It’s increasingly common for metal fans to complain that there’s nothing new under the sun — that bands aren’t coming up with new ideas, but just creatively recombining old ones. Maybe that’s true. But if the results are this good, who cares? It’s easy to pick out Inter Arma’s component influences : Neurosis, Leviathan, early Mastodon, Pink Floyd, et cetera. These influences nonetheless form a remarkably consistent and distinctive whole on Sky Burial, replete with a gorgeous production, brainy songwriting, and my favorite vocal performance of the year. This band could, and should, get huge. (If they keep working as hard as they did in 2013, they probably will; they dueled with KEN Mode for the “most rabid road dog of 2013″ award all year.) –Doug [LISTEN