Desert Beneath the Pavement - Transit

Desert Beneath the Pavement is a post-punk/hardcore band from Germany that started up within the past few years. The album, "Transit" is their debut album, and I was completely taken back at how fucking good it was. The album starts out with some slow single guitar parts, and eventually evolves into a full dark and heavy sound. The whole album is absolutely beautiful from start to finish, with slower softer parts flowing flawlessly into the heavier beast of the music. Singing ranges from slow singing to faster yelling, but mostly the latter. This band definitely gets a lot of influence from Fall of Efrafa, but they manage to create something unique and their own. With "Transit", they've set the bar high for themselves, and hopefully they can continue to surpass it. Best songs are "For Futility" and "On the Truck Bed". This is definitely one of my top albums from 2012.

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Of the Wand and the Moon - The Lone Descent

Of the Wand and the Moon is a neofolk project from Denmark that rose from the ashes of Saturnus. For those of you who don't know what neofolk is, imagine folk, but with darker overtones and usually deeper singing. They've been playing since around 1999 and continue to produce more material. The album is mostly acoustic, with some synth parts and some really sick orchestral parts as well. The singing is eerie and lower in pitch, and the lyrics are about love, darkness, and paganism. The best songs are "Pyre of Black Sunflowers" and "Immer Vorwärts". "Pyre" in particular has an amazing orchestral part at the end. It was really difficult for me to pick out two tracks, because the entire album is absolutely beautiful. Definitely give it a listen.

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