Written by Westin
2023 is drawing to a close and here I am to deliver another annual Album of the Year list for you. The musical underground continues to thrive and grow and once again we are genuinely spoiled by an embarrassment of riches. Though there have been a few particularly explosive pain points for me this year that completely upended my roadmap, where things have settled still stands strong.
I cannot properly express how lucky we are to be living in the now, with not only access to so much great music but for the power of the internet to allow talented and hardworking artists across the spectrum to find an audience. These artists deserve some love; I can only hope it might make as much a difference to them as their music does to me. Last year I chose twenty-two records for my list to coincide with the year, and thankfully there were at least that many good albums plus one again this year, so the gimmick returns. Here are my top twenty-three albums of 2023.
23. Megaton Sword – Might & Power (Dying Victims Productions)
Might & Power is the sound of a Frazetta “fur and leather” clad warrior babe stepping right off the pages of Conan the Barbarian or Heavy Metal and declaring war on the world through the viscous splatter of glorious cartoon ultraviolence. Although I personally wish it retained just a slight bit more of that uniquely idiosyncratic execution from the first album, Megaton Sword demonstrated with their latest record that they’re ready and willing to stick the landing and start up the long charge towards eternal glory. The band simply leveled up across the board – the sophomore release explores more of the slower and groovier side of the band, with better and more diverse songwriting, musical depth and a growing sense of sonic identity. It might not sound as much like Blood Hails Steel as some wanted, but it still sounds like Megaton Sword and that honestly deserves respect, as this is a band clearly not willing to pigeonhole themselves into a specific, if popular, approach.
22. Allfather – A Violent Truth (Independent)
I am not a particular fan of sludge metal, even though on paper it sounds like something I should be into. Allfather have created a sound that feels like it’s unlocked a forgotten section of my brain that makes me enjoy sludge and also I can light shit on fire with my mind. They’ve taken all the energy of hardcore, the rock n roll momentum of stoner rock, and the vicious edge of extreme metal and thrown it in the blender to make a sludge smoothie that goes down uncomfortably easier than it feels like it should, weird lumps and all. The resulting concoction is a ball of furious potential that’s dense enough to be used as fuel for nuclear fission. “Black Lungs” is a barely contained chain reaction that threatens to leak during the guitar solo yet the band barely holds on until they finally detonate on “Take Their Eyes” with cries of “Take their fucking eyes / Do what you need to survive”. You’ll be hard pressed to find many other records this year in this space that so masterfully play with delivery and dynamic.
21. Calligram – Position | Momentum (Prosthetic Records)
Calligram are utterly ferocious. Matteo Rizzardo sounds genuinely unhinged as his shrieks pierce the false lull that starts album opener “Sul Dolore”. This is black metal filtered through the lens of the last decade of evolution in British hardcore – unrelentingly violent and heavy as a fucking hammer. Yet the band sculpts a fully embodied black metal masterpiece where breakdowns and icy tremolo can dance side by side one another. Balancing these two disparate sounds can be difficult, as many of the recent attempts at “blackened” –core have led to little more than surface level motif. Where Calligram succeed is in locating their sound within authentic tropes, modern and traditional – this record sounds as much at home in the 2020’s as it does in the 90’s second wave, using the familiar to build a foundation on which to stand, simultaneously giving the old new life through its recreation in the context of modern sounds. The ferocity that lends to tracks like the opener lead to the beautifully morose textures and nearly jazzy lilt of the post-rock sounds found on “Ostranenie” before the return of the harsh winds of black that feel like they live in a new meaning of “cold” for what precedes them.
20. Auriferous Flame – Ardor for Black Mastery (True Cult Records)
The wonderfully prolific Ayloss, perhaps best known for his work as Spectral Lore and Mystras, is a man with as much passion for black metal as for starting new projects. Auriferous Flame might be my favourite project of his to date, as the RABM veteran dives headfirst into the chaotic labyrinthine darkness. Sonically there is a raw black metal adjacency that constantly threatens to drown the music in a cacophony of swirling smoke, yet Ayloss’ deft hand ensures there is always a thread to catch in helping navigate the maze, whether it’s flourishes of melody floating above the density or the ever present riffiness that carries a sense of purpose and meaning to the entire experience. His decades of experience have created an incredibly loyal fanbase that eagerly await whatever new project he focuses on, and I think Ardor for Black Mastery might stand amongst the best of them.
