MEMO:

We need to talk about the chinstrap beard/wraparound shades thing.

It appears to be the standard for most mercenary companies, but I would never hire a shadowrunner with that look. It’s an indicator.

#Shadowrunner

The EP, Split and Single Post Part 2 [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

By El Cuervo

Long albums are fraught with perils: the wasted potential of pre-release singles or powerful openers; repetition as a band feels obliged to fill more time than they have ideas; inconsistent quality as some songs clearly supersede others; and the sheer fucking expanse of music being too much for a listener. They’re such risky business that I’d counsel against even bothering.

By contrast? I’d advise you either create or consume short-form releases. They’re among my favorite things in the world1. They convey their meaning expeditiously, prioritize quality over quantity and are far more economically viable for the artist2. Grindcore acts learned this over 30 years ago and who am I to deny the immense popularity and evident commercial viability of grindcore? As if all this wasn’t enough, bands that favor EPs, splits, singles and collaborations are also more sexually desirable. Don’t question the science; just open wide and accommodate the following releases. –El Cuervo

This is part 2. Part 1 is here.

Blood Incantation // Luminescent Bridge – As much as I enjoy synth-based ambient music, Timewave Zero was a little too slow to represent more to me than a mere curiosity in Blood Incantation’s story. Luminescent Bridge is a more harmonious fusion of the band’s warped death metal and spacey, synth aspirations, a 19-minute EP bridging what was previously quite a wide gap. What results is the thinking man’s death metal; less fist-pumping and compulsive than previous albums, but just as thought-provoking and technically mesmerizing. What helps most is that the lilting interludes and synth elements are more purposeful and form the connecting tissue between the death metal aspects. The band constitutes an unmissable modern metal band with both elements in their sound. –El Cuervo

Shadowrunner // Ocean of Time – Rebirth and Oblivion – Shadowrunner are low-key the best post-The Midnight retrowave act. All of their singles and EPs to date – note, no full-length album – offer essential listening for lovers of all things synth, sax, and nostalgia. The Ocean of Time duo represents a strange choose-your-own-adventure take on music, levering the same opening four songs but closing with four different ones. While I question this marketing gimmick, I absolutely cannot question the quality of the new music available here. Rebirth is warm and welcoming, while Oblivion balances this with crisper tones and marginally darker themes. Two sides of the same coin, the pair constitute the best synth-based music of 2023. –El Cuervo

Wreathe // The Land Is Not An Idle God – If your group contains members of Fall of Efrafa, Morrow, and Arboricidio, you can expect some amazing d-beatened, passionate emokrust, and Wreathe’s debut EP The Land Is Not An Idle God definitely fits that bill gloriously. Based on vocalist Alex CF’s own grimoire, The Book of Venym; An Egalitarian Demonology, The Land Is Not An Idle God seethes with defiant energy and heartfelt passion, with “Enemy of All Reason” pummeling ruthlessly while “The Stumps Are Graves of the Land” channels the forlorn-yet-hopeful energy of Morrow’s best moments. If you’re at all a fan of any of the aforementioned bands and you somehow don’t pick this up… the fuck’s wrong with you?! –Grymm

Dream Unending/Worm // Starpath – The collaboration I believed only existed in my wildest fantasies. While Dream Unending wears their heart on their sleeve with soaring, ethereal melodies, Worm’s allure comes rising out of spooky, clamorous aggression. Yet the contributions of both are—literally—resonant with otherworldly grace, with Justin DeTore (DU)’s low bellows echoing over layers of cymbals and ascending guitar, and Phantom Slaughter (Worm)’s vicious rasps bouncing off spidery riffs and ominous drums. And when Worm’s blackened death metamorphoses into ascendant, glittering soloing, it’s easy to see how well these two artists compliment one another. Each, in the songs allocated to them, shows the impressive reach of their own individual style, and goes just a bit further than before. “So Many Chances” sees DU extensively using clean vocals, for instance, while “Ravenblood” includes what is probably Worm’s slickest and most beautiful solo. Absolutely unmissable for fans of either, let alone both. –Thus Spoke

