Top 5 "Listened to" List of 2013

1. Thrice
   
   From Kensrue's solo material to "Major/Minor", this has definitely been the year of Thrice for me. I fell in love with the song "In Exile" and sought out all of the albums I'd missed since "Artist in the Ambulance", while the Alchemy albums left me mostly disinterested, everything else I'd consider "can't miss".
2. Extol
   
   See my top 5 Metal List as well, but I've played every Extol and Extol related album (Mantric, Lengsel, Borud's solo material) until I've worn grooves in them this year. Such an amazing band w/ such an amazing come-back this year.
3. Audrey Assad
   
   Though I didn't enjoy the newest album quite as much as the two before it, I can't get enough Audrey Assad. I believe pretty well everyone that I know could get into this, and should...NOW.
    
4. Music of the 80's
   
   
   
   At some point I got on an audio-engineering kick and started studying how all of my favorite old records had been made and wanted to see what they "really" sounded like. Phil Collins, GnR, old Metallica, hair-metal of all kinds, Van Halen, and Peter Gabriel were at the top of the list, but no 80's artist was spared. 70 cent CD's from Hastings only fueled this sonic adventure.
   
   
5. Music of the 90's
   
   Pretty well the same situation as above, but also extended over into death-metal and nu-metal. This (and the 80's revival too) were spurred on by the newest Soundgarden album (which rocks by the way). Particular favorites included Living Sacrifice "Reborn", Fear Factory's "Obsolete", Pearl Jam's "No Code", early Foo Fighters, Cannibal Corpse's "Bloodthirst", the Soundgarden discography, and Boyz II Men/ Mariah Carey; yes, you read that right. If I can ever get my hands on a Korg Trinity I'm going to start churning out 90's style R&B classics in record time.

My Top 5 Metal Albums of 2013

1. Extol - EXTOL
   
   
   This one could take up the whole list honestly, but for the sake of whatever, I'll do 4 others as well. But this is metal in its most awesome form. Soaring, brutal, melodic, technical, yet catchy. Just amazing from start to finish, musically and lyrically. Album of the year overall for me.
   
2. Killswitch Engage - Disarm the Descent
   
   This one shares a lot of the same qualities as the Extol album, but can't quite get to that same level of awesome.Having Jesse Leach back is awesome (though I do like Howard's vocals quite a bit), and the vocal melodies are just out of this world on this release. The guitars sound, weirdly enough, kind of weak and lacking, but the riffs themselves make up for it.
   
3. Love & Death - Between Here and Lost
   
   This is what the new Korn could've sounded like (it didn't). This blows away anything that Korn's done since the 90's. Catchy, unrelentingly heavy, great vocals and lyrics. Crazy-good guitar tones everywhere. Nu-metal, yes, I don't care. It's just great.
   
4. The Burial - In the Taking of Flesh
   
   This one was a bit of a surprise as their older material did little for me. This is absolutely punishing from start to finish. It reminds me in a way of older Morbid Angel or Behemoth, maybe even Gorguts, it's great. Just completely great, and I'm looking forward to more albums w/ this lineup.
   
   5. Drottnar - Stratum
   
   I don't know what to call this. They call it 'bunker-metal', I guess I'd laboriously call it bleak yet beautiful technical post-black-metal. It reminds me of later Mayhem a bit, but more 'punk' in a way. The thought-provoking lyrics don't hurt either
   
   
   Honorable Mentions:
5. Carcass - Surgical Steel
6. Living Sacrifice - Ghost Thief
7. Gorguts - Colored Sands
8. Benea Reach - Possession
   
   All of these are on Itunes and disc, help the artists out and purchase these (after a listen online to see if you like them as well).