Sorry if it's already been mentioned but I just wanted to add:
Inter Arma - Sky Burial

I don't really know how to categorize it, but it's great and really really heavy. Maybe call it a mix of doom, sludge, and black metal. I don't know, the different elements in these songs really flow together well and blend into their own thing.

And the drum sound is outstanding, it sounds so real compared to so much that I hear these days. This is one of my favorite records of the year so far, I could easily see it being my favorite at the end of the year.

Nothing wrong with echoing other people's sentiments - as long as you add why you think the album is worthwhile. And your description sold me on the album, I'm checking it out now.


I'm sure other people have mentioned this in the thread as well, but Entopria's Vesper is amazing. It has that perfect black/shoegaze/post-metal sound. The music is really beautiful and melodic - but doesn't lack the abrasiveness that most post-metal bands seem to be missing.



All I can say is "what the fuck?". I checked out a few tracks on Youtube and the production sounds like shit. Criminal Element, indeed, the album is one big fucking scam.

I know a lot of people here disagree with me on this, but I think Black Sabbath's 13 is really good. One thing the album is not, that The Devil You Know was, is monotonous. Good riffs, nice tempo changes, and as good a performance from Ozzy as we could have expected in 2013.

Maybe more people with agree with me on this one, but Warlord's The Holy Empire is really good. There's not much up-tempo here, but it's very epic, kind of like Lordian Guard, but I think it's be easier for most metal fans to get into it than LG. I wish they did one more new song instead of Father though.

I agree. Not their best work, but still very good.

that thing on the cover looks like it was rather heavily influenced by blasphemy made flesh

Going to add 2 more albums to this list that I've been listening on heavy rotations.

Magic Circle - Magic Circle: Epic doom metal from musicians from various hardcore bands.
Procession - To Reap Heavens Apart.

anyone into the whole dissonant thing should take a look at the new Lithotome album

The new White Wizzard is great. I'm glad they are back to being really good again after the confusing second half of "Flying Tigers". Also, not that it's a full-length, but I just heard about a traditional heavy metal band called Stallion that have put out a couple of incredible songs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m78_ifeVlqs). I can only find two songs, but they're both incredible.


Hope you guys don't mind a bit of promotion, but I just conducted an interview with Zealotry mainman, R. Temin!

http://skullfracturingmetal.blogspot.ca ... rview.html

Wicked record for sure!

The new Edenbridge, while nothing spectacular, is very enjoyable--moreso than Solitaire was.

Torture Chain - Mutilating Astral Entities

Okay, this is some crazy shit right here. Raw sounding punky Black Metal with insane riff work and good solos. The only time you stop banging your head is when they slow it down.
Intense and fun at the same time

There's a cool little local band named Cancer Whore that just self-released their first EP, Born into Depravity. The sound is a mix of old school and modern death metal, with some occasional forays into technical and BDM riffing. It's largely a neanderthal-style, simple, catchy release that evokes no pretense of being high art, though the more diverse tracks (like "Systematic Dissection") remind me of Suffocation at certain parts. The production is a little rough, but it's a concise fun time all in all. Also of note is the fact that the band features former Vital Remains and current Incinerate drummer Eddy Hoffman.

The whole EP can be heard here: http://www.reverbnation.com/cancerwhore

Blood Red Throne's self titled album is a good one. Maybe not up there with Brutalitarian Regime, which I found to be just stellar, but good solid death metal. BRT never disappoints.

There's a newish Canadian band called Ancestors Revenge that recently released their debut full length, The Archaic Return. I've enjoyed that one quite a lot.

I'm not all the way through Arsis's Unwelcome or Deathchain's Ritual Death Metal yet, but so far so good.

And Duobetic Homunkulus has finally released a full length. I won't say "long-awaited" because I'm not sure anyone was waiting for it, or even knew they still existed. Fair warning, it's some weird shit, but strangely compelling.

