El Cuervo’s, GardensTale’s, and Eldritch Elitist’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024

By El Cuervo

El Cuervo

After more than a decade in this job, the years start to blur. While there may be an almost imperceptible feeling that some years are musically stronger than others, I’ve started to reach the realization that they’re all basically the same. 99% of heavy metal spawned into the world is destined to be forgotten or disparaged.

That’s not to say I’m bored of this state of affairs. The metal community, and in particular its underground, remains in a robust position to peddle the best non-mainstream music in the world, boasting a wide array of sub-genres from all over the globe. Just look at my list below: nine of the selections are from the atypical regions of Northern Europe and North America, hitherto unknown for their metal output.

Nonetheless, it’s the year-to-year consistency that highlights the importance of gathering our thoughts at annual intervals to assemble a list of real quality. This process reminds me why I still spend hundreds of hours each year consuming and reviewing new music. These stand-outs justify my decision and I deeply enjoy commemorating them in this ranking extravaganza. Revel in the albums that most excited me in 2024.

#10. A Burial at Sea // Close to Home – As much as music may impress you with its technical chops or hook you with its bold melodies, it’s music that makes you feel something that endures. The idiosyncratic brand of post-rock heard on Close to Home, dipping into brassy jazz and techy math rock as much as it does shoegaze, always prioritizes its emotive impact above all else. I love the gentle lilt, the crashing apices, the shimmering walls of noise, the orchestral edges. A Burial at Sea ebbs with slow rhythms and delicate chords, but flows with heavy drums and tremolo-picked melodies. The natural cadence across tracks makes the album feel complete. Each year yields one or two ‘mood’ releases for me to savor in a dark room with my headphones and my thoughts; 2024’s is Close to Home.

#9. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – As much as I initially enjoyed Die Urkatastrophe as a studio album, it took the Kanonenfieber live experience to really get its hooks into me. This isn’t just blackened death metal. It’s theatrical, energetic, and catchy, without devolving into something as simple as ‘meloblack’. The shout-along choruses and grooving leads were accentuated in a live setting, and I was incentivized to dig back through the Kanonenfieber back catalog. But the gig wouldn’t have been as entertaining as it was without the underlying music being of high quality. I’ve been to plenty of shows which have encouraged me to revisit an artist – but where the studio release is far less potent. Die Urkatastrophe has the chops and power to excel in both formats.

#8. Aquilus// Bellum II – Lots of black metal adopts the adjective of ‘atmospheric’ but few come as close to this as Aquilus. Horace Rosenqvist forges music that harmonizes but transcends classical and black metal, beguiling and terrifying in equal measure. Bellum II may be marginally the lesser of Bellum I, but it’s still among the best music released this year. Its compositions are extraordinary, as they subtly and satisfyingly transition from delicate piano and strings to towering black metal blasts. This is the prime example of the album’s devastating dichotomies that I previously described (“elegance and savagery; serenity and chaos; airiness and crunch”). Rosenqvist is a singularly mesmerizing instrumentalist and composer, able to pull contrasting music into a brutal but beautiful whole.

#7. Hamferð // Men Guðs hond er sterk – It’s hard to conceive of a more metal homeland than the Faroe Islands. Cold? Dark? Remote? Check, check, check. This results in Hamferð’s frigid, towering block of death-inflected doom metal that owes as much to its isolated island roots as it does to any other metal band. Men Guðs hond er sterk is a crushingly heavy album, but one gilded with a hopeful edge derived from its concept wherein a survivor of a whaling accident emphasizes the miracle of his life. While prioritizing the sheer weight of mass and exquisitely despondent leads, the album also benefits from one of metal’s most talented vocalists in Jón Aldará, who runs the gamut from bellowing growls to melancholic croons. Though it runs out of steam by the gentle acoustic conclusion, the preceding thirty-nine minutes are monumental.

#6. Blood Incantation // Absolute Elsewhere – Blood Incantation is plainly an excellent band. But I’m struggling to explain why Absolute Elsewhere became the underground cross-over metal album of the year, favored by big and small publications alike. Perhaps it’s the savage but technical riffs that make you mosh and think simultaneously. Perhaps it’s the Floydian approach to song structures. Perhaps it’s the penchant for meandering, Tangerine Dreamy interludes. Perhaps it’s the sophisticated fusion of something heavy so listeners feel edgy, with something chill so listeners feel safe. Perhaps it’s the conspiratorial orientation around our alien overlords building the pyramids. Perhaps it’s all of these and more. Hmm. On reflection, I think I do understand why everyone loves Absolute Elsewhere as much as they do.

#5. Crypt Sermon // The Stygian Rose – We all know that doom is the worst core metal sub-genre. To my abject horror, 2024 saw not one but two excellent examples of it. Crypt Sermon stormed the top five of my list, folding excellent leads and engaging solos into some of the most captivating metal of the year. While the front half is good, it’s the back half where things hit another level. “Heavy Is the Crown of Bone” until the title track exemplifies the best of the sub-genre through their epic proportions, memorable melodies and fat, crunchy guitar tones. While the riffs have immediate impact, the detailed compositions give the songs real staying power. Layers of guitars, a tempo that eschews dirge speeds, varied vocals and progressive song constructions march the album to a conclusion that comes too quickly.

#4. Syst3m Glitch // The Brave Ones – The remainder of this list documents my love for heavy metal and all things progressive. But synthwave is the third pillar of my music library and the most joyous. The best of the year comes from Florida’s Syst3m Glitch. He’s not always been my first pick for synths, but The Brave Ones dramatically outperformed his prior output and muscled its way into my favorite albums from 2024. It’s stuffed full of catchy, memorable tunes that traverse the synthwave soundscape, from the pop-laced sweetness of “California,” to the pulsing rhythms of “Thrill Ride,” to the darksynth pastiche of “Tommy Danger,” and finally to the smooth retrowave of “Raining in Tokyo.” It’s rare for one release to cover this much territory, and rarer still that it’s so successful in doing so.

#3. Dissimulator // Lower Form Resistance – February is early in the year but I knew then that Lower Form Resistance would be high on my list. Dissimulator inherits death metal traits from the members’ other bands (including Beyond Creation and First Fragment) but builds these into uber-tight, technical thrash metal. The excellence of the riffs here is fucking relentlessness; no other 2024 release can boast such a fine repertoire. From the ridiculously good “Neural Hack” until the closer, the album generates such entertainment value that it feels half as long as it is. The exemplary instrumentation, chaotic energy and technological feel make Lower Form Resistance sound like Voivod reinvented for the 2020s. In a sub-genre so preoccupied with rehashing old ideas – I do not accept that thrash metal must sound like 1986 – Dissimulator thrives by looking forward.

#2. In Vain // Solemn – It’s no secret that I’m a prog nerd. While In Vain has always been plenty progressive through varied and unpredictable songwriting, what I envy most is the knack for incorporating myriad styles into one cohesive sound. Solemn follows two prior records demarcated by their fusions of melodic death metal, black metal, progressive rock, and Nordic folk music. This fusion has never been more seamless than it is in 2024. The expansive songs feel like they should be extremely long and complex but in reality, they hardly exceed seven minutes and utilize powerful melodic anchors. As if all this wasn’t enough, the quintessential In Vain guitar and vocal harmonies, and orchestral pomp, elevate the songs into metal magic. Solemn is pure Cuervo catnip.

#1. Opeth // The Last Will and Testament – It feels like I’ve spent much of the last few months describing just how much I admire Opeth. This year-end list is no exception as I properly rank The Last Will and Testament as 2024’s best release. With the Opeth ranking articles so recent, I think it would fall into the upper half of their work. In a discography littered with records revered by both metalheads and prog nerds, this demarcates a record of rare quality. Though – yes – Åkerfeldt returns to growled vocals here, this is just a small piece of what makes The Last Will and Testament so good. From the sophisticated compositions to the entertaining story, and the exemplary instrumentation to the immaculate production, its knotty harmonization of death metal with progressive rock has the aura of perfection. No other record from 2024 can make such a claim.

 

Honorable Mentions

• Beardfish // Songs for Beating Hearts – The unheralded return of these Swedes yields a shockingly vital slice of prog rock, boasting tidy riffs, folksy warmth, and engaging song-writing.
• At 1980 // Forget to Remember – While predictable, At 1980 remains an interminably satisfying retrowave artist through their smooth synths, melodic guitar solos, and easy vocals.
• Morgul Blade // Heavy Metal Wraiths – Morgul Blade forms a destructive harmony between three of my favorite things: razor-sharp classic metal leads, harsh vocal,s and Tolkien nerdery.
• Kalax // Lost – While bloated and meandering – lost, perhaps – the return of Liverpool’s premier retro synth act finds a delicate dichotomy between frigidity and comfort.

Songs o’ the Year

Unto Others – “Never, Neverland”

Syst3m Glitch – “Raining in Tokyo”

Iotunn – “Iridescent Way”

Opeth – “A Story Never Told”

Lebrock – “Goliath”

At 1980 – “Your Secret”

Nestor – “Caroline”

Crypt Sermon – “The Stygian Rose”

Dissimulator – “Neural Hack”

Winterun – “Silver Leaves”

GardensTale

Fucking hell, what a year. Ordinarily, I’d try and wax poetically on the passing of time or some shit here. Looking back with melancholy and whatnot seems to be the intention for opening paragraphs to arbitrary lists of what music this one rando that I happen to be got the most enjoyment from this year. But I think this time, I’ll try some brutal honesty instead. It’s not been a great year overall. I won’t bore you with a tedious list, numbering my shades of the various common mental issues people my age and disposition face, but suffice it to say I’ve closed out most prior years in better spirits. But I’m getting help, I’m fighting it, and I’m learning. Learning to give myself grace, to step back when I need to. And if that sometimes means slowing down on a review, well, it’s a small price to pay.

One consequence is that I have spent less time listening to music I wasn’t reviewing. That shows below because this list will look like the most self-congratulatory thing I ever wrote. The vast majority of entries I penned myself, be it as a full article, a TYMHM or even a filter entry. But the funny part is, I thought it was a really strong year! I had quite a sizeable shortlist to whittle down. But then I was done whittling and discovered I’d almost exclusively cut albums I did not review, like APES, Crypt Sermon and Hamferð for instance. Additionally, I find I’ve added less to the list in the second half of the year, and my sullied brain has questioned myself many times: was autumn weaker than usual, or is my growing ennui obstructing my ability to like things as much as they deserve?

I don’t know, to tell the truth. And I’m unlikely to find out, because time marches on and new releases darken the horizon of January even now. There are only so many hours in the day, so much music hitting the virtual marketplaces and streaming colossi. To give each year its proper due would take 5 years, or having no job or other hobbies. So I can’t give you a fair, balanced and complete list of the best records of the year, because I do have a job and other hobbies, and no time machine. I can only give you the records that made me feel good. I hope they made or will make you feel good, too.

(ish). Dool // The Shape of Fluidity — I’ve been aware of Dool for a while now, even before vocalist Raven van Dorst became a national television personality. But it wasn’t until I caught “Venus in Flames” on the metal radio station in the car that I became interested in their music. The Shape of Fluidity crystallizes Van Dorst’s lifelong struggle with identity into a fierce, defiant, and intensely personal album. The androgynous vocals sizzle with raw emotion, and the instrumentation is likewise fluid in its presentation, swaying from almost post-punk energy to Anathema-adjacent prog and dipping into epic doom. An excellent album that really puts Dool on the map.

10. Alcest // Les Chants de l’Aurore — Here’s a fun fact: I always thought Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde wasn’t Alcest’s first album. It was the first album of theirs I heard, but since about 97 out of 100 bands that evolve their sound go softer rather than harder, I assumed there was something more extreme preceding it. Alcest tends to do things differently, though, changing things up rather radically from album to album. Les Chants de l’Aurore has elements from many of its older siblings, but the mood it sets is such a beautiful warm summer melancholy, it sets it apart in a very special way. And seeing it performed live a few weeks ago was a very special experience that seared the album in my mind.

9. Madder Mortem // Old Eyes, New Heart — No, I’ll never stop proselytizing Madder Mortem, why do you ask? Old Eyes, New Heart wasn’t what I expected, yet in many ways was just what I needed, and was strangely prophetic at times. It’s the most intensely personal album from the Norwegians (which is saying something) and through the healing power of shared misery, sitting down with it is like a good session with a therapist.

8. 40 Watt Sun // Little Weight — Patrick Walker could sing me The Cat In The Hat and I’d still feel like weeping. I’m not sure the man could earn anything below a 4.0 from me if he tried. That being said, Little Weight still takes a spot by the sunny window that 40 Watt Sun hasn’t explored before. Where Perfect Light and Wider Than the Sky were steeped in sadness, Little Weight expels it. It might be the most hopeful album I’ve heard this year, a return to the light from the deepest darkest places. It’s been a comforting hug on bad days, a warm blanket to fight the cold.

7. Walg // IV — The second year in a row I get to feature this duo. Walg is quickly becoming one of my favorite black metal bands. IV fits any mood, really. It’s got anger, it’s got despair, but it also has enough catchy tunes and energy for when you’re in a good mood. You can play the whole thing start to finish, and you can pick out your favorites and stick ‘em in a playlist. As such, it’s been this year’s ol’ reliable, the album to return to when nothing else sparks joy.

6. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe — If I had a nickel for every time an acclaimed blackened death metal band exclusively used historically accurate World War I accounts and even performed in uniform, I’d have two nickels. It’s kind of difficult for me to mentally separate Kanonenfieber and 1914 for obvious reasons. Luckily there is space for both in the trenches because Noise’s project has become a mean Menschen mühling machine. “Der Maulwurf” grabbed me by the throat from the first spin, and everything else followed over and over again. Epic, bludgeoning and harrowing.

5. Labyrinthus Stellarum // Vortex of the Worlds — I can’t stop playing this album. It is stuck in my algorithm. The bleeps and bloops that summon Hastur from the depths of space and time live in my head and they do not pay rent. How did two kids1 from a war-torn country manage this? Labyrinthus Stellarum is so goddamn good at composing addictive melodies in 4 dimensions it should be considered unfair. The only reason it’s not higher is because at this point the competition becomes even more unfair.

4. Iotunn // Kinship — A lot of people told me in the comments that the closing track on Kinship is a great song and shouldn’t have affected my rating of the album as a whole. They are wrong on both counts. This is a shame because up to that point, this is the album of the year. Earning what amounts to a 4.495 despite a disappointing closer is an incredible feat, but the songwriting on the best couple of tracks here is simply unparalleled. “Mistland,” “The Coming End” and especially “Earth to Sky” are just massive in a way few bands ever achieve, and Iotunn make it seem effortless.

3. Vredehammer // God Slayer — One improvement to my life is that I am returning semi-regularly to the gym these days. I’ve struggled with working out consistently, but I can usually get a session a week in these days. And my number one companion for these outings has been God Slayer. The bridge in the title track alone gives me enough energy to break whatever personal record I’ll be working on at the time. Just looking at the album art gives me an extra pound of gains for the week.

2. Meer // Wheels Within Wheels — Yeah, it’s not really metal, but it’s proggy and it’s fucking gorgeous so up yours, elitists! I’ve come to the opinion that Norway is simply the best country for prog in general, and Meer is just another notch in that belt. Whereas Playing House didn’t really grab me at the time, I couldn’t stop spinning Wheels Within Wheels. I had to start every day with “Come to Light” for a while, and the climax of that track is so uniquely empowering it’d help beat down whatever funk I found myself in at the time. The symphonic composition and multi-vocal approach are just beautiful and it truly does not get old. Meer has outdone itself.

1. Huntsmen // The Dry Land — I’ve had multiple comeback stories this year. Outside of metal, both Elbow and That Handsome Devil returned with fantastic albums after the last was simply disappointing. The biggest comeback and biggest surprise was, without a doubt, Huntsmen. Mandala of Fear was such a slog, I could never have expected the perfect tight flow of The Dry Land. Every track is a journey in and of itself, and the diversity is immense. The Dry Land has become one of those albums where I can’t put it on without finishing it entirely; I’ll just keep going ‘Oh yes the next song has these awesome mournful vocals’ or ‘Ah here comes that mindblowing transition.’ It’s been a great year for metal and music in general, but the way Huntsmen returned from the grave and far surpassed even their vaunted debut was the absolute peak for me, and it has not since been surpassed by any other release.

Honorable Mentions

• Sleepytime Gorilla Museum // of the Last Human Being — Considering how thrilled I was to get a new SGM album I expected this to wind up higher, but it’s still a great and unsettling resurrection for one of the true premier avant-garde collectives.
• Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions — There’s been plenty of emotionally grabbing black metal of various sorts this year, but Selbst had the coolest take out of them all, with a melodic sense that felt almost trad metal without losing edge or impact.
• Monkey3 // Welcome to the Machine — Easily the best instrumental album of the year. Tasteful nods to Pink Floyd wrapped in a massive maelstrom of heavy psych that gets the balancing act of repetition and evolution precisely right.
• The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales — An even tighter and more cohesive album than its excellent predecessor. Weird Tales is like an amazing haunted house ride.
• Sidewinder // Talons — I really wanted to have this in the main list, because you don’t get stoner this great very often. Alas, the competition was too strong. But listen to it anyway if you haven’t!

Non-Metal Albums

This is a metal blog, despite our occasional forays into tangential material like Meer. But several of my favorite non-metal artists all released some excellent albums, and considering the year I’ve had and the state of the world, I’d rather end with some positivity for the open-minded among you, who are secure enough in their trveness to partake in some decidedly vntrve yet excellent releases.

• Man Man // Carrot on Strings — The quirky and rambunctious Zappa-in-the-Bayou outfit led by the enigmatic Honus Honus kills it with this eclectic and introspective release. Everything from pulsing club EDM to mellow country and various mixtures further off the musical maps, it’s a wild and engaging odyssey.
• That Handsome Devil // Exploitopia — After the disappointing Your Parents Are Sellouts, these weirdos blew off the barn doors with this comeback. Best described as alternative gypsy surf jazz rock hip-hop, Exploitopia gushes anti-consumerism and anti-capitalism with sardonic humor and biting sarcasm.
• Elbow // Audio Vertigo — The most commercially successful band on this list, but I still feel like many metalheads aren’t aware of how good these Brits are. And Audio Vertigo is one of their best albums to date: versatile, infectious, with a warm melancholy and wry camaraderie. Beautiful.
• Future Islands // People Who Aren’t There Anymore — A breakup album, filled with aching loneliness and longing, yet a strange sense of hope winds through the pulsing synth-pop. Frontman Samuel Herring is an absolute king of emotive, raspy crooning, and his performance brings a ton of personality to the album.

Songs o’ the Year

Huntsmen – “Rain”

Meer – “Come to Light”

Iotunn – “Earth to Sky”

Tom Cardy – “Transcendental Cha Cha Cha”

Walg – “Als een Korrel Zand”

Vredehammer – “God Slayer”

Tribulation – “The Reaping Song”

Madder Mortem – “Towers”

Kanonenfieber – “Der Maulwurf”

Iotunn – “The Coming End”

Selbst – “Chant of Self Confrontation”

Eldritch Elitist

Huh. It’s apparently been four fucking years since I last penned a proper 2 Records o’ the Year list for Angry Metal Guy. This time last year, I wasn’t sure whether I’d be contributing such a list ever again. I still love this blog and the music we celebrate, but making regular contributions to AMG requires a not-insignificant time investment, and I’ve found myself spread ever-thinner over the years. And then January happened, in which a startling number of fantastic releases in that month alone resulted in the crystallization of a single goal: To make 2024 my most complete year of musical indulgence to date. If there was an album released that even slightly piqued my interest in a given week, I was going to find time to listen to it, ideally to completion. This resolve resulted in so many discoveries that I could have penned Top Ten Records o’ the Month articles for multiple months of 2024.

When I say “multiple months,” I really mean “January through March”, as my momentum dwindled when mid-April rolled around. Compounding factors between life and work suddenly left me with much less time in which to indulge in new music. Once I fell behind, I quickly realized that it would be virtually impossible to keep up the listening schedule I had set for myself, and subsequently gave up the ghost. As badly as I wanted to contribute the most confidently comprehensive year-end list possible, this list might as well be titled “Eldritch Elitist’s Top 10 Records o’ Q1 2024 & Friends”. Lopsided though it may be, that’s no excuse to not take a legitimate stab at a list at all, especially not when comments like this keep rolling in… Wait, why the hell has that guy been hanging around the AMG break room? Christ, I really need to work on staying in the loop around here. Anyway, here’s some albums I like; no -ishs, HMs, or butts about it.

#10. Cruce Signatus // Cruce Signatus – While Cruce Signatus sits at the bottom of my top 10, I have listened to it more than any other record this year outside of my number 1 pick. It’s become a go-to record to throw on thanks to its instrumental nature and soundtrack-like ebb and flow. More than that, Cruce Signatus’ unique blend of metal and synthwave is legitimately compelling, feeling distinct from similar acts as an actual soundtrack to an in-progress animation project. The downside is that this record feels partially complete because it literally is. The upside is that the experience of listening to this record will surely evolve retroactively as this project continues, and in the meantime, I’ll remain content to absorb one of the most ambitious cross-media offerings of 2024.

#9. Myrath // Karma – The release of Karma marked my first prolonged exposure to Myrath, and while I don’t adore it as heavily as some of my AMG colleagues, it remained in heavy rotation throughout 2024 all the same. Karma is an uncommonly proficient slab of pop metal, one that smartly leverages its latent progressive and folk metal leanings in sublimely bombastic fashion. It lacks variety, but Myrath navigates Karma’s narrow aesthetic with such precision as to maximize its scope, resulting in an album that compels through efficiency. Ultimately, the most important quality of any pop record is its ability to lodge its hooks into my brain, and I have had every single one of these songs stuck in my head many times throughout the year. If that kind of recurring impact isn’t worthy of a spot on this list, I don’t know what is.

