The Top 5 Metal Albums of 2013

It's official.  The scourge that was 2013 is behind us.  Maybe the number 13 is really unlucky.  It was a bad year for a lot of reasons, both personally and politically.  And I don't follow politics.  At all.  It's pretty bad when political stuff gets me down.  Fortunately, the year 2013 gave us a lot of great music.

Metal music as a genre had a very strong 2013.  There were some surprises, some jaw-droppers, and yes, some snoozers.  Picking the very best metal albums of the year and limiting the list to only 5 was a chore.  The last thing I wanted to do was leave a great band who released a great album off the list, even though that's what honorable mentions are for. 

1. In Vain-Aenigma
Norwegian metallers In Vain released their third full-length album in 2013.  Following their excellent album Mantra with anything resembling greatness was going to be a tall order.  No only did they pull it off, they did so with such gusto and flair that it was surprising.  Whereas Manta as an expressive journey through progressive soundscapes and song structures, Aenigma is a heavy dosage of progressive metal tendencies, but with simpler structures and more straight-ahead undertones.  Little of the blackness that marked Mantra feels retained.  If it were even possible to improve on that last album as a whole, the vocals could have been left behind.  But the vocals are even better here than on this album's predecessor.  Listen here.

2. Leprous-Coal
Some bands do progressive Avant-Garde metal better than others.  I was not high on this Norwegian band's music before.  It came across as so proggy that it was not fun to listen to.  So with trepidation I listened to the band's new release, Coal. My initial reaction was some combination of a curse word and a smile.  It was much better than past Leprous albums, and darker.  Despite the somewhat cheesy album cover, I felt compelled to listen.  It was much, much better than I expected.  Listen to one of the fantastic tracks here.


3. Omnium Gatherum-Beyond
I have always enjoyed Finnish band Omnium Gatherum's atmospheric keyboard melodies played against chunky melodeath.  As a result, the new disc, Beyond was highly anticipated.  How would the band follow up the mesmerizing New World Shadows? They did it by making a record just as majestic and crushingly heavy.  They don't use many clean vocals on this release, but when they do, they are very good.  I knew after listening to that album that it would make some year-end lists.  And mine is not the only list it appeared on.  Listen to a track below.



4. Amorphis-Circle
In recent years, Finnish metal band Amorphis have floundered in relatively uninspiring albums.  While Eclipse, The Beginning of Times, and Skyforger were not bad albums, they generally failed to live up to the fans' lofty expectations.  Their sound was becoming less and less heavy and more experimental.  With the notion that Amorphis was a band on a downward trend, I listened to Circle anyway.  My opinion is that this album is the band's best since their early career.  On this album they successfully marry the heavy that had been missing with the melody that has defined Amorphis' career.  Listen here.


5. Fleshgod Apocalypse-Labyrinth
The heaviest music in our lists this year comes from Italian symphonic metal band Fleshgod Apocalypse.  I have been a fan since the EP Mafia was released.  Since then, the bend have incorporated an increased symphonic presence in the madness of ultra-heavy music.  This album is complete with technical guitar wizardry and inhumanly fast blasting drums.  The symphonic keyboards are not overdone and, even when choral sections emerge, they do not overstay their welcome.  If you are not familiar with this band, you might want to wear a neck brace while listening to this track.


As usual, I have quite a few honorable mentions to share.  I highly recommend checking out the music below.  Here are the honorable mentions in no particular order:
Mechina-Empyrean
Vallendusk-Black Clouds Gathering
Amaranthe-The Nexus
Dark Tranquillity-Construct
Deadlock-The Arsonist
Erimha-Reign Through Immortality
In Quest-The Odyssey of Eternity
Man Must Die-Peace was Never an Option
The Monolith Deathcult-Tetragrammaton
MyGrain-Planetary Breathing
Neaera-Ours is the Storm
Noumena-Death Walks with Me
Persefone-Spiritual Migration
ReVamp-Wild Card
Soilwork-The Living Infinite
Sulphur Aeon-Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide
Ulcerate-Vermis
Windhand-Soma
Wolfheart-Winterborn

As always, thanks for reading and enjoy!

In Vain-Aenigma review

Metal has a strange trend going on right now in regards to album titles.  It has become baffling normal for a metal, especially one from overseas to use this Latin-themed character as the first letter of an album title: Æ.