The new Peste Noire album has finally been released. I've been listening to it intensively over the past few days and so far it is difficult to describe. At times, it seems similar to La Sanie (though with less 'conventional' riffs), and at other times they're close to sounding like Diapsiquir (in the song "Niquez vos villes" in particular). All in all, I guess it is the synthesis of everything PN has done to this point, although I would say the atmosphere is quite distinct from any of the previous albums. The lyrics are also more explicit in terms of their politics than the often more cryptic poetry of previous efforts. Some words have even been censored and replaced by Hebrew words.

All in all, I love it. It wasn't 'love at first sight' as much as with Ballade and L'Ordure, but the album does get better with each listen. Highlights include "Démonarque" (due to extensive folk passages and great drumming by Ardraos); "La bêche et l'epée contre usurier" (due to the last few minutes containing arguably the best riff Famine has written so far) and "Ode" (due to Famine's amazing, Valfunde-like guitar playing and the hurdy gurdy). As with all PN albums released so far, though, it is the overall 'experience' that makes this what it is.

I only heard a few songs but it reminded me of !T.O.O.H.!, Melancholy Pessimism or even Contrastic. So yeah, it should be pretty weird stuff. I should give it a listen as well.

Just heard the new Peste Noire, while it starts out a little slow once the 3rd track hits it becomes amazing. It has a little bit of everything AOTY contender for sure. Keep in mind this is only first listen so Le retour De La Peste and Démonarque may take more listens to fully appreciate. La Bêche Et L'Epée - Contre L'Usurier is by far the best song and most like Famine's previous effort.

Only heard Comavoid, but hell yes to this. No doom on that song despite the genre tag, but a busy angry angular riff fest.

Edit: And on PN, Roman should quit Drudkh and just sing for Peste, Famine writes better music to back up his voice than Drudkh does. Not totally sure how I think about it overall just yet, hasn't left me in a stupid joyous haze like the last one, feels pretty rocky and not as sloppy/'tarded as their other music.

The new Deeds Of Flesh album Portals To Canaan is brilliant.

Incredibly tight, proficient and interesting technical brutal death. The production is clean enough to hear every note but still heavy and chunky. The songs are amazing. The few interludes and samples are pretty cool, too. This one is seriously threatening my top-5 list. It's like the new Wormed or Guttural Secrete albums yet massively better.

Autopsy - The Headless Ritual. A great album. Gives you the perfect feeling how things were back in the day.. Pure Gore OSDM

The new Coliseum album is fantastic. I really like the guest appearances, especially the solos/vocals from Wata (Boris). I'm really glad that they got J. Robbins to produce it... he did a good job in giving the album that 90's post-hardcore sound (think Jawbox).

This is out?

Yes, leaked a few days back

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t2-nGGBuyoY[/youtube]

It has leaked. Good consistent band.

Definitely! The gods of gore have returned and no one remains alive anymore...

Looking forward to that Deeds of Flesh.

i have the cd in yes. i think official release date was 24-6?

Hela - Broken Cross. Spanish female fronted stoner doom of very high quality. For fans of bands like Subrosa



Fertility Cult - Heavenly Bodies. Kyuss influenced stoner with a lot of hypnotic ambience and a fucking saxophone. A lot more Saxophone here than the debut, absolutely love it and reminds me of my favorite prog rock band, Van Der Graaf Generator.

The new Deeds of Flesh has my vote for best 2013 DM album so far. I enjoy it even more than the new Autopsy, which is unheard of..

Way To End - Various Shades of Black

These guys play a very interesting form of Black Metal with a lot of dissonance yet it remains very melodic. Although they have blasting parts, for the most part the music is calm and the riffs seem like an endless solo as you never quite know where its going. Their previous album is excellent too.

Well, it's the end of June, so here's my take on the year thus far...

Odd years have been a good time for metal of late. 2007, 2009 and 2011 were all vastly superior years to the ones between then, and despite a stunning 2012 which seemed set to buck the trend, 2013 seems to have jumped at the chance to continue the legacy, with all three of the first albums I heard making the list, and the hit rate really not dropping significantly after that. Admittedly none of of them are really 95%+ worthy standouts just yet, with the year thus far simply peppering us with a multitude of great releases beyond any recent year, but nothing of a world beating standard like Esoteric's, Monolithe's, or Svartdaudi's efforts of the past couple of years. I'll also say my top 9 are a clear notch up above the places under, basically those nine all being 90%+ and the others between between 85-90%.

