bonsaijodelfisch 328 Posted December 30, 2012 this one is going to be pretty short, i did explore quite a bit, but not very much of it is japanese, and even fewer stuff is from 2012 but well: 1. knellt - St. 3TBS0BjDQv0 one of the best albums this year, and quite easily one of my favourite albums ever. astonishing use of guitars in either extremely atmospheric, detuned/atonal sonic landscapes ore bonebreakingly heavy riff-monstrosities. with an easy digestable lenth of five beautifully crafted songs with very minimal and efficient use of vocals. this isn't availible anywhere on the net, neiter legal nor illegal, so i bought it from one of the guitarists themselves... 2. boris/joe volk - Split 7jPB8-iHalA quite a cool release, the boris drone-shoegazing contrasts/complements good with the joevolk stuff, the cosmos full lengt must've been a blast on the live-shows 3. Crossfaith - Zion EP Yu1CgWt26VI no surprise here, pretty much what you'd expect, kicks considerable buttocks anyways 4. Deftones - Koi No Yokan YN-drAxZC-w this already made some lists, i actually didn't listen to it that much, but i was pleasantly surprised that it goes more into a rock and shoegaze direction right now as opposed to metal... 5. Despair - Numbered Children 5DqDmybfsns i'm new to glitch/noise in general and despair in particular, i first heard of him sometime in 2011 when the first demos of the album went up and i really like it. it has actually a nice atmosphere to it once one gets into "the zone" (whatever that is...) 6. Dir En Grey - Rinkaku well, not an album, but fuck it. i don't think i need to say anything about it, but i really like it now, even the rerecording, which i really couldn't find anything interesting about in the beginning... 7. High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis cocDlWFjs74 great very oldschool doom/sludge record. BBQ-music. (and it just sounds soooooo good) 8. Block B - Blockbuster g9Sbz-mhlyo yes, i recently got very much hooked on some KPOP, and this album is one that pretty much stood out, extremely well sounding and beautifully crafted hiphop-esque Pop-tracks, everyone who can look past puurdybuys-image should really check this one out 9. Big Bang - Still Alive _-oj33ZnAlQ staying in the kpop-realm this is a no brainer. big bang are the biggest name out there for a reason, and if it's true that GDragon is writing and (co-)producing most of that stuff himself that dude is some serious fuckin' bisniss, great and versatile album 10. Exo K - Mama sO9aLRTShok tons of money must have been squashed into that group and it just shows, brilliant songs and songwriting with surprisingly complex harmonics in parts whilst still very modern sounding. great mini 11. Indian Handcrafts - Civil Disobedience for Losers R39avU8MHRM&feature=player_detailpage#t=23s whoever likes facemelting straight foreward Riff Rock look no further for here is your holy grail 12. the Melvins - the Bulls and the Bees G2I2Q9cVbxE well, it's the melvins, nuff said. (and this album is for free! totally legal!) 13. Mono - for my parents usHC-O1BPCM basically just more of the same, but why fix it if it ain't broken? and this is utter utter earcandy, sounds soooooooo damn good (i'm repeating myself i guess...) 14. Amenra - Mass V nOO8hzQvigA surprise surprise even more depressive doom. just that this one is particularly good well, that was more than i thought, maybe 2012 wasn't so bad afterall... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Number Girl 48 Posted January 1, 2013 This year, I didn't have a whole ton of favorites, but the ones I did love are very special: Anthem - Burning Oath Andymori - Hikari Cinema Staff - Salvage You Luna Sea - End of the Dream/Rouge Blindman - Blazing Crisis Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Heroin 53 Posted January 1, 2013 Yay I could participate in this thread! Not really to fond of today's music but at least these 2 cheered me up during the year ^__^ Toy- Toy Grizzly Bear- Shiels Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
orangetarts 249 Posted January 5, 2013 I think the only album I really know of (vkei/jrock wise) that came out in 2012 that i absolutely LOVED was Deluhi's best of CD. I was more looking at the kpop releases that happened. and there were a lot of good ones... CNBLUE's EarFun was amazing even tho a lot of people had mixed feelings about it Girls day's every day II was super cute too *u* and then there was she'z, spica, sistar etc. