Our Top 10 albums lists by genre continue with our staff picks for the best of metal and hardcore music this year. Click next to read through the albums one by one, or use the list below to skip ahead to your favourites.
Top 10 Metal & Hardcore Albums of 2013:
To see more of our Year-End Top Tens , head over to our Best of 2013 section.
10. Windhand
Soma
(Relapse)
Despite this being their second album, these Richmond, VA doomsters seemingly appeared out of nowhere this year. They released a critically acclaimed split EP with Cough before dropping this full-length consisting of introspective yet punishing groove-heavy tracks, anchored by singer Dorthia Cottrell's plaintive, androgynous vocals.
Like Pallbearer on 2012's Sorrow and Extinction, Windhand aims to provide emotionally heavy riffage and modernize the doom scene with a deceptively gentle feel. Cottrell's lyrics, while impressive, are pretty miserable, but her delivery makes the tales about misery and Satan weirdly sensual. While there is a danger in the monolithic nature of their music — they don't deviate too much from their preferred chord progressions — they change things up just enough to keep things interesting, as with the beautiful harmonies of the acoustic standout "Evergreen." Do they reinvent the doom/stoner wheel? No, but their flourishes make Soma a definite standout. (Laina Dawes)
9. Corrections House
Last City Zero
(Neurot)
New project Corrections House are a collaboration between influential musicians Mike Williams (Eyehategod), Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Bruce Lamont (Yakuza) and Sanford Parker (Minsk). What has made their full-length debut, Last City Zero, one of the best releases of the year is a rather unexpected, yet brilliant sound. It's not simply a combination of each of their bands' sounds, although each member brings elements of their own unique background to the table. Last City Zero features a dominant industrial influence, while maintaining an extremely dark, brooding atmosphere throughout. Sections of droning noise and doom weave through and loop around cacophonous industrial segments ("Serve or Survive"), while mechanical, percussive beats dominate at other times ("Bullets and Graves" and "Dirt Poor and Mentally Ill").
Experimental effects and an unorthodox use of saxophone are present in a constant spiral of dramatic dissonance, making Last City Zero chaotic and complex, but the album also surprises with moments of natural, simplistic sounds and clean, deep vocals, exemplified by the mystical "Run Through the Night." Elsewhere, the stripped-down, spoken word title track contains intense, raw emotion. Featuring exceptionally negative, depressing and apocalyptic vibes, Last City Zero is brooding and corrosive, but in the most beautiful way possible. (Denise Falzon)
8. Dillinger Escape Plan
One of Us Is the Killer
(Sumerian Records/Party Smashers Inc.)
Dillinger Escape Plan exist in a vacuum. The band does their own thing loudly, parallel with the rest of metal/hardcore: always coexisting, but never really crossing paths. One of Us Is the Killer was their second album on their own Party Smasher Inc. label, but the first in partnership with Sumerian Records. Despite the newfound alliance, Dillinger trucked along and produced an album devoid of the recent technical music trend (and the basis for much of Sumerian's roster) of syncopated, low string bends — colloquially and erroneously known as "djent."
Instead, One of Us Is the Killer is full to the brim — but in typical mathcore fashion, never overflowing, being so calculated and all — with precision-cut, spiraling riffs that dance around the fretboard like a snake before striking. What really pushes Dillinger over the edge of madness are the increasingly unsettling melodies pervading their diverse sound that make them sound like unhinged lunatics. Unfortunately, One of Us Is the Killer didn't get nearly the appreciation it deserved; any other year, and the album would have been the talk of the proverbial town.
However, 2013's abundance of even older bands coming back with albums that surprisingly do their legacy proud swept this album under the rug. Still, this is a band who are as influential at this point as they always have been, not to mention more consistent and, perhaps most importantly, still alive. As the titular track says, "One of us must die, but the killer won't survive," and in a scene of stagnation, the killer will be a lack of progression; the Dillinger Escape Plan will live on. (Bradley Zorgdrager)
7. Blood Ceremony
The Eldritch Dark
(Metal Blade)
Listening to the third album from Toronto's Blood Ceremony is a bit like stepping through a darkly curtained doorway into an alternate but nearby convergence of space and time. The Eldritch Dark swims within the tides of nostalgia but draws on a fine vintage that never quite was. The record is heavy on blues-rock groove, with a good dose of backwoods folk, some snarlier-than-usual vocals and, as we've come to expect, the most aggressive flute playing around.