Dragoncorpse // The Drakketh Saga – Power metal meets deathcore. We’ve seen this before with Shadow of Intent, but we haven’t seen it the way Dragoncorpse do it. These Aussies’ first foray into two genres that seem antithetical to each other results in one of the most fun and whimsical deathcore experiences I had this year. Granted, this idea is still in its infancy and hence lacks cohesion in songwriting, and is rife with way too many expositional interludes. But between the awesome vocal variety and cool songwriting, I find it hard to care about the disjointed nature of the journey. The choruses are huge, the riffs and breakdowns heavy, and the story epic. “To the Sky” and “UNDYING” in particular are huge successes, testaments to the potential Dragoncorpse’s style holds. Flawed though it might be, it’s worth taking notice of this EP as the promise of something new and exciting for the future of hybridized extreme metal. –Kenstrosity

Spider God // The Faith Trilogy – To avoid another bout of ire from the public, I won’t talk about Spider God’s expanded catalog of black metal pop covers, even though it is a literal metric ton of silly, raw fun—including several covers of famous ad jingles, of all things! No, instead I’m going to talk about The Faith Trilogy, a collected work that includes all three of Spider God’s original EP trilogy based on Ingmar Bergman’s trilogy of the same name. While this material is not new, having been recorded between October and December of 2020, this newly unified compilation still represents everything that I love about Spider God’s original material. Delightful melodies, hooky songwriting, and an entertaining contrast between blackened rawness and jubilant, poppy performances. Nobody sounds like Spider God, and that’s a great thing. Don’t believe me? Just check out “Still No Words,” “Fight the Raging Storm,” “The Echo-God,” “Blood and Water,” “Horrible Forces,” “Strangers and Tears,” and “Embrace Despair.” –Kenstrosity

The Ember, The Ash // Venerate / Abnegate – A side project from 鬼, the creative mind behind Unreqvited, past efforts from The Ember, The Ash simply have not clicked with me. It was unexpected, therefore, that a death metal EP, sounding slightly clinical, even synthetic, in tone, replete with stuttering synth notes and heavily distorted guitars, and vox, should be the thing that finally works for me. But work it does. Concussive and thunderous, but (particularly on “Abnegate”) carrying a grand, semi-symphonic note driven by the synth work, it’s both brutal and beautiful. And it’s perhaps through that lens that I really hear the EP’s roots, anchored in the gorgeous post-black of Unreqvited’s Mosaic I: L’amour et l’ardeur, but now transformed into a snarling, riffing DM beast. –Carcharodon

Mortual // Evil Incarnation – Writhing, festering, booming, this disgusting Costa Rican death metal outing erupts the senses with overwhelming filth and unrelenting riffcraft. Mortual harkens back to a time when metal of this knuckle-scraping attitude reeked of frenetic thrash riffs and piercing whammy bombs—envision the Golgothan clamor of early Incantation trapped under the festering bed of the rainforest floor. Mortual abuses every microphone in the room to capture their hideously toned guitar drags and cavern-creaking kicks. Snarling, wide-cast tremolo rip and hammer-cast tom roll command heads to whip and bodies to flail. Succumbing low-end heft only for hideous solos (“Sadistic Obsession,” “Dimensional Chaos”) and half-time gut-punches led by murderous ride (“Morbid Thoughts,” “Master of Possession”), Evil Incarnation refuses to release you from the underbelly of its decay-imbued roars. In their own words, Mortual seeks to find through their amplified sermons the “ecstasy of death.” While I might still be standing, this loin-stirring EP has brought me, at least, to la petite mort. –Dolphin Whisperer

Spiritbox // The Fear of Fear – After the mainstream success of first full-length Eternal Blue and its singles “Holy Roller” and “Circle With Me,” Courtney LaPlante and company release an EP that sharpens the edges of their blurry debut. Heavier songs, catchier choruses, more guitar acrobatics, and LaPlante’s honed harsh vocal attack, incorporating growls alongside her already formidable pipes. Spiritbox immediately hits like a bomb with the frantic and mathy “Cellar Door,” a brutality further explored in “Angel Eyes.” Reconciling the heaviness and the ethereal quality, runaway singles “Jaded” and “The Void,” and closer “Ultraviolet” recall the act’s first two EP’s in dreamy guitar melodies and sultry choruses braced against brutal djent verses. Centerpiece “Too Close / Too Late” features LaPlante at her most vulnerable and charismatic, yearning lyrics taking front and center alongside a crescendo of a track. I don’t say this often, but with Spiritbox’s unique blend of ethereality and djenty brutality, The Fear of Fear is earning the Spotify fame in a spotlight surrounded by the Sleep Tokens and Knocked Looses of the world. –Dear Hollow

