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Jizz. Jizz everywhere.

How's the year going for you guys?

- Haken's The Mountain is easily the best album so far, in my opinion. Another prog masterpiece.
- Ayreon's The Theory of Everything seems to be my #2, despite not being a masterpiece. I think it's better than 01011001.
- Dream Theater was a meh-fest. Terribly boring album.
- Gloryhammer was fun, but not as addictive as I hoped.
- Avantasia seemed too boring to really dive into.
- Spock's Beard didn't sound very interesting, but I doubt the post-Neal Morse era of SB is for me anyway.
- Jolly's Audio Guide to Happiness was pretty fun, got some very Devy-reminiscent moments, in a good way.
- Dark Moor's Ars Musica was forgetable.
- I like Daft Punk's Random Access Memories.

All in all 2013 is poor so far. Not sure if it's salvagable, with silence from Devin (I can't recall any Devin albums scheduled for a 2013 release) and Seventh Wonder probably not making 2013 either. But at least that's good news for 2014.

[Octillus]

Queens of the Stone Age made the best album this year

[swervedriver]

Heard good things about QotSA's effort, will check it out.

I'd say Karnivool - Asymmetry. Ghost - Infestisummam I find really enjoyable as well. I'm picking up the new Ayreon tonight from the man himself, so I'm curious about that one. And Cloudkicker deserves a mention for writing one of the most epic riffs I've heard in a long time. I don't think there's a lot coming in the remainder of the year that will make me change my mind about this list.

New Alter Bridge is gripping me much less than I thought it would, seems they're getting a bit same-y. I've found Dream Theater rather boring for the past 10 years by now, so that's less of a surprise. I suppose the Vapor Trails remix by Rush doesn't exactly count as that's not exactly new material from them.

Concert-wise my winners are Alestorm, Ensiferum and Cattle Decapitation, though I have yet to see Nile's show.

Album-wise, I have a rudimentary top list as follows (no real order as yet):
Summoning's Old Mornings Dawn, so beautiful, may end up as my #1.
Phil Anselmo & The Illegals' Walk Through Exits Only, which is reminiscent of Pantera in their prime
Watain's The Wild Hunt, which I think is quite underrated
Finntroll's Blodsvept, good and heavy fun
Internal Nightmare's Chaos Reborn, great local band
Gloryhammer's Tales from the Kingdom Fife; not as catchy as Alestorm, but still makes me smile
New Ihsahn and Mot

No one mentioned Leprous' adorable COAL?

No one mentioned Leprous' adorable COAL?

Coal is awesome... definitely not perfect, but awesome. Really hope they explore the style of Salt/Echo further; some really interesting stuff going on there melodically. Anyways, my list of new releases has basically been exhausted at this point, so I'm fairly comfortable in listing / ranking what I've heard.

Top 15:

01. Kayo Dot - Hubardo
02. Ulver - Messe I.X - VI.X
03. Leprous - Coal
04. Bruce Soord with Jonas Renkse - Wisdom of Crowds
05. The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
06. Soilwork - The Living Infinite
07. Sigur Ros - Kveikur
08. Moon Safari - Himlabacken Vol. 1
09. Shining - One One One
10. Berserk! - Berserk!
11. Depeche Mode - Delta Machine
12. Bosnian Rainbows - Bosnian Rainbows
13. Steven Wilson - The Raven that Refused to Sing
14. Gorguts - Colored Sands
15. Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks

Honorable mentions go to Ihsahn (who I seriously can't believe missed this list, but more on that in a minute) and... Dream Theater, I guess. I was absolutely enamored with the concept of Das Seelenbrechen in theory, but found the record itself to be frustratingly scattered - as well as a step down in quality from his previous four outings, which surprises me because Ihsahn's discography is super-consistent for the most part. He gets major points for expanding his sound so radically though; hopefully next time he'll be able to mold all the new elements together and create something truly spectacular; ala Ulver's Perdition City (if you consider Themes... to be good, but ultimately a transition between two different sounds). As for my main list - the drop-off from 01 to 02 is pretty steep, as is the drop-off from 04 to 05. I really thought Ulver had "AOTY" wrapped up when I first heard Messe back in August (SO glad I snagged one of the purple vinyl copies; they're absolutely gorgeous), but then... Toby Driver happened, haha. All I'm gonna say about Hubardo is; it might literally be one of the three best albums I've ever heard. Believe the hype.

As for next year: new Dev, new Sigh, new Cynic, new Mastodon, new Gazpacho, new Staofash (maybe?), new God of Atheists (maybe?)... bring it on!

Easily my favourite this year:
01

Fleshgod Apocalypse- Labyrinth
Ulver- Messe I.X-V1.X
Phil Anselmo and the Illegals- Walk through exits only
Sahg- Delusions of grandeur

[Octillus]

1. QotSA Like Clockwork. Album's about dyin' from a guy who was dead for a few seconds with years of his aesthetic flowing through that lens. I fucking love this album
2. Beastmilk by Beastmilk. Best goddamn new band I've heard in years.
3. The Living Infinite by Soilwork. Kinda fun that someone from that gothenburg scene that imploded kinda figured out how to progress from the same pop version of their old shit over and over.
4. Mutoid Man. Converge, Cave In and a dude who is in another band with a guy who drives my company's graffiti covered van.

Lots of cool music my friends have made came out this year, but I'm biased so it's unfair.

Have decided my top 10:
1. Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn
2. Internal Nightmare - Chaos Reborn
3. Mot

[EphelDuath666]

The Amenta

Whuuuut? Didn't even know they released a new one. I'll have to check it out!

Album of the year is a tie for me between Queens of the Stone Age-... Like Clockwork and David Maxim Micic- Bilo 3.0


Other great albums:

Olafur Arnalds- For Now I am Winter

Karinvool- Asymmetry

Tesseract- Altered Sate

Ghost- Infestissumam

Gogol Bordello- Pura Vida Conspiracy

Daft Punk- Random Access Memory

Jon Gomm- Secrets Nobody Keeps

Kavinsky- Outrun

Soilwork- The Living Infinite


Probably missing some, but those are the main ones for me.

It's too early to make a list. I haven't listened to everything and there are always sleeper-hits anyway (as it happens, the majority of the music that defined this year for me was released in 2012). But here's a couple that I already know will end up remembered as personal classics.

Vienna Teng - Aims
The prettiest album of the year for me. This lady's voice and her soothing electro-pop can save the day no matter how much shit is raining. It's really hard to pick a song to link. There is such variety throughout and the pieces all have their own distinctive character, striking a perfect balance between accessibility and creativity. It's colourful and keeps you excited for what comes next, no matter how much you'd like to put a song on repeat as well. Here are the two biggest hits.
[youtube]q1dLIq0okvA[/youtube]
[youtube]8ttTf8N7Bwg[/youtube]

Leprous - Coal
While I wouldn't rank it above Bilateral, that's only because of how insanely good that album is. Coal is not far behind, and that says something. This band deserves it all!
[youtube]1oO2rfXgCGY[/youtube]
[youtube]_9o2nVY8FZ0[/youtube]

[JuZ]

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