Solos traded back and forth between guitar, organ and flute approach the organic fluidity of a jam, especially in short instrumental "Faunus," which foregrounds the bass more than any other track. Many Blood Ceremony riffs are downright catchy, and "Goodbye Gemini" captures this best. On top of catchiness, "Ballad of the Weird Sisters" has the added charm of an eerie tale and a fiddle intervention, spinning a "Devil Went Down to Georgia" kind of vibe.
The most atypical song here is an acoustic ballad, "Lord Summerisle," which is vaguely reminiscent of Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan" but more folk than psychedelic, featuring (unusually) male lead vocals and female harmonies. The record's second half begins to seem less intense until the final highlight, "The Magician," which stars, once again, the creepy character Oliver Haddo, and features one final jam. Then, The Eldritch Dark ends before it feels like it should be over, as Blood Ceremony capitalize on the strategy of leaving your listeners wanting more. (Laura Wiebe)
6. Full of Hell
Rudiments of Mutilation
(A389)
Maryland/Pennsylvania's Full of Hell have unleashed one of the most positively hostile releases of 2013 with their sophomore LP, Rudiments of Mutilation. The hardcore punk band infuses elements of grindcore, noise, sludge, doom and blackened death metal into their extremely unique sound. They also exude raw, overwhelming feelings of hate, angst and hopelessness through haunting tones and an ominous atmosphere, which sets them even further apart and makes their releases truly unusual.
Following Roots of Earth are Consuming My Home, their stellar 2011 debut full-length, Rudiments of Mutilation is harsher, darker and more aggressive, taking their hybrid sound to a new, unforeseen level. While Full of Hell combine a smorgasbord of different styles into their music, the band have excelled at layering the diverse aspects into a chaotic, yet focused, sound. Dissonant feedback and vocalist Dylan Walker's tortured screams are featured throughout Rudiments of Mutilation, while rapid-fire drums and riffs transition seamlessly to slow grooves in a Converge-meets-Napalm Death kind of unrelenting sonic assault.
However, Full of Hell add contrast to the album, as it also contains moments of slower, Swans-esque, experimental noise, with ominous rhythms and droning vocals, as well as sludge breaks and doom-style, lucid tones. Difficult and thought-provoking, Rudiments of Mutilation is an exceptionally intelligent album. (Denise Falzon)
5. Norma Jean
Wrongdoers
(Razor & Tie)
Wrongdoers is the sixth album from Georgia metalcore dudes Norma Jean, and their fourth since they've been absolutely amazing. It's never an easy sell saying a band that can be termed "metalcore" is "amazing," but the limitations of such labels are proven in a big way with Norma Jean.
Combining loose, chaotic, hard-hitting hardcore with heart-on-sleeve singing that is not in any way embarrassing, pandering, or reminiscent of anything that could be called "emo," the band have done it again, this time around creating some of their greatest moments (see the title track and "Sword in Mouth, Fire Eyes"). The secret is in the production, which is huge, raw, and real; the booming sounds complement the band's feedback-drenched take on grooves (never cliché) and melody (never predictable). Norma Jean turn their back on the ultra-polished sounds that so many of their peers embrace and instead have created their greasiest, ugliest album yet... and it works perfectly.
Warts and all? For Norma Jean, the warts are the best part. They've had the formula down pat for a few albums now, but it's a wholly unique sound, and on Wrongdoers they do it as well as they ever have. If we could just come up with a new genre tag to describe these guys, life would be a lot easier for everyone. (Greg Pratt)
4. Deafheaven
Sunbather
(Deathwish Inc.)
In many ways, Sunbather is antithetical to black metal, the genre with which it is most often labeled. The salmon pink album cover certainly doesn't help the case. Take opener "Dream House" as a case study. The title alone is so far removed from presumptions of what the crowd donning corpse paint (which Deafheaven are noticeably free of) would dub their creations that you'd be forgiven for thinking you were holding the wrong album.
Any suspicions of erroneous packaging are temporarily laid to rest with the blast-beat drumming of the opening track. Sure, they sound suspiciously happy — perhaps the ultimate division from black metal's literally murder-inspired music — but between the three interludes and enough shoegaze, post-rock and even scream influences to bathe in, being kvlt was never the point. Instead, Sunbather IS a lot of things that black metal — at least in the traditional sense — hasn't accomplished. They've been featured in Apple advertisements for the iPhone 5c, a noteworthy achievement no matter which way you spin it, but even more so when you consider the extremity of the music.
