2023 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE EPs

(Andy Synn begins his annual week-long retrospective of the year a little early with a round-up of EPs and short-form releases)

One thing which occurred to me while putting together this list is that I have been extremely remiss in covering EPs this year.

Which is a shame, because a good EP… a really good EP… can be a wonderful thing, allowing bands to explore fresh ideas, or simply consolidate their very best material, in a more focussed and tightly-written format.

So here’s an early taste of my yearly round-up (which, let me make very clear, is in no way comprehensive and contains some notable omissions of things which, sadly, I just didn’t get around to hearing), including links to all the EPs, splits, and other assorted short-form releases I’ve listened to over the last twelve months, finishing up with my “personal” Top Ten of the year!

Let’s start off with two extremely recent releases that probably (read: definitely) would have disrupted my Top Ten if they’d come out a little sooner in the year, namely the absolutely crushing Aztlá​n by long-time NCS favourites Xibalba, the experience of which is akin to being repeatedly kerb-stomped by a seven-tonne steamroller, and the equally crushing (albeit in a fouler, filthier way) Consumed by the Vitriol of Life by Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean (a name which, spoiler alert, you may be seeing more of next week).

Sticking with the theme of “crushing”, we can them move on to looking at the heaviest end of the Death Metal scale with pulverising releases from Acranius (which also very nearly made my top ten), Hebephrenique, and Penny Coffin, before focussing in on the even more “technical” side of things to shine a spotlight on Crown of Madness, Devoidment, and Vaegon.

Those of a more “blackened” disposition were also well-served this year, and anyone looking for a taste of the occult would do well to check out the new releases from Aethyrick and Fiat Nox (with the latter being a personal favourite), while those searching for something more melancholic and/or atmospheric should give a listen to  Heretoir ‘s moody new EP, Wastelands (which is a perfect primer for their new album) as well as Wolves In The Throne Room‘s rather brilliant Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge.

And, of course, there’s no writing about this year’s crop of Black Metal EPs without mentioning both new Fluisteraars releases, De Kronieken van het Verdwenen Kasteel I and De Kronieken van het Verdwenen Kasteel II.

There were also several releases from the darker, doomier end of the spectrum which impressed me this year, with special mention being reserved for the esoteric Blackened Doom of Pyramid Mass the gloomy grandeur of Forsaken Songs by The Foreshadowing (which has me looking forward to the group’s new album even more than I already was), and Keziah‘s crushing slab of Post-Sludge, Disclosure.

And I’d also like to draw your attention to a triptych of terrific entries from the UK contingent, in the form of Gozer‘s expansive, electro-ambience-infused take on Post-Metal, The Path Always Leads to the End, the chunky Sludge-core of Tunguska‘s Colossal, and Sugar Horse‘s stunning, seventeen-minute “Doom-gaze” epic, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, all of which you should make time to for, sooner rather than later.

And then, of course – with my apologies to all the bands whose releases I didn’t get to cover in more depth – here’s all the rest (also with links – just click the band names) that I don’t have time to cover here properly!

Altarage – Cataract
Carthage – Third Punic War
Celeste – Epilogue(s)
Claret Ash – Worldtorn: Anemoia
Damim – World Turned Hell
Deadspace – Within Haunted Chambers
Disillumination & Temple of Nihil – split
Draconian Reign – Tragedy Eternal
Dream Unending & Worm – split
Endolith – Noise Floor Dancers
Equivocator – Equivocator
Full of Hell & Gasp – split
Hatalom – In Situ
Idolatry – Pyrrhic
Ihsahn – Fascination Street Sessions
Innumerable Forms – The Fall Down
Jotnarr – Rotten Fucking Planet
Kaathe – Abyssal
Kasm – Lux Obscurata
Magdalene – The Dying Process
Nidare – Naehe Und Flackern
Ocular Trauma – The Dissection of Tragedy
Omnium Gatherum – Slasher
Pessimystic – Burnt Offering
Sargassus – King of the Sun
SOM – Faith
Stargazer – Bound by Spells
Tombstalker – Age of Darkness
Triphead – Triphead
Vampire Squid – Decade of Mutiny I
Vulnere – Toothed Lines
Wilt – Huginn
Woods Witch – Warmth and Comfort
Wretched Tongues – Torment

And now, without further ado, I present to you my favourite EPs – not necessarily the best, I’m not saying that, just the ones I’ve loved and listened to the most – of 2023!

