As I sit here reflecting on the good and bad, fortunate and unfortunate happenings 2013 has presented to me, I have a lot to be thankful for. Life is pretty bitchin', as a whole. However, I have to say that overall, the music I've listened to has been VERY hit or miss. A lot of artists I had high expectations for let me down. Metallica didn't release Ride The Lightning II and instead played a show in Antarctica while a buncha penguins blew eachother. Pig Destroyer is still the laziest touring band in history. Converge played/recorded a live gig in Belgium or something. Integrity's album sounded like every other thing they've ever done. No one has broken into Celine Dion's house yet, tortured her frail, useless Canadian body, sold her organs on the black market, and set her worldly possessions on fire. However, for all of the letdowns from powerhouses I expected more of, there were just as many total surprises. A band, Deafheaven, who I've never bothered to listen to literally MOVED me with their release. This is the first album to give me chills from beginning to end since Terrifyer. I expected a mediocre-at-best release from Dillinger Escape Plan, but this is by far their best material to date. Defeater, another band who was never really on my radar, drops an album that I've listened to at least two dozen times and told countless people to give it a spin. 2013's music was strange for me, to say the least, but immersive, fun and full of discovery and exploration. Like a college cheerleader's sex life. But for your ears. With less yeast infections. Or more. Whichever.
20. Modern Life Is War - Fever Hunting
19. Terror - Live By The Code
18. Portal - Vexovoid
17. Carcass - Surgical Steel
16. Nails - Abandon All Life
15. Noisem - Agony Defined
14. World Of Pain - Improvise And Survive
13. Mammoth Grinder - Underworlds
12. Liferuiner - Future Revisionists
11. Serpent Crown - Serpent Crown
10. Boy Sets Fire - While A Nation Sleeps
9. Dillinger Escape Plan - One Of Us Is The Killer
8. Anciients - Heart Of Oak
7. Rivers Of Nihil - The Conscious Seed Of Light
6. Left For Dead - Devoid Of Everything
5. Doomriders - Grand Blood
4. Coffins - The Fleshland
3. Skeletonwitch - Serpents Unleashed
2. Deafheaven - Sunbather
1. Defeater - Letters Home
Honorable mention to Earthless. Didn't make the list because it's not my proverbial cup of tea, but those guys shred the fuck outta some guitars. There you have it. Hopefully someone was interested enough to read this and check out some tunes you might've missed this year because you were too busy trying to convince yourself that your elitist indie friends are right and that Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend "are total musical breakthroughs with a lot to say."
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