It's mid-July, a special time of the year when we laugh about all the new year's resolutions we didn't come close to keeping, maybe curse the heat — and always reflect on all the new music that has come out since the first Tuesday of the year.
The first half of 2013 was peppered with high-profile releases, including Black Sabbath's 13, which turned the venerable metal legends into chart toppers across the globe and prompted Ozzy Osbourne to exclaim, "I didn't know there were 50 countries, and I'm No. 1 in all of them!"
And while you will find 13 in the photo gallery below, you'll also find several GW staff favorites, including addictive albums by the Melvins, Children of Bodom, Portal, Sleeping with Sirens, Deafheaven, Clutch, Kurt Vile, Son Volt, bluesman Ronnie Earl, Johnny Marr, David Bowie, Alice In Chains, Joe Satriani and a whole lot more.
Be sure to check out the 40-album photo gallery below. And if there's a first-half-of-2013 studio album you don't see here but would like to recommend, please let us know in the comments below!
NOTE: These albums are not presented in any particular order. Once again, these albums are not presented in any particular order ... .
