OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 13

Welcome to the lucky 13th Part of our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the two I’m announcing today, click here.

You remember that a few days ago I resolved to finish this list by the end of January? Well, like my New Year’s resolution to be nice to children and poodles, I may not be able to follow through on that promise. Just too damned many great songs from 2013 that need to be recognized. Also, it’s easier on me to just keep going than to make hard decisions about what to select and what to cut, and I’m completely in favor of making things easier on myself.

KATAKLYSM

Oh man, did Kataklysm come back strong with 2013’s Waiting For the End To Come — strong, hungry, and with fangs and claws bared. To quote from our review by TheMadIsraeli:

“Quite simply, this may be the band’s best effort of their current, mostly melodic death, direction.  With less groove, more blast beats and blackened scathe, and of course their blistering death metal brawn at work, Kataklysm appear to have crafted an album solely to start pits, invoke murderous thoughts, and provoke raised fists in defiance of life itself.  Some of the best songs the band have ever written are on this disc….”

I second those notions — except there’s still plenty of infectious groove in this new round of songs. In fact, there are so many songs on the album that could have worked their way onto this list that choosing was difficult. But the one that made a late charge in my head was “Kill the Elite”. It includes a murderous stomp that’s pure headbang candy, in addition to a catchy melody (and a lot of destruction).

https://www.facebook.com/kataklysm

 

 

MAN MUST DIE

Man Must Die were at the heart of one of 2013’s great Phoenix-like resurrection stories. After 2009’s No Tolerance For Imperfection, they seemed to disappear until launching a crowdfunding campaign last spring in a go-it-alone effort to create a new album. But it turned out that a label (Lifeforce) grabbed hold of them after hearing that new album — and no wonder, because Peace Was Never An Option is really, really good.

We published not one, but two reviews. TheMadIsraeli called it “one of 2013’s undeniably best albums”, and Andy Synn proclaimed that “the fourth album by the Scottish juggernauts might just be their most abrasive, most lethally focussed, and most viscerally aggressive release yet.”

Once again, I wrestled with myself over which song to add to this list, because this is another album that included multiple candidates. But the scything tremolo work, blast-furnace drumming, and lethal hooks in “Hiding In Plain Site” were just too much to resist. Here you go, and by the way, GET OFF YOUR KNEES AND FIGHT!!!!

https://www.facebook.com/ManMustDie