#8. Soulmass // Principality of Mechanical Violence – Despite Soulmass’ previous LP basing its concept on my favorite video game, Principality of Mechanical Violence hit me way harder despite unfamiliarity with its source material. My knowledge of Gundam may only go so far as that handsome blonde fellow in red who apparently did nothing wrong, but I do know that this Gundam concept album rocks unlike any other Soulmass record. It largely culls the band’s moodier death/doom passages in favor of concise riffage, yet is also densely melodic, neatly slotting melancholic guitar leads alongside meaty riffs that echo Bolt Thrower and Cannibal Corpse. The resulting listening experience is equally absorbing and exhilarating, enticing me to get in the robot time and time again.

#7. Mega Colossus // Showdown – Mega Colossus just gets it. Not once in my years of listening to this band have I gotten a sense that they are trying to recapture the heyday of traditional metal, or otherwise be anything in the moment other than themselves. Showdown further cements my impression, as it sees Mega Colossus reaching ever further into their bottomless bag of nerd fixations. The resulting songs cover topical ground ranging from Porco Rosso to Mad Max: Fury Road, but more importantly, they masterfully weave inspirations as far-reaching as Kansas and Megadeth into their core aesthetic of Iron Maiden-inspired trad metal. Combine the playfully loose hold on genre convention with Mega Colossus’ ever-effusive lyrics, and you have one of the most purely entertaining records of the year from one of the best modern bands in the genre.

#6. Black Curse // Burning in Celestial Poison – Unlike other albums on this list, I have not returned to Burning in Celestial Poison to reconfirm its standing. Call me irresponsible, but I must emphasize that my memory and impression of this record – one formed after multiple days of consecutive spins – remains fully crystalized in my mind. Black Curse’s sophomore outing is one that continues to linger in the darker corners of my mind, a wholly unique vision of blackened death metal that, while not as traditionally thrilling as the band’s debut, is more than the sum of its parts. That “more” manifests as an incorporeal malefic entity seemingly possessing motives independent of the artists who spawned it. Burning in Celestial Poison feels like a living, breathing work, one which unsettles as much as it entices.

#5. Oak, Ash & Thorn // Our Grief is Thus – Our Grief is Thus is one of those albums that feels made specifically for me, with power metal vocals and melodeath riffage wrapped in an overarching aesthetic of black metal, folk metal, and crust punk. Beyond gifting me the forbidden knowledge that power metal with d-beats can and does work, it’s also a generally excellent example of effective genre splicing, feeling as though it belongs in both all and none of the styles from which it cleverly pulls inspiration. What Oak, Ash & Thorn has accomplished with this sophomore outing is an explosively energetic yet cohesive record, and one so melodically effervescent as to be compulsively replayable. Our Grief is Thus is the most surprising record of 2024, and I am firmly seated on the OAT boat for whatever comes next.

#4. Madder Mortem // Old Eyes, New Heart – Madder Mortem is a name I’ve heard tossed around since 2009, and who I never bothered to check out because I thought they were some sorta high falutin’, artsy fartsy doom metal band. That may have been the case once upon a time, but at some point they evolved into the accessible sort of dark progressive metal showcased on Old Eyes, New Heart. Immediately gripping and heavy yet disarmingly vulnerable, this record converted me to Madder Mortem fandom almost instantly. Its songs wormed their way under my skin with atomic precision and never left; as early as my third listen, they felt like old friends, albeit ones prone to trauma dumping. There may be records I liked more in 2024, but none moved or shook me quite like Old Eyes, New Heart.

#3. Galneryus // The Stars Will Light the Way – I’ve read dozens of comments all parroting a mildly irksome take: The Stars Will Light the Way feels like Galneryus on cruise control. While this has mostly been opined through a positive lens, it still feels unfairly reductive when considering the sheer quality and consistency of this album. Sure, Sho’s voice is notably strained at this point, but he excels at utilizing his current strengths in the strongest collection of Galneryus tracks since 2014’s Vetelgyus. It’s also the most straightforward record Galneryus has released since Vetelgyus, nixing much of the experimentation and darker leanings of recent offerings (“In Water’s Gaze” notwithstanding) in favor of unbridled jubilance. So yeah, sure, The Stars Will Light the Way is a “safe” record if you want to call it that. It’s still one of the best records from the best power metal band in the world.

#2. Nemedian Chronicles // The Savage Sword – I can hardly believe that Nemedian Chronicles is not a Greek band. They sound so in step with acts like Sacred Outcry that I can practically feel the lamb and tzatziki sauce falling out of an overloaded gyro and onto my lap. Yet the appeal of Nemedian Chronicles is singular. There is a lot of love for Blind Guardian and Sacred Outcry on The Savage Sword, but there is also a distinctly epic, cinematic quality that hearkens back to Bal-Sagoth’s overwrought storytelling. Between the propulsive riffs and sweeping melodies, I’m immediately absorbed into the experience with every listen, and that’s to say nothing of the engaging and often unpredictable songwriting. In most years, The Savage Sword would handily take the crown for best power metal release. However…

#1. Fellowship // The Skies Above Eternity – You know that little bit of text under my review of The Skies Above Eternity that says “Rating: 4.0/5.0?” That number is technically correct per the AMG style guide, but what that number can’t account for is the fact that The Skies Above Eternity is a record I’ll be listening to for the rest of my life. 2022’s The Saberlight Chronicles is a true 5.0/5.0 by any objective or subjective metric, and while The Skies Above Eternity is not as good from a technical standpoint, it fully recaptures the strengths that made its predecessor a modern power metal icon. Fellowship’s debut may have had higher and more frequent peaks, but The Skies Above Eternity excels through consistency and conciseness. The band’s trademark earnestness, vulnerability, and impeccable sense of melodic craft can be felt in every second of the experience. It doesn’t matter whether this record is the best material Fellowship is capable of producing because it warms me in the exact same way they’ve been doing since their first EP, making The Skies Above Eternity one of my most treasured records by default. This album may be a 4.0 in my brain, but it’s a 4.5 in my heart and a 5.0 in my soul.

Song o’ the Year

Fellowship’s “Hold Up Your Hearts (Again)” – I was present in the audience when Fellowship debuted this song live, and everyone was so on board with the silliness of its title that we enthusiastically welcomed it into the Fellowship canon with a communal sea of heart hands. It doesn’t top “Glint” as my favorite Fellowship song, but its concentrated formula of speedy Euro-power metal and the lyrics’ pitch-perfect shonen anime energy handily clear second place status.

Disappointment o’ the Year

Various “Artists” – The Continued Proliferation of Crappy AI Album “Art” – This blog has not adopted a formal stance on albums featuring generative AI artwork, nor do I feel it needs to. But this is my list, and I’m taking the opportunity to say that if I get so much as a whiff of AI coming off of an album going into 2025, I won’t be giving it the time of day, much less a review. It is unfathomable to think some musicians can devote so much time and creative energy into creating an album, only to hold zero value in the image that is supposed to be introducing that album to the world. In fact, if an album features an AI-generated cover, I automatically assume that the devaluation of art permeates the music itself in some form. Either pay a fucking artist to create an album cover for you, or go outside to take a picture of a cool tree or something and slap a Photoshop filter on it. If that proves too difficult, the public domain is your friend. If it’s good enough for Bolt Thrower, it’s sure as hell good enough for your shitty bedroom black metal project.

#2024 #40WattSun #ABurialAtSea #Alcest #andEldritchElitistSTopTenIshOf2024 #Aquilus #At1980 #Beardfish #BlackCurse #BloodIncantation #CruceSignatus #CryptSermon #Dissimulator #Dool #ElCuervoS #Fellowship #Galneryus #GardensTaleS #Hamferð #Huntsmen #InVain #Iotunn #Kalax #Kanonenfieber #LabyrinthusStellarum #Lists #Listurnalia #MadderMortem #Meer #MegaColossus #Monkey3 #MorgulBlade #Myrath #NemedianChronicles #OakAshThorn #Opeth #Selbst #Sidewinder #SleepytimeGorillaMuseum #Soulmass #Syst3mGlitch #TheVisionBleak #Vredehammer #Walg

Carcharodon and Cherd’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024

By Carcharodon

Carcharodon

I’ve been writing here since 2018. This has been the hardest year to date. I feel like I say this every year right around this time but, for whatever reason, I’ve really struggled this year to find the motivation and inspiration to write. Indeed, I’ve often felt that I lacked the passion for the music. Rather than exploring the murkier depths of Bandcamp, I was often to be found in the company of old, non-metal friends like Nick Cave, 16 Horsepower and Tom Waits.

Despite my disappointment with the world, most of which is on literal or metaphorical fire, and my disillusionment with people, whose choices have caused most of that, there were bright glimmers. The phenomenal response to our Gondor-esque call for aid, when Kenstrosity‘s life was ripped apart by Hurricane Helene, reassured me there are still a few good people out there, a good number of whom read this blog.

Still, I managed to turn out a few reviews this year, including my first ever 5.0—more of which below—which was worth it for the Steel Ire it evoked alone. And there was the Fifteenalia, a celebration the like of which we will not see again (for obvious reasons), which I had the honour of steering from questionable inception to creaky delivery.

Ironically, despite my struggles on the writing front, This Place has played a significant part in keeping me sane. It’s been tolerable to welcome a few new staffers—some even raised up from the awful Place Below—to our serried ranks, while the older hands feel almost like family at this point, with everything that that entails. As ever, particular thanks go to Steel Druhm for his tireless intimidation, which just about keeps us honest, while Dolph, Dear Hollow, El Cuervo, Grier, Maddog, Sentynel and Thus Spoke, among others, have proved adequate companions for banter and gigs.

And with that, I wish you all the happiest of Listurnalias.

#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera – A very late entry to this list, Pillar of Light should be a cautionary tale to bands and labels: release your shit earlier! With more time, the stunning Amenra-meets-Cult of Luna post-misery of Caldera could easily have placed in the top half of this list. While I know this is an album I will come to love and fully expect to regret not placing it higher here, the reality is that other entries have had longer to sink their hooks into me. I will just say that, for me, the apparently divisive vocals are a perfect fit for Pillar of Light’s style.

#10. Seth // La France des Maudits – Way back when,1 French black metallers Seth snuck onto my list of Honorable Mentions with La Morsure du Christ, a fantastic return to form after a lengthy absence. After a short gap, they’re back and this year’s La France des Maudits has cracked the list proper. Melodic, bordering on symphonic with the keys and choral arrangements, but also visceral and feral, Seth dropped an absolute banger. It doesn’t hurt that, as Thus Spoke pointed out in her review, it’s “downright impressive how rich and dynamic this sounds.”

#9. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales – The Vision Bleak is not, to paraphrase Dr Grier, a band that has ever ‘got’ me. Or perhaps, I’ve never got them. But Weird Tales resonated with me enormously. And perhaps that’s because it’s not really like anything The Vision Bleak has done before. Structuring their gothic black metal (or should that be blackened goth metal?) into a single, flowing song (albeit one broken into parts) got my attention. But they held my attention because they actually managed to pull off this very-hard-to-execute vision. Weird Tales’ Type O Negative / Moonspell-inspired blackened sound clicked into place almost instantly for me and now I need to go back to TVB’s discography with newly-opened eyes.

#8. Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal – The first 4.0 I delivered in an alarmingly high-scoring year, Necrowretch’s black-death fusion is something that I have returned to again. Hiding beneath the vicious, downright nasty surface of Swords of Dajjal, is a surprisingly subtle and well-crafted concept album. As I said in my review, there is zero bloat or filler on this record, which blazes with intensity, driven as much by the scything, razor-sharp riffs as the rasping, sepulchral vocals. The range of influences cited, both by me and by impressed commenters, shows how many different aspects there are to this killer record.

#7. Panzerfaust // The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion – After Chapter III: The Astral Drain, I was worried that Panzerfaust were running out of steam and inspiration to close out The Suns of Perdition saga. Thankfully, my concerns were misplaced. To Shadow Zion reeks of doom and destiny. Huge, brooding and intense, it is a captivating listen, with the stunning “The Damascene Conversions” sitting at its heart. From the sulfuric vocals to the masterful drumming, this was a worthy final chapter for The Suns of Perdition, which must go down as one of the best executed, most consistent multi-album concept pieces in metal.

#6. Spectral Wound // Songs of Blood and Mire – Spectral Wound just can’t miss. For a band that, superficially at least, plays fairly old school black metal, songwriting chops paired with brilliant execution mean these guys are anything but derivative. My favourite album of theirs to date, Songs of Blood and Mire is just tons of wicked, nasty fun. It’s hard to say exactly why, but I feel like everything Spectral Wound does has a slight knowing wink to it, which suggests that the band doesn’t take itself too seriously. For me, this is a huge positive, as a lot of black metal is so tediously earnest, where this is unflinchingly harsh, surprisingly melodic and drowning in swaggering groove. Great stuff.

#5. Mother of Graves // The Periapt of Absence – I’m a sucker for death doom. And The Periapt of Absence is some fucking great death doom. Mother of Graves were unknown to me before I stumbled across this album but their blending of old school Opeth (think somewhere between Morningrise and Orchid) with early Katatonia and Paradise Lost, plus a sprinkling of Clouds is stunning. All wrapped up in a pleasingly tight package, Mother of Graves smother the listener in unflinching, heartwrenching misery. And I love every minute of it. It’s that Peaceville Three sound we love, but feeling fresh, vibrant and vital.

#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – Me and death metal don’t always see eye to eye, and the last Devenial Verdict left only a passing impression. But Thus Spoke‘s tireless tongue-bathing promotion of Blessing of Despair convinced me to give it a chance. While I enjoy the stomping thuggery of Devenial Verdict’s dissonant death well enough, it’s the sudden mood swings into what TS described as “lethally graceful restraint” that really hooked me. Although worlds apart stylistically, on Blessing of Despair DV achieved what Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean did on Obsession Destruction: knowing precisely how far to push the suffocating, claustrophobic heaviness, before taking their foot off your throat for a minute. Then stamping on it again.

#3. Julie Christmas // Ridiculous and Full of Blood – Maddog predicted that I would lambast him as an underrating bastard for the 3.5 he deigned to award Ms Christmas. And he was quite correct. He’s a charlatan of the highest order. However, even I’m surprised by how high Ridiculous and Full of Blood has landed here. But, as someone not given to overly emotional reactions to music, I’m continually stunned by the reactions Julie—Can I call you Julie? No? Ok—extracts from me. I’m often on the edge of tears by the end of “The Lighthouse,” just like that cad Maddog, while the likes of “Not Enough” and “End of the World” (the latter with CoL’s Johannes Persson) have a scary edge to them, with Christmas at her maniacal, crooning, possessed, unpredictable best.

#2. A Swarm of the Sun // An Empire – Speaking of emotional responses, A Swarm of the Sun’s stripped back melancholy is right up there. If I say that An Empire is brighter and more uplifting than previous efforts The Rifts and The Woods, understand that this is a very relative statement. An Empire is drowning in sorrow and misery, and yet there is just a hint of brightness that shimmers and hovers around the edges, like a lunar halo. Slow and deliberate, haunting and cathartic, A Swarm of the Sun’s latest outing is just beautiful. End of. No discussion.2

#1. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Y’all know I dropped a 5.0 on Die Urkatastophe, so it’s no surprise to find it here, sitting pretty, atop my list. There’s not much more praise that I can heap on Kanonenfieber’s sophomore record than I already did in my review. For me, it has everything and is more than I dared hope for as a follow up to my beloved Menschenmühle (my album of the year for 2021). It is brutal and vicious (“Panzerhenker” and “Ausblutingsschlacht”), anthemic (“Der Maulwurf” and “Menschenmühle”) and more. Crafted—and yes, that is the correct word—with huge skill and attention to detail, it is the storytelling, based on original source materials, that elevates this record to the next level for me. And if you don’t speak German, or are simply not into narrative in your metal, just go bang your fucking head to “Gott mit der Kavallerie”!

Honorable mentions In alphabetical order by band:

• 40 Watt Sun // Little Weight – Little Weight actually carries a lot of emotional weight. Melancholic, beautiful post-doom and shoegaze, rife with a rough honesty.
• Anciients // Beyond the Reach of the Sun – Long-form (arguably too-long-form in some respects) progressive death, which is wonderfully ambitious and overblown in its scale and delivery.
• Crypt Sermon // The Stygian Rose – Fantastic trad doom, channeling heavy doses of Candlemass. Early in the year, I thought this was top-5 material but it’s uneven, with the back half much stronger than the front, and I’ve cooled on it a touch.
• Nyktophobia // To the Stars – Just great, stomping melodeath. As I said in my review, it’s not massively original but it’s tight and well written, and easy to just kick back to. Sometimes, I don’t need more.
• Silhouette // Les Dires de l’​Â​me – This fantastic post-black album had a place on the list proper until Pillar of Light bulldozed its way in there very late in the day. Haunting, harrowing and beautiful, Silhouette’s debut is Great!
• Sumac // The Healer – Nothing about The Healer makes it an easy listen but Sumac’s fifth record is curiously beautiful for all its wandering, free-form abrasiveness.
• Vorga // Beyond the Palest Star – While it’s hard to disagree with Kenstrosity‘s criticism of the production on Beyond the Palest Star, what can I say? I still love it. It’s chunky, well written, well paced and powerful.

Surprises o’ the Year Ordered by most astounding first:

• Opeth // The Last Will and Testament – It’s been a long time since I was last genuinely interested in an Opeth album (2005’s Ghost Reveries, in case you were wondering). But, wouldn’t you just know it, Mikael Åkerfeldt and co are back (roars and all). I’m not ready to commit to a score for The Last Will (though I think El Cuervo‘s was possibly a smidge high) as I’ve not been able to spend enough time with it. But the fact I want to spend more time with it is, after 19 years of having no interest in Opeth’s output, a surprise. And a welcome one.
• Grand Magus // Sunraven – Another Swedish favourite of old, which I’d all but given up on, Grand Magus roared back this year with Sunraven. As an equally surprised Steel Druhm said in his review, this was the album he “feverishly hoped to get from Grand Magus … a grand return to prime form with the fire firmly back in the Balrog … the best Magus outing since 2012’s The Hunt”.

Disappointment o’ the Year Limited to a single musical disappointment, to avoid submitting a lengthy thesis:

• Zeal & Ardor // GREIF – I’m not angry, or even very surprised, just disappointed.3 While I accept that this is the album of a band in transition, there’s no getting away from the fact that it was a hugely disappointing album from a band that has abandoned the sound that made it what it was. And for what? They have not transitioned to something new and exciting, but with kinks to be worked out. Rather, on this record, Zeal & Ardor became something so pedestrian that any number of post-rock bands could’ve written it and, probably, done a better job. I may have overrated it.

Songs o’ the Year

Julie Christmas – “The Lighthouse”

Kanonenfieber – “Der Maulwurf”

Selbst – “The Stench of a Dead Spirit”

Panzerfaust – “The Damascene Conversions”

Kanonenfieber – “Gott mit der Kavallerie”

Devenial Verdict – “Garden of Eyes”

Spectral Wound – “Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal”

Silhouette – “Les Dires de l’​Â​me”

Blue Heron – “Everything Fades”

Zeal & Ardor – “Hide in Shade”

Glare of the Sun – “Rain”

Cherd

Twenty-twenty-four was certainly a year that followed previous years and will precede still others. When I look back, I’ll likely remember it as the year I discovered the wonders of ADHD medication after decades of non-treatment, the difficult transition my poor Cherdlet experienced from kindergarten to first grade, and the incredible bucket list trip my wife and I took to Toronto to watch our favorite TV franchise filming new content courtesy of my very important Hollywood connections. No, not Robert Downey Jr. Much more important and better-looking. Hmm? Margot Robbie? She wishes. I also had the pleasure of meeting several of my fellow writers in person, and they are all much homelier than they let on with the exception of Madam X, who is a goddamned ray of sunshine.

On the musical front, I was able to check two bands off my “need to see live” list in Judas Priest and Archspire, whereby I discovered that Halford does exactly zero audience banter, and Archspire do nothing but. Fun shows, both. I didn’t listen to as much new music by volume this year than I have in previous years when I’d log between 200 and 400 releases, and that was largely due to my kid’s age and the level of interaction he needs. I have a feeling, however, that 2025 will see an uptick thanks to the new Heavys headphones I got for Christmas this year. As always, I want to thank the editors, particularly Steel Druhm and Doc Grier, for not sending me a mailbomb after all the late reviews I turned in (I’ll work on that in 2025), and the man himself, AMG, for building this community and for agreeing that Deep Space Nine is the best Star Trek show.4

(ish) Chat Pile // Cool World – This is what it sounds like when Chat Pile make a “mature” record. As I noted in my October review, some of the most glaring weirdness and black humor the band is known for is missing in Cool World, which is why it’s here on my list instead of matching the lofty heights of my 2022 AOTY God’s Country. That said, this is consistently bleak in a way I like, and it boasts what are in my opinion the two best–if not most memorable–songs the band have written to date in “New World” and “Masc.” I’m a sucker for these Oklahomans and look forward to how their sound evolves from here.

#10. Glacial Tomb // Lightless Expanse – I’ve had an up and down journey with Glacial Tomb’s sophomore record, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still view this as one of the best things I’ve listened to this year. To consider a record this closely means you have to listen to it a lot, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I logged more hours with Lightless Expanse than with any other album. I’ve made a big deal about the one-three punch of “Voidwomb/Enshrined in Concrete/Abyssal Host”, but it bears repeating since it’s my favorite consecutive stretch of death metal in 2024.

#9. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – If you peel back the veneer of disso-death and blackened blasts on Infinite Mortality, you’ll find a pounding hardcore heart comprised of equal parts beatdown and Converge. As technical as this music gets, and there is a lot going on here, Replicant never forget their primary duty as a metal band: snapping necks. On their third album, they’ve exquisitely composed a missive to unbridled aggression. I completely missed their previous albums, so I’m glad our Kenfren wouldn’t shut his excitable yap about this one.

