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

6) EXHUMED – Necrocracy (Relapse)

EXHUMED came grinding back in 2013 with the vicious Necrocacy which featured "nine goretorn tracks of prime audio sickness oozing blazing guitars, filth-stricken vocals and obscene drum blasts!"

Leader Matt Harvey remarked: "We think it's our heaviest record to date and we can't wait to start playing the new tunes on the road. The album is a bit hookier and meatier than All Guts... and we hope all you maniacs enjoy it. You should find a few more tunes on this one to bang your head and get wasted to! See you on the road or on the slab!"

In his 9/10 review BraveWords scribe David Perri wrote: Exhumed has always been an underrated proposition, this San Jose band known for its ransacking of the CARCASS catalogue to the point of infringement but never entirely being heralded on its own merits. And that’s a shame, because 2000’s ‘Decrepit Crescendo’ and 2003’s ‘The Matter Of The Splatter’ might just be two of extreme metal’s most memorable choruses, both tracks acting as slicing (no pun) prequels to the surgical steel that is Necrocracy. Though Exhumed 2011’s comeback album All Guts, No Glory was an impressive return and amongst the best of that year, Necrocracy is where the band has taken its visceral operating-room-without-anesthetics to new levels of pain and sickness, Necrocracy the type of raging record that happens only once in a career (or twice, if you’re IMPALED).

Read more 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)

9) VOIVOD – Target Earth (Century Media)

8) GHOST BC - Infestissumam (Loma Vista Recordings)

7) CHILDREN OF BODOM - Halo Of Blood (Nuclear Blast)

6) EXHUMED – Necrocracy (Relapse)

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