The Callous Daoboys // God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys – No one caught the feature-long joke in my TYMHM of The Callous Daoboys‘ Celebrity Therapist, and you bastards should be ashamed. Like, Nachos BellGrande ashamed. Here’s its fucking follow-up. God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys is the Atlanta six-piece’s first semi-self-titled offering, and God smiles ’cause it slays. “Pushing the Pink Envelope” and “Waco Jesus” are the carbon-dated slices of mania you expect from your favorite mathcore slayqueens, chunkier and heavier in its riffs but willing to snap your fingers snap your neck (not with Prong though, Steel Druhm) with whiplash, jerking you off from catchy choruses to panic chords to electronic beats to bone-crushing off-kilter chugs to salsa breakdowns (???) to piano trills – somehow conjuring the ghost of the memeworthy Iwrestledabearonce while sounding more cohesive. Closer “Designer Shroud of Turin” is where you take a hard left at Atlanta. Jazz, flamenco, and wildly intense electronics (courtesy of Netherlands DJ pulses.) infect the brutality and offers a new direction entirely. Go figure out my joke, then listen to this bad boy. No more Taco Bell for you. –Dear Hollow

#2023 #BlogPost #BloodIncantation #Dragoncorpse #DreamUnending #Mortual #Shadowrunner #SpiderGod #theAsh #TheEmber #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2023 #Worm #Wreathe

El Cuervo’s and GardensTale’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023

By El Cuervo

El Cuervo

This list represents business as usual in Casa Cuervo. Four albums by bands that have previously hit my Album o’ the Year list. Four albums more-or-less fall into my preferred progressive death metal sub-genre. And one 80s-worshiping retrowave release. Only the very top and very bottom of my list feature acts outside my bailiwick.

You might think this would result in a year that I rate highly for musical releases. Sadly the opposite is true. I found it surprisingly easy to narrow down my list and surprisingly difficult to pick a real number one—both because there too few outstanding options to choose from. It says a lot that I reviewed two of my top three albums but I ‘only’ awarded these a 4.0. I admire all that’s been achieved by the entrants here but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed as we reach the end of 2023. Granted, my 2022 list was topped by two records that would be multi-year winners so the comparison was rough.

And yet, hope springs eternal. While it’s unlikely that 2024 will boast a list fitting so comfortably in my wheelhouse, I remain optimistic for a year full of new musical discoveries. Between now and then, enjoy the holiday season!

#10. Grails // Anches en Maat – Anches en Maat was my favorite music of the year to disconnect from reality and lose myself in a weird and wonderful world. There’s little left from the comparatively direct instrumental rock of early Grails, but their cinematic spectacle makes their recent music all the more intriguing. This one can loosely be bundled into post-rock but its range of influences, from blues to electronica to ambient to TV soundtracks, establishes a sound you won’t hear anywhere else. High-octane, minute-to-minute, and bursting with energy it isn’t. But what you will find is something endlessly evocative and endlessly repeatable in its lilting, laid-back spirit. I’m not a big post-rock nerd but I find everything released by Grails utterly engrossing.

#9. Svalbard // The Weight of the Mask – Svalbard have become more expressive and more creative as their career has progressed. While still firmly rooted in post-hardcore, The Weight of the Mask toys with musical boundaries more than ever. It features more of everything that has previously been a part of the Svalbard sound; from post-metal to post-rock to black metal. But it’s not the musical compositions that make these Brits so good. The emotive weight of their music makes each listen a passion-fuelled journey and I find myself returning for the feels it invokes above anything else. I’m not sure if I like Weight of the Mask more than When I Die, Will I Get Better? But, for those on the fence, it’s at least as good.

#8. Lunar Chamber // Shambhallic Vibrations – Few records from 2023 seemed as custom-built for this Cuervo as Shambhallic Vibrations by Lunar Chamber. Progressive? Check. Death metal? Check. Short run-time? Check. Incredible dynamism? Check. Buddhism?1 Check. Shambhallic Vibrations forges a new path through progressive death metal, leaning heavily on contemplative synths, impressive technicality, and doomy passages, all of which counter-balance the pace and ferocity of its core deathly style. Though shockingly varied for a release just running for 30 minutes, the release is unfailingly cohesive. From the breathy interludes to the brutal blasting, Lunar Chamber harmonizes their sounds into a satisfying whole. It isn’t a prerequisite for progressive albums to run for an hour or more. Shambhallic Vibrations does so much more with so much less.