#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos – “Alright skaters! This is the end of our free skate period. We’d like to once again thank you for spending your Saturday with us here at Family Fun Roller Rink and Arcade. It’s time to slow things down, down, way down, and you know what that means. That’s right, it’s couples’ skate. So, find that special someone you want to be interred on a cold stone slab with, gaze into each other’s empty eye sockets, and make your way around the rink as wave after wave of Spectral Voice’s death/funeral doom forcefully separates you from any light, hope, or happiness this wretched world might have accidentally given you. Remember, those who survive the next 45 minutes of tectonic plates colliding will get the chance to compete in roller limbo!”

#7. Crypt Sermon // The Stygian Rose – Despite being one of the biggest doom apologists on this site, Crypt Sermon failed to grab me with their highly acclaimed debut nearly ten years ago. I chalk this up to my unfamiliarity with the traditional doom style at the time. In recent years, I’ve binged large amounts of Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Cathedral, Solitude Aeturnus et al., so I finally have the frame of reference to see just how well Crypt Sermon’s third LP captures the swagger, majesty, and grit of a style few contemporary bands seem interested in playing. After the growing pains displayed on The Ruins of Fading Light, these Philly natives have worked out the kinks and delivered an air-tight slab of doomy goodness.

#6. Full of Hell // Coagulated Bliss – I regret waiving my seniority claim to Full of Hell releases, thus allowing Dolph to snap up review duties for Coagulated Bliss. It’s not that he did a bad job of reviewing the prolific experimental grind outfit’s latest. He did great, and he awarded it a deserved 4.0. But then he had the cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity, and the gumption to incorrectly lower his score. To make matters worse, it appeared nowhere on his year-end list. Not even a goll dern honorable mention. I’ve told him to his cetacean face that he’s wrong and I’m likely to do so again because this is Full of Hell’s best work since Trumpeting Ecstasy. In fact, it might be better.

#5. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – For most of their existence, Ulcerate was a highly acclaimed band that I just couldn’t get into. That changed four years ago with the release of Stare into Death and Be Still. Little changed in their intricate approach to dissonant death metal, but there was something warmer and more human to what I had previously considered a rather detached style. That trend continues with Cutting the Throat of God. I find this record best when taken as a whole, letting the experience unfold over the full runtime, like dream-walking through a hedge maze or being trapped in a velvet sack and discovering it’s much larger on the inside.5

#4. Thou // Umbilical – I waited a long time for a chance to review a new record by Thou, and when it finally came, they did not disappoint. As I said in my June review, “Like their chimerical American metal brethren Inter Arma, it doesn’t matter how many influences the band stuff into one album. They are all unified in sound under Thou’s banner. Bryan Funck’s acid-bit vocals are unmistakable and apparently unchangeable after 20 throat-shredding years. Also unchangeable? Thou’s ability to craft the most metallic-sounding guitar tone out there. As the standard bearer for…hell, as the entire sum of the second generation of Louisiana sludge, the sound they’ve forged isn’t the kind of sloppy muck you may associate with the term. It’s certainly thick, but it has a quality like two enormous steel I-beams violently striking each other.” If that doesn’t sell Umbilical for you, then here is where our paths diverge.

#3. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – I didn’t listen to Blessing of Despair for several weeks after it came out in October despite the fact Devenial Verdict’s previous record, Ash Blind, made my year-end list in 2022. When I finally got around to it earlier in December, it threatened to blow the doors right off my still nebulous list, climbing fast and high until ultimately landing here at number three. There is more immediacy than on Ash Blind, which took me a while to warm up to. That doesn’t mean the band skimps on the kind of thoughtful transitions and atmospherics they’ve come to be known for. It’s just that Blessing of Despair HAZ THE RIFFS, including my favorite death metal riff of the year in “Solus.”

#2. Void Witch // Horripilating Presence – When I revisited Horripilating Presence with the purpose of sorting out this list’s pecking order, I expected death-doomers Void Witch to fall mid-to-late top 10. Obviously, the opposite happened. For the life of me I don’t understand how this album didn’t gain more traction amongst the other writers and you, the unwashed commentariat. As I said back in July, “…the material on Horripilating Presence is Mohamed Ali levels of confident. The editing of ideas in each song and across the album’s taut 39 minutes is masterful, especially for a debut. No song hews too closely to any of the others, but all are of a piece, locking comfortably into place like an intricate puzzle box, and Void Witch have such sights to show you.”

#1. Inter Arma // New Heaven – Inter Arma never miss. Aside from being one of the best live acts in metal, every album they’ve released going back to 2013’s Sky Burial has been one successful evolution after another. As a very wise reviewer once said, “They’re the same shaggy beast as ever, but beneath that matted, coarse coat is a rippling form mid-shape shift, stretching, pulling, and crossing back on itself constantly over the course of New Heaven’s shockingly concise 42 minutes…If being all over the musical map sounds like a negative, you’ve probably never heard an Inter Arma record before. It seems whatever they throw at the wall sticks, and the listening experience across their (usually much longer) records never feels uneven. This is because they play everything with the same smoldering intensity and volatile mean streak.” What a record.

Honorable Mentions:

• Convulsing // Perdurance – I like this quote from Dear Hollow‘s review, so I’ll let him do the talking: “…Convulsing explores every nook and twist of a rhythm and melody until its inevitable conclusion is happened upon in tragic and fatal fashion.”
• Spectral Wound // Songs of Blood and Mire – Pound for pound, Spectral Wound are probably the most consistent no-frills black metal band currently in operation. Songs of Blood and Mire is another rager that’s as melodic as it is acidic.
• Lord Buffalo // Holus Bolus – This record was one redundant instrumental away from landing higher on this list. Looking forward to where these gothic country rockers go next.

Songs o’ the Year:

In alphabetical order by band:

#2024 #40WattSun #ASwarmOfTheSun #Anciients #BlogPosts #BlueHeron #CarcharodonAndCherdSTopTenIshOf2024 #ChatPile #Convulsing #CryptSermon #DevenialVerdict #FullOfHell #GlareOfTheSun #GrandMagus #InterArma #JulieChristmas #Kanonenfieber #Listurnalia #LordBuffalo #MotherOfGraves #Necrowretch #Nyktophobia #Opeth #Panzerfaust #PillarOfLight #Replicant #Selbst #Seth #Silhouette #SpectralVoice #SpectralWound #Sumac #TheVisionBleak #Thou #Ulcerate #VoidWitch #Vorga #ZealArdor

Dolphin Whisperer’s and Ferox’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024

By Dolphin Whisperer

Dolphin Whisperer

Every year, its end becomes more shocking and swift. Once, some guy told me, simply, “it only gets worse.” Not life though—attributing a better or worse or any sort of constant determination of our passage leaves a lot of room for falling into a void of enjoyment—life is, after all, a constant until its not. But time, or our sense of being in its too ever-present stream, flows at a rate that changes in ways to which we never quite catch up.

As such, there’s a comfort in knowing how much time an album, particularly one you enjoy will take. For the ten-to-twenty minutes it takes for grindcore proper to slap me silly or the forty-to-eighty minutes that it takes for my deepest progressive loves to wring out a moaning confession, I know where my attention lies, even if it’s only half there and half on a task at hand. Time and tasks, day to night, play to stop, music makes my world a better place. And entering my now third year at Angry Metal Guy, an institution that has been a fixture of my musical journey for even longer, I continue to hold a profound gratitude and excitement for another year of discovery.

2024 has had its challenges professionally and personally. 2025 will be no doubt the same, even if some trials we can see forming in the distance. But you want to know about the music, right? On that end, 2024 has yielded a heaping trove of great albums. Heck, even a Rodeö pick scratched at the rungs of an honorable mention. The below list barely scratches the surface of the breadth that the year has offered. Further down you will see Ferox‘s list, which captures a different collection equally rooted in joy. He might be more right than I am. But that matters little. Celebrate with us, your favorite collective of writers on the world wide web! Come hang with some of us on Discord too if you’d like. Most of the people there are certified flea-free. And don’t be too upset if 2025 doesn’t hit you the same at first. It’s just another year, and it’ll be over before you know it.

#ish. Kalandra // A Frame of Mind – At my core, I consider myself a Norwegian sad girl. Usually, this manifests in some sort of weepy, melancholy prog, the likes of Age of Silence or Madder Mortem.1 But Kalandra’s enfolkened an impassioned take on an artsy, progressive collection of empowering tunes hit me square in my aching heart from the moment I heard it. Most importantly, though, Kalandra knows that suffering is just a step on the path of growth and happiness, which is a message that inspires me every day.

#10. Dawnwalker // The Unknowing – The power to dream and envision a world driven by mysticism has an allure that’s hard to ignore. And while we know that more determinable laws guide the happenings of our daily lives, a glimpse of the unknown will always find its way into sequence. Dawnwalker putting this esoteric but ever-present concept into an atmospheric, genre-warped, playfully progressive package hardly surprises me, though. The British troupe has had my number since their unsung classic In Rooms,2 so I’m doing my last in continuing to love them despite Twelve‘s best efforts to underrate them.3

#9. Lizzard // Mesh – Lizzard’s 2021 opus Eroded is my favorite album of this decade so far. The French trio’s ability to warp deep, rhythm-tricky layers into driving and emotional rock songs his me at the core of my musical desire for cathartic hope expressed in an unassuming and lush framework. Mesh doesn’t present any differently in that regard. But its wrinkles on Lizzard’s timeless yet ’90s alternative-rooted oeuvre fuel Mesh’s inherent melancholy with a hope that’s jubilant, like a cracked smile on an overcast day.

#8. Dissimulator // Lower Form Resistance – [INCOMING TRANSMISSION.] “My name is Clyde, and I arrive from beyond with wonderful news. My good friend Ferox has survived this timeline after all, having learned to navigate the Lower Form Resistance assault of fast-twitch rhythms and slow-twitch death metal punctuation. His head, fully intact, sways wildly in its hairless glory—big dives for big skanking breaks, snappy rolls for whiplash accelerations. He may not be as rhythmically gifted in pit-galloping cadence as the virtuoso drum and bass duo that provides life to Dissimulator’s effortless strides, but Ferox is my everything nonetheless.” [END TRANSMISSION.]

#7. Mamaleek // Vida Blue – I couldn’t begin to tell you what has never landed about Mamaleek’s works before with a weird precision. As an act dedicated to sounding only like Mamaleek, their singular expression of tortured black(ish) metal warped by jazzy and slogging attitudes has manifested quite the take-it-or-leave-it musical experience. And while you, dear reader, may assume this is firmly up my alley, it has not been. At least not until Vida Blue served a bottom of the ninth heart-shaker as an ode to a departed friend.4 With a soulful swing, a tortured connection, and an exit velocity powered by equal parts loss and love, Mamaleek has clinched a campaign for my attention.

#6. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – As an apex predator in the brutal death metal world, Defeated Sanity’s appearance arouses not questions of competency but rather calculations of the carnage wrought. Chronicles of Lunacy does not mark a turning point or novel twist in the Defeated Sanity timeline—its finely tuned lashings hit as inescapable all the same. When neither a beast’s reach, nor mass, nor attack speed goes contested, an exhibition of its might will flash with morbid glee. As such, Defeated Sanity need not surprise to strike mortal wound. Chronicles’ fangs glisten with an aged-imbrued tarnish, tearing at my flesh in every way I would expect. And I want more.

#5. Orgone // Pleroma – Meticulous and constructed as a master-work, Pleroma’s opening notes signal a trance. Acoustic twang and chamber instrument-fueled swoon build an atmosphere of wonder against a fervent and languished march of post-genre swells and death-fueled crescendos. Cycling through its many shades feels less like a fever dream and more of a trial-filled journey. Wielding a demure grandeur, Pleroma’s effortless realization of Orgone’s peerless vision never feels like the epic journey its runtime suggests. Were my time truly infinite, Pleroma would be even harder to rip away from the queue.

#4. Julie Christmas // Ridiculous and Full of Blood – A lady screaming bloody murder shouldn’t go down this smooth, but that’s always been the promise and success of Julie Christmas. Few vocalists leave me slack-jawed and ear-shaken in the wake of piercing cries, raw-throated shrieks, and impassioned lyrical slather. Yet, Ridiculous and Full of Blood cuts track after track out of sonic patterns that do exactly that, all while empowering a full band expression of alternative-laced grooves, post-informed climbs, and punk-tied sneer. The Christmas season sums a flurry of inspired performances under the banner of a madwoman. And I stand at the ready to fray my vocal cords in attempt to crack with the same battle-tested precision that Ms. Christmas has earned from a life hard-worn.

#3. Ingurgitating Oblivion // Ontology of Nought – Though born of minds unrelated, Ontology of Nought exists as an esoteric companion to the Pleroma embodiment. Orgone is the twin that went to conservatory, graduated with honors, and holds an honorable performing chair, all while remembering its young love for death metal. Ingurgitating Oblivion, on the other hand, dropped out, spiraled into entheogenic dissociation, earns a living gigging at jazz clubs—also maintains its youthful lust for the clamoring riff and hammering blast. Maximalism oozes a frothing wonder in the hiss of distorted chatter and rhythmic mastery. An imperfect and breathing construction rises and falls in ethereal inhales and vision-spinning mantras. Ontology of Nought deserves each of its over-budget minutes. Invest time in the freedom that it promises… “and cease to be.”

#2. OU // 蘇醒 II: Frailty – The casualness of OU’s inception belies its profound leap into my necessary rotation. No incumbent love ever has a defined position in the halls of end-of-year accolades,5 and even more so when the act’s very presence rang suspicious in its finely-tuned invasion to my critical wiles. But, as I noted when I first blew my love for 蘇醒 II: Frailty over the pages of Angry Metal Guy, it’s OU’s “idiosyncratic atmosphere” that pulls from a “polyrhythmic hypnosis” and masterful “energetic flow” that continues to chart them deservedly high in the annals of ’20s progressive music. And while this collision of classically-minded, synth-addicted madness slowly expands its universe one OU release at a time, I’m content to sit here and yell their praises at anyone who will listen.

#1. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – You know you’re getting old when an album about modern burnout and the pains of traffic resonates with you all the way from frozen shoulder to radiating lower back to cold-groaning knee. But when Pyrrhon stealth-bombed my aging metalhead mind with a tech-dial riff barrage of noisy and shouting proportions, I had no choice but to surrender. Exhaust demands attention from its initial irony-laced lift-off to its closing brutalist clock-out, swinging skronk-enabled splatters and ache-addled vituperation around every faded line and pothole in its death metal architecture. Though Pyrrhon uses simpler blocks, their construction here defies convention at every step. One fine commenter summed up Exhaust in the most succinct manner in that regard: “Death Metal, Hardcore, Noise Rock, Technical Death Metal. It’s just mathcore.” Except they took away the wrong message from that distillation. The verdict, in fact, is fuck you.

Honorable Mentions:

• • Inner Strength // Daydreaming in Moonlight – Another way you know you’re getting old is that you love an album that sounds like it should have released in 1995. Alas, here we are.
  • Dysrhythmia // Coffin of Conviction – Instrumental progressive music should be as exciting as Dysrhythmia. Comes for the Martyr riffs. Stay for the Metheny floating.
  • Beaten to Death // Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis – Beaten to Death is still the best grindcore band on the planet. They probably won’t ever release a better album than D​ø​dsfest!, but that’s OK. Their discography is now about two hours total. Go listen to it if you haven’t.
  • Stygian Crown // Funeral for a King – Doom should always have a guitar tone that feels equally powered by swords and beer alongside vocals that feel soft like bar-stained leather stools.
  • Kollapse // AR – I didn’t know KEN mode had a Danish doppelgänger with a frightening, large pink face. But they do, and boy does Kollapse know how to yell and riff.
  • Sleepytime Gorilla Museum // of the Last Human Being – Had I infinitely more listening time, I may have been able to parse better this deeply cinematic and wacky slab of no wave emboldened prog. Most don’t actually earn the avant-garde tag the way SGT does.
  • Defying // Wadera – Hour-long albums based on old Polish werewolf stories and horror movies shouldn’t be this easy to repeat, but I find myself often falling into Wadera’s unbreakable spell.
  • Arthouse Fatso // Sycophantic Seizures: A Double Feature – I didn’t have radically-minded industrial deathgrind about the frustrated escapades of a fictional Orson Welles life on my 2024 bingo, but here I am telling you to listen to it anyway.
  • Concrete Winds // Concrete Winds – Just this. And shitloads of riffs.

Disappointments o’ the Year:

• Myrath // Karma – I love Shehili so much. My love for power metal isn’t what it used to be, but Myrath’s exuberance while staying rooted in both the trickier waters of prog and the anthemic cries of power metal gave me hope both that I’d continue to latch on to the kind of playful love it can offer. But the arrangements on Karma, despite Myrath’s still life-affirming messages, do absolutely nothing to bolster that same joy for me. Karma sinks my listening brain. And that hurts.
• Pallbearer // Mind Burns Alive – The continued non-success of Pallbearer and their sleepy-toned take on creaky prog rock hurts the Dolph who fell in love with their weepy doom classic (and still controversial to true doomsters) Heartless. And yet the general blogging population seems to praise them for trying to reinvent sadboi roots rock with worse lyrics. And, for my money, Pallbearer is sounding increasingly thin live. If a return to glory is in store for Pallbearer, it will begin with them finally playing a riff again.
• Polterguts // Nobody Likes You – Okay, this EP actually rips because Polterguts rips. Hard. But, Polterguts, if you’re reading this, please put it on Bandcamp so I can link the shit out of it and give you money. I am disappointed that I have no way to contribute currency to your cause. “Ricky Has a Knife2” is worth the price of admission alone.

Songs o’ the Year:

Why give you one when I can give you twenty-seven? Why twenty-seven? That’s my secret. Now, I’ve talked enough, go out there and enjoy some music, friends. And enjoy this photo of my dogs.

Coconut (left), Kiwi (right) in a stylish Adidog sweater.

Ferox

I worked way too much in 2024. I can’t complain; it was meaningful work that I chose to take on, and it got me that much closer to not having to work at all if I don’t want to. Still, that’s what I’ll think of when I think of 2024: lots and lots of work. That had a knock-on effect, especially when it comes to hobbies like lifting, getting out to national parks, and writing here. I did very little of any of that. I kept up with metal as best I could, and embarked on a big end-of-year listening push to have an accurate picture of what came out in 2024. I’m grateful that I got to do a list at all this year, so I took the responsibility seriously… but I’d be lying if I said I was buried in the scene all year.

One of the highlights of my 2024 was meeting a whole slew of staffers in person. I traveled a bunch this year, both for work and for my daughter’s ballet pursuits, and with that came the chance to hang with some of the people who make this place go. My body count of staffers met this year: Steel Druhm, Madam X, Cherd, Twelve, Dr. Wyrm, Thus Spoke, El Cuervo, Doom et al, and Holdeneye. It was a veritable orgy of almost entirely chaste fellowship, and only one (1) bad hang among the lot!6

I’m grateful to Steel Druhm and Angry Metal Guy for indulging my schedule, and for the real leadership they provide at my fake job. I found this unique community because it had the best music writing on the internet, and that remains true today thanks to the talented people who contribute their time and enthusiasm to keeping the machinery humming. I’m lucky to be a small part of it, and hopeful that 2025 will give me more time to spend in the Hall.

#ish. Mother of Graves // The Periapt of Absence – My “-ish” spot typically goes to an album that might have listed if I just had more time with it. That holds true of the sophomore effort from Indianapolis’s Mother of Graves, which landed on my radar by way of Carcharadon‘s excellent TYHMHM piece. This slab of classic sadboi death doom transcends any tribcore concerns through sheer quality of execution. From opener “Gallows” through final track “Like Darkness to a Dying Flame,” The Periapt of Absence guides the listener through the stages of grief with varied compositions that maintain a consistent mood throughout. Classic death doom is alive and well.

#10. Wormed // Omegon – Maddog‘s compelling rave for Omegon is my personal Review o’ the Year; fortunately, the prose was well spent on this efficient and brutal riff delivery system. Wormed has been creating slam-adjacent otherworldly death metal for a good while now, and Omegon is a distillation of everything the band has learned over the past two decades. 2024 is the year I realized I’ve been a brutal death metal guy all along. With songs like “Pareidolia Robotica” and “Virtual Teratogenesis,” Wormed took me by the hand and guided me through this journey of self-discovery… all while the people in the offices around me called in noise complaints.

#9. Ripped to Shreds // Sanshi – The already impressive Ripped to Shreds leveled up with Sanshi, a blast of aggressive but technically adept death metal that never left my rotation after its release. The guitar hero shredding plays like a release valve to the vicious and punky energy that Andrew Lee injects into his compositions. This cycle of tension and release makes for an addictive listen that feels like it ends mere moments after you hit play. The thrash elements of the R2S sounds are more prevalent on Sanshi, meaning the band now scratches the same itch for me that Horrendous did with their last killer slab.

#8. Scumbag // Homicide Cult – Scumbag! SCUUUMMMMBAGGGG. This nasty bit of business, with its deathgrind touches and morbid sense of humor (“Pure Adrenaline Hard-On,” “The Meating”), was tailor-made for the Ferox sensibility. Herein lie twenty-eight minutes of death metal that never slams but still walks the same line that Wormhole managed to last year: brutal but somehow cheerful, and stoopid without being remotely dumb. Dylan Cruz, of this band and Noxis, came out of nowhere to occupy a huge chunk of my limited listening time this year.

#7. Black Curse // Burning in Celestial Poison – With Burning in Celestial Poison, Black Curse stages a forty-five-minute takeover of your central nervous system. Eldritch Elitist captured the elemental power of these five compositions better than I ever could, but this album gave me exactly what I needed in a 2024 that was characterized by an extreme lack of work-life balance. Metal can provide a safe outlet for less-than-savory feelings, and Black Curse expressed a lot of things for me that I couldn’t express myself and stay employed. Lose yourself in these five tracks and emerge scoured but smarter.

