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).