We are basically finished with our 2023 Listmania series, having concluded with DGR‘s five-part series of lists last week.
What’s still missing is our annual “wrap up” post, which provides links to every 2023 list we posted from our staff writers and other contributors and guests.
That wrap-up has been delayed due to Islander’s temporary absence, but the delay allowed us to discover another list that has found its way into our Listmania series in previous years.
This particular list is a mathematically calculated “List of Lists” that amalgamates lists from a variety of online zines in order to create a Top 50 list.
To the Teeth is the name of a metal blog that began life in May of 2016, originally on Facebook and eventually expanding into SubStack.
The proprietor, Dutch writer Peter van der Ploeg, regularly posts about new extreme metal songs and full releases, and as the year goes along he adds selected music to a growing Spotify playlist.
Peter again compiled a “List of Lists”, as he has done in many past years. To do that he began by assembling a population of year-end lists from the following international group of music sites:
Album of the Year, AngryMetalGuy, Banger TV, BrooklynVegan, Consequence of Sound, Daily Bandcamp, Decibel, Encyclopaedia Metallum, Heavy Blog is Heavy, Heavy Music HQ, Invisible Oranges, Kerrang, Last Rites, Loudwire, Metal Hammer, Metal Injection, Metal Trenches, Metalstorm, Metalsucks, No Clean Singing (Andy Synn), Popmatters, Revolver, Rolling Stone, Sputnikmusic, Stereogum, The Headbanging Moose, The Quietus, To The Teeth (that’s me), Toilet Ov Hell & Treblezine
Altogether, these lists included a total of over 350 albums.
Peter then assigned point values to the selections based on the rankings they received at their original locations. He explains:
“I gave every number one position 10 points. Numbers two got 8 points, numbers three got 6 and the rest of the top-10 positions got 5 points. A top-25 was 3 points, and everything below 1 point. When two records had equal points, the amount of list mentions prevailed. When those were equal as well, the amount of number 1’s (or, subsequently number 2’s) counted.”
Through those calculations, he came up with a Top 50 “List of Lists”. And, with Peter’s permission, I’m re-posting those 50 names, as we’ve done before.
- Tomb Mold – The Enduring Spirit
- Dødheimsgard – Black Medium Current
- Cattle Decapitation – Terrasite
- Metallica – 72 Seasons
- Horrendous – Ontological Mysterium
- Fires in the Distance – Air Not Meant for Us
- Jesus Piece – So Unknown
- Katatonia – Sky Void of Stars
- Sleep Token – Take Me Back To Eden
- Avenged Sevenfold – Life is but a Dream
- Panopticon – The Rime of Memory
- Wayfarer – American Gothic
- Thantifaxath – Hive Mind Narcosis
- Baroness – Stone
- Cannibal Corpse – Chaos Horrific
- Hellripper – Warlocks Grim and Withered Hags
- Insomnium – Anno 1696
- Blackbraid – Blackbraid II
- Afterbirth – In But Not Of
- Lamp of Murmuur – Saturnian Bloodstorm
- Ne Obliviscaris – Exul
- Moonlight Sorcery – Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle
- Code Orange – The Above
- Green Lung – This Heathen Land
- Khanate – To Be Cruel
- Kostnatění – Úpal
- Creeper – Sanguivore
- Autopsy – Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts
- Enslaved – Heimdal
- Godflesh – Purge
- Sacred Outcry – Towers of Gold
- End – The Sin of Human Frailty
- Pupil Slicer – Blossom
- Drain – Living Proof
- Great Falls – Objects Without Pain
- Bell Witch – Future’s Shadow part 1: The Clandestine Gate
- Ulthar – Anthronomicon/Helionomicon
- Frozen Soul – Glacial Domination
- Agriculture – Agriculture
- Dying Fetus – Make them Beg for Death
- Blut Aus Nord – Disharmonium Nahab
- Ragana – Desolation’s Flower
- Malokarpatan – Vertumnus Caesar
- Sermon – Of Golden Verse
- Svalbard – The Weight of the Mask
- Obituary – Dying of Everything
- Godthrymm – Distortions
- Liturgy – 93696
- Zulu – A Better Tomorrow
- Xoth – Exogalactic
You can read Peter’s discussion about the outcomes here, and, as always, we have to thank him for all this hard work.