I'm not sure why this is.  Maybe it makes the album title seem more metal.  I find it weird and difficult to type in using a normal keyboard without finding the character online, copying, and pasting.

In Vain is a lesser known metal band from Norway, whose music is really well-constructed.  In terms of metallic style, one could realistically categorize In Vain's music as progressive metal, black metal, or even melodeath.  I would call it a creative amalgam of all three styles.  This album contains sections of full-on thrashing shred, progressive guitar leads, and blackened viciousness.

Make no mistake that this album is extreme metal.  "Ænigma" shows the band taking their sound to a whole new level and improving on both technicality and production.  This is a heavy disc, but it still sounds very progressive.  Production values are very crisp, which allows the guitar leads and acoustic sections to shine. 

Vocals are even more chaotic than they were on the band's previous album, "Mantra."  However, there is a fair amount of clean singing on this album, which I find to be welcome.  In Vain used this vocal style on "Mantra," but more sparingly.  "Mantra" was a masterful record and incredibly well-written.  By contrast, "Ænigma" sounds more mature and more polished.  While few of the songs are instantly memorable, the album as a whole carries and unmistakable vibe.  After a couple of listens, I can attest that this album is every bit as good as "Mantra" was. 

If you have not heard any of this band's previous work, you definitely should check it out.  I have attached the whole album stream via YouTube below for your listening pleasure.  As always, thanks for listening and enjoy!

Persefone-Spiritual Migration review

Bands who name themselves after mythological gods can sometimes come off as pompous and a little bit insincere.  Several metal bands named for gods are out there today, and I only truly enjoy one of them.  Persefone is an Andorran progressive metal band that dares to dabble in many different styles.  Their approach to modern extreme metal is admirable.

If You don't know much about Andorra, who can blame you.  It is a small country located in the Pyrenees Mountains sandwiched between Spain and France.  The entire population of the country is 85,000.  For comparison's sake, Meridian, Idaho, the city in which we live, has 81,380 people.  Thus, it is interesting that any metal band comes from that nation.

As for style of music, the concept is almost purely metal.  The band's previous album, "Shin-Ken" had an oriental feel to it, where approximately half the album was raging extreme metal, while the other half was quiet, reflective ambient instrumental music.  This offered a bit of confusion, but after listening to the album several times over, I began to get a feel for the intended flow of the record and thus, appreciated it more. 

A few weeks ago I was listening to a song from "Shin-Ken" and found myself wondering if they had any new music coming out soon.  As it happened, the release of a brand new opus was taking shape.  "Spiritual Migration" takes off right where "Shin-Ken" left off, but added several refreshing new elements to the music. 

The Orchestral backing on several of the tracks was a welcome addition.  This is added to the fury of metallic riffing with ultra-quick, razor-sharp drumming, which creates an almost surreal effect, like glimmers of light pierced a darkened void.  The string sections then subsided for a few tracks, giving way to serpentine guitar leads and voracious grunted and howled vocals.  This sound is what Persefone has become known for. 

Later on the album, the orchestration returns.  Moody ambiance permeates a track or two, and some funky electronic concoction even shows up in one track.  My first impression was that this record was so incredibly varied that it could be seen as obtrusive and distracting.  I enjoyed everything I heard.  Since "Shin-Ken " Persefone have certainly honed their craft and tightened their sound.  "Spiritual Migration" is dazzling album.  There is something for every fan of metal music here.  The band has three main vocal styles, going between loud bellows to blackened shrieks to soulful, clean-sung melodies. 
We are streaming the album below, courtesy of Persefone's bandcamp page.  Be sure to listen beyond the first track to get a full taste of what this album has to offer.  As always, thanks for listening and enjoy!

Neaera-Ours is the Storm review

Two straight metal album reviews.  I know, we don't like metal that much here, but it so happened that three bands we do like released new albums on the same day.  And there is a bunch more metal in the pipeline, though most of it won't be released for a while. 

Today's review is the third most anticipated music release from March 5, 2013: The new album from Germany's Neaera.  Like Soilwork yesterday, Neaera is a band with their own established identity, however much less known than Soilwork.  This band actually plays a somewhat similar style of metal to Soilwork, but nastier and more extreme. 

