Nick Evans

Rarely do I rank albums in any “best of” lists.  It is simply too fluid.  At any given time, all of these were my favorite release of the year, so instead of trying to decide which I like better, this is just a list of amazing albums that came out this year.

Top 15:

Ataraxie – L’Etre Et La Nausée (Weird Truth Productions)
EASILY the best since their debut.  Been waiting 8 years for another album this good from them.  Massive, killer funeral / death doom.  Few doom albums came even close to this one this year.

Black Boned Angel – The End (Handmade Birds)
Marking what actually is the end of Black Boned Angel, The End is yet another unsurprising hour of brilliant drone / doom.  I’m going to miss them so much.

Fell Voices – Regnum Saturni (Gilead Media)
This could be Fell Voices’ very best work to date.  Hypnotic black metal that just oozes sincerity and power.  Might be the album I listened to most in 2013.

Goyim – Worthless Light (Self Released)
Holy shit!  This project came out of nowhere and released 3 demos in 2013, each better than the last.  Worthless Light steps up everything that was great about the previous two to another degree.  Weird black metal and noise that sets up shop in the mind.

Hail – Lemmekainan Demos 2013 (Hyden Venet)
Hail simply releases nothing but interesting music.  The fusion of black metal and dark / ritual ambient is not new, but it sure is being perfected by these guys.  This is some of their best work by far.

Lantern – Below (Dark Descent)
This album floored me.  Cavernous, murky, odd death metal.  My favorite death metal release of 2013.

Lost Trail – Holy Ring of Chalk (Wounded Wolf Private Press)
Sheer brilliance and beauty.  Organic and fluid drone that was virtually unmatched this year.  Peaceful and hopeful and evocative, I can’t say enough good things about this album.

Merkstave – S/T (Pesanta Urfolk)
Being re-recordings of the original two tapes, I almost considered not including this.  But it is simply too good.  Heart-wrenching funeral doom of the highest caliber.  Seeing them at Stella Natura this year is certainly one of the highlights of my music-seeing career.  Brilliant.

Northless – World Keeps Sinking (Gilead Media)
This is just huge.  So heavy and so special, Northless absorbed an absolute ton of new influences and turned their brand of post-metal and sludge into something I never expected.  An amazing expansion of their sound.

Old Witch – Come Mourning Come (Self Released)
Another new voice in 2013 that floored me.  Little to no information is available on this band, but they took over 2013 for me with this slab of blackened drone / doom.  Heavy, angry, sad, and most importantly, interesting.  Cannot WAIT to hear more from them.

Paysage d’Hiver – Das Tor (Kunsthall Produktionen)
Six years since the last record, and 12 years since the last (mostly) black metal record, Wintherr returns with yet another masterpiece.  Not particularly being a fan of his ambient works, Das Tor is a welcome return to form, and better than I could have even wanted.  Can’t get enough.

Portal  – Vexovoid (Profound Lore)
I’m not surprised this is as good as it is, but I’m certainly pleased.  I only listened to Lantern more than I listened to this in the genre this year.  Horrifying genius yet again.

Seidr – Ginnungagap (Bindrune Recordings)
Embracing the mystery of existence, Seidr wrote nearly 90 minutes of some of the best cosmos worshipping doom ever.  It’s beautiful, sorrowful, and ponderous all at once.  You’re missing out if you ignore this release.

Wardruna – Yggdrasil (Indie Recordings)
I have refrained from using the word unbelievable because there was only one album this year that deserves the term, this is that album.  This is music from a different time.   Yggdrasil is completely untouched in its respective genre (is there even anyone else in it?) in 2013.  No other folk / neofolk / whatever release even came close.  Completely dominant and otherworldly.  Unbelievable.

Wolvserpent – Perigaea Antahkarana (Relapse Recordings)
Wow.  Just wow.  Wolvserpent took what was already a great work of art in 2012’s Perigaea demo, and tweaked every little bit of it just enough to somehow make it even better in 2013.  Expanding upon themes from the demo and keeping much of the original framework, this is monstrously beautiful drone / doom at some of its best.

