70 new releases puts me a little behind my usual curve, but it’s still a respectable number, and maybe I made up for quantity in quality? I skimmed a hell of a lot of albums this year that I didn’t end up purchasing. These are my favorites of the ones I connected with enough to really sink my teeth into. Going to keep it a bit shorter this year than last, 25 albums that rose above “good” to something I distinctly enjoyed repeatedly from start to finish.

25. Faidra – Militant : Penitent : Triumphant

atmospheric black metal

Sample track: The Leavening Rot

Slow plodding dungeon synthed black metal that forsakes aggression and taps the more enchanting elements of the genre. What you hear is what you get; I wouldn’t say it grew on me much with repetition, but it didn’t need to. While the artists aren’t stylistically all that similar, this album appealed to me in something of the same manner as later era Falkenbach.

24. Kostnatění – Úpal

avantgarde black metal

Sample track: Hořím navždy

Last year, Kostnatění released an 18 minute EP consisting of three black metal reinterpretations of Turkish folk music, and it stands as one of the most delightful things I’ve heard in ages. A year and a half after finding it, I still can’t stop turning to it the moment I tire of artists that require effort and want something that just fucking slays. Úpal does not quite achieve that height for lack of the underlying groove that makes me want to bang my head through my dashboard every time I counter commuter traffic with Oheň hoří tam, kde padl. But the melodies are still wacky as hell, and I challenge you to ride this one out without a “what the fuck are they doing” moment.

23. Moonlight Sorcery – Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle

melodic black metal

Sample track: In Coldest Embrace

Moonlight Sorcery entered the stage last year with some great EPs that promised the next big thing in melodic black metal. Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle delivered enough to make my chart. I still hear a project in its infancy, working out the kinks of how to weave rhythmic bombast and endless joyride guitar noodling into a consistent package, but this band excites me, both for promises of things to come and direct enjoyment of what they’re crafting along the way. The fun they had making it is tangible, and it fed my occasional craving for a highly melodic powderkeg well over the past few months.

22. 7 H.Target – Yantra Creating

slam/brutal death metal

Sample track: Aghori

Oh hey look it’s more death metal on my list. This is the first year I’ve eagerly clicked on everything I see with a slam tag. It was kind of uncharted territory when I fell in love with Epicardiectomy’s discography last year. This is not a remotely genre-informed pick, but it stood out from the crowd for me for the way the songs flowed–the way it hit hardest in all the right places and kept me constantly engaged wondering what ridiculous thing they’d do next.

21. Hasard – Malivore

atmospheric/experimental black metal

Sample track: Choral Inane

I’ve become an avid consumer of I, Voidhanger Records releases, and while I didn’t get to catch them all, four wiggled their way into my top 25 and a number of others came close. Synth-heavy brooding black metal that appears to take a lot of cues from Blut Aus Nord and Akhlys but still manages to forge his own distinct sound, Hasard ships a relentlessly dark vibe. Choral Inane in particular does an awesome job of putting a proper piano to use in bm, something I’ve encountered astonishingly little of over the years. I sampled it for its uniqueness, but the quality is consistent throughout and I want to pick half the album as my sample track.

20. Esoctrilihum – Astraal Constellations of the Majickal Zodiac

atmospheric/experimental black metal
Sample track: Saturnyôsmachia

This album is two hours and ten minutes long and doesn’t offer many breaks along the way. Last year’s Consecration of the Spiritüs Flesh put Esoctrilihum on my radar, though apparently he released two other albums between them? His most distinguishing feature might be a uniquely wacky vocal style that he almost never deviates from, but that’s possibly the only point of consistency between these two albums. Where Spiritüs Flesh was a brutal assault, this is a melody-minded star cruiser. It persistently goes hard, but I hardly notice. I’ve found it honestly really relaxing, especially to roll out late at night when I’m half awake and my body’s still getting chores done but my brain is shutting down. It’s become my short term default for the occasion. I never paid close attention to whatever narrative progression Asthâghul is attempting to ship here, and I never intend to. I’m sold on its echoed synth-heavy ambience.

