Tis the season of giving and 2013 was certainly the year the hard and heavy metal scene gave back! There was an exhausting parade of new releases and tours to boot! Be careful what you wish cuz you just might get it, and this year it came at us from all angles. And these days it seems that the output is tenfold, as bands of all shapes and sizes can easily Protools or GarageBand it-up in their bedroom and release to the masses in numerous forms, mostly digital. But is it quality stuff? Here come the BraveWords scribes to the rescue, who tear their way through the glut and the grit and come up the finest slabs of music the year had to offer. Just one rule: studio recordings only. No compilations, covers, live albums etc…

So after days of compiling, we bring you BravePicks 2013: The 12 Days Of Metal, our nice n' tidy summary of the year that was. Of course we will start with the countdown until New Year's and then the scribes step up with their always popular Brave Embarrassments, Concerts, Thoughts On 2013, Predictions For 2014 and What / Who Needs To Stop In 2014!

So jump in, strap in and grab a cold one!!!

2013 … The 12 Days Of Metal

10) WATAIN - The Wild Hunt (Century Media)

Executed in oil and mixed materials, the cover of The Wild Hunt was done by Zbigniew M Bielak, the very same artist who was responsible for the Lawless Darkness artwork. The piece depicts one of the inmost shrines of Watain's temple. As on every classic still life, each object has a significant meaning, while each song of the album is also connected to an object.

Blackened BraveWords scribe David Perri raved about the Swedes' vicious fifth full-length album: "If, while listening to The Wild Hunt, visions of DISSECTION’s monumental Storm Of The Light’s Bane flood through your forest/ice obsessed mind, you’re not alone. More than any record in WATAIN’s catalogue, The Wild Hunt is informed by the work of deceased convicted felon Jon Nodtveidt, a comparison Watain probably will not shy away from and, instead, will embrace, with all the anti-cosmic implications of that statement. Watain has an unabashed flair for the dramatic and that sense of burning-church-spire-by-dusk-twilight has no doubt manifested itself here, as Watain has fostered muses as varied as melancholy, rage, vividness, and, unexpectedly, nostalgia."

Read the entire review here.

2013 … The 12 Days Of Metal

12) ANVIL - Hope In Hell (The End)

11) MEGADETH – Super Collider (Tradecraft/Universal)

10) WATAIN - The Wild Hunt (Century Media)

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