believe vemod released the album digitally in dec, but no hard copies until this year; so im making room for them (especially since it's my favorite one).

Mammoth grinder has a much more genuine sound and energy than black breath; a band who's ridden that goddamn entombed guitar tone into the ground. Boring band.

Check your inboxxx.

Thanks to this thread I did eventually check out In Solitude (not so much into the true heavy metal revival, in which category I put them). Sister is a great album and I'm also enjoying their back catalogue.

Other top albums for me are
Inquisition - Multiverses...
Hail of Bullets - Rommel Chronicles
Cultes des Ghoules - Henbane (Thanks to this thread)
Csejthe - Reminiscence (again Thanks to this thread)

P.s. Thread rules

Haven't listened to much from this year, here's what I like.

Immolation - Kingdom of Conspiracy
Wormed - Exodromos
Suffocation - Pinnacle of Bedlam
Byzantine - Byzantine
Hail of Bullets - III The Rommel Chronicles
Havok - Unnatural Selection
Autopsy - The Headless Ritual
Carcass - Surgical Steel
Antigama - Meteor
Sodom - Epitome of Torture
Exhumed - Necrocracy
Pyrexia - Feast of Iniquity
Verminous - The Unholy Communion

Has anyone heard the new Satan's Wrath? It snuck up on me and I enjoyed the first one... not exactly original but early Bathory worship always does it for me.

i listened to it once and it didn't strike me as much as the first album, perhaps i'l have to revisit.

Underworlds was an okay listen but nothing close to Extinction of Humanity. It's a decent album but I don't think it would make my top 20 list.

Crypticus - The Barrens.

Finally some nice surprise. I had no idea this band is preparing something and so far it sounds like the best stuff I've heard from them. Recommended.

Hm, somehow the only new music that came out this year I've been listening to has been by relatively well known bands such as Voivod or Autopsy. It feels a bit redundant to elaborate on those, as there were already lengthy discussions about them. I guess I'm currently too focused on listening to various back catalogues to follow new underground releases.

Just had to add, Sarke's Aruagint and Code's Augur Nox are also two fucking brilliant albums.

Almofar - Mare Imbrium & Almofar - Oceanus Procellarum (Mare Serenitatis) Very nice epic ambient with a great sense of musicality

Augur Nox is definitely in my top 10 of the year, but I just can't get into Sarke. Every time I try to listen to it I feel like it's missing something.

I've just been noticing what a great year it's been for melodeath. One of my recent pick ups is the newest by Noumena. Super deep growls intertwined with female vocals and riffs catchier than Insomnium. Great stuff.

I didn't like the new Sarke with the first two spins. It actually went straight to my disappointments list. Then I just had a moment the other day to focus on it solely, and it just clicked. It's almost like a doomier, slower, Aura Noir. Definitely a grower.

I've been hooked on the latest Fell Voices release, "Regnum Saturni". What an atmosphere! I really enjoy it.

Anyone enjoying Avatarium's debut as much as I do?

I'd go with Anciients - Heart of Oak.

Overall, not the best year AFAIC, as a good chunk of bands that are on my radar (namely Ataraxie, Abstract Spirit, Blindead, Celeste and Nightly Gale) came out with pretty middling efforts.

I found Abstract Spirit and Ataraxie's efforts both pretty awesome myself.

I was pleasantly surprised by the new Cult of Fire. Very memorable and surprisingly very good melodies

I have listened to quite a lot this year, so my list is fairly lengthy and in no particular order.

