Josh's Top Full Lengths Of 2013 (with Honorable Mentions)

Find my honorable mentions for EP of the year posted HERE, and my top EP’s of the year posted HERE.  While this year hasn’t been quite as good as 2012, 2013 has been a pretty good year for metal…ESPECIALLY death metal.  That being said, expect a healthy dose of death.  I tried to make this list a healthy blend of both my opinion/favoritism and a *SOMEWHAT* unbiased/subjective take on what I thought the best metal albums were.  As I said last year, I tend to place a HEAVY emphasis on progression/innovation within a genre, technicality, lyrical content and especially replay value.  With that, let’s get to the honorable mentions first.  In no particular order:

In Vain – Aenigma

Genre:  Melodic/Progressive Death Metal

Preview:  “Hymne Til Havet”

Wormed – Exodromos

Genre:  Technical/Brutal Death Metal

Preview:  “Nucleon”

Akeldama - Everything Beautiful
Genre:  Progressive Metal/Djent
Preview:  "A New Beginning"

Syn:Drom - Iconoclasm

Genre:  Death Metal/Tech Death

Preview:  “Black Dawn”

Rings Of Saturn – Dingir

Genre:  Technical Deathcore

Preview:  “Objective To Harvest”

The Ocean – Pelagial

Genre:  Post/Progressive Metal

Preview:  “Bathyalpelagic II:  The Wish In Dreams”

Scale The Summit – The Migration

Genre:  Progressive Metal/Instrumental

Preview:  “Odyssey”

The Burial – In The Taking Of Flesh

Genre:  Blackened Metalcore?/Thrash

Preview:  “Itching Ears”

For some reason, this album gets NO love whatsoever, but it’s got pretty much all I look for in metal.

Infernaeon – The Cancer Within

Genre:  Blackened Death Metal/Technical Death Metal

Preview:  “Ash”

Blackened death as it should be.  Sounds kind of like if Aeon added a lot more black metal influence to their sound.

Humanity’s Last Breath – Humanity’s Last Breath

Genre:  Progressive Deathcore

Preview:  “Human Swarm”

Vildhjarta, eat your heart out.  By FAR the hardest-hitting album of the year.

Spheron – Ecstasy Of God

Genre:  Technical Death Metal

Preview:  “The Beheaded Coachman”

Trevor from TBDM approves.

Aenimus – Transcend Reality

Genre:  Progressive/Technical Deathcore

Preview:  “Heavy Lies The Crown (feat. Eddie from All Shall Perish)”

Riffs for miles.

Of Glaciers – Heart Museum

Genre:  Melodic/Progressive Metalcore

Preview:  “Fear Of Symmetry”

One of the feelsiest metalcore albums of the year.

Dysmorphic – Notion Of Causality

Genre:  Technical Death Metal

Preview:  “A Notion Of Causality"

Fit For An Autopsy – Hellbound

Genre:  Deathcore

Preview:  “Still We Destroy”

If I was more of a fan of straight-up deathcore, this would be up near the top of the whole list.

Scorned Deity – Adventum

Genre:  Blackened/Melodic Death Metal

Preview:  “A Spectacle In Red”

One of the most theatrical, epic releases of 2013.  I REALLY struggled with not having this in my top 25…

Immolation – Kingdom Of Conspiracy

Genre:  Death Metal

Preview:  “Kingdom Of Conspiracy”

Carcass – Surgical Steel

Genre:  Melodic Death Metal

Preview:  “Captive Bolt Pistol”

Seker – Transcendence

Genre:  Technical/Progressive Death Metal

Preview:  “Wake Of Sodom”

Fans of “Planetary Duality”-era The Faceless or a more death metal-ish Abiotic will SHIT THEIR PANTS.  These guys are set to blow up.

And here we go…the top 25!!

25. The Bridal Procession – Descent Into Arcologies

Genre:  Technical/Blackened/Symphonic Deathcore/Death Metal

Preview:  “Exhume The Cult”

24. Shade Empire – Omega Arcane

Genre:  Symphonic Death Metal

Preview:  “Ruins”

23. The Safety Fire – Mouth Of Swords

Genre:  Progressive Metal

Preview:  “Old Souls”

22. Aether Realm – One Chosen By The Gods

Genre:  Extreme/Folk Metal

Preview:  “Hourglass”

Band bio = “WE ARE NOT FROM FINLAND”

21. Coronado – Origin

Genre:  Progressive/Atmospheric Deathcore

Preview:  “Continuum”

20. Revocation – Revocation

Genre:  Technical Thrash Metal

Preview:  “Archfiend”

19. Unhuman – Unhuman

Genre:  Technical/Experimental Death Metal

Preview:  “Hallucinogenic Symphonia Delirium”

Some of the most unique, creative, and off-the-wall death metal I have EVER heard.  Unreal.

18. Misery Signals – Absent Light

Genre:  Progressive Metalcore

Preview:  “A Glimmer Of Hope”

The preview track is one of my favorite Track 1’s of all time.