The critical acclaim has been nearly unanimous, even amongst more mainstream publications, which undoubtedly helped them land gigs with decidedly un-metal bands and adoption by primarily un-metal fans. All of this would be inconsequential without a solid album, one instead exclusively riding the wings of undeserved praise, but Sunbather isn't just solid; it's impenetrable. (Bradley Zorgdrager)
3. KEN Mode
Entrench
(Season of Mist)
The Winnipeg noisecore warriors who graced the Exclaim! cover in April have proven that their fifth studio album, Entrench, was worthy of the word count. After winning a Juno in 2011 for the seething and suppurating Venerable — the Metal/Hard Music Album Of The Year was re-introduced as a category just in time — they sought to top their efforts with Entrench, and succeeded.
The record was long-listed for the Polaris Prize and pressed the band — composed of brothers Shane and Jesse Matthewson on drums and guitars/vocals respectively, as well as bassist Andrew LaCour — into a relentless touring schedule: A North American Tour with Torche in May and June, U.S. tours with Inter Arma in July and Rosetta in August, European tour dates in October and an Autumn headlining tour in Canada with Full of Hell, and more dates in the U.S. with Norma Jean to cap off the year.
While still replete with the wild, fractured mathcore and unpredictable explosions of noise that have always defined them, Entrench also finds the band employing hooks and earworms more than they ever have before. Entrench is defined by its excellent choruses, making this hardcore noise that you can gleefully scream or snarl along to, like the spat-out hostility of "Your Heartwarming Story Makes Me Sick." Brilliantly produced by Matt Bayles, and burning up on the inside with a magma-hot, barely banked frustration, Entrench lurches and bellows. (Natalie Zina Walschots)
2. Gorguts
Colored Sands
(Season of Mist)
At one time, the prognosis for Gorguts' future seemed grim. The Sherbrooke, QC-based technical death metal necromancers, helmed by solitary original member Luc Lemay, went quiet after releasing From Wisdom To Hate in 2001, and splintered further when long-time drummer Steve MacDonald committed suicide in 2002; the band formally split apart in 2005. Even with a tentative reunion in 2008, with a handful of live performances and gestures towards writing new material, it seemed unlikely that the band would be able to return to full strength.
Then, they revealed Colored Sands, a vast and roaring leviathan of an album, as ferocious as it is triumphant. With a new lineup composed of Lemay on guitar and vocals, Colin Marston (Dysrhythmia, Krallice), John Longstreth (Origin, Dim Mak) on drums and Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia, Vaura) on guitar, Gorguts have returned like the hydra: for every head that was cut off, three more have grown in its place. Colored Sands, more than just a vast and devastating return to form, is also a significant step forward for the group.
The longer compositions allow for more narrative and structural development, incorporating progressive and even classical forms: "The Battle of Chamdo" is an entirely classical composition, composed by Lemay and recorded by string quartet, but just as hostile and filled with tension as the rest of the record. Colored Sands is relentless, and whether tossing the listener about on ravenous seas in "An Ocean of Wisdom" or sinking its teeth in deep on "Absconders," every moment of the record goes for the throat. Few bands have ever managed to rise from their own ashes with such ferocity and grace. (Natalie Zina Walschots)
1. Carcass
Surgical Steel
(Nuclear Blast)
British death metal legends Carcass made an amazing and much-talked-about return with Surgical Steel, their first album since 1996's ill-fated boogie-death album Swansong. There were naysayers and there were skeptics, but they were silenced with this album's aggression and attitude; not bad for the work of what basically, in the death metal scene, amounts to a bunch of old fogeys.
"Thrasher's Abbatoir" gets the shredding started in a huge way, laying down melodic death metal not unlike the band's Heartwork heyday. Tracks such as "Noncompliance to ASTM F 899-12 Standard" and "316L Grade Surgical Steel" have amazing titles and the grinding, shredding glory to back it up, while "The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills" encapsulates perfectly what Carcass is all about. The song is catchy, fun, heavy, but packs more than enough punch to keep even listeners happy.
The addition of Daniel Wilding (ex-Aborted) on drums was also cause for concern, but Wilding is up to the task like a pro, stepping in the large shoes of original drummer Ken Owen just fine. Surgical Steel is a fantastic album, and really, it's the long-overdue follow-up to Heartwork, which came out a whopping 20 years ago. (Greg Pratt)
Top 10 Metal & Hardcore Albums of 2013:
- 1. Carcass - Surgical Steel
- 2. Gorguts - Colored Sands
- 3. KEN Mode - Entrench
- 4. Deafheaven - Sunbather
- 5. Norma Jean - Wrongdoers
- 6. Full of Hell - Rudiments of Mutilation
- 7. Blood Ceremony - The Eldritch Dark
- 8. Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us Is the Killer
- 9. Corrections House - Last City Zero
- 10. Windhand - Soma
To see more of our Year-End Top Tens , head over to our Best of 2013 section.
