I've been busy trying to mix my album, ok? It's hard. For me. It's hard because I don't have the slightest fucking idea what I'm doing. Did you know that the funny looking EQ waveform thingy actually has proper settings that can be adjusted using things like math and shit? Christ. All this time I was just dicking with it until it looked like a Geiger counter at Chernobyl. Anyways, I'm basically done now and probably ready to get this shit sent to James Plotkin for a wicked mastering. Also, my cousin/artslave Elena showed me some progress on the album art and it's looking sweet. Scummy and evil. So yeah, it's getting close to finished and I'm pretty excited.
In the meantime, here's a list of my favourite releases from 2012 that did get finished. Plus a little blurb about each and a link, if applicable. As usual, in no order.
1) MELVINS - THE BULL AND THE BEES "Featuring one of the best songs of their entire existence! Congratulations, 30-year old band!"
2) HIGH ON FIRE - DE VERMIS MYSTERIIS "Always a consistently good band but this one, in particular, is their best since Blessed Black Wings (my favourite)."
3) KILLING JOKE - MMXII "If you took the best songs off this and their last album and compiled them together, you'd be looking at a pretty untouchable classic (and also an additional album with a head-scratchingly high amount of filler)."
4) TORCHE - HARMONICRAFT "If Millencolin decided to be an amazing doom-metal band."
5) MELVINS LITE - FREAK PUKE "So weird how this band can keep rewriting the same riffs and have it be consistently awesome time and time again."
6) BARONESS - YELLOW & GREEN "I'd kind of written these guys off once I heard the Red Album but decided to give this a shot. Oops."
7) DEATH GRIPS - MONEYSTORE "This one is awesome. No Love Deep Web (also released this year) is my least favourite of the 3 full-lengths (despite the insane circumstances surrounding its release). And Ex-Military is still the best."
8) TEAM DOYOBI - DIGITAL MUSIC VOLUME I "Fantastic electronic weirdness. IDM done right."
9) SHAHMAN - BORED 7INCH "My new favourite Ottawa band. I go to their shows alone, largely due to the alienated nature of their songs. Just trying to do my part."
http://shahman.bandcamp.com/
10) REDD KROSS - RESEARCHING THE BLUES "I kind of fell in love with this once I heard what the album title was. Thank God it's also jam-packed with signature RK amazingness."
11) BELL WITCH - LONGING "A perfect doom metal antidote to the endless unremarkable onslaught that is 99% of all metal."
12) PS I LOVE YOU - DEATH DREAMS "Seeing what these 2 dopes actually looked like ALMOST ruined this whole thing for me."
13) HORSEBACK - HALF BLOOD "I was expecting a bunch of lovely guitar and piano ambience when I put this on, not stoner/doom....like....actual SONG songs with vocals and shit (interspersed with lovely guitar and piano ambience)."
14) LOCAL H - HALLELUJAH! I'M A BUM "I always have time for this band and they never disappoint with their Nirvana-through-a-Cheap-Trick-filter sound."
15) JK FLESH - POSTHUMAN "Somewhere between Grey Machine and late period Godflesh."
16) SNAKEDRIVER/LASER FLAMES ON THE GREAT BIG NEWS - SPLIT "2 fantastic bands on one album. Grindy sludge and Southern-fried stoner/doom. Nice pair."
http://mutantsofthemonster.bandcamp.com/album/snakedriver-laser-flames-split
17) BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW - COBRA JUICY "I didn't know this band existed until fairly recently. I miss out on a lot."
18) DEAD WRESTLER - 6 SONG EP "Another recent Ottawa favourite. Surf/jazz guitar with an almost Jesus Lizard rhythm section. No vocals."
http://deadwrestler.bandcamp.com/album/6-song-ep
19) KRALLICE - YEARS PAST MATTER "These guys seem to understand what all the worthwhile elements of black metal really are."
20) METZ - S/T "Weird, noisy rock songs. Very brief and very satisfying. This is what alt-rock is (not a bunch of fucking banjos, right?)."
21) LONGMONT POTION CASTLE - VOLUME 9 "This guy makes me cry tears of laughter every single time."
http://noisetent.com/DUCat.html
22) ALTARUS - AS ABOVE, SO BELOW "Progressive doom metal that just gets better and more complex as the album goes on."
http://altarus.bandcamp.com/album/as-above-so-below
23) BIIPIIGWAN - NIBAAK "Yet another (kind-of) Ottawa band. Furious sludge/grind meets AmRep style noise rock."
http://handshakeinc.bandcamp.com/album/nibaak
24) JODIS - BLACK CURTAIN "An amazing sound from James Plotkin and Aaron Turner. Somewhat doomish ambient/post-rock. Very different."
25) WIZARD RIFLE - SPEAK LOUD, SAY NOTHING "Like a version of Lightning Bolt that got tweaked in such a way as to be more pleasing to me personally. Not sure who to thank for that."
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
JAPANDROIDS - CELEBRATION ROCK
CONVERGE - ALL WE LOVE WE LEAVE BEHIND
OM - ADVAITIC SONGS
MY SLEEPING KARMA - SOMA
BLACK BREATH - SENTENCED TO LIFE
BORIS & JOE VOLK - SPLIT
KTL - V
PALLBEARER - SORROW AND EXTINCTION
MASERATI - VII
BOB MOULD - SILVER AGE
DINOSAUR JR. - I BET ON SKY
ECHO LAKE - WILD PEACE
I gave that Swans album a shot but it just didn't do it. I've given all their stuff a shot, actually, and the only one that really sticks is the Cop/Young God album (which I absolutely love). But seriously, why Swans? Why now? Someone should tell Einsturzinde Neubauten or Chrome to release an album next year. They might get to headline Coachella.
