Best of 2013

[Snyde]

Well, another year is behind us and while I don't think was the best year for music, it still had some great releases (including a new Evile).

What do you think were the best albums this year?


Here's my own list:

1 - Tribulation - The Formulas of Death
2 - Spektr - Cypher
3 - Ghost - Infestissumam
4 - The Ocean - Pelagial
5 - Satan - Life Sentence
6 - Vhöl - Vhöl
7 - In Vain - AEnigma
8 - Persefone - Spiritual Migration
9 - Summoning - Old Morning's Dawn
10 - Skeletonwitch - Serpents Unleashed

Honorable mentions: Altar of Plagues, Evile, Gorguts, Shade Empire, Steve Wilson, Toxic Holocaust, and Witherscape

WTF of the year: Ihsahn - Das Seelenbrechen: what the hell happened? I thought this man could do no wrong but I never expected something this... boring.. I'm afraid he's run out of ideas or something. Maybe he should wait a bit more in between albums next time.

 

[D.Ingram]

Been there, done that http://brutalism.com/content/dingrams-best-of-2013-list

 

[Snyde]

Who makes year-end lists in November?

 

[ThatOneDude]

Better yet, who makes shit puns like that?

For my list, I don't have as much for my top as you guys, so here's something condensed.

3. Seregon - The Movement
2. Crisix - Rise Then Rest
1. Gama Bomb - The Terror Tapes

Other Mentions: Dream Theater, Annihilator, Death Angel, Artillery, Havok, Onslaught
Biggest Letdown: Diamond Plate, WARBRINGER.
Biggest Surprise: Evile, Seregon, the demo for Lich King V

Seregon gets biggest surprise and #3 because The Movement was the reason I got to hear of them and because they decided to adopt an old school sound instead of that technical production sound they used in Disposable Suffering, an album I enjoy immensely.

Gama Bomb gets top rank for being the most enjoyable consistently. All other albums kinda burned me after a while.

The new Warbringer was heartbreaking and uninteresting. I enjoyed Worlds Torn Asunder but this...

New Evile was surprising because I felt a little more strongly about this album than I did FST. Matt's kinda settled in with what he can do, from what I noticed.

New LK demo gets on this because my favourite songs from those guys are LK III and IV, and they're about 5-7 mins long, so for Tom to make a 4 minute long song about the King itself is... surprising.

 

[I-TEND-TO-DIE]

well I actually liked Skull. Don't really understand the hate for it.

some of my favorites:

Seregon - The Movement
Power Trip - Manifest Decimation
Voivod - Target Earth
Evile - Skull
Deicide - In The Minds of Evil

still have to listen to:

Purtenance - Awaken From Slumber

I think I would list that one too.

wasn't really so impressed with the new Protector. It sounds good and all but not like the old stuff.

 

[Keenan]

I actually haven't really listened to all that many albums from last year, but, if I had to make a list, it'd be something like :

5 : Black Sabbath - 13
4 : Gama Bomb - The Terror Tapes
3 : James LaBrie - Impermanent Resonance
2 : Witherscape - The Inheritance
1 : Dream Theater - Dream Theater

But to be honest, some of my favorite music this year has been from video games. The Last of Us, Beyond : Two Souls and BioShock Infinite all had soundtracks that put that whole list to shame.

 

[Podgie]

Well, I'm still catching up... lots of good albums this year, only just listening to the 'new' Dream Theater now... (and I liked Skull too)

Will post my little list soon anyway.

 

[zerostatic]

Carcass - Surgical Steel My top metal album of the year. Extremely brutal, yet filled with great riffs.

Sodom - Epitome of Torture - I know this album got some bad review but I love it. My Final bullet, S.O.D.O.M, Epitome of Torture, Waterboarding and Splitting the Atom are all good thrashers!

Onslaught - VI - They play the devil's music, they rule with an iron fist, they are the chaos legions, they are the order of the 6 6 6! The best thrash metal album of the year!

Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork. Not metal, but it is a great album.

Toxic Holocaust - Chemistry and Consciousness - A great, fun punk/thrash album.

Deicide - In the Minds of Evil - This is Deicide's best album since Serpents of the Light. I hope they play Vegas when they tour in support of this album.

Other albums I enjoyed:
Exhumed -Necrocracy
Tyr - Valkyrja
Gama Bomb - The Terror Tapes
Havok - Unnatural Selection
Execution - Perversions and Blasphemy
Evile - Skull
Saxon - Sacrfice
Skeletonwitch - Serpents Unleashed
Destruction - Spiritual Genocide
Fueled by Fire - Trapped in Perdition
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Hate - Solarflesh
Suffocation - Pinnacle of Bedlam
Warbringer - Empires Collapse

Best Concert of the year:
This was hard to choose, but I have go with seeing Meshuggah. Metal Alliance with Anthrax, Exodus, High on Fire, Holy Grail and Muncipal Waste is a close second.