#6. Spectral Wound // Songs of Blood and Mire – The hot streak continues; Songs of Blood and Mire, Spectral Wound’s fourth album, is their best effort yet. Carcharadon capably cataloged crisp new cross-currents in the band’s sound, but the song quality remains the same. Tracks like “At Wine-Dark Midnight in the Mouldering Halls” and Song o’ the Year “Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal” showcase the band’s gift for coupling aggression with sweeping melody. In this way, Spectral Wound recalls Watain without so much distracting ooga-booga. Songs of Blood and Mire finds them continuing to refine their sound and grow in confidence.

#5. Endonomos // Endonomos II – Enlightenment – Endonomos carried the torch for doom in 2024. Enlightenment is a stately procession, its six long tracks blending influences from all across the doom spectrum. This is music that soars as it plods. Steel Druhm noted similarities to both Khemmis and Fvneral Fvkk. Those comps are perfect; not since Carnal Confessions has a doom album so effectively cut through the clutter of genre tropes to evoke genuine emotion.

#4. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – I hate it when the promotional push for an album ties a record too strongly to the narrative of its creation. It’s like the record company is trying to force a reaction that the album itself might or might not evoke. So when Exhaust arrived with heavy-handed descriptions of process and what Pyrrhon went through trying to make the album happen, I bristled and stopped reading. Fortunately, the music on Exhaust speaks for itself. This is a bitter and blistering record that finds the band raging against their rage’s inability to change even a single thing. I’ve always appreciated Pyrrhon, but I’ve never connected with their music as immediately as I did on Exhaust.

#3. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – Defeated Sanity has had quite the AMG journey. They’ve gone from being brushed aside by a n00b named Potato Jim to being on the receiving end of a double-4.0 fellating from the tenured likes of Dolphin Whisperer and Maddog. Chronicles of Lunacy finds Defeated Sanity extending the Colin Marston-enabled peak that they hit on 2020’s The Sanguinary Impetus. It takes extreme skill to weaponize the base and the stoopid this effectively. Defeated Sanity is more than up for the job.

#2. Inter Arma // New Heaven – Here’s another band that could be wrestling with The Law of Diminishing Recordings by now, but instead persists with quality release after quality release. Inter Arma never repeats themselves, but each of their albums could only come from them. Hot take: Sky Funeral has remained my favorite Inter Arma album even as they’ve racked up an epic run of excellence. New Heaven makes a run at unseating it. This is a slab that rewards the many repeated listens I gave it in 2024; it sat in my top slot for much of the year until a late-breaking favorite pushed it aside.

#1. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – This is my third time publishing a list at AMG; each previous year, I had clear Album o’the Year winners in Immolation’s Acts of God and Afterbirth’s In But Not Of. 2024 marked the first Listurnalia that began with an opening for my top slot. But as I weeded through my favorite music of the year, I realized: Noxis drew me in with the bass flourish at the beginning of album opener “Skullcrushing Defilement,” and they still haven’t let go. The Pittsburgher in me hates to credit anything from Cleveland, but Noxis weeded out that deeply rooted prejudice with their inventive and fresh take on death metal. Every track on Violence Inherent in the System is a wild ride that alternately crushes, challenges, and tickles. The only break from the madcap pace comes on mid-album interlude “Excursion,” but that just prepares you for the utter barking lunacy of “Horns Echo Over Chorazim.” That song incorporates strange arrangements that include various woodwind instruments, and somehow they do it with zero pretension and abundant commitment to brutality. Listurnalia may have begun with a blank space atop my list, but it ended with Noxis firmly entrenched as the winner of 2024.

Honorable Mentions:

• • • Stenched // Purulence Gushing from the Coffin – This one-man outfit captured that elusive filthy magic and spewed out the annum’s premiere filthy wallow.
    • Aborted // Vault of Horrors – These Belgian veterans, long under-appreciated in the Hall, finally found their champion in Grier. They hooked themselves up to the juvenation machine by leaning into the melodeath that has been creeping into their sound, and cranked out their best set in years.
    • Vitriol // Suffer and Become – Here’s a mean and heavy slab that seemed to fade from the general consciousness as the year wore on, but remains worthy of note.

Disappointment o’the Year:

Ferox! I just didn’t have time to make a meaningful contribution here this year. It has been a pleasure to watch other members of my n00b class like Dolph and Maddog and Thus become AMG institutions, even as I mostly watch from the sidelines and come out to play when I can.

Song o’the Year:

Imagine being asked to name your favorite song of the year, and responding with a twenty-seven song playlist!7

#2024 #AFrameOfMind #Aborted #AR #ArthouseFatso #BeatenToDeath #BlackCurse #BurningInCelestialPoison #ChroniclesOfLunacy #CoffinOfConviction #ConcreteWinds #Dawnwalker #DaydreamingInMoonlight #DefeatedSanity #Defying #Dissimulator #Dysrhythmia #Endonomos #EndonomosIIEnlightenment #Exhaust #FuneralForAKing #GodsOverBrokenPeople #HomicideCult #Horrendous #IngurgitatingOblivion #InnerStrength #InterArma #JulieChristmas #Kalandra #Khemmis #Kollapse #Lists #Listurnalia #Listurnalia2024 #Lizzard #LowerFormResistance #Mamaleek #Mesh #MotherOfGraves #Myrath #NewHeaven #NobodyLikesYou #Noxis #OfTheLastHumanBeing #Omegon #OntologyOfNought #Orgone #OU #Pallbearer #Pleroma #Polterguts #PurulenceGushingFromTheCoffin #Pyrrhon #RidiculousAndFullOfBlood #RippedToShreds #Sanshi #SaveThisUtility #Scumbag #SleepytimeGorillaMuseum #SongsOfBloodAndMire #SpectralWound #Stenched #StygianCrown #SufferAndBecome #SunriseOverRigorMortis #SycophanticSeizuresADoubleFeature #ThePeriaptOfAbsence #TheUnknowing #VaultOfHorrors #VidaBlue #ViolenceInherentInTheSystem #Vitriol #Wadera #Watain #Wormed #蘇醒IIFrailty

One List to Debase Them All: AngryMetal Guy.com’s Aggregated Top 20 of 2023

By El Cuervo

This aggregation exercise represents my favorite article of the year. I enjoy identifying and highlighting those chosen few records worthy of additional recognition. But most of all I enjoy the sense of power derived from early access to other writers’ list data without the obligations flowing from being an editor. To my satisfaction, this list represents a diverse mix compared with certain previous years. Much ground is covered, from myriad metal sub-genres (death, black, doom, prog) to myriad tones (energetic, strange, historical, sadboi). I enjoy the variety, even if I don’t the specific choices. That said, we’re not helping our own argument against accusations that we despise all power and folk metal – with just one album from both sub-genres in the top 20 and an abundance selected by just a couple of people below this.

The most critical observation is that, compared with 2022, there are ~20% fewer unique records and voting points attributable to the top 10 albums is ~10% higher. This indicates greater alignment this year, with fewer albums chosen and stronger communal favorites. No doubt this is attributable to our loss of individuality and gradual morphing into one awful hivemind.

In a last ditch effort to save my own reputation at the cost of my colleagues, I want to emphasize that I personally had a distinct deviation from this aggregated list. As orchestrator of this article with early access to the data, I did attempt to identify why it was that some of these albums apparently had an impact on everyone else. The only conclusion I can draw following these attempts is that my faceless colleagues seek the average. They should try harder to be deliberately contrary next year; I expect that they’ll maliciously comply by picking the same 20 albums 20 times just to spite me.

–El Cuervo

#20. Crypta // Shades of Sorrow – “While Crypta is still fetid, OSDM adherents, Shades of Sorrow also amps both the black and thrash influences, resulting in a compelling sophomore effort that packs a significant, unforgettable punch” (Felagund).

#19. Onheil // In Black Ashes – “In Black Ashes is melodic black/death/speed/thrash at its finest. Onheil’s mastery of melody and songwriting elevates In Black Ashes into the stratosphere. Every track is a winner, and Onheil strikes an impossible balance between enthralling riffs and emotional heft” (Maddog).

#18. Ascension // Under the Veil of Madness – “There’s not one song on here that isn’t currently stuck in my head. Its huge choruses, hooky verses, and lightning fast shreddery have probably bonded with my DNA by this point” (Kenstrosity).

#17. Somnuri // Desiderirum – “The addition of (Soundgarden-esque) throwback radio alt-rock into their roiling pot of hardcore and progressive sludge makes Desiderium these Brooklynites’ strongest outing to date. It’s rare that an album this aggressive and energetic goes down this smooth” (Cherd).

#16. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – “Warcrab boasts fighting spirit, sharp claws, and a crustacean shell that’s fitted for turret combat. They’re obviously game for a scrap, but–as Cherd pointed out in his review–the band doesn’t have much competition in their death-sludge niche” (Ferox).

#15. Tribunal // The Weight of Remembrance – “With heavy doses of classic Candlemass and moments that recall the grim haunts of Fvneral Fvkk, Weight of Remembrance does so many things exceptionally well. There’s nothing I would change or trim on Weight of Remembrance, and if anything, I wish it was a little longer. Doom perfection” (Steel Druhm).

#14. Panopticon // The Rime of Memory – “Panopticon—particularly on more recent records—seems to have a unique ability to tug on my heartstrings and to blend the most ferocious of black metal with the most serene and evocative Appalachian folk. The Rime of Memory more than matched my lofty hopes” (Thus Spoke).

#13. Godthrymm // Distortions – “With meaty riffs, soaring leads, a fantastic rhythm section, and keyboardist Catherine Glencross’ angelic voice, this classic-doom-meets-classic-Pallbearer configuration landed my top spot as soon as I finished listening to it for the first time” (Grymm).

#12. Saturnus // The Storm Within – “The opening tracks comprise the best one-two punch of the year, while the back half of the album feels like an unraveling and stripping down. The Storm Within is a magnificently monolithic and aptly dreary return to form from Saturnus” (Dear Hollow).

#11. Night Crowned // Tales – “The intense blasting and no-holds-barred shrieking always hold a melodic thread that makes it more than a wall of noise, whether it be from extra vocal layers, subtly interweaved symphonics, or a goddamn hurdy-gurdy that works way better than it should” (GardensTale).

#10. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – [#1, #2, #8, #8, #9, #HM, #HM, #HM, #HM] – Miracle of Death earns the dubious honor of winning more list mentions than the six records ahead of it, but only reaches this tenth spot due to generally low rankings. Undeterred, Steel Druhm highlights the band’s unusual combination of sounds, describing a “strange witch’s brew of genres and styles that is unique and enchanting… It’s doom, it’s goth rock, it’s 70s acid rock all wrapped into one enigmatic, ethereal burrito.” Despite the allusion to hot food, Twelve instead reckons that the album “takes me to a cold place. It’s emotional, but it feels like numbness; it’s quiet, but leaves a huge impression… any time I’ve felt low throughout the year, Vanishing Kids has been there.” This sense of something beyond easy description is mirrored by Carcharodon, who argues that the band “have that very rare something, that je ne sais quoi…. to create something truly unique requires genuine craft and these guys have it in spades.” Check out metal’s innovators.

#9. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – [#1, #4, #6, #7, #8, #ish, #HM, #HM] – Serving arguably the heaviest slot on this list1, Convocation and No Dawn for the Caliginous Night offered a mighty force of doom in 2023. Dear Hollow illustrates the heavier qualities of the release (“No Dawn for the Caliginous Night channels mammoth death-doom and despondent funeral doom to accomplish a weight both viciously devastating and patiently atmospheric”) while Kenstrosity instead prefers the counter-weight of both sides of the sound (“[their] deeply affecting use of orchestration and clean vocals to light up my nervous system while the heft of [their] tectonic death doom strives to end my life”). Bands like this remind us of our humanity and our finite nature; few records could be pitched as “a towering celebration of death’s enormity, packaged in the heaviest and most shimmering of vessels” but Convocation does this as Cherd‘s AotY. Step back, breathe deeply, and simply listen. No Dawn for the Caliginous Night exists in these moments.

#8. Afterbirth // In But Not Of – [#1, #1, #2, #3] – Inspiring a deep love among its few accolytes, Afterbirth reached this list through just a few list-topping selections. In But Not Of offers brutal death metal that isn’t just smart compared with its own – often blunt – sub-genre, but that is smart compared with anything. “For a band that traffics in slammy, knuckle-dragging brutal death, In But Not Of carries with it an undeniable progressive, cerebral quality, which feels like a logical outgrowth from their previous effort” (Felagund). Indeed, Doom et Al finds its progressive qualities its most compelling, describing that “while the first half of brutal, spacy, wacky death metal is great, the second half, with its explorations into post-metal and prog is where real greatness happens”. Nuanced, layered music invites exploration, and even our resident death metal enthusiasts concur: “Afterbirth crams an abundance of riches into a brutal death metal album that twists and transmutes… I continue to find surprises almost every time I revisit In But Not Of” (Ferox). This album exemplifies the power of invention and intrigue.

#7. Sermon // Of Golden Verse – [#1, #2, #4, #4, #9] – Boasting AMG.com’s prog o’ the year award, Of Golden Verse by Sermon is the sole album here also picked by yours truly. I found that “Sermon’s undulating song-writing style results in music that ebbs from steely, tense atmospheres and flows to passionate, cathartic explosions. Dramatic, sure. But exciting.” Saunders, awarding his album o’ the year, favors the record’s singularity, given that “Sermon boasts a unique sound they can call their own, where dark, eerie and deadly serious vibes and almost melodramatic flair flows through towering, intelligent, and emotive prog metal epics.” But even more than its dynamic songs and novelty, GardensTale underlines the most beguiling quality of Of Golden Verse: “What attracts me the most is the sense of threat. Sermon looms a great dark ominous wall that swallows the background and casts everything in shade. For an album to hold its breath even while beating you down is exquisite.” Few records are so powerful.

#6. Xoth // Exogalactic – [#1, #3, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #ish] – The first of three techy, deathy albums in a row, Exogalactic by Xoth consolidates the band as a bona fide site favorite. “Xoth’s brand of technical blackened death-thrash is a sci-fi spectacle. Exogalactic’s futuristic riffs, twisting melodies, and narrative arcs make it feel like reptilian aliens are indeed enslaving humans as gladiators… Every time I listen to Exogalactic, I can’t help but grin” (Maddog). More than simple smiles, Dr. Wvrm never hides his arousal around riffs. Of Exogalactic, he describes it as “prostrate before that holiest of holy, The Riff. So of course, the end product [is] impeccable, incredible, impossibly fucking good.” AMG Himself delights in “the consistently best thrashy melodic death metal this world has heard since the early-90s” and continues that “Xoth has started to cement themselves as one of my favorite bands.” This entire website has flown from His opinions so take heed; buy Xoth now.

#5. Wormhole // Almost Human – [#2, #4, #5, #5, #5, #9, #ish, #HM] – It takes a special kind of slam to breach the AMG aggregated list but Wormhole is a special sort of band. Having banged his drum about Almost Human almost all year, Kenstrosity surprisingly failed to AotY this album. But in doing so he was highly complimentary, noting that “Almost Human confirms that with the right songwriting, slam can be thoughtful, intentional, intricate, and enriching. Thanks to a healthy infusion of tech by way of tricky, but subtle maneuvers rather than straight-up wanking speed, Wormhole’s whimsically brutal metal suddenly transforms into something polished, elevated, and immersive.” Emphasizing the record’s heavier qualities, the ever-eloquent Saunders describes the release as a “visceral, ridiculously heavy, sci-fi-themed tech-slam assault.” And while we rightly review albums in their entirety rather than song-by-song, Dolphin Whisperer “repeatedly binged those first two singles as if they were a whole album to themselves.” It’s hard to deny songs so heavy but so gripping.2

#4. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – [#1, #2, #4, #4, #5, #7, #ish] – Visions of Infinihility offered some of 2023’s meatiest death metal. Angry Metal Guy was emphatic in His summary, penning that “the term tour de force was coined to describe albums like Visions of Infinihility. Sometimes an album simply rules and your record o’ the year choice is uncomplicated. Carnosus’ sophomore album is such an album.” As if this statement was insufficient, I’ll rely on Cherd to describe the thing: “a tech-death barn burner… tight, vicious, and catchy, this record also features [one of the] best harsh vocal performance of the year.”3 Some people – including me – are nonplussed by tech death, but Ferox has us poor bastards covered too: “every one of the nine tracks on Visions of Infinihility stands up to heavy listening… It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing four thousand dollar headphones or a bullet belt. Visions of Infinihility should appeal to wonks, diehards, and metalheads all across the spectrum.” You heard the man.

#3. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – [#1, #2, #2, #6, #8, #8, #8, #10, #HM] – Sporting 2023’s shitty band name o’ the year, Sodomisery pulled no punches with their new record called Mazzaroth. Dr A.N. Grier describes how “with Mazzaroth came a new approach, emphasizing the black, death, and melodeath with massive orchestration atmospheres.” Its size warranted comment from other writers too; Twelve highlights “the vocal performance, the orchestrations, the songwriting—everything on Mazzaroth is top-tier, larger-than-life, incredible black metal.” More than anything, great music orbits around great song-writing and nowhere is that more apparent than with Sodomisery. Winning his favorite record of the year, newbie Iceberg commends this aspect. “The 36 minutes of Mazzaroth are as lean and mean as you can get… In the age of endless bloat, Sodomisery sharpen their knives and kill all their babies Spartan-style, leaving only razor-sharp riffing and inescapable songwriting in their wake.” You heard it here first; these Swedes killed their babies in pursuit of The Riff.

#2. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – [#1, #3, #3, #4, #4, #5, #5, #7, #10] – Residing in the top half of 7 lists, Air Not Meant for Us represented the best of 2023’s death and doom metal. Grymm compares these Connecticutens to sadboi legends, articulating that “Fires in the Distance took what makes Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum and added their own unique embellishments to create a truly captivating album.” Thus Spoke highlights its “distinctive form of ethereal, key-accented melodeath/doom”, but favors most how it’s “elegantly composed, stirring, and effortlessly graceful.” She wasn’t the only person to bond with this record. Doom et Al agreed that there are clear influences but still bestowed his top prize: “It isn’t particularly original, but I don’t care. Art is about the connection it forges with the person engaging with it, and I feel every note of Air Not Meant for Us in my marrow. There’s a longing and a beauty here that I connected with immediately.” Who am I – and who are you – to deny his emotions?

#1. Wayfarer // American Gothic – [#1, #1, #2, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #6, #7, #7, #7] – With 12 main list picks, 7 top 5s and 2 AotYs, there was little doubt that Wayfarer would take the aggregated top spot for 2023. Carcharodon posits that while its predecessor may have been “close to fulfilling the promise of their Wild West black metal, American Gothic is the album where everything that Wayfarer has struggled to bring together for years finally clicked into place.” Why is this? Awarding his AotY, Sentynel attributes it to “utterly seamless” genre blending. “This is the best of bleak country painted with the instrumentation of black metal. Electric guitars pick up melody lines from banjos with a twang. Distorted slide guitars get that pedal steel feeling. There’s even a honky-tonk piano.” Lesser bands have gimmicks; Wayfarer’s central synthesis is essential. “Black metal should not go well with the Old West. Wayfarer crafted not only their best album to date, but also an absorbing, engrossing classic that begs to be absorbed in full with your complete, utmost attention” (Grymm). If you miss this, we’ll see you at dawn. With pistols.

#2023 #Afterbirth #AngryMetalGuySTop10Ish_ #Ascension #BlogPosts #Carnosus #Convocation #Crypta #FiresInTheDistance #Godthrymm #Lists #Listurnalia #NightCrowned #Onheil #Panopticon #Saturnus #Sermon #Sodomisery #Somnuri #Tribunal #VanishingKids #Warcrab #Wayfarer #Wormhole #Xoth

Angry Metal Guy’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023

By Angry Metal Guy

The Year of Our Angry Overlord 2023 saw an AngryMetalGuy.com that continues its upward trajectory. We produced 713 posts (mostly reviews), which, in terms of raw numbers, is the lowest since 2015 and can be improved upon, but the 890 word-per-post mark that we are at, is the highest average word count in our history. This means, we ended up with a hefty 634,674 words in 2023. We also averaged 39,539 views a day, leading us to our highest readership numbers ever at 14,420,637 total page views in 2023. The readership of AMG is also global, though the English-speaking world dominates our readership, with the USA, England and Canada taking up spots 1 to 3 on our highest views list. Happily, in my opinion, Germany has overtaken Australia as our fourth biggest readership and that means it’s only a matter of time before I’m asked to perform a live review writing at Wacken. Spots 6-10 are taken up by the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Spain and Brazil—a who’s who of excellent footballing nations (and an excellent Eurovision nation) that also love our brand of high quality, long form analytical reviews. So, thanks to all of you from all over the world for loving us almost as much as we love you! And to the one guy (literally) in Vatican City who visits our blog once a year, we appreciate you so much.

That we continue to outstrip our previous performance is entirely because of you, our readers, who are so loyal and open to new music that we can claim an Angry Metal Guy Bump™, because when we review stuff, you listen to it. I’ve received plenty of personal correspondence from bands and PR people reporting that AngryMetalGuy.com gives better numbers than Decibel in terms of listens and purchases. This means that Angry Metal Guy matters, and we intend to use that power to … do exactly the same thing we always do: listen to great music, promote music that we love and trash popular bands for all the engagement it brings us.1

The year 2023 also saw us welcoming in new writers, and despite some people fading away or stepping back (both Madam X and Grymm will be missed), I feel like we have as strong a profile for our writing as we ever had. Again, it makes me beyond happy that all my stupid little ideas about how a music blog should be run have turned into this bazaar of the bizarre, with writers whose taste in music I pretty much detest, as well as some good eggs who hold true to the AngryMetalGuy.com vision of giving everything from Scandinavia a 4.0 or better. Anyway, regardless of how bad your taste is, thanks to you all for your hard work and dedication. You’ll be especially fond of me—each and every one of you—when you read the footnotes to this post. It’s footnote 6 that’s of particular interest to you. I would also like to especially thank our dedicated editing staff, headed up by—but certainly not limited to—Steel Druhm as well as Sentynel, whose steadfast dedication to keeping the site running warms my heart.

