Dysrhythmia, Flourishing, Flying Lotus, Four Tet, Goatwhore, Horrendous, Kendrick Lamar, Meshuggah, Necro Deathmort, Nihill, Nile, Noisear, Pharaoh Overlord, Plague Widow, Protestant, Tame Impala, Torch Runner, Tragedy, War From a Harlots Mouth, Wrathprayer

Top 5 splits

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Not in any particular order.

Swans - The Seer
Agalloch - Faustian Echoes
Blue Cross - I am Death
Geoff Barrow And Ben Salisbury - Drokk: Music inspired by Mega​-​City One
Prurient - Of the Memories of Friends
John Maus - official unofficial demo thing
Daniel Menche - Guts
Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction
Dawnbringer - Into the Lair of the Sun God
Incantation - Vanquish With Vengeance
Asphyx - Deathhammer
Grand Supreme Blood Court - Bow Down to the Blood Court
Necrovation - Necrovation
Chromatics - Kill for Love
Grouper - Violet Replacement: Sleep/Rolling Gate
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes
Vatican Shadow - Ghosts of Chechnya
(The vinyl release of Kneel Before Religious Icons pretty much makes it new all over again as well.)
Death Grips - The Money Store/No Love Deep Web
A Place to Bury Strangers - Onwards to the Wall
Killing Joke - MMXII
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujiah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
Ash Borer - Cold of Ages
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Featuring: Baroness , Melvins Lite, Philm, Ides of Gemini, Old Man Gloom, Whourkr, The Pirate Ship Quintet, Witch Mountain, Royal Thunder, Tortoise

Live reviews: Roadburn 2012, Necro Deathmort, Barn Owl, Kazuki Tomokawa + Michael Gira, Inverloch, Motorpsycho + El Doom & the Born Electric, Harvey Milk, Andrew W.K., Guitar Wolf, Russian Circle + Deafheaven, Tim Hecker, Laibach, A Place to Bury Strangers

Album reviews: Acephalix, Aldebaran, Anoice, Bong, Arcana, Burning Love, Ancients, Atriarch, Atom TM, Author & Punisher, ballrogg, Beak>, Beyond Sensory Experience, Bo Ningen, Anthea Caddy + Thembi Soddell, The Cult, Fire!, Cattle Decapitation, Carlos Cipa, Conan, Dawnbringer, Dope Body, Dying Fetus, Earthlimb, Ephel Duath, David Fiuczynski, Fear Factory, The Fierce & The Dead, Furze, GANDHI’S GUNN, Gojira, Grand Magus, Hildur Gudnadottir, Robert Hampson, Heavy Blanket, Hour of 13, InterStatic, kandodo…

The mini-reviews actually serve the purpose of notes to myself, so take them as such.

Top Ten

1. Saint Vitus - Lillie: F-65
2. Jess and The Ancient Ones - Jess and The Ancient Ones
3. Christian Mistress - Possession
4. Overkill - The Electric Age
5. Alcest - Les Voyages de l'Ame
6. Kreator - Phantom Antichrist
7. Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction
8. Bunker 66 - Infernö Interceptörs
9. My Dying Bride - A Map of all Our Failures
10. Aura Noir - Out to Die

Not Ranked

Evoken - Atra Mors *doom/death*
Conan - Monnos *stoner/doom*
Hawkwind - Onward *prog rock*
Infinitas - Journey to Infinity *post black*
Horse Latitudes - Awakening *doom*
Dawnbringer - Into the Lair of the Sun God *heavy*
Kamelot - Silverthorn *power*
Worship - Terranean Wake *funeral doom*
Incantation - Vanquish in Vengeance *death/black*
Whiskey Ritual - Narconomicon *black*
Derketa - In Death We Meet *doom/death*
Arctic Plateau - The Enemy Inside *post*


Great


Alcest - Les Voyages de l'Ame * post *
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Rock-A-Rolla back issues are available to order now! Issue 29 features:

The Young Gods, Kyuss, Electric Wizard, Ehnahre, Salome, Ultralyd, TITAN, Ultraphallus, Antimatter, Father Murphy, The Dale Cooper Quartet
Plus album reviews: Circle of Animals, Aborym, Atheist, Bad Cop, Bardo Pond, The Black Heart Procession, Blood Command, Bo Ningen, Rhys Chatham, The Blue Angel Lounge, Chickenhawk, Crushing Sun, Head of Wantastiquet, Chris Connelly, Cough, Cyclobe, Deathspell Omega, Dawnbringer, Erik Friedlander, Lesbian, Faun Fables, Flying Horseman, Former Ghosts, Harmonius bec, Gnaw Their Tongues, Haust, Heaven in Her Arms, Maserati, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Alain Johannes, Rose Kemp, Marnie Stern, Zach Hill, Kylesa, Kit, Laboratory Noise, Lavinia, La Plebe, Locrian, The Legendary Pink Dots, Scorch Trio, Francisco Lopez, Majeure, Mark McGuire,MGR, Monster Magnet, MINAMO + LAWRENCE ENGLISH, Nails, Nucleus Torn, NLF3, Quest for Fire, Okkultokrati…