These are the cream of the crop, in my humble opinion, of 2012. Take a look!

1. Periphery - Periphery II: This Time It's Personal

2. Headspace - I Am Anonymous

3. Lich King - Born of the Bomb

4. The Stranded - Survivalism Boulevard

5. Accept - Stalingrad

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1. Angra - Temple Of Shadows

2. Kamelot - Epica

3. Symphony X - The Odyssey

4. Fairyland - Score To A New Beginning

5. Opeth - Ghost Reveries

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1. Xandria - Neverworld's End

2. Orden Ogan - To The End

3. Whyzdom - Blind?

4. Wintersun - Time I

5. Wilderun - Olden Tales & Deathly Trails

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Because I reached the word limit on the previous list, and don't want to lose my quite excellent in-depth descriptions. Those without descriptions are from my other list.

1. Sylosis - Monolith

2. Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

3. In The Silence - A Fair Dream Gone Mad

4. Abigail Williams - Becoming

5. Enslaved - RIITIIR

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I picked one album by each of my favorite bands for this list. Keep in mind that after the first few albums I put on the list, it became increasingly difficult to figure out where to place artists in my list. Also, this is kind of how my favorite bands lie now, as far as how often I listen to them - whereas some of these bands used to be much more frequently played, years ago. But this is, more or less, a list of my favorite albums by my favorite bands.

1. Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

2. Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape

3. Symphony X - The Odyssey

4. Circus Maximus - Nine

5. Haken - Visions

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1. Storm Corrosion - Storm Corrosion

2. Dead Can Dance - Anastasis

3. The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet

4. Anathema - Weather Systems

5. Ihsahn - Eremita

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In progress, and subject to change.

1. Headspace - I Am Anonymous

2. Xandria - Neverworld's End

3. Threshold - March Of Progress

4. Epica - Requiem For The Indifferent

5. Luca Turilli's Rhapsody - Ascending To Infinity

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1. Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora's Piñata

2. OSI - Fire Make Thunder

3. Beyond the Bridge - The Old Man and the Spirit

4. Katatonia - Dead End Kings

5. Devin Townsend - Epicloud

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Here is my list for what I consider to be the top 20 best albums from the year 2012. Keep in mind that one of them is not featured on Metal Storm, and one of them is an EP.

1. Beyond The Bridge - The Old Man and the Spirit

2. Wintersun - Time I

3. Katatonia - Dead End Kings

4. Circus Maximus - Nine

5. Sylvan - Sceneries

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Here are all of the top albums that have come out since I was born in 1993!

1. Katatonia - Dance of December Souls

2. Dream Theater - Awake

3. Anathema - The Silent Enigma

4. Edge of Sanity - Crimson

5. Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk

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Note; Anything I rate lower than 8 I deem underwhelming. Sure, I might even acknowledge some of them as being rather enjoyble, but considering the "bigger picture of things", I find them unsatisfactory (in varying degrees, depending on their rating).

Partially ordered (the ones with descriptions). The rest are arranged alphabetically.

1. Sybreed - God Is An Automaton

2. Gorod - A Perfect Absolution

3. The Faceless - Autotheism

4. Ihsahn - Eremita

5. Saturnus - Saturn In Ascension

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This list will further remind me of those awesome musics from this awesome year.

1. Beyond The Bridge - The Old Man And The Spirit

2. Adrenaline Mob - Omertá

3. Serj Tankian - Harakiri

4. Stone Sour - House Of Gold And Bones - Part 1

5. Sonata Arctica - Stones Grow Her Name

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Due to the overwhelming "popularity" of my last list, I have decided to do the same thing in 2012

1. Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma

2. Baroness - Yellow & Green

3. Devin Townsend - Epicloud

4. Arjen Anthony Lucassen - Lost In The New Real

5. Royal Thunder - CVI

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Welcome to Lkoturnindrin's obligatory rating system of 2012. There will be only one voice of reason, mine. And since I have loads of albums to review, that will be all.

Re-edits in process

1. Christian Mistress - Possession

2. Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora's Piñata

3. High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis

4. Pharaoh - Bury the Light

5. Ram-Zet - Freaks in Wonderland

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Other good lists with some melodic metal in them:
strade's - R'Vannith's - Unhealer's - Lkoturnindrin's

Will only add 7.5+ releases, so this won't be a gargantuan list... last year saw maybe forty or so releases I thought of as 7.5+'s, a lot of them rated only at the end of the year, and some not rated at all due to the extensiveness of pre-MSA listening sessions... if you want to stalk my "bad" ratings, they're all in my album votes.

1. Enochian Theory - Life... And All It Entails

2. Dissona - Dissona

3. Big Big Train - English Electric 1

4. Headspace - I Am Anonymous

5. Beyond The Bridge - The Old Man And The Spirit

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