Top 10 Albums of 2013

First of all, welcome to 2014!
It seems like just the other day when I was posting Top 10 Albums of 2012. Alas, another year has passed by and it's been a pretty good one for music so let's get started, shall we?

(Note: The albums here can be clicked on to be viewed in higher resolution.)

10. Shpongle - Museum of Consciousness

When it comes to anomalous trippiness, there are few artists who do it better than Shpongle. I would still consider the debut album, Are You Shpongled?, to be his undisputed best work, but Museum of Consciousness may just be the greatest since. This album is markedly brighter and smoother than most of Shpongle's previous works and it has more of a flow to it. This sound is created in part by the heavy implementation of flutes and other woodwind instruments and it makes this whole album very soothing in nature. While the usual gibberish vocals are commonplace here, there is plenty of clearly worded english as well, which is a bit unusual for Shpongle, but it works, just like everything else.

9. October Falls - The Plague of a Coming Age

The Opeth inspired ambient/folk/dark metal band, October Falls released their fourth studio album this year and it doesn't disappoint. Labeling this album as one specific genre would be difficult as it's mood is all over the place. It goes from folk to doom to progressive to black all in 51 beautifully ambient minutes. The usage of clean vocals are reminiscent of mid-period Katatonia while acoustic interludes bring to mind influential bands like Agalloch. The greater number of tracks in this release compared to their other works allow the band more experimentation with dynamics and tempo and it's just another thing that makes The Plague of a Coming Age unique and varied.

8. 8 - Uneven Structure

No, I'm not giving this album the number eight spot just so I can say eight is 8 (the eighth song is titled 8 and it's eight minutes so I can already say eight on 8 is 8 for eight minutes). Uneven Structure has such a strong progressive feel to it and 8, despite being a 25 minute EP, is an amazing work of djent that's deserved of much more recognition than it's currently getting. The Meshuggah inspired group is full of distorted screams and blends polyrhythmic-passages and low bass tunings with heavy layerings and ambience and the result is something you just have to sit back and listen to. 8 is a work that flows from beginning to end and if heard all at once, it can be difficult to guess where each song ends and the next begins. Well worth 25 minutes of your time.

7. In Vain - Ænigma

Norwegian, progressive death/black metal, sextuplet, In Vain released their third full-length album titled Ænigma this year. Equal parts melodic, abrasion and atmosphere; incredibly and surprisingly catchy hooks, brutal riffing and impressively tight tremolos are all amazing features of this work but they are not what make it a standout gem. Rather, the varied vocal working which transitions from core-inspired guttural growls, screams and shrieks that borrow from black metal, hauntingly beautiful clean vocal segments and musically complex more energetic singing and shouts make for an experience that can't help but captivate. The lyrical themes of war, inner-struggles for meaning, loss and questioning the future of humanity only make for an even darker ambience that gives me chills every time I hit replay.

6. Ulver - Messe I.X - VI.X

Experimental is a broad genre that the tenth studio album by Ulver, Messe, could be found under. I'm not sure there are too many albums that quite capture dark and mournful ethereality as Ulver does with this masterpiece. While Ulver is well known for their start in the black metal genre with legendary albums such as Bergtatt still holding a formidable title within the metal community, they have long since strayed from traditional music forms and Messe I.X-VI.X is an elaborately eerie work. With almost no vocals to speak of, all of them clean, Ulver has pulled a serious 180 since their days as black metal in the early and mid 90's. Messe is an atmospheric landscape that simply takes you somewhere else when you're listening to it. As one EM reviewer put it,

"This album is a great example (even for today's cynical and over-experienced standards) of contemporary academic music mixed with the very edges of the Ulver brand, post-industrial ambient."

It's a haunting work that I've found myself playing over and over again. It is stripped of rock and metal elements and remains only the bare and chilling soul. A modern classical masterwork.

5. Aborym - Dirty

Yet another album that I repeatedly find myself replaying over and over again, Dirty by industrial-black metalists, Aborym is just as the title says, quite dirty indeed. It's music that has been referred to as "jaundiced" but in a positive way. It's a sticky and thick sounding work that is plagued with rampant distortions and moments that almost sound like glitches. It's far from anything beautiful, rather it has a filthy luster to it that is sprawling and enticing to the ear. It may not be as unrelenting as some other harder black metal influences, but it's still a great album to play at full blast and it's catchiness makes up for that completely.

