| *shels Plains Of The Purple Buffalo | 4.5 |
| A journey across a land very different than our own, and a mind-altering experience that shows the heights post-rock/metal can soar to. Like the air conditioning inside your house that greets you after a day spent in hundred degree heat, Butterflies on Lucy's Way is musical therapy. |
| Acherontas Ma-IoN 'Formulas Of Reptilian Unification' | 4.5 |
| There is some seriously sinister shit going on here. Really, most black metal albums are relatively mild compared to this. Would strongly advise not playing this with grandma in the car. The vocals are strong, the production value is high, the percussion is everywhere (their drummer is very talented). This is a top notch dark arts album. |
| Aevangelist Enthrall to the Void of Bliss | 2.5 |
| Agalloch Faustian Echoes | 2.5 |
| Agalloch The Mantle | 5.0 |
| Tip the cup, feed the fire. And forget about useless fucking hope... |
| Agalloch Ashes Against the Grain | 5.0 |
| Desolate forests, fallen snow, dying bloodbirds, Agalloch's fortress has never burned brighter. This is their magnum opus to date and the best metal album of the new millennium. |
| Agalloch Marrow of the Spirit | 4.0 |
| Ahab The Giant | 4.5 |
| For a genre that's usually a hard pill to swallow for even the most open-minded listeners, funeral doom doesn't produce music this well done very often. |
| Akhlys The Dreaming I | 3.0 |
| Alcest Écailles De Lune | 4.5 |
| The crowning achievement of black metal and post-rock fusion, creating one of the most gorgeous and emotional albums I've ever heard. Few blastbeats, and absolutely no pounding "D" chords played over and over (retreat!, Whitechapel fans, retreat!). Thank you Neige and co. for this work of art. |
| Alcest Les Voyages De L'Âme | 2.5 |
| All the Empires of the World Old Gods, Old Worlds, Old Wounds | 2.5 |
| Aptorian Demon Libertus | 3.5 |
| Aramid Obsidian | 3.0 |
| Ash Borer Cold of Ages | 3.5 |
| Atriarch Ritual of Passing | 3.0 |
| Atriarch Forever the End | 2.5 |
| Autopsy Macabre Eternal | 3.5 |
| Baroness Yellow and Green | 4.0 |
| Baroness Purple | 3.0 |
| Batushka Litourgiya | 3.0 |
| Behexen The Poisonous Path | 2.5 |
| Black Moth The Killing Jar | 3.0 |
| Black Oath The Third Aeon | 3.5 |
| Black Oath To Below and Beyond | 3.0 |
| Bloodiest Descent | 4.0 |
| Borgne Royaume des Ombres | 4.0 |
| Borgne's best album to date. "All These Screams Through Me" is one of the best songs of 2012. |
| Burzum Fallen | 4.0 |
| Burzum Umskiptar | 2.0 |
| Caspian Dust and Disquiet | 3.0 |
| Cliff Dweller Ghosts of the Dust Bowl | 3.5 |
| Cormorant Dwellings | 3.5 |
| Cormorant Metazoa | 4.5 |
| Crimson Mourn Bring Your Desires Here | 3.5 |
| Cross Vault Spectres of Revocable Loss | 3.5 |
| Cross Vault The All-Consuming | 2.0 |
| Dark Funeral Where Shadows Forever Reign | 3.0 |
| Deafheaven Roads to Judah | 3.5 |
| Deathspell Omega Drought | 3.0 |
| Dodsengel Imperator | 3.5 |
| Ea Ea | 3.5 |
| Emptiness Nothing but the Whole | 3.0 |
| Enisum Arpitanian Lands | 3.5 |
| Epta Astera Semper Reformanda | 3.5 |
| In Bach's own time the ornate and bombastic baroque style offered a similar temptation. |
| Explosions in the Sky Take Care, Take Care, Take Care | 2.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone | 4.0 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place | 4.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die... | 3.0 |
| Explosions in the Sky How Strange, Innocence | 3.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Wilderness | 2.5 |
| Falls of Rauros The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood | 4.5 |
| One of the best and most criminally underrated black metal albums of this millennium. |
| Falls of Rauros Believe in No Coming Shore | 3.0 |
| FareWell Poetry Hoping for the Invisible to Ignite | 3.5 |
| Fen Carrion Skies | 2.5 |
| Furia Marzannie, Królowej Polski | 3.5 |
| Giant Squid Minoans | 3.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! | 4.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress' | 2.5 |
| Howls of Ebb Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows | 3.0 |
| Ides of Gemini Constantinople | 3.5 |
| Not as good as Black Math Horseman's Wyllt, but still pretty damn good. |
| If These Trees Could Talk Red Forest | 3.0 |
| If These Trees Could Talk Above the Earth, Below the Sky | 3.5 |
| Industries of the Blind Chapter 1: Had We Known Better | 3.5 |