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ficsci 50 Posted January 6, 2013 my favorite this year cocklobin - Iris ^ At first I liked only the latter half of the album, but later I realized how good the first half is too. cocklobin is my favorite band this year. Dolly - トロイメライ ^ I can't help but find many parts of the album very touching, don't know how to explain, but they managed to get just the right sound this time to hit a weak spot I wasn't quite aware I have. Plus "Suisai Palette" remake is just beautiful (T.T) DEAD END - Dream Demon Analyzer ^ I have so much respect for this band because of this album. It's one of the coolest things I have ever listened to. DIMMDIVISION. - A Day in the PanoraMagic ^ I almost forgot that this was released in 2012. Listened to it to death. LIPHLICH - LOST ICON'S PRICE ^ It's cool, as Liphlich typically is. I'm surprised myself, but Creature Creature's "Phantoms" just doesn't make it to the list (maybe I just need to listen to it more...?). Also Plastic Tree's "Ink" (it's pretty good, but unlike "ammonite", it doesn't have as much momentum as an album). I really like and listened a lot to the god and death stars's "Tonight is the Night", but it's still not epic enough to be on the list. Ayabie's "Answer" is pretty fascinating, but I can't bring myself to listen to it again. 1 tujhsk reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OmegaChaos 1 Posted January 6, 2013 My favorite Japanese albums of 2012 are... 3.Matenrou Opera - JUSTICE I think it was a really good album and probably better than ANOMIE was.The album this time had more epic and symphonic sound than before...and most compositions are amazing in here...my only criticism is that keyboards sound a bit cheap and artificial... 2.DEAD END - DREAM DEMON ANALYZER I discovered DEAD END in September 2011...I was really suprised how good this band sounded in the 80,s(mostly i don,t listen to music from that era)...but this album surpasses most of their material except maybe DEAD LINE....it kinda fuses that old-school metal sound with modern heavy metal... And...Morrie,s vocals are just epic... 1.Versailles - Versailles And finally,in 1st place it,s Versailles,s self titled album...Versailles is my absolute favorite band and I was really sad when they announced the hiatus...(seems like most of my favorite bands are either disbanding or going on a hiatus)..This album is not as good as NOBLE and JUBILEE,but it is still really amazing...every song in this album is very solid and greatly composed....and neoclassical solos are amazing as always...this album is definitely better than Holy Grail was.... My favorite non-Japanese albums of 2012 are 3.Motionless in White - Infamous This album is much different from their 1st album,Creatures...Creatures was more of a generic scene-Metalcore album with Industrial and Symphonic elements....but this album is much more varied...the heavy songs in this album are definitely better than anything from Creatures....they seem to be more influenced by my favorite Western Metal(core) band Bleeding Through...and other songs are not bad either....but I don,t really like that they are trying to copy Marylin Manson in some of the songs on this album... 2.Make Them Suffer - Neverbloom I waited for their full-length album for over 2 years and finally they released one....this album is completely epic....the guitars,symphonic elements,vocals....everything....this album sounds like Symphonic Death Metal mixed with Metalcore... 1.Bleeding Through - The Great Fire And finally,in 1st place it is Bleeding Through,s album from 2012..and their final one unfortunately,since they announced yesterday that they are disbanding...This album has more symphonic elements than on any of their material...also has some Black Metal influence(not a lot though)...it,s just sounds like pure Symphonic Metalcore....I feel like that,s how Metalcore should actually sound like....I consider this to be their 2nd best album....their best still is Portrait of the Goddess from 2002... so this was my favorites of 2012..not a lot...but I am very picky with my music nowadays... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bukimi_heishi 62 Posted January 9, 2013 D- Namonaki Mori no Yumegatari Café Tacvba- El objeto antes llamado disco Deftones- Koi no Yokan FoZZtone- Love Motion City Soundtrack- Go GOOD ON THE REEL- 無言の三原色 I didn't get to listen to everything I wanted to this year >_ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hoyahe 7 Posted January 11, 2013 In visual kei/jrock area, my favourite 2012 release is GIFT by ZIZ (without doubt XD) and well... I loved Kaya's Salome (but that's a single) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ficsci 50 Posted January 15, 2013 I'm surprised myself, but Creature Creature's "Phantoms" just doesn't make it to the list (maybe I just need to listen to it more...?) And as I thought, I just hadn't listened to it enough. It tends to take me some time to really appreciate stuff that I end up really liking for a long time. This album is amazing, adding it to the "best of" list. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