Voivod - Target Earth
Holy Grail - Ride the Void
Manilla Road - Mysterium
Helloween - Straight Out of Hell
Sorcery - Arrival at Six (Swedish Death Metal)
Entrails - Raging Death (Solid, but sort of a let down compared to the first two)
Tribulation - The Formulas of Death
Wormed - Exodromos (Stellar death metal release)
Obliteration - Black Death Horizon (Vile and rotten death metal from Norway)
Vastum - Patricidal Lust (Vile and rotten death metal from California)
Vhöl - Vhöl (have seen this one on a lot of lists)
Votum - Harvest Moon (Prog-metal out of Poland)
Endstille - Kapitulation 2013 (One of my faves of the year)
Amon Amarth - Deceiver of the Gods
Carcass - Surgical Steel (On everybody's lists, I think)
Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn
Caladan Brood - Echoes of Battle (These guys are better than "Summoning clones")
Satan - Life Sentence
WrigHata - Cold Dismay (Russian melo-death)
Malakyte - Human Resonance (My favorite 2013 thrash release)
Mental Devastation - Red Skies (Quality thrash from Chile)
Krimh - Krimh (Kerim “Krimh” Lechner's solo project is a atmospheric proggy black metal deal that is entirely instrumental, but very good)
Nuclear Omnicide - The Prescence of Evil (Finnish thrash)
Obscure Sphinx - Void Mother (Sludge/Doom/Black metal with a pretty good lady vocalist and a pretty wicked album cover)
Cryogen - Continuum (Features Allegaeon guitarist Greg Burgess, and play a melo-death style not too far from that band, but much less tech death-ish)
Satan's Wrath - Aeon of Satan's Reign (Pretty good Black-thrash; Satan-this and Satan-that is a little goofy/overdone, IMO)
Blazon Stone - Return to Port Royal (Running Wild worship)
Neaera - Ours is the Storm (German melodeath)
Doomriders - Grand Blood (Death 'n Roll out of Boston)
Havok - Unnatural Selection
Hypocrisy - End of Disclosure
Mortillery - Origin of Extinction (Canadian thrash)
Axxion - Wild Racer (Canadian heavy/speed metal)
Motorhead - Aftershock (Reliable as they get)
Black Sabbath - 13 (Tons of hype and anticipation, still pretty good)
SubRosa - More Constant Than the Gods (Immaculate doom/sludge metal with violins)
Nemost - As the Ocean Burns (Proggy melodeath from France; very good)
Prarod - Na ceste k zániku (Folk/Death metal out of Slovakia, more death than folk)
Lantern - Below
Chosen - Resolution (Irish melodeath)
Sirenia - Perils of the Deep Blue (Refreshing release from Morten Veland)
Craving - At Dawn (Melodeath with a Celtic flavor; out of Germany)
Deicide - In the Minds of Evil (not a huge Deicide fan but Benton hit a homerun here)
Suffocation - Pinnacle of Bedlam (Business as usual in the Suffocation camp)
Darkthrone - The Underground Resistance
Facebreaker - Dedicated to the Flesh (Thrashy Swedish Death metal)
Age of Taurus - Desperate Souls of Tortured Times (An album that seems to have flown under the radar; Doom metal from the UK)
Frostbite - Falling is Not a Defeat (Pretty good melodeath from Ukraine; Band is not on the Archives)
Kalmah - Seventh Swamphony (Great stuff)
Myrkgrav - Sjuguttmyra EP (Lars Jensen is the man)
Saxon - Sacrifice
Screamer - Phoenix (Kick ass heavy/speed metal from Sweden)
Malignant Monster - Yours In Murder (Released the first week of January; Death-Thrash from Australia)
Vreid - Welcome Farewell (Awesome album)
Woe - Withdrawal (A bit of a letdown, but worth listening to)


I think that is enough for now.

Wow you must have spent a fortune acquiring all that new music! (This is me being sarcastic, since most of you struggle with tone via text).

I didn't think anything could usurp the throne from Life Sentence, but I am completely smitten and obsessed by Borrowed Time's full-length. I had a lot of apprehension about them living up to their demo but I am an idiot and I realize this now. The album is just impossibly good. Tasteful songwriting blending ancient influences with their own original touch, and some of the best-written and voiced lyrics I've heard in ages. The one-two-three of The Thaumaturgist, Dawn of the Glory Rider, and Of Nymph and Nihil is almost more than I can take. How do you write such perfect choruses and riffs?

As a DJ, I get sent a ton of promos.

How wild does the club go when you toss on the newest Krimh?

Insane!

Yeah, Life Sentence seems unsurpassable as the best album for me too. I came across Slaughterday's debut album called 'Nightmare Vortex'. Nothing overtly new with regards to the OSDM genre but it seems like a solid album. I hope to get it soon.
http://slaughterday666.bandcamp.com

arckanum, svartsyn, aosoth, chaos invocation, tribulation, vorum, demonical,

almost makes it: necrophobic, verminous, sorcery. kind of 50/50 on these though.

Went to hear the Krimh album and it's surprisingly good. Was expecting I wouldn't like considering the association with Decapitated but it's really good instrumental music.

Whoever said Code's new album is objectively wrong. Terrible, terrible drivel from a once good band. With some of the most stupid sounding production in a long time.

So far, looks like the new albums from Battle Beast, Satan, Hell, Keldian, Heavatar, Serenity, Darkthrone, Stratovarius, Helloween, and Manilla Road are going to be my top picks for the year. And hey, lookit that, there's my Top 10, right there!