17. Arsis – Unwelcome

Genre:  Technical/Melodic Death Metal

Preview:  “Scornstar”

Something doesn’t feel right about having Arsis, who are one of my favorite bands of all time, at number 17, especially considering how incredible this album was….

16. Rivers Of Nihil – The Conscious Seed Of Light

Genre:  Death Metal

Preview:  “Rain Eater”

Rivers Of Nihil is going to take over the death metal world – pretty much universally-praised album from everybody here.

15. Shores Of Elysium – Entity In The Void

Genre:  Technical Deathcore

Preview:  “Mind Sculpt”

Some people compare Shores of Elysium to Within The Ruins, but I think that’s doing them a disservice – SOE is MUCH better in pretty much every aspect, minus production.  This band pretty much dominated in the riff department in 2013.

14. Shadow Of The Colossus – End Game

Genre:  Progressive Death Metal

Preview:  “Insurgence”

HOW IS THIS OUTSIDE OF THE TOP 10, SERIOUSLY.  Unfortunately SOTC didn’t achieve quite the same resonance with “End Game” as they did with their self-titled, but this is still a phenomenal album.

13. Dissonance In Design – Sentient

Genre:  Progressive/Melodic Death Metal

Preview:  “Absolution”

Imagine a mixture of Fallujah and Vale Of Pnath…not too shabby, huh?  Not only does this band does a wonderful job weaving a great story (the concept of the album is metal-as-hell by itself), but they also find a way to create a nuanced, immersive atmosphere that perfectly complements each chapter of the album's story.  Oh, and THE RIFFS.

12. TesseracT – Altered State

Genre:  Progressive/Atmospheric Metal

Preview:  “Of Mind:  Exile”

This album is so high almost entirely because of the chorus in the preview song…literally the most beautiful lyrics I have ever heard/seen.

11. Gorguts – Colored Sands

Genre:  Blackened/Avant-Garde Death Metal

Preview:  “Forgotten Arrows”

Well this had to be on here, didn’t it?  No AOTY list is complete without it.

10. Persefone – Spiritual Migration

Genre:  Progressive/Melodic Death Metal

Preview:  “The Majestic Of Gaia”

One of those albums that absolutely hits you in the fucking face and screams “HEY, WE HAVE INSANE TALENT AND WE KNOW HOW TO USE IT.”

9. Protest The Hero – Volition

Genre:  Progressive/Technical Metal

Preview:  “Drumhead Trial”

My favorite album of theirs’.  Out-of-this-world technicality.

8. The Black Dahlia Murder – Everblack

Genre:  Melodic Death Metal

Preview:  “Their Beloved Absentee”

Until Ne Obliviscaris comes out with 10 years worth of incredible albums, TBDM is my favorite band, period.  Definitely not their best work to date, but it’s still Dahlia.

7. Ulcerate – Vermis

Genre:  Blackened/Avant-Garde Death Metal

Preview:  “Confronting Entropy”

What you wouldn’t have expected is that this album was actually better than Gorguts’ release from this year.  Deep, dense, dark, twisted, and evil-as-all-fuck.

6. Extol – Extol

Genre:  Progressive Death Metal

Preview:  “A Gift Beyond Human Reach”

This album will change the prog death metal scene.  Count on it.

5. Erra – Augment

Genre:  Progressive Metalcore

Preview:  “Rebirth”

This album was somehow number 5 on my album of the year list, despite being probably my most disappointing release of 2013…I had such high expectations after “Impulse”, and this album didn’t QUITE live up to them.  Regardless, a phenomenal achievement by a band that’s poised to explode as the kings of American metalcore.

4. Caligula’s Horse – The Tide, The Thief, And The River’s End

Genre:  Progressive Metal/Alternative Rock

Preview:  “Dark Hair Down”

You are seriously fucking up if you don’t give this a chance.  Soaring, beautiful vocals, outrageous technicality and composition, and influences from approximately 3 jillion different genres.  If you take a chance on one album this year, PLEASE let it be this one.

3. Fleshgod Apocalypse – Labyrinth

Genre:  Symphonic Death Metal

Preview:  “Warpledge”

God mode.  The production is kinda meh (should’ve been mastered a little quieter to get rid of the “wall-of-noise” effects), but whatever.  The album is insane enough to make up for it.

2. Ovid’s Withering – Scryers Of The Ibis

Genre:  Symphonic/Progressive Deathcore

Preview:  “Oedipus Complex”

Fuckin Ovdi, am I right?  FLAWLESS album.  Do I even need to justify this one any further?

1. Shaded Enmity – Forsaken & Forgotten

Genre:  Progressive/Melodic/Blackened Death Metal

Preview:  “Sadness In Summer Rain”

I’ll say now what I said when I first heard these guys:  Shaded Enmity do for death metal some of what Ne Obliviscaris do for black metal.  Unparalleled passion, emotion, and composition.  A more than deserving #1 album of the year, and NOBODY ELSE IS GIVING THIS ALBUM ITS DUES.  FIX IT!