As for interesting trends for the year thus far, brutal death metal has had a wildly successful launch out of the gate which many have brought up before me. I myself have a few issues with some of the commonly included bands mentioned, so I can't call it flawless or anything, but I've got two in my best of list, and Suffocation and Euphoric Defilement both put out worthwhile efforts also, definitely a good year for brutal death. Black metal had a few interesting but flawed releases which just lurked beneath my list in addition to my current number one pick, like Cultes Des Ghoules, The Meads of Asphodel, Slidhr and Progenie Terrestre Pura. OSDM continues to be a bit faster, a bit more overtly riffy, and generally less stuck in the muck of dreariness, so that's nice. OSDM's absolute quality seems to be a bit lower since there are no Undergang's, Ignivomous' or Ataraxy's, there aren't even any Desecresy's or Puteraeon's, with Lantern and Vorum's list entries only being a match for something like Backyard Mortuary. Not to say it's been a bad year for OSDM or anything, Sorcery, Imprecation, and Krypts all put albums that are worth hearing also, and my number 10 pick could plausibly sink in to be of that top level too. Doom hasn't really knocked me on my socks either, despite a couple of top 9 entries on the extreme side, and some cool more traditional styled ones either making the lower end of the list, or just missing out like Procession, I'm still not getting as excited about the genre as I was a few years back. It's starting to look like 2013 may be the first year since 2009 that I don't give a doom album my top spot. Also I've got no non-metal on here yet, so hopefully something will come along to fix that soon, QotSA got closest, but it's mostly pretty average, even if Smooth Sailing and I Appear Missing are right up there as contenders for song of the year. Other than that, I haven't noticed any other genre trends to comment on, so here's the list I suppose.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Best
As per normal there are no strict limits to my numbers, I'll include anything I think it is great enough to be mentioned and receive attention, usually around the 85% mark if I had to score them, regardless if how many other albums have the same honor. I usually don't need to say this until my end of year post since I usually have less than 10 picks by now, so way to go 2013, you broke the top 10 system in less than six months.

15. Vorum - [/i]Poisoned Void[/i] (Death Metal) {Woodcut Records}
With a really shitty split with Vasaeleth being my only exposure to the band, I was not expecting much here, but I do like to be surprised. This is some very Finnish inspired OSDM, revolving heavily around eerie lead melodies to break up the pummeling riffing. The leads aren't quite as twisted as most Finndeath, so it won't compete with Desecresy or Funebrarum or any of the other modern masters of the technique, but they do it heaps and it's pretty much my favourite little gimmick in the world, so I don't care. Edit Note This was at my number 11 spot, but some bastards here got me to hear the first EP, which made this look painfully inadequate to what it could have been, so it's dropped to being my cut off benchmark for list entry.

14. Stratovarius - Nemesis (Euro Power Metal) {earMUSIC}
Timoless Strato strike again. Lots great hooks, energy and general non-phoned-in-ness make this probably the strongest of their last three. It's still Euro as fuck, so don't go in expecting something ballsy and not totally flowery, but they've got their floweriness working in pretty satisfying ways.

13. Mourning Beloveth - Formless(Death Doom Metal) {Grau Records}
Sadguy as fuck. A tad short on riffs for it's massive length, but it has lots of big sweeping sad melodies to keep it nice and mournful. Also there are no sappy keys or fake orchestras to fruit it all up, just straight up sad doom/death with the added flair of a clean vocalist who sounds like Alan Averill + Rob Lowe. It is nice to hear him without all the vapid fake symphonies that fag up his other project, Old Season, because he's awesome. If I had to make a complaint after the massive runtime and the low riff count, is the underuse of him, since he absolutely owns songs when he's given a chance, such as the lengthy verses in "Nothing Has a Centre". Speaking of that song, it's easily the best song released this year, it's a masterpiece.