#7. fromjoy // fromjoy – If you want to hear the coolest thing released in 2023, look no further than the self-titled EP by Houston’s fromjoy. It bottles insanity; conjures madness; flips the musical table. They do this with a fusion of various types of -core (grind, math, break) but streak this with winding, vaporwave synths. If this sounds like an unholy aberration, it is. But this aberration delights and energizes in equal measure. I’ve extracted more joy this year from these 26 minutes than full albums over twice that length. Almost every one of these ten tracks has a unique quirk; from wretched grind to stomping breakdowns to dancing trip-hop to smooth saxophones. fromjoy is a testament to pure creative energy and doing a lot with a little.

#6. Ulthar // Anthronomicon – Though it forms one side of a coin completed by its sister album Helionomicon, it was Anthronomicon that impressed me most of the concurrent release by pan-US collective Ulthar. What strikes me most are the compelling contradictions that Ulthar creates. Anthronomicon’s music is crushingly heavy yet repeatably memorable, while the instrumentation is oppressively other-worldly yet somehow human-performed. Blackened death metal cannot count itself among metal’s most penetrable sub-genres, but something about these warped arrangements hooks me. Ulthar might make strange, atmospheric music but Anthronomicon’s laser focus on outstanding riffs leaves a release I haven’t stopped spinning in nearly a year. It’s one of 2023’s most challenging but most rewarding listens.

#5. Tomb Mold // The Enduring Spirit – Why, after a run of critically acclaimed old-school death metal albums, is The Enduring Spirit the first Tomb Mold record to touch my AotY list? In short, because its music is far more inventive now. Switching out a cavernous aesthetic and unrelenting pace for tidier production and grandiose solos, The Enduring Spirit scratches that prog-death itch better than any other release from 2023. Though Tomb Mold has always been smarter-than-you-first-realize, this record represents a significant leap forward and feels like the next era of the band. Above all, it harmonizes Tomb Mold’s savage roots with newer, cerebral tendencies. While the immaculate transitions go some way to achieving this, the spacious soundstage and perfect instrumental tones ensure the release hangs together to my great satisfaction.

#4. Shadowrunner // Ocean of Time – Rebirth and Oblivion – For the first time, the Ocean of Time duo made me want to dislike a Shadowrunner release. Making the listener buy the same four songs twice in order to access the unique eight ruffled my feathers. But the music here is just so damn captivating that I can’t help but love the two sides nonetheless. Rebirth is as effortless and enchanting as any retrowave act from the last decade, while Oblivion is pure nostalgia bait. Warm synths, driving rhythms, smooth saxophones, and pleasant vocals; all are present and correct. Shameless pleasure and rose-tinted spectacles compel me to consistently choose something synthy for my AotY list and Shadowrunner made the best synth music of 2023. Do not sleep on one of the best acts in the scene.

#3. Sylosis // A Sign of Things to Come – I couldn’t be happier at my rediscovery of Sylosis since 2020’s Cycle of Suffering, and A Sign of Things to Come returns to deliver the goods once again. Despite the flack I took for describing Sylosis as how modern thrash should sound, I stand by that comment. 1986 already exists so go fucking listen to that again if you like. What this album will give you instead is music that fuses thrashy, melodic, technical, and hardcore influences into 10 super-charged tunes. They will fill you with rage, then re-energize you to exorcize that rage. For raw riff-craft, no other record was the match of this one. A sign of more things to come in the future? I fucking hope so.

#2. Sermon // Of Golden Verse – Only one other record this year feels as complete as Of Golden Verse. It is a consummate album, expressing its music and thoughts in the exact amount of time it requires. Despite its poignance and emotive qualities, it feels incredibly precise; a work created by masters of their trade. Even with 4 tracks approaching or exceeding 7 minutes, there’s nary a wasted second. That’s a tough feat indeed in the world of prog, and Sermon exemplifies all that is great in the genre. Their undulating songwriting style results in music that ebbs from steely, tense atmospheres and flows to passionate, cathartic explosions. Dramatic, sure; maybe even melodramatic. But exciting and varied as Sermon dabbles in progressive, alternative, and doom metal. Of Golden Verse represents a huge step forward from their debut.

