Welcome to Hell. Or the NHK. Or another list. Publishing order: 3. Chronological order: 1.

The same rules and regulations apply as for 2011/2. It will be a short list. It wasn't a good year. I think. I actually don't know, you see. Read the comments to gauge my enthusiasm. It's good exercise for my 2013 list. Which I would totally make if I heard at least one metal album. January is nearly over. No metal. Weak, dude.

One might entertain the idea that my wishlist for this year must be humongous, but let me disabuse you of that particular notion by revealing I have a paltry five albums that I wish to hear, three of which were added this [last] week. Yaaaah. I'll take recommendations if they make the smallest bit of sense in the context of my (oh so wide and varied) tastes.

The alphabet doesn't make the tiers obvious here, so here:
1-2: 4/5
3-6: 3.5/5
7-10: 3/5
11-12: 2.5/5
13: 2/5

Created by:

eponymous | 28.01.2013

	1.	Carach Angren - Death Came Through A Phantom Ship Oh look, it's a band I discovered in 2012.
	2.	Deathspell Omega - Paracletus Oh look, it's a band I re-discovered in 2012. Oh, for fuck's sake, this year....Anyway, this album holds the honor of being the first black metal album in years that amazed me. That's right. I already explained this on the 2012 list, but I don't know if I've mentioned it was Paracletus that was my (re)introduction to both DO and enthusiasm for BM. You just know you've stumbled across something brilliant if you find yourself listening to an inaccessible avantgarde BM album on repeat. For days.
	3.	Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini Oh look, it's an album I first heard in 2012. Jeeeeeeez. If 2010 wasn't over, I would have told it to go die. People were in love with this, if I remember the reviews and talk on forums right. Couldn't really understand why would anyone love it more than stuff Enslaved have been putting out for the better part of their career now. Well, now I understand. Compared to the previous couple of records, it's rather accessible. As close to easy listening as they've come since the excellent Below the Lights. As far as the average metal fan is concerned, I mean.
	4.	Ghost - Opus Eponymous Oooh, loo....no, wait, I think I heard this in 2011. It's almost like I started this to mock myself, but let me half-assedly assure you it ain't so brah. A new Ghost release is expected in 2013, and it looks like it will be weaker than this. And this really wore down after a decent number of spins. It's a less metal, less awesome Blue Öyster Cult.
	5.	Shining - Blackjazz Oh look, it's an album I've only heard TODAY. 2013, motherfucker. Listened to it once. Up there it goes. Yup. To tone down the idiocy of this, let me state I haven't manically grinned this hard for a very long damn time. I'm going to listen to this till nausea and then some.
	6.	Slough Feg - The Animal Spirits Can you dig it? The first 2010 album I heard in 2010 on this list. And a pretty solid release too. I honestly prefer it to some of the above stuff. I should totally go on a re-rating spree. However, originally I found the fact that Slough Feg, one of my favorite bands, haven't done an impressive record since Atavism, somewhat disheartening. True, it took me YEARS to really "get" Atavism and see that it is, in fact, impressive, so that might happen yet, but I don't think it will with this or its predecessor. Both clicked immediately with me. It's just that there are some patchy places on both discs. Where just a bit more effort could have made the difference between "pretty good" and "fuck yeah I love this album so much". Not that I don't. /fanboy
	7.	Burzum - Belus Belus, smellus, amirite? Please don't encourage retarded behaviour. Anyway. Decent album. Gave us hopes Varg will do something interesting after getting the old stuff out of his system. But nope. I'll just repeat what I wrote on the 2012 list: Go neoclassical/ambiental again. It was sooooooooooooooooo much fucking better. I love Daudi Baldrs. There. I said it. It's awesome. I even like it better than Hlidskjalf. Said that too. So brave. So brave.
	8.	Charred Walls Of The Damned - Charred Walls Of The Damned I pasted this. Fucking long names. I had no idea what this was when I first heard it. Didn't even know how or where I got it. Turned out it's Ripper's new band. Post Iced Earth. It isn't spectacular. The second one is on the 2011 list and it's even worse. However, both of them are a few notches better than Iced Earth's Dystopia, so...you know....fuck Iced Earth? (I really liked Ripper's vocal performance on that one album nobody but me likes.)
	9.	The Crown - Doomsday King I am 12 and what is this? A re-recording of one of their better albums. Okay...I guess...but is it any good? Not really. I prefer the original by a huuuuuuuge margin. Dear bands of the world: Leave your old stuff alone. It's most likely fine as it is. Should have re-recorded the first two if anything. Good albums with shitty production.
	10.	Electric Wizard - Black Masses Ooooh that's racist. An improvement over Witchcult Today. Enjoyable. Okay. Not gonna impress ya.
	11.	Dream Evil - In The Night Oh, remember these guys? The ultra-cheesy debut? Still cheesy, only it sounds less fresh, of course. They've kinda run out of ideas and now the cheese mill is grinding away the very Cheeseness itself, leaving only a thin crust on the surface of the entire vast metal cheese structure. What?
	12.	Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy As someone you loves early and mid Nevermore, I was terribly disappointed. As someone who likes newer Nevermore, I was just disappointed.
	13.	Blood Revolt - Indoctrine Let me introduce you to the only 2/5 album on this list. I've always heard good things about Primordial, but this thing made me approach them with caution. The vocals. The fucking vocals. Dreadful. And I don't mean that in a good way. Not like demons of hell screaming metal tunes and filling the listener with dread. Nope. I mean bad. Annoying. Grating. Baaaaaaaaaah. The good news - I did listen to some Primordial after this, and I found it a lot more enjoyable.