Neaera's forte is a bruising gallop of chugging riffs, pummelling drums, and guitar leads swirling beneath the surface.  Neaera are certainly masters of crafting songs that make listeners want to throw up their horns and bang their heads.  The riffs and drums are punchy and create an impressive and crunchy groove that makes heads spin.  Bubbling beneath the considerably heavy surface in most songs are snaky guitar leads that lend atmosphere and melody to the meat.  Most bands resort to keyboards to achieve this end, but Neaera is different from the rest.

What sets this band apart is the vocal style.  One second the singer emits throat-shredding shrieks, while the next he bursts forth with impressive belows that fall somewhere below the bass register.  He switches back and forth from these styles effortlessly while also mixing in higher-range old school metal screams.  Very rarely does this band give in to using clean singing, and even when they do, its is more like an Iron Maiden-esque array of falsetto singing.  On "Ours is the Storm" this style of singing appears on just one track. 

From start to finish this is a very heavy record.  There are no interludes or preludes or intros or outros or lead-in tracks or filler material.  Just thirteen pummelling melodeath tracks that are easy to nod your head to.  On this disc, Neaera offer nothing flashy--nothing that calls attention to itself.  Like Soilwork's new album, the band sees little need to bring anything new to the table besides a bunch of killer tracks.  That said, "Ours is the Storm" is a good album, just not a great one.  If you are in the mood for some insane headbanging metal, you can't go wrong here.  Check out a couple of the tracks below.  Enjoy!

Soilwork-The Living Infinte review

If you have been following us regularly, you might have noticed the couple of times in the last few months we have posted brand new songs from this Swedish metal band.

Soilwork has put together an impressive career spanning now nine full-length albums since 1995.  Over the years, the band's style has morphed and changed but this is still one of the most consistent Swedish metal bands of the era (meaning late 1980s-1990s Swedish melodeath).  Though the band has adapted styles a little bit by incorporating further and more varied use of clean-sung vocals, Soilwork is still very much an extreme metal band.

"The Living Infinite," released today, most certainly carries the mark of a Soilwork album.  The band's previous albums, "Sworn to a Great Divide" and "The Panic Broadcast" were seen as slight letdowns for hardcore Soilwork fans.  Instead of offering a 'return to form' Soilwork include bits of style spanning their entire discography.  Bjorn "Speed" Strid's vocals are much improved this time around, showing better range with both clean singing and extreme vocals. 

As on "The Panic Broadcast," the metallic riffs are fast, thick, and smooth. Soilwork's drumming has never been tighter, and many of the tracks here scorch us with blistering leads and solos, which have been largely missing over the last few albums.

With "The Living Infinite," Soilwork doesn't break any new ground, but they don't have to.  By now their sound is well-established and their practice well-polished.  With that being said, there are no mind-blowing moments.  The album is content with what it does and does it well. 

Not much more can be said of this album.  It is as good an album as Soilwork has ever released.  It doesn't break any new ground.  Instead, the consistency on display is notable.  If you are in the mood for some torrential extreme metal with memorable melodies (ah, alliteration attack), you need to check this album out.  One thing to note is that this is a double album.  The CD version contains two discs and 20 tracks.  Feast on a few of the released tracks below.  As always, thanks for reading and ejoy!

Omnium Gatherum-Beyond review

Let me apologize for the lull in activity here at ThinkMuzik.  The last weeks have been very dull in terms of new music.  We haven't been receiving any updates we feel to be noteworthy.  Rest assured, however, there is some good stuff coming so stay tuned.

One great update we did receive today: Omnium Gatherum is now streaming their upcoming album "Beyond" in full.  You can listen to the music here.

"Beyond" feels much less like a follow-up to "New World Shadows" than anticipated.  By all means, "New World Shadows" was a fantastic album, further exploring ideas and sounds hinted at in "The Red Shift".  The result was a more polished, fuller sounding record that was, in my opinion, the best album to date in the Omnium Gatherum discography.  Now that I have had a chance to listen to "Beyond", I can say that the new release is just as good as, if not better than its predecessor.

This album starts out with an atmospheric guitar intro that steadily builds in intensity towards the end.  This leads perfectly into the explosion of metallic riffing and growling vocals that are featured prominently in the second track.  These songs manage to keep the Omnium Gatherum vibe I have come to love over the years even while ratcheting up the atmospheric keyboard and synth qualities yet another notch.  This illustrates why the band has so quickly become one of my favorite metal bands. 