On a personal note, this year was supposed to be one of the best of my life. It has been an unmitigated pile of shit, with only a few bright spots. As usual, I’ll try to make 2024 a better year, where I am Angry Metal Guy in practice, not just in spirit. A new year always brings unreasonable and unrealistic goals that get broken in shame by April, doesn’t it? Well, that’s mine.

I love you all. Except the Discord. You guys are terrible.

#ish: Fellowship // The Winterlight Chronicles [December 22nd, 2023 | Scarlet Records] — Oh man, they did piano versions of songs from The Saberlight Chronicles? RotY. <3

#ish: Riverside // ID.Entity [January 20th, 2023 | InsideOut Music] — Back and forth between the 10-spot and then the 9-spot and now an #ish, ID.Entity is a genuinely good album from a band that I am happy has regained some of its swagger. I didn’t need another morose, overly wet album full of painfully sad songs and a Great Plains style mastering job.2 I needed a record that was absolutely swimming in references to The Police and ’80s Yes, and Riverside obliged. At 53 minutes, I decided, that “The Place Where I Belong” just mars the whole a little too much to put it higher up the list. But color me excited for what’s next for Riverside, because ID.Entity definitely got my attention again.

#ish: Soen // Memorial [September 1st, 2023 | Silver Lining Music] — Once before I’ve missed a review for a Soen album, but that time I had our much missed Huckster to cover me. Memorial continues down the path the band started down on Imperial—well, on Lotus, in actuality—of making tight, poppy groove metal with an emotional edge. I particular enjoy Memorial’s fast paced tracks and the introduction of the Iron Maiden-style guitar harmonies that litter the album. There have been some gripes that Memorial hews too close to the arc of Imperial, but I think the album has both its own sound and is loaded with great songs. And unlike its predecessor, Memorial seems to genuinely peak in terms of the heaviness that these old guys are willing to put on (proverbial) tape, while still leaning into savvy pop choruses with Eklöf’s unique emotional cadence. We shouldn’t have missed it and neither should you.

#10: Vomitory // All Heads Are Gonna Roll [May 26th, 2023 | Metal Blade Records] — Vomitory is not trend. Vomitory is not kvlt. Vomitory makes death metal to mosh your brains out to. They are very good at it. And that’s why their first album since their deeply underrated Opus VIII was a happening in the Angry Metal Guy household. As time has worn on, I have become less and less excitable before a new release. But in this case, I was right to be excited. All Heads Are Gonna Roll—despite its Swenglish title3—delivers the kind of decapitating death metal that the world—by which I mean me—has missed in the 12 years that the pride of Karlstad has been missing in action. And weirdly few bands are living in the sphere that Vomitory runs in right now, meaning that All Heads Are Gonna Roll is an even more vital contribution to the propagation of good, grinding, groovy death metal that isn’t trying to be Gorguts or Ulcerate OR to relive the glory years of the Stockholm scene. Long live Vomitory!

#9: Crypta // Shades of Sorrow [August 4th, 2023 | Napalm Records] — Years ago, I remember reviewing Vomitory’s Opus VIII and thinking it was remarkable because it was direct and to the point and it just felt like “good, honest death metal.” I had a similar feeling hearing Crypta’s debut record, Echoes of the Soul, and I became enamored with the album. But, as with so many successful bands experiencing success,, Crypta lost a key member almost immediately; their glam-as-fuck guitarist who was, at least in part, responsible for the band’s strong melodic core. This gave rise to worry that Shades of Sorrow might suffer from Ye Olde Sophomore Slumpe. Fortunately, Brazil’s favorite daughters found an excellent replacement and are filled to the brim with riffs. Shades of Sorrow pumps out another 52 minutes of memorable, groovy death metal (albeit with a darker, more blackened vibe) and has been a constant companion since I first heard it. After what must have been an absolutely crazy year for them—having toured with Morbid Angel and lost their rented RV in the process—I hope that they’re leaning back and appreciating what they’ve accomplished in the last three years. Two Angry Metal Guy top 10s? Does it get better than that?

#8: Gorod // The Orb [March 10th, 2023 | Self-Release] — Gorod is my favorite active tech death band for a reason. To paraphrase myself: greatness is hard; consistent greatness is Gorod. That’s because these French death metallers are a breed apart, with a sound that’s truly special. The Orb, which dropped back in March, helped to re-solidify my admiration for the band’s dynamic, guitar-driven approach. Every time I put it in, I’m immersed in the most captivating riffs, the boldest ideas, the most intense rasps and growls, and a compositional variety that consistently engages. There are, of course, minor things that make it a little less my favorite than its predecessor, but The Orb exudes Gorod’s unique character and is so flawlessly executed that any criticisms seem trivial. The Orb shows Gorod being true to its essence, a spectacle we should be thankful to experience.

#7: Haken // Fauna [March 3rd, 2023 | InsideOut Music] — I have to be honest: I didn’t expect Fauna to get anywhere near this list during 95% of the year. The reality is that when I first got it, I couldn’t get into it. I have two different partially written drafts that I could never finish because it kept losing me. I wanted to like it. I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. So, I ascribed it to me going through some stuff, since I wasn’t enjoying much of anything. Recently, it popped up and I gave it another chance. As these things can go, it clicked. And of course it did. Haken, a ridiculously good band despite going Full Djent™ a few years ago, has a history of throwing curveballs and exploring sounds. Fauna finds them working in the artistic tradition of writing music that’s meant to evoke other creatures—bulls, monkeys, elephants, etc.—and this artistic device helped them to diversify their sound on Fauna. The result is an album that is as diverse as it is expansive and—first and foremost—fun! Like the best albums, Fauna reveals new things every time I go back to it, and I can never quite decide what my favorite song is. It also serves as a reminder that Haken is one of the best active prog bands, honestly, the only limits they have are the ones they set for themselves.

#6: Isole // Anesidora — I’ve always respected Isole and enjoyed their material. But I’ve never been overly enamored with them and I’ve never considered myself “a big fan.” Anesidora has changed that. Isole’s newest opus hits that sweet spot between a classic Candlemass record and a classic My Dying Bride record that I didn’t even know I needed. The result of this unholy blending of sounds and feels is a doom metal that I love as much as nearly any doom in my collection. Anesidora sports all the best traits of great albums; memorable songs; a listening time that results in instant re-listens; and, first and foremost, addictive melodies and themes. After weeding its way into regular rotation, Anesidora has simply never left. It’s a combination of excellent songwriting, great performances and some of the most subtly sticky composition I’ve heard in years. It’s clear to me now why Isole is only second to the Christmas Goat on the list of “famous people and/or entities from Gävle, Sweden” on Wikipedia.4

#5: Leiþa // Reue [January 13th, 2023 | Noisebringer Records] — I’ll never recapture the feeling of sheer and utter wonder that I felt hearing Windir for the first time. Nor will I relive the naïveté of enjoying Halmstad without having heard of Kvarforth. But if I’m going to get close, Leiþa’s epic Reue would be the thing that did it. This may be the first time that a one-man black metal side project (this time from Kanonenfieber’s Noise) has graced one of my Top 10(ish) lists, and that should be enough to make you sit up and take note. Leiþa has wrought a masterful work of great—potentially even excellent—black metal that deftly balances the genre’s past and present. The album, which Carcharodon correctly diagnosed as both “rich and textured,” is uncompromising, cutting a unique path through the depressive black metal subgenre with aggressive riffing and production which is on the attack. Yet, despite being free of the bed of reverb endemic to anything ‘depressive,’ Reue exquisitely evokes the existential angst of remorse while evoking the melodic black metal chops reserved for Norway’s most underrated black metal band. I will not rue the day I heard Reue, because it helped to define 2023 for me.

#4: Anareta // Fear Not [April 8th, 2023 | Self-release] — One of the first revelations of 2023, Anareta’s particular approach to extreme metal surprised and enchanted me. Throughout the year, Fear Not has continued to show up on my playlist and every time, I’m just as impressed with it. One can criticize the production, but there’s something that feels genuine and authentic about Anareta’s not-that-great-sound and that simply works for me. But for me, there’s no point in rehashing a debate about production on the debut album from a self-released artist. The music—and that music’s impeccable vibes—speaks for itself. From start to finish, Fear Not regales listeners with an idiosyncratic take on orchestral metal that evokes some all time classics. But it’s not enough to hear potential in a band; there’s also something about Anareta that radiates agility and an oppenness for new ideas. In a field filled with rehashes, Anareta offer something meaningfully different, and that meaningful difference will keep getting spins for years to come.

#3: Xoth // Exogalatic [November 3rd, 2023 | Self-release] — I remember hearing Xoth for the first time: frenetic guitars; frantic vocals; blasts from hell bolstering ripping riffs made all the sharper with biting guitar tone. But aside from its intensity, Xoth sported great songs with slick hooks that made all the energy and enthusiasm feel genuine and justified. Exogalactic continues the band’s triumphant march across the universe to pillage and revel in the spoils of war.5 Sporting the consistently best thrashy melodic death metal this world has heard since the early-90s, Xoth has started to cement themselves as one of my favorite bands. If you aren’t listening to this album on repeat, do you even like metal?6 I’ll leave you to ponder that as you cry alone in the shower (I hear it gets great natural reverb). In the meantime, I’ll be over here, trying to figure out to make my Xoth, Carnosus, Gorod triple headlining tour happen and whether I can afford the subsequent neck surgery.

#2: Angra // Cycles of Pain [November 3, 2023 | Atomic Fire Records] — If you had told me that I would become a fast fan of Angra back in 2000s, when I was siding with the then-simply-monikered Rhapsody about whether Sascha Paeth wrote their music, I would have laughed in your face. Thus, there is a level of irony that I have come to really love Angra now, for the first time, when they have saved ex-[(Luca) Turilli(/Lione)’s] Rhapsody [of Fire] singer Fabio Lione from his old life. And, for my part, I think that Cycles of Pain is on par with previous end-of-year-list-gracers like Secret Garden and Ømni—yes, and even with the band’s classics like Temple of Shadows—with Fabio sounding better than he ever has in his career and with vital, engaging, energetic writing.7 Cycles of Pain was a late-year release, but it was one of my most anticipated for a reason. From start to finish, Cycles of Pain features truly great songs and performances and demonstrates that Angra is as vital as ever.8

#1: Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility [February 10th, 2023 | Self-release] — The term tour de force was coined to describe albums like Visions of Infinihility. Sometimes an album simply rules and your record o’ the year choice is uncomplicated. Carnosus’ sophomore album is such an album. The music is intense and techy, but there’s something that feels remarkably direct about an album that crushes this hard from start to finish. From the word go Visions of Infinihility oozes addictive riff after heart crushing riff and lodges itself in your headbanging muscle. It’s impossible to listen to Carnosus without wanting to fuck some shit up and that’s exactly how I—and I assume everyone reading a website named after me—wants their Record o’ the Year to sound. And unlike other years, where I spent a lot of time agonizing over the choice and regretted it later, this was easy.. Sure, there’s been plenty of competition throughout the year from awesome bands who make excellent music; see the foregoing list! But Visions of Infinihility stands out in its steadfast and stubborn place at the top of my playlist. And I know I’m not alone. Now that these guys have signed to Willowtip—which I’m taking as a win for us—I cannot wait to see what these guys do in the future.9

Honorable Mentions

Insomnium // Anno 1696 [February 24th, 2023 | Century Media Records] — Insomnium will never release another Winter’s Gate, I just have to get used to that. But 2023 saw Anno 1696, which was a good record that I have enjoyed a lot. The problem that I have is that Anno 1696 all too often has sent me packing to listen to Winter’s Gate, because I feel like it starts too damned slow and really peaks once I’m about a third of the way. Still, I’ve been listening to it a lot because the songwriting is great, the vibes are legit and Insomnium is a great band. Just missed the cut.

In Flames // Foregone [February 10th, 2023 | Nuclear Blast Records] — In Flames didn’t threaten to genuinely list, if I’m honest. But I need to bring this album up as one of the best surprises I had all year. I don’t care what you think, Foregone has some of the best material the band has put out since Colony and I am fucking here for it.

By Fire and Sword // Glory [September 22nd, 2023 | No Remorse Records] — This album has been threatening to make this list for a while now. I am creeped out by it and amused by it and I think the biggest problem I have with it is that the singer lacks that power metal edge that I like, but also doesn’t have the silky smooth delivery of a Tony Kakko. Still, the songwriting here is fantastic and funny and I suspect that I will regret not spending more time with this prior to Listurnalia. Though, what does it replace?

Sacred Outcry // Towers of Gold [May 19th, 2023 | No Remorse Records] — It ain’t “Sworn in the Metal Wind,” but after reading Metal Pigeon‘s rant about power metal not taking power metal seriously anymore, I checked out Sacred Outcry. And he was right, Towers of Gold is a fantastic record that shows what could be happening in power metal if fans of it weren’t so fucking embarrassed to like it.

Twilight Force // At the Heart of Wintervale [January 20th, 2023 | Nuclear Blast Records] — At the Heart of Wintervale is adventurous, epic, and surprisingly agile power metal from Dalarna in Sweden (+ a brilliant Italian singer). Throughout this epic romp through Wintervale, these (mostly) Swedes serve up “bombastic” and “flamboyant” songs that develop a diverse, more experimental sound than what Twilight Force trafficked in previously. The result is an extremely diverting record with only minor blemishes, and the future has never seemed brighter for Twilight Force.

Fellowship // The Saberlight Chronicles [July 13th, 2022 | Scarlet Records] — Okay, okay, this is a stupid stunt. But it is my second most listened to album in 2023 and it’s really hard to move on from it. Just great music, lyrics, and all around vibes. These dorks speak the language of intense angst and fantasy novels and, let’s face it, I’m fluent in that shit.

…and Oceans // As in Gardens, So in Tombs [January 27th, 2023 | Seasons of Mist] — Did everyone forget that …and Oceans released its second great ‘reunion’ record? Well, you shouldn’t have. It’s fucking good. It’s weird how this one kind of fell off the map for a lot of people.

Frozen Dawn // The Decline of the Enlightened Gods [February 10th, 2023 | Transcending Obscurity Records] — Spanish meloblack that cuts a path through the overly wet, overly repetitive atmoblack people with an ice pick and trem picked melodies. These guys have some growing to do in terms of writing, but The Decline of the Enlightened Gods is a great album and I look forward to hearing more from them in future.

Top 10(ish) Songs o’ the Year

#ish: Katatonia – “Impermanence” from Sky Void of Stars — I didn’t include “disappointments” on this list, but needless to say, I found Sky Void of Stars to be lacking. Still, when Katatonia hits, they really hit. “Impermanence” — which coincidentally also features Joel Eklöf from Soen — hits exactly the vibe I’m looking for from Katatonia. Give me 45 minutes of this, guys, and you’ll be printing your own Excellent reviews.

#10: In Flames – “Foregone, Pt. 1” from Foregone — My biggest surprise this year was that I liked an In Flames album for the first time in two decades. With the reintroduction of their classic sound and, in particular, that 6/8 counterpoint to the guitar solo at 2:36, these guys cemented in me a deep hope that the next one will be even better.

#9: Isole – “Monotonic Scream” from Anesidora — This whole record is filled with hooks and ideas that I adore, but “Monotonic Scream” is likely the song that brought me back to to Anesidora after hearing it the first couple times. Two things stand out about this track for me. First, I love the classic doom sound and that eighth note doom feel, but it’s the chorus that really gets me with its strong My Dying Bride vibe. Daniel Bryntse’s vocal performance here absolutely nails the exact vibe I crave in my doom metal. Everything fits perfectly and sounds great. The repetition of the riff and chorus that starts at 5:43 is powerful as hell.

#8: Soen – “Memorial” from Memorial — It’s actually hard to choose a song from Memorial because I think the music is very strong. What I love about “Memorial” is that it shows off what the album does well. The combination of huge poppy choruses with a genuinely heavy crunch and a scooped, American sound on the production with harmonized guitars and Eklöf’s emotive vocals just works. The dual lead at 3:19 helps to illustrate the way that Memorial has added a wrinkle to the band’s sound and it all builds into the kind of melodramatic outro that I can’t get enough of. These guys speak my musical language of love.

#7: Carnosus – “Towards Infinihilistic Purity” from Visions of Infinihility — Sometimes the only thing I need is a blast beat, a ska riff, and a weird fucking eBow guitar drone to get me to listen to a song 700 times in a row. This grinds super hard and feel is perfect. Shout out to the formerly tightly betrousered and hilariously beswooped Jonatan Karasiak for his totally wild performance throughout this whole record.

#6: Riverside – “Self Aware” from ID.Entity — If this were the style and vibe of all future Riverside material, I would take it. Bass-driven, The Police-referencing, awkward vaguely moralistic lyrics, but with that slight underlying sadness that shows up on everything these guys has ever done? Yeah, I’d take it. In particular, I love this main riff and the strong ’80s vibe. More of this, plz!

#5: Gorod – “We Are the Sun Gods” from The Orb — The interplay between the guitars here is pretty much the only thing I need in my life. In particular, listen to the harmonies in the pre-chorus. These fuckers are ridiculous and their style and sound make me so happy. Now, check that clean tapping section that starts at 2:16 and tell me that isn’t one of the coolest things you’ve heard all year. I especially love how the drums get more intense as the part goes on.

Gorod is better than humanity deserves.

#4: Haken – “Sempiternal Beings” from Fauna — This may be the best song Haken has written since The Mountain. Obviously, this still has a kind of djenty rhythmic approach, but the mix of sounds and feels—the clean, melancholic sounds and melody—culminates in an absolutely epic chorus. Here’s a special shout out to the section that starts around 5:20 that sounds like Radiohead as interpreted by Muse as interpreted by Haken before breaking into a ridiculous guitar solo.

#3: By Fire and Sword – “Leave a Little Room” from Glory — I’m going to be totally honest, the singer—Tom Newby—sounds a little bit like your buddy singing along with music in the car at times. But what makes Glory such a crazy, fun album is the songwriting. “Leave a Little Room” features a straightforward and memorable chorus (love those harmonies under the vocals). It has a direct, classic metal vibe that’s hard not to nod your head to. But it’s that moment at 3:46—”Leave a little room, leave a little room, leave little room, leave it…”—followed by Tom Newby’s fundy pastor impression that left me going “Wait, what?” and replaying the whole thing. Again. And again. And again. Honestly, I can’t get enough of this record, and this is the song that got me hooked.

#2: Xoth – “The Parasitic Orchestra” from Exogalactic — This whole album is fantastic, but I just can’t get past the totally majestic chorus in this song. Great riffs. Great vocals. Majestic-ass chorus. Also, love those harmonized solos at the end of the track. They remind me of The Black Dahlia Murder’s best work with Ryan Knight. I could listen to this on a loop for 24 hours and be okay with myself. Though the next six months “doo doo dooing” the guitar melody from the chorus might eventually drive me mad.

#1: Angra – “Tears of Blood” from Cycles of Pain — My hot take over recent years has been that Rafael Bittencourt should just take over the vocal duties in Angra. This was in part because every time they released a record, they would have a duet where it was Bittencourt who took on the vocal duties. These tracks features as my song of the year twice (that is, going 2 for 2 in the Fabio era) and I have to say that I love the man’s voice.

“Tears of Blood” may be the argument that what I love is Bittencourt’s writing, instead of his voice. Going 3-for-3, Cycles of Pain’s big culminating track is a duet that this time features Fabio and Amanda Somerville—just check her Metal Archives to figure out why you know her even though you don’t know that you know her—and it’s everything I’m looking for.10 Fabio sounds, again, as good as he’s ever sounded—keeping his vibrato in check, while flexing his opera muscles—and Somerville has a fantastic voice. These are bound up in the kind of operatic duet that you could imagine Italy sending to Eurovision. It’s all power and melodrama, orchestra swells and big ol’ voices. And it’s my favorite song of the year.

#AndOceans #2023 #AmandaSomerville #Anareta #Angra #AngryMetalGuySTop10Ish_ #BlogPosts #ByFireAndSword #Carnosus #Crypta #FabioLione #Fellowship #FrozenDawn #Gorod #Haken #InFlames #Insomnium #Isole #Kanonenfieber #Katatonia #Leipa #Leitha #Lists #Listurnalia #MorbidAngel #Riverside #SacredOutcry #Soen #TwilightForce #Vomitory #Xoth

Dr. A.N. Grier’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023

By Dr. A.N. Grier

Another year, another top-ten list from ole Grier. Unfortunately, this was a difficult year to make my selections. Typically, I have to narrow my list from twenty to thirty albums, but this year pretty much narrowed down itself. But it wasn’t only because I was too goddamn busy to listen to music and write reviews, it also wasn’t the best year for metal. Of the hundreds of albums I forced myself to listen to this year, even my honorable mentions are pretty fucking slim. I know many will argue that this was a fantastic year for metal, but I don’t like prog or doom enough to enjoy the stupid number of releases in those genres. And you’re all terrible for encouraging this shit to happen. Hopefully, King Diamond and Mercyful Fate will release albums in 2024 so we can get some real music.

But for all the work that’s taken me away from writing reviews (which is pretty much the only thing I live for these days), it’s been a good year for insulting and making fun of everyone. If I can’t have droves of amazing records, at least I have a bunch of idiots with bad taste to rip on. The number of 4.5s that everyone whored out on this site is an abomination. And, again, this is all your fault for encouraging scores twice what they should be! Idiots. But, besides all the incorrect scores, this is a pretty good crew. While I can’t help but glare (my mom says that’s just how my face is), the Zoom calls are fun, the daily bickering is therapeutic, and the horrible Doom_et_Al hot takes make me feel better about myself. Without Steel, Madam X, and Sentynel, this place would never exist. No matter how much I try to derail it. While the mighty AMG is busy as fuck and isn’t always around, we also wouldn’t be here without him. I also have to give a shout-out to olde and new editors, like Holdeneye, Wvrm, Kenny, Dolph, and Maddog for all the hard work, bringing back old AMG specials, and helping the newbies onboard. It’s very much appreciated. As for the readers… you know what I’m going to say/call you.

