Hard to believe another year has gone by. This year has been amazing for new music, so I'm not going to do a top 5, I am doing a top 10 albums of 2013.
Number 10: Heaven & Earth - Dig. Where did these guys come from ? I don't know why I bought this CD, or how I heard of it ( I buy at least 10 CDs a month, and through Amazon, so they come a month after I order them ). But when it came, I scanned the personnel for anyone I'd heard of. Nope. I put it on, and the first thing I thought was, 'this guitar player likes Ritchie Blackmore'. Then the singing started and I thought 'This guy sounds like Dio!.' Put those together and you have a band that is channelling early Rainbow, to brilliant effect. If you've not heard this, you should.
Number 9: Scorpion Child - self titled. I had a chance to see Clutch while in the US, but I had a day to organise it and didn't get it together. Afterwards I discovered the opening band, Scorpion Child. Like Heaven & Earth, they are channelling 70s rock, but in a much more generic way. This is not a bad thing, it just means they sound 70s, not like a specific 70s band. They are a lot of fun, and well worth checking out.
Number 8: Airbourne - Black Dog Barking. With the possible exception of Motorhead, THE most brutal pit I've been in was being right in the middle for Airbourne in a tiny uni bar in Canberra this year. Was it worth it ? Yes. These guys opened for Motorhead in that other show I was thinking of, in Melbourne, and I've seen them at Rock on the Range before, but they always put on a great show. With Black Dog Barking, the song writing seems to have gone up a notch, although it still sounds like what AC/DC would have sounded like if they never got to be middle aged (and beyond).
Number 7: Asking Alexandria - From Death to Destiny. From here on in, every band in my top 10, is at the Soundwave festival next year, bar Stone Sour (they were there last year, I was at the barrier). Like a lot of screamo bands, Asking Alexandria seem to be mixing it up with some actual singing, and it's really made all the difference. I have the older albums, but don't like them that much. The new one has been in constant rotation since I got it. Heavy guitars, a mix of rough and clean vocals, great songwriting, great hooks, I can't wait to see these guys live.
Number 6: Trivium - Vengeance Falls. I've followed Trivium from a distance for a while, buying their CDs and giving them a listen, but not thinking much of them. The last time Matt sang was on 'The Crusade', which sounded like the band had been dumpster diving for Metallica's rejected riff tapes. This time the singing makes the quality and originality of the songs really shine through. Another classic heavy metal masterpiece of 2013.
Number 5: Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor. John 5 is perhaps the best guitar player around, today. Certainly he is one of the most versatile, and it's always interesting to me that he is willing to bury all those skills to play for the song in a band like Zombie, which really is about groove, not virtuosity. I loved the last album, I think I love this one even more.
Number 4: 5FDP - The Wrong Side of Heaven, The Righteous Side of Hell (1 and 2). If these guys had not released two albums this year, they would still be on the list, but perhaps lower down. But the combined weight of 2 equally consistent albums of their brand of heavy rock, gets them the fourth position in my best of for 2013.
Number 3: Alter Bridge - Fortress. I remember being asked if I'd 'discovered' this band around the time of 'Blackbird'. I had not, and did not, at the time. I more got in to Myles through Slash, and saw him with Slash at least 5 times. So, a new Alter Bridge album was always on my radar, but when I got it, I was amazed at the step up from the last one. The songs are heavier, the singing even better, everything about this album is a stone cold classic. Any other year, it would have been my album of the year, easily.
Number 2: Stone Sour - House of Gold and Bones Part 2. I believe Stone Sour topped my list last year with part 1. What an amazing pair of albums. I bought the box sets, I bought the comic books, I listened to little else for MONTHS this year. It's rare that an album grabs me this hard AND still sounds this good 6 months later. I am sure I'll still love these albums in 10 years time.
Number 1: Avenged Sevenfold - Hail To The King. Wow. So many good albums this year, it's hard to believe that anything topped Alter Bridge or Stone Sour, and by such a wide margin. Avenged Sevenfold have always changed between albums. But, this time, they set out to figure out why simpler, more classic rock, sounds 'bigger' than the complex songs they've done before. Of course, they nailed it. The songs are bigger, they breathe more, the riffs are humongous, and this is the classic rock album they were hoping to make, and then some. From Shepherd of fire to the GnR stylings of 'Doing Time' to the big ballad of 'Crimson Day', through to the last two more 'classic' A7X tracks, this album is amazing from top to bottom, and one I am sure will be looked back on as not just a classic of 2013, but a classic of this era of hard rock and metal.
Honorable mention - Black Veil Brides - Wretched and Divine, Deep Purple - What Now?, Black Star Riders - All hell breaks loose.
Now, I know there are readers who don't like any bands whose members are younger than 50, or didn't have chart hit 30 years ago, so, I give you my top six albums of bands playing the nostalgia circuit.
Number 6: Aerosmith - Music From Another Dimension. No, it wasn't Rocks, or even Pump, but, it was a decent return to form after a long time, and certainly the new songs sat well with the older ones when I saw them live in 2013.
Number 5: Skid Row - United World Rebellion. I never thought I'd be giving these guys props, I've hated everything they did after Sebastian, and didn't think much of 'Subhuman race'. But, this new EP is really great. If they end up releasing a set, as they've promised, and they are all this good, then they will have created new music that deserves to be made the centrepiece of their set lists, instead of just playing the old stuff.
Number 4: Michael Monroe - Sensory Overdrive. Great album, better than I thought he had in him.
Number 3: Queensryche - Queensryche. They know their first album was self titled too, right ? Anyhow, all the drama around this band in 2013 was really disappointing, but the truth is, they've sucked for a long time now. With the Tate fronted version releasing an album of crap in 2013, and the Tateless version releasing their best album in a long time, it was pretty clear where the problem lay.
Number 2: Stryper - No More Hell To Pay. I don't like to rate albums I just got too highly, in case they wear off, but this is a great CD, probably their best ever, to my ears, and it deserves to be in my number two spot.
Number 1: Tom Keifer - The Way Life Goes. Hasn't it taken forever for Tom to release new music? When John Kalodner gave all those 80s bands a second shot, and a one off album deal, Cinderella wasted theirs on a live CD. And Tom alone is a lot more 'roots' and a lot less '80s hair' than Cinderella, but it's all the more rewarding for it. I've always thought this guy was super talented and I'm glad to see him get something out there that shows he's more than a nostalgia act, more than a specific movement, he's just a great all round songwriter and musician.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 12:01AM