As usual, I listened to a lot of music in 2013. When it came to metal, here are the 40 albums I listened to the most.

40. Bone Sickness: Alone in the Grave [20 Buck Spin]

39. Batillus: Concrete Sustain  [Seventh Rule]

38. Raspberry Bulbs: Deformed Worship [Blackest Ever Black]

37. GNAW: Horrible Chamber [Seventh Rule]

36. Altar of Plagues: Teethed Glory and Injury  [Profound Lore]

35. Locrian: Return to Annihilation [Relapse]

34. Atlantean Kodex: The White Goddess [Cruz del Sur]

33. Mouth of the Architect: Dawning [Translation Loss]

32. Celeste: Animale(s) [Denovali ]

31. The Body: Christs, Redeemers [Thrill Jockey]

30. Vaura: The Missing [Profound Lore]

29. Yellow Eyes: Hammer of Night [Sibir]

28. Windhand: Soma [Relapse]

27. Vastum: Patricidal Lust [20 Buck Spin]

26. Exhumed: Necrocracy [Relapse]

25. Vattnet Viskar: Sky Swallower [Century Media]

After a few lineup changes, the New Hampshire band solidified and followed their self-titled 2012 EP with a proper full-length, their first with Century Media. The EP was a strong opening statement, but Sky Swallower showcases a more confident Vattnet Viskar slowing down the black metal assault and stripping back the tremelo-buzz to make room for a muscular blend of post-rock and ambient doom with a hardcore thump. There are gorgeous stretches of clean guitars that surface between the crushing explosions—these are the moments where you hear the band finding their own voice and moving up the USBM foodchain in the process.

Vattnet Viskar: "Breath of the Almighty"

24. KEN mode: Entrench [Season of Mist]

Winnipeg noise-rock road warriors KEN Mode's fifth and best album, Entrench, was their first with bassist Andrew LaCour, also of Khann, and the first since winning a Juno for 2011's Venerable. It found the trio moving into bigger, more hardcore/metalcore-influenced spaces—they've always been intense, but Entrench saw them living up to the Get in the Van-inspired "Kill Everyone Now" of their name. They also worked more hooks and ambitious arrangements into their whiplash anthems. (Toward the end of the year, KEN mode posted a note on Facebook about destroying the cellphones of folks texting, or otherwise not paying attention, in the front rows at their shows. I find it hard to believe anyone in the front row would be able to look away from the band, one of the best in the live realm, but I welcome the development.)

KEN mode: "The Terror Pulse"

23. Autopsy: The Headless Ritual [Peaceville]

Bay Area death/doom pioneers Autopsy followed their suffocating 68-minute comeback record, Macabre Eternal—which made it to no. 14 on my 2011 list—with another stellar collection of crusty, punked-up, sludge-filled horror metal. The sound is a little cleaner than what they've churned out the in the past, which makes it that much easier to hear Danny Coralles and Eric Cutler's guitars intertwining behind Chris Reifert's unmistakable, fucked-up-preacher snarl. There are more old guys than usual on this list, and honestly, there could've been more. As a genre, metal did reunions and restarts right in 2013.

Autopsy: "Mangled Far Below"  

22. Skeletonwitch: Serpents Unleashed [Prosthetic]

Ohio blackened thrash/death band Skeletonwitch's fifth album, Serpents Unleashed, is their strongest collection in their decade as a band. They're a group who were alway excellent on stages (I booked them in a small room in early 2009 and they blew the roof off the place), but not as exciting on record. Serpents features plenty of dual guitar, gnarled Chance Garnette barks,  and fist-pumping rhythms: the bass has never sounded better, the hooks never more effective, and they penned a classic anthem with "More Cruel Than Weak".

Skeletonwitch: "I Am of Death (Hell Has Arrived)"

21. Oranssi Pazuzu: Velonielu [20 Buck Spin / Svart]

 The Finnish band Oranssi Pazuzu blend psychedelia, space rock, and black metal in a way that respects each approach individually. Their third album, Velonielu, opens with noisy keyboard fuzz, spiraling guitars, and a kraut-rock beat, and over the course of these six songs (and 47 minutes), locates a crunchy sweet spot that's grim but groovy, stoned but "satanic." Until the BM vocals enter at the 7-minute mark of the moody, acid-drenched 15-minute closer, "Ympyrä On Viiva Tomussa", you could imagine it making sense as a vintage Twisted Village 12" featuring one or two members of Sun City Girls.

