The Best Metal Albums of 2013: #10 – 1

10. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, Mind Control (Metal Blade) Mind Control isn’t so much a faithful rendering of the first two albums as a careful expansion of Uncle Acid’s musical palette, sequenced first with the most familiar sounds to fans, but then quickly taking several turns that surprise, confuse, and enthrall. The seven-minute “Mt. […]

The Best Metal Albums of 2013: #20 – 11

20. Audrey Horne, Youngblood (Napalm) Instead of churning out yet another album of tepid modern hard rock, a band decides to change things up a little by writing the kind of music they used to listen to as kids, and whaddya know, not only does the end result sound far more genuine than anything they’ve […]

The Best Metal Albums of 2013: #30 – 21

30. Bölzer, Aura (Iron Bonehead) Swiss death metal duo Bölzer – that’s right, a death metal duo – is responsible for one of 2013’s best death releases in the “Aura” EP, and they hammered out a towering set that threw the full room into a frenzy, frontman KzR’s guitar tone so massive that everyone forgot […]

The Best Metal Albums of 2013: #40 – 31

40. KEN Mode, Entrench (Season of Mist) The Western Canadian band follows up the Juno Award-winning Venerable with a fifth album that continues the evolution of their distinct blend of AmRep noise, tense hardcore, and robust metal riffing. While Venerable was pleasing because the band’s songwriting had finally caught up to their incredible live energy, […]

The Best Metal Albums of 2013: #50 – 41

50. The Cult of Dom Keller, The Cult of Dom Keller (Mannequin) I first learned of this peculiar Nottingham band when they shared a split seven-inch single with Shooting Guns, and that track was enough to put them on my radar. And when they released their first proper full-length album, not only was I mighty […]

The Best Metal Albums of 2013: Introduction

I could not have gotten into heavy metal at a better time. In 1983-1984, a mere 13 years into its evolution as a proper musical genre, it shifted from its nascent period to full-blown maturity. It was a perfect storm of potential being realized, youth culture, and the zeitgeist, making for a period of musical […]

The 2013 Album of the Year

Paramore, Paramore Back in 2006 I volunteered to review that year’s Warped Tour compilation for PopMatters. Compilations like that were always fun, with loads of variety it was easy to put together 700+ words. Of all 51 tracks on the two disc comp was a song featuring a then-17 year-old mopped with red hair called “Emergency”, […]