P.S. As you’ll find if you go to Peter‘s Substack and read the details, the Number One album on this list beat the Number Two album by just a single number two spot.
13 Responses to “LISTMANIA 2023: TO THE TEETH’S “LIST OF LISTS””
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Much as I appreciate being included, I am always amused that there’s really no point including my Personal Top Ten (I assume it’s that one, as it’s the only one I actually rank) since it will, inevitably, have ZERO impact on the overall rankings.
Heck, just for some additional stats, only 2 albums from here made my Critical Top Ten (the one where I at least pretend to be a little objective) and I think a grand total of 14 (give or take) made my top 100 (the “Great”) list – which I think says something about how badly my tastes/takes seem to line-up with the general consensus these days!
Ya, there are only 4 here that would have made my top 50, while most of my favs are found on your good and great lists. What can I say, you have great taste!
Flattering though that is to hear, that’s definitely not the main take-away here.
What I think it says, mostly, is that we tend to treasure our independence a little more than most, and while that does sometimes mean we miss out on a few of the “big” names (there’s definitely several here that none of us heard, because we weren’t even considered as part of the press cycle) it also frees us up to cover stuff without having to consider how it might effect our circulation, our ad numbers, etc, which is why we tend to be more of an outlier!
Hey Andy, Peter (To The Teeth) here. What I used to do before the 2022 list was include as many lists as I could. What I ended up with was a far bigger sample of ‘the internet’, but less variety because some publications publish a shitload of lists and tend to lean a certain way. So I cut it back and decided to take just one list per publication. Usually there’s an aggregated or general best of list anyway, so I go with that. At NCS (where I used to take all your lists plus the lists of Neill Jameson, DGR, Gonzo etcetera) I also tried to find one list to rule them all, and figured your personal list would have the most, well, personality. Not that it would stand for NCS as a whole (that’s why I included your name between brackets), but at least it would add a flavour to the list that it wouldn’t have otherwise. But you have a good point! I’ll see what I’ll do next year!
It’s funny, Andy, I read all your lists and usually see a bunch of my faves on your Good and Great, but almost none on your Personal and Critical. I think I skew more mainstream so it might just be that most people just haven’t listened to a lot of the albums on your ranked lists? I know I missed many of them this year. I love seeing stuff on NCS that few others seem to cover.
There is a lot of overlap for the albums I DID listen to and this aggregate top 50 list.
This well researched list is good however i was bit surprised to see gentleman islander not posting his infectious songs list like he always does every year…never break the ritual / PARAMPARA…something is fishy
I’m glad you care enough about the Infectious Song list to wonder where it is. I have been crushed by a project for my paying job ever since the last part of December, and especially during January, and I have been unable to do anything with that list, or really anything else for NCS. That project will mostly be over after Tuesday of next week and I can start paying attention to NCS again. But I’m afraid this is a year when I’m just going to have to skip the Infectious Song list.
Honestly buddy, I think that’s fine. We’re well into January now, so let’s keep things going and start looking forward, not backward!
Gentleman Islander, indeed! And we thank him for it. But, lol, re: the most infectious songs list, did I miss where Islander finished 2022? I thought he still had a few left to go…
Man, I wish some people didn’t have such long goddamn memories. 🙂
You all missed out on Porenuts-Mislives!! Ok its a re-issue really but still. I’m on Cloud 9 listening to this!
Oh, you mean the album I reviewed back in April?
https://www.nocleansinging.com/2023/04/25/porenut-mislives/
When Canada reigns supreme, it’s always a fantastic time to celebrate. Tomb Mold triumphed in a Year of Death Metal. Still shocked that Suffocation, KGLW and Gridlink didn’t make it on here because they released killer albums in their own right. Well calculated…