Here we are, at the end of our selections of the finest music 2012 had to offer! Maybe you found some new bands to enjoy, or maybe you disagreed with some inclusions or omissions from the list. Either way, 2013 is going to have a lot to live up to, as 2012 proved itself to be a great year for music!

Coheed and Cambria

If you haven’t jumped on board with the Prog Rock/Metal/Post Hardcore/Sci-Fi epic journey that is the work of Coheed and Cambria, there is no better time than the present. All of the band’s records are chapters in a larger story arc, but you won’t feel lost at all if you start with this year’s entry in the Amory wars saga, The Afterman: Ascension. Plot wise, the album focuses on the character of Sirius Amory, but melodically, the album goes everywhere and anywhere. “Key Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute” is a perfect entry point, as the track features heavy riffing, big sounds, and examples of how the plot is woven into the record. The Afterman: Ascension is part one of a two album set, with part two being released in early 2013. There is a lot to take in with this record, and the journey is an excellent one.

Claudio Sanchez and Evil Ink Comics announced on Saturday that they will be partnering with Stephen Levinson‘s Leverage and Mark Wahlberg to bring us The Amory Wars, the epic story presented in a series of comic books from Boom! Studios and explored in Sanchez’s band Coheed and Cambria, to life with a live action feature film.

The Amory Wars is a multi-part sci-fi epic that tells the story of Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon and their son, Claudio, who serves as a reluctant hero and is destined to save the Keywork, a series of planets in an alternate universe, from the evil grasp of the superhuman dictator Wilhelm Ryan.

Put on your capes and cowls, everybody! There’s pine needles on the living room floor, snow on the ground, and a scent of cinnamon in the air. Your dogs and cats are tearing apart wrapping paper, your family’s in town and you can’t stop drinking sparkling cider for some reason. That could only mean one thing, folks, it’s the nondescript religious holiday season! And that means that it’s time to go into credit card debt so that you can show those closest to you that you care, you know? And to make it a little bit easier on you guys, we here at Geeks of Doom have been shoveling our driveways so that we can deliver to you this, The Holiday Geek Gift Guide – Batman Edition! The best bat-gifts possible for the geeks on you gift-giving list!

As you can see, I’ve changed up the intro a smidge, and that’s simply because today we celebrate the holiday in the best way possible, with The Batman. Yes, The Batman. And while it may not make much sense to you that we’re doing this, you fail to realize that Batman makes everything better. In fact, the presence of Batman-centric holiday gift guide on this site makes not only this site better, but also it makes the world better. And isn’t that truly what the holidays are about? Making things better or something like that? Sure, why not! Anyway, it’s been a pretty big year for The Dark Knight, and that will certainly be evidenced by the majority of this list. We’ll also be making it a little easier on you by narrowing this list down by separate topics such as comics (and comic-inspired items), statues, Batman: Year One, and Arkham City. Sure there will be some overlap, but that’s all right because we’re talking about Batman! So let’s start of with the merriest of merries, comic books!

Most everyone in the geek world knows that New York Comic-Con is going on this weekend and it just so happens that one of my favorite comic book companies, Evil Ink!, is here to sell merch and sling comics!

Luckily, I got a chance to catch up with Claudio Sanchez (of Coheed and Cambria) and Chondra Echert on their upcoming book Key of Z on the convention floor at Booth 1345 about the new comic, what they’re looking forward to seeing at the convention, and what they’ve got coming up. You can watch my video interview here below. Now, the audio quality on the video is a little off, so before you take to the comments section to tell me that I should have been looking at the camera or using a mic, I totally agree with you. My bad, it will never happen again.

So, to save you the ear strain, I wanted to tell you about some of the high points from the interview, and they are listed here below.

Hello everybody and welcome to this very special episode of Comics of Doom!

In this episode, Hunter (MK2Fac3) sits down with the two writers of the upcoming Key of Z, Coheed and Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez and Chondra Echert to discuss the growth of the new series, upcoming projects including Kill Audio 2, as well as Coheed and Cambria’s appearance on the Batman: Arkham City soundtrack. They also talk about some of their favorite comics, movies, and their plans for the upcoming New York Comic-Con.

Make sure to give this a listen, because we’re going to have a contest based on what is said in this interview. So stay tuned to the site, and keep listening to Comics of Doom!