4. Deafheaven - Sunbather

Before you accuse me of jumping on the Deafheaven bandwagon, hear me out. Sunbather is probably one of, if not, the first and only black metal album to receive resounding acclaim and to almost be regarded as something close to popular. It has made it's way into to all sorts of praising including NPR's top 50 albums of 2013 (a remarkably unbiased list that's worth checking out, by the way) and rightfully so. Deafheaven have gone beyond the confines of stigma and genre to create a sound that is wholly theirs. It combines traditional and post-black metal elements with contemporary rock sounds and bright, romantic acoustics, interludes and choral progressions. The vocals are screeched and sound authentic and pure and what has generally been regarded as an aberrant and contrast works amazingly well in Sunbather. Deafheaven may very well have created an entirely new genre with this release, time will tell if it can garner a following.

3. Apocynthion - Sidereus Nuncius

For the atmospheric connoisseurs, Sidereus Nuncius is about as airy and ethereal as it gets. Drawing inspiration from other masters of the genre and even naming the group after a track by artist, Nhor, of the same name, Apocynthion is a dramatic post-black metal and post-rock fusion that while maintaining a strongly atmospheric tone manages to sound wholly raw when the metal actually kicks in. I've played this album probably more than a dozen times and I still feel as though there are pieces and meanings buried beneath it that I have yet to uncover. With a low production value, it's amazing that this album sounds as good as it does and if Apocynthion are ever picked up (and I do hope that they are) they could be putting out some seriously game-changing works that appeals to more than just the metal crowd but also branches out to the rock groupies as well. A great album that sounds like the music of nebulae in deep space and has a strongly off-earth feel to it.

2. Thrawsunblat - Wanderer on the Continent of Saplings

In stark contrast to the spacey, anything-but-here vibe that comes from Sidereus Nuncius, Thrawsunblat has a predominantly folk/black metal sound and is about as earthy as it gets. This as-of-yet unsigned Canadian trio has folk down pat but also manages to remain effectively melodic in nature. With songs such as Once Fireveined fleshing out the band's variability and utilizing both screams and clean vocals reminiscent of bands like Windir; others such as Maritime Shores that showcase the band's affluence with true, unbridled folk music, serving as a great break from the heavier material and also managing to be distinguished and not simply filler; and finally to heavier tracks like Borea that are unrelenting and almost thrashy; Thrawsunblat sounds very authentic and undistorted which perfectly accentuates the natural focus of the album. A captivating work and one of my favorite folk metal pieces.

1. Nhor - Within the Darkness Between the Starlight

In all of my purest honesty, my words cannot effectively describe this masterpiece of an album. It is dark and emotional, eerie and atmospheric, earthy and ethereal. This one man project, who is referred to only as Nhor, is as beautifully vibrant as it is devastatingly mournful. It seamlessly flows from soft, sorrowful scintillating piano pieces into anguished and echoed black metal passages. It's a patient work but requires your full attention the entire time. It's a very unpredictable album that's shrouded in a somber haze and the music feels distant as if it were a memory.
Tracks like the title song, along with it's intro piece, are intensely melancholy; their slow pace allowing for introspection and imagery to work their ways into the mind. After having listened to the intro track, A Forest Draped In Moonlight, hearing next song kick in with Nhor's reverberating screams is among the most chilling experiences I've ever had with metal. The following tracks are just as essential and the album keeps pace with itself, never losing that darkened tone or rushing itself. Piano interludes abound, the longest being on The Temple of Growth And Glimmer Ascends. Never do these seem boring or like filler; they set up the melody and give contrasting accent to the harsher parts making them all the more effective. It is in this way that Nhor has the incredible ability to utilize the silence as if it were an instrument of it's own and it's a beautifully somber work because of it.
That's what this work does so masterfully; it paints such vivid images into my mind. When I close my eyes, I can see the pinpricks of light in the velvet black of night, taste the faint bite of winter and feel the longing nostalgic breezes. It's comparable to stepping out of reality and into a dream. I cannot understate this album. From beginning to end, it utterly captivates me and I find myself so deeply enveloped in it's spell that any outside rousing seems jarring to me. There is no point that is any weaker than the last. It's poetry in a non-verbal form.

Honorable Mention

Imperium Dekadenz - Meadows of Nostalgia

October Tide - Tunnel of No Light

Impending Doom - Death Will Reign

Means End - The Didact

Entities - Aether

I would also like to point out that had I made the 2012 list now, it would look a bit different. Most notably Ashen Eidolon by Gallowbraid would be in the top slot as the best album of that year. It's amazing and you should check it out.

Top 10 Albums of 2012

Yeah, I know it's a little late.

But I haven't been posting enough about music and I've been thinking about the best albums released in 2012. I've said before that how "good" music is is an entirely taste-based thing, so this is in my opinion. Also, note that I don't listen to every single album that gets released so if you think I missed something substantial, I probably didn't ever listen to it.

Okay. Let's begin.