19. Hellripper – Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags (Peaceville Records)
Bedroom black metal cult contemporary James McBain has been chiseling away at this project for nearly a decade, and he’s now delivered his masterpiece. Warlocks Grim is every bit the authentic blackened speed metal trad worship of the previous releases, but fully bulked out with the weight of some of the strongest songwriting chops this side of Venom. Packed to the brim with fantastic hooks, blistering solos and even some bagpipes, Warlocks Grim finally allows McBain the breadth of space he’s always needed to give the well-crafted formula a depth it’s missed until now. By also leaning into his own Scottish heritage for stories and monsters it feels like Hellripper has centralizing identity around which to build the future. Tracks like “The Nuckelavee” or “The Cursed Carrion Crown” drift out of the Scottish highlands, haunting whispers in the night that you daren’t investigate lest you stumble upon some arcane black magick ritual to which you’ll be sacrificed.
18. Moonlight Sorcery – Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle (Avantgarde Music)
Have you ever asked yourself “What if Children of Bodom made black metal instead of death metal?” Probably not. But their countrymen Moonlight Sorcery have done exactly that, mashing power metal up with black metal in a way that feels familiar for CoB fans yet excitingly fresh for how little this sound has been explored. It’s a pair that honestly feels like it makes more sense than expected, as black metal’s capacity for grandiosity, affinity for keyboards, and occasional trends towards the symphonic are perfectly suited to being musical bedfellows, but the aesthetics clash so intensely. Moonlight Sorcery succeeds by finding the perfect middle ground – ridiculous fantasy. Castles abound, evil magic flows and monsters lurk around every corner, and it is as fun and over the top as any European power metal album with a dragon on the cover. Hell, one of the members even wears corpse paint that looks like Darth Nihilus from Star Wars for how grimdark and kvlt this band isn’t. But don’t mistake this as tongue in cheek or winking parody – the band are deadly serious about the music and concept, fully committed to the idea without undermining themselves by playing it off as a cheap joke. The guitar and keyboard gymnastics that go on during the solos, the addicting melodic hooks and immersion in the world being crafted are as compelling as black metal can get in 2023, and hopefully carve out some room for some more diversity of approach in the scene.
17. Xoth – Exogalactic (Independent)
Set adrift in the vast expanse of the cosmos, you float on subspace eddies without purpose or destination. Inevitably, after a moment and an eternity in tandem, approaching on the horizon before you lies the vast artificial mountain of xeno technology. Xoth are pummeling and alien, exactingly technical and warm like a foreign atmosphere. Technical blackened death thrash is a mouthful of a descriptor that does encompass the range of their sound but not the mastery of it they display without pause across Exogalactic. This is not techdeath that lies cold and overproduced, it is crushingly heavy, with the blend of black and thrash working to lend depth and energy to the record in ways the feel wholly organic and empowering. So many sections of this record are relatively simple of a technical level so that they allow the riffs to pound, which makes the technical parts feel more exciting. Dynamic verses and fist pumping choruses lead to tasteful and explosive solos or enthralling bridges that just emphasize Xoth’s incredible songwriting capability and attention to spacing. This is one of the smartest made techdeath records you’ll hear this year. The only weakness here is how late in the year this record came out, or I know it would be comfortably sitting on more people’s Best of the Year lists.
