Adam Palm

2013 was an overwhelmingly great year for metal, which was both good and bad. On one hand, there was no shortage of quality music to be found for every one of my many moods. On the other hand, each great release quickly became lost in the deluge. Below are the ones that managed to keep their heads above the floodwaters long enough to make a lasting impression.

Top 20 Full-length Albums

1. Cosmic Church – Ylistys (Kuunpalvelus)
An epic work of metal art that somehow manages to live within the strict confines of pure black metal while possessing a timeless, emotional quality that transcends genres.

2. Paysage d’Hiver – Das Tor (Kunsthall Produktionen)
Four lengthy passages of incredibly spellbinding atmospheric black metal that never overstay their welcome as they teleport the listener to vast, frozen landscapes forgotten by time.

3. Lychgate – Lychgate (Mordgrimm/Gilead Media)
This emergent collaboration of seasoned musicians achieves the seemingly impossible task of merging the atmosphere of funeral doom with the enmity of second-wave black metal into one familiar yet unique force of darkness.

4. Cult of Fire – मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान (Iron Bonehead Productions)
Many shades of black color these impassioned depths, beckoning thorough exploration. A fully rewarding listen from beginning to end.

5. Sinistrous Diabolus – Total Doom//Desecration (Internecion Productions)
While Inverloch continues to refine the sound of legendary ambient death/doom/grind act, Disembowelment, these Kiwis masterfully take it in a harsher, more pernicious direction, creating a sound of their own that references greatness while becoming something new and unpredictable.

6. Kauan – Pirut (Blood Music)
One seamless 39-minute composition of mesmerizing melancholy that floats in its own space somewhere between progressive rock, post-rock, folk, neoclassical, and funeral doom.

7. Omnium Gatherum – Beyond (Lifeforce Records)
This is everything death metal is not supposed to be – vibrant, hopeful, and alive – which is why it’s one of the most refreshingly powerful albums of 2013.

8. Grave Miasma – Odori Sepulcrorum (Profound Lore Records)
This is everything death metal is supposed to be – primal, ominous, and oppressive – which is why it’s one of the most satisfyingly powerful albums of 2013.

9. The Ruins of Beverast – Blood Vaults – The Blazing Gospel Of Heinrich Kramer (Ván Records)
As this project crosses almost entirely over into death/doom territory, a blackened heart of twisted religious zeal keeps it from becoming anything remotely ordinary.

10. Gorguts – Colored Sands (Season of Mist)
Despite the 12-year hiatus and all new backing members, Luc Lemay has kept his brainchild consistently great and unmistakably Gorguts.

11. Cultes Des Ghoules – Henbane (Hells Headbangers Records)
Genuinely disturbing black metal like no one else. While others resort to batshit insanity in an attempt to be unsettling, this achieves it more deeply through atmosphere and songcraft.

12. Circle of Ouroborus – The Final Egg (Heidens Hart Records/Black Bunker Productions)
More brilliantly melancholy lo-fi post-punk/black metal from one of the most unique and prolific bands in the world right now.

13. Vaura – The Missing (Profound Lore Records)
Mid ‘80s Killing Joke and The Chameleons creatively reimagined through the lens of modern progressive post black metal.

14. Inquisition – Obscure Verses for the Multiverse (Season of Mist)
Expertly-crafted riff-centric black metal that proves how distinctive, creative avenues still exist within the genre’s original tenets.

15. October Falls – The Plague of a Coming Age (Debemur Morti Productions)
Like a feral child of early Katatonia and Agalloch making sad music deep within the forest.

16. Sacriphyx – The Western Front (Nuclear War Now! Productions)
The mystery and melancholy of early Rotting Christ dragged through the trenches of the first World War with the help of some thrashy immediacy and doomy introspection.

17. Azure Emote – The Gravity Of Impermanence (Selfmadegod Records)
Probably too creative and ambitious for its own good, this masterwork of experimental death metal is a tough nut to crack, but it’s well worth the effort.

