2013 Albums of the Year

Right, here we go - a completely subjective list of the best albums of 2013. The rest of the albums that make up my top 20 will be revealed early next year once the Echoes and Dust list comes out. Enjoy!

10. Touché Amoré – Is Survived By

2013 was a great year for Deathwish Inc., the record label co-run by Converge vocalist, Jacob Bannon. Touché Amoré’s Is Survived By is just one of the label’s many achievements this year, with heartfelt lyricism and emotive vocals providing the backbone for some impressive musicianship. Is Survived By is not just a great album but an advancement of Touché Amoré’s style and perhaps their most impressive effort yet.

9. Obliteration – Black Death Horizon

As someone who has not yet delved much into the realms of old school death metal, Obliteration’s Black Death Horizon is a somewhat surprising late addition to the list. Combining slower doom sections with death metal works to the group’s advantage, creating a terrifying atmosphere that is complimented by some awesome riffs and solos. Opening track “The Distant Sun” showcases all of these elements and is undoubtedly one of my favourite songs of the year. All of this on top of some of the most unique and oppressive vocals I’ve ever heard makes for one very well-done take on the early death metal sound.

8. Nails – Abandon All Life

Abandon All Life is absolutely one of 2013’s heaviest, fastest and most hateful albums. With that said, it’s also one of the year’s best. Nails take the finest elements of grindcore, death metal and powerviolence and throw them all into one powerful 17 minute concoction that is just about as crushing as music gets. This one’s definitely not for the faint-hearted, but if you can stomach the extreme pace and grimy atmosphere there’s no good reason not to love it.

7. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest

Boards of Canada is another group that I only started listening to this year and Tomorrow’s Harvest is a very welcome addition to their already impressive discography. Less focused on nostalgia and more on the ambient soundscapes the duo are able to create, Tomorrow’s Harvest feels like a journey through the city’s post-apocalyptic wasteland. “Reach for the Dead” and “White Cyclosa” seem to signal the end of humanity while personal favourite, “Nothing is Real” comes about like the blue skies and promising light featured on the album cover, signalling the dawning of a new era.

6. The National – Trouble Will Find Me

Regardless of my feelings about Trouble Will Find Me in comparison to The National’s past three efforts, I do owe it perhaps more than any other album by the band – mainly because it was the one that introduced me to them. If I had not read all the overwhelming praise for The National with the release of this album and been interested enough to give Boxer a listen, 2013 might have been a very different year for me. They were undoubtedly my favourite group this year and their consistency is a little scary at times. Trouble Will Find Me is, in my opinion, the weakest album The National has produced since 2002 but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t another highly impressive release. “I Should Live in Salt” is up there with the band’s best opening tracks and “Pink Rabbits” is not just the best on the album, but one of the best songs The National have ever done. The emotion in Matt Berninger’s voice in the line “you said it would be painless / it wasn’t that at all” never fails to cut me deep every single time and it’s the small moments like those that make Trouble Will Find Me an experience worth going through.

5. Big Big Train – English Electric (Part Two)

Progressive rock was perhaps the single most important genre for my musical development. When I first discovered early Genesis, my tastes immediately began to change and I started appreciating musical factors outside of catchy choruses and pop hooks. What does all of this have to do with Big Big Train? Well, the similarities between the current incarnation of Big Big Train and early Genesis are very hard to deny and it’s clear that homage is being paid to the Peter Gabriel era of the band. This is classic 70’s style prog done right, with subtle neo-progressive and post-rock elements accommodating for a modern audience. While not as good as the first album in the English Electric series, “East Coast Racer” does enough on its own to make up for it by being perhaps the single greatest song Big Big Train have ever done and still one of the best songs I have heard this year. There are no real weak moments in the other six tracks either and that makes English Electric (Part Two) one of the best albums of 2013.