#1. Hasard // Malivore – Though Malivore wasn’t a clear winner, its complete singularity pushes it above everything else in 2023. Hasard paints stark, abstract images in shades of black; it’s an impenetrable, challenging release, obscuring its immense qualities behind oppressive heaviness and bewildering arrangements. Through the record’s black metal crust hides an accomplished orchestral core that’s just as disturbing—in some ways, more so—as its metal aspects. Purposefully deconstructing the screeching guitars, arhythmic drumming, ominous synths, and erratic counter-melodies delivers the year’s most thought-provoking music. Passively wallowing delivers the year’s most thought-crushing music. While it may not be the most enjoyable record of the year, it is certainly the most striking. No other 2023 record affected me like Malivore.

Honorable Mentions

• Myrkur // Spine – Spine is just as sonically varied—arguably inconsistent—as any Myrkur release2 but this time it’s all high quality. From the poppy chorus on “Like Humans,” to the blast beats on “Valkyriernes Sang,” to the gentle folk on “Menneskebarn,” I’m emotionally invested throughout.
• Ahab // The Coral Tombs – Ahab is an indomitable force of doom metal, and The Coral Tombs didn’t miss a step after eight years away. Judicious variety and grand arrangements ensure that this is the best doom of 2023.
• Ne Obliviscaris // Exul – Balancing poignant string sections with crunchy death and black metal, NeO remains a stellar progressive metal band. Exul proves that even a NeO producing their weakest album is better than most others.

Songs o’ the Year

GardensTale

In previous years, I wrote at least one paragraph about how the year went for me. But for the last 3 years, those have been pretty depressing, so I’m just going to skip that. Let’s talk about the good stuff instead. It’s strange to think that black metal is one of the last genres I seriously got into, around 5 years ago or so. Beforehand, I always thought all black metal was akin to lo-fi second-wave shit that sounds like someone sucked up a marble with the vacuum cleaner. Years before, Belgian unknowns Axamenta3 laid some groundwork to prove my misconception wrong, and Mistur hammered it home. Now the conversion is complete, thanks to a year that’s been absolutely stuffed with quality black metal. I could have made a very respectable list of only black metal records, HMs included. But I still like other genres, too, so it was inevitable a couple of other-minded rascals snuck in for color. At least Doom_et_Al won’t hate my list as much as usual. Probably.

I gotta add though, whilst I’ve heard a lot of praise for this year in metal, I still feel like I am missing a true winner. The order of my top 6 or so feels entirely arbitrary, and I’m not sure an extra month of listening would bring the necessary clarity. I’ve had plenty to love (my shortlist reached 10 albums by March or so, partially thanks to an unusually strong January) but the only albums I have been truly ecstatic about are discoveries that were released before the pandemic and barely metal-adjacent4 But so it goes! Every year is so different, in both life and music. I already had a sneak peek of a likely lister for next year, so I know we’ll be off to a good start in that regard.

I must thank my colleagues and editors for putting up with my slacking ass.5 You are a good bunch and half the reason I’m still pouring my heart and soul into this site. The other half is the free promos. And what’s an end-of-year projectile vomit of thank yous and love yous without addressing the readers? If you’re still here and didn’t just skip through to the list, you have my thanks. If you did skip to the list, you still have my thanks, you just won’t know about it. Even those of you who just check the winners and move on. You are still part of the weird and lovely conglomeration of readers we’ve developed, so thank you as well. And I must give a shout-out to the Discord folks. Though I don’t pop in too often, you’ve made it a lovely and welcoming server, and uncommonly well-behaved! Now, who’s ready for the other half of the worst takes in AMG?

#ish. Xoth // Exogalactic – Xoth is back and thus back in my list, because Xoth remains every bit the cool as hell bunch of motherfuckers it’s always been. It’s a little bit more technical and a little bit less memorable compared to its predecessor, missing a “Mountain Machines” level riff, but I still have a really hard time sitting still in my chair when Exogalactic is playing. Too much bouncy fun and sick solos!