"Beyond" reaches near perfect marks from me, but for a perceived misstep or two near the end of the album.  Two of the final five tracks seemed like a regression of sorts, hearkening back to the "Red Shift" era which, to be honest, included some great tunes.  This late-album change of pace seems to subtly undermine the charging tempo of doom-laden keyboard melodies and memorable guitar leads present throughout most of the album.  This is only a very slight gripe.  Whatever tenacity was lost with those few stripped-down efforts, Omnium Gatherum make up for in the over ten-minute epic closer that is Omnium Gatherum at their very best.

The vocals on this album are diverse enough to be entertaining.  Some low-register spoken word sections enhance the foreboding atmosphere present within the music.  Could Say is the only track to incorporate clean vocals like those found sparingly during "New World Shadows".  The cleans make up the majority of the verses, while beastly growls return to prominence during chorus and bridge sections.  This is one of the best songs on the album.

As on "New World Shadows", Don Swano is behind the production here.  Swano is in my opinion the best metal producer in Europe.  In this album, it quickly becomes evident that his skill has only increased.

A lot of Finnish bands create great melodic metal music and Omnium Gatherum has risen to the very top of an already rich crop, which includes masters Amorphis and Insomnium.  "Beyond" is an epic album, and perhaps the best yet in Omnium Gatherum's six LPs and one EP.  Check out the damage here and be sure to listen to Could Say.  As always, thanks for reading and enjoy!

New Metal-Neaera and Mourning Wolf

Today brings us news of yet another anticipated metal album release in early 2013.  This news makes me happy because I have been a fan of this German band since their 2008 release, "Omnicide-Creation Unleashed."  The new disc, scheduled for North American release on March 5, is entitled "Ours is the Storm".  Today they have unveiled the title track of the new disc, and as expected, it rips. 

With galloping melodeath riffs over a bleak ream of guitar-based atmospheric wandering, the new track is everything Neaera fans have come to expect.  Vocals switch back and forth between skin-tearing howls and blistering grunts as the somber guitar leads drown listeners in an inescapable torrent of fury.  From what this track shows, the band's sound will change little with the release of this album, with minor adjustments in the how palbable the bleakness is.  This music is for fans of melodeath, reminding of some Dark Tranquillity and Omnium Gatherum tunes.

So far, I'm liking what I'm hearing.  Check out the new track below.


Also to be filed under the 'new' folder, is an unexpected gem I found over at No Clean Singing.  The band is from Washington and is called Mourning Wolf.  As is often the case with new music I encounter, I found the cover art to draw me in. 

As far as style goes, Mourning Wolf melds metalcore riffing with blackened atmospheric moments similar to, but not as grand as Alcest.  I'm not a huge fan of metalcore or black metal, but I decided to listen anyway.  The relief in this release is that the music includes no vocals at all.  I'm a fan of bands that tend to blur the lines between genres, and Mourning Wolf pull it off well.  Their new EP is available as a name-your-price download from their bandcamp page, which also provides us with the full stream of the EP.  This release contains only two tracks, but they average better than 8:30 in length.  Check out this new EP.  You will not be disappointed. 

We will return to some less hard-core stuff tomorrow.  Until then, thanks for listening and enjoy!

More new music: Soilwork and Honeyslide

New music two days in a row?  The interweb has suddenly become a busy place for new music.  Today we have two more excellent items we are excited about. 

First Soilwork is streaming a new track from their upcoming double album "The Living Infinite".  This track sounds like classic Soilwork, combining massive chugging riffs, complex drum patterns, including blast beats, and Bjorn 'Speed' Strid's powerful dual vocals.  This is a really heavy track.  It shows a lot of promise for this band.  Soilwork formed in the mid-1990s and has released nine studio albums including "The Living Infinite".  Their sound began to change and adapt with the release of "Stabbing the Drama" and more so on "Sworn to a Great Divide".  Their latest album, "The Panic Broadcast", was billed as a return to form and was their best album in years.  From what I've heard so far, the new record will be even better than the last.  I'm a fan of Soilwork, so I'll be checking this out when it is released.  Strid's switches back and forth from impressive clean vocals to snarling higher-register screams that are typical of the melodeath genre.  Check out the following track and then get yourself a neck brace to wear for the next two days.