16. Atavistia – Cosmic Warfare (Blood Blast Distribution)
Wintersun was at one point one of the most magical bands I’d ever heard, and one of the few I’ve seen live, but sadly the band is as dead in the water as everyone’s Kickstarter donations. Thankfully, the lads in Atavistia have found their own take on that sound and actually executed on it. Lo and behold the wonders of actually releasing albums – they sound fucking incredible to listen to. The swirling winter snowblinds and twinkle of distant stars collide to produce a record that is as glorious as it is grand. Cosmic Warfare is epic on a cosmic scale befitting its title with choral backing vocals and huge sweeping guitars, and while it’s not particularly original to anyone familiar with other bands in this vein, Atavistia have the skill and taste to throw in fresh ideas and little flourishes that signal this is an individual artistic entity instead of simply a cheap imitation.The production is a star in carving out the space for the scope to be realized without sacrificing everything under impenetrable layering, allowing us to hear the richness of the vocals, the genius of the leadwork, the ridiculous drumming. Tying it all together is just the fact that at its core the record is just really damn good fun melodic death metal, and at the end of the day that sells listeners like me.
15. None – Inevitable (Hypnotic Dirge Records)
Damp Chill of Life is one of my favourite black metal records of all time, so I don’t need to emphasize just how excited I was for a follow-up record all these years later. Inevitable is a comforting blanket of despair in which to surrender yourself, moving like a glacier over frozen soil, immense, immeasurable and endless. The atmosphere is suffocating, the guitars plow forward in waves rather than riffs, and always there is a sense of drowning, of something lost just out of sight. None is the embodiment of the darkest aspects of the inner self manifested as catharsis, for inside a None album is the entirety of an extremely deep and intense depressive episode. I struggle extremely hard with depression and in very few other places have I ever experienced the totality of what that experience can be like. It is nothing and it is everything, it is unbearably heavy and profoundly affecting. The duo have managed to craft that experience into a musical experience unlike nearly all else, even within the realm of other DSBM there are so few that resonate as deeply and authentically as None.
14. Anti-God Hand – Blight Year (American Dream Records)
Anti-God Hand play self-described “sunblind black metal”, and I can’t think of a better description than that. It is impossible to ignore that we live in a post-Sunbather world, with so much of the modern black metal sound feeling like a reaction to that record, whether embracing or completely rejecting it. Blight Year turns that reaction on its head, inverting the brightness so that it loses its warmth and instead is used as a source of textured illumination to create shadowy interplay between the understood elements of black metals foundation and the new directions it has taken in the past decade. “Barge of Light” features classic harsh vocals and aggressive guitars but backended by nearly acrobatic drumming and richly textured bass, interspersed between floating dreamlike interludes that now sound as much post-rock as they do atmospheric black metal, and the weaving of these two disparate sounds together in the climax of the song is a crescendo of emotional tension paying off through its synthetic recombination into something simultaneously organically originally and artificially familiar. This is black metal fully explored as a form of aural art and its ability to stretch definitions and affect the listener, and project mastermind Will Ballantyne has made a stupendously ambitious dream into reality. Also he promised me on Twitter this would have a CD pressing and I’m still waiting – please let me give you my money.
13. Flight – Echoes of Journeys Past (Dying Victims Productions)
For my money, the 70’s are the most important decade in music history if you look at the grand scope of the recorded art form. Most every modern genre of music from hip hop to punk to heavy metal itself found its footing here, and it had some of the greatest production of all time. The aptly titled Echoes of Journeys Past is a return to the fabulous sound of that era with genuine passion and warmth. The beauty of Flight is in the simplistic dynamic achieved through relative minimalism – three members, guitar, bass, drums, and singing. Songwriting is strong, melody is king, and virtuosity is on constant display in ways that are both tasteful and retro without feeling like a bad pastiche. This is what Rainbow or Blue Oyster Cult would sound like transported fifty years in the future, and it’s super fun to be able to just hear something so old sound so new again. The Scandinavian prog rock/classic rock scene is in the middle of exploding and finding something incredible. It’s wholly organic and exists outside of any kind of artificial major label attempt to nostalgia bait. Regressive oldheads who refuse to let go of the past constantly espouse the rallying cry of “rock and roll is dead” yet here it stands, having never left us but to find new corners of the world in which to breathe a second life.
