Justin C's End of Year List

Written by Justin C.

When I was in high school, I was a pretty serious alto sax player. I auditioned for quite a few competitions--district band, regional band, honors band, etc. That meant spending lots of time in basement practice rooms in other schools, soaking up the aroma of sweat and emptied spit valves, spending a last few minutes trying to perfect some horrible, atonal piece of audition music I'd practiced for months, a piece that served no musical purpose whatsoever, but rather tested our technical limits with our instruments. I lost more than I won. There was an alto phenom in the next school district over, and he often talked to his saxophone. How could I beat a guy who could converse with his horn?

What I finally learned from all of the trials and tribulations is that there is no quicker way to kill the joy of music than to turn it into a competition. So what am I doing now? Compiling a list of the best music of the year. To alleviate my guilt, I'll at least forgo the actual rankings and present them as an unordered list.


Gorguts - Colored Sands.

Artwork by Martin Lacroix

There were some big releases in death metal this year, including Portal, Ulcerate, Immolation, and the long-awaited return of Carcass. All good albums, but in my humble opinion, none of them could touch the new Gorguts in terms of strange beauty and savagery. It didn't hurt that head Gorgut Luc Lemay was so nice to me in spite of my hack interview skills.

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Shining - One One One.

Saxophone! Jazz! Metal! This album is catchy as all hell, and it still has me running around yelling, "YOU WON'T FORGET!"

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Deafheaven - Sunbather.

There was plenty of talk about this album, e.g., "It's hipster metal!" or "I hate the vocals!" or "I hate pink!" In the end, though, my abiding memory of this album is listening to it for one of the first times while driving far too fast down a backroad just after a rain storm, "Dream House" blaring away, making my cold, dead heart feel all kinds of feelings.

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Sandrider - Godhead.

A power trio in every sense of the word, Sandrider's second album delivers all of the gut-punching metal of their first release, while expanding their sound. Yeah, it toes the line between hard rock and metal--it's certainly less extreme than what I usually cover--but it deserves to be played loud and screamed along with.

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Batillus - Concrete Sustain.

Batillus mixed their sludge with a heavy dose of industrial for a sound like a sledgehammer. Like Shining, this one will get stuck in your head, and who doesn't like barking, "SUSTAIN AND DOMINATE!" at their coworkers? You'll spend a lot of time in Human Resources, but you'll also get uninvited from a lot of meetings.

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Botanist/Palace of Worms - The Hanging Gardens of Hell/Ode to Joy.

I was torn between this one and IV: Mandragora, but as excellent as Mandragora is, I think this split edged it out. It's hard to imagine someone doing a cohesive split with the bizarre and beautiful Botanist, but one-man band Palace of Worms pulls it off. This is a split that sounds more like a whole album.

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Altar of Plagues - Teethed Glory & Injury.

I was surprised to learn, in a comment thread on this very site, that this album was somewhat controversial. I couldn't imagine how one could overlook its brilliance, and I was saddened to learn so many people are wrong. Maybe it's a matter of expectations--Altar of Plagues kept only traces of black metal and mixed in industrial and grinding noises from outer space, but maybe I was also primed to like it because of the similar shift in Batillus's sound. Either way, this album haunts me. I won't go so far into crazy talk as to say it's better than Mammal, but maybe...

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Seidr - Ginnungagap.

Austin Lunn of Panopticon also has a doom band, Seidr, and their newest is simply brilliant. Expansive, immersive, and incomparable. Sadly, it's not buyable on Bandcamp yet, but buy the two-CD set. Just do it.

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Non-Bandcamp Metal Albums That Deserve Mention

Hail of Bullets - III: The Rommel Chronicles
Cult of Luna - Vertikal


Albums That Likely Would Have Landed on My List if They'd Arrived Earlier in the Year and I'd Spent More Time With Them

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Non-Metal Albums I Dug This Year

Zola Jesus - Versions
The Cave Singers - Naomi

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Is This Album Metal or Non-Metal? Who Cares Its Awesome

Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here


Best Bandcamp of a Classical Guitarist Who Happens to Write Reviews for Metalbandcamp

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Sandrider - Godhead

Written by Justin C.


Sandrider plays a brand of heavy rock that sits somewhere in the realm of stoner and sludge metal, but put more simply, they make me want to drive really fast and hit people over the head with beer bottles. They also hold a special place in my heart, as their self-titled debut was one of the first things I bought upon stumbling across this site.

Photo by Invisible Hour

The trio is back with their follow-up, Godhead. They still make a huge racket, and everything I loved about the debut is here: the dirty, jangly guitar riffs, stomping drums, and sinuous bass. Guitarist/vocalist Jon Weisnewski still sings with a raspy holler that's as melodic as it is rough, and he still kicks out riffs and solos that are some of the most satisfying guitar playing around. But like any band worth paying attention to, they've grown and expanded since their first album. "Gorgon" was the only track I heard before I got the full album, and although it's an excellent tune, I did fear that they'd fallen into the trap of "second verse, same as the first." I didn't need to worry. Godhead starts out with a slow bruiser in "Ruiner," and it also shows off a psychedelic touch that they let out more on this album. The title track starts out with a quiet, chiming guitar and bass and drums locked into a bluesy beat, but that's before the main guitar riff lands like a hammer with some of Weisnewski's growliest vocals. These are quickly offset by some nice harmonized vocals, provided by bassist Jesse Roberts. Then we're back to that bass and drum backbone, now with Weisnewski's soulful soloing over top. It's a 7-minute long mini-epic.

Photo by Invisible Hour

But if you're still looking for some straight-up ass-kicking, have no fear. "Champions" is a real barn-burner, with Nat Damm knocking his drum kit all over the room, and "Scalpel" is a two-and-a-half minute blast with a riff that late 80s-early 90s Soundgarden or The Cult would have been more than proud of. It also features the line, "THIS IS MY FAVORITE PENCIL!" I have no idea how that fits in to the narrative arc, but it's nice to hear a metal band have a little fun now and then.

As a long-time fan, I'm naturally biased, but this one's going on my best-of-2013 list for sure. Fantastic from start to finish.

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Sandrider - Sandrider

By Natalie Zina Walschots. This self-titled release may be a debut effort by Seattle, WA-based Sandrider, but that's not an indication of experience or lack of chemistry. Nat Damm (drums) and Jon Weisnewski (guitars and vocals) have been playing

By Natalie Zina Walschots. Originally published by Exclaim.

Artwork by Jesse Roberts

This self-titled release may be a debut effort by Seattle, WA-based Sandrider, but that's not an indication of experience or lack of chemistry. Nat Damm (drums) and Jon Weisnewski (guitars and vocals) have been playing together in Akimbo for over a decade, and are joined by bassist Jesse Roberts (the Ruby Doe) to complete the line-up. Weisnewski founded Sandrider with Damm out of a desire to play guitar again. The group take their name from Frank Herbert's Dune series, a staple of heavy metal and hardcore inspiration for many. The term refers to someone capable of controlling a giant sand worm, or shai hulud. That idea infuses the music this record contains conceptually, as well as thematically.

Sandrider is characterized by a sense of restraint and control, a powerful sound that's carefully leashed. The tone is aggressive and muscular, but deployed very carefully, often pulled back or stripped down for effect. The thick, ropey guitar tone hints at sludge, but resists being weighed down. The riffs drive forward with a momentum that evokes a massive beast propelling itself through sand, forcing the desert to bend around it. Sandrider is vast, gripping the listener, and intellectual without over-thinking. This is an extremely promising debut from a powerful new project.