The Top 10 Metal of 2012 #7: Be'lakor - Of Breath and Bone

Taking flight from the prairies of Georgia, we're taken chase by a beguiling yet unsettling red-hooded cherub accompanied by a snarling beast baying for blood...

#7

Be'lakor - Of Breath and Bone

Akin to all great metal records born from the darker pits of our psyche, Of Breath and Bone pours itself in like mist at our feet. Slowly then all at once like our nightly passage into slumber, we realize they've enveloped us totally in their sensuous soundscape. Whips of Celtic tinctured melodies, pile-driving double-kick and some of the most inspired acoustic lead work since before In Flames debased themselves by sporting trucker caps or opening craft beer bars can be heard amongst its elegant length. They have sculpted a stellar death metal selection, blending the frosted majesty of the Finnish while astutely channeling the Swedish penchant for barking gristle and serrated riffery. If a record glues you to your seat until it’s over, it's a bloody good album. Detractors of melodic death metal contend the contemporary devotees tapped melodeath's creative well dry. Others figure only the progenitors of the style can vouchsafe its survival. What utter tripe! The flourishes and brutality of Be'lakor augurs well for a commendable new wave of Australian heavy metal.

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The Top 10 Metal of 2012

#8 - Baroness - Yellow & Green
#9 - Rush - Clockwork Angels
#10 - Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve
The Honorable Mentions

Article: Top 10 of 2012 - Lies Music Critics Told You (TheVine)

For their Top 10 Music roundup of 2012

Have you ever listened to a record after a reading a review and discovered it just wasn't right?

Sometimes they (we?) get it so wrong it’s like the reviewer walked into your home and told you straight up that your mother is dead. But she isn’t dead. She’s sitting right next to you. Screaming furiously at the stupid reviewer for imputing she’s actually dead. How dare the reviewer. How dare they indeed. (Get out of my house already, you good for nothing reviewer!)

Shake your fist at skewerings of Deftones, Mumford & Sons and Muse reviews at TheVine.

The Top 10 Metal of 2012 #8: Baroness - Yellow & Green

Plummeting back down to Earth, our eyes creak open to find overall-clad men towering over us, pitchforks in hand and necks reddening in the hot Georgia sun...

#8

Baroness - Yellow & Green

Stoner metal wasteoids have bemoaned Baroness’ ever dwindling ferrous content as red albums cooled to blue records and steadily exited the primary spectrum altogether. In an age where we have the technology to augment our “scary music innit” with ProTools sorcery, it’s inevitable to think less of a band if they dial it down a bit. If we remember their guitars were once connected to nature, and the sound of their natural creaks and supple twangs can be heard then it’s game over, pal. But all the pissing about Baroness’ post being forwarded out of the metal abyss have cascaded unflinchingly on urine-soaked ears. Their prodigious talents behind the studio glass still feels palpable and immediate. The fire in Baroness' red belly might have gone out but the ashes still have the power to seize and choke us. Sounding down home and out, Baroness' hearts surrender to the darkness. As they weave their twisted lines of bluegrass and soulful metal into us, so do we.

From the review, posted at TheVine.com.au

Mid-tempo 'Board up the House' brims with swampy undulating bass and breezy guitar jangle; Weezer may talk of bringing “death to false metal” but this track walks the walk. 'Board' would herald the unrelenting storm of a (much welcomed) great poser massacre, occurring somewhere in the dustbowls of Tennessee. Hell, I can almost envision Baizley and co. stepping forward into a tin-can microphone in some beat-up, beige-walled studio to harmonize the immense bluegrass-style refrain.

[...]

Though metalheads will scratch their head and wonder “where the fuck is the metal?” on this record, I submit to you – over 75 minutes with scarcely a naff moment to be heard, does it really matter where it went?

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The Top 10 Metal of 2012

#9 - Rush - Clockwork Angels
#10 - Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve
The Honorable Mentions