10. ORATOR – THE BURDEN OF EXISTENCE

The Burden of Existence was one of the first things I reviewed for the site this year, and the fact that it’s hung on and retained its place in this list should, hopefully, be some indicator of its quality.

To quote said review, the band’s new EP is:

“…a straight shot of pure auditory adrenaline – – delivering a barrage of punishingly propulsive riffs and inhumanly intense drums, all topped off with a gnarly, glass-chewing growl reminiscent of A Hill To Die Upon‘s Adam Cook and tinged with just the right amount of malevolent melody to charm even the most recalcitrant of listeners –which targets the same parts of your brain as bands like Hate Eternal, Hour of Penance, and pre-Satanist era Behemoth do (or, at least, used to).”

It’s a big step up from their first full-length, one which showcases an even more intense and even more ambitious version of the band that could (and should) well go on to deliver an absolute monster of a second album next year.

09. COPSE – OLD BELIEF | NEW DESPAIR

As this list will make clear, different EPs strike different chords with me for different reasons.

And the reason that this one (released back in August) struck me, and stuck with me, so hard is due to how much promise and potential it displays for Copse to do something truly brilliant in the future.

That’s not to say that the here-and-now isn’t already impressive – as the passionate, pulse-raising Post-Black Metal catharsis of “Old Belief”, and the more intricately atmospheric and expansively emotive strains of “New Despair” are both gripping, gorgeous pieces of music in their own right – it’s just that this bite-sized EP (the band’s second in as many years) is perhaps just a little too short, and a little too tantalising, to justify a higher position on my list.

That being said, there’s some real magic at work here, and I can’t wait to see what the band can do with a full album (hopefully, if we’re very lucky, next year).

08. ANTI RITUAL – GREEN TERRORISM

Anti Ritual‘s debut album, Expel the Leeches, was one of my favourite records of 2021, one which only missed out on my Personal Top Ten by the narrowest of margins (a decision I still find myself questioning today).

So, as you might imagine, I was extremely excited to see another collection of the band’s signature brand of grindy Blackened Hardcore make an appearance back in May, even if the entire EP ultimately ended up clocking in at only seven-and-a-half minutes.

To quote myself:

“Despite its brutal brevity, however, it still manages to cover a fair bit of musical ground, with opener “Permeated” leaning heavily on the more metallic end of the Grindcore spectrum, while the blast ‘n’ bounce of “Weak” weaves together both Black Metal and Hardcore elements (at times somewhat reminiscent of This Gift Is A Curse).

This is followed, in turn, by “The Last Humans” (which pivots towards Death/Grind in places) and the punkier title-track, before “The Ghost of Mary Shelley” – arguably the EP’s best cut, featuring some of its heaviest riffs as well as some unexpectedly dark and melodic moments – raises the bar even further.”

Sure, the last track still seems like an odd inclusion (and probably kept the EP from clawing its way further up the list in the end) but Green Terrorism is still an absolute stormer which fully deserves a place on any list of the year’s most vital and visceral short-form releases.

07. TORN IN HALF – CRAWLING FROM THE ABYSS

What can I say about this one that I didn’t already say in my review back in February?

“The second EP from Boston brutalisers Torn in Half is five tracks of disgusting(ly good) Death Metal, each one absolutely dripping with slime in all the right places, but sharp enough to cut through the grime when needed, all topped off with some of the most brutish and bowel-loosening vocals you’re likely to have heard this year.

The riffs are, as you’ll quickly discover, absolutely massive, possessing a palpable sense of weight that makes the whole EP seem to get physically heavier as it goes on, while also being liberally laced with nasty hooks and just the right amount of dirty melody.

And then there’s the drums, which show off both some eye-opening speed (such as during the monstrous “Tomb Juice”) and a knack for gruesome groove (neck-wrecking closer “Comfort of a Coffin”) as well as an impressive ability to shift gear and accelerate, or decelerate (the gut-churning climax to “Dead or Severely Injured” being a prime example), on a dime.

