LISTMANIA: GONZO’S TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2023, PART I

(To help bring life to the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s Day we continue presenting year-end lists by our writers. Today we have Part I of a two-part list by our Denver-based contributor Gonzo, with Part II to follow tomorrow.)

While it’s one thing to have your Spotify Wrapped viciously critiqued by an army of your peers, only the truly dedicated (or most antisocial) among us will go so far as to lock themselves in a room for several days to list out – in lavish detail – what they feel are the best albums to be released over the past year.

And just like my ability to craft an absurdly long sentence to begin the exercise of assembling such a list, this year’s top picks spared no expense in grandeur. From post-metal gems to forward-thinking, avant-garde atmosphere that we all might look back on in 10 years and think, “good god, this is underrated,” 2023 had a little something for everyone in the world of metal.

I’ll get right to it, then – this is the first half of my top 20 albums of the year. For those of us keeping track at home, that means you’ll find #11-20 below and #1-10 will follow soon. (Provided my day job doesn’t try to kill me in the process.)

 

20. Besra, Transitions

Ever since I pledged my allegiance to the Cult of Neurisis (Cult of Luna, Neurosis, and ISIS) another lifetime ago, I’ve been wildly fascinated by how much “post” you can put in “post-metal.” It’s a fascinating subgenre that I can’t get enough of. This fascination leads me on a perennial quest to find bands with a similar sound without being a blatant copycat.

This year, Finland’s Besra was my favorite discovery of that ilk. Featuring heavy-hitting guitars interspersed with layers of atmosphere and emotion, Transitions is the kind of album that unfurls itself a little more to the listener with each spin. Fans of ISIS will definitely note some less-than-subtle similarities in places, but that’s to take nothing away from how well-crafted these songs are, and how they can, well, transition from ethereal moodiness to white-hot savagery.

 

19. Sulphur Aeon, Seven Crowns and Seven Seals

The German scene has been more noticeable to me lately. Whether that’s a result of me just paying more attention or an actual influx of new and interesting bands and albums emerging from there is anyone’s guess.

But I’ll say this about the newest effort from Deutschland’s underrated Sulphur Aeon: From the visceral cover art to the crushing heaviness that lies within, Seven Crowns and Seven Seals brings a killer modernized touch to ’90s doom-death.

“Hammer from the Howling Void” wrecks with the force of an actual hammer from an actual howling void, vacillating expertly between blasty and harmonic passages that are both pulled off with equal skill. “Usurper of the Earth and Sea” carries similar weight, and the same can be said for the smoldering ferocity of all seven songs on the album. Whether that’s an intentional theme with the album title is unclear, it matters not – music like this speaks for itself. How have I slept on this band for so long?

 

18. Thantifaxath, Hive Mind Narcosis

When first listening to the latest audial nightmare from Toronto’s Thantifaxath, I was… challenged.

And that’s seldom a bad thing when I first hear music I can’t quite grasp. If anything, I like to dive in headfirst when I have the first possible opportunity and see how far the rabbit hole goes.

Six months later, though, and Hive Mind Narcosis might still be the most intensely complex piece of music I’ve heard all year. It’s safe to say the rabbit hole is deeper than I imagined. With layers of black metal influence on top of what I can only refer to as blackened jazz counterpoint, songs like “Surgical Utopian Love” and “Burning Kingdom of Now” take sonic dissonance to a whole new level.

Hive Mind Narcosis is what my sleep paralysis demon listens to at 3 a.m. when I wake up in a cold sweat. Or did I really wake up?

 

17. KEN Mode, VOID

How does a band that doesn’t sound like anyone else constantly manage to reinvent itself?

It’s a riddle, yes, but in the case of Winnipeg’s KEN Mode, it’s more of a hypothetical one. For the better part of two decades, the band has continued to refine their approach to playing their brand of noise rock/post-metal/hardcore/sludge/unfiltered rage. Such an endeavor is no gentle art (wink) but they’ve hit paydirt with each attempt, and VOID might be the most raw yet memorable release they’ve put out yet.

With VOID being the second half of a double album (last year’s NULL being the first), it might be disingenuous to call this out as a singular effort. That being said, the eight tracks that make up VOID amount to an effort that could easily stand on its own, regardless of the existence of its predecessor. “The Shrike” kicks us off with a relentlessly catchy hook before Jesse Mathewson goes to work with his unmistakably tortured howl. “These Wires” might be the most prescient example of how the band has evolved recently, while the groovy chug of “I Cannot” has been abusing my speakers for almost four months straight.

 

16. Violet Cold, Multiverse

When I see a band described as a “one-man experimental project,” I usually meet the statement with a slight amount of skepticism. The “experimental” label is fine, but given that music is an inherently creative medium, it’s usually kind of a silly way to characterize what you sound like.

That’s never been the case with Emin Guliyev and his solo venture, Violet Cold.

Guliyev’s journey with his music has taken him all over the sonic spectrum, ranging from the heartbreaking, the heavy, the moody, the chaotic, the ethereal, and everything in between. With Multiverse, though, he combines almost every element of what’s made his project so special into one cohesive album, with fascinating results.

Multiverse is as diverse of a record as the name suggests. Primarily, Guliyev takes a heavy shoegaze formula that works so well for bands like Alcest and Holy Fawn but injects his Azerbaijan culture into the mix, often with the use of beautiful flutes and other wind instruments. When hearing it, you’d be right to assume that there’s no way only one guy is responsible for it all. “Shazam the Void” and “Emocean” hit you where it hurts (in the best possible way) while “Stardust” does more of the same while turning up the heaviness.

