Heavier than Hell's Top Ten Albums of 2013

10. Skillet-Rise

 

Number ten was a hard record to pin down this year. Amon Amarth was here. Nine Inch Nails was here for the longest time. It wasn't until the last week or two that I found myself listening to this album pretty much front to back yet again, getting all the words, and humming all the little parts, and at that point I realized it was the number ten that I'd been looking around for. Lead guitar isn't a position with a constant member in the Skillet lineup, but I really hope Seth Morrison is in the band to stay. A lot of the "little parts" that I was mentioning are his guitar work, like the solo at the beginning of Circus for a Psycho for instance.

 

9. Carcass-Surgical Steel

 

The metal album du jour for the last part of 2013. For all the complaining about Tool taking eight years between albums, Carcass producing another work after seventeen years must've led to some crazy hype. Being unfamiliar with them before this, the results are strong enough to me that I'm not surprised at the ecstatic reactions from those who have been waiting patiently for it. I'm still not a death metal guy, but I start to understand it listening to this.

 

8. Palms-Palms

 

An otherworldly soundtrack to a Michael Mann film that doesn't exist. Chino Moreno has a voice like no other, and combined with the experimental, post metal stylings of most of Isis, the results are idiosyncratic and oddly soothing. This is an album I love to fall asleep to, and I mean that in the best possible way. The trance it puts you in is a pleasurable one.

 

7. Korn-The Paradigm Shift

 

The straw that broke the butthurt camel's back. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm as happy as anybody to have a great Korn album in my ears, but I'm absolutely overjoyed that this album seems to have placated my fellow fans, so at last I may wander onto fan sites for news about the band without being greeted by pages of comments about how they're "THIS CLOZE I SWEARZ" to giving up on the band.

 

6. Gemini Syndrome-Lux

 

I can't remember the last debut record that had the kind of effect on me that Lux has had. I put it on because they were the one name on a concert bill that I didn't know, and quickly they became my reason to be there that night. A potent alt metal effort along the lines of 10 Years and the Deftones, this is the rare band that I hope to hear myself saying "I knew about them before they were big" about one day.

 

 5. Protest the Hero-Volition

 

 

A rare album that lives up to an absolutely crushing amount of hype. I had never heard Protest the Hero's music before this album, and it turned me into an instant fan. I've been listening to them constantly since the release, and this is still the album I come back to the most. Now is Protest the Hero's time, either jump on board or don't.

4. Black Sabbath-13

 

I'm tired of the Bill Ward debate at this point, from either side. I'm tired of people saying you can't have Black Sabbath without Bill Ward, and I'm tired of people saying he doesn't matter. Bill Ward was a founding member of one of the most important bands in metal or rock and roll in general, but Black Sabbath has become a much bigger thing than just those four original members. It's become a beast that encompasses and includes the contributions of dozens of members including, yes, a good number of drummers. Great drummers, like Vinny Appice and Eric Singer. Ozzy isn't the only vocalist that Sabbath ever had, Geezer isn't the only bassist that Sabbath ever had, and Bill Ward isn't the only drummer that Sabbath ever had. 13 may not represent the reunion that it was initially advertised as, but it represents a Black Sabbath album that can stand toe to toe with timeless works like Master of Reality and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and that should be enough for anybody.



3. Queens of the Stone Age-Like Clockwork

 The fact that Like Clockwork is the popular hit that it is, while not being a bad thing at all, is so weird. It's such a strange, hypnotic, bleak album. I mean, some of the first lyrics you hear include "If life is but a dream, wake me up" and "The view from Hell is blue skies". Those are the words the untrained masses want to hear? Alright. Well, then I'm among the majority. After two albums that just seemed to be quirky in service of nothing, something's brought the soul back to Queens of the Stone Age. It's a damn shame that it had to be Josh Homme nearly dying, but in the end from the outside looking in on this one, the end is really all we have, and in this case the horrible means led to a fantastic end.



2. Dream Theater-Dream Theater



I've been hoping for a, well, a metal album from Dream Theater for years, but it was coming to the point where I wasn't even taking it seriously when I said it anymore. At just about the last minute, my hopes and dreams came true and reignited my interest. With all the symphonic complexity that Dream Theater fans have come to expect, and all of the heaviness that I and many others had come to pine for, this is the new definitive Theater album, and I guess I can only hope a sign of things to come.

1. Killswitch Engage-Disarm the Descent

 

That's right. My album of the year has been my album of the year since April. That says little about the music of the following eight months and so much about just how good this album is. An intense return to form for Killswitch Engage, and in a much quieter way, one of the most spiritual and Godly records of the year which I appreciate. It was pretty clear that Killswitch needed a change by the end of the Howard Jones era, and there really wasn't anywhere else they could go but up, but just how far up they managed to reach with Disarm the Descent makes me a happy fan.