Music Monday: 5 Awesome New Artists I Heard in 2012

Personally speaking, 2012 was a great year for music. Some of my favourite artists like Bob Dylan and Counting Crows released new material and a whole score of bands appeared on my radar, blasted through my speakers or performed the gig of a life time.

Though I could spend all day telling you about all the great music I've heard (and indeed have done, over on Almost Famous, today I thought I'd simply share with you five of the best new artists I heard in 2012.

1) Bobaflex
Bobaflex seemed to spring up from out of nowhere this past summer and promptly kick my head in with an epic assault of crunching guitars, tight vocals and the kind of rhythms that make your hair stand on end. Their album Hell in my Heart has been played to death and probably will do for quite some time. I really can't recommend this band high enough. Check out their awesome cover of The Sound of Silence to see why.

2) Murzik
I first heard of Minnesota's dark-folk outfit Murzik whilst over in The Land of 10,000 Lakes for the 2012 Dylan Days festival. Immediately impressed by their European influences, brooding vocals and tunes that generally stuck in your mind for days at a time, I was even more delighted to see them deliver a performance at Dylan Days that cemented them as one of my new favourite bands of the year.

3) Philip Sayce
I've no idea why I'd never heard of the mighty Philip Sayce before this year, and in many ways I regret not checking him out much sooner. Alas, I've more than made up for lost time this year. After reading a review of his 2012 album Steamroller, I had the idea that this would be exactly my kind of music and, low and behold, it was. Full of awesome dirty blues jams and monstrous licks, Steamroller is by far one of the best albums I've heard, not just this year, but for many a year.

4) Mountain Mirrors

Sadly, there's no real story behind my falling madly in love with the gorgeously dark music straight from the heart of  the Massachusetts woodlands created by Mountain Mirrors. Simply put, I was flicking through Spotify looking for something to put on in the background whilst writing, and came across a couple of tracks. On first listen, I stopped dead in my tracks, arrested by such haunting, atmospheric acoustic metal.  Since that time, this has been my go-to music when working on creative projects.

5) Five Finger Death Punch
Just when I thought old-age was starting to get to me, and that I'd drift further and further away from the heady rock 'n' roll days of my early youth, along FFDP and snapped me to my senses. Sure, they may have been around much longer than I had known about, but I got to them eventually and I'm certainly glad I did.
It's tracks like this haunting rendition of Bad Company that makes them one of my favourite new bands of 2012.