I have been listening to Honeyslide's latest EP for the last fifteen minutes and have not been particularly impressed.  This record sounds like average old-school shoegaze choked with fuzzy guitar reverb.  However, this band just released a brand new single at soundcloud, and  it is anything but average.  Instead it is very different than their EP.  The new track is more harmonious, the reverb is cleaner and better-executed, and the track is soaked with sensational electronic ambiance.  This is worlds better than their EP.  When and if this British group releases a new album, one can hope that the entire disc is a reflection of the new track rather than the EP.  Listen to the new track below and you can see what I mean.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Insomnium-One for Sorrow review

Having a diverse collection of metal music in one's collection allows for differing moods and differing tastes.  By its nature, metal music is a diverse genre and is growing ever more diversified.  New bands toy with new sounds, sometimes to varying effects.  Some bands find their niche sound and stick with it.

Finnish band Insomnium are of the latter category.  This band has been around for a long time and have released many good albums.  "Across the Dark" was an eye-opener, and "One for Sorrow" continues in this vein. 

Stylistically, this album is doom metal at heart, using many different keyboard and guitar based melodies to create a sorrowful, melancholic sound that is just as angry as it is sad.  The band overlays this tendency with vicious growling vocals almost continuously, leaving little room for clean vocals.  When these clean vocals appear, they are incredibly tasteful while retaining their metal edge. 

"One for Sorrow" begins and ends with complex melodies and mid-tempo rhythms.  These tempos vary throughout the album without the usual associated extreme highs and lows, that dominate so much doom metal.  Even through the sorrow, Insomnium manage to create catchy grooves and beautiful melodies often enough to capture interest throughout the disc.  As expected, keyboards are a large part of the Insomnium sound, as are the low, growling vocals.  This music is easy to listen to for fans of metal.  It should appeal to fans of doom, melodic death metal, and progressive metal. 

Many bands compare to Insomnium, but Insomnium pioneered the perfect blend between chunky melodeath and over-the-top doom.  This record is very balanced and instantly catchy.  Give it a listen and you may be impressed.  If you are a fan of Insomnium or Be'lakor, pick this album up.  Having somewhat outgrown the melodeath genre, I was at first skeptical regarding whether I would like this new disc.  Now that I have listened to it in its entirety, I feel that it is very much worth recommending.  Thanks for listening and, as always, enjoy!

In Flames-Sounds of a Playground Fading (2011)

In Flames is one of those metal bands that has all but completely abandoned their extreme metal roots, opting instead for a more polished, mainstream sound.  This has been done to varying results, and gradually.  Over their 23-year history and 10 solid studio albums, one thing In Flames hasn't done is create the same album twice.  Since "Reroute to Remain" especially, the band has slowly adapted their sound to a more alternative metal approach rather than the harsh screams and chunky death metal riffing that defined their earlier records.

"A Sense of Purpose" was, by most accounts, and utter disappointment where the band fails to deliver anything of significant substance.  It was this record that caused me to stray from the In Flames bandwagon when before I was a staunch supporter of the band.  I am fond of several of this band's latter albums, so I am not one of those who will only listen to the band's earlier albums.  As a matter of fact, I much prefer the newer records.

This change of sound has both polarized long-time fans of the band and earned them numerous new followers. 

Where "A Sense of Purpose" failed, "Sounds of a Playground Fading" excels.  I never did purchase this latest album, but it is on the list.  This album sounds as fresh as is possible for a band that has been churning out metal records since their debut album in 1991. 

This album shows the band progressing nicely.  This record knows what it is and does not try to stray to unfamiliar regions just to appease the older fan base.  This is very much an alternative metal album that is much more mainstream than its predecessors.  I have not listened to the entire disc, so I cannot give a perspective on the album as a whole.  What I have heard, however, is two tracks worth hearing.  When these tracks begin, you know you are listening to In Flames.  However this album is a digression from their latest records.  Instead of showing a slight return to roots, the band have grown further towards the mainstream spectrum.  Instead of disappointment, this album delivers a a more passionate approach to metal, which makes it a more rewarding listening experience.  I have heard three songs from the "Sounds of a Playground Fading" are both quality productions that should earn the band even more followers. 

If you are fan of In Flames, old style or new, it will be worth your while to check this album out.  Below are two tracks, Deliver Us and Where the Dead Ships Dwell.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!