Looking Back At 2013: Part 1 of 3

In Sergio Leone's seminal spaghetti western cult movie «The Good, The Bad and The Ugly», there is a recurring line in which the world is divided in two kinds of people. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. Those with the rope around their necks, and those who have the job of doing the cutting. We here at Radioactive Decay believe the world can also be divided between those who are list freaks and those who aren't. We are.

With that in mind, it's not entirely surprising that as we step into December, it's that time of the year again, the time to review 2013 musically as a whole. To do just that, we lumped together thirty records that really rocked our world for the past eleven months. Regardless of our love for compiling lists, there's one thing we certainly love even more and that is simply enjoying great music. Something that, fortunately, is in no short supply, year after year after year.

Our "Top 30" list is ordered ascendingly all the way to the top, and will be published in three parts, each Tuesday until December, 17. Yet, for the most part, you could just shuffle it randomly and always come up with a coherent and meaningful order, as music this good is well beyond mere ordering or competition. And of course, for every thirty albums we choose, there's at least another three hundred we could have picked instead.

So without further ado...

30. ASG, «Blood Drive»

Huge stoner riffs coated in psychedelic overtones may be slightly old news but North Carolina's ASG really hit gold with their fourth album, «Blood Drive». Their brand of heavy southern rock has a distinctive poppy edge, bringing to mind the best of the 90's alternative crop, largely thanks to Jason Shi's incredibly melodic upper register, which he can twist and turn into an almost croon in the blink of an eye. Dangerously addictive, it's one of those records you find yourself, unexpectedly, craving like sugar.

29. The Winery Dogs, «The Winery Dogs»

A bunch of great players together not always a good team maketh, yet in the case of The Winery Dogs it's been like veni, vidi, vici. Of course when you put together ex-Dream Theater sticksman Mike Portnoy, bass virtuoso Billy Sheehan and wildcard Richie Kotzen, intently on scaling down and rocking out like their age is cut in half, things are bound to get interesting. Their self-tilted debut is a hook masterclass, every song a potential hit single, surely owing to a range of classic rock influences yet coming across all their own. [RD interview with drummer Mike Portnoy]

28. Krypts, «Unending Degradation»

The seemingly unending ressurgence of old school death metal by way of new bands strongly rooted in days gone by had led to some pretty interesting stuff. Finnish death/doom outfit Krypts are one such example, flying the Finnish flag pretty high on their debut full-length «Unending Degradation», compensating in putrid, claustrophobic atmosphere its slight deficit of memorable riffs. Fans of more modern sounding metal have no business here, but if OSDM is your cup of tea, missing this one would be a huge, hefty, stinking faux-pas.

27. Kadavar, «Abra Kadavar»

Some bands have to content themselves with just riding waves created by others. Kadavar, hailing from Berlin, proudly stand in the second pack, its retro rock and heavy psych brimming with authenticity while openly paying tribute to genre luminaries such as 70's Black Sabbath, the best of Pentagram and especially Blue Cheer. Derivative it may be, but few bands have been this convincing in reinterpreting the masters. And if you're not sold by the time second track «Doomsday Machine» rolls out, something must be up with your rock 'n roll fuse.

26. Earthless, «From The Ages»

Isaiah Mitchell and pals hadn't recorded as Earthless for half a decade, but their cult following can now rest assured that the flame is still burning. More than ever, actually, as «From The Ages»' four tracks display everything that has ever been great from the California-based trio and then some. Psychedelic, spaced out, instrumental rock with a free flow and general sense of larger-than-life jammin' entitlement that will satiate fans and have them entertained while soaking up this trip for a good while. [RD review]

25. Year Of No Light, «Tocsin»

A perfect example of evolution as a band, Year Of No Light became an instrumental sextet along the way and the exploration of that format has crystallized into the brooding yet somehow hopeful «Tocsin», a conceptual wake up call for this world of ours. While it may not be their easiest record to digest and absorb, taking its time to develop with a rhythm of its own, it can be extremely rewarding and it is certainly their most cohesive effort to date. [RD review]

24. Kylesa, «Ultraviolet»

Crust punk may be a long lost memory in Kylesa's catalog but that is to be expected from a band that always managed to turn adversity into evolution. Whatever got people to stick the sludge tag in them is also much less prevalent on the band's sixth outing, giving way to hazy psychedelia, often flirting with shoegaze while maintaining an acute sense of dynamics and pop(-ish) melody. It may not be the sensorial assault of 2009's «Static Tensions», yey the more restrained approach works on a different, but equally satisfying range of the spectrum.

23. Rorcal, «Vilagvége»

Rorcal have proved able to conjure an incredible racket before, but ironically it's on the eerie and absolute void between each sparse hit of the isolated drums serving as «Vilagvége»'s intro that they sound at their most menacing. Apocalyptic could be the fitting adjective here, but not in a slow burning, Neurosis kind of way. Rorcal's end of the world is violent, furious and unrelenting and even the moments of brief respite are draining and unsettling. Attempting to pigeonhole the band's sound is useless as by the time you reach the end of «Vilagvége» everything has been obliterated.

22. Autopsy, «The Headless Ritual»

There's a reason why Autopsy gets name-dropped like the plague and that has not been lost during the California death metal staple's 15-year absence from the studio. While their return with «Macabre Eternal» in 2011 showed a willingness to attempt some new ideas, their new «Headless Ritual» harkens back again to the old days. Take the incredibly groovy carnage of «Mangled Far Below» or the refined death/doom in «She Is A Funeral» or «Coffin Crawlers» and it becomes clear that Autopsy still excel at this particularly grimy genre of death metal.

21. Cult Of Luna, «Vertikal»

Given this band's past history, five years was already feeling like a long time in the making for their next offering. But when «Vertikal» surfaced, the delay was "forgiven" for the new album turned out to be ambitiously conceptual and based around Fritz Lang's 1929 cult sci-fi movie «Metropolis». Sweden's Cult of Luna earned its right to be among a triad known as the Cult of Neurisis (you can guess the other two) and synth-heavy «Vertikal» honors their tradition, largely thanks to the huge riffs of cuts such as «I: The Weapon», «In Awe Of» or the near-20 minute epic, «Vicarious Redemption».



Look out for the final two installments, coming on tuesdays, Dec 10th and 17th, respectively.