Contenders:

Alwaar – Триумф Черной Меланхолии (Self Released)

It means “Triumph of Black Melancholy” if you can’t read Russian; and it is exactly what it says it is.  Another brand new discovery for me in 2013, Alwaar wrote an awesome depressive black metal album and self-released online it to zero fanfare.  Find a copy, download it, and listen to it in the dark.

Bolzer – Aura (Iron Bonehead Productions)

This EP has been hyped to no end all year, and for good reason.  Awesome oddball death metal that has the metal community champing at the bit for more.

Cult of Luna – Vertikal (Indie Recordings)

I really don’t like most post-metal, but Cult of Luna isn’t most post-metal.  Expansive and beautiful and heavy and creative in a genre that lacks it.

Gorguts – Colored Sands (Season of Mist)

Gorguts simply shit all over every single technical death metal band in 2013.  But they always have.  Sorry Ulcerate, you’re just not as good (though I honestly still love you).

Kwaidan – Make All The Hell Of Dark Metal Bright (Bathetic Records)

A haunted post-rock / drone / ambient trip through a foggy night.  I’m a huge Locrian fanboy, but this is better than the new one.

Lake of Blood – Omnipotens Tyrannus (Cult of Melancholia)

Wow, talk about stepping up the game.  Lake of Blood has always been good enough to get my attention, but this is far and away their best work.  Nothing else they’ve done compares.  This is black metal that reaches into the expanse of influences and draws a bit from everywhere.  It’s really great.

Light Bearer – Silver Tongue (Halo of Flies)

After the demise of Fall of Efrafa there were high expectations when word got out that Light Bearer had some of the same members.  Immediately their first album Lapsus underwhelmed me, but I was comparing it to one of my favorite bands.  Silver Tongue takes everything that was good about Lapsus, makes it bigger, louder, heavier, and more powerful, and makes a big step towards redeeming itself.

Mania – Revel (Eternal Warfare)

Staying under the radar of most for years, Mania has always been great.  This is hard to describe expansive, folk influenced black metal of complete greatness.  I’ll be quite surprised if we ever get anything better from Mania, but not really.

Moonwatcher – Sky Folk 1 (BlacKosmische)

Few know that this project even exists, and I hesitate to expose it any further because the tape was already damn near impossible for me to get.  But if you love spacey drone, you’ll love this.

Paramnesia– Ce Que Dit La Bouche D’Ombre (Red River Family)

Yet more French black metal that is just awesome.  It seems the well has not run dry over there just yet.  Tons of potential here to be huge in the atmospheric black metal scene.  Go buy the tape now so when people are singing this band’s praises in 3 years, you can say you knew them when.

Sea of Bones – The Earth Wants Us Dead (Self Released)

I’ve been waiting forever for a new Sea of Bones album, and I have not been disappointed.  They’ve stepped it up in every sense of the word.  It’s heavier, angrier, louder, quieter, and longer than anything else they’ve done.  My only qualm is the last track is 40 minutes long and takes too long to develop, but it still kills.

Set – Upheaval of Unholy Darkness (Nuclear War Now!)

Massive and ugly blackened death metal from the US of all places.  This ticks all my boxes for enjoyment.

Skagos – Anarchic (Eternal Warfare)

When I first heard this, I wouldn’t imagine it would make it to my best of list for 2013.  While it’s not quite there, the more I listened, the more I loved.  This is atmospheric black metal meets post-rock in a way that isn’t gag inducing.  They’ve changed a lot, but they’re still great.

Torture Chain – Mutilating Astral Entities (Self Released)

Any Torture Chain release is exciting.  I’ve seen a lot of negative stuff about this album because it is a bit of a different angle.  It’s still raw and violent black metal, but there is much more going on here than there used to.  It won’t go down as my favorite Torture Chain release, but it’s still better than a lot of stuff I heard this year.