19. Spectral Lore – 11 Days

black metal, ambient

Sample track: Moloch

I’m never quite sure what “EP” means in a modern sense. This one is 44 minutes long. Whatever. Ayloss never fails to release something I really enjoy every year, and while I observed a bit more talk around his new Auriferous Flame album Ardor for Black Mastery, 11 Days was the one for me. The album rotates back and forth between two black metal tracks and two ambient tracks, and it’s surprisingly hard to say which I like more. It’s certainly not as content heavy as a typical full length Spectral Lore release, but it’s fabulously vivid and convincing in its thematic portrayal of a migrant’s harrowing voyage across the Mediterranean.

By the way, Ayloss announced he’ll be releasing IV next year and dropped a sample track which I’m intentionally avoiding. It’s been a decade and a dozen or more releases since he added an album to his original number sequence series, and III might still stand as my favorite thing he’s made, so I’m pretty hyped to get something that can compete for my 2024 album of the year!

18. Dying Fetus – Make Them Beg for Death

death metal

Sample track: Feast of Ashes

I’m easily turned off by old bands playing old styles, but Dying Fetus maintained my interest long after their style standardized. Their sense of rhythm gets to me every time. Everything is so precise, so keenly timed. They’re one of the ultimate stop thinking and just bang your head bands to me. Ideal pull into the office blasting at max volume and then give your fellow commuters in the parking lot a hearty “good morning!” jams.

17. Sulphur Aeon – Seven Crowns and Seven Seals

blackened death metal

Sample track: Seven Crowns and Seven Seals

I could see Seven Crowns and Seven Seals drawing comparisons to a lot of Century Media types on the surface for their big sounds and anthemic progressions, but the boldly brooding and blackened journey engages me more like Ruins of Beverast’s Thule Grimoires. I’m getting a similar satisfaction out of the mood it ships, and there’s a ton of creative song-writing waiting to be discovered. Every play through I gain something new, and I expect this will stick with me a while into the next year.

16. Sarmat – Determined To Strike

jazz death metal

Sample track: Disturbing Advances

The pedants of Metal Archives denied this a metal label. Judge for yourself. Or don’t so I can win a round of Walrus with it some time next year. It’s backloaded for sure and the slow start hurts its placement a little, but Disturbing Advances is possibly my favorite tracks of the year and the album hits and rides peak chaos well before that. Toot toot.

15. Violet Cold – Multiverse

post-black metal

Sample track: Shazam The Void

I kept forgetting this existed for ranking purposes because my head was so locked into metal spheres and for all its growling and distortion and blast beats it never felt like a metal album at all to me. It’s unconditionally uplifting; dreamy; an electronic folk-laced post-rock fantasy that applies black metal techniques to ship its feel forcefully, not counterbalance it with a hint of darkness.

14. Nithing – Agonal Hymns

brutal death metal

Sample track: Emetic Rapture

Bands have long tried to be more ridiculous than all bands before them, and every couple of years someone succeeds, but why is this so damn listenable? Like I’m not just laughing at it I’m authentically enjoying the aesthetic. That shouldn’t be possible with music that sounds like this.

13. Tomb Mold – The Enduring Spirit

death metal

Sample track: Fate’s Tangled Thread

I think this is the most well known album on my list? I’ve definitely seen a lot of mentions of it in non-metal circles. Good on them for hitting it off bigger than most. I enjoyed Planetary Clairvoyance in 2019 more than I remembered if play count is any indication, but this one is resonating with me on a higher level. It’s not just well written songs–there’s a fullness and balance to their sound on this album that I find instantly satisfying every time I put it on. Look I’m a black metal guy posting a year end chart that’s majority death metal. I don’t have a head for technical diddling, I just listen for vibes. I feel like death metal bands have traditionally leaned on the former and as more and more of them drill my aesthetic sensibilities with vastly more interesting compositions than standard bm fair, aaaaaa I don’t know what to say about it but 2023 has been one hell of a year for this subgenre.