That Battle Beast was this year? Well, shit. That one's easily the best on your list.

Easily? I dunno about that much. It's a pretty good album though.

The only metal albums I really enjoyed this year were:
Summoning - Old Morning's Dawn
October Falls - The Plague of a Coming Age

Although there's a lot I haven't checked out. I'm just getting to that point in life where I've been buying metal CDs for about 16-17 years; I don't have the time and space for something I'll only listen to a few times. Daft Punk's Random Access Memories was my favorite album of this year, and that's coming from someone who hates most of their older music. The Silk Road Ensemble, Forest Swords, and Four Tet also put out albums I enjoyed outside of metal.

That's been in constant rotation most of this year for me too, easily one of my favourites of 2013.

Eternum - Summoning The Wolven Spirit will take out my #1 album of the year I think, just delivered everything I look for... Have the 2 new Drowning The Light releases "Lost Kingdoms Of A Dark Age" & "The Patron Saint Of Filth & Mould" making their way from Obscure Abhorrence to me at the moment and they are the last hope of stealing the mantle from Eternum, I hope I'm wrong but I can't see it happening...

Sorry for the late reply, It has the almost the same vibe as No Tolerance for Imperfection, which is the album that got me into them, fast drums, very angry vocals, heavy but catchy riffs with ocacional melodic leads, everything with a good amount of repetition that makes it memorable, something that most tech death lacks.

This might be my list for the year, with well-known names only for now. The ones that I've been listening and enjoying the most. I know, I need more doom.

(In no particular order)

The Ocean - Pelagial
Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinasours Here
Cult of Luna - Vertikal
Gorguts - Colored Sands
Intronaut - Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words With Tones)
Man Must Die - Peace Was Never an Option
Shadow of the Colossus - End Game
Skeletonwitch - Serpent Uleashed
Arsis - Unwelcome
The Black Dahlia Murder - Everblack
ChthoniC - Bu-Tik
Conducting From the Grave - Self Titled
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Exivious - Liminal
Fleshgod Apocalypse - Labyrinth
Gris - À l'Âme Enflammée, l'Äme Constellée...
Heaven Shall Burn - Veto
Kvelertak - Meir
Rivers of Nihil - The Conscious Seed of Light
Ulcerate - Vermis

I only know the two top spots of my metal list - which will only be a top-5 - for certain yet, namely Gorguts - Colored Sands and Subrosa - More Constant Than The Gods, but I haven't figured out the rest of the ranking by now. I can at least narrow it down to these candidates:

Monolithe - Monolithe IV
Voivod - Target Earth
Rotting Christ - Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού
Gris - À l'âme enflammée, l'äme constellée...
Ulcerate - Vermis

In my general list, Run The Jewels will rank at #3, and I'll also include new Ulver, Pryapisme and maybe Vista Chino as well.

Still have to listen to some albums, like Sigur Ros or Year Of No Light, and two albums that didn't arrive yet, which are Oneohtrix Point Never and Julia Holter's newest ones.

There's quite a bunch of stuff that I didn't feel the need to get immediately, but that I will end up buying sooner or later anyway, such as new The Ruins Of Beverast, Wormed, Suffocation, The Ocean etc., however I don't think any of these will outmatch Colored Sands for me.

Agreed. By all means worse than their previous works.


Vorum!

I have to add Ritual Chamber - The Pits of Tentacled Screams (demo) to what I have mentioned earlier. Considering it's solo project and demo only, it's really not bad at all.

And:
Ørkenkjøtt - Et Land I En Sang (2013)

I have my top ten list finished but wasn't sure when it was 'appropriate' to post it on MA.

Hey, that was me. It's definitely a bit more experimental, but it fits perfectly with their MO. I really don't see it as all that different from Resplendent Grotesque - okay the arrangements are not as tight - and it's miles ahead of their weak debut. But your highly detailed and thought-provoking descriptors of "stupid sounding" and "worse" definitely bring up some good arguments.

Anybody who posts their "best of the year" list before the year is actually over is officially off my Christmas card mailing list.

I actually like that it gives me stuff to look at before mine is finalised... But yeah, I wouldn't do it.

I'm getting puzzled at the fact that hardly any of these lists are mentioning Cult Of Luna's Vertikal. IMO it's probably a top contender for the best of their discography, as well as the best album of the year. Why the fuck is this band and album getting so god damn overlooked?

EDIT: OR Fen's Dustwalker. That and Sunbather are probably the best black metal albums of the year

You must have missed the several pages long thread we dedicated to it.