| A full-length of 'I Just Wanted to Make You Something Beautiful' caliber material would be a 5-star record. |
| Insomnium Shadows of the Dying Sun | 2.5 |
| InThyFlesh Claustrophobia | 3.5 |
| One of the BM underground's better kept secrets. |
| Jakob Sines | 3.5 |
| Julia Holter Have You In My Wilderness | 3.0 |
| Kayo Dot Plastic House on Base of Sky | 2.0 |
| Krallice Diotima | 2.5 |
| Krallice Years Past Matter | 2.5 |
| KYPCK Ниже (Below) | 3.5 |
| Leeches of Lore Frenzy, Ecstacy | 4.0 |
| Les Discrets Ariettes Oubliees... | 4.0 |
| Lluvia Eternidad Solemne | 2.5 |
| Loss Despond | 4.5 |
| The last track, "Silent and Completely Overcome," features guest vocalist Brett Campbell (from Pallbearer), who provides the only clean vocals on the album, and man, they're fantastic. "I do not remember depression such as this" will echo in your mind long after it fades into The Irreparable Act. |
| Lunar Aurora Hoagascht | 3.5 |
| Lycus Chasms | 2.5 |
| Mastodon The Hunter | 3.0 |
| Matryoshka Zatracenie | 4.0 |
| Maybeshewill I Was Here For a Moment, Then I Was Gone | 3.0 |
| Maybeshewill Sing The Word Hope In Four-Part Harmony | 4.5 |
| Maybeshewill Not For Want Of Trying | 4.0 |
| Maybeshewill Japanese Spy Transcript EP | 3.5 |
| Take an impromptu stroll through the rain in the middle of the night and save someone from being raped. |
| Mgla With Hearts Toward None | 3.5 |
| Moonlit Sailor Colors in Stereo | 3.5 |
| Morbid Angel Illud Divinum Insanus | 1.5 |
| Morbus Chron Sweven | 2.5 |
| Mournful Congregation The Book of Kings | 4.0 |
| Mumford and Sons Babel | 2.0 |
| Necros Christos Doom of the Occult | 4.0 |
| Negative Plane Stained Glass Revelations | 3.0 |
| Nicole Atkins Neptune City | 4.0 |
| Nortt Galgenfrist | 3.0 |
| Om Advaitic Songs | 4.0 |
| Omega Massif Karpatia | 2.5 |
| Ordog Remorse | 4.0 |
| Overmars Affliction, Endocrine...Vertigo | 5.0 |
| Destroy all dreamers who dream of the same thing more than once... Alas! I have dreamed of this album a thousand times because it's one of the best in metal ever. |
| Overmars Born Again | 4.0 |
| Pallbearer Sorrow And Extinction | 4.5 |
| In this harsh world of deception, I will stand up once more, and find within myself the strength to stumble again. |
| Pallbearer Foundations of Burden | 3.0 |
| Panopticon Kentucky | 3.0 |
| pg.lost Key | 4.5 |
| Profetus As All Seasons Die | 3.5 |
| Rahu Caput Draconis | 3.0 |
| Rahu The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows | 3.0 |
| Saor Aura | 4.0 |
| Satan's Host By The Hands of The Devil | 3.0 |
| Saturnalia Temple Aion of Drakon | 4.0 |
| Sentimen Beltza Zulo beltz eta sakon honetan | 3.5 |
| Sigur Ros Valtari | 2.5 |
| Skagos Ast | 4.0 |
| Skagos Anarchic | 4.0 |
| sleepmakeswaves ...and so we destroyed everything | 3.5 |
| Solstafir Otta | 4.5 |
| Sorne House of Stone | 4.0 |
| Starkweather and Overmars Starkweather/Overmars | 4.0 |
| SubRosa (US) No Help for the Mighty Ones | 4.0 |
| SubRosa (US) More Constant Than The Gods | 4.5 |
| Sufjan Stevens Carrie and Lowell | 3.5 |
| Summer Fades Away Unkind Time, Beautiful Memory | 4.0 |
| Summer Fades Away We Meet the Last Time, Then Departure | 4.5 |
| Excellent post-rock with Eastern folksy influence. |
| Taake Noregs Vaapen | 3.5 |
| Thantifaxath Sacred White Noise | 3.5 |
| The Flight of Sleipnir Essence of Nine | 3.0 |
| The Seven Mile Journey Notes for the Synthesis | 5.0 |
| As close to perfect post-rock as you'll get from any band not named Godspeed You! Black Emperor or A Silver Mt. Zion. Enter a mind trying to come to terms with its insanity. |
| Tides From Nebula Earthshine | 4.0 |
| Tombs Path of Totality | 3.5 |
| Tortoise The Catastrophist | 2.0 |
| Triptykon Melana Chasmata | 4.0 |
| Triumvir Foul Triumvir Foul | 2.5 |
| Vanum Realm of Sacrifice | 3.0 |
| Vastum Carnal Law | 3.5 |
| We Lost the Sea Departure Songs | 4.5 |
| "The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave." |
| Weakling Dead as Dreams | 4.0 |
| Wildernessking Mystical Future | 2.5 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Malevolent Grain | 4.0 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Demo | 3.0 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Two Hunters | 3.5 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Diadem of 12 Stars | 3.5 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Celestial Lineage | 3.5 |
| Wolves in the Throne Room Black Cascade | 3.5 |
| Wolvhammer The Obsidian Plains | 3.0 |
| Yndi Halda Under Summer | 4.0 |
