2013 has ended and it’s time to make up the balance of what it has brought our beloved genre. Of course end of year lists are an excellent way to give an overview of albums which you should have at least heard this year. Since we have also a long standing tradition at Metalrage providing our faithful readers with our end of year lists (unfortunately due to the hard drive crash this year, old lists can’t be found on our website, so you have to take my word for it) 2013 is no different. If you click the links below you can find the lists per editor.
 

A lot of music critics have hailed 2013 as an excellent year for metal and indeed it was. Especially if we look in the more extreme metal genres we have found some earth shattering albums. This is mostly true in the death metal genres. So many excellent death metal releases in one year is not something we have witnessed in recent years. What to think of the latest Gorguts and Ulcerate records for example, but also the return of the mighty Carcass? But also black metal kept it’s end up with stellar releases, like Deafheaven’s Sunbather.
 

Other trends that we have witnessed is the cooling down of the Thrash revival, the steady growth of the so called “Entombed-sound” and the rise to popularity of the seventies rock infused bands and the “occult rock” bands.
 

What can we expect for 2014? Some big named bands are in the studio for their 2014 releases. Bands like Mastodon, Metallica, Anthrax and Machine Head are all shaping up to come with some major albums. And of course we hope that some new musical talent will arrive from all places of the world to take the metal community by storm.
 

At Metalrage we’re also looking forward to 2014. Buzzin’ Hornet did a marvelous job by restyling our website and we hope that it enhances your reading pleasures. We’re very much interested in your take on things, so don’t hesistate to contact us. Same goes for people who are interested in writing for us, just drop us an email ([email protected])!