Best of 2013 in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal ... Part 3

Sabbath returns, death metal breathes fire, Ghost gets eclectic
By Peter Lindblad

Death metal did not take a holiday in 2013. Ghost took a strange, but wonderfully odd left turn into psychedelic pop and progressive-rock. Toxic Holocaust taught us all about chemistry, and heavy metal's godfathers made 13 their lucky number.

Let's be honest: 2013 was all about Black Sabbath. 13 was surprisingly virile and dark as night, mapping out territory they've explored before, but stumbling upon fresh ideas and deep caverns of rumbling menace in doing so. And that made it a top 10 favorite.

Exhumed also made a comeback in 2010, and that led to Necrocracy, one of the most devastatingly brutal records of their career. Ghost's (the B.C. is, as they say, silent) Infestissumam was a little out of character for them, but its architecture was stunning. Furthermore, everyone should join The Resistance. Their Scars will never heal, but you wouldn't want them to.

Here are 10-6 in our "Best of 2013 in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal" list of albums, Part 3:

Exhumed - Necrocracy 2013

10. Exhumed: Necrocracy – Death metal sourpusses Exhumed returned with furious vengeance in 2013, lashing out with murderous hatred at a political system so bloated and corrupt that to truly capture just how ugly society and government have become, only the revolting imagery and language of rotting corpses and gory violence can adequately describe the horror. Captained by a singer who growls like a grizzly bear possessed by demons, Exhumed grinds and thrashes its way through the carnage with angry, doom-laden riffs, vicious grooves and complex, contorted dynamics that shift speeds seamlessly on this joyless ride from an evil, spindly crawl to a immense, fast-moving conflagration. Not for the faint of heart.

Toxic Holocaust - Chemistry of
Consciousness 2013

9. Toxic Holocaust: Chemistry of Consciousness – Joel Grind gets an A in science for Chemistry of Consciousness. Less trashy and disease-ridden than past Toxic Holocaust recordings, but just as combustible, Chemistry of Consciousness sharply focuses Grind's love of crusty D-beat and dangerously fast thrash metal into nuclear weaponry that could almost be described as sleek or streamlined, were it not for Toxic Holocaust's feral rage. Never for a second does Chemistry of Consciousness lose any bit of its momentum or ferocity. It is a relentless attack, binging on and then purging itself of Venom or Bathory influences, as Toxic Holocaust forges its own identity and fearsome reputation. 

Black Sabbath - 13 2013

8. Black Sabbath: 13 – Three-fourths of the original Black Sabbath is better than nothing. Although this much-ballyhooed reunion fell short of reuniting the entire original lineup, it did produce the kind of churning, sludgy riffage that only Tony Iommi can dream up, while painting a charred, burned-out landscape of doom metal that's the stuff of good old-fashioned nightmares. And while it feels as if Sabbath has come full circle, revisiting its exhilarating early days one last time, 13 doesn't simply rehash the past. What fresh hell is this? It's one of Sabbath's making, full of awesome dread, soul-crushing alienation and the sense that God may have abandoned this place. It could be that this is Sabbath's last meal. What a satisfying one it is.

The Resistance - Scars

7. The Resistance: Scars – Somehow, Scars fell between the cracks. At least it did for critics. Hardly any Best of … lists for this year have mentioned the latest from these raging death-metal hardliners, and that's a shame. Scars gives a whole new meaning to the word "intensity." Aggressive from the word "go" and set ablaze with outright hostility, Scars sees these In Flames refugees slamming and crashing into anything their path, and then rising from the burning wreckage to do it all over again. Blistering speed is prized by The Resistance, but they are also completely into complexity and chaotic, high-impact dynamics, the likes of which are breathtaking to behold.  

Ghost - Infestissuman 2013

6. Ghost: Infestissumam – A coat of many sonic colors from these mysteriously Satanic Swedes, the defiantly diverse Infestissumam certainly threw a pop-oriented curveball at the world of heavy metal, leaving some to wonder whether they'd wandered too far off the path. Ghost's wildly eclectic ambitions came to the fore on Infestissuman, as their progressive and psychedelic inclinations drive songs that assume more pleasing shapes than past efforts, enhanced by choirs and other not-so metal accoutrements. Are they trying to redefine heavy metal? Maybe. They've certainly pushed its boundaries pretty far on Infestissuman, an album that grows more and more enticing with repeated listens. The darkness will return, and when it does, Ghost's black magic may be more powerful than ever.

CD Review: Exhumed – Necrocracy

CD Review: Exhumed – Necrocracy

Relapse Records

All Access Rating: A-

Exhumed - Necrocracy 2013

For those about to die in the most gruesome, horrific ways imaginable, Exhumed salutes you. As gory as the busiest of abattoirs, records from these grisly Bay Area grindcore ghouls take a backseat to no one when it comes to painting revolting scenes of blood-splattered, dismembered corpses and how they got that way.

The sicker the better for guitarist/vocalist Matt Harvey, the lone original member of Exhumed left standing after more than 20 years of lineup instability, and he appreciates the sacrifice of those who have shuffled off this mortal coil in shockingly violent fashion. For without them, he’d have nothing to sing about – well, except politics, that is. And relationships, societal decay and economic distress … see there’s more going on with Exhumed than meets the eye. Take Necrocracy, Exhumed’s upcoming release for Relapse Records, for example.

Decomposing flesh and maimed bodies make for not-so-subtle metaphors of a bloated U.S. political system being drawn and quartered by corruption, greed and the erosion of civil rights in the punishingly heavy, high-velocity death-metal of “The Rotting,” the title track and “Carrion Call.” Or maybe Exhumed just enjoys a good lyrical blood feast now and then.

Whatever the case, Necrocracy – due out in August – also happens to contain some of the meatiest riffage of Exhumed’s tortured lifespan. Mauling, churning guitars, back-breaking tempo changes, frenzied blast beats and cave-deep growls and feral screeching reanimate an Exhumed that still looks to traditional thrash and death-metal misanthropes like Carcass and Entombed as mentors of death-metal mayhem. Thatching together a multi-layered bulletproof vest of overlapping, ever-evolving guitar parts and low-slung bass rumbling, Exhumed mines an infectious, visceral groove in “Coins upon the Eyes” that’s resistant to antibiotics, while “Dysmorphic” grinds flesh, tendons and bones into hamburger with flesh-tearing hooks of great tensile strength, unstoppable momentum and searing guitar leads – all of it bridged briefly with a rickety acoustic passage of evil that portends doom.

There is melody to be found in the surprisingly well-sculpted twin-guitar figures planted throughout Necrocracy and the rare progressive passages unearthed in “Sickened,” but there’s gold to be discovered in the mountains of furious, doom-laden riffs on Necrocracy, not to mention the demented, contorted dynamics that twist the dizzying “The Shapes of Deaths to Come” and “(So Passes) the Glory of Death” into impossible metal yoga positions.

Not addicted to speed anymore, Exhumed takes obscene pleasure in witnessing the trudging, writhing agony of their complex instrumental movements, but when the time is right to go on a murderous sonic rampage, they never hesitate. Necrocracy is a pit of sinister, angry pythons slithering all over each other and ready to squeeze the life out of anything that engages it. It goes down a maze of dark scary alleys that reek of death, and it runs with the bulls, almost hoping to get gored. Though they add demonic texture at times, the terrifying vocals can be a little much, as are the excessive and sometimes gratuitous lyrical autopsies performed here. Dig past that, and Necrocracy rewards bravery and a strong stomach.

– Peter Lindblad