Metal Awards

Charles's Top 15 albums of 2013

  1. Tribulation - Formulas of Death
    What kind of deluded bastard would put anything else at number one? If you didn’t, you need to listen to it again, and again if necessary, until you get it right.
  2. Gorguts - Colored Sands
    Terrorizer had this at number 34.
  3. Cathedral - The Last Spire
    The Guessing Game would be one of the only albums from the last few years that would conceivably have stood a fighting chance of beating Tribulation in this list. But it was released in 2010.
  4. Beyond - Fatal Power of Death
    Unbelievable that the hack who reviewed it for this site only gave it an 80.
  5. Altars - Paramnesia
    This was my favourite Australian album of the year.
  6. Hessian - Manegarmr
    Another album I underrated a bit at first. Months later it came up on shuffle, and had me agog.
  7. Sink - The Holy Testament parts 1 & 2
    This is actually a double album, half of which was originally released in 2011. But on a technicality I am including it because I missed it at the time and it deserves recognition.
  8. Cultes des Ghoules - Henbane
    I studied French this year so I think I know what the band name means.
  9. Oranssi Pazuzu - Valonielu
    One of the most convincing fusions of black metal and psychedelic/synth stuff, in my opinion.
  10. Fell Voices - Regnum Saturni
    Really barren, unwelcoming music. Although, I consider abandoning the "untitled songs" policy to be selling-out.
  11. Wormlust - The Feral Wisdom
    Been waiting for a full-length from this project since I reviewed one of their demos many years ago. Takes a while to get into but rewards the effort.
  12. Saille - Ritu
    Not the kind of thing I usually rate very highly but… I rated this very highly.
  13. I Shalt Become - Louisiana Voodoo
    Hadn’t really heard this band before but this is just great. I love it.
  14. Woe - Withdrawal
    Good black metal.
  15. Dark Buddha Rising - Dakhmandal
    Another (loosely defined) drone/ambient album in my top 15. That makes me pretentious.
Charles's words about 2013
  1. This year I have been looking after a small child which takes up more time than you'd think. As a result, there are massive holes in my metal listening, including by acts I have raved about in the past (Ihsahn). So please take this more as "15 albums I managed to hear and really liked", rather than the "top" 15. My list certainly isn't supposed to be authoritative.

    Except for Tribulation. They DEFINITELY released the best album of 2013.