Record(s) o’ the Month – October 2013

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. But no, it took me a long time to get that Ayreon review done, and I didn’t want to to make the Record o’ the Month for October a record that hadn’t yet been reviewed, forcing you to sit around and wait for a review to show up. That seems unfair. Anyway, October was a pretty good month. It had some top notch releases, coincidentally Ed Warby is featured not once, but twice. How ’bout them apples?

Ayreon - The Theory of Everything

The Record o’ the Month for October is The Theory of Everything. It was released at the end of October all over the worldses, and so it needs to be the RoM for October. It is a truly impressive and entertaining piece of art from my favorite Dutchperson to whom I’m not related. Obviously I am running out of superlatives, given the glowing tone of my review, but let me just say that this record is really one of my favorites that I’ve heard this year and easily the best record I’ve heard in a long time. If you haven’t been convinced to check this out by now, there’s no convincing you.

Runners up:

Hail of Bullets - III - The Rommel ChroniclesHail of Bullets // III – The Rommel Chronicles Steel Druhm was mighty taken with this Bolt Thrower influenced slab of death metal. “This is a death metal album for the death metal fan and if you haven’t gotten on the Hail of Bullets war wagon yet, you’re collaborating with mediocrity and deserve to be shot in the foot and/or leg. That’s the only way some people learn to support good music! WAR!”

Inquisition - Obscure VersesInquisition // Obscure Verses for the MultiverseJordan Campbell is not a man easily impressed. In fact, he’s kind of a crank who likes his fare disturbing, underground, and damned near perfect. So it’s with a pretty massive pair of iron cajones that you ignore praise like this: “Obscure Verses is easily the most accomplished record of the band’s career. The production is robust, the packaging absurd, and the scope? Infinite.”

SkeletonwitchSkeletonwitch // Serpents Unleashed Happy Metal Guy might have some terrible taste in music, but he sniffed out a winner in Skeletonwitch’s newest record, and lauded their similarity to a parasite: “Serpents Unleashed should have a spot in one’s must-buy list for this year. Once let out of their physical cage, expect those sonic snakes to slither into your ear canals, coil around your brain tightly and stubbornly refuse to leave.”

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