Now for the best list of the bunch and pretty much the only one you should read. You’ll find many records you forgot about here, or you hated to begin with which makes you an idiot.

#ish. Blackbraid // Blackbraid II – I hate that I agree with Doom that an album is good. Honestly, it physically and emotionally hurts me. But there’s not much to be done about Blackbraid’s Blackbraid II because I haven’t been able to stop listening to it since it came out. I can’t say it’s my perfect style of black metal, but the emotion is there, and it’s quite convincing. In particular, “Sadness and the Passage of Time and Memory” is a heart-wrenching piece of staggering beauty. While many complain it’s far too long, it’s only because you expected the follow-up to Blackbraid I to be another measly thirty-five minutes. That isn’t Blackbraid II’s fault. That’s your fault. And please don’t get me started with your opinions on the man’s heritage and if he’s insulting rather than honoring that heritage. Instead, let the soothing acoustic interludes guide you to the engulfing nature of “The Spirit Returns” and “A Song of Death on Winds of Dawn” before “Twilight Hymn of Ancient Blood” tears you a new asshole with its crushing, trashing interlude. Blackbraid II is one of the better atmoblack releases of the year and you gotta get over it and accept it.

#10. Mutoid Man // Mutants – Oh, Mutoid Man, you shifty, unpredictable bastard. How you managed to suck me into War Moans is beyond me because, to be frank, this is not typically the type of metal I like. I mean, not that Mutoid Man has ever solidified themselves into a genre. More like ten of them. But the chaos of the songwriting is typically too much for me. However, these purveyors of the perverse can somehow keep the craziness at bay and wrangle everything into a memorable song. That said, Mutants is rather different than its predecessor. While the insanity and wackiness remain, Mutants shortens the leash and keeps them from roaming too far into the street. The result is something a touch more melodic and less thrashy. That said, there are some fucking heavy songs on this record, like “Broken Glass Ceiling” and “Unborn.” But, in the end, this new release is full of feel-good energy that has you smiling far more than pit stomping. Again, something I’d never see myself enjoying but it’s too much fun to ignore. Each spin reveals even more in its construction, inevitably sucking me further into the silly minds of its creators. I do wish for a better master, but it doesn’t stop me from returning again and again.

#9. Omnicidal // The Omnicidalist – Guitarist/vocalist Sebastian Svedlund is one hell of a talented dude. Not only has he been fronting and playing guitar for the stellar Rimfrost, but he’s now formed a new group that is every bit as exceptional as his black metal counterpart. The main difference is that Svedlund flexes his death and thrash metal chops with Omnicidal’s debut record, The Omnicidalist. In a mere forty-one minutes, The Omnicidalist is an entertaining beast of a record. Right out of the gates, “By Knife” cuts you to ribbons and slowly, yet methodically pulls your large intestine from your body. But what makes The Omnicidalist work are the melodic flavorings spattered between their death-thrash attitude. But even that can’t describe the diversity of the record when you run headfirst into the Amon Amarth, melodeath character of “The Passenger” and old-school, Swethrash of the At the Gates-ish “Cemetery Scream.” And like Rimfrost, Omnicidal chose to produce a warm, open, well-rounded master that lets you enjoy every nook and cranny of the band’s performances.

#8. The Night Eternal // Fatale – How Steel caught this at the end of the year before it slipped by, I’ll never know. But, goddamn, am I glad he did. Sending me a private message of its existence, we spent the next 15 minutes in a Mercyful Fate orgasm. Which is a lot, considering that’s the longest I’ve been able to hold my load. Though not exactly a Mercyful Fate copycat, there are plenty of references that can be made to Fatale. In reality, The Night Eternal reminds me of those recent explorers of the sound created by King Diamond and co. Bands like Attic and In Solitude come to mind as those bands, as well as this one, take the foundation and build their own house on top of it. Steel described Fatale best when he stated that with each new track, you’re pulled deeper and deeper into the album. The two that got me on the first listen were the back-to-back “Prince of Darkness” and “We Praise Death.” With other great songs coming down the line, like “Run with the Wolves” and “Between the Worlds,” my love for the songwriting only strengthened. And it’s been strengthening ever since with each subsequent listen. Let the “Old Man Metal” moniker be damned. This is way better than all your fucking deathgrind cock-core.

#7. Ars Moriendi // Lorsque Les Coeurs S’assèchent – As I write this blurb, I realize my lists are starting to become predictable. Most Grier lists seem to include Second to Sun, Malokarpatan, and Ars Moriendi. But that isn’t my fault. All are prolific and consistent, releasing, if not their best album with each new release, something pretty damn close. Each is also unique in its brand of black metal. The one-person French outfit, Ars Moriendi, is one whose albums are albums in the truest sense. Never have I ever skipped a song or listened to a track without all the others. Like I said in the review for Lorsque Les Coeurs S’assèchent, it’s a journey. Clocking in at fifty-five minutes, these six songs are overlapping nightmares of ambient, progressive black metal. Never settling too long on one idea, each song is packed to the brim with riffs, orchestral atmospheres, organ interludes, and mind-fucking musical landscapes. Still not as popular as they should be, the songwriting coming out of this guy’s fingers, voice, and drumsticks is mind-boggling and surprisingly beautiful. Like previous years, Lorsque Les Coeurs S’assèchent has secured a safe place on Doktor Grier‘s EOY list.

#6. Bizzarekult // Den Tapte Krigen – Bizzarekult is one of the greatest treasures to ever grace us with its presence. Not only is this brand of black metal my thing, but the man behind it is a better AMG commenter than you. Be less you. Be more Bizarre. After the wonderfully moosey Vi overlevde, Den Tapte Krigen bugs out in a serious way. Everything you ever hoped for on this record is there, and more. This time, the progressive elements have greater direction, the riffs hit harder, and the vocal diversity is far superior to the debut album. For example, consider the gorgeous, Green Carnation-like clean vocals of “Du Lovet Meg.” Or, the crushing Carpathian Forest-esque character of “Midt i Stormen.” Not to mention the six-and-a-half-minute closer, “Himmelen er Utilgjengelig,” is one of the band’s most epic pieces. It ebbs and flows through magnificent Enslaved-esque progressiveness, encapsulating every facet of Den Tapte Krigen. But it also hints at more to come. If there’s anything for sure about the band’s wild songwriting approach is that we haven’t heard it all. With each new release, the bizarre factor increases while maintaining a balance of fantastic songs.

#5. Onheil // In Black Ashes – No band this year has incorporated as many influences into their music (and made it work) as this Dutch quintet. Onheil has been absent for nearly a decade, quietly crafting a new record that explores all they’ve done before and pushes further than ever before. Ditching some of the predictable catchiness of 2014’s Storm Is Coming, In Black Ashes shows the band improving their technicality. The performances are a good two rungs higher on the Onheil ladder than the previous record, from the guitars to the bass to the drums. While much of the Amon Amarthian sound of previous releases is gone, they haven’t abandoned those melodeath vibes. Instead, using their Iron Maiden-meets-black/death approach, the result comes out much in the same vein as Mors Principium Est. Vicious, technical, and with headbangable frenzy, In Black Ashes is the band’s clear statement that they aren’t afraid to step out of their comfort zone and try something new. And why not? Onheil is one of the few bands that can produce music of this caliber without it becoming a wank fest or—even worse—a jumbled mess of influences that cripples each song and implodes an album. I just hope we hear from them again sooner rather than later.

#4. Malokarpatan // Vertumnus Caesar – Here’s another staple to my (and the legendary Dr. Fisting‘s) year-end lists. Black metal with hellashes character and a shit ton of impressive guitar work. Giving absolutely no fucks about the rules of the genre, this Slovakian outfit tinkers with cathedral harpsichords, unsetting praying and chanting, and mixing the songwriting styles of Mercyful Fate and Iron Maiden. The result is a wild mishmash of styles that, somehow, avoid being a dumpster fire of influences and conclude as meaningful, complete songs. Honestly, Vertumnus Caesar should only exist in a strange, metal, bizarro world. But, this isn’t the first time they’ve been successful in spitting our weird-ass shit and making it work. They always make it work. And this new release is no different. However, it’s difficult to compare their catalog and determine if Vertumnus Caesar is better than previous releases. Mostly because they continue to tinker with their style on each release. While similarities exist, each album is completely different from the other. Malokarpatan is a breath of fresh air in the black metal genre, with characteristics (if not style) that enforce the no-fucks attitude.

#3. Vulture Industries // Ghosts from the Past – Coming off the heels of 2017’s Stranger Times, Vulture Industries’ newest opus has a lot to prove if it hopes to uproot its predecessor. While never quite ripping up that final root, Ghosts from the Past is every bit as good as Stranger Times. But it does it without sounding like a copycat. It’s drastically different in pace—driving along without exceeding the speed limit, Ghosts from the Past alternates between foot-tappin’ grooves and mighty builds. The opener, “New Lords of Light,” combines both elements, cruising you along the highway before ascending the hill to come face-to-face with a monstrous chorus. Its bookend, the nine-minute “Tyrants Weep Alone,” provides one of the best vocal performances on the album as it builds and builds to a gorgeous passage that leaves my knees weak. But it’s the Song o’ the Year, “Right Here in the Dark,” that encapsulates everything that makes up Vulture Industries in a fun, yet crushing way. Ghosts from the Past’s accessible, Arcturusian style makes it the most fun I’ve had all year.

#2. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – You knew this was coming. Dr. Sodomisery would not let this list go by without repping these mighty Swedes. After 2020’s mediocre The Great Demise, I didn’t lose faith. I knew there was something to the band’s songwriting approach that would bubble to the top. With Mazzaroth came a new approach, emphasizing the black, death, and melodeath with massive orchestration atmospheres. What makes Mazzaroth work so well is that these atmospherics range across many influences. These include the Dimmu Borgir bigness of “Rebuilding,” the Hypocrisy-esque vocal and guitar work of “Demon in Heaven,” and the Mistur somberness of “Delusion.” While each song stands alone, the depressing theme of mental health pulls them together. And, in the time it takes a high schooler to shower, you’ve already experienced this fantastic album twice in full. It’s a ridiculously tight album for all its content, making it one of my most frequented albums of 2023. Not to mention, the master is slick and dynamic, letting you absorb it through your pores. So, do yourself a favor and get over the band name so you can experience one of the best records of the year.

#1. Mephorash // Krystl-Ah – This one surprised me more than anyone. As I stated in the review of the mighty Krystl-Ah, never in my wildest dreams did I expect Mephorash to top 2019’s Shem Ha Mephorash. But, by god, they did. Krystl-Ah contains all the elements that make Shem Ha Mephorash such a great meloblack record. Huge builds and atmospheres, passionate songwriting, and powerful lyrics and vocal performances. But, Krystl-Ah is a more complete album, transitioning seamlessly from song to song as if it were a single track. Using an approach of long runtimes, the band is completely dependent on pulling off that final climax in each song. But, somehow, they’ve pulled it off even better than they ever have before. Songs like “I Am” and “Mephoriam” add a new dimension that doesn’t so much add layers to the builds, but more like they’re adding band on top of band. There’s no other way to describe the passion and pure massiveness of these songs. Round it out with a dynamic master and Krystl-Ah is the most emotionally demanding record I’ve heard all year.

Honorable Mentions

• The Gauntlet // Dark Steel and Fire – No matter how I try, I can not put this little beauty to bed. Combining thrash with Bathorycore, Dark Steel and Fire hits me below the belt and it has never felt so good to have bruised balls.
• Tsjuder // Helvegr – It would be silly not to include Helvegr on my list. For the style, Tsjuder is one of the best out there. And, amazingly, they can continue to release quality black metal with the same aggression as they had back in 2000.
• Electrocutioner // False Idols – For a rando, False Idols was a fun surprise. Playing rather traditional thrash metal, Electrocutioner delivered an album that acts like a live setlist at your favorite dive bar. In a mere thirty-four minutes, you’ll still be plenty drunk and ordering an Uber to haul your ass home.
• Children of the Reptile // Heavy Is the Head – Not only did Children of the Reptile win the award for best band photo, but Heavy Is the Head’s weird mix of heavy metal and thrash was a hell of a good time. Toss in some ridiculous lyrics and you’ll be slapping pig butt all the way to the fair.

Disappointments o’ the Year

• Metallica // 72 Seasons – That’s too many seasons. Way too many seasons. I enjoyed St. Anger more.
• Immortal // War Against All – Last year it was Abbath’s Dread Reaver. Now this? What the fuck?

Songs o’ the Year

• Vulture Industries – “This Hell Is Mine”

This is pretty much how I feel in the AMG office.

• Vulture Industries – “Right Here in the Dark”

Easily one of the best songs of the year. Hooking as a motherfucker and so much fun to put on repeat.

• Sodomisery – “Delusion”

Lots of Mors Principium Est melodeath thrashiness to make my olde noggin bob.

• Mephorash – “I Am”

Like Shem Ha Mephorash’s “Sanguinem,” “I Am” is a quintessential listen for all Mephorash fans.

• Mephorash – “Mephoriam”

Easily the most devastating song I’ve heard all year. While it’s incredible, it fucking cripples me.

#2023 #AmonAmarth #Arcturus #ArsMoriendi #AtTheGates #Attic #Bathory #Bizzarekult #Blackbraid #BlogPosts #CarpathianForest #ChildrenOfTheReptile #DimmuBorgir #DrANGrierSTopTenIshOf2023 #Electrocutioner #Eleine #Enslaved #GreenCarnation #Hypocrisy #InSolitude #IronMaiden #KingDiamond #Lists #Listurnalia #Malokarpatan #Mephorash #MercyfulFate #Metallica #Mistur #MorsPrincipiumEst #MutoidMan #Omnicidal #Onheil #Rimfrost #SecondToSun #Sodomisery #TheGuantlet #TheNightEternal #Tsjuder #VultureIndustries

Holdeneye’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023

By Holdeneye

I’m happy to report that I don’t have much to say on the personal front this year. I’m happier and healthier than I have been in quite some time. Sure, raising a teenage daughter is no easy feat these days, but at least I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to restructure my life to better prepare for this foreseeable occurrence. On balance, my work was way less stressful in 2023—even if I did take part in the single-most frustrating and complicated incident of my entire career this year—and it’s amazing how much that has improved my life. I genuinely wish everyone could be so lucky.

But as good as things were generally this year, I went through an extended rough patch when it came to enjoying and writing about new music. A lot of factors contributed to this rough patch, but it all left me wanting to seek solace in the company of some of my all-time favorite records instead of any current assignments. So, a couple of times this year, I dumped all of my promos and took a break. Now, I’m the kind of person that doesn’t commit to many things, because if I commit to something, I want to do it well. And when I can’t do that, it fills me with guilt. This accumulating guilt left me questioning whether or not I deserved to hang around these parts any longer; in fact, I started writing up my resignation letter multiple times. Fortunately, I never put any of these on Steel‘s desk, because I now know that I want to stick around this place in whatever way I can. I work with a great cast of characters here, and I’d miss them terribly. But ultimately, it was the music that saved me. A few of the records on the following list hit me at just the right time, reminding me of who I am and why I’m here.

I want to thank all of my fellow writers and editors for the many hours they devote to the cause of great music. Thanks to Steel Druhm for the indomitable will with which he rules this realm. How he does everything he does here never ceases to amaze me. Finally, thanks to you, the reader, for being such an integral part of this place. It’s always fun to hear from you, whether you’re heaping praise upon, or throwing tomatoes at, what I’ve written. So, without any further ado, I present to you a clumsily curated list of obscure oddities. It is designed with one purpose: to have as little overlap with my colleagues as possible. Behold, the List of Trvth!

#ish. All for Metal // Legends – As I said in my Heavy Moves Heavy entry for “Mountain of Power,” this one is pure Holdeneye-bait. Living within the same realm as Manowar, Sabaton, and Brothers of Metal, some of my all-time favorite acts, All for Metal’s debut Legends was a wonderful surprise. When it released this past summer, it was just the shot in the arm I needed, its bouncy, cheese-filled anthems plastering a big, dumb smile on my big, dumb face. The songwriting is great, and the powerful vocals from Antonio Calanna nudge the album towards true greatness. Like Brothers of Metal before them, All for Metal quickly became a Holdeneye Family road trip soundtrack staple. Sample: “Goddess of War”

#10. Lord Mountain // The Oath – Lord Mountain may have struck early this year, but The Oath has stayed by my side since its release back in January. A gloriously olde-timey mixture of Sabbath and Manilla Road, The Oath is a scrumptious platter of doomy traditional metal. The riffs are big, and the fantasy storytelling is bigger, as Lord Mountain hands us a war hammer and sends us on a danger-fraught quest. Everything here, from the style, to the production and Ozzy-like vocals screams ‘old,’ and the tight 36-minute package is so well balanced that it is equally qualified for a short, chill-out session or a tough grind in the gym. Sample: “The Oath”

#9. Mystic Prophecy // Hellriot – Ever since I first heard the singles for Mystic Prophecy’s 2007 album Satanic Curses, these guys have been my personal archetype for guitar-centric heavy metal with a power metal bent. The band’s beefy (I simply cannot talk about these guys without using ‘beefy’ as an adjective) guitar sound is matched by the raspy croon of R.D. Liapakis, a man whose voice seems as strong as ever after decades of wailing at the mic. Hellriot is the sound of Mystic Prophecy releasing their best material in sixteen years, and it easily attained the status of one of my most-listened-to albums of 2023. Sample: “Revenge and Fire”

#8. Frozen Crown // Call of the North – It’s been quite a while since a power metal album really grabbed me, but Call of the North rekindled my love for the cheesiest of metals when it released back in March. Where many bands of this style lose me with vocals and guitar work that sound too sugary for these ears, Frozen Crown puts the power in power metal with their extremely heavy riffing and with the incredible vocals of Giada Etro. As Eldritch Elitist said in his review of Call of the North, ‘Frozen Crown operates best with the pedal welded to the metal,’ and rarely does that pedal leave the floor here. The band’s successful use of melo-death stylings on Call of the North confirms a suspicion that I’ve had for quite some time: the vast majority of melodic death metal would work better with clean vocals. Yeah, I said it. Come at me. Sample: “Call of the North”

#7. Gatekeeper // From Western Shores – Last year, Ironflame was my tried-and-true, straightforward traditional metal year-end list entrant, and this year’s spot goes to Gatekeeper. From Western Shores sounded good on my first listen, but I didn’t fully grasp how well-wrought these songs were until I returned at a later date; suddenly, it clicked. Traditional metal and fantasy stories go together like a Kirkland can o’ chicken mixed into Cup Noodles, and the results here are no less savory. Tale after tale is told to the tumultuous tune of titanic riffs and twisted-testicle wails, and I simply can’t get enough of it. I’ve been rereading The Lord of the Rings for the first time in over a decade, and this record has been an excellent musical pairing for such an occasion. Sample: “Shadow and Stone”

#6. Disguised Malignance // Entering the Gateways – It’s about time some brutality showed up on this list! Landing just two short weeks after an insanely hyped and equally lauded release from Tomb Mold, the teenagers in Disguised Malignance quietly released an album in the same vein. Drawing on old-school death mechanics and adding a spritz of proggy technicality, Entering the Gateways blew me away with its scope and execution. It’s almost like these youngsters don’t know how rude it is to kick in the door and outdo many of the scene’s heavyweights with your debut record. As I alluded to in my review for Entering the Gateways, Disguised Malignance didn’t overdo the progginess here; they found ‘the right balance between thinking-man’s and stinking-man’s death metal.’ Damn, that’s a good line. Sample: “Beyond (Entering the Gateways)”

#5. Frozen Soul // Glacial Domination – The phrase ‘glacial domination’ perfectly describes how this album won me over: slowly, and with devastation. Like many other critics around these parts, I initially dismissed Glacial Domination as just another one-note death metal beatdown, but because something kept drawing me back, I eventually realized something: I really like this one note. Groovy death metal is my favorite death metal, and Glacial Domination is all groove, all the time. The way these Texans combined earth-churning Bolt Thrower rhythms with a bit of Swede-death, some hardcore-style breakdowns, and the occasional creepy synth passage put this record firmly within my wheelhouse, and like the titular glacier, it was been carving my valley ever since. I could have kept things simple and just used all ten proper tracks here to form my entire Heavy Moves Heavy list. Yes, it’s that good. Sample: “Arsenal of War”

#4. Legendry // Time Immortal Wept – At the risk of falling prey to recency bias, I’m including Time Immortal Wept at #4 because it has utterly bewitched me since I discovered it a few short weeks ago. Legendry’s prog-infused traditional metal is simply magical, and its 43-minute runtime feels like half of that. With a great balance of heavier metal parts and psychedelic prog elements, these songs have achieved legendary status in my heart in very short order. I honestly feel like I’ve been listening to some of these tracks on classic rock radio for my entire life; that’s how much they resonate with me. My first listen of Time Immortal Wept was on the treadmill, and when it finished, I wanted to keep training so I wouldn’t have to stop listening, even for a minute—this is no small feat considering my lifelong hatred of cardio. I just wish I’d discovered this record before the vinyl was sold out. Sample: “Chariots of Bedlam”

#3. Enforced // War Remains – What can I say that I haven’t already said about Enforced? These guys fucking rule; it’s as simple as that. War Remains may not be my favorite Enforced record, but it’s not much of a step down either. These guys sound more pissed-off than ever, and the half-hour runtime makes repeat listens almost a necessity. War Remains is truly an album of all occasions for me. If I’m happy, I put it on and bounce around with joy. If I’m angry, I put in on and exorcise my rage. If I’m sad, I put it on to give myself an energizing slap across the face (after I properly acknowledge and give space to my sadness, of course. It’s 2023 for heaven’s sake). If my kids are being too loud, it put it on and crank it until I can no longer hear them. War Remains is just another piece of evidence confirming that Enforced is the most consistently awesome thrash band running at this point in history. Sample: “Hanged by My Hand”

#2. By Fire and Sword // Glory – Steel Druhm dodged a huge, yuuuge bullet with this one. Glory lay unclaimed in the promo bin when I happened upon it one day, and if I’d taken enough time to realize that the band’s overtly religious themes were satire (read: if I’d listened to “Leave a Little Room” all the way through until the part where its satirical nature is obvious), I would have claimed it and done terrible, score counter-violating things to it. Musically, Glory is heavy in all the right ways, and honestly, this is what I wish Ghost sounded like. The preachy spoken word parts and the beautiful singing combine with the music to add just the right amount of creepy, cringe-inducing irony to the experience. This is such a bizarre album, and I love every single moment of it. Sample: “The Feast”

#1. Sacred Outcry // Towers of Gold – I can be relatively brief here since I slobbered all over this record fairly recently. Towers of Gold is the kind of record that made heavy metal so attractive to me in the first place; it’s big, bold, and filled to the brim with electric energy. Founder and bassist George Apalodimas outdid himself with these compositions, and landing a godlike vocal talent like Daniel Heiman helped the record achieve perfection. Not a single note is wasted; there’s not one moment of this album that doesn’t push forward its powerful fantasy tale. I can say without hesitation that if I hadn’t encountered this album in 2023, I probably wouldn’t be writing this list. Towers of Gold reminded me just how much heavy metal means to me, and it reminded me how much of an honor it is to be able to share great music with you all. Thanks, Sacred Outcry. Sample: “The Voyage”

Honorable Mentions

• Warcrab // The Howling Silence
• Valdrin // Throne of the Lunar Soul
• Helms Deep // Treacherous Ways
• Finality // Technocracy
• Cruel Force // Dawn of the Axe
• Owlbear // Chaos to the Realm

Non-Metal Record o’ the Year

Bards of Skaði // Glysisvallur: Musick from the Frozen Atlantis – Thomas von Wachenfeldt is no stranger to my year-end lists, but he’s never earned a spot quite like this before. Bards of Skaði finds the Swedish death metal maestro leaving his growls at home and performing all strings, keys and programming as he teams up with fellow music professor Göran Månsson on flutes and percussion to provide an enthralling journey through the fallen kingdoms of history. Drawing upon Nordic folk, classical, film score, and ambient styles, Glysisvallur is one beautiful track after another. Whether enchanting (“Yxdans”) or haunting (“Nifelhel”), this music has been the perfect soundtrack for my recent walks and drives throughout the moist and misty Pacific Northwest winter. My love of this record just further cements Wachenfeldt as one of my favorite musicians on earth, regardless of style.

