Hypocrisy aren’t zombies, but their decade-plus career has spawned fantastic music for the Swedish melodic scene.

Hellbound Metal: “As Clutch tore into a blistering rendition of “Crucial Velocity” off of this year’s excellent album Earth Rocker, the crowd began its metamorphosis into one singular entity; a living, breathing cyclone of energy. For the next 90 minutes Neil commanded the stage like a preacher gone mad, pointing his fingers wildly in the air while delivering lines about who stole his rock and roll in a sermon-like fashion.”

Live review by Renee Trotier, concert photos by Albert Mansour.

This is a great record to listen to loud over your speakers or even better, on vinyl with your headphones on.

I honestly can’t think of any flaws with this album other than how long it took to be released. If I had to pick a favourite album of 2012, this would definitely be it.

Without the soy sauce Wintersun need, Time I is not seamless. But like vegetables in a good stir fry, their talent is fresh and inviting. This band has been harvested to think outside the box, even if it means adding a little Hoisin.

Raise Your Fist can keep a venue or party going all night. The record doesn’t show Doro in a new light, but depicts her self-respect through some seriously fetching tracks. At 48 years old, Doro is still hot in leather, strikes chords and bakes like a boss. Horns to her.

Graveyard follow suit to their name, like a rusty tombstone, symbolizing age and progression over time. If cleaned properly, you’ll find a treasure once forgotten, or an antique piece like Lights Out, that just needs to be revisited.

As promised last week, here are the Top 10 metal albums of 2012 according to the writers of Hellbound.ca. You will notice that, in comparison to our previously published Top 10 Canadian albums of 2012 list, a few Canadian artists actually ended up charting higher here than on the Canuck top 10. The reason for this is simply because we had more writers submit top 10 lists here than did for the Canadian list.

Collected, compiled and edited by Sean Palmerston