The 100 Albums Of 2013 You Need To Hear, Part 3/4

Crazy year for music – and it’s hard to believe 2013 is almost over. Here’s part 3 of the 100 albums from 2013 you need to check out. Enjoy!

#50: Ancients: “Heart Of Oak”

Personally, this album reminds me of everyone from Opeth to Russian Circles. Buoyed by a recent run with Tesseract earlier this year, their album “Heart Of Oak” needs to be in your speakers if you’re a fan of progressive metal that can be equally beautiful and aggressive.

#49: Sainthood Reps: “Headswell”

Run For Cover Records might be the best label on the planet right now. Look at what they’ve released this year – Turnover, Pity Sex, and Balance and Composure – just to name a few. All excellent albums, and the follow-up to the solid “Monoculture” is great. Listen to “Desert Song” and tell me it doesn’t remind you of Deja Entendu-era Brand New.

#48: Nine Inch Nails: “Hesitation Marks”

Welcome back, Trent Reznor and friends!

#47: Funeral For a Friend: “Conduit”

It’s strange that a somewhat disappointing album could rank this high for me. The only reason why is that it’s a little short at 29 minutes. But “Conduit” shows FFaF embracing hardcore punk for the first time. It rarely lets up – listen to tracks like “Grey” and the metal-tinged “Death Comes To Us All”.

#46: A Lot Like Birds: “No Place”

Listen to “No Place” here. It will blow you away.

#45: Coheed and Cambria: “The Afterman: Decension”

Part two of the Afterman series. Ranks up there with the best albums in their discography.

#44: Streetlight Manifesto: “The Hands That Thieve”

50 minutes of ska-punk. The best you’ll find in the genre this year.

#43: AFI: “Burials”

“17 Crimes” is the best AFI song I’ve heard in years. Davey Havok has never sounded better. Pretty spectacular album for a band that had gone 4 years between the solid “Crash Love” and now this.

#42: Full Of Hell: “Rudiments of Mutilation”

Heavy, dense, unrelenting brutality. A lethal concoction of hardcore, metal, and punk.

#41: Tera Melos: “X’ed Out”

More math rock/pop in the vein of TTNG. All this by only 3 band members.

#40: The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die: “Whenever, If Ever”

Post-rock and 90’s emo influences collide to make this one of many Topshelf Records bands that are starting to blow up. Recommended.

#39: State Faults: “Resonate/Desperate”

I’ve listened to this album more than any other the last few weeks. And for good reason. Intense post-hardcore and screamo-influences collide on their second full length, and they’ll be touring with Capsize soon as well.

#38: Steven Wilson: “The Raven That Refused To Sing”

I’d love to see Porcupine Tree put out a follow-up to “The Incident”, but this will do nicely. It depends on how much you love 70’s prog rock – but the payoff is so worth it.

#37: Silverstein: “This Is How The Wind Shifts”

Buoyed by accessible songs like “Massachusetts”, this could be Silverstein’s best overall record.

#36: The Black Dahlia Murder: “Everblack”

Another consistent album from one of the best modern metal bands. Also, look at that beautiful album art.

#35: Extol: “Extol”

8 years since “The Blueprint Dives” was released – but this self-titled album has more in common with their “Synergy” and “Undeceived” albums than anything else.

#34: My Bloody Valentine: “mbv”

It’s 2013 – and yes, new MBV actually happened. It’s similar to the classic Loveless sound, certainly, and that’s a great thing. Fuzzy, textured dream pop and shoegaze.

#33: Pelican: “Forever Becoming”

WOW. “Forever Becoming” is the post-metal giants first full-length in 4 years. Tracks like “Immutable Dusk” cement them as one of the genre’s best, and it’s reminiscent of the songwriting abilities that made their debut “Australasia” so great.

#32: Dillinger Escape Plan: “One Of Us Is The Killer”

One of the founders of mathcore, tracks like “Prancer” are sure to become live staples of their explosive live set.

#31: Dangerkids: “Collapse”

Combine influences from Pendulum, Innerpartysystem, and Linkin Park, add a dash of today’s post-hardcore, infuse some much-needed energy into the scene, and you have this excellent debut album from Dangerkids.

#30: Queens Of The Stone Age: “…Like Clockwork”

Critically acclaimed, per the usual, but “…Like Clockwork” is simply another great QOTSA album.

#29: Counterparts: “The Difference Between Hell And Home”

Melodic hardcore. Now, with 200% more emotion and feeling.
But seriously, it’s great to see bands like this not overly-reliant on breakdowns. They keep maturing on this, their third full-length, and it’s wonderful to see.

#28: Alter Bridge: “Fortress”

They may have started out as a band that played (admittedly great) radio rock, but “Fortress” is an exercise in technical musicianship and heaviness. Alter Bridge’s heaviest record – and Mark Tremonti/Myles Kennedy cement themselves as one of the best guitar/vocal tag teams in rock right now.

#27: August Burns Red: “Rescue and Restore”

I couldn’t stop tearing up during “Spirit Breaker” and “Beauty In Tragedy”. August Burns Red is on top of the metalcore pile right now.

#26: Modern Life Is War: “Fever Hunting”

The year of comebacks wouldn’t be complete without Modern Life Is War, who undoubtedly gained stature in the 5+ years between “Midnight In America” and “Fever Hunting”. It doesn’t disappoint – in fact, it stands up to the 2005 classic “Witness”.

#25-#1 coming soon.