10. Windhand
Soma
(Relapse)
Despite this being their second album, these Richmond, VA doomsters seemingly appeared out of nowhere this year. They released a critically acclaimed split EP with Cough before dropping this full-length consisting of introspective yet punishing groove-heavy tracks, anchored by singer Dorthia Cottrell's plaintive, androgynous vocals.
Like Pallbearer on 2012's Sorrow and Extinction, Windhand aims to provide emotionally heavy riffage and modernize the doom scene with a deceptively gentle feel. Cottrell's lyrics, while impressive, are pretty miserable, but her delivery makes the tales about misery and Satan weirdly sensual. While there is a danger in the monolithic nature of their music — they don't deviate too much from their preferred chord progressions — they change things up just enough to keep things interesting, as with the beautiful harmonies of the acoustic standout "Evergreen." Do they reinvent the doom/stoner wheel? No, but their flourishes make Soma a definite standout. (Laina Dawes)
9. Corrections House
Last City Zero
(Neurot)
New project Corrections House are a collaboration between influential musicians Mike Williams (Eyehategod), Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Bruce Lamont (Yakuza) and Sanford Parker (Minsk). What has made their full-length debut, Last City Zero, one of the best releases of the year is a rather unexpected, yet brilliant sound. It's not simply a combination of each of their bands' sounds, although each member brings elements of their own unique background to the table. Last City Zero features a dominant industrial influence, while maintaining an extremely dark, brooding atmosphere throughout. Sections of droning noise and doom weave through and loop around cacophonous industrial segments ("Serve or Survive"), while mechanical, percussive beats dominate at other times ("Bullets and Graves" and "Dirt Poor and Mentally Ill").
Experimental effects and an unorthodox use of saxophone are present in a constant spiral of dramatic dissonance, making Last City Zero chaotic and complex, but the album also surprises with moments of natural, simplistic sounds and clean, deep vocals, exemplified by the mystical "Run Through the Night." Elsewhere, the stripped-down, spoken word title track contains intense, raw emotion. Featuring exceptionally negative, depressing and apocalyptic vibes, Last City Zero is brooding and corrosive, but in the most beautiful way possible. (Denise Falzon)
8. Dillinger Escape Plan
One of Us Is the Killer
(Sumerian Records/Party Smashers Inc.)
Dillinger Escape Plan exist in a vacuum. The band does their own thing loudly, parallel with the rest of metal/hardcore: always coexisting, but never really crossing paths. One of Us Is the Killer was their second album on their own Party Smasher Inc. label, but the first in partnership with Sumerian Records. Despite the newfound alliance, Dillinger trucked along and produced an album devoid of the recent technical music trend (and the basis for much of Sumerian's roster) of syncopated, low string bends — colloquially and erroneously known as "djent."
Instead, One of Us Is the Killer is full to the brim — but in typical mathcore fashion, never overflowing, being so calculated and all — with precision-cut, spiraling riffs that dance around the fretboard like a snake before striking. What really pushes Dillinger over the edge of madness are the increasingly unsettling melodies pervading their diverse sound that make them sound like unhinged lunatics. Unfortunately, One of Us Is the Killer didn't get nearly the appreciation it deserved; any other year, and the album would have been the talk of the proverbial town.
However, 2013's abundance of even older bands coming back with albums that surprisingly do their legacy proud swept this album under the rug. Still, this is a band who are as influential at this point as they always have been, not to mention more consistent and, perhaps most importantly, still alive. As the titular track says, "One of us must die, but the killer won't survive," and in a scene of stagnation, the killer will be a lack of progression; the Dillinger Escape Plan will live on. (Bradley Zorgdrager)
7. Blood Ceremony
The Eldritch Dark
(Metal Blade)
Listening to the third album from Toronto's Blood Ceremony is a bit like stepping through a darkly curtained doorway into an alternate but nearby convergence of space and time. The Eldritch Dark swims within the tides of nostalgia but draws on a fine vintage that never quite was. The record is heavy on blues-rock groove, with a good dose of backwoods folk, some snarlier-than-usual vocals and, as we've come to expect, the most aggressive flute playing around.