  Oranssi Pazuzu: "Olen Aukaissut Uuden Silmän"

20. Castevet: Obsian [Profound Lore]

The Brooklyn trio's second album is a masterclass in progressive black metal that's as complex and mathy as it is catchy. The trio's fronted by vocalist/visionary guitarist Andrew Hock (Psalm Zero) and fleshed out by drummer Ian Jacyszyn (Copremesis) and Krallice bassist/vocalist Nicholas McMaster. A labyrinthine 36 minutes, Obsian is light and airy, dark and punishing. Full of unexpected shifts and inspired curve balls, it's both violent and plaintive, obsessive-compulsive and loose, melancholic and raging. Think of it as a blackened house of mirors.

Castevet: "As Fathomed by Beggars and Victims"

19. The Ruins of Beverast: Blood Vaults – The Blazing Gospel of Heinrich Kramer [Ván]

Ex-Nagelfar drummer Alexander von Meilenwald's fourth album is more or less a one-man stage play about the German churchman/inquisitor named in the title. Across these nine songs and 79 minutes, he delivers his lines, chews the scenery, and ties together funeral doom, death metal, and all kinds of weird shit. Unlike a lot of albums labelled "black metal," he's inventive with this vocal approach, mixing in clean (and mournful) psych singing and stuttered loops. It's his most d00m-flavored offering so far, something that goes well with the subject matter.

The Ruins of Beverast: "Daemon"

18. ASG: Blood Drive [Relapse]

The North Carolina band ASG's sludgy psychedelia and poppy Southern heavy rock is at its best on their fourth album. The quartet aren't afraid of grooves, and they don't cower from fist-pumping anthems. It's sunny music that'd make fans of Torche and Queens of the Stone Age perk up their ears. At the center of that sound is vocalist Jason Shi, who drives home hooks with an upper register semi-falsetto that's melodic when it needs to be, with an occasional gruffness. It can bring to mind 90s alternative bands as well as a skate rock group you caught on a Powell-Peralta video during the early part of same decade.

ASG: "Avalanche" (Buy on Bandcamp)

17. Grave Miasma: Odori Sepulcrorum [Profound Lore]

When they formed in 2002, Grave Miasmi were originally called Goat Molestör, a colorful name they kept until for years. But it wasn't until this year that they released their proper debut full-length, Odori Sepulcrorum. The UK death metal act may bring to mind the likes of Necros Christos with their deeply warped ambiance (subtly working in sitar, gongs, oud, Hammond organ), as well as a band like Dead Congregation, who manage to evoke and emulate the old days of death metal while putting their own putrid stamp on the template. Odori is deeply atmospheric (like a wet cave) with echoing vocals and a sinister tone, but what makes it so great is the strong songwriting—and all those riffs. 

Grave Miasma: "Ovation to a Thousand Lost Reveries" (via SoundCloud)

16. Tribulation: The Formulas of Death [Invictus Productions]

The Swedish death metal band followed 2009's The Horror with The Formulas of Death, a vast, challenging 76-minute collection that folds in more progressive, thrash, clean guitars, and black metal, and basically tosses away the original template entirely. It's an effective, effusive mix—upbeat punk ragers meet with retro Swedish death, Eastern chords open up to forward marching post-metal, somber piano excursions follow rollicking crust anthems, and Mercyful Fate overlaps with Morbid Angel. There are two songs that go beyond the 10-minute mark; the length feels like a necessary part of this ambitious, carefully crafted whole. "Death metal" for stadiums.

  Tribulation: "Wanderer in the Outer Darkness"

15. In Solitude: Sister [Metal Blade]

I feel like I was one of the (very) few people who was initially more into the King Diamond/Mercyful Fate worship of Pelle Åhman and company's first two records, especially the excellent The World. The Flesh. The Devil. But the sweeping, moodier heavy goth rock/metal styling of Sister ultimately worked its black magic on me in a big way. The vintage cult-rock atmosphere is pitch-perfect, the singing impeccable, the xylophone coda just right, and I was more than once reminded of a time in my life when I honestly loved Danzig. It's exciting hearing such a young band finding their own voice, and lodging a couple classic-seeming tunes ("Death Knows Where", "Pallid Hands") in the process. (Trivia: Of the Swedish group's working in this mode this year, In Solitude ran laps around Ghost B.C.)