12. Moss - Horrible Nights (Doom Metal) {Rise Above Records}
This is a surprise, mainly for how unexpected it is in sound. These guys as far as I have ever known have been a torture doom band. And not just any torture doom band, a particularly droning one. I'm pretty sure there aren't any riffs on Sub Templum, the whole album doesn't have a single note within two seconds of another, so seeing them do a riff filled traditional doom album is pretty much the dictionary definition of a surprise. This reminds me of Briton Rites more than anyone else, with vocals that are a bit closer to Ozzy's and therefore far less annoying, and an enormous, droning guitar sound that fills up every second of this release, despite the trad doom riffs. There are no soft-hard contrasts or anything, just big booming walls of guitar. There's ONE extreme part in the first song, and it makes for a really cool contrast, it's a shame they didn't do more of this since the tone is immense enough to shift surprisingly smoothly between the two, and the singer is an accomplished tortured screamer, at any rate, it's trad doom that rattles the walls and scares the cats.

11. Lantern - Below (Death Metal) {Dark Descent Records}
This is actually a pretty big disappointment, the Subterreanian Effulgence EP is for me the absolute best new OSDM EP released, so my hopes for this were through the roof, and while this is really good overall, it isn't at the absolute elite level I had anticipated. With that said, they get there three times, with the magnificent opener, Entrenching Presences and the closer all delivering what I expected 110%, making the album a must hear for anyone into OSDM at all. Sadly out of the remaining three songs, Manifesting Shambolic Aura is the only one that raises itself above mediocrity. Basically they slow down too much on the other two, and the bands strength is the uptempo and surprisingly technical yet melodic riffing and lead work, the weaker tracks just don't have enough of it. At any rate, I still think it's around the best OSDM released this year, with the high points just beating out the consistency of Vorum, but only just.

10. Katechon - Man, God, Giant[i] (Death/Black Metal) {Nuclear War Now!}
This one could end up higher with more listens, but I only just got my hands on it, so I'll be safe and leave it just outside of the elite level stuff for now. [i]Man, God, Giant, or as the cover art depicts, Naked Klu Klux Krows in Space!, is an uptempo death/black metal album which kinda sounds like a mix of a dirtier Vomitory (Or a blasty Dismember, take your pick) and Black Breath, with a fair helping of black metal tremolo melodies. The end result is a pretty full on blasty yet punky death metal band with a few black metal touches. It isn't wildly unlike anything else despite that pretty lively description, and it could be considered a bit of a swedeath rehash + tempo on the surface, which is why I'm a bit apprehensive about chucking it up in like fifth, which part of me wants to do, but that part of me feels pretty confident the riff centric approach, the riffs themselves, the combo of punky d beats and frenzied blasting, and the multitude of colourful solos will hold up til the end of the year ad earn it some extra spots.

9. Abstract Spirit - Theomophic Defectiveness (Funeral Doom Metal) {Solitude Productions}
I was extremely let down by Horror Vacui, the followup to their sophomore masterpiece, so I'm glad to see that they've bounced back in a big way. Like with the last album, they haven't attempted to capture the same level of unsettling otherworldliness here, but they've given us an excellent mash of twisted tremolos, weird keyboard sounds, long haunting guitar leads, great production and some of the best vocals in the business. It's not exactly like anything else in particular, which is always nice in funeral doom, and the whole thing is enjoyable throughout.

8. Abyssal - Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius (Death/Black Metal) {Self Released}
This is Portal meets DsO in short. The riff salad that was the debut is now a dark, churning affair, which is still plenty riffy, but now in a very Portalesque fashion. Distorted tremolos buzz together rapidly to create similar bwraaaaaaah and fwaaaaaaah sounds, and the vocals are the same throaty snarl, and the band is really, really good at it. Way better than Portal was this year by a large margin in fact, plausibly better than Portal has ever been on record. Added to this the sound is huge, dynamic and imposing, rather than pathetic and flat like the originals, so that is a nice touch, they actually manage to sound closer to Portal's live sound than the real deal ever has. To make the music a bit less of a direct rip off, they've got some loose and jangly black metal sections, very similar to DsO when they're not being totally mellow or vicious, so it has some charm of its own.