Perhaps the most disgusting thing about this EP, however, is the fact that it’s not being talked about in the same breath as many of the bigger (and, in certain cases, more over-exposed) bands in the current phase of the never-ending Death Metal revival – Undeath, 200 Stab Wounds, Frozen Soul, etc – because they definitely deserve to be.”

06. VAMPIRE SQUID – PLASMIC

Over the years Vampire Squid have proven themselves as difficult to pin down as a swarm of eels, with their maddening mash-up of Brutal Death Metal, Mathcore, Tech Death, Deathcore, and so on, landing somewhere between Cryptopsy, Car Bomb, and Cattle Decapitation on the Extreme Metal spectrum.

But on Plasmic the group took some significant steps to consciously streamline their sound – a move which has proven as divisive as it is effective, in my opinion at least – as part of the first stage of their next evolution.

To quote from my own review:

“While still showing off some twisted, finger-rupturing riffs across the course of this EP, the band’s latest batch of sonic savagery leans much much harder on the “Brutal” and “Grind” sides of their sound, sacrificing the more outlandish and unpredictable parts of their previous output in favour of an uglier, heavier, and arguably even more aggressive approach more closely aligned with the likes of Skinless, Benighted, and Aborted at their most feral and unforgiving.

There’s still a few flashes of their usual strangeness here and there – both in some of the odd note patterns that flitter through “Wormholes Collide” and the eerie pseudo-symphonics which surface during “Lurking Mystic” – but for the most part the band’s newfound focus on churning out some of the chunkiest, chuggiest, ugliest Death Metal of their career seems to have given them a whole new lease on life.”

05. KANONENFIEBER – U-BOOTSMANN

A fairly recent addition to the list, but a deserving one all the same, is the latest EP from Kanonenfieber, an artist who’s been on something of a roll over the last few years (indeed, both their previous EPs made my list last year, so it shouldn’t be a huge surprise to see their latest release here this time around).

Like many of you, of course, I’m definitely starting to feel the hunger for something a little more substantial from the project (their first album was released back in 2021, so perhaps next year might bring a full-length follow-up? We can only hope…) but it’s still great to hear the project delivering two tracks which find them still at the height of their powers.

“Kampf und Sturm”, for example, has a little bit of The Monolith Deathcult – albeit with a few more Blackened Death leanings – to its stompy, staccato riffs, attention-grabbing vocal hooks, and melodramatically doomy pre-denouement passages, while “Die Havarie” errs a little more towards the more melodic and “blackened” side of things with its infectious, intertwined tremolo lines and propulsive percussive patterns (with the addition of a catchy-as-hell chorus and some sublime, soaring leads giving the track more than a few hints of God Dethroned at their most epic and anthemic).

Perhaps the only reason this EP isn’t higher in my list – both these tracks are absolutely excellent, and hard to get out of your head once you’ve heard them – is that it was such a recent release that it hasn’t had enough time to climb any further!

04. MÓRNU – THE UNEARTHLY BECOMES INHERENT

Another new discovery for me this year (the third on this list, if I’m not mistaken, with one more yet to come) and another EP which has me already hoping for a future full-length from the band, was the debut release from Black/Doom disciples Mórnu, which I reviewed back in June (though it was actually released in early May).

To quote from what I wrote six months ago:

“The two tracks which make up this release, both of which clock in at over ten minutes long, strike a delicate balance between ominous, doom-laden atmospherics and blistering blackened fury in a way which frequently puts me in mind of The Great Old Ones (and, if you know how highly we regard the latter band around here you’ll understand how big a deal that is).

Following a slow-burning, scene-setting opening, “Ordeal” bursts into life in a flurry of frantic blast beats and frenetic tremolo guitars, which – in turn – lead to a series of darkly malevolent melodies, dreary, doom-heavy chords, and moments of moody ambience, all of which flow fluidly and organically into and out of one another, while “Theophaneia” errs – for the most part at least – towards the darker, doomier end of the scale… which makes its occasional outbursts of piercing melody and punishing power all the more effective.”

For whatever reason(s) this EP has really stuck with me, and I’m hopeful that it will stick with you too.