  In Solitude: "Pallid Hands"  

14. Nails: Abandon All Life [Southern Lord]

Nails cram their brief, constantly shifting tracks with a chaotic blend of hardcore, D-Beat, grindcore, powerviolence, and death metal. It's complex music that plows ahead while moving internally in dozens of directions. The California quartet's second album Abandon All Life is a bracing, cathartic, darkly anthemic collection that speeds past in just over 17 minutes. People usually don't think of hardcore punk as "headphone" music. Nails should be played loudly, of course, but they should also be listened to carefully on headphones at some point to appreciate how they're layering these elements and creating something so seamless.

Nails: "God's Cold Hands"

13. Russian Circles: Memorial [Sargent House]

The Chicago trio Russian Circles' somber-but-sky-melting fifth album Memorial follows 2011's Empros. That was a strong effort, but the eight tracks here feel more polished and fluid, bigger and yet somehow more intimate. Empros had a swing to it, a groove that bled between tracks even when they got darker or heavier. Memorial offers more pronounced dynamics in both directions—the metal moments frenzied, the quiet parts somber and restrained—and instead of offering a push or pull, it goes for bigger climaxes. Instrumental metal is nothing new, but Russian Circles have a way of making the enterprise feel fresh again.

Russian Circles: "1777" (via SoundCloud)

12. VHÖL: VHÖL [Profound Lore]

On VHÖL, ex-Ludicra bandmates, drummer Aesop Dekker (also of Agalloch) and guitarist John Cobbett (also of Hammers of Misfortune), join forces with Yob vocalist/guitarist Mike Scheidt (who focuses on vocals here) and Hammers keyboardist Sigrid Sheie (who plays bass) for a set of progressive, thrashy blackened hardcore. These are extended cathartic blasts, full of raw melody, manic riffs, and Scheidt's shape-shifting vocals (gharly howl, hardcore bark, vintage metal falsetto), and it's a riot. A bit like Krallice covering Void, or a power metal D-beat crew, and one of the most cathartic albums of 2013.

VHÖL: "Grace"

11. Inter Arma: Sky Burial [Relapse]

Richmond, Va., quintet Inter Arma shares three members with the black metal band Bastard Sapling, but Inter Arma offer a very different sound—an open-ended, gimmick-free mix of doom, Americana, sludge, groove metal, Southern acoustic ambiance, and filthy crust psychedelia. From the audacious 10-minute drumroll of an opener "The Survival Fires" through to the woozy noir of the 13-minute title track closer (a song that takes its time and then explodes), their second album, Sky Burial, is a perfecty sequenced revelation. (I feel like it's the soundtrack for Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, if we ever need one.) Also, if they come to your town, they're one of the best live acts of the year, too.

Inter Arma: "'sblood" (via SoundCloud)

10. Noisem: Agony Defined [A389]

On their exhilarating debut, these Baltimore teenagers conjure old-school whammy-riding thrash, dipped with death metal, grind, and punk: It's a blitzkrieg of nine dexterous songs in 26 minutes, Tyler Carnes' rough vocals rawly riding the wave of sounds beneath it. In his review for Pitchfork, Miles Raymer astutely compared his vocal approach to Iceage's Elias Bender Rønnenfelt. Personally, Noisem reminds me of the stuff that got me into metal as a kid, when I'd moved beyond the hair metal of MTV and into the speed/thrash shit happening at pay-to-play venues in Southern NJ. Or, really, when a friend brought a copy of Black Flag's Damaged to my "thrash" band's practice.

Noisem: "Severed"

09. Subrosa: More Constant Than the Gods [Profound Lore]

It's been fairly standard for people to focus on the instrumentation of the Salt Lake City, Utah, doom band SubRosa. Which is fair enough—not many metal groups have two violins and three female vocalists working alongside paino, cello, dulcimer, guitars, bass, and drums—but they wouldn't be interesting if they weren't writing such great songs. Their third full-length offers more than a few of their best: From spectral-then-crushing 14-minute opener "The Usher" to the chilling, piano-and flute-lined 12-minute closer, "No Safe Harbor", SubRosa rollout long, but easy-to-digest meditations and athems that blend thick sludge with 90s alt rock and folk. The material is dark, featuring words about loss, ghosts, sadness, mortality, and famine, but More Constant Than the Gods is always somehow uplifting, even when the band drifts into a haze of distortion and minor keys.

