At long last, ALARM unveils its 11 favorite albums of 2013 — a list of amazing music that you won’t find anywhere else.
Saving the best for last, we’ve chosen our 51 favorite albums of 2013, pulled from the acclaimed and the unsung — some of the best as well as most boundary-pushing releases from rock and beyond.
Win limited-edition cassette releases of seven Prosthetic Records releases and blast them from the holiest of cassette players.
Deafheaven: Sunbather
Integrity: Suicide Black Snake
The White Mandingos: The Ghetto’s Tryna Kill Me
Noxious Foxes: Epochalypso
Scale the Summit: The Migration
Calexico: Spiritoso
Prog-metal outfit Scale the Summit is back with a new album next week, but first we’re premiering the epic, upbeat new track “The Olive Tree”.
Destined to be one of the best albums of 2013, Shining’s One One One picks up where Blackjazz left off — as a refinement of the band’s frenzied, progressive, jazz-infused avant-metal.
From simple to psychedelic, here’s a look at ten great works of album art from this month.
Shining: One One One (Prosthetic / Universal Norway, 5/28/13)
There are covers, and then there are covers. Shining’s version of King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” is the latter, a roiling, screaming beast of wails, beats, and static.
Norway’s Shining, which gave a name to its genre with 2010 album Blackjazz, has a new record coming out May 28 on Prosthetic. Entitled One One One, the album includes the recently unveiled riff-rocker “I Won’t Forget” (see the sci-fi music video here).
Now the band has made stems available for download and is holding a remix competition of the single. The three best versions, picked by front-man Jørgen Munkeby, will be posted on the band’s social-media sites, and each winner will receive a Shining button-up, the “Blackjazz Rebel,” pictured below. So download that application, send it back to the band, and get to cutting.
Scale the Summit: The Migration (Prosthetic, 6/11/13)
Did you grow a beard in hopes that one day you’ll enter Valhalla to drink and fight forever? Or only read JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or HP Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu after discovering that even the gods of metal worship at their altars? Have you been to more festivals with “hell” or “blood” in the title than sporting events?
Then enjoy the five minutes of glory that is “Odyssey,” the premiere track from Scale the Summit’s new record, The Migration. And after you reattach your face, go pre-order it from Prosthetic, Bandcamp, or iTunes.
Shining: One One One (Prosthetic / Universal Norway, 5/28/13)
The first video from Shining’s One One One is here, and it’s a sci-fi catharsis of one man’s lasting pain. Directed by Kyrre Larsen, “I Won’t Forget” is a blistering dose of metallic, whirring, jazz-tinged riff rock. Watch it below and mark your calendars for May 28.
Announced for the big NAMM trade show, prog-metal instrumental outfit Scale the Summit has partnered with Strandberg Guitarworks to release the Boden CL7, an instrument based on guitarist Chris Letchford’s specifications, and bassist Mark Michell has released an instructional book for right-hand bassists.