12. Belgrado – Intra Apogeum (La Vida Es Un Mus Discos)
Every time there is a new wave of post-punk, there is an inevitable wave of pushback against what many consider to be low effort nostalgia bait that does not stray from or push the original 80’s British post punk sound. But the rise of the European “coldwave” sound, embodied by the likes of Molchat Doma and similar “Russian doomer music” making waves in part thanks to TikTok, shows there’s plenty of gas left in the tank of post-punk. Belgrado hails from Spain but their vocalist Patrycja Proniewska hails from Poland and her native tongue lends extra texture to her at once ephemeral and concrete vocals. The band explores many sounds of the bygone era, from synthwave to dancepunk to disco, and they deliver it with an aura of cold detachment that belies the irresistible rhythms of fat bass tones and crisp synthetic kick drums that permeate the entire record. Intra Apogeum is equal parts danceable party record and depressive after-party crash, the vibes as reliant on the instrumentals as they are on the listeners mood.
11. Pronostic – Chaotic Upheaval (Independent)
The first time I heard Chaotic Upheaval I knew it was going to end up on my end of year list. I continue to be blown away by just how fucking good musicians these guys are. The guitars drill into your skull while the drums jackhammer away, this is tech death at its most ridiculous, and yet the band has the foresight and good taste to layer all of this in incredibly catchy melodic hooks and the sickest bass tone imaginable. That shit is chonky enough to rival a contrabass and it adds so much texture I can’t believe it. This record is extreme and intense but it still finds room for dynamic range and modes of expression that aren’t just “all fast all the time.” The melodic death metal aspects could proudly stand tall alongside the best from the turn of the century and the band members also have the chops to elevate that even further with ridiculous feats of musical acrobatics. Asking me to pick a favourite is impossible, but “Massive Disillusion” is a good showcase of the range these that Pronostic are capable of, like the guest sax solo that blends seamlessly with the guest guitar solo in a way that is unapologetically on trend yet fits with the kind of artful over the top approach the band are aiming for that it doesn’t even feel like a guest feature so much as an organic offshoot of Pronostic’s own sound. This is one of the pinnacles of techdeath for the year, and the fact that I still feel as giddily excited to listen to it all these months later is a testament to its strength.
10. Transgressive – Extreme Transgression (Independent)
It’s impossible to be impartial to your friends music. Alicia Cordisco is someone I admire as both a friend and a musician, and her long list of experience and achievements is a medal of honor for what she is capable of. Extreme Transgression is an ode to the glory of thrash ’til death, with the most obvious nod being to the best thrash band of all time, Kreator. I fully admit my bias but I objectively view this record as a vital piece of the ongoing story in thrash metal. Even if we weren’t friends, I would love this project because this record is full of superbly crafted riffs, hooks, and it will kick your fucking ass. Alicia is a potent frontwoman, delivering scathing baths of fire upon bigots and capitalists alike with extremely enjoyable harshes, and her capability as a songwriter and guitarist are on full display. While the politics are incredibly based, it would be meaningless if she couldn’t back it up musically. And she can – kicking it off with one of the greatest sample uses of all time before kicking things into high gear that never ceases to be fun and good, reminding the listener of why thrash was so dominant in the first place. This only makes the fire of the lyrics hit that much harder, especially knowing that proceeds from the album went to Trans Lifeline – this is art as embodiment, money to the table, and it fucking rules. This is one of the best thrash records of the year and actually lives up to itself. Alicia has my eternal respect.
9. Tomb Mold – The Enduring Spirit (20 Buck Spin)
Tomb Mold had a lot to live up to when they finally returned, and they clearly overshot the mark because they weren’t even aiming where anyone was looking. While the early tracks retain the bands signature murky death metal sound, The Enduring Spirit evolves and metamorphosizes into something brilliantly new, a progressive epic that takes the band in new directions only previously hinted at. The song transitions reflect the track transitions, trading off between groove and prog, heavy and airy, trading off between modes. This build up culminates in the crescendo of emotional tone and texture that is the pseudo-title closing track “The Enduring Spirit of Calamity” where lead guitars sway on spiral air and drums rollick deftly like drops of rain in a drifting interval, before closing on more ascendant leads dance atop rolling blastbeats. This exploration of the more progressive and jazz elements, diverse soundscapes and songwriting approaches, is remarkably fully realized, and if the similarities to guitarist Derrick Vella’s side project Dream Unending prove anything, it’s that this band is comprised of musicians who want to push boundaries and do different things, and it makes for an absolute banger of a record.