Can a blast beat be beautiful? Yes, yes the fuck it can.

 

15. Dødheimsgard, Black Medium Currents

Like a prophecy fulfilled, these Norwegian legends only emerge from the darkened depths of Oslo about once every eight years. But when they do, you’d be wise to pay attention.

Black Medium Current is at times too weird to accurately describe (which is a theme I’m noticing in my list this year as I’m writing it), but apparently, that’s the way I like my music. Lead track “Et smelter” takes its time getting off the ground, but then explodes into a glorious cacophony of furious tempos, alternating harsh-to-operatic vocals, and tremolo-laden guitars. “Interstellar Nexus” is almost certainly one of my favorite songs of the year, with Vicotnik’s bonkers vocal range at center stage on top of the proggiest way to play black metal this side of Shining’s Blackjazz.

There are more highlights on Black Medium Current than I can adequately convey before writing about 14 more albums I loved this year, but the bluesy classic rock riffs of “It Does Not Follow” get more addictive with every listen, and if “Abyss Perihelion Transit” doesn’t rearrange you at a subatomic level, I can’t help you.

 

14. Tomb Mold, The Enduring Spirit

Not one but TWO Canadian bands on my list this year? And neither is from Quebec? This is unprecedented.

Toronto’s Tomb Mold is quickly becoming one of the best names in death metal today. In this scribe’s humble opinion, they’ve gotten progressively better with each release, and The Enduring Spirit finds them at their absolute peak.

Packed tighter than a collapsing star with monstrous riffs, unholy growls, and rampaging kit work, this album steps out of the shadow of its more knuckle-dragging predecessors and embraces a more varied, dare I say progressive sound. “Will of Whispers” is what got my attention first, featuring a dreamy guitar lick juxtaposed with Max Klebanoff’s atonal roar. I’m glad I heard that track first – I’d never heard Tomb Mold sound that way before, and if we’re being honest, I thought it was a new Blood Incantation track that I was hearing.

“The Perfect Memory,” “Angelic Fabrications,” and “Flesh as Armour” round out much of the album’s other highlights, all of which feature the best songwriting in Tomb Mold’s discography. It’s all still brutal as hell, and on top of that, it’s one of the best-produced records you’ll hear all year.

Overall, The Enduring Spirit is an album that moves the needle for death metal. It takes enough risks without cannibalizing itself, and the progressive tint the band has added to their pedigree only makes them even more of an unstoppable force than they already were.

 

13. Orbit Culture, Descent

I was overjoyed to hear this album overtake this band’s 2020 breakout album Nija, which is an admirable feat on its own. But to summarize how I feel about the rest of it, I’m going to pull the lazy-but-effective move of reposting what I wrote about Descent over the summer:

I was fortunate enough to catch these Swedish melodic death maniacs live at Graspop this June. Their set was early in the day, but it still shook the festival grounds with just as much magnitude as the headlining sets that followed that evening.

Orbit Culture originally caught my attention with 2016’s Rasen, which was criminally underrated when it came out. With the release of Descent, though, I don’t think anyone’s going to underestimate this band any longer. This is a band firmly planting a bloodied flag in the increasingly saturated melodeath scene, rising above many of their peers with focused fury.

“Black Mountain,” “Sorrower,” and “From the Inside” are enough of a three-headed monster to power most of Descent on their own, but it would be a gigantic disservice to not acknowledge the other seven tracks. The violent double-bass thump of “Vultures of North” will smash your skull into a fine white powder, while the moody intro of “The Aisle of Fire” demonstrates the band’s songwriting chops aren’t just about blast beats and going all-guns-blazing. Stop what you’re doing and spin this one up.

 

12. Jord, Tundra

I like my black metal with a generous helping of atmosphere, and perhaps no album I heard in 2023 delivered this better than Jord‘s.

Tundra is impressively vast and expansive for being the band’s first foray as a trio. What’s even more impressive is that Jord was founded as a solo project in 2020 and is a bold evolutionary step from last year’s Måne. The songs on Tundra toe the line between Enslaved, Vintersorg, and some Borknagar, sounding much bolder, bigger, and more ambitious. “Mara” kicks off the album with a rumbling and evocative note, while “The Fall” will simply break your fucking heart the same way Insomnium is often capable of. There’s a lot of beauty beneath the torment on this record, and it’ll get inside your head if you’re not careful. (In this instance, I recommend throwing caution to the fucking wind.)

If Tundra is any indicator of how much creative ability this newfound trio has, I’d say they have a bright future ahead of them.

 

11. Rannoch, Conflagrations

We’ve written a lot about the UK’s Rannoch over the years, and this album earned them a whole hell of a lot of praise since it was unleashed on the world in July (and rightfully so.) I’m here to pile it on, then, because Conflagrations absolutely rips.

Pairing the mechanized assault of Fear Factory and Dissentient with the technical terror of The Faceless, Rannoch mercilessly bludgeon your eardrums with what I can only describe as precision tactical warfare in an audial format. “Prism Black” by itself is an intense workout in double-bass thunder that would make Dino Cazares proud, and “Threads” follows up with a similar bombardment. And clocking in at just under nine minutes, the title track slows things down with its slow, dementedly sludgy side.

“Threnody to a Dying Star” rounds us off here, and I’m left thoroughly captivated every time I hear it. Rannoch have crafted a brilliantly heavy and creative release, and the momentum they’re building as a band shows no signs of slowing down.