Olde Record o’ the Year

Amon Amarth // With Oden on Our Side – When I was having a hard time wanting to listen to new music early on this year, no record from my past made an appearance more often than this one. With Oden on Our Side is a perfect record, a bona fide 5.0/5.0, and its crushing force was a soothing balm to my aching soul this year. According to my streaming service’s year-end summary, I listened to “Gods of War Arise” 56 times; I like to pretend to be a Viking by taking cold showers and ice baths, and nothing gives my simple mind power over my substantial matter like that track does. This was the first death metal album I ever purchased, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.1

Disappointment (and Amusing Anecdote) o’ the Year

Project: Roenwolfe // Project: Roenwolfe – This one hurt. I really liked Project: Roenwolfe’s previous album, Edge of Saturn, but this one just fell completely flat for me. I found the music pretty uninteresting overall, and my review highlighted the strained vocals of singer Patrick Parris as one of the record’s flaws. This is where the story should probably end, but an entertaining event occurred that made things a little more interesting. Shortly after my review went live, I saw a post on Project: Roenwolfe’s now-defunct Facebook page—yes, I follow the band and support them. I even bought this record even though I didn’t care for it—where Parris announced his retirement from music. He noted that his voice may not be what it used to be, and that he doesn’t make music to have it compared ‘to the Iced Earths and Cages of the world or get slandered for not sounding enough like them in some cases.’ I said to myself, ‘Huh. It kinda sounds like he’s talking to me.’ He then went on, saying that words spouted by random internet people ‘are a powerful motivator, but….can do as much harm as good, (While I’m on that topic AMG I love you, but Holdeneye can hold a kiss for my rear-end.) At that point I said to myself, ‘Oh. He’s definitely talking about me.’ In another paragraph, he said that his post was not made towards any specific people, but color me skeptical after he mentioned his butt, my name, and my lips in the same sentence. In truth, I found this all pretty amusing, but I do feel bad for the guy. I’m grateful for the great music that he’s been a part of, and I really do wish him the best in all of his future endeavors.

Song o’ the Year

Sacred Outcry // “Towers of Gold” – A labyrinth with as many twists, turns, and surprises as the cursed structure it describes, “Towers of Gold” does pretty much everything. It has fast-paced riffing, stratospheric vocals, and blistering leads, but it also knows how to play things slow, throwing in theatricality and atmosphere aplenty. The song puts us right in the shoes of the story’s main character as he navigates an impossible maze, and in the end, we get to share in his grisly fate. The story is a powerful warning of what can happen when we seek anything—riches, power, success, certainty, peace, even happiness—at any cost. It’s a warning that we’d be remiss not to heed.

#AllForMetal #AngryMetalList #BardsOfSkadi #ByFireAndSword #CruelForce #DisguisedMalignance #Enforced #Finality #FrozenCrown #FrozenSoul #Gatekeeper #HelmsDeep #Legendry #Listurnalia #LordMountain #MysticProphecy #Owlbear #SacredOutcry #Valdrin #Warcrab

Kenstrosity’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023

By Kenstrosity

Five years feels like an eternity in retrospect, and yet in real time it whizzed by in the blink of an eye. How I’ve managed to stick around this long without getting fired, sabbaticalized, decapitated, arrested for war crimes, and/or mulched is beyond me. Truth be told, I’m incredibly lucky to be a part of the AMG team. Even though it can be chaotic and stressful, this is one hobby that I don’t know how to live without anymore. I just love it too much to give it up, and I’m going to ride that wave for as long as I can. Like it or not, you goofy goobers are stuck with me, so get comfy!

2023 has been one helluva year for metal. It feels like I say that every year, because I like everything all the time, but I mean it. This year made my job curating this list a near impossible task. Agonizing over every placement, every adjustment, and every omission left me a mere desiccated spongelet, but that’s a great problem to have. It’s a good thing we have a crack team of writers to help make finalizing lists even fucking harder. They just won’t stop exposing me to countless awesome records that I may or may not have purposefully ignored for the sanctity of my existing lineup. But I guess I had that coming, didn’t I?

Anyway, I’d like to thank a few folks. Firstly, I’d like to thank Carcharodon for being an excellent list-buddy for the past three years. Our tastes might not align, but we always found some common ground and our disparate rankings often made for great discussion in the comments. I am going to miss that! I’d also like to thank AMG Himself and Steel Druhm for continuing to support me as I spearhead the Stuck in the Filter articles, and for upgrading the artwork and aesthetic of the piece to give it greater impact. I’d also like to extend my gratitude to them for approving my name change earlier this year, which was something I deemed necessary for personal reasons. Additionally, I wouldn’t be where I am without the continued support and friendship from an awesome team of excellent writers—too many to name individually now—whose prose routinely inspires me to progress and improve my own writing skills. You all rock! Lastly, Madam X and Sentynel deserve mad props for keeping this hunk of junk puttering along—Madam X for continuously updating and management of the promo sump; and Sentynel for his tireless maintenance and upkeep of the site and its various moving parts. This place owes both of you a perpetual debt!

Okay, enough babbling from me. Without further ado, please enjoy my Top Ten(ish) Records of 2023! YOMPS UP!

#ish. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – Before I start, you should know that the lines which separate my ishes and everything up to third place are practically nonexistent. Essentially, everything from here until my top three were worthy of a top five placement, but I just can’t fit twelve things into the last two remaining slots. Hence, Carnosus’ incredible Visions of Infinihility coming up at the rear. Arbitrary as this placement is, know that the sheer level of talent, awesome songwriting, and acrobatic performances make this ridiculously tight slab of tech death a blast, a joy, a revelation. It’s massively entertaining, memorable, infectious, and novel, all without even a shred of pretension. This is what metal is all about. Hammering, goofy, awe-inspiring fun. If you don’t like such things, then you should leave this place now, and read no further.

#10. Outer Heaven // Infinite Psychic Depths – Scuzzy sci-fi death metal doesn’t get better than this. Outer Heaven already made waves with debut record Realms of Eternal Decay back in 2018, but I didn’t take notice until later on. Once I did, however, there was no going back, and Infinite Psychic Depth only enamored me further. Unintelligible lyrics tell a surprisingly intricate tale of horror and devastation, disease, psychosis, and conquest all through the lens of a sci-fi gamer nerd. With such creativity at play on a conceptual level, I’d forgive them if there wasn’t as much energy left to dedicate to songwriting. Not the case here. Outer Heaven’s songwriting chops are on full display and in full bloom, making Infinite Psychic Depths one of the best death metal records of the year.

#9. Xoth // Exogalactic – Originally, this wasn’t even going to make my HMs. But, at the eleventh hour, Xoth pushed a new master to replace the original one, and suddenly Exogalactic transformed. Clearly, the songwriting here wasn’t the problem, as its tunes will entice and excite your every fiber. Powerful melodies and immense technical chops work together with hook-laden and compelling melodies, riffs, and noodles to craft a formidable contender in the crowded world of tech death. While it was a crime that I didn’t include predecessor Interdimensional Invocations on my 2019 list proper, I won’t allow myself to commit the same offense this year. Exogalactic solidifies Xoth as one of the best, if not the best, melodic tech death bands out there.

#8. Omnerod // The Amensal Rise – I have a difficult time falling in love with anything carrying the “prog” as its primary genre tag. Omnerod missed the memo, because they penned one of the coolest progressive metal records I’ve ever heard. Boasting ample drama but filtering it through a horror lens and burdening it with oodles of death metal heft, The Amensal Rise is as enigmatic and gently terrifying as its artwork. Tenderness in its softer sections only leads to progressively more devastating metallic rampages that challenge my skeleton’s structural integrity, meanwhile the vocal talent bleeds with emotion so expressively that you can’t help but venture on. At a continental seventy minutes of brutal prog, The Amensal Rise is not for the faint of heart or for the impatient. However, if you do choose to dedicate time and focus to it, you might not come out alive.

#7. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – I am extremely upset that this album only made it to number seven on my rankings. Melodic, ethereal, and crushing in equal measure, Fires in the Distance’s Air Not Meant for Us is quintessential Ken material. In fact, for most of the year, I reveled in how much this album felt like the product of a band that lived in my head rent-free and stole all of its trade secrets to make an album tailor-made to fit me like a wetsuit. Hooky riffs, excellent percussion, beautifully lush synths, and twinkling piano coalesce into one of the most gorgeous records I’ve heard in recent years. It’s immense sadness somehow enhances that beauty further and makes the record impossible to put down. If you missed it, you missed something special.

#6. Moonlight Sorcery // Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle – Every year, there seems to be at least one black metal album that burns the church barn down and leaves me to clean up the rubble. Despite the numerous times I’ve mentioned being picky about black metal, this phenomenon keeps occurring. This year, Moonlight Sorcery made the cut, being one of the most fun albums I’ve listened to out of the genre in forever. A powerful mix of melodic black metal rawness with symphonic power metal jubilance, Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle more than lives up to the potential hinted at in Moonlight Sorcery’s initial EPs. If this is the quality I should come to expect from this band, then this will not be the last time you see them on my Top Ten.

#5. Massen // Gentle Brutality – ENERGY SYSTEM. ENERGY SYSTEM. ENERGY SYSTEM. ENERGY SYSTEM, ENERGY SYSTEM, ENERGY SYSTEM. If this mantra ever leaves my brain, even for a moment, I might die of heartbreak. Easily the most potent opener of the year, “Energy System” launches what quickly becomes one of the coolest, most unexpected releases of 2023. Blending all manner of genres ranging from deathgrind to hardcore to folk metal, Massen’s Gentle Brutality promises an eclectic blunderbuss of extreme metal madness. With countless grooves, indelible hooks and just the right amount of bounce, Gentle Brutality grabs me, tosses me around like a toy, and leaves me giddy and wanting more by the end.

#4. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – You may not know this about me, but I have a very strict cutoff point for Top Ten consideration during Listurnalia, and that cutoff is Thanksgiving Day. Convocation dropped No Dawn for the Caliginous Night the day after Thanksgiving. Fuck you, Convocation. Fuck your deeply affecting use of orchestration and clean vocals to light up my nervous system while the heft of your tectonic death doom strives to end my life in the most merciless fashion. Fuck your desperate wails and ungodly roars. Fuck your immersive songwriting dynamics which worship lost, forlorn spirits. Most of all, fuck you for every new detail and embellishment I get to discover every time your siren call beckons me to wallow in sorrow once again. You’ve forced me to shift my rankings and to forsake my own restrictions. You will pay for this one day, Convocation. I swear it!

#3. Ascension // Under the Veil of Madness – Ascension made the world wait eleven fucking years for Under the Veil of Madness. Despite being an underground power metal act, anticipation for this follow-up exploded in the power metal community. I wasn’t a part of that hype then, but boy did I come around once I got to spinning this epic magnum opus. There’s not one song on here that isn’t currently stuck in my head. Its huge choruses, hooky verses, and lightning fast shreddery have probably bonded with my DNA by this point. I succumbed to the psychic, maniacal forces that emanate from this album so thickly they could drown me were I not so thirstily guzzling them. And with a climax like the title track, the theatrics of which test most metalheads’ patience as thoroughly as they thrill my senses, there was little doubt that Under the Veil of Madness would rank highly on my year and list. Lo and behold, here we are, at number three.

#2. Wormhole // Almost Human – I knew from the get-go that I would enjoy Wormhole’s latest. They have been at the forefront of my personal roster of techy slam bands to watch like a hawk. Of course, Wormhole validated my instincts, because Almost Human is a game-changer. A standout record in a field not renowned for innovation, Almost Human confirms that with the right songwriting, slam can be thoughtful, intentional, intricate, and enriching. Thanks to a healthy infusion of tech by way of tricky, but subtle maneuvers rather than straight-up wanking speed, Wormhole’s whimsically brutal metal suddenly transforms into something polished, elevated, and immersive. This is an album meant to be experienced with full focus and a curious spirit. With an open mind, whole universes open up before you as Almost Human transports you into regions unexplored. It is that adventurous character that defines Almost Human, and makes it one of the best records of the year.

#1. Nothingness // Supraliminal – Caveman death with a university degree. A Bachelor’s of Mad Science, to be exact. This is how I’ve come to appreciate Nothingness’ insane sophomore album, Supraliminal. Despite earning a meager “Mixed” score on this here blog, I knew that this massively accomplished record was special the moment it hit these ears. Twisted riffs, stomping rhythms, vicious freakouts, monstrous roars, and thoughtfully detailed compositions abound. Supraliminal checks all of my boxes and introduces new ones I never knew I wanted. Despite dropping way back in January—on my Mom’s birthday, no less—no other album this year came quite close enough to the throne to pluck Supraliminal’s crown off its head. With monumental bangers like “Horrendous Incantation,” “Catapulted into Hyperspace,” “Inviolate Viscera,” “Beacon of Loss,” and “Decimation Mechanism,” Nothingness’ gnarled constructs weave in and out of my consciousness like the ugliest of nightmares. Yet, every time I come back, my jaw drops in awe at how novel and meticulous each and every brutally injurious moment is, morphing what should be revolting into something of horrifying beauty. Truly, nothing was more grotesquely beautiful to me in 2023 than Nothingness.

Honorable Mentions

• Carnation // Cursed Mortality – One of the best Swedeath records of the year, and the best Carnation record yet!
• Crypta // Shades of Sorrow – It’s been ages since I’ve enjoyed a thrashy death metal album as much as Shades of Sorrow. Don’t fucking miss it!
• Frozen Dawn // The Decline of Enlightened Gods – Rollicking, rocking black metal with the vim and vigor to stand the test of time.
• Omnivortex // Circulate – Were it not for Carnosus, Xoth, and Wormhole, this would be the best tech-death thing of the year.
• Rotpit // Let There Be Rot – Absolute filth, and it’s delicious. Eat up!
• Sulphur Aeon // Seven Crowns and Seven Seals – Even my least favorite album by my favorite band can do no wrong, and it’s been growing on me even more since I got it. IA, IA!
• Tardigrade Inferno // Burn the Circus – Sometimes I just wanna be silly. Tardigrade Inferno supports this desire and fulfills it with aplomb.
• Theocracy // Mosaic – As someone who is unreligious, I am perhaps not Theocracy’s core demographic. And yet, their tunes routinely earn them a full Kenuflection at the altar.
• Twilight Force // At the Heart of Wintervale – This record makes me want to go out and tame a draGONE. Can’t ask for more than that!
• Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – Mesmerizing, psychedelic doom with teeth. It will haunt you if you approach.

Non-Metal Albums o’ the Year

• Cam Girl // Untucked – Sex-celebrating, gender-affirming, fun-loving action that will keep you hard and raring to go all night long!
• Gunship // Unicorn – Cyberpunk synthwave with my man Tim on the saxophone. This is the best genre in the world!
• The Vagaband // Beautiful World – A gorgeous album that took me by surprise, but it was the right record at the right time. I’ll be spinning this for years to come.

Song o’ the Year

Mental Cruelty – “Zweilicht/Symphony of a Dying Star”

Disappointment o’ the Year: 殞煞 (Vengeful Spectre) // 殞煞 二 (Vengeful Spectre II) – This isn’t necessarily a bad album. It’s just not what I wanted from the band that blasted the ground into glass with their rabid self titled debut. Maybe next time!

#2023 #Ascension #BlogPost #CamGirl #Carnation #Carnosus #Convocation #Crypta #FiresInTheDistance #FrozenDawn #Gunship #KenstrositySTopTenIshOf2023 #Listurnalia #Massen #MoonlightSorcery #Nothingness #Omnerod #Omnivortex #OuterHeaven #Rotpit #SulphurAeon #TardigradeInferno #TheVagaband #Theocracy #TwilightForce #VanishingKids #Wormhole #Xoth #殞煞VengefulSpectre_

Steel Druhm’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023

By Steel Druhm

Well, we made it to the end of another year full of surprises, disappointments, gains, and losses. 2023 saw us add a few new voices to the AMG staff and sadly, it will see a few longtime members of the family stepping back from the day-to-day operations and activities. The much beloved Madam X has moved on from managing our everflowing stream of promos and that grave responsibility will now be handled by yours Steely. Sadly, our main cat man Grymm will also be taking some personal time away from the deadlines and pressures of nonstop blogwork.

Through all the changes we’ve endured over the years, both good and bad, the AMG mission remains the same: to bring you the most honest, insightful, and entertaining reviews possible without bowing to label pressure or outside influences because we earn absolutely nothing for our efforts, We may be truly terrible capitalists, but we love metal as much as you do and we love to talk about it, so the site grinds on year after year. I hope it always does.

A warm, heartfelt thanks to the AMG staff for making this enterprise possible week in and week out. I may talk badly about you 24/7, but you’re mostly an okay lot when not being overrating, underperforming, no-taste slack masters. There’s your positive feedback for the year!

Now let’s all embrace the new year and what it may hold for us. Life is always an adventure and one best shared with people you care about who make you laugh and make you think. If you don’t have those people in your life, WE can be those people. Hop on board with us and into the future we go!

Anywho, here are the things that brought out my inner primate in 2023.

(ish) Blood Oath // Lost in an Eternal Silence – One of the year’s best and most entertaining throwback death metal releases, Lost in an Eternal Silence targets the exact point where early death metal looked to the skies and dreamed of being something more complex. Blood Oath have the raw talent and crazy creativity to recapture the early days of death metal and to replicate that frantic jump from brutality to proggy insanity that the genre toyed with in the late 80s. The album is the perfect blend of nostalgia and insane ambition, melding the past with the present and what may be the future. One of the most inventive and zany death platters of the year.

#10. Tanith // Voyage – Formed by Satan axe-master Russ Tippins, Tanith exist in a space between classic NWoBHM and 70s hard tock with a sheen of folk covering the entire enterprise. On sophomore outing Voyage, they take this retro formula and mine it for every ounce of precious metal, crafting some killer little gems along the way. Songs like “Snow Tiger” and “Olympus by Dawn” have been replayed more times than I can count and there’s something magical and endearingly DIY and indie about this thing. It’s not especially heavy, but the hooks stick so deep, you won’t care much. This is the Charmer o’ the Year for sure.

#9. The Night Eternal // Fatale – I loved the sadly defunct act In Solitude dearly. Their mash-up of NWoBHM, occult metal, and Mercyful Fate was hard to resist and I wanted more, more, MOAR. When I first stumbled on The Night Eternal, it sounded to me as if In Solitude had possessed them, forcing them to pick up where they left off. I’m very okay with this and Fatale plays out like the new In Solitude platter I so desperately wanted. It’s the same sweet, hooky mix of classic Mercyful Fate-isms, chilly occult rock, Goth rock, and early 80s metal. This thing gets into your head deep and demands many replays, and if I had found it earlier, it would have moved up the rankings considerably. Get this and feel The Night’s iron grip.

#8. Oak // Disintegrate – Oak is the project of Gaerea lead guitarist/vocalist, Guilherme Henriques, and instead of creating another black metal act, Henriques steers Oak into the funeral doom universe and what better way to accomplish that than to make Disintegrate one 45-minute-long track? Yes, that makes for a daunting listen but the beauty of what Oak do is just how listenable their ultra-doom, very deathy sound ends up. Heavy as fook riffs intertwine with weepy melancholic trills and beautifully emotive solo work and the listener gets carried along on ephemeral waves. The ebb and flow of the 45 minutes is remarkable and it never feels bogged down or stuck in the mud. This is first-rate writing and execution and the slightly blackened edges add a great spice to the wood flavor. Bring in this wood.