Yellow Eyes – Hammer of Night (Sibir Records)

This should probably be in my top 15, but I just can’t figure out which of those albums I could remove to add this one in there.  Here sits a unique and intense black metal record from a band that will hopefully be a must follow for years to come.

Worth a few words:

Blue Spectrum – I Almost Drowned (Blue Spectrum Tapes)

This is definitely the only noise release this year that captivated me.  The man behind the name (and about 10 others, plus Blue Spectrum Tapes [R.I.P] and his new venture Blood Diamond Tapes) is apparently tireless when it comes to making noise.  This is his masterpiece.  Recorded with an augmented Walkman, an egg slicer, and little else, he somehow manipulated it into 40 minutes of tense electrifying noise.

Deafheaven – Sunbather (Deathwish)

Why are people all over this?  It works, it’s okay, but BEST REVIEWED ALBUM OF 2013?  Fuck off.

Dross – II (Tagobella)

The first demo was alright, but I wasn’t sold.  II ends my apprehension with some great black metal that leans towards depressive.  Really excited for their next effort.

Phasm – Demo 2013 (Man of 1000 Masks)

Accomplishing black / thrash in 9 minutes and 4 songs, Phasm is recording new material and I am salivating.

Rhinocervs – RH15 (Rhinocervs)

This sucked.  I was bored to tears.  Nearly everything associated with Rhinocervs has been at least good, leaning towards great, but this half-assed attempt at keyboard ambient left me annoyed.  I’ve not heard RH16 because I refuse to order from the label anymore, but I hope it’s better than this or I’m done.

Best music experience of 2013:

Few experiences have had a profound effect on my life; Stella Natura was one of them.  For personal reasons, I don’t think I am going to elaborate much, but those that were there experienced something special with me.  It really did change my outlook on things, and I can’t thank the curator enough for it.  Here are some of the bands I was fortunate enough to meet and see:

• Aldebaran
• Amarok
• Arktau Eos
• Ash Borer
• Bell Witch
• Blood and Sun
• Changes
• Common Eider, King Eider
• Dispirit
• Esoteric
• Jarboe with P. Emerson Williams
• Hail
• Halo Manash
• Hell
• Hexvessel
• Kinit Her
• Knelt Rote
• Loss
• Lux Interna
• Maledicere
• Merkstave
• Pale Chalice
• Saturnalia Temple
• StarGazer
• Sutekh Hexen
• Trepaneringsritualen
• Velnias
• Waldteufel
• Worm Ouroboros 

Worst music experience of 2013:

Holy fucking shit Warped Tour sucks.  I grew up with it, was 13 when it started and attended the next 10 years in a row.  Punk and hardcore were the main attractions and it was an awesome place to obtain hard to find distro CDs and see a ton of bands for $25.  Now it’s $40 a ticket (still not technically a bad price), the punk and hardcore is all but gone in favor of something that sounds like a mash-up of breakdowns, Motley Crue, and the whiniest pop-punk ever.  My girlfriend’s sister is 13 and wanted to go, so we volunteered to be nice and take her.  Never fucking again.  What a shitshow.  I can’t believe I wasted a vacation day on this.  Here are some of the bands I was unfortunate enough to see:

• Blessthefall
• Never Shout Never
• We Came as Romans
• Black Veil Brides
• Bring Me The Horizon
• Sleeping With Sirens 

Bought these in 2013, but for some reason haven’t listened yet:

Graveflowers – Oleander

Balistraria – March MMXIII

Common Eider, King Eider – Taaleg Uksur

Deuil – Acceptance / Rebuild

Fields of Passing – Demo II

Fields of Passing – Demo III

Heimar – Atavism

Hell – Tour Through Hell

Kamlaniye – S/T

Masks of Canaan – S/T

The Body – Christs, Redeemers

Thunorsleap – Low Winter Sun

Unbeing – Transcendence

Veil of Shadow – S/T 

Best late 2012 release I found in 2013:

Vassafor – Obsidian Codex

A monster of a double disc release of ferocious death / black metal that straight up kills.  Had this been 2013, it’d be in my top 15 for sure.