8. Agriculture – Agriculture (The Flenser)
Say it with me – I love the spiritual sound of ecstatic black metal by the band Agriculture. Depending on who you ask, this might have been the most obnoxious meme of the year in a particular substrate of Metal Twitter (hi, it’s me, I’m the particular substrate of Metal Twitter). The hype is real, and I am the hype. As I mentioned before, we live in a post-Sunbather world now, and the rise of so called “Sunbather-core” finds a new internet-ready poster child in the explosively memetic potential of Agriculture, but the memes are underscored by a genuine passion for the sonically rich textures crafted by the band on their debut. Ecstatic black metal goes beyond a simple goofy catchphrase to become a musical ethos, a raison d’etre, as bright chords and anguished shrieks carry with them a joie de vivre that, through the intensity of delivery, actively embodies the kind spiritual experience the band ascribes themselves as seeking. The band is so deeply steeped in this particular sound, painfully bright tremolo chords and pounding drums amidst lush production creating full soundscapes, that it feels like a pre-emptive effort to beat the “derivative” allegations when “The Well” transitions to a simple and plaintive folksy singer-songwriter-esque intimacy. This is a band that knows they’re playing in a well-worn and deeply controversial space, and by fully embracing that they come out the other side sounding far more intentional and mature for the earnestness of their inexperience.
7. Anachronism – Meanders (Unorthodox Emanations)
I will be the first to admit that I am not particularly smart and don’t actually know that much about music on a technical level. I do understand what dissonance is but what does dissodeath mean after “death metal that is dissonant”? I can’t honestly tell you beyond “I know it when I hear it, so I apologize for my lacking ability to describe it.” What I do know is that good dissodeath is absolutely sick, and Anachronism fully delivers on the crushing heaviness and weird “flat-yet-bendy” riffs (that’s how dissodeath works, the math checks out). Meanders is very close to being my favourite death metal album of the year. This record is as groovy as any standard death metal thanks to not only audible bass but rhythmic riff writing, which only further accents the technical proficiency of the band by careening between multiple kinds of aggression at varying points, everything just sounds chunky in a deeply satisfying way, The leadwork is also incredibly tasty and melodic, highlighted by the space it’s allowed to breathe in, which astonishes with how quickly the record comes to a close – this is not an album that drags its feet for fifty minutes but lasts exactly as long as it needs to.
6. Ὁπλίτης – Ψευδομένη and Τρωθησομένη (Independent)
Alright, I cheated; the first two Hoplites records are objectively distinct entities and yet they are so impeccably intertwined and spaced that to me they are functionally inseparable, becoming more like a delayed-release double album, and I couldn’t pick one over the other. The debut record was the very first record of 2023 that I even heard, and I immediately knew I had to review it. To my surprise a follow up dropped just a few months later and completed the yet-unrealized pairing. The fact that a record released so early in the year as to both fly under the radar and be eventually forgotten has stuck with me so strongly should inform you as to its strength, especially considering that the person behind the project, JL, did it three times in one year. I continue to be blown away by these records. This is black metal to its core, but dissonant and noisy, shockingly heavy, and bristling with the unbridled intensity of death metal, and with a back half on each LP that grows increasingly progressive without sacrificing any of the chaos. Hoplites is steeped in Greek language and mythology as a metaphorical frame within which to deliver political messages on their native China, the use of classical and classically inspired art evoking a strong historical aesthetic. This is the rare “one person bedroom black metal” project that feels like a fully realized artistic statement with the full bodied intensity that it has.