12. Passéisme – Alternance

medieval black metal

Sample track: Azure Mockery Chant

Similar to Eminence in 2021, Alternance launches out the gate into an anthem compelling enough to be any other album’s grand finale. That’s a pretty strong selling point. The part of the album I am actually paying the most attention to also happens to be the brightest highlight. From there, my mind plays tricks on me, hungering for Faminesque medieval black and roll odysseys despite knowing that Passéisme have no breaks and will assault my ears with the same relentless energy from start to finish. Better to not think so hard. Alternance resides in a middle space, offering too many catch riffs to settle into background ambience and not much more if I give it my undivided attention. It’s been a great jam to kick off my work shift too, constantly pricking my brain while never becoming an outright distraction. I’m still waiting for that album of the year contender they’re just a little nuance away from composing, but in the meantime this certainly enhanced my 2023 experience more than most.

11. Trhä – av◊ëlajnt◊ë£ hinnem nihre

post-black metal

Sample track: Danë‡i

In addition to various albums under his main project Sadness and other pseudonyms, Damián Antón Ojeda rolled out 479 minutes and 56 seconds of new material this year under his black metal monicker Trhä. That is a little over seven and a half hours of music across 16 albums, EPs, and splits, and no, I did not listen to it all. But what I heard was even more impressive as his 2021 debuts. He doesn’t release music in a manner particularly compatible with year-end lists–it’s exceedingly difficult to wrap my head around any one album when I tend to go in for passive plays through large chunks of it all at once. But this release stood out to me among the pack instantly, and I don’t consider it a token inclusion. If I broke my rules and took his body of work collectively, he’d just walk away with #1. This dude’s single-handedly creating enough inspired music to fill an entire top 10 roster if emotionally driven black metal is your jam.

10. Stortregn – Finitude

progressive blackened death metal

Sample track: Xeno Chaos

I’m not easily swooned by notes notes notes notes but holy cheese balls this band crams in so much relevant content. It’s a blisteringly paced death metal album that goes appreciably harder than most artists I hear croon this much, and the constantly shifting stage around the relentless lead guitar makes each song’s twenty seven and a half guitar solos feel like they are a force of progression, not just a climax. It’s a lot to digest, but I don’t think it really needs to be digested to be enjoyed.

9. Trichomoniasis – Makeshift Crematoria

brutal death metal

Sample track: Cellular Blebs And Membrane Invaginations Coupled Through Membrane Tension Buffering

Maybe I’m just inexperienced in bdm relative to other subgenres of metal, but I’ve not been oblivious to its existence all these yes and still have to say, really, what the fuck is this shit? I can’t stop listening to it, and that has definitely not applied for me to bands of this sort traditionally. This is aEsThEtIcAlLy PlEaSiNg MuSiC imo glgl

8. Fabricant – Drudge to the Thicket

technical death metal

Sample track: Demigod Prototype

This is a death metal album and nothing changes that, but every time I put it on I’m left thinking like what if someone took the three most eclectic metal minutes of Maudlin of the Well and made an album out of it. The melodic progressions are wild, and it’s stripped down enough to catch the full brunt of them without drowning in intensity. Its ear accessibility makes it shine above the rest.

7. Majesties – Vast Reaches Unclaimed

melodic death metal

Sample track: Seekers of the Ineffable

Tanner Anderson has very consistently released one album every four years, and if that means I have to wait until 2027 for his next offering, I’ll be pretty sad. He has an utterly original style, capturing something lush and beautiful and magical in nature that I can’t easily compare to other musicians. Perhaps Summoning, though they sound nothing alike and I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking this is in the spectrum of Summoning’s vast legion of copycat artists (the existence of which I appreciate). It just forges a feeling of fantasy and nature so vivid that anything else pales in comparison. Majesties leans melodeath where Obsequiae shows black metal roots, but they’re so alike that I can’t imagine enjoying one without the other. There’s a satisfying freshness here that The Palms of Sorrowed Kings lacked for me relative to Suspended in the Brume of Eos and Aria of Vernal Tombs. If you enjoy Obsequiae or I don’t know, music that is good, do yourself a favor and check this out.

