Favourite albums of 2012 so far

Here are my favourites so far in 2012.

Cannibal Corpse - Torture. The kings of death metal had me worried for a bit as I didn't like the initial single releases but the album as a whole smokes. Some of the grooves are intense.

Gorod - A Perfect Absolution. French tech death masters deliver the riffs with groove and allow the songs room to breathe.

Napalm Death - Utilitarian. The Gods of Grind! Can never be a let down. However this is Napalm at their most brutal and yet still with catchy parts galore.

Psycroptic - The Inherited Repression. Hyper brutal and technical with a little more groove. Great stuff anyway.

Dynazty - Sultans Of Sin. Miles better than their previous album. Swedish glammy aorsters deliver songs with class and great vocals.

Lacuna Coil - Dark Adrenaline. Probably the first LC album I like. It's super heavy and the male/female vocals are very melodic.

Sonic Station - st. Super soft westcoast AOR but with very good songwriting.

Sunstorm - Emotional Fire. The best AOR record of the year so far. JLT is amazing!

Adrenaline Mob - Omerta. I like the heaviness and the amazing crunch in the guitars. The songs are mostly good and enjoyable enough for me.

Amberian Dawn - Circus Black. Finnish Nightwish copy at the top of the game.

Eternal Dream - The Fall Of Salanthine. Super fast melodic symphonic power metal with ethereal otherworldly female vocals. Sounds huge!

Freedom Call - Land Of The Crimson Dawn. Enjoyable and super happy melodic power metal much better than I was hoping for.

Lanfear - This Harmonic Consonance. Slightly technical power/prog with interesting riffs.

Lyriel - Leverage. Typical female fronted gothic folk metal with a much better sound than their previous albums.

Pharaoh - Bury The Light. Only the rather dull production stops me from completely loving this. Some of the riffs are a joy for the ears with beautiful galloping parts.

Primal Fear - Unbreakable. Much better than the last album. Ralf turns in a stellar performance and the songs are very strong. One of the best efforts from Primal Fear no doubt.

Rage - 21. I like it a little less than the last two albums but the guitar work is still smoking hot from Victor.

Xandria - Neverworld's End. Monstrous Nightwish copy with vocals aping Tarja to the max.

Aggression - Viocracy. Quality heavy thrash and no messing about.

Bludvera - Terrorform EP. Unknown UK thrashers with a blisteringly good ep.

Game Over - For Humanity. Regular cool thrash metal with class.

Mad Maze - Frames of Alienation. Technical thrash merchants with huge production and fat riffs galore.

Skull Hammer - Destroyers of the Faith. Groovy and killer thrash with riffs ala Megadeth and Metallica.

Soulfly - Enslaved. Max is the king of metal! Brutal catchy riffs and rhythms and most importantly memorable tunes

Suicidal Angels - Bloodbath. Rip roaring Slayer worship from the Greek overlords of thrashy mayhem.

Testimony - Transcending Reality EP. Unknown tech thrash with many lengthy and enjoyable technical compositions.