Incognosci - Trapped in Spontaneous Disintegration

Back in November I got to review an album by the band Gutted Souls, who are a raw sounding old school death metal band with a ton of promise in their sound. Frontman Iron Francisco isn't limiting himself to to just one band. He's got a side project under the name Incognosci that plays brutal death metal more in the style of Dying Fetus and Aborted, with a good heaping of technical death metal influence.

Band Of The Week: The Walking Dead Orchestra

I missed last week's Band Of The Week, because of the holiday's happening, I was busy, but being that internet traffic slows during holidays i felt it might be a bit unfair to the next showcased group. So Reflections enjoyed some extra time in the spot, but this week brings in a new beast. This group I have Spotify to thank for. Spotify's discover function is a pretty average system at best, often making weird comparisons between bands, but every once in a while it absolutely nails things I'll like on the head. The Walking Dead Orchestra stood out to me as a fan of the show, but their music really has nothing to to do with the show, which is fine because the music is absolutely killer.

Gutted Souls - Unconscious Automaton

We live in a world where achieving clean production and pitch perfect sounding guitars has never been easier and the focus on getting the guitar tone and mixing takes the forefront in music. It’s understandable though because when everyone’s music sounds perfectly clean it’s often times hard to listen to bands that don’t have great production. But then there are bands that come around and remind you that the writing and energy of the music should be the most important factor. Rio De Janeiro’s Gutted Souls are just the band to do so. Their EP Unconscious Automaton is a much needed blast of energy that packs a very raw and visceral sound.

Band Of The Week: Strychnia

Despite having immense trouble spelling their name without checking it a few times, Strychnia is a great up and coming brutal death metal band, in the vein of Dying Fetus, Aborted and more. The band has had one full length album released so far entitled The Anatomy Of Execution, which you can stream or buy over at their bandcamp right now. It's worth the listen for sure. They are also about to release a brand new EP, Reanimated Monstrosity set to release May 14th.

Top 15 Albums Of 2012!

Well 2012 came and went, and I must say that with the impressive year that was 2011, 2012 was equally if not more so better for metal. I found myself constantly saying this has been a hell of a year for 'insert genre here'. Metal bands must have been trying to write their best albums to accompany the Mayan end of the world. whatever the reason, 2012 was fantastic. Which only made this list harder to pick through. There were plenty of excellent albums I wish I could put on here, but nobody really wants to read a top 30 to 50 albums list anyhow unless it's representing a decade.

(Oh and before I get started, I did a top 5 EP's list if you care to read that first.)

So without further ado, here is what this writer personally believes were the best albums 2012 had to offer:

New Dying Fetus Track!

There's no denying that Dying Fetus' upcoming album Reign Supreme is one of the years hotly anticipated albums in the world of metal. It's been almost 3 years since we've had an album from these guys which is more than enough time in many peoples eyes.