SOUND BITES

After a pair of high intensity records fronted by British madman Frank Carter and the tentative reboot featuring ex-Alexisonfire member Wade McNeil, Desolation Sounds ' lead singles ( Chains and Bonfire Season ) had many fans fearing Gallows had committed the cardinal sin of going rock on album four. Truth be told, the two relatively straight forward rock songs both are and aren't indicators of what to expect from the album; there's plenty of intensity-fueled punk bombast to be had in addition to other forays into decidedly non-punk territory. Mystic Death and Swan Song bookend the album with caustic familiarity, playing like songs that could have been taken from Grey Britain if not for the lack of Frank Carter's thick accent (and the guitar playing of his brother Steph, who left the band after the self titled 2012 record). Elsewhere, brutally heavy and intense tracks Leviathan Rot , Leather Crown and 93/93 rank as some of the overall meanest tracks the band ha...

It's a testament to the volume of quality music that's still being produced in 2012 that a mere fifty songs didn't cover all that I wanted to give credit to. While the ten songs contained in this post aren't as mind blowing (to me, anyway) as those that got their own little spotlight, there are nonetheless some definite gems worthy of your attention. When it comes down to it, this post is proof that there were at least sixty artists who released tunes I dug this year, which tells me that either there's still plenty of life in rock music or that I am a total rock music whore. Could be both.

With so much music to listen to, I should just shut up and get to it, no? Stream Gallows here, courtesy NME. Being a hardcore band brings with it enough closed-minded pressure; being a hardcore band that got successful and then switched singers is a whole 'nother thing. Gallows' self-titled album is the first with new mic-man Wade McNeil who, if you're up on your early 21st century Canadiana, is an ex-member of Alexisonfire. He lacks Frank Turner's snotty British drawl, but makes up for it with Canuck lumberjack brawl. Gallows doesn't build on the concepts of Grey Britain , nor does it have the same level of intensity and danger. Instead, Gallows burn everything you've come to expect to the ground and then heave jugs of gasoline. Stream Dinosaur Jr.'s I Bet On Sky here, courtesy NPR. I still marvel at Dinosaur Jr.'s 2005 comeback Beyond , because you could tell that money and stature had nothing to do with it; it was the product of a...