Sweatin' the Small Stuff, Part II: Best EPs, Splits, Comps, and Demos of 2012

Hope everyone's had a good holiday. I ate way too much, played too much Wii U and got to see my newborn nephew, so it was great.

Check out my favorite albums of the year and part 1 of my favorite eps, comps, splits, and demos if you haven't already.

Without further delay, here are my favorite eps, splits, demos, comps of 2012.

10.

Meth Lab - Demo

Knuckle dragging power violence smothered in a cloud of basement brewed meth and plenty of shifts in rhythm make this demo a year's favorite for getting some aggression out. P//S Review



9.

False Light - False Light

Brackish, down tuned power violence with enough beatdowns and feedback to make your stupid Hatebreed fan friend a true believer in power violence.


8.

Obolus - Lament

Dense and distant black metal with enough doses of WITTR and the like, but sans the fat and length. Perfect for winter nights.



7.

Beatriz Carnicero - No Reces

An impressive showing from these upstarts from Uruguay. Classic Slap-a-Ham nostalgia wrapped up with a robust production and plenty of dynamics to keep your arms swinging. P//S Review




6.

thedowngoing - athousandyearsofdarkness

One of those bands you "need to know" Australia's thedowngoing mix torrents of feedback, modulated vocals, angular guitars, and cascading drums into a coherrant mess of noisy grindcore that's absolutely gripping. P//S Review


5.

Water Torture - Shellfire!

Maybe my new favorite band, Buffalo's Water Torture are making up for their hometown sports team's horrid showings with a recent slew of releases. The band does the unthinkable in actually being good without having a guitarist. Heavy, vicious, painful and alluring, Water Torture find an odd balance between catchiness, heaviness, and energy with their brand of noisy power violence. Few things stick as well as the ending breakdown with the words shouted "everyone I know is fucking dead to me" and jumping right into this jazzy kind of synth run.

4.

Burial - Kindred

I was hesitant at first due to the fast and constant beat, but I should know better as U.K. godhead Burial is his normal self in creating an alluring, foggy, and urban sounding soundtrack to a night lost on the street. Listen here.


3.

V/A - Monomaniac Vol. 1

A great "who's who" of modern fast music encompassing unreleased material from grindcore, power violence, and even black metal bands. Particular highlights are Bodyhammer, thedowngoing, Cloud Rat, and Diocletian. P//S Review.


2.

Flourishing - Intersubjectivity

A fast dirge of dissonance, melody, and brutality makes Intersubjectivity one of the most unique and best things to come out this year. While I couldn't get into The Sum of Fossils I think this one is so paradoxically perfect in so many ways that it's hard not to get lost in. Pushing the envelope right out of the door, Brooklyn's Flourishing are on point with this one. P//S Review



1. 

Deathspell Omega - Drought

One of those releases where I struggle to talk about it like I'm some nervous wiener on his first date. There's just so much to say about this gift of an ep. It's what Deathspell Omega's been working towards ever since Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice. Where they got a bit ahead of themselves and lost with Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum, Paracletus finally bridged the gap between dissonance, abstraction, and melody yet was still very chaotic. With Drought DsO's simply perfected their sound. I don't know if the band will be able to outdo Drought's uncanny ability to weave in between multiple moods without space in between and to never be uncomfortable or jarring. The best release this year by a long shot, Drought is a wisp of a dream fully fleshed out into something tangible and perfect. Listen.

Flourishing - Intersubjectivity

While I couldn't get my head around Flourishing's debut full length, The Sum of Fossils, I've become quite a fan of their latest release Intersubjectivity. Nestled somewhere in between their signature uncomfortable shamble and a newer, more inviting territory, Flourishing have finally bridged the gap between dissonance and warmth. The warm and robust production does wonders, especially for the hallow sounding drums and the guitars when they get all wonky. That section midway through the title track is so great and mysterious sounding and that's where they're supreme.

Hard to pinpoint, but I'd say they fall in the realm of death metal- in the most abstract kind of ways.
Immediate comparisons would be newer Deathspell Omega and Ulcerate as they've managed to create paradoxically inviting yet dissonant music in a similar way yet at a much slower pace. Saying Portal, Gorguts or even Abyssal sound similar wouldn't be a far stretch but not enough credit to the band as they're really pushing the envelope.



Check out on the bandcamp for their label, The Pass Less Traveled.

Abyssal - Denouement

“...I could not help feeling that they were evil things-- mountains of madness whose farther slopes looked out over some accursed ultimate abyss. That seething, half-luminous cloud-background held ineffable suggestions of a vague, ethereal beyondness far more than terrestrially spatial; and gave appalling reminders of the utter remoteness, separateness, desolation, and aeon-long death of this untrodden and unfathomed austral world.”

At the Mountains of Madness
H.P. Lovecraft

Since's Portal's relative notoriety with 2007's Outre', bands of a similar ilk, whether preexisting or just birthed, have become more commonplace in the world of extreme music. It seemed like almost every "best of list" from last year contained bands who draw strong comparisons to the Australian act. Whether it was Mitochondrion, Antediluvian, or Flourishing these bands have tread similar ground, yet none better than the U.K. act Abyssal.

Maybe what attracts me the most about Abyssal is the tangible quality to their music. Stomach wrenchingly down tuned and heavy, Abyssal's sound is so ominous and heavy that moments of melody and clarity do well to offset the Stygian atmosphere and further delve the listener into the nightmarish songscape. Too heavy and overwhelming for black metal, too sinister and atmospheric for death metal, Abyssal are able to articulate a horrific sound that has some sick sense of pleasure to it. Derivations from dissonance to moments of clarity and melody all submerge to a brutish and omniscient sound that is often shrouded in dissonant fret work and a chorus of the most guttural vocals possible.

"Detritivore" might very well be the most dynamic track on the album as it explodes from a brutal technical onslaught to a catchy and melodic finger-tapping section that's almost calming as jarring because it's placed so close to something so ugly. The band shows great skill and sense of structure in atmosphere and are able to create a seemless weave throughout Denouement's fifty minute playing time.

While I have bought the digital download on their bandcamp, the images and lyrics included match perfectly and show how important it can be to offer such a thing alongside your music. Verbose and dark, the lyrics are thankfully more modern and less Lovecraftian then you might think. "Swansong of a Dying Race" is a particularly well written tune which dodges the banality that often accompanies metal songs about cataclysms.The last stanza does well to encapsulate Abyssal's outlook.

"As the vast web unravels 'neath our feet

And we fall into the ages of darkness

A deafening hum of vapidity

Is the only soundtrack to be heard"

The whole album can be listened to on their bandcamp, or downloaded for £2 (roughly $3.11 or something).