2012 Mid-Year Report: Music

2012 has been a solid, but not amazing year for music at the moment. 2012 has to live in the shadow of 2011, which very well could have been the best year for music in my lifetime. So far quite a few bands have either exceeded (Job For A Cowboy, Every Time I Die, and especially Death Grips) lived up to (High on Fire, Periphery, Lamb of God) and fell beneath (Meshuggah and Nile released the two most disappointing not only of this year, but possibly in the past few years) my expectations for them. There is a lot of releases I'm excited for the second half of the year including Between the Buried and Me, Deftones, As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage, Converge, Born of Osiris, The Contortionist, Testament, The Sword, Hatebreed, Devin Townsend,  After the Burial, Gaza, All That Remains, and hopefully/maybe even The Faceless (If their record ever comes out, It's like the progressive death metal version of Chinese Democracy at this point in time) so 2012 very well could live up to 2011 with the amount of great bands releasing potentially great album in the second half of the year. Without further ado, Here is my current list of all the album's and EP's I've heard this year from worst to best.

EP's

4.TesseracT-Persepective(2.5/5)

3.Hodgy Beats-Untitled EP(3.5/5)

2.T.R.A.M-Lingua Franca(3.5/5)

1.Brother Ali-The Bite-Marked Heart(3.5/5)

LP's

36.The Mars Volta-Noctourniquet(2/5)

35.Van Halen-A Different Kind of Truth(2.5/5)

34.Chiddy Bang-Breakfast(2.5/5)

33.Sleigh Bells-Reign of Terror(3/5)

32.Lacuna Coil-Dark Adrenaline(3/5)

31.Miss May I-At Heart(3/5)

30.Nile-At the Gate of Sethu(3/5)

29.Meshuggah-Koloss(3/5)

28.Psycroptic-The Inherited Repression(3.5/5)

27.Jack White-Blunderbuss(3.5/5)

26.The Ghost Inside-Get What You Give(3.5/5)

25.Eluveitie-Helvetios(3.5/5)

24.Aborted-Global Flatline(3.5/5)

23.Cancer Bats-Dead Set On Living(3.5/5)

22.Cannibal Corpse-Torture(3.5/5)

21.Municipal Waste-The Fatal Feast...Waste In Space(3.5/5)

20.Shadows Fall-Fire from the Sky(3.5/5)

19.War of Ages-Return to Life(3.5/5)

18.Cattle Decapitation-Monolith of Inhumanity(4/5)

17.Spawn of Possession-Incurso(4/5)

16.Whitechapel-Whitechapel(4/5)

15.Goatwhore-Blood for the Master(4/5)

14.Black Breath-Sentenced to Life(4/5)

13.Hour of Penance-Sedition(4/5)

12.3 Inches of Blood-Long Live Heavy Metal(4/5)

11.Overkill-The Electric Age(4/5)

10.Veil of Maya-Eclipse(4/5)

9.Job for A Cowboy-Demonoracy(4/5)

8.Gojira-L'enfant Sauvage(4/5)

7.Periphery-II: This Time It's Personal(4/5)

6.Dying Fetus-Reign Supreme(4/5)

5.Every Time I Die-Ex Lives(4/5)

4.God Forbid-Equilibrium(4.5/5)

3.Death Grips-The Money Store(4.5/5)

2.High on Fire-De Vermis Mysteriis(4.5/5)

1.Lamb of God-Resolution(5/5)