Solos traded back and forth between guitar, organ and flute approach the organic fluidity of a jam, especially in short instrumental "Faunus," which foregrounds the bass more than any other track. Many Blood Ceremony riffs are downright catchy, and "Goodbye Gemini" captures this best. On top of catchiness, "Ballad of the Weird Sisters" has the added charm of an eerie tale and a fiddle intervention, spinning a "Devil Went Down to Georgia" kind of vibe.
The most atypical song here is an acoustic ballad, "Lord Summerisle," which is vaguely reminiscent of Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan" but more folk than psychedelic, featuring (unusually) male lead vocals and female harmonies. The record's second half begins to seem less intense until the final highlight, "The Magician," which stars, once again, the creepy character Oliver Haddo, and features one final jam. Then, The Eldritch Dark ends before it feels like it should be over, as Blood Ceremony capitalize on the strategy of leaving your listeners wanting more. (Laura Wiebe)
6. Full of Hell
Rudiments of Mutilation
(A389)
Maryland/Pennsylvania's Full of Hell have unleashed one of the most positively hostile releases of 2013 with their sophomore LP, Rudiments of Mutilation. The hardcore punk band infuses elements of grindcore, noise, sludge, doom and blackened death metal into their extremely unique sound. They also exude raw, overwhelming feelings of hate, angst and hopelessness through haunting tones and an ominous atmosphere, which sets them even further apart and makes their releases truly unusual.
Following Roots of Earth are Consuming My Home, their stellar 2011 debut full-length, Rudiments of Mutilation is harsher, darker and more aggressive, taking their hybrid sound to a new, unforeseen level. While Full of Hell combine a smorgasbord of different styles into their music, the band have excelled at layering the diverse aspects into a chaotic, yet focused, sound. Dissonant feedback and vocalist Dylan Walker's tortured screams are featured throughout Rudiments of Mutilation, while rapid-fire drums and riffs transition seamlessly to slow grooves in a Converge-meets-Napalm Death kind of unrelenting sonic assault.
However, Full of Hell add contrast to the album, as it also contains moments of slower, Swans-esque, experimental noise, with ominous rhythms and droning vocals, as well as sludge breaks and doom-style, lucid tones. Difficult and thought-provoking, Rudiments of Mutilation is an exceptionally intelligent album. (Denise Falzon)
5. Norma Jean
Wrongdoers
(Razor & Tie)
Wrongdoers is the sixth album from Georgia metalcore dudes Norma Jean, and their fourth since they've been absolutely amazing. It's never an easy sell saying a band that can be termed "metalcore" is "amazing," but the limitations of such labels are proven in a big way with Norma Jean.
Combining loose, chaotic, hard-hitting hardcore with heart-on-sleeve singing that is not in any way embarrassing, pandering, or reminiscent of anything that could be called "emo," the band have done it again, this time around creating some of their greatest moments (see the title track and "Sword in Mouth, Fire Eyes"). The secret is in the production, which is huge, raw, and real; the booming sounds complement the band's feedback-drenched take on grooves (never cliché) and melody (never predictable). Norma Jean turn their back on the ultra-polished sounds that so many of their peers embrace and instead have created their greasiest, ugliest album yet... and it works perfectly.
Warts and all? For Norma Jean, the warts are the best part. They've had the formula down pat for a few albums now, but it's a wholly unique sound, and on Wrongdoers they do it as well as they ever have. If we could just come up with a new genre tag to describe these guys, life would be a lot easier for everyone. (Greg Pratt)
4. Deafheaven
Sunbather
(Deathwish Inc.)
In many ways, Sunbather is antithetical to black metal, the genre with which it is most often labeled. The salmon pink album cover certainly doesn't help the case. Take opener "Dream House" as a case study. The title alone is so far removed from presumptions of what the crowd donning corpse paint (which Deafheaven are noticeably free of) would dub their creations that you'd be forgiven for thinking you were holding the wrong album.
Any suspicions of erroneous packaging are temporarily laid to rest with the blast-beat drumming of the opening track. Sure, they sound suspiciously happy — perhaps the ultimate division from black metal's literally murder-inspired music — but between the three interludes and enough shoegaze, post-rock and even scream influences to bathe in, being kvlt was never the point. Instead, Sunbather IS a lot of things that black metal — at least in the traditional sense — hasn't accomplished. They've been featured in Apple advertisements for the iPhone 5c, a noteworthy achievement no matter which way you spin it, but even more so when you consider the extremity of the music.
