Fun observation: 82% of these album covers are predominantly gray.
I first heard of these guys this past summer when I was looking for international bands for the summer sampler. They are from Germany and this album is a great throwback It has the tone, speed and rawness from older hardcore bands but it still has some really fresh sounding riffs.
Out of all the albums on this list, this is the one that was around for the longest. I threw it up here way back in January and even thought it would've made the 2011 list if it had come out a month earlier. The past month, I got turned onto it again while perusing the archives. Still sounds great to me, if I do say so.
These guys squeaked into the best of 2012; you may notice that their feature is only a couple posts down from here. I think the initial review was good enough, but in short, Shark Bait has gotten progressively better since they first arrived a couple years ago.
Another face from the Summer Sampler, this female-fronted band released this album under the name Veils. Then a shitty band tried legal action against them, so they changed their name to Vales. Veils or Vales, this album was thinly-veiled awesomeness.
Speaking of Veils, there are these dopes. They stayed at my place for a weekend this past summer while they had some Michigan shows along their full US tour. They took turns blowing me to get on this list, but they really didn't have to, I was going to put them on here anyways. Who doesn't want to get blown though? But seriously, I was pissed when these guys released this album, toured like hell and then promptly broke up. I recently talked to Zoe and apparently there is a new band in the works, so let's look out for that next year, okay?
One of the first cool things I put up on this site was this band's self titled EP. So when I heard they were coming out with a full-length in 2012, I began foaming at the mouth. Then I got lockjaw and was holed up in the hospital for a little while, but the doctors told me that was unrelated. Anyways, this album turned out being great. When it came out, I broke out in a rash. Then it started hurting when I was peeing. How the fuck did they do that? I just know these guys are going to read this and it is not going to translate well at all into Swedish. Fuck it.
Native hasn't been doing shit since Wrestling Moves and Kidcrash is kind of being quiet too. So when their Canadian counterparts came out with this, it was a welcome gift. They have similar vocals to native but music more along the lines of Kidcrash. Either way, this is some hard, mathy goodness right here. Dip it in the water so it will slide down your gullet more easily.
This release has been consistent for me all year. When it comes time for me to move music off my phone to make room for new stuff, this always is left alone. I am really excited to hear their album coming out next year which will feature "Bewildered", a song not on this album but one you can find on the summer sampler.
The title track alone made this album worth it for me. YOU...ME...AND THE VIOLEEEEEEEEENCE!!!
A sort of pseudo-new full length, this album featured half new songs and half old ones from their previous EP. It made sense because they are just starting to get introduced to the US market so a lot of people haven't even heard their older stuff anyways. The new songs are great, I fake drum really hard in the car to "Callous". After the 1:30 mark the drummer just kills it more and more. Now we just need these guys to come visit the states with Birds in Row or something.
The king is back, and he sounds more organic and original than ever