Best moment of the year: Chicago Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup!

Biggest disappointments: the new albums from Diamond Plate, Children of Bodom and Amon Amarth.

 

[D.Ingram]

I missed out of Deicide and Skeletonwitch entirely :/

 

[Podgie]

Woah, hang fire! The new Children of Bodom was one of your biggest disappointments of the year? I think it's the best thing they've done in YEARS and YEARS (probably since Follow the Reaper / Hate Crew Deathroll)

 

[Darkofeden]

None of these are in order because I can't put them in order because this year has been strange for music,

1. Ghost- Infestissumam (actually got a ghost tattoo that's how much I love this band. Seriously, I could talk about Ghost all fucking day)
2. Avenged Sevenfold- Hail To The King (yeah fuck off I actually like them )
3. Daft Punk- Random Access Memories
4. Eminem- MMLP2
5. Evile- Skull (I'm still blown away from when Earache sent me a promo of it. I've stopped listening to it a lot, but I still like to put on Tomb from time to time)
6. Fleshgod Apocalypse- Labyrinth
7. Gama Bomb- The Terror Tapes (Probably my favorite album of the year, those dudes are the best.)
8. Groan- Ride The Snake
9.Revocation- Revocation
10. Black Sabbath- 13 (Saw them in August, good times)
11. Childish Gambino- Because The Internet
12. Remaster of As The Palaces Burn blew me away
13. I love Panic at the disco's new album, so yeah that happened.
14. That cover EP Anthrax made was kinda cool. I really like the AC/DC cover. Just wish they'd just make another album though.
15. Some cool stuff on the new Arsis album.
16. Same thing on the new Alice In Chains
17. Havok had some good stuff too
18. Walk Through Exits Only was pretty great too

Things I can't believe that sucked (okay except for Super Collider, saw that one coming)

1. Megadeth- Super Collider (Seriously, what the hell? The previews from the studio made it sound like they were about to bust out the hot jam and instead I got shit shoveled onto me)
2. Seregon- The Movement (I really just wish they had stuck with what they had going on Disposable Suffering.)
3. I also found out that my interest in Korn has kinda nearly dissappeared completely, so obviously I hated their latest album
4. Also... what the hell happened with that Sodom album? what a bunch of crap
5. I know everyone hates Trivium here except like Siobhan but I love their stuff and their new album just sounded like crap with some David Draiman singing over it. Such shit.
6. It's not that it sucks, it's that I only heard about the new Warbringer once so that can't have been great. I think I heard like half a song on it... really average.

 

[D.Ingram]

Seregon? REALLY?

 

[Darkofeden]

Seregon? REALLY?

I swear we had this conversation a few months ago. But yeah, I just didn't like it. I'm listening to it now, and my opinion still really hasn't changed. I think it was how the songs were arranged, just seemed weird. Or maybe the production... I really dug the sound on Disposable Suffering.

 

[I-TEND-TO-DIE]

The new Seregon sounded really great for me!
One of the best newer Thrash bands. Wished they would play in germany anytime.

 

[Snyde]

I liked the new Warbringer better than WTA. That's not saying much but still...

And to all you guys disagreeing about Seregon (which I thought was pretty competent), let's just all agree that Super Collider was this year's great underrated masterpiece.

 

[zerostatic]

Woah, hang fire! The new Children of Bodom was one of your biggest disappointments of the year? I think it's the best thing they've done in YEARS and YEARS (probably since Follow the Reaper / Hate Crew Deathroll)

Even if what you say is true it doesn't mean it is a good album. Hatecrew Deathroll is their last album that really does anything for me. I'll give it a few spins this week and reassess it.

 

[Darkofeden]

And to all you guys disagreeing about Seregon (which I thought was pretty competent), let's just all agree that Super Collider was this year's great underrated masterpiece.

Yeah, right next to Illud Divinum Insanus on my "underrated masterpiece" list


... God I hope you're kidding

 

[D.Ingram]

Super Collider was good in the same way that St. Anger is relevant to thrash; you're wrong

 

[Snyde]

St. Anger is quite relevant to trash.

 

[Podgie]

8. Groan- Ride The Snake

Ha! Awesome. I should've received a copy of this myself but... I haven't.

My list,

Witherscape – The Inheritance
Beyond - Fatal Power of Death
Gorguts - Colored Sands
Atlantean Kodex - The White Goddess
Onslaught - VI
Evile - Skull
Satan - Life Sentence
Deicide - In The Minds of Evil
Hail Of Bullets -The Rommel Chronicles
Gris - À L'âme Enflammée, L'äme Constellée...
Peste Noire - Peste Noire

...and I still need to listen to some