#10. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – I listened to an absolute ton of melodic death metal in my early metal years. I still have a soft spot for the genre, but it also needs to do something different to stand out for me these days. Fires in the Distance fully meets that criterium. The stern, strident tone, doom-adjacent pacing, and tasteful piano make Air an album of aching beauty. I’m reminded in part of Eternal Tears of Sorrow, but far more mature and with great emotional depth. The only reason it didn’t place higher is that it doesn’t keep me coming back somehow, and these lists are nothing if not places to go with my gut.

#9. Leiþa // Reue – Speaking of my gut, Reue was the first full-blown punch it received this year. It amuses me when people claim that all black metal screams sound the same because though the lyrics are as incomprehensible as ever, I feel every ounce of the bottomless pain and despair Noise conjures here. But on top of the throat-ripping gurgles of depression are some very sophisticated melodies and good use of dynamics between quiet passages and all-out raging desperation. Most one-man bands struggle to make one worthwhile project, meanwhile, this guy has Leiþa, Non Est Deus, and Kanonenfieber on his resume. I’d call it unfair if I didn’t love it so much.

#8. Megaton Sword // Might & Power – Traditional metal doesn’t often show up on my year-end list. Maybe Megaton Sword wouldn’t have either, although I do love me a batch of idiosyncratic vocals. But a medical situation in the family made the first half of the year an especially stressful affair, and Might & Power with its simple sense of fun was my main musical comfort in that time. But there’s more to it than that. So many strong melodies with few frills. So many fist-pumping horseback-riding sword-raising shield-carrying moments of triumph and awe. And all tied together by that uncommon voice, acerbically spraying dark heroism over the battlefield. The worst of the family situation is well behind us, but Might & Power still won’t leave my regular rotation.

#7. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – Is it unfair to say Xoth got out-Xoth’ed this year? It’s the obvious point of comparison, between the many-faceted vocals, high technical ability, tongue-in-cheek insanity, twisting multi-part riffs, and snaking bass. But if Xoth is the oblique unknowable architecture of cosmic horror, Carnosus is the fleshy depravity of body horror. It theatrically revels in its filth and cackles as the audience turns green around the cheeks. Most of the death metal highlights this year have been of the cavernous or slamarific variety, neither of which does much for me, but Carnosus has been an absolute delight that’s kept up my good cheers.

#6. Walg // III – The vast majority of my music recommendations originate here, but once in a blue moon, my partner will send me a link to something that popped up in her random music feeds and I just get blown away. That’s how I found this independent duo from Groningen, the Netherlands, who, without any black metal experience, started shitting out annual albums in the middle of the pandemic and manage to outdo most of their peers in the process. III is a furious album, with blast beats and histrionic screeching out the wazoo, but is tempered by a bevy of great melodic riffs and the occasional gothic chant. Because the lyrics are in Dutch, which really is not a good language for this kind of horrific imagery, there’s something endearing to the band as well. The combination makes for a very interesting, dark yet catchy experience and one I can well recommend.

#5. Wayfarer // American Gothic – Wayfarer was always one of those bands I kept hearing about and kept not hearing. No particular reason, either; I resolved to listen to them several times and it just didn’t happen. Then I finally heard them, by seeing them live at Roadburn. It was definitely a highlight of the festival, aside from an interlude that was far too long and not nearly interesting enough. Thankfully, American Gothic is more balanced, a perfectly tuned album that calls forth the man in black stalking the prairie on horseback. It’s an album redolent in atmosphere without forgoing a good hook, one that can carry tension on a single banjo string. In short, it has lived up to the hype and then some.

#4. Sermon // Of Golden Verse – Pure prog metal often gets a reputation for being wussy and weenie. Sermon does it differently. What attracts me to this album 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 takes some exquisite songwriting, and Of Golden Verse is jam-packed with it. Closer “Departure” really opens the floodgates, too, for a satisfying and bombastic finale.

#3. VAK // The Islands – I called The Islands one of the flat-out coolest albums of the year and I stand by it. If anything, my appreciation for VAK’s latest has only grown since then. When you’ve listened to a million albums, the ones that really stand out and stick with you are the ones with the strongest personality. If you’d send me an unlabeled song that didn’t make the cut on The Islands I would recognize it as VAK immediately, guaranteed. While so much sludge tries and fails to get under my skin with a hammer, VAK succeeds by taking a shortcut as it pries off my fingernails with a rusty screwdriver. It’s deliciously uncomfortable and I love it.