7. Wormed - Exodromos (Brutal/Technical Death Metal) {Willowtip}
While I think the BDM quality for this year has been overstated a little, mainly because Defeated Sanity are cruddy and a lot of people somehow manage to miss that, and for me at least, Guttural Secrete's effort was too messy and disjointed to be any fun, but there have been some absolute rippers, and this is one of them. Very techy BDM with toilet gurgles and everything, which still manages to have buckets of catchy riffs to go along with the merely aggressive or impressive, and some pretty unique open notes which could be considered a little djenty, but I think they add a bit of interesting flair to the overall approach. Despite some welcome originality, this isn't quite my pick for BDM album of the year, mainly because the slams are a bit on the mediocre side and bring the whole thing down a tad.

6. Sacriphyx - The Western Front (Death/Black/Heavy Metal) {Nuclear War Now}
Something pretty much entirely original here, like Arghoslent these guys take traditional heavy metal and extremify it, but they do it in much more no frills, unmelodious and gritty manner. The whole thing is a head nodding toe tapping good time, and while admittedly it lacks moments of ridiculously impressive flair to push it into the region of being downright stunning, it does have great, heavy metal riffage delivered in a dirty extreme metal style works damn well for me.

5. Funeralium - Deceived Idealism (Funeral Doom Metal) {Weird Truth}
This is a great album, let me get that out of the way first, but I'm a little bit disappointed here. The sampler and pre-release track (21st Century Ineptia) were absolutely brilliant, and the ideas present here, such as the multitude of black metal sections, and the addition of some thumping groovy doom riffing to their established wall of crawling bleakness and agony, are very, very cool, but it just doesn't deliver 100% to what I had hoped. The main issue I have here is that they've gone rather traditional in their funeral doom sections, and while it does avoid having annoying weepy keyboards or mopey orchestrations to make it all pathetic and dull, the slow stuff here is still largely sad and depressed, rather than the torturous pain and agony that they'd relied upon in the past, and it's just not as gripping or intense for me personally, and it stands out from the crowd a fair bit less. It just isn't as extreme as they'd been talking up, or as I had hoped, this not in any way a torture doom album, which, to me at least is a little bit disappointing. Still, this great guitar driven funeral doom, with lots of black metal screams (Not too much unmusical howling here either, sadly) and black metal sections, it's definitely better than the debut, which had a good sound, and some good parts, but was rather drawn out, this is something great for the doomsters.

4. Csejthe - Réminiscence (Black Metal) {Eisenwald Tonschmiede}
This is one I've had a bit of trouble figuring out where to put. The whole album only has one trick in it's bag, and every song follows the same sort of "epic tremolo melody setting a theme and working around it" approach, and that approach is not one I am typically a fan of. On the other hand, holy fuck what a fucking amazing trick! This is legitimately the most epic and soaring melodic black I've ever heard, and while part of me wants to hold it back for being, just crazy one dimensional, and it is, it's just too brilliant to not reserve a high placement.

3. Katalepsy - Autopsychosis (Brutal Death Metal) {Unique Leader}
A seriously ripping slab of slammy and techy brutal death metal. Probably not quite slammy enough to be called a slam album, but slammy enough to deliver a healthy dose of thuggery for those partial to that. The production is utterly outstanding, guitar driven, heavy, thick and pounding, delivers technicality clearly and impressively, and brutality in a visceral, massive way. Finishing off this awesome package are the vocals which are more or less in line with traditional death metal, so they sound good, with all the usual BDM gurgles and the like used sparingly and effectively as added flair.

2. Rorcal - Világvége (Sludge/Doom Metal/Post Hardcore) {Cal of Ror Records}
Stupidly heavy, loud and devastating music. All I'd heard from the band had been half hour long songs which had assloads of dodgy ambiance and extended periods of "atmospheric stuff" where they'd slam on a note or two and stand around looking all clever about having feedback, but this time around its totally different. This here is all sub 10 minute songs, many sub 5 or six, with huge helpings grindlike intensity to mix with the sludge and post hardcore stuff. Words can't explain how goddamn devastating this is, it's unashamed brutality through and through, with a few more musical touches on offer between V and VII, which come in handy since the start of the album is for all intensive purposes riffless and melody-less, instead focusing all of it's energy on just beating the shit out of you. The last six minutes are a bit of a let down, since they do that "atmospheric" spaced out jabs on guitar thing I talked about earlier, which isn't half as entertaining as just destroying your face with a boulder and without it it'd definitely be my number 1, but this is really impressive stuff.

