The Top 12 albums of 2012 Numbers 3-1

The best three albums of the year.  We have made it, ladies and gentlemen.  The year 2012 in music has been a good one, jammed with great release after great release.  The last thing I want to do by picking favorites is to make some artists we have talked about here feel left out or inadequate.  It has been a difficult task to pick just 12 albums, so after the music, I'm going to write a special 'honorable mention' section to note all the artists who have crafted brilliant music that didn't quite make our top 12 list.  At any rate, these bands should feel honored.  So, without further ado, the top three albums released in 2012 are as follows:

3. Lacuna Coil-Dark Adrenaline.  We have raved about this band more than once here in the past.  This was a strong inclusion due to the impeccable vocal nature of this band.  Switching back and forth from male to female vocals like a duet can be difficult and most bands do not attempt this.  Lacuna Coil not only attempt, but deliver in spades.  The music is dark, but uplifting.  Most term them as a gothic metal group, but this band continuously pumps out high-voltage hard rock tunes that are remarkably well-produced.  Not many music embeds are available for this release, so we have included the band's official music video for Trip the Darkness.  It is incredibly catchy and has excellent riffs and keys that should make many metal fans feel right at home.  Even if you are not a metal lover, you might enjoy "Dark Adrenaline"


2. Hammock-Departure Songs.  Double albums for some reason rarely make end of year lists in general.  Hammock is a delightful exception to this unwritten rule.  This Nashville post-rock band has released several good albums, but "Departure Songs" is their best effort yet.  Stretched out melodies intertwine with atmospheric ambiance and warm textures of dreamy pop.  If you listen to only one post-rock album all year, make it "Departure Songs".  This album delivers tons of amazing melodies and even insert gorgeous pop-like vocals on some songs. Below is one such track.  If you like post-rock, you will certainly enjoy Hammock's best release to date.


1. [Insert drummroll here] Syqem-Reflections of Elephants.  No one saw this coming.  This album came as a surprise.  Progressive Metal may be hit-or-miss with many fans, but for me, this was a huge hit.  A blog I read posted about this amazing album, and from the first couple riffs and vocal lines I was hooked.  Mostly clean vocals are the highlight of this disc, but it includes so much more than good vocals.  Atmospheric harmonies sneak around behind a tapestry of humongous metal riffs and flourishes of electronic sounds that are not based on samples.  This band may be somewhat similar to Deadlock, but without the typical metal screaming.  "Reflections of Elephants" is an exceedingly fun listen and is definitely worthy of its number one ranking.  Check out the track below, which provides just a glimpse of the jaw-dropping music on display.

The year 2012 also marked plenty of other excellent albums and EPs by various artists.  In no particular order, here they are:
Be'lakor, Epica, Tamaryn, The Luna Sequence, I Will Never be the Same, Ulrich Schnauss & Mark Peters, Delain, 2:54, Monochromie, Bloody Knives, Barren Earth, Drowner, The Agonist, Devin Townsend Project, Joy Wants Eternity, Craft Spells, Inner Trip, Airiel, Gojira, Xandria, Abigail, Causemos, Arundel, Asidefromaday, Beliefs, Cloud, Decortica, Dysrhytmia, Endless Melancholy, FPRF, Glass Vaults, Handlingnoise, Hans Zimmer, Hazy Mountains, Helios, Insomnium, Jack Trammell, Kevin Hufnagel, the Mark Lanegan Band, Mile End, Black Marble, Matchbox Twenty, Mist Glider, Moonshine Blues, Nick Efremov, A Place of Owls, Pulsar Wind Nebula, SkyPilot, Spc-Eco, Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, & Reinhold Heil, the Townhouses.

Thank you so much for reading and enjoy these wonderful selections!

Lacuna Coil-Dark Adrenaline review

If you haven't guessed by now, we love Lacuna Coil's brand new album here at Think Muzik.  We have raved about it more than once in previous posts. 

I was never a fan of this band before, having heard a few songs they did, including one from the soundtrack to Resident Evil: Apocalypse.  I thought that song was good but not great.  I was also highly skeptical due to the Gothic influences they portrayed, especially in earlier albums.  I put all that aside though, when earlier this year, I decided I would give their new record a listen.  I was hooked. 

What Lacuna Coil did well before, they did better with this album.  Never before did dual vocalists strike me like Christina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro do.  They harmonize so well with melodic singing that is it hard to imagine a better duet.  Combining both Male and Female vocals in hard rock and metal was never a strong point as far as I was concerned.

Not only did the vocals on this album blow me away, but the instrumentals, while retaining the dark feeling, added life to the songs instead of draining it away with Gothic sensationalism.  This album is mostly hard rock, and not very metal, which works extremely well in this case.  The drumming and bass are tight but never take over the music.  This is good music to rock out to but is still good to sing along with.

This album is such a good listen that it never gets old, even with repeated listens.  This rock band from Milan, Italy, creates fascinating, intense music that still manages to portray all the emotion that teen angst bands can and more, despite both Scabbia and Ferro being over 40 years old. 