4. Sigur Rós – Kveikur

There are very few bands that I love as much as Sigur Rós and they still have yet to disappoint me. Kveikur sees a slight change in direction for the band, with heavier percussion-lead numbers complimenting what are now basically straight-up dream pop tracks. Lead single “Brennisteinn” is among Sigur Rós’ best songs, with a spacey second-half that hints at the alien atmosphere that hasn’t really been present since (  ). “Ísjaki” is a truly beautiful piece too, a catchy, uplifting pop song the likes of which we haven’t heard since “Hoppípolla”. The darker tunes, “Hrafntinna” and the title track, are the other highlights and there is not much wrong with the more straightforward numbers that make up the rest of the album. Kveikur is not my favourite Sigur Rós release but it is yet another impressive addition to what is a near-flawless discography.

3. Kayo Dot – Hubardo

I was presented with a few opportunities to review Kayo Dot’s monolithic double album, Hubardo, this year and every single time I turned the opportunity down. Why? Well, to try and describe what the hell is going on in this record is like trying to teach quantum physics to three year olds – impossible. Hubardo takes many unexpected twists and turns throughout its near 100-minute duration: the crescendo at the end of “Crown-in-the-Muck”; the chaotic mid-section of “Zlida Caosgi (To Water the Earth)” that sees all of the instruments seemingly collapse in on themselves; and the driving percussion in “And He Built Him a Boat” and “Passing the River”. As a big fan of Kayo Dot’s previous incarnation, maudlin of the Well, Hubardo was a delightful return to certain aspects of that sound, while further progressing the things that have made Kayo Dot such a flag-bearer for modern avant-garde music. A brilliant, uncompromising work of art that will surely stand as a classic in the years to come.

2. Gorguts – Colored Sands

Now this is the kind of death metal I can really get behind: twisted, complex and necessarily technical, Colored Sands is Gorguts’ first album in 12 years and what a fantastic comeback it is. This was my introduction to the group and I never doubted that I would come to love them. As a big fan of progressive music, and progressive metal in particular, the Opeth and Porcupine Tree influences that Luc Lemay has said inspired the album certainly helped me to understand them better. The first four tracks are what really make the album brilliant before “The Battle of Chamdo” comes in to provide some much-needed respite. The second half is a little less memorable but only due to the ridiculous standards set by the opening half an hour. This is some of the best technical metal I have ever had the privilege of experiencing and I certainly hope that it doesn’t take Gorguts another 12 years before their next effort.

1. Deafheaven – Sunbather

For me there is only one category that really matters when it comes to deciding which albums are important to me and which ones aren’t – the emotional connection I have with them. This year, I have heard albums that are more consistent, more experimental and seemingly all-round better than Sunbather. And yet they languish behind in my best of 2013 list because they failed to resonate with me in the same way that Deafheaven did. And really, besides a couple of unnecessary interlude tracks, Sunbather is the perfect album. The way “Dream House” explodes into life at the start of the album, settles and then ends even more life-affirming than how it started might just be some of my favourite moments in music full stop. Then you have the title track which undergoes a quite brilliant change midway through when the tone changes from uplifting to unexpectedly dark and violent. This darker tone carries over into “Vertigo” before the final long piece, the epic “The Pecan Tree”, brings the album full circle, with melodies and a stunning conclusion that rival and perhaps even better those on the opening track. It’s an album that needs to be truly heard to be experienced and you’d be doing only yourself a great disservice by not giving it a chance. This is the most successful marriage of shoegaze, post-rock and black metal that you are ever likely to hear; Sunbather is not just the zenith of this popular movement but an emotional and affecting masterpiece that will be talked about for years to come.

Sigur Rós - Ný batterí

When I was young my mother would sing German lullabies to me; not all the time, mostly just when I was sick or upset, but those are memories that stay with you as you grow older. And while I never understood what she was singing (having been brought up in an English-speaking household) the words were strangely comforting. Their foreignness engrossed me more than anything else, that alien quality to language you are unfamiliar with captivating me to such an extent that my eyes would eventually just shut and I would drift off into a peaceful sleep.

Those moments of weakness, of frailty, are the moments when we need guidance and support most. As nothing but a helpless child, this came in the form of my mother’s singing. Twenty-odd years later, my attention turned to lullabies of a different kind. Sigur Rós’ dark, emotional rendition of traditional Icelandic lullaby “Bíum bíum bambaló” would mesmerize me in a way very few songs have before or since. Jónsi was the mother of my haunted soul, gently singing me to sleep as I struggled to come to terms with a period of change in my life. Lying there in the darkness night after night, staring at the ceiling and thinking too much, Sigur Rós changed my perception of what music could be and what it could do for someone. This humble EP meant more to me than a lot of other music at the time and it still holds a special place in my heart for its incomparable sincerity.