The critical acclaim has been nearly unanimous, even amongst more mainstream publications, which undoubtedly helped them land gigs with decidedly un-metal bands and adoption by primarily un-metal fans. All of this would be inconsequential without a solid album, one instead exclusively riding the wings of undeserved praise, but Sunbather isn't just solid; it's impenetrable. (Bradley Zorgdrager)
3. KEN Mode
Entrench
(Season of Mist)
The Winnipeg noisecore warriors who graced the Exclaim! cover in April have proven that their fifth studio album, Entrench, was worthy of the word count. After winning a Juno in 2011 for the seething and suppurating Venerable — the Metal/Hard Music Album Of The Year was re-introduced as a category just in time — they sought to top their efforts with Entrench, and succeeded.
The record was long-listed for the Polaris Prize and pressed the band — composed of brothers Shane and Jesse Matthewson on drums and guitars/vocals respectively, as well as bassist Andrew LaCour — into a relentless touring schedule: A North American Tour with Torche in May and June, U.S. tours with Inter Arma in July and Rosetta in August, European tour dates in October and an Autumn headlining tour in Canada with Full of Hell, and more dates in the U.S. with Norma Jean to cap off the year.
While still replete with the wild, fractured mathcore and unpredictable explosions of noise that have always defined them, Entrench also finds the band employing hooks and earworms more than they ever have before. Entrench is defined by its excellent choruses, making this hardcore noise that you can gleefully scream or snarl along to, like the spat-out hostility of "Your Heartwarming Story Makes Me Sick." Brilliantly produced by Matt Bayles, and burning up on the inside with a magma-hot, barely banked frustration, Entrench lurches and bellows. (Natalie Zina Walschots)
2. Gorguts
Colored Sands
(Season of Mist)
At one time, the prognosis for Gorguts' future seemed grim. The Sherbrooke, QC-based technical death metal necromancers, helmed by solitary original member Luc Lemay, went quiet after releasing From Wisdom To Hate in 2001, and splintered further when long-time drummer Steve MacDonald committed suicide in 2002; the band formally split apart in 2005. Even with a tentative reunion in 2008, with a handful of live performances and gestures towards writing new material, it seemed unlikely that the band would be able to return to full strength.
Then, they revealed Colored Sands, a vast and roaring leviathan of an album, as ferocious as it is triumphant. With a new lineup composed of Lemay on guitar and vocals, Colin Marston (Dysrhythmia, Krallice), John Longstreth (Origin, Dim Mak) on drums and Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia, Vaura) on guitar, Gorguts have returned like the hydra: for every head that was cut off, three more have grown in its place. Colored Sands, more than just a vast and devastating return to form, is also a significant step forward for the group.
The longer compositions allow for more narrative and structural development, incorporating progressive and even classical forms: "The Battle of Chamdo" is an entirely classical composition, composed by Lemay and recorded by string quartet, but just as hostile and filled with tension as the rest of the record. Colored Sands is relentless, and whether tossing the listener about on ravenous seas in "An Ocean of Wisdom" or sinking its teeth in deep on "Absconders," every moment of the record goes for the throat. Few bands have ever managed to rise from their own ashes with such ferocity and grace. (Natalie Zina Walschots)
1. Carcass
Surgical Steel
(Nuclear Blast)
British death metal legends Carcass made an amazing and much-talked-about return with Surgical Steel, their first album since 1996's ill-fated boogie-death album Swansong. There were naysayers and there were skeptics, but they were silenced with this album's aggression and attitude; not bad for the work of what basically, in the death metal scene, amounts to a bunch of old fogeys.
"Thrasher's Abbatoir" gets the shredding started in a huge way, laying down melodic death metal not unlike the band's Heartwork heyday. Tracks such as "Noncompliance to ASTM F 899-12 Standard" and "316L Grade Surgical Steel" have amazing titles and the grinding, shredding glory to back it up, while "The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills" encapsulates perfectly what Carcass is all about. The song is catchy, fun, heavy, but packs more than enough punch to keep even listeners happy.
The addition of Daniel Wilding (ex-Aborted) on drums was also cause for concern, but Wilding is up to the task like a pro, stepping in the large shoes of original drummer Ken Owen just fine. Surgical Steel is a fantastic album, and really, it's the long-overdue follow-up to Heartwork, which came out a whopping 20 years ago. (Greg Pratt)