The band have shown solid progress with this release.  This is one of the must-own albums of 2012 and it is easy to see why.  The deluxe version of this record includes a set of mostly-forgettable live acoustic recordings.  To me, these extra tracks are not worth spending the extra two or three dollars on, but I can safely omit these from the album since they are bonus tracks only.  One of the songs on the album is a fantastic, better-than-the-original cover of Losing my Religion by R.E.M.

If you are a fan of rock music, buy this record.  This is easily one of the best releases of 2012.  Check out a couple of tracks we haven't yet posted below.

Losing My Religion Cover

So Brad and I are finished with our top three picks of our favorite genres and so now we will go back to doing our own posts.  I'm still hanging onto my fascination with song covers and so I have another one for you today. 

Today's post is all about Losing My Religion originally performed by the American band R.E.M.  This song was released in 1991 on their Out Of Time album.  This song is R.E.M's most popular song and hit number four on the Billboards top 100 list.  This song is not actually about religion, it's about losing ones temper.  I thought that this was interesting and so I had to listen to this song again thinking about it differently.  It does make a lot more sense to me now that I know what Michael Stipe's lyrics really mean.  This song is unique in that it is played on the mandolin.  You can't say that about very many songs.  I think that it works.  I like the addition of the drums and Michael's unique voice. Here is the classic Losing My Religion below.



Lacuna Coil covers Losing My Religion on her latest album Dark Adrenaline.  You have to give her props for taking on such a popular iconic alternative song.  I think they do this song justice.  I love the beat of this song.  I like that they make it a little darker and so it sounds more like them.  I think the vocals are done well and are just as catchy as the original.  I do kind of miss the mandolin though.  So give this cover a listen and let me know what you think.  As always thanks for listening :)

Our top metal bands

Hello, friends!  This is the second in our series of lists profiling the top bands we like from each genre we cover here at Think Muzik.  There is such a wide assortment of metal out there, so choosing our top three has been a difficult task. 

Here are my top three:
 3. Omnium Gatherum.  These Finns haven't done anything earth-shattering in the realm of music.  All they have done is pick a style of metal they like to play and excel at it.  They have consistently improved over their five releases, culminating in thier best effort yet, "New World Shadows".  Omnium Gatherum is extreme metal, but also quite melodic, featuring catchy lead guitar and solos, excellent growling, and tasteful clean vocals.  Keyboards play heavily into their sound but do not make up the structure of the music. Listen to Soul Journeys from "New World Shadows" below.



2. Textures.  Textures is a newer dutch band that plays a Djenty blend of melody and harsh metal that must be heard to believed.  The band successfully switch back and forth between melodic singing and harsh screaming.  The first time I heard this band, I was very impressed and waited patiently for their latest album, which was just as good, if not better.  Watch the Reaching Home video from "Dualism" below.


1. Dark Tranquillity.  Being one of the pioneers in the Gothenburg metal scene is one thing, but being able to constantly release great material is another.  Dark Tranquillity arose in the late 1980s in Gothenburg, Sweden, alongside such acts as At the Gates and In Flames.  Over the years, they have released 10 studio albums.  I own nine of them--all but thier first, while Anders Friden (from In Flames) was the lead singer.  Mikael Stanne has been providing the vocals ever since and really does an amazing job.  Clean vocals are somewhat rare from this band, but they do use them to great effect, particularly in thier latest album.  Listen to Dream Oblivion from "We are the Void" below.


Kristy's top three are as follows.

When Brad told me we were choosing our three favorite metal bands and then selecting a favorite song from them I kind of freaked out.  First of all I'm pretty new to the metal genre.  I have a few songs that I like from select artists but not whole albums.  I was kind of stressing because I didn't think that I had very much metal in my music collection.  But as I took another look I found some artists that I didn't consider metal but that Brad assured me would work.  Here are my three choice metal bands.  Keep in mind I am just starting a collection in this genre and so this might be wussy metal to those of you who like it a littler harsher than what follows.

3. Funeral For A Friend: On a Wire.  This song is off their album Tales Don't Tell Themselves.  This song is very mellow as far as metal goes but if you listen to other songs on the album the metal comes out more.  I like this song because I like the sound of Michael Davies voice.  I enjoy the guitar in this song and I like that it's melodic enough that I can sing along. 



2. Lacuna  Coil. Give Me Something More.  One thing you should know about me is I am a choir brat.  My favorite part of choir is the blending of male and female voices.  I really like this band because we get to hear two great singers Christina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro.  Both vocalists give this song something special.  Their voices harmonize really well plus there is great guitar and drums in the background.  This track is off their newest album Dark Adrenaline.  Check them out if you haven't heard them before.  They are amazing.



1. Apocolyptica: I Don't Care.  Let me just start by saying this band is the s*#t.  I really like them a lot.  I love that they are all professional cellists and that they incorporate their astounding talents into metal music.  This version of I Don't Care features Adam Gontier of three days grace.  I like the blending of his voice with cello.  This song has a great beat and for some reason unknown  to me it just makes me happy.  Plus did I mention there is an amaing piano cello duet towards the end of this song.  Amazing!! I can't say enough and I can't explain it just listen and see for yourself.