And while “Bíum bíum bambaló” was really at the crux of the Ný batterí EP, I couldn’t imagine hearing it without “Dánarfregnir og jarðarfarir” coming afterwards. The latter is Sigur Rós’ version of a song played on Icelandic radio as a theme for death and funeral announcements and it provided a fitting epilogue to my misery. And of course there’s the title track. One of the band’s most majestic pieces, and even more so when combined with the extended introduction of “Rafmagnið búið,” “Ný batterí” builds slowly towards its epic climax featuring the famous bent cymbal the band found on a street in Reykjavík. This is among the bleakest and most desperate Sigur Rós songs, although in a way that was very unique to the Ágætis byrjun album as a whole. It maintains the mystical aura that made that album such a classic, yet a simple translation of the lyrics reveals a much more human side than one might have thought possible of the group’s otherworldly music.

It’s not often that music speaks in the same way this relatively overlooked release does and perhaps it is entirely due to my own personal experience with it. For that, I am forced to admit that it is probably not perfect. But I can’t see it any other way and so all I can say is thank you Sigur Rós. Thank you for saving my life.  

Rating: 9/10

(Originally posted on Sputnikmusic.com: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/56589/Sigur-Ros-Ny-Batteri/)

Amia Venera Landscape - The Long Procession

For critics, placing music into genres is often seen as a necessary evil. Everything has to sound like something before it so that they can all fit neatly into the same labelled folder together. For the most part this system works and any kind of music can be fairly accurately described with just one genre tag. But every now and again a band or musician comes along and just messes with the whole system. Amia Venera Landscape is one of those bands.

While they may not be able to claim complete originality, Amia Venera Landscape draw from so many different influences that it’s nigh impossible to pin them down to just one style. Perhaps the most immediate sound that comes to mind is that of post-hardcore, and there are certainly enough Define the Great Line-era Underoath-sounding riffs and vocal stylings for them to be classified as such. But what about that speed and technicality in “Empire” that sounds like it could have been taken straight from a Dillinger Escape Plan record? Or the atmospheric post-metal sections akin to bands such as Isis and Rosetta? There is even a lengthy ambient passage that constitutes much of the album’s midsection.

Music as diverse as this always has the potential to sound over-the-top but Amia Venera Landscape generally avoid falling into this trap. The songs are lengthy and progressive but rarely does anything sound out of place. When the band delve head-first into ambience with “Ascending,” it comes at just the right time; the previous three tracks all revolve around the post-hardcore sound mentioned earlier and “Ascending” is the perfect breather. Elsewhere, “Marasm” is perhaps the best track on The Long Procession (tied with “Empire”). A sprawling, near 15-minute instrumental based around epic post-metal soundscapes, “Marasm” sees the band exploring a slightly longer route to kicking your face in and the result is simply stunning. The song is allowed to expand and build slowly and it reaps massive benefits from this. “Nicholas” is the final piece of the puzzle and it really should have been the closer. Instead, the album continues for another 10 minutes with a couple of somewhat less impressive tracks. While they may not be bad songs per say, they aren’t quite able to match up to the intensity of the previous eight compositions and the added length just drags the album a little too far over a comfortable running time. This is ultimately a minor complaint, however, for an otherwise brilliant record.

I really couldn’t tell you which genre Amia Venera Landscape falls under, but what I can tell you is that this is one hell of an album that, if approached with an open-mind, you certainly won’t regret listening to. 

Rating: 8/10

(Originally posted on Sputnikmusic.com: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/56414/Amia-Venera-Landscape-The-Long-Procession/)

Esoteric - Subconscious Dissolution into the Continuum

While this album proves they may not be perfect, there’s one thing Esoteric do undeniably better than anyone else and that’s describing their own music. Everything is so perfectly encapsulated in the one word that comprises their band name, there’s almost no need for a further explanation of their sound. And yet somehow they managed to do it, branding themselves as “hateful, drug-influenced tortured doom.”

