For the last three or four years, black metal dominated the extreme-music landscape, but in September’s Black Market, Wyatt mused on the question, “Is 2013 the year of death metal?” Looking back now, it probably was — 2013 might have been the best year for death metal since 1993 — but black metal didn’t merely retreat into the shadows; it cross-pollinated, hybridized, became something else entirely. Many of this year’s best quote-unquote black metal albums — from Deafheaven’s Sunbather to Castevet’s Obsian to Vattnet Viskar’s Sky Swallower to Raspberry Bulbs’ Deformed Worship — married that genre with one or more others (shoegaze, prog, post-rock, crust punk), and produced something pretty unique and undefinable in the process. Cara Neir is an experimental duo from Dallas, and their third LP, Portals To A Better, Dead World, is equal parts black metal, screamo, and math-core, without actually belonging to any of those categories. Like all the aforementioned albums, it disrespects and ignores boundaries, and challenges existing definitions of black metal. Also like those albums, it never lets its innovative tendencies get in the way of crushing, thrilling music. –Michael [LISTEN]