#2. The Circle // Of Awakening – This was surely the most heinous underrating of the year. The opener alone should earn the band its 4.0, a perfectly tuned piece of proggy black/death. One thing that strikes me is how good The Circle is at finding the right dosages. Every time it feels like one thing has run its course, something replaces or enhances it, from the versatile vocals to the use of symphonics and from blast beats to breathing room. I’ve revisited this one a lot since the summer, and for a while, I thought it was gonna top my list…

#1. Night Crowned // Tales – …until Night Crowned bum-rushed the stage. Whereas many of my listening habits this year have been decidedly un-brutal, in the metal sphere I have found myself drawn to the combination of melodic and intense music, particularly in the second half of the year. Tales is an exemplary album in this regard. 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. The track where the latter features most prominently, “She Comes at Night,” is what drew me in, but every track has its own face; its deviations make it stand out from the others, like the clean vocals on melodic mid-pacer “Loviatar” or the Dimmu influence on the grandiose closer “Old Tales.” While I would not rank it as highly as the winners of previous years, you owe it to yourself to grab Tales if you haven’t already.

Honorable Mentions

• Aetherian // At Storm’s Edge – Contrary to my point with VAK, this album doesn’t do much particularly new but it’s the embodiment of Finnish style epic melodeath done really, really well.
• Somnuri // Desiderium – Who knew Mastodon-style sludge could be improved with grunge?
• Mutoid Man // Mutants – Wild, reckless fun with more depth than a first glance betrays.
• Genus Ordinis Dei // The Beginning – Narrative albums aren’t easy, but Genus Ordinis Dei has that shit in the bag. Easy to listen to, easy to love, and feels like a complete, well-rounded movie in the guise of an epic metal album.
• Laster // Andermans Mijne – It’s deeply strange and gets at all the bits of my brain that have been gathering dust for years, but I can’t deny its continuous pull.

Disappointment o’ the Year

This is the first paragraph I’m writing this year because it’s the easiest. I always used to like Soen. With Lotus, I even loved them. Imperial was a clear step-down, branching out in the wrong directions, but it was still enjoyable in its own right, just not approaching list material. They put on some good live shows this year, too. But Memorial goes off the deep end like Thelma & Louise. The remaining semblances of progressive rock and metal are gone, replaced by refried alternative rock. Even Joel Ekelöf sounds downright bad, his buttery smooth croon awkwardly squished into a grungy mold that doesn’t suit him. It’s like the band members collectively decided to challenge themselves by trying to make an album without doing any of the things they’re actually good at. The experiment failed, boys.

Song o’ the Year

Last year I discovered Norwegian artsy prog rock outfit Major Parkinson and fell deeply in love with their quirky, bombastic, gloomy aesthetic and thoughtful, varied songwriting. Not long into this year, I found out that enigmatic vocalist Jon Ivar Kollbotn had suffered a massive heart attack in the middle of a concert in October. Though he managed to finish the set, he flatlined backstage. By some miracle, police officers happened to be just outside the building and they managed to restart Kollbotn’s ticker. When he was sufficiently recovered, the band re-wrote and recorded an old live track named “Take the Prescription” to commemorate his survival. The result is as addictive as prescription drugs, an upbeat and offbeat artful piece of prog-pop with an infectious whistled tune, beautiful smooth bass usage, and the band’s signature dark undertone. Kollbotn sounds as coarse and moody as ever, and new permanent member Peri Winkle offers an outside perspective to the frontman’s near-death experience. And even if the track hadn’t been one of the sweetest things I’ve heard this year, it’d still be my favorite track of 2023. If only because he was still around to record it.

#2023 #Aetherian #Ahab #BlogPosts #Carnosus #ElCuervoSAndGardensTaleSTopTenIshOf2023 #FiresInTheDistance #fromjoy #GenusOrdinisDei #Grails #Hasard #Laster #Leitha #Lists #Listurnalia #LunarChamber #MegatonSword #MutoidMan #Myrkur #NeObliviscaris #NightCrowned #Sermon #Shadowrunner #Soen #Somnuri #Svalbard #Sylosis #TheCircle #TombMold #Ulthar #VAK #Walg #Wayfarer #Xoth

My playlist to run is called #ShadowRunner and contains #cyberpunk themes and other crazy stuff. Sometimes I think that I'm retarded for a 35 years old man.

https://chaos.social/media/lp246Bk8EMExQvHRac4