In April, psychedelic doom quintet Windhand issued a split LP with fellow Richmond, VA residents Cough, Reflection Of The Negative, and if that had been Windhand’s only 2013 release, they still would have likely found their name on this list. But in September, they bested that achievement with their sophomore LP, Soma, an album that is both ominous and inviting, pairing skyscraper-size guitars and the ghostly wail of frontwoman Dorthia Cottrell with sticky Southern riffs and melodies. It’s got a lot in common with Pallbearer’s Sorrow And Extinction, the album that topped our list of 2012’s best metal albums, except where Pallbearer tend toward instrumental and structural complexity, Windhand favor a spare, churning drone, massive in size (both aural and temporal; album closer “Boleskin” clocks in at 30:30) but simple, focused, unflinching. It’s not all assault — “Evergreen” is as delicate and haunting as an early Low track — but it’s all deeply hypnotic and overwhelmingly powerful. –Michael
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