Top 10: The best albums of 2012, finally!

Here in Brazil we usually say that a new year just starts after Carnival. Well, following this logic, then I’m not too late.

Finally, after a big delay, I made my ranking of the top ten discs from 2012. Some bands that were in the list of 2011 repeated the good performance and appeared in this year again. 2012 also marked the return of some well-known names, like Kiss, UFO, Rush, Marillion, Van Halen, Accept, Europe, and others… However, just few of them were able to be among the top 10! 

I want to make clear that this list may be changed at any time. You never know when might happen to hear something produced in 2012 that deserves to be here. 

No more talking… Let’s show the names! 

10th - THE DEVIL’S RESOLVE (Barren Earth)

The Finnish “supergroup” bet on a mix of Progressive Metal and Death Metal. Perhaps the second one failed, but the Progressive part compensates the mistakes and elevates the level of the disc. 

9th - KADAVAR (Kadavar)

With a music clearly inspired in the seventies, Kadavar made songs with a pretty good quality. The problem is the lack of creativity, which results in disc with few variations and too similar tracks. 

8th - ZONE OF ALIENATION (Steelwing)

Narrating an apocalyptic scenario during the year of 2097, Zone of Alienation is a conceptual album of traditional Heavy Metal. There aren’t graceful moments or brilliant passages; it’s a consistent work – which leaves the impression that could be better explored. 

7th - SEVEN DEADLY (UFO)

Who underestimated the grandpas from UFO (like me), committed a huge mistake. Far from their golden years, Seven Deadly shows that UFO’s guys and their new guitarist still have firewood to burn. 

6th - NATURAL BORN STEEL (Maverick)

The poorly English speaking from these Japs can be offset by their good instrumental. Mixing Heavy Metal with Power Metal, Natural Born Steel is catchy and pulls a blow after another, without frills! 

5th - DRIVING TOWARDS THE DAYLIGHT (Joe Bonamassa)

Not as good as Dust Bowl (2011), but still a great job. Abusing of versions songs, some of them make the disc worthwhile and Joe shows that, despite the laziness to compose new things, he’s the name of actual Blues. 

4th - THE VOID (Beardfish)

Moving away from the Progressive Rock (not completely!) and adopting a heavier posture, Beardfish maintains their historic of stupendous works, and again with a conceptual album (a wizard that visited the past). 

3rd - BLUNDERBUSS (Jack White)

Using his typical garage Hard Rock and mixing it with others genres, Jack White performs well in his debut solo album. All of his main characteristics are present: Such as uneasiness and the skill to avoid falling into repetitive songs. 

2nd - LIGHTS OUT (Graveyard)

With a psychedelic breath and sips of Blues, Graveyard was able to convince and prove that when the subject is Hard Rock from nowadays, they are the men. A complete work, without weak points! Long live the Swedes! 

1st - CLOCKWORK ANGELS (Rush)

“And the Oscar goes to…”! 

In the first position, beating promising new bands, the veterans from Rush made an album that is among the best of their long career. Conceptual, Clockwork Angels tells the story of a young boy called Owen Hardy, a dreamer and adventurer whose can’t escape from the discipline enforced to him. 

This is a disc with such a rich history, which resulted in a book. 

*To see my complete list of 2012, check here!