![\"The_Number_Of_The_Beast\"](\"https:\/\/www.alchemyengland.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/the_number_of_the_beast.jpg\")
<\/a>Yet those mainstream critics who charge that metal is the realm of dinosaurs, where nothing ever changes, couldn\u2019t be more wrong. While metal stays resolutely true to its roots, the cutting-edge is in a state of constant, volatile evolution, making for arguably the most creative and varied genre in modern music. And while metal\u2019s seldom invited to fashionable events like the Olympic ceremonies, it also remains one of the most popular at grassroots level. In a 2012 poll hosted by music retailer HMV to mark the Queen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee, in which over 50,000 fans cast their votes, Iron Maiden\u2019s 1983 classic Number of the Beast<\/i> was voted best album of the past 60 years, beating competition from the likes of the Beatles, David Bowie and Pink Floyd by a comfortable margin.<\/p>\nSo, if 2012\u2019s been a good year for heavy metal, what were the highlights? Of course, the metal media has it\u2019s own award ceremonies. (We should know, we sponsor, attend and craft the trophies for the best of them). But these tend to concentrate on the higher profile bands on the scene right now. We thought for our informal round up, we\u2019d like to focus on fresh blood and under-appreciated veterans as well as what\u2019s hot on the underground. So, without further ado, we present Alchemy\u2019s connoisseur\u2019s guide to the best heavy metal of 2012, in the shape of a top twenty albums, in no particular order, courtesy of resident metal merchant Gavin Baddeley in collaboration with a few of his illicit associates, not least Luke Hayhurst of Destructive Music\u2026<\/p>\n
Old Corpse Road<\/h2>\nTis Witching Hour… As Spectres We Haunt this Kingdom<\/h3>\n
An evocative cauldron of folk, black and doom metal, the debut album from Old Corpse Road is a breathtakingly evocative journey through the darkest fringes of English legend and lore.<\/p>\n distinguished as a fiercely inventive and intelligent beast, Portugal\u2019s Moonspell proved their wits and teeth are as sharp as ever with the wonderful Alpha Noir and its darkly seductive sister disc Omega White.<\/p>\n Truly original, authentically unsettling and eccentrically English, A Shadowplay for Yesterdays <\/i>is the audio equivalent to a laudanum trip \u2013 strange, sinister, surreal \u2013 Victorian black metal if you will.<\/p>\n Epic, atmospheric British black metal firmly earthed in the island\u2019s pagan past, Curse<\/i>, the second album from Wodensthrone exudes all the ominous darkness of an imminent roiling storm, hanging heavy over a forgotten battlefield.<\/p>\n With Dark Adrenaline <\/i>Milan\u2019s classiest metal exports Lacuna Coil prove they\u2019re still at the top of their game with a cocktail that combines the more accessible sound of recent material with a nod to the band\u2019s Gothic roots.<\/p>\n The Swedish trio Grand Magus have never been about reinventing the metal wheel, but with an album like The Hunt<\/i>, crammed to capacity with rampaging werewolves, wistful Vikings and punchy riffs \u2013 as contagious as lycanthropy and heavy as a battleaxe \u2013 who cares?<\/p>\n After some serious line-up changes, Sweden\u2019s war-obsessed quintet returned to the fray with an album dedicated to local hero King Charles XII, its heart busting with stirring battle anthems and hymns for the fallen.<\/p>\n Just when they seemed to be treading murky water, Yorkshire\u2019s masters of melancholy delivered a harrowing reminder of just why they remain the godfathers of gloom with a recording that\u2019s beautifully depressing in all the best ways.<\/p>\n While debate rages over whether this album is Goblin\u2019s strongest, England\u2019s kings of groovy, horror-tinged heavy rock reigned in 2012, owning Bloodstock with their headline set on the Sophie Lancaster stage at Bloodstock.<\/p>\n Taking their name from the Anglo-Saxon for October, Winterfylleth take their English roots seriously, placing their black metal standard in the ground with this grimly defiant, impressively nuanced release.<\/p>\n Tragically, band founder David Gold died in 2011, making this a posthumous \u2013 and final \u2013 album, but it\u2019s a worthy epitaph, an authentically moving and poetic exploration of despair.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nMoonspell<\/h2>\n
Alpha Noir<\/h3>\n
Forest of Stars<\/h2>\n
A Shadowplay for Yesterdays<\/h3>\n
Wodensthrone<\/h2>\n
Curse<\/h3>\n
Lacuna Coil<\/h2>\n
Dark Adrenaline<\/h3>\n
Grand Magus<\/h2>\n
The Hunt<\/h3>\n
Sabaton<\/h2>\n
Carolus Rex<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nMy Dying Bride<\/h2>\n
A Map of All Our Failures<\/h3>\n
Orange Goblin<\/h2>\n
A Eulogy for the Damned<\/h3>\n
The Iron Knights<\/h2>\n
New Sound of War<\/h3>\n
<\/a>
\nLegal quibbles obliged Stuka Squadron to change their moniker, but the gloriously cartoonish back-story remains \u2013 the band as vampire Luftwaffe pilots \u2013 as does the sound, guaranteed to bring a fanged grin to fans of golden age 80s Brit metal.<\/p>\nWinterfylleth<\/h2>\n
The Threnody of Triumph<\/h3>\n
Woods of Ypres<\/h2>\n
Woods 5: Grey Skies and Electric Light<\/h3>\n
Undersmile<\/h2>\n
Narwhale<\/h3>\n