Airing of Grievances...The Worst of 2012

I thought maybe I shouldn’t do the airing of grievances for 2012. Yknow start 2013 on a high note, full of positivity and good vibes.

Fuck that nonsense, I’m gonna do what I do best…I’m gonna hate.

Swans…I think I like the Swans…or I thought I liked them, I remember listening to some of their stuff years ago, so I figure what the hell I’ll give The Seer a try.

Couldn’t get through 15 minutes, oh well.

Enslaved…Oh Grutle and krew, fool me once (Vertebrae) shame on you - fool me twice (Axioma Ethica Odini) shame on me - fool me three times (RIITIIR) and strike 3 - you’re out….I still like your old stuff though guys, everything up through Below the Lights is pure gold.

Wreck and Reference….Super hyped indie noise rock masquerading as black metal, I guess I should be used to this by now. But for some reason I thought No Youth might be different. It wasn’t. yawn.

I’m beginning to think that Sigh named their band with the sole purpose of describing my reaction to their newest albums. In Somniphobia’s brand of kitchen sink metal has the same cheesy melodic choices and ho hum flair that plagued 2010’s Scenes From Hell. Oh, Sigh have always had a cheesy aspect, but it just doesn’t come across as fun anymore…it comes across as lazy, and this is a band that I never thought I’d be calling lazy. On the bright side, the artwork is A+!

Panopticon’s Kentucky is a mess, but not a hot one. Whatever magic they had on Social Disservices (an album that was nigh-on brilliant) didn’t carry over. I still listen to this though…it’s not horrible, just not up to the standard of A Lunn’s past few albums.

Ehnahre’s Old Earth. Hey, I can be pretty high-brow sometimes, but I just don’t get this shit.

The new Nile is the very definition of a band stewing in their own collective juice. I almost like At The Gates Of Sethu just because the production and vocals are so goddamn weird…but then I pay attention to the actual music. Can’t rise above without the riffs boys.

Hail Spirit Noir’s Pneuma sounded promising on paper…proper 70’s prog mixed with black metal, plus they are from Greece, so how bad could it be? Well, they managed to take the most annoyingly boring aspects of prog, added horrible black metal vocals, and I hear the drummer phoned in his performance while he was participating in a sleep study. Pneuma has all the personality of a damp sponge and would be the most boring black metal album of the year if it weren’t for…

Nachtmystium’s Silencing Machine. I hated this album almost as much as I hated that Mumford and Sons. Or T Swizzle. Or Wakka Flakka. You get the picture. Complete dreck.