This one has been a long, long, long time coming. Indeed, one could certainly have expected this on the 1st of October as we’ve been pretty good about that in the second half of the year here. Anyway, October was alright. It had some top notch releases, and coincidentally Ed Warby is featured not once, but twice. How ’bout them apples?
Apparently the heavy metal gods waited for September 2013 to unleash a shitstorm of fantastic records. Indeed, it’s difficult to understand how the year could be so goddamned back-loaded as it has been. Up until this point there were some good records and then suddenly September came along and we apparently hit the year’s goldmine. […]
After July’s lull, it’s important to remember that there are some big releases that hit in August (though, it seems like the big hit is coming in September: Haken, Týr, Carcass, Ulcerate, etc.). This wasn’t the worst month ever, that’s for sure. There was some really amazing stuff going on here, actually. Still, there really was no serious competition for the top spot this month. Nej, indeed, it was pretty obvious all along that Swanö was going for the win with his new project Witherscape.
For those of you unaware, July is always the slowest month for releases. This has to do with the fact that major labels basically shut down for the festival season, releasing live records and DVDs, but rarely new albums. In fact, I suspect that only shitty records get released during this period by most record labels; though that is entirely speculation. In any case, July tends to be a bit of a weak month and 2013 is a weak year, so that doesn’t say a lot for any possible Record o’ the Month right now. Still, that might be a bit misleading, as we had a few records that came out in July that were worth your time. One in particular blew away the competition…
I’ll admit it: June was better than much of the year before it. I mean that as in: June produced more records I really like than the entire month before it in almost its entirety. It gave us great releases from Amon Amarth, Autopsy, Summoning, Locrian, Author & Punisher, Svart Crown, Queensrÿche, Black Sabbath, White Wizzard (no accounting for taste, as they say), and last (but certainly not least) The Black Dahlia Murder. That’s a list not to be trifled with. So let’s cut through the bullshit and hand out the award for Record o’ the Month!
“Yes, this is a bit late, but we were so bitter, we just couldn’t rouse ourselves to do our AMG duty to you, the readers. You see, 2013 is fast becoming a remorseless factory of sadness, with major release after major release disappointing or underwhelming (and sometimes flat-out sucking). While this trend is alarming and disturbing, let not your heart be troubled, for even in the most rancid of compost heaps, treasures can be found if one digs deep enough (yuck). It seems we will be relying on the lesser known and in some cases, completely unheralded acts to bail our collective fat out of the proverbial fire this year, and no month demonstrates that better than May.” Better late than never, you wonks!
April has not been a disappointing month. In fact, April has seen our highest scores yet of 2013 as things begin to ramp up. And that’s good because sweet jeebus this year has been looking pretty mediocre-to-bad so far. However, something not really expected, is that this month it wasn’t Amorphis or Ghost or any of the other big names that really rocked our worlds. Instead the world rockin’ came from less expected places on the spectrum. Following here…
Despite a stronger crop of records as the month of March inched along, 2013 is still not shaping up to be the best of years for metal. The dearth of ratings over 4.0 probably has something to do with my beating the “don’t overrate shit” drum loudly and repeatedly – it certainly has made me very conservative – but it’s also just that the crop of records hasn’t been super great. Still, there is ONE record that doesn’t deserve to be mentioned among the year’s more mediocre fare, and it is our Record o’ the Month for March, 2013.
So as everyone from the southern hemisphere has apparently noticed, a record of the month for February has not actually be chosen. This is, honestly, because the month really didn’t shine like one would hope it would have. Not to say that none of the records were good or even very good – they were! — but while others at the blog were fairly enthusiastic about certain releases, none of them really reached the heights that I think they should have to be awarded with the Record o’ the Month with ease. Still, a tradition is a tradition, and Angry Metal Readers have been pestering me non-stop about it. So, here it is.
After donning the blue and gold on AngryMetalGuy.com for a whole month and making every red-blooded Swede vaguely uncomfortable due to the latent nationalism that they can’t possibly ever admit to, it’s time for a change. Indeed, 2013’s first month has passed and while it hasn’t been extraordinarily explosive, it brought with it a few great releases that deserve a second (or third or fourth) look. So, without further ado…