1. Aosoth - IV: An Arrow in Heart (Black Metal) {Agonia}
I am starting think that I am just way too into this whole DsO-worship-but-less-wacky thing after how much I loved Svartidaudi's effort last year and now this. Basically the idea is simple, take the weird chaotic stylings of Deathspell or Blut Aus Nord, and stick it along side a nice helping of straight ahead BM and atmospheric work. These guys are less twisted than other bands doing this, like the aforementioned Svartidaudi or Dodecahedron, and probably have a break of about 70% regular BM/Ambient to 30% dissonant, but it's enough to supply that tasty variation which leaves the band safe from being too disjointed and meandering, or from being too boring from extended sad parts, or losing the intensity of the more extreme parts from over use of dissonance, the styles just cycle through at an enjoyable rate. The band itself has a more flat out blast black metal style then most, ala mid era Marduk or Dark Funeral, which is a fresh side dish to the increasingly well explored style the album is most noteworthy for. This added straight up brutality keeps me from feeling burnt out towards this at all despite a weaker set of riffs than some, excellent stuff.

That's the year for me so far, I'm almost certain Rorcal is going to end up above Aosoth, I was so very close to switching them right now, but I decided not to rock the boat. There are a fair few I'm still digesting, Slidhr could still make the cut, Lithotome almost certainly will although I just don't know where (third is my current spot, but I've only heard 80% of it once, so I'll err on the side of caution), Seeds of Iblis could plausibly sneak in too. Obviously there are heaps I've missed, so feel free to point out anything you think I've missed and I'll give it a go. I'll spoiler tag in a quick summary of everything I've heard in full, but it's tediously boring with really crappy notes to self attached, so I wouldn't bother looking unless you're going to rec me something.

^great post^

Seconded. I've read a couple of your other 'best of' lists lord_ghengis, and they always give me at least a few new bands to check out, so thanks for that

The Meads of of Asphodel's Sonderkommando is slowly growing to become my #1 release of 2013. It's such a brilliant piece of work I don't even know how to start to describe it. The plethora of sounds is arranged perfectly in a sense to portray the ultimate human suffering in the most abominable and bleak way possible. Even though the music sometimes becomes uplifting you never manage to shake off that feeling of uneasiness while listening to it. I can't imagine picking one favorite song, this album is meant to be played in its entirety. For fans of experimental music I can't recommend this enough.

Checking out the Thou Art Lord now. Never liked their stuff in the past. We'll see...

Is it anything like their material on the split with Mayhem? That's the only Meads I've heard and I love it.

Except for saying most trad metal albums only have a few good songs, which is a blatant lie, that was a very detailed post from ghengis...and I'm glad to see Sonderkommando on someone else's number 1! Great album.

The new Queensryche may find a place on my end-of-year best of.

Hmmm? Is it really that good?

Guess I'll have to take a look, then.

I'm not blown away by it, but it's catchy and really enjoyable, and it might end up in the lower half of the top 10/15/whatever I do. It's just a really solid album with no glaring flaws to it, aside from that it could've been even more than it is.

Hey I told you in the post not to read the crappy notes to self lol. Also that's less inline with song to song and more riff to riff on that opinion. I tried to explain it in the heavy/power rec thread a couple of months back and failed, so it'll continue being something only I understand I guess.

To be honest, Sonderkommando was my first exposure to The Meads so I can't tell you for sure. I'll give their discography a thorough listen in the upcoming days.

Three good ones in a row here. I'll need more time to digest Abyssal, but I very much enjoy that one. Nice descriptions on all of them.


This can get a little bit monotonous if heard too much, but I agree this is a very nice album with some well-placed pinch harmonics. Totally with you on the production side of this, too - very heavy and perfect for their music.


I do recall you posted a track of this on Facebook and I liked it. I haven't really followed it up because there's just too many others to get, but I was impressed with that song. Perhaps an album I can pick up in the future. Well defined again, mate.