03. IMPENDING DOOM – LAST DAYS

I’ve always been a big fan of Impending Doom and their devastating brand of down-tuned, blast-driven, and doom-laden Deathcore, and their new EP (released just a couple of weeks ago) simply reaffirmed everything I loved about them.

“Eternal”, for example, is three-and-a-half minutes of absolutely gargantuan guitars and gigantic, borderline-cataclysmic, grooves, topped off with one seriously pissed-off and punishing vocal performance, while “In The End” – somehow – manages to up the heaviness and intensity even more, assaulting your eardrums with an almost Suffocation-esque salvo of chugging, churning riffs, explosive drumming, and crushingly heavy breakdowns.

And then there’s “Spit”, whose pneumatically-driven, brutally syncopated assault on the senses is tinged with just the right amount of creepy melody (and just the right number of ugly, in-your-face hooks) to give it some added atmosphere without nullifying any of its bone-breaking impact.

Sure, there may be a bit of recency-bias at work (though considering that at least half of my selections here come from the first half of the year I’m not sure that’s necessarily an issue) but this is still, undeniably, one of my favourite EPs of the year, and one I don’t see myself stopping listening to any time soon!

02. RIWEN – A BRUTAL REALITY

To be quite honest, I was pretty sure we were never going to hear from Swedish shit-kickers Riwen ever again after their debut album, The Cold, pretty much sank without a trace.

Which, let me tell you… sucked, because I was a big fan of their particularly punishing brand of Metallic Hardcore (and had been since I first heard “Nature Calls Us Back” off their self-titled EP), even going so far as to pick The Cold as one of my “Personal Top Ten” albums of 2015!

So when I suddenly saw that the group had dropped a brand new EP, some eight long years after we last heard from them, I knew I had to check it out… and I was not disappointed.

Collectively clocking in at just under twelve minutes, the four tracks which make up A Brutal Reality practically explode out of the speakers with such an incredible sense of fierce urgency and ferocious intensity – with the galloping, blasting, grooving attack of “A Warrior’s Eye” and the hard-hitting, pull-no-punches roundhouse hooks of “Above the Tree Lines” quickly establishing that although Riwen may be a little older, they’ve definitely not gone soft and, if anything, seem even more pissed off than ever – that it almost feels like no time has passed at all.

Hell, even when they add in some eerie, discordant melody (as they do during the vicious, Punk-Metal pounding of the title-track) or ease off the gas to let their music brood and breathe a little more (as they do in the gloomy, doom-laden “This Is How Nature Created Us”) it still feels like they’re only ever a few seconds from trying to physically rip your throat out… which is just how (and why) I like it.

01. DRAGONCORPSE – THE DRAKKETH SAGA

Look, I’m going to level with you… I didn’t see this coming either.

Seriously, if you’d have told me that my favourite EP of the year was going to belong to a band who mix together Deathcore and Power Metal (no, wait, come back…) I would have called you a liar (at the very least).

But here we are.

It’s a ridiculous combination on paper, I know. And it’s not exactly all that much less ridiculous in practice either. But, let me tell you, it’s a hell of a lot of fun and it’s clear right from the start – as demonstrated by the extravagant vocals, rapid-fire riffs, and stupidly heavy (and stupidly effective) breakdowns of  “Sunlover” (easily one of my favourite songs of the year) – that the band themselves are absolutely loving every second of what they’ve created here.

Sure, I’ve taken to skipping the interludes more often than I listen to them, but that’s mostly because I’m just so eager to get to the next blast of ludicrously infectious extremity – whether that’s the chunky, symphonically-embellished strains of “Blood and Stones” (with its shamelessly catchy chorus refrain), the subtly techy, shamelessly melodramatic “Terror Eternal” (got to love that final falsetto part), the speedy riffs and cheesy melodies of “From the Sky”, or the even more OTT than usual “Undying” – that I just can’t bear to wait any longer than I have to.

Of course, I have no idea if this concept would hold up over a full-length album (though I hope so, as I’d love to see these guys become the next 3 Inches of Blood) but if they can keep it up, and resist the urge to go too silly/campy with it, I don’t see any reason why Dragoncorpse shouldn’t be able to build themselves up the sort of fanbase that would march into Mordor itself in their defence.