Tai’s Top 10 Heavy Metal Albums Of 2013

I recently got into The Safety Fire with their last album "Grind The Ocean". This outing shows great technical guitar skills with catchy melodies.

This is an album I have been waiting for since 2009, after the release of their last album "Almost Home". After 4 years and a lineup change, Evergreen Terrace is here to stay with tracks like "Crows", "That Dog'll Hunt" and "Post Satanic Ritual Baby".

The follow-up to 2011's "Scurillous", the new album from Protest The Hero, "Volition" features Lamb of God's Chris Adler on drums, after the departure of drummer Moe Carlson. Standout tracks are "Clarity", "Mist" and "Skies".

The Bay Area thrashers Death Angel prove with their latest outing that they aren't going anywhere for a long time. If you haven't seen this band live, you are definitely missing out!

"The Distortion Field" from Chi-town doom-metallers Trouble makes for an amazing listen. What puts this album on my top 10? One name...Kyle Thomas!

The return of original Killswitch Engage vocalist Jesse Leach and the brutal heaviness of this album is more than worthy enough to make this list and it's a great listen from beginning to end.

Right out of Gothenburg, Sweden and a career spanning since the mid-90's, Soilwork's latest is a double concept album. Every track, including some of my favorites like "This Momentary Bliss", "Vesta" and "Rise Above The Sentiment", are catchy and not filler tracks. Like melodic brutality,then this is an album for you!

Their first studio album from Carcass in 12 years is definitely worth the wait. "Surgical Steel" has everything you want in a good metal album: nice hooks, killer riffs and even catchy melodies. Definitely one of my top albums of the year!

Dream Theater's latest album and second with drummer Mike Mangini, continues where they left off with "A Dramatic Turn of Events". The lead single "The Enemy Inside" shows that the prog-metal masters are STILL one of the baddest bands on the planet and not many can rival them!

Yes, the number one album on my list is from a djent band. But then again, are they? TesseracT's sophomore effort "Altered State" is more of a prog-metal album than a djent album. Their new vocalist Ashe O'Hara is the missing piece that the UK band was looking for. The album is a 4-part concept with multiple tracks per part. Standout tracks are "Of Matter - Proxy", "Of Mind - Nocturne", "Of Mind - Exiled" and "Of Reality - Eclipse". This is my most listened to album of the year!