My Favourite Death Metal albums for 2013

Here's the list for 2013 in reverse order:

48. Tormented - Death Awaits
Old school filth from the depths of Swedish death metal carnage. The guitar sound is pure dirt! However the best thing about this believe it or not is the understandable vocals.

47. Syrebris - Aether Dynamics
Solid and punchy semi tech death metal.

46. Punish - Sublunar Chaos
Pretty technical death metal with solid musicianship but the production is not to my taste.

45. Ploy For Extinction - Primordial
Nice melodeath with punchy crisp production

44. Suture - Carnivorous Urge To Kill (Reissue)
Decent classic death metal re-recorded to today's standards making for a solid listen.

43. Evilness - Unreachable Clarity
Nice and heavy, winding riffs if rather boring vocals.

42. Subliminal Crusher - Newmanity
Fast and catchy death metal with thrashy riffs though. So could have gone in that list as well.

41. Jungle Rot - Terror Regime
Big on everything cliched death metal has to offer basically. Fun stuff!

40. Crawling Chaos - Repellent Gastronomy
Punchy and clear death metal with chunky riffs and pristine sound.

39. Harasai - Psychotic Kingdom
An array of fast and fluid melodic death metal made this an enjoyable listen.

38. Saprogenic - Expanding Toward Collapsed Lungs
Brutal and tight tech death with of course no prisoners being taken.

37. Soilwork - The Living Infinite
Melodic death metal masters still able to let loose the shackles and deliver some tasty riffs. It was a little bit too long though.

36. Arsis - Unwelcome
These guys are great no doubt but Unwelcome whilst a solid enough album only makes my list be default as they are such a great band of players.

35. Six Feet Under - Unborn
More streamlined and less loose, this was an exercise in tight death metal mastery from this long running band.

34. Soul Remnants - Black and Blood
Nicely riffed death metal.

33. Arkhe - Spirals of Life
Badly produced Death worship but a good try with superb bass work.

32. Entrails - Raging Death
Catchy old school death with a monster heavy bludgeoning sound.

31. Burden of Life - The Vanity Syndrome
Catchy epic melodic death with long songs.

30. Ecocide - Eye of Wicked Sight
Old school death metal done right.

29. Children of Bodom - Halo of Blood
A good solid album from the Children with lots of tasty riffs and solos.

28. Illuminati - The Core
Cynic worship with some avant garde wacko elements. When it was pure Cynic it was a pretty great copy.

27. Deicide - In the Minds of Evil
Glen's crew with their best album since God knows when or should that be Satan? Crystal clear production and better vocals from Glen helped matters no end.

26. Lecherous Nocturne - Behold Almighty Doctrine
Blisteringly fast deathgrind insanity with a high technical quotient.

25. Kalmah - Seventh Swamphony
The Finnish swamp overlords with another beautifully solid release to add to their extensive catalogue.

24. Corpus Mortale - FleshCraft
A very solid death metal offering. Not spectacular but all round tightness wins the day.

23. The Black Dahlia Murder - Everblack
Usual fare from the Dahlia murder team. Fluid and super melodic with the scratchiest vocals ever.

22. Deviant Syndrome - 66 Ways to Redemption
Top quality melodic death with tons of twisted riffage to snag on to.

21. Sorcery - Arrival at Six
Yet another old school Swedish death band delivering the goods.

20. Monolith - Voyager
Nicely riffed melodeath from Canada.

19. Frosttide - Awakening
Epic folky melodic death with beautiful iced chilled melodies.

18. Oblivion - Called to Rise
Well played and fluid tech death.

17. Orpheus Omega - Resillusion
Aussie melodeathsters know the melodeath songbook inside out.

16. Arhideus - Awakening of Sins
A surprisingly tight technical death metal workout from these unknowns.

15. Infernaeon - The Cancer Within
A surprisingly awesome release with some black metal but not overpowering thankfully. When they got the riffs flowing they were a great listen.

14. Æther Realm - One Chosen by the Gods
I was Bowled over by the wonderfully clear and epic melodies in this release from these unknown Americans. They deserve to have a bigger name.

13. Battlecross - War of Will
From the same camp as the Dahlia boys but with an even better album chock full of great bouncy riffs.

12. Smothered - The Inevitable End
The best album Entombed never made. That guitar sound is just something else!

11. Carcass - Surgical Steel
The English masters returned to much fanfare...was it worth the wait? Well I think overall...YES!

10. Amon Amarth - Deceiver of the Gods
The vikings deliver as they only know how. Bang your heads for Odin!

09. Blood Red Throne - Blood Red Throne
The Norwegian death crew with yet another super polished, groovy death metal blastathon with blackened parts.

08. The Greatness Design - Pillars of Creation
Well the Necrophagist guys have spawned many many imitators since their demise and here was a great one it must be said. The album had a very thin production but damn did they ape those Necroriffs to perfection... almost!

07. Suffocation - Pinnacle of Bedlam
I have never been a huge fan of these undoubted legends but this latest album was really a solid and muscular effort. The sound and the songs showed the maturity one would expect of a band this long into their career.

06. Parasite Inc. - Time Tears Down
Hyper melodic and very enjoyable death metal and probably my fave of that style in the whole year.

05. Murder Made God - Irreverence
This album had the most tightest riffs in the whole year with the most clinical and digital sounding production as well. Imagine if Decapitated turned into a faster digital riff machine and you get these guys. The riff kings of 2013 no doubt!

04. Dysmorphic - A Notion of Causality
A more human sounding kind of technical death metal to me. The album was also the grooviest and not so much a dazzling array of notes but an exercise in hitting a groove and ramming it home until the listener got the message. Great stuff!

03. Incarnator - Caeca Superstitio
One of the best Death worship albums ever. The Chuck-like melodies were truly exceptional and the band delivered them with conviction.

02. Reciprocal - New Order of the Ages
This album came a bit late but damn was it worth the wait. A hugely impressive and vast array of crushing riffs in a thick and warm sound made this a joy to listen to especially with headphones of course. This album was pretty much encapsulates everything I look for in death metal.

01. Deeds of Flesh - Portals to Canaan
Finally the number one album of the year from the new kings of masterful tech death from the US of A. The album was like an unrelenting juggernaut of shuddering riffs and drums with the staccato catchiness to send you over the edge whilst listening. Yes all these album are pretty one dimensional but you can't help but get taken for an exhilarating ride when an album with this much class and brutality hits the shelves. A lesson in high precision level death metal brain surgery!