#7. Rotpit // Let There Be Rot – In the time of old school death metal mania, Rotpit is the proudly unevolved monkey. Formed by members of Heads for the Dead, Wombbath, Just Before Dawn, and Revel in Flesh, Rotpit have the rancid pedigree and leverage it to make Let There Be Rot the most over-the-top fun, mindless, dumb, death platter of the year. Cuts like “Slimebreeder,” “Let There Be Rot,” and “Beastfeaster” are Grade A bloody meat with no expiration date, and you will use them as the soundtrack to everything you do in life. This idiotic collection of caveman deathage has been a constant companion to me since it dropped and I’m all the dumber for having its company.

#6. Serpent Corpse // Blood Sabbath – Picking the best old school death metal platter of the year was no easy feat in 2023. There was so much good and nasty stuff this year that at times it felt impossible to stay ahead of it and give everything a fair listen. At the end of the race though, it was Serpent Corpse that kept dragging me back for another beating more often than anyone else, though Rotpit came so close! Their toxic blend of Autopsy-core and the scuzziest of Swedeath HM-2 abuse is seasoned with very unexpected but effective doses of melodeath to create a near-perfect cacophony of chaos that feels old but also fresh and plenty evil. This thing slithers, slaps, and grinds in all the ways a deathhead wants and needs. Get it inside your skull.

#5. Prong // State of Emergency – My bingo card for 2023 did NOT include falling in love with a new Prong album and beating it into the ground for 3 months straight. As much as I loved those classic Prong platters in the late 80s and 90s, they went through a long period of uneven releases and in the past few decades I had only been impressed by 2012s Carved in Stone. That’s why State of Emergency hits so damn hard. It’s the best thing Prong’s done in forever and takes you back to the salad days when they were on the cusp of metal’s adventurous edge. This thing is chocked full of the best riffs and harmonies Tommy Victor’s dreamed up in a long time and every song grabs you and smacks you around with NYC attitude. It’s so good to hear these goons back in fighting shape!

#4. Saturnus // The Storm Within – Saturnus have always had a relaxed release schedule, with only 5 albums to show for some 30 years in the business. It took them almost 10 years to drop The Storm Within, but the end product was well worth the wait, ending up one of the most polished and captivating doom albums of the year. Recapturing their classic sound and famed ability to wring emotion from the listener, Saturnus does their doom thing with style and panache all across the album, blending crushing riffs, airy trilling, and mournful melodies to harsh your mellow completely. I’ve heard loose talk about this album being overrated or overhyped. Ignore that noise and tell the spewer to taste the floor! Experience the feelz storm within.

#3. Isole // Anesidora – There weren’t a lot of classic doom releases that blew me away this year, by Isole have my number and once again they used it to knock me flat with their take on the classic Candlemass style on Anesidora. Keeping in line with what they did on 2019s Dystopia, Isole roared back with another mammoth slab of crunching doom leads, haunting vocals, and more weight than can normally found in Holdeneye‘s garage gym. “The Song of the Whales” is doom perfection, and “In Abundance” is a candidate for Song o’ the Year. There are traces of Fvneral Fvkk here that take the already high-quality material to the next level and the album plays so well from start to finish. These guys just get what great doom is all about.

#2. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – No one does what Vanishing Kids do. Their strange witch’s brew of genres and styles is unique and enchanting. It captivated me on 2018s Heavy Dreamer and I was just as susceptible when Miracle of Death hit this year. It’s doom, it’s goth rock, it’s 70s acid rock all wrapped into one enigmatic, ethereal burrito and it’s just so damn haunting and bewitching. The combination of Nikki Drohomyreky’s enchanting vocals and Jason Hartman’s fuzzy, 70s-centric doom-rocking guitar work is tough to resist, and song after song sucks you into their strange dark world. Miracle of Death is the ultimate mood album and you can’t easily get away from it once the hooks set in. These cats are pure magic.

#1. Tribunal // The Weight of Remembrance – The little album that could, Tribunal was the ultimate lucky grab from the promo sump as 2022 gave way to 2023. Utterly unheralded, their Weight of Remembrance debut is a Gothic doom album with the inevitable nods to My Dying Bride, but it’s so much more than that. With heavy doses of classic Candlemass and moments that recall the grim haunts of Fvneral Fvkk, Weight of Remembrance does so many things exceptionally well, it’s hard to believe this is but their debut. Songs like “Initiation” use the classic “beauty and the beast” vocal approach so well, that you almost forget you’ve heard the same thing done a million times before, and “Of Creeping Moss and Crumbling Stone” looms large as one of the best doom songs of this or any other year. There’s nothing I would change or trim on Weight of Remembrance, and if anything, I wish it was a little longer. I don’t feel that way for many albums not named Reign in Blood, so you know this thing really got to me. Doom perfection.

 

Honorable Mentions

• Overkill // Scorched – The beasts of The Garden State roar back into top form for a timeless dose of ugly thrash grooving.
• By Fire and Sword // Glory – The weirdest, most hilarious novelty album I heard this year, taking organized religion to the cleaners with a smile. Hail Conduit!
• Theocracy // Mosiac – The Lord works in mysterious ways and Theocracy works in epic US power ways. HUZZAH!
• Wytch Hazel // IV: Sacrament – More Lordcore with huge hooks and Jethro Tull flair. Run to the light.
• Vomitory // All Heads Are Gonna Roll – Ugly death metal doing what ugly death should do as it removes your head.
• Disguised Malignance // Entering the Gateways – A shockingly brutal and entertaining death debut by a bunch of snot-nosed kids.
• Dripping Decay // Festering Grotesqueries – If Autopsy, Carcass and Exhumed had a love child, this would be it, and it is FUGLY!
• Wormhole // Almost Human – I didn’t expect to care much for this thing, but its weird charms wormed right under my skin and made me a believer.
• Autopsy // Ashes, Organs, Blood & Crypts – The kings of graveyard gore and the morgue floor return with another scuzz bucket full of gut slop and I’m here for it.
• Sacred Outcry // Towers of Gold – This doesn’t quite resurrect the lost glory of Lost Horizon, but damn does it come close. Daniel Heiman is GOD.

 

Disappointment o’ the Year

Restless Spirit // Afterimage – This highly talented stoner sludge doom act from my backyard released an album that should be listed above in my Top Ten(ish) because the songs are there and they hit hard. What hits harder still is the absolute shit show of a production job that crushes the music into sonic pulp, making a great album barely listenable. Afterimage is the ultimate “what could have been” release and a total aural tragedy.

I could have added Metallica here, but why even bother at this point?

 

Song o’ the Year:

Vanishing Kids // “Spill the Dark” – There were a series of close competitors, but this piece of ethereal witchcraft stuck the deepest in my ape brain in 2023 and it’s still in there rattling around. This is such a beautifully grim, dark piece of music and it embodies everything I love about Vanishing Kids. This is the stuff!

#2023 #Autopsy #BlogPost #BloodOath #DisguisedMalignance #DrippingDecay #Isole #Lists #Listurnalia #Oak #Overkill #Phobocosm #Prong #RestlessSpirit #Rotpit #SacredOutcry #Saturnus #SerpentCorpse #SteelDruhmSTopTenIshOf2023 #Tanith #TheNightEternal #Theocracy #Tribulation #VanishingKids #Vomitory #Wormhole #WytchHazel

Grymm’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023

By Grymm

2013: A wild Abbathian kitty appears, hellbent and determined to expose the world to bad jokes, hilarious perspectives, and most importantly, absolutely astonishingly great metal and metal-adjacent bands and performing artists. With his trusty minions by his side, this Blashyrkh-born-and-raised feline sets off into the realms of Angry Metal Guy with only one goal in mind: to spread the gospel of incredible music to the ears of those willing to listen. Hungry and passionate, and inspired by the likes of influential writers from the olden days of Metal Maniacs Magazine and Terrorizer, as well as trailblazers in the online world such as Metal Review/Last Rites, this cat marches forth, prepared for battle and the spoils of war to last for generations to come.

2023: A warehouse supervisor from Northeastern Florida, who’s squeezing what little free time he has in-between long work weeks with even longer hours, stares wearily and angrily at a blank WordPress screen. His eyes glaze over, knowing what he has to say but not how to go about it without constantly hitting that backspace key in a combined fit of worry and hesitation. Exhausted from work, and beaten down and heartbroken by what life has thrown his way over the last five years, this gentleman sits at his keyboard, glowing a soft blue like his favorite protagonist from his all-time favorite RPG,1 and prepares to type up a list of this year’s music that barely got him by, while also trying to come up with words to say about how he got here, how he’s really feeling, and everything surrounding those things without angering or disappointing others, knowing full well that it will be a fruitless endeavor because, as we all know, someone will pitch a bitchfit in the comments section. And with that, he sets forth on what is most likely the final thing he’ll write, at least for a good, long while.

These two wildly different characters are, as you can probably guess, the very same person. When I came onboard with Angry Metal Guy over a decade ago, the very idea of reviewing classic and new bands in my absolute favorite genre in the world, a genre that saved my pimply, awkward, teenage ass on many occasions, I jumped at the opportunity without hesitation. I wanted to inspire other metalheads like Alicia Morgan, Ula Gehret, Jeff Wagner, Mike Greenblatt, Greg Moffitt, S. Craig Zahler, Jordan Campbell, Dan Obstkrieg, and the late Katherine Ludwig did for me to hunt for, and write about, great metal music. In my eyes, Angry Metal Guy, not Decibel, was the closest in spirit to the late, great Metal Maniacs, and I wanted in on that. Throughout the last decade, not only did Angry Metal Guy the man take me under his wing, but so did Steel Druhm and Madam X, giving me insight and valuable tips on how to improve and leave my own mark without ever compromising my voice or my views. Also, I met some amazing people here, both readers and writers, that I wouldn’t have otherwise had I not written that review for Vattnet Viskar’s Sky Swallower. Seriously, the writers that are here now are some of the best people I have ever had the pleasure of working with, and they’re all amazing people with good hearts. I will not take their (or your) friendships and teamwork lightly. You’re all a second family to me, one I will cherish always, and I love you all. This is, more often than not, a thankless endeavor where you’re oftentimes been put through the wringer unjustly, so dealing with it at all to continue promoting bands should be commended.

So… what happened? To try to keep it brief as humanly possible, life happened. In 2018, I lost my older brother to a combination of personal neglect caused by depression, combined with a bacterial infection that lead to sepsis and a fatal heart attack. 2019, instead of taking time to grieve, I dove into work and writing. Quickly realizing that it was a mistake in doing so, I promised myself to not do that going forward. From 2020 through 2022, I would not be able to fulfill that promise, as my work exploded due to the pandemic, working myself past exhaustion to the point where I almost died from bacterial pneumonia in the tail end of 2021. This year alone, between losing one of my all-time favorite cats ever to cancer at an alarmingly young age, and having my partner lose his mom not even a full week later, and dealing with an estate that could have very well left us homeless, all combined to do a number on my physical and mental well-being to the point where my (now former) doctor was concerned due to the fact many of my newly-acquired symptoms I was experiencing this year mirrored those of colorectal cancer. Thankfully, it was all “just” the wonderful side effects of extreme burnout and being stressed the fuck out, but it made me realize that writing, and responding to people who are mad that I (checks notes) enjoyed things, needed to take a back seat in a big way.

But two other things set the decision in motion. One is the sorry state of metal sites and magazines, and how they go about covering things. I don’t believe in non-stop hype of mid-to-terrible bands,2 nor do I believe extraneously overwrought word salad to the point of sheer nonsense is the way to go,3 but at least they cover new bands that most would probably never have heard of otherwise. Your Shores of Nulls, your Darkhers, your Vainajas and the like. Sites like Metal Injection, on the other hand, can’t be fucked to do that, since it’s obviously more important to cover everyone’s favorite born-again chucklefuck and how he felt about trying to unalive his ex-wife via hitman/undercover cop, or Greg Kennelty shaming others because his favorite cilantro of the month is now popular. Ever since Albert Mudrian and Decibel decided it would be a splendid idea to not only give Burzum a fucking cover, but also a goddamn Decibel Hall of Fame induction in 2011, giving absolute pieces of shit a voice, or bands who already have a gross overabundance of coverage, is not only welcome, but seemingly encouraged at the expense of those who are battling to just be seen and heard. I don’t care about Sleep Token. I sure as shit don’t give an eighth of a fuck what Tim Lambesis’ shoulder routine is. That said, these days I’m just tickled pink that Kennelty has stopped rewriting negative reviews into way more positive ones, at least for the time being.

But most egregiously, there was something else that happened in the tail end of 2021 that ultimately sealed the deal, and it involved my second coming-out piece, and a certain Top Ten(ish) entry made in response to that (which got its own response). I’m not going into more detail about it out of respect to my fellow writers who also put in the hard work to move on from it, as everyone who’s been reading the site for a long time knows. All I can say is that, even with my best efforts to move on, it did a number on my creativity, humor, and most painfully my desire to write to the point where I feel like I’m merely going through the motions since it happened.

Which, to be frank, isn’t fair to me, it isn’t fair to anyone here writing for this great site, and it sure as shit isn’t fair to you. This year’s top ten is going to be the last thing I write here, at least for a long time, until I can find the passion, the hunger, and the drive to write again about the music I still love, even if portions of it want me gone, peacefully or not. I will continue to support my favorite bands. I will continue reading and chiming in to Angry Metal Guy. I will continue to quietly fight for those whose voices need to be heard. I’ll just be supporting from the sidelines from this point forward. If I find that passion again, things could be different. For now, though, the site needs people who are far hungrier than I am, and I need time to break away and rediscover my smile again.

I guess what I want to say is… thank you all, writers and readers, for the memories, the friendships, the great music, and the ability to give a worn-out warehouse supervisor a voice and an attempt at a teenage dream. Ten years is a long, long time, and I love you all for putting up with me for that long. In departing, I’ll quote Anaal Nathrakh’s anthem, “Endarkenment”:

“Take what small comfort there may be left;
seize what you love, and damn all the rest.”

Onward, now and forever…

#ish. Wormhole // Almost Human – Anything even remotely coming close to the wheelhouse of Voivod will get a near-Pavlovian response from me, and Wormhole’s skronky, atonal, and relentlessly heavy take on our favorite Québécois is undeniable. To quote our favorite resident sponge, “WOOOOOOOOORMHOOOOOOOOOLE!!!”

#10. Saturnus // The Storm Within – Denmark’s Saturnus is quickly joining up with the Peaceville Three in terms of being a doom/death institution, and their fifth album showcases just why that is. With crushing riffs, soaring leads by Indee Rehal-Sagoo (ex-Eye of Solitude), The Storm Within is a deadly catch, indeed.

#9. Sulphur Aeon // Seven Crowns and Seven Seals – Germanic blackened death metal prodigies Sulphur Aeon finally returned after a five-year absence with the remarkable Seven Crowns and Seven Seals, an album that many claim to be not as strong as their three prior releases… which is an awful lot like saying comparing a championship win against another from the same sports team in subsequent seasons. It’s still a winner, and head and shoulders above their contemporaries.

#8. Thantifaxath // Hive Mind Narcosis – This anonymous Canadian trio continues to impress and terrify, with atonal riffs, barely-together rhythms, and the foreboding sense of everything feeling like it’s caving in and collapsing all at once add up to one of 2023’s most chaotic and frightening albums. If you enjoy excessive headfuckery, this is your ticket.

#7. Karras // We Poison Their Young – There needs to be more albums that just get to the point without any fat or bullshit getting in the way, and France’s Karras say more in 21 minutes than most band with three, even four, times as much length. Get in, fuck shit up, move the fuck on. More, please.

#6. Wreathe // The Land Is Not An Idle God – I miss Fall of Efrafa. I also love Morrow. Chances are, you do, too. Wreathe features key members of both bands, as well as Arboricidio, and it throws down just as hard and passionately as all three aforementioned bands. If you love emokrust, you are either onto this, or discovering it right the fuck now. You’re welcome!

#5. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant For Us – If you told me years ago that some of the best melodic doom/death would be from Connecticut, I would have laughed in your face to the point of an asthma attack. Yet, Fires in the Distance took what makes Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum4 and added their own unique embellishments to create a truly captivating album in Air Not Meant For Us. I await further installments.

#4. Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter // Saved! – Healing isn’t easy, joyous, or pretty. It can be downright ugly and uncomfortable. So when the former Lingua Ignota decided to bury that moniker and go by her birth name, nobody knew what to expect except that it would be brutally honest and at times discomforting, and Saved!, with its sound akin to a field recording of an Appalachian fundamentalist cult, definitely nails both while not only being painful to experience, but in an odd way, provides a beautiful, if disturbing, painting of the healing process.

#3. Wayfarer // American Gothic – Black metal should not go well with the Old West. Denver, Colorado’s Wayfarer flew against this very notion, and crafted not only their best album to date, but also an absorbing, engrossing classic that begs to be absorbed in full with your complete, utmost attention. Never has black metal felt or sounded so goddamn warm, like a freshly-killed outlaw baking in the hot Tucson sun.

#2. Shores of Null // The Loss of Beauty – One of the things I loved most about writing here is watching new bands make their ascent, and on The Loss of Beauty, Italian doom lords Shores of Null are soaring now. With their captivating riff work, melancholic melodies, and Davide Straccione’s incredible vocals, The Loss of Beauty is the sound of a still-young band bringing their A-game to the fore.

#1. Godthrymm // Distortions – Reflections, the 2020 debut from Godthrymm, just barely missed the top spot that year, but still showed off how strong of a debut it was. Distortions improved what Reflections laid down, with meaty riffs, soaring leads, a fantastic rhythm section, and keyboardist Catherine Glencross’ angelic voice providing a complimentary accompaniment to her husband Hamish’s improved5 vocal delivery. This classic-doom-meets-classic-Pallbearer configuration landed my top spot as soon as I finished listening to it for the first time, and again, and again, and…

Biggest Disappointments o’ 2023

• The Passing of Kevin “Geordie” Walker – As a fledgling metalhead dipping his toes in the underground, one of the videos that helped nudge me into the direction of the more heavier, deeper waters was “Millennium,” the first single off of Pandemonium, the comeback album by legendary post-punk/industrial pioneers Killing Joke. So taken back by how vital, energetic, and direct it sounded, I bought Pandemonium, and was instantly blown away by how multi-faceted and talented guitarist Kevin “Geordie” Walker was. Slowly but surely, I would pull from different eras of Killing Joke’s discography, including both self-titleds, and besides Jaz Coleman’s frantic end-of-days proselytizing and gravel-coated voice, it was Walker’s hypnotically inventive guitar licks and powerful riffs that would become the soundtrack for many a workout session. Hearing of his passing in November was like losing a favorite uncle, and I know my listening habits would have changed drastically had I not been exposed to Walker or Killing Joke. Honour the fire forever, good chap.
• Aaron Lewis – Before I begin, this isn’t against hunting. If you’re at all carnivorous (like me), it’s a necessity in order to… y’know, live. But when everyone’s favorite whiner who bemoans how much of a bunch of snowflakes my generation and younger are while gleefully supplying the soundtrack of such snowflakery decides to use the bodies of 32 dead coyotes to promote his favorite businessman-turned-former President, you go from “nu-metal has-been” to “absolute piece of shit” in record time. And seeing as how nu-metal’s got no shortage of pieces of shit, that’s saying something. Speaking of pieces of shit…
• K.K. Downing – …dude, just fucking stop. Just. STOP. When I quit my last job acrimoniously, I didn’t try to win my job back while simultaneously taking a steaming shit on the owners. I left and never looked back. K.K., on the other hand, is special. I don’t know the full details, and I don’t want to know the full details, due to K.K. deciding to act like a crybaby and a perpetual victim, instead of behaving like he was one-half of Judas Priest’s highly influential guitar duo at one point. They even reached out to play the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the current line-up, to try to mend fences, and he still bitched up a storm. Be happy that you’ve got Judas Priest at Home your namesake Dollar Tree rip-off band now.
• The Sale and Butchering of Bandcamp – If you’ve known us for any length of time, you can probably guess that we all love Bandcamp around these parts. Easily the most artist-friendly music service out there, Bandcamp gave upcoming bands and labels, especially those who could use the reach, a voice and a chance, and even more so during Bandcamp Fridays, where the site’s fees were waived for all purchases. So of course Epic Games would buy it in March of last year, and then sell it to Songtradr, who would go on to lay off half of Bandcamp’s staff, including all those who were trying to unionize in order to protect their jobs. Was Bandcamp perfect? No, but I guarantee you most of your favorite new bands would have suffered if Bandcamp didn’t exist. To call this “heartbreaking” and “callous” would be a gross understatement. My heart goes out to those affected by the layoffs, and a giant, massive fuck you to Epic Games and Songtradr for fucking up an awesome thing.

Song o’ the Year

Godthrymm // “Devils” – Distortions possesses a number of songs that could easily fit into the #1 slot for Song o’ the Year.6 But, to me at least, “Devils” best exemplifies what the album’s all about: heavy riffing, somber melodies, enchanting vocals, and a slight tinge, no matter how small it might be, of hope. Also, the first half just kicks so much ass.

It’s been a wild, wild ride. Y’all be good.

#2023 #AaronLewis #AnaalNathrakh #Arboricidio #Bandcamp #Burzum #Darkher #DecibelMagazine #EpicGames #EyeOfSolitude #FallOfEfrafa #FiresInTheDistance #Godthrymm #GrymmSTopTenIshOf2023 #JudasPriest #KKDowning #Karras #KillingJoke #LinguaIgnota #Lists #Listurnalia #MetalInjection #MetalManiacsMagazine #Morrow #Pallbearer #ReverendKristinMichaelHayter #Saturnus #ShoresOfNull #SleepToken #Songtradr #SulphurAeon #Thantifaxath #Vainaja #Voivod #Wayfarer #Wormhole #Wreathe