6. Blut Aus Nord – Disharmonium: Nahab

atmospheric/experimental black metal

Sample track: The Endless Multitude

There are few bands I have enjoyed as consistently as Blut Aus Nord. There’ve been ups and downs, but over the course of fifteen years, they have persistently managed to keep my expectations high. I mean, it’s really kind of astonishing to me how many bands that I loved when I first discovered Blut Aus Nord are now releasing material I skim once or twice with a smile for the moments they gave me in years gone by and no real interest in what they’re doing right now. In a quantitative objective sense, how many bands have given me as much enjoyment over time as them, even if there’s never been that one unforgettable phase where they reigned above all else? The Disharmonium series they kicked off with last year’s Undreamable Abysses is some of the most infinitely replayable metal I’ve encountered. An endless miasma of grand disharmonic progressions that are never coherent enough to grow dull through familiarity, flowing like a nightmare and polished to perfection as always. I dare say Blut Aus Nord might be as excellent as they’ve ever been right now, despite thirty years of a steady release cadance to compete with.

5. Panopticon – The Rime of Memory

post-black metal

Sample track: Cedar Skeletons

Dang I feel guilty about blowing off And Again into the Light. Roads to the North was peak Panopticon for me, with Kentucky and Autumn Eternal bookending an epic three album run. Two out of three of them claimed my #1 slot in the years they came out. But The Scars of Man did very little for me, and in the subsequent three year gap I just kind of lost interest in what Austin was doing. I listened, but I didn’t give And Again into the Light much effort, and when it didn’t captivate me immediately I accepted that and moved on. Did I get it wrong and miss something grand? I don’t know, but The Rime of Memory was love at first listen. I feel like I’ve stepped a decade back in time and am discovering his brilliance for threading lush and emotionally dynamic songs into pummeling black metal soundwalls all over again.

4. Nightmarer – Deformity Adrift

atmospheric death metal

Sample track: Brutal Imperator

Well, this is the 2023 release I listened to the most. It’s a technical and complex album, if you’re into that sort of thing, probably. I don’t know, because I’m not. I just care about how music makes me feel, and the advancing trend of atmospheric technical death metal makes me feel really damn good. The brood without the bore is a beautiful stimulant. On Deformity Adrift, Nightmarer push all the same aesthetic buttons that made me fall in love with Ulcerate and Ad Nauseam before them. I can put this on practically any time anywhere and feel like it’s enhancing my life experience.

3. Trhä – alëce iΩic

blackgaze

Sample track: limatuבn

Heh yeah there was inevitably going to be more than one Trhä album on this list. Is this the best one? Hell if I know. My head might have just been in the right place at the right time, but it’s the one that took me to the sweetest places. Hope it does the same for you.

2. Xoth – Exogalactic

power death metal

Sample track: Saga of the Blade

Tags are what they are. Melodeath doesn’t quite capture just how much power metal energy is jammed into this package despite going hard at every turn. The intro track Reptilian Bloodsport vibes like where I envisioned GWAR heading if Smooth and Brockie hadn’t died. Saga of the Blade has me feeling like it’s 2000 and I’m discovering Children of Bodom for the first time. The melodies across this album hit instantly and never wear over time. Easy top tier pick as an album I’ll still be rolling out routinely well into the next year.

1. Jute Gyte – Unus Mundus Patet

experimental black doom drone nonsense metal

Sample track: Philoctetes

Another prolific creator of stuff, I beg at least some forgiveness for not realizing Adam Kalmbach was a metal artist sooner. I first ran into him in the context of dungeon synth. …Ok I guess failing to realize he was a metal artist is on me. Just as I was convincing myself that the cutting edge of experimentation had thoroughly drifted into the court of death metal, my ears stumbled upon this masterwork of dissonance and my brain melted into piles of euphoric stinking goop. Please enjoy this completely fucked experience.