With that said, this is music that you will either love or find utterly hilarious. Like all bands that operate within this excessively dark, depressing genre, there are only so many ways self-loathing can be expressed without sounding completely ridiculous. Therefore, it’s a prerequisite to be in touch with the darkest parts of your psyche when attempting to listen to this. These tunes are slow and heavy, and I mean really slow and really heavy. This is Esoteric’s most traditionally funeral doom metal release so expect nothing less than to be battered with the same riff again and again for close to 20 minutes in some songs. The ‘drug-influenced’ aspect of their sound may be far less prominent in this release, but still makes an appearance courtesy of some fairly impressive psychedelic guitar-work by frontman Greg Chandler and guitarists Gordon Bicknell and Steve Peters. The use of three guitars on top of the bass and drums creates a dense sound that envelops you in a nightmarish atmosphere.

As if all this wasn’t enough, Chandler’s hateful growls are beaten into your skull synchronously with the plodding riffs. While they’ve certainly changed a lot from their effect-laden ‘bad acid trip’ vibe on previous releases, the use of a more traditional death-doom growl works well within the context of the album.

So the question remains: what is it that makes Subconscious Dissolution... weaker than any of the group’s other releases? Well for starters there’s the aforementioned lack of psychedelic influences that made Esoteric so unique to begin with. Whereas The Pernicious Enigma utilised voice samples, effects, and straight-up bursts of death metal to keep the ride interesting, Subconscious Dissolution... sees the band happy to simply keep things moving at a snail’s pace. While some may view this as a positive aspect, Esoteric have always been at their best when they vary the tempo a bit and unfortunately on this album it just never comes. And so even though this is one of the shortest releases by the band, it gets boring very quickly. The only mildly interesting change comes in the form of the opening lead of “The Blood of the Eyes,” but even that quickly descends right back into a barrage of slow, monotonous riffs. The production is also a little too clear for my liking, detracting from the atmosphere that is such an integral part of their sound.

Regardless, if you’re a fan of bands such as Thergothon and Evoken and haven’t checked these guys out yet, this would probably be a good starting point because of its more digestible length and similarities to the traditional funeral doom sound. Overall, this is an unconvincing but not altogether bad release from a band capable of so much more.  

Rating: 6/10

(Originally posted on sputnikmusic.com: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/56263/Esoteric-Subconscious-Dissolution-into-the-Contin/)

The Angels of Light - New Mother

There is no light in this world of darkness. The cities, once a surplus of activity and motion, now lie still in the wake of the all-consuming emptiness. Here there is no god, there is no government, and there are no survivors. The wasteland is littered with the bloodied trophies of mankind’s arrogance; ashes of towering skyscrapers and twisted remnants of the most advanced vehicles are all that remain of man’s former glory. Desolation. There is silence... nothing moves.    

Years pass. Black waves wash over the wreckage; their steady rhythm is the only timekeeper. The cold has engulfed the landscape and Mother Nature is long dead. Life is a lost memory, a forgotten dream. Time stops. The earth becomes formless, a void in space... a black hole. Everything is sucked back into the cosmic abyss from whence it came...  

Then there is nothing.    

A new day has begun; today the soil gives back to its mother. The glare of a dying sun illuminates the earth and darkness is forced to lurk underground once more. The winter has ended. Vegetation sprouts up from the ground until foliage covers every square inch. Rivers tear through the terrain, feeding the soil around them. Everywhere there is life - the death of man.

And then She speaks. “I am your new mother,” she says, “beginning.”

The New Mother has awakened.        

 

Rating: 7/10

(Originally posted on sputnikmusic.com: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/56203/The-Angels-of-Light-New-Mother/)

        

Sigur Rós - Brennisteinn

Ever since Sigur Rós took their breathtakingly beautiful, otherworldly-sounding compositions to an international stage in 1999, they have been heading towards a sound governed less by their Icelandic roots and more by their innate ability to create songs that resonate on an emotional level. Whereas Ágætis Byrjun and (  ) made strong use of the band’s foreign sensibilities, subsequent albums began to rely less on this aspect, with the songwriting taking precedence. Yet Sigur Rós have not often dared to venture too far out of their comfort zone, with last year’s ambient-leaning Valtari honing in on the more minimalist elements of their signature sound.

