The Ten Best Metal Records of 2013, So Far

In alphabetical order:

1. Amon Amarth, Deceiver of the Gods

Not many bands can stay relevant by making the same album over and over again. But as long as the Vikings in Amon Amarth are owning death metal's most energizing riffs and sea shantey choruses, they'll be one of rare those bands.



2. ASG, Blood Drive

The riffs have slowed down, the melodies soar, and yet the sun-baked stoner metal tones that made Win Us Over a keeper radiate through. This year's gateway metal album to beat.



3. The Dillinger Escape Plan, One of Us is the Killer

Like the Red Hot Chili Peppers or the Replacements, DEP's one consistency was that they were becoming more streamlined and produced with every album. Until this year--One of Us is the Killer is a heavy dose of ferocity that both reaches back to and expands on their early sonic furies. You know, from when mathcore was a punchline.



4. Intronaut, Habitual Levitations

"Nimble," "catchy" and "addictive" aren't words usually used to describe prog-rock. Unless someone is doing it better than everyone else.



5. Kvelertak, Meir

Nobody wants to feel the pressure of following up a monster debut, but Kvelertak sound like they love it. Your friends who tell you about DIIV saving punk and Liturgy saving metal are missing out.



6. Nails, Abandon All Life

Wow! Where did these guys come from? Did someone make a bet that they could make Pig Destroyer sound like the Foo Fighters in 17 minutes? Collect.



7. Ramming Speed, Doomed To Destroy, Destined To Die

It takes a lot for me to tolerate neo-thrash. Even the best bands, like Municipal Waste and Skeletonwitch, are hard to listen to when there's already the Big Four and Testament. But Ramming Speed fused it with just enough death metal to make me wonder why no one thought of this before, between headbangs.



8. Shining, One One One

I don't know what made a Swedish avant-jazz band decide that they could save industrial metal, but I hope they keep doing it. No wonder NIN is back this year.



9. Soilwork, The Living Infinite

Outside of Natural Born Chaos, I assumed that Soilwork was a perfectly honorable background metal band. I had no interest in picking up a double album from them, until a friend planted it in my dropbox. Who knew that a 2-CD death metal set, much less one from Soilwork, could rock this hard? Their countrymen in In Flames and Arch Enemy haven't put out anything this potent in ages.



10. Queens of the Stone Age, Like Clockwork

In which Josh Homme forfeits his title as rock's coolest man to out himself as an emotional wreck. The bravest twist yet in one of modern rock's most indispensable careers.

Four Good Omens for 2013

New Intronaut:

So what if The Mars Volta broke up and the new Tool got delayed again? Intronaut is making the catchiest, most addictive prog-metal in the universe, as the intoxicating rhythms of "Milk Leg" demonstrate. You'll read about this one on Pitchfork--say goodbye to one of metal's best kept secrets.

New Kvelertak:

From Motörhead to Discharge, the best-punk metal bands have a way to make the same songs sound fresh album after album. The first single from Kvelertak's newest is exactly the kind of fist-pumping slice of shoutalong thrash that you heard on Kvelertak, but producer Kurt Ballou has me hoping that this one will be even better.



New Megadeth:

Dave Mustaine may be an insufferable lunatic, but I love the way his slide guitar plays over what sounds like a banjo(!?) in this preview clip.



New Nails:

Where did these guys come from? Apparently Kurt Ballou has been producing them also, but the black metalcore riff-fest that they're calling "God's Cold Hands" in the first that I've heard of them. Can't wait to hear the rest on Abandon All Life.