18. Witherscape – The Inheritance (Century Media Records)
Somehow this mix of progressive rock, traditional metal, and death metal sounds so completely natural that you get lost in the masterful riffs and songwriting without even thinking about all the crazy genre blending that’s going on.

19. Lantern – Below (Dark Descent Records)
Finally, some old-school-inspired death metal that’s much more than a rehash of the past.

20. Voices – From the Human Forest Create a Fugue of Imaginary Rain (Candlelight Records)
With ¾ of its lineup from the sadly defunct Akercocke, this is the closest we’re going to get to a follow-up to Antichrist anytime soon, if ever. It may be derivative of their previous band’s brilliant progressive black/death sound, but that’s a good thing in this case.

Honorable Mentions

Ævangelist – Omen Ex Simulacra (Debemur Morti Productions)
Enshine – Origin (Rain Without End Records)
Lycus – Tempest (20 Buck Spin)
Magister Templi – Lucifer Leviathan Logos (Cruz Del Sur Music)
Nailed to Obscurity – Opaque (Apostasy Records)
Officium Triste – Mors Viri (Hammerheart Records)
Owl – You Are the Moon, I Am the Night (Zeitgeister Music)
Power Trip – Manifest Decimation (Southern Lord Recordings)
Stilla – Till Stilla Falla (Nordvis Produktion)
Tyrants Blood – Into the Kingdom of Graves (self-released)

Top 10 EPs

1. Bölzer – Aura (Iron Bonehead Productions)
I’ve seen many different descriptors for this. To my ears, it sounds like an innovative collision of noise rock/early grunge and death metal. But, no matter what influences others hear, most agree that this EP is one of the best things to come out of 2013.

2. Blut Aus Nord – What Once Was… Liber III (Debemur Morti Productions)
After 2012’s surprisingly gothy 777 – Cosmosophy, this third installment of their parallel EP series proves that their otherworldly muse is still merciless as ever.

3. Mitochondrion – Antinumerology (Dark Descent Records)
These twisted Canadians show a slightly less chaotic side on these two tracks, but the level of sinister menace is turned up to eleven.

4. Kêres – Old Blood for a New Moon (Kuunpalvelus)
Much like their country and label mates, Cosmic Church, these Finns create black metal in the traditional sense, but of extraordinary quality.

5. Saiva – Finnmarkens Folk (Nordvis Produktion)
These Swedish newcomers illustrate sprawling forests with only two transportive tracks of hypnotic, folky black metal. I can’t wait to see what they can do on a full-length.

6. A Pregnant Light – Domination Harmony (Colloquial Sound Recordings)
‘80s post-punk is finally becoming a source of inspiration for more and more metal bands and it’s no more obvious than on this 3-song EP that sounds like The Church successfully trying their hands at raw black metal.

7. Kozeljnik – Null: The Acheron of Multiform Negation (Paragon Records)
Traditional doom meets occult black metal with outstanding riffery and songwriting. Classic and forward-thinking all at once.

8. Dressed in Streams – The Search for Blood (Colloquial Sound Recordings)
Entrancing black metal that conveys a uniquely morose atmosphere with psychedelic undertones instead of resorting to typical suicidal one-man trappings.

9. My Dying Bride – The Manuscript (Peaceville Records)
I have no idea how these leftovers from A Map of All Our Failures ended up being better than that entire album, but I’m certainly thankful for it.

10. Sleepwalkers – Hollowpath (self-released)
Four flawless tracks of melodic death/doom that give Daylight Dies, Rapture, and October Tide a run for their money.

Best metal-related non-metal album: LowCityRain – LowCityRain (Prophecy Productions)
Best demo: Malthusian – MMXIII (Invictus Productions)
Best reissue: The Eye – Supremacy (Debemur Morti Productions)
Best compilation: Sacriphyx – Sacriphyx (Nuclear War Now! Productions)
Best split: Smohalla/Omega Centauri – Tellur/Epitome (Duplicate Records)