SubRosa: "Cosey Mo"

08. Carcass: Surgical Steel [Nuclear Blast]

The British death metal band's first album since 1996's Swansong is also one of their best. Not something you can say often about reunited groups. In fact, a couple of months before the release, I was asked if I wanted to do a show with Carcass at St. Vitus in Brooklyn; knowing how these kinds of reunions can go, I asked to hear the album before deciding, and was blown away. Surgical Steel is a fusion of their earlier, more aggressive sound with the progressive tendencies of 1993's Heartwork, and it manages to be both nostalgic and forward thinking.

Carcass: "Unfit For Human Consumption"

07. Darkthrone: The Underground Resistance [Peaceville]

Darkthrone have aged better than any of their Second Wave of Black Metal counterparts. Starting with 2006's Too Old, Too Cold EP, the Norwegian duo started exploring crust punk and showcasing a humorous side that anybody who'd ever read an interview with drummer/vocalist/bassist/hiker/blogger Fenriz already knew existed. On their 16th studio album, The Underground Resistance, Fenriz and guitarist/bassist/vocalist Nocturno Culto look at early 80s metal, or as they write in the liner notes regarding album centerpiece "Leave no Cross Unturned": "This song is again 1984 style speed with thrash indications in verse and refrain, an the middle parts are 1984/85 Celtic Frost-y with an added heavy metal riff." Elsewhere, they pay homage to Maiden, Uriah Heep, Gypsy, Motörhead, Helloween, etc. I got into metal in the 80s thanks to an older hair-metal sister. The Underground Resistance is a record she'd be into, too, and it brought me back to discovering metal, and the joy this kind of music can bring.

Darkthrone: "Leave No Cross Unturned"

06. Lycus: Tempest [20 Buck Spin]

The Oakland funeral doom band Lycus' tormented, but compulsively listenable full-length debut, Tempest, features three anquished songs that drift gorgeously for 41 minutes. It's a basic guitar/drums/bass lineup, but three voices bellow into the abyss, creating a dynamic choir, and there's guest violin on two of the tracks, keyboards on one. Those are small accents, but they're smart choices that push Tempest further than similiar collections, making it something I honestly returned to daily. Even Paolo Girardi's sunsetting cover art, which depicts the skeletal remains of a shipwreck beneath a brilliant sky, is perfectly pitched.

Lycus: "Coma Burn"

05. Gorguts: Colored Sands [Season of Mist]

Colored Sands is the Quebec band Gorguts' first record in 12 years. It's difficult to situate them entirely in that province because though founding vocalist/guitarist Luc Lemay still runs the show and writes most of the songs, he's now backed by NYC's Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia) on guitar, Colin Marston (Krallice, Dysrhythmia, Behold…the Arctopus) on bass, and John Longstreth of Kansas' Origin on drums. The thing is, they all joined him in 2009, so they had plenty of time to gel before releasing Colored Sands, where they sound like finely tuned veterans. It's complex, aggressive technical death metal that finds space for beauty and gentleness, including a classical string quartet piece and tons of atmosphere. It's aggressive, but weirdly dainty. Lemay's lyrics focus on Tibetan Buddhism and there are transitional pieces that feel like monks ringing chimes in the dark.

Gorguts: "An Ocean of Wisdom"

04. Power Trip: Manifest Decimation [Southern Lord]

Dallas band Power Trip play frantic crossover thrash that makes for amazing live shows. At any given time, whirling dervish Frontman Riley Gale can sound like Lemmy fronting Cro-Mags, Discharge, Exodus, or Nuclear Assault; other times, he locates a grizzlier tone that evokes guys wearing corpsepaint. On the quintet's huge-sounding eight-song debut LP Manifest Decimation, they match the live intensity: The collection finds the band easily filling 35 minutes with great riffs, catchy shout-along choruses, legit "mosh parts," and ambient bits that don't take away from the overall intensity. The cover art, by Italian artist Paolo "Madman" Girardi, gives you an idea of that atmosphere, which includes samples about both death and Texas.

Power Trip: "Manifest Decimation"

03. Inquisition: Obscure Verses for the Multiverse [Season of Mist]