10. True Defiance by Demon Hunter

Demon Hunter has been around since the early 2000's and their one of the bands that got me into the metal scene. Demon Hunter made a full recovery since their slight disappointment of the previous title, The World is a Thorn.

9. Sedition by Hour of Penance

Demon Hunter is certainly a bit lighter on the spectrum of metal which makes this album a near 180. Hour of Penance has never been better with last year's Sedition; a raging explosion of some of the heaviest metal there is with tracks like Decimate the Ancestry sounding like the band was trying to find out just how heavy a song can be. It's vehemently anti-religion stance may be obnoxiously cliche, but it doesn't detract from the album's brutality.

8. The Royal Thousand by Glass Cloud

This band's debut album, The Royal Thousand is a just solid from beginning to end (insert dick joke here). With every song on it's track listings being memorable, save for maybe two of them, it's great. It has heavy usage of clean vocals, which may be a turn off for some listeners, but they sound nice without being too whiney so it works.

7. Abnegate by Signal the Firing Squad

This is STFS's second album and actually was the first I'd ever heard of the band. While tracks like Abominator and Into the Mouth of the Leviathan stand out to me, Abnegate doesn't have a single weak point. It's growling, earth shattering brutality through and through.

6. Emerald Forest and the Blackbird by Swallow the Sun

Swallow the Sun is one of the best names in Doom these days and their most recent album, Emerald Forest and the Blackbird, is among, if not, their finest work. It starts off with it's title song which is rather beautiful in my opinion and it keeps it's mood throughout which is, rather surprisingly, less melancholy as one would think, the telltale sign of a Doom band being gloomy and bleakness but it works and I like it. Furthermore, I really like the name of the album, Emerald Forest and the Blackbird. Puts a nice image in my head.

5. Throes of Absolution by 7 Horns 7 Eyes

You may notice that the top few slots are largely dominated by Prog metal, which is what I consider to be my favorite genre. The unknown seattle band, 7 Horns 7 Eyes debuted their first EP back in 2006. In 2012 they finally release their first full record, Throes of Absolution, a beast of an album that thrives heavily on it's atmospheric tones that are surprisingly uplifting at times. The growls are among the best I've heard and the guitars are fast and beautiful.

4. The Weight of Oceans by In Mourning

Just barely beating out 7 Horns 7 Eyes and equally unkown, The Weight of Oceans is by far In Mourning's best work. Taking heavy influence from both Prog and Melodic Death Metal, it's an amazing blend of melodies and growls. It's opening song, Colossus is only the icing on the cake that is The Weight of Oceans. Every song feels very connected, almost as if they tell a story which may not be far from the truth because every song is has the same subject matter: sailing. Don't confuse this with that dreaded Pirate Metal though, because that's not what this album is about. A fantastic work that deserves more recognition than it's getting.

3. Neverbloom by Make Them Suffer

Another debut, Neverbloom is such a flawless masterpiece that calling it deathcore is an insult. The album is relentlessly attacking and with tracks like Maelstrom and Weeping Wastelands barely gives you time to breathe. It's heavy usage of atmospheric tones make for a dark, dramatic experience and fully orchestrated sections and some of the best lyrics in metal only heighten that. Every song is a standout song. A pulse-pounding blast of in your face metal that goes way above and beyond deathcore's dreary standard. Can't wait to see more from this group.

2. Other Slices by Slice the Cake

If there was ever perfection in a metal band, it is the international trio with an unassuming name, Slice the Cake. The Prog metal band released it's first and second full album in 2012, the latter of which being Other Slices. This incredible symphony of music is everything it's been hyped up to be by other reviewals. It's practically perfection with multiple structured and creative instrumental interludes that add a great deal to the album rather than just existing for taking up space. The full songs are just as brutal as they are beautiful. A few songs have some clean vocals mixed in which work nicely with the rest of the music that transitions frequently, as is typical of Prog metal. An amazing work of art.

1. The Man With No Face by Slice the Cake

That's right, this band gets both the 1 and 2 slots because that's just how fucking badass they are. The Man With No Face is a masterpiece of music. It goes from angry to emotional to dark to emotional along with other dips and dives showing that this band can do more than the same thing over and over. It starts off strong with Rational Thinking and gets better and better from there with titles like Of Gallows which features some clean vocals being the more emotional part and As Written in Pnakotus being the darker side. It all crescendos flawlessly in the twenty-one-minute title song, The Man With No Face. This isn't some cheap five minute song with fifteen-minutes of silence and then a short joke track, it's a full arrangement that sports six movements and never does it disappoint. An amazing work of art.

This album stands at a daunting full hour but I guarantee that every minute is worth it. Barely a year old and I already know it backwards. The Man With No Face is nothing short of the best album of 2012.