Your top 10 for 2013

C'mon, y'all, lez do this. No pondering / overconsideration; it's just us.

I'll embarrass myself first.

10 - Surgical Steel by Carcass
Yes, it's that good. Yes, I will be going to see them when they come through. Even though I didn't really like that Gorguts record all that much. Yes, all that review stuff that says "it's like Swansong never happened" is at least 95% correct.

9 - Sunbather by Deafheaven
This record deserves some but not all of the accolades heaped on it this year. I like black metal and shoegazer, so this is right up my alley, but I can see why a lot of black metal purists are butthurt about it. Then again, those people are dicks.

8 - Black Friday by Big Black Cloud
Portland band. This label (Eolian Empire) has been releasing all sorts of good heavy stuff this year, most of which I liked, notably Honduran's Street Eagles. Black Friday is so manic, noisy, dissonant, but still punk... I feel like Sonic Youth were never really all that punk. They were always an art band; if they'd been punker, this may have been what they would have sounded like.

7 - Summon the Faithless by Lord Dying
Another Portland band. These dudes are resurrecting pure thrash but throwing in just a little bit of stoner metal on top of it. Tight as hell, riffs are enormous, fun as shit to watch. I like the sound of their demo a little more than this record (less "produced"), but this is still a damn fine metal record.

6 - Soma by Windhand
Holy shit this is heavy doom. Probably the heaviest doom since Dopethrone. Really. There's a real sense of dynamics and wisdom to this record, unlike a lot of doomy bands going right now. Contrasting example: We are Here by Blackout. That record is good, but Soma just blows it out of the water. No contest. The Blackout record feels like a sludgy doomy record that's good and raw, but at the end of it you don't feel like they really told you anything; they're just riding a wave of FUCK YEAH. This record feels like it told you something at the end.

5 - mBv by My Bloody Valentine
Yeah, there's a little bit of nostalgia factor here. The first side of this just makes you feel all warm and cuddly like Loveless has returned. For a record built up as much as this... that's pretty impressive. Unfortunately the DnB shit on the second side is pretty cringeworthy, otherwise this would have been higher.

4 - Manifest Decimation by Power Trip
This band sounds like Chuck Schuldiner playing tastefully short guitar solos and singing while backed by Hell Awaits-era Slayer (but with better songwriting). This should make you want to run not walk to their bandcamp page.

3 - Tomorrow's Harvest by Boards of Canada
After living with it for a while, I think this manages to recapture a lot of the wonderment and haziness of Music Has the Right without resorting to the same sonic exact palette. It's a different sort of feeling than Music Has the Right, though. They've grown up with us? The last 25 minutes of the record are some of their best shit ever, I think.

2 - Abandon All Life by NAILS
This is, no question, the heaviest band out there right now. Period. It's a sonic assault that still holds up to multiple listens. It's insanely well-crafted. I could write a lot more effusion regarding how crazy awesome this band is.

1 - Circumambulation by True Widow
Shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's been looking at my tumblr. I am fully head over heels for this band and have been for about 2 years now. They kept the essence of what makes them good, but evolved it subtly. This record is creepier than their others, in a good David Lynch kind of way.

Honorable mentions: General Dome by Buke and Gase; Amen by Death Engine; Run the Jewels; EDM B2.

Kickass rereleases: Touch and Go reissued almost the entire Big Black catalog on vinyl (no Atomizer or Songs About Fucking, but everything else).