5. Dryad – The Abyssal Plain (Prosthetic Records)
Dryad sounds like a forest waiting to explode. Some magic ritual worship of an unfathomable cosmic force, invisible yet permeating every atomic of existence, has gone horribly awry and begun to warp the very creatures that inhabit the woods. Vocalist Claw’s inhuman shrieks are the barks of some mad forest spirit hunting you down in the midnight haunt, snapping twigs and trunks alike in its unceasing pursuit to find and gut you. The energy levels that Dryad display on The Abyssal Plain are extreme, yet they can also pull back to create atmosphere that actually builds an uncomfortable tension. All of this is carried along by a rhythm section that feels very crust punk in nature, constantly threatening to careen off the rails and crash into the unknowable dark. There is something about the particular tension points created that make this record feel genuinely dangerous in a way that I haven’t felt since childhood, like listening to a horror movie unfolding in a way only my own imagination can completely fill in, and the chills it gives me make me want to keep coming back.
4. Dreamwell – In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You (Prosthetic Records)
Two years ago Dreamwell’s debut made quite a number of AOTY lists here at Noob Heavy, including my own, and it was very deserving. But the level up the band has done on In My Saddest Dreams makes them feel like they’re on another level completely. The twinkling guitars shine a little brighter, the tones and lyrics hit harder, but the sheer musicality on display is shocking in such an enjoyable way. This is really damn good music, and the more purposeful direction gives even more identity to a band already dripping with it – when the nearly black metal shrieked vocals first hit I got chills. Like any good punk record this can be danced to, and like any good emo record it is wonderful to cry to, and screamo of this caliber delivers both side by side. I think Dreamwell have genuinely elevated the genre to new heights on this record and it should stand proudly alongside the likes of something like Circle Takes the Square’s iconic As the Roots Undo as a benchmark record against which future albums will be judged.
3. Smoulder – Violent Creed of Vengeance (Cruz Del Sur Music)
I said last year, before this album was announced, that Smoulder were very close to being one of my favourite bands if only they’d release more music. Now they have and now they are. Vocalist Sarah Ann’s voice is the haunting echo of magic, carried aloft furious winds to deliver warnings and tales of glory alike. The band have fully grown into their sound, with better performances and better songwriting sitting alongside a clearer vision for their direction. Structurally taking a “slow-fast-slow” trade off the album never sits in one zone for long enough to feel boring, and creates interesting dynamics. For me the absolute standout, like I mentioned in my review, is the breathless “Spellforger” where Sarah chokes out the chorus over one of the most driving riffs you’ll hear this year. This band deserves the cult following they’ve developed and then some, wonderfully capturing the essence of the undersung legends of old school traditional metal and making it sound as kickass as it did forty years ago.
2. Cryptopsy – As Gomorrah Burns (Nuclear Blast)
Lord Worm isn’t coming back and everyone needs to get over it. Cryptopsy have been a different band for decades now, and finally after a decade between full-lengths, current vocalist Matt McGachy gets to shine in a way where no can deny that he is the man for the job. The band wastes absolutely zero time kicking up to maximum velocity and they do not fucking stop until the record closes. This is the sound of a band that wants to cave in your skull with their music. McGachy sounds stellar, and his deranged laughter midway through the opener shows the level of commitment that makes this album peak death metal. Riffs are relentless and pounding, Flo Mournier on the kit remains as punchy and precise as ever, and the production is meaty enough to give a genuine weight to the entire instrumental section while giving room for McGachy to move around it as tracks necessitate. Christian Donaldson’s leadwork is intentionally sparse to keep flows and runtime tight, but when he does play he sounds fluidly integrated with the rest of the track and band in a natural way. As Gomorrah Burns goes all in from the go, and for a band firing on all cylinders for the first time in a long time, is easily the best Cryptopsy record since Whisper Supremacy.
1. Pupil Slicer – Blossom (Prosthetic Records)
Please read my full review here
I don’t think I can genuinely talk about this album with any more clarity or eloquence here than I did in my full length review. I poured a lot of time and passion into that review, so please give that a read if you want to really engage with the meat of my thoughts on how powerful of an artistic statement that Blossom is. Pupil Slicer capture the magic and spirit of this exact moment in time, the blending of previously disparate genres through the internet’s democratizing force and queer artistic forces restructuring our very interpretation of the barriers between these things. Blossom is everything I love about modern underground heavy music: a voracious appetite for variety and bright eyes on the future, seeing the limitless possibilities that come with the infinite potential of growth, fully grounded in the world we’re born into yet blooming to grasp towards the sun.