If Brennisteinn is any indication, all that is about to change. With the upcoming release of their seventh studio album Kveikur later this year, Brennisteinn points towards an overall darker and sludgier sound that the band has not channelled since the second half of 2002’s untitled masterpiece. The title track, which is also due to appear as the opener on the new album, sees Sigur Rós experimenting with harsher, more abrasive electronic elements grating over the top of Jónsi’s trademark vocals. Conflicting aspects such as these have only been used sparingly in the past but here Jónsi’s falsetto shines through the haze like a ray of light and it works brilliantly. The same can be said of “Hryggjarsúla” which sounds more like the kind of droning nightmare Michael Gira would conjure up rather than anything from the band’s back catalogue. Finally, instrumental track “Ofbirta” hearkens back to the dark ambient style of Von, perhaps the most ominous Sigur Rós had sounded prior to this.

Although no two albums of theirs sound exactly alike, this is the first time we are really hearing something of a reinvention from the group. As just a small taste of what’s to come, Brennisteinn certainly achieves its goal of whetting the appetite and fans will have to wait another few months before getting to hear the final product.       

Rating: 7/10

(Originally posted on sputnikmusic.com: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/55952/Sigur-Ros-Brennisteinn/)

The Angels of Light - How I Loved You

Michael Gira is a man who revels in misery. After his uncompromisingly brutal work with Swans in the 1980s (which remains some of the heaviest music ever recorded), Gira turned to more subdued forms of anguish and depression in the following decade. Proving that he didn’t necessarily have to be loud to get his point across, Swans became rooted in dark, psychedelic folk rock for a few albums before exploring the worlds of drone, post-rock and ambient music on their 1996 opus Soundtracks for the Blind. That album would signal the end of Swans until their surprising reunion in 2010, and it was during this period that Michael Gira began a new project known as The Angels of Light.

The Angels of Light took a far more song-based approach than Swans, focusing on melody and harmony rather than cacophonous noise and jarring rhythms. Dabbling in folk and country music, their 1999 debut album New Mother only hinted at what was to come a couple of years later. Whereas New Mother featured a massive 17 songs, How I Loved You almost equals its colossal 70-odd minute runtime in only 10 tracks. The reason for this lies in the latter’s ability to allow the songs to grow and sprawl over Gira’s barren soundscapes. Opener “Evangeline” almost effortlessly combines country with post-rock, a weird combination to say the least, but it works perfectly. The song builds slowly, subtly going from a simple acoustic guitar riff into an emotional climax with the full band, and the line “I can feel it now” being repeated as the music dies down. It’s a wonderful start to the album and this continues into “Untitled Love Song,” replete with female vocals and beautiful melodies.

“My True Body,” however, bears more in common with Swans due to the dark subject matter and occasionally shouted vocals. “New City in the Future” is another sinister-sounding track that erupts towards the end of its 12 minutes with Gira screaming “You were mine” like a madman. This forms the centrepiece of the album and unfortunately sets in motion the few mediocre numbers that follow, with “New York Girls” being the chief culprit. It’s not a bad song by any means, but it doesn’t really go anywhere to justify its length. Thankfully the best is saved for last with “Two Women,” perhaps the most brilliant song in the whole Angels of Light discography. Like the opener, it’s a sprawling epic that builds towards a magnificent climax. This time around, though, the real beauty is contained within the final minute as the music begins to fade away and Gira mutters the words “I can’t live without you... goodbye Jane.” That moment alone makes the whole album worth getting through, even though there are some typically oppressive and even frightening moments to withstand.

How I Loved You marked the end of an era for The Angels of Light, as the next few releases slowly began to realise the sound that would lead to the eventual reformation of Swans. Nevertheless, this album remains the pinnacle of the band’s work and it would take Michael Gira another 11 years before his potential was this fully realised again.       

Rating: 8/10

(Originally posted on sputnikmusic.com: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/55927/The-Angels-of-Light-How-I-Loved-You/)