(Our editor wasn’t able to compile a list of Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs from 2023, but our supporter Vizzah Harri, a resident of Hanoi, Vietnam, has stepped in to fill the void. We published Parts 1 and 2 of his list here and here, and now we’re proceeding with Part 3. The remaining three parts will follow in fairly short order.)
We were awaiting that infectious list with keening anticipation, and it being Islander’s baby, for a while there we were genuinely a bit worried whether he was okay. But as of this writing on the last day of the year of the rabbit (albeit the cat in ‘Nam, and yes it is already deep into lunar January, but Gregorian January and now Feb have been an unequivocal cornucopia of quality releases, so whether anyone is even interested anymore in the year just past is anyone’s guess) we are still blessed with the presence of NCS’ inimitable editor.
I told myself I need to get the second part out before the 1st day in the lunar calendar, today was that day but – like that saying when people imbibe early in the morning – it is certainly noon somewhere in the world (again, it’s almost March as I edit this again so just assume that I work on Africa time, a loose concept in my motherland). Time and the perception thereof, just like any other palpable or imperceptible agent, can inform cultures and so I implore you to disengage from the now and harken back. I ended up cutting up one follow-up into 5 parts…
Having two new year’s eves most definitely has altered my perception of time. And being addicted to new music I for one would read infectious lists all great-grandmother gutter-flooding year-round. Alas this is not possible; it is why the intro to this piece is such a long-drawn-out affair.
I decided to cram everything into one piece (divided into 6 parts). Let’s say it was an impossible task to fit everything into the finite time-window I set myself before the deadline I set for yours truly. And why, if you have a keen eye, you’ll notice that I plagiarized the fuck out of myself by dredging old comments and writing for anything that could attempt in even surfacing into the troposphere in comparison to NCS levels of Exospheric quality (alas, it’s impossible to take old unrelated ideas and meld them with thoughts on new sounds, so it was mostly time wasted in looking for more eloquent prose I might never have written before).
Bear with me, there are still a few more tasty bytes you might not have listened to acutely enough from last year.
- Deitus (ENGLAND) – Voyeur – 14 July 2023
For an album that had one of the most captivating openers this side of the The Gospel from Order that then commences to go Straight for (the) Throat, it could be baffling as to why something more unassuming was chosen.
With stultifying tones tuned to the eeriest grandmother’s clock enhanced by the stunning, sultry, and oh so soothing voice of Toni Coe-Brooker, there are hints at stadium-overflowing leads, and the drums are wonderfully placed here in the mix. My picks might not always seem the most obvious ones but if you were looking for a headbanger, this might not be it. It does have a very satisfying build-up into climactic fury though.
The video does come with a warning that it contains flashing imagery and may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is therefore advised:
https://www.facebook.com/deitusUK
https://deitus.bandcamp.com/album/irreversible-standard-edition
- Downcross (Belarus) – Death is not Static – 7 September 2023
Even though they released a full-length in the same year, it was their split with the Brazilian Vobiscum Inferni titled Pact Of No Mercy that really pricked up my ears. A more groove-tastic, driving, and headbanging thrill ride might not be hard to come by if one regularly gleans these pages.
There have been some complaints that this prodromal list is lacking in grooves, actual infectious licks, and infini-spastic kicks (reference to muscle spasms and not the slur of the deviant kind). Look no further. Do you want atmosphere and gloomy ambience to prelude the return of the groove you’ve been foaming at the mouth to experience again? Another one of those songs that take musical ideas for which many bands need a whole album to extrapolate on.
https://www.facebook.com/downcrossofficial
https://downcross.bandcamp.com/album/pact-of-no-mercy-split-with-vobiscum-inferni
- Hauntologist (POLAND) – Ozymandian – 19 December 2023
I’m not cheating, as you can see from the time-stamp that Ozymandian was unleashed as Hauntologist’s first single on the aetherwebs on December the 19th last year after all. Gonzo produced an excellently Sihk heavy round-up and as mentioned within it, Darkside’s signature is extremely apparent on ‘Hollow’, and the same thing happened to me in recognizing it, though only much later in the album on first listen. I told myself I’d even take liberties in adding Ozymandian to my personal infectious list as placeholder for ‘24’s in which Gardenmoen has already been in constant rotational incubation.
I do feel that Hauntologist having been far-sighted enough to realize if a release is this close to year-end bonanzas, you simply have to hit the Ozymandian levels of “hey guys, This Will be in line for 2024’s list”. And Ozymandian was ever just a prequel to the Autonomy/Gardenmoen jab-delayed-telegrammed-haymaker.
The cosmic dancer level fills and banksy-level feelings for agency in a philosophical sense which they for-fucking-sure are more erudite in choice compared to any reference to yesteryear’s lamentations for that which has unfortunately stood the test of time. There are always going to be voices pining for their idea of golden-ageism, and however inane or vacuous the idea is of that ‘now’ being the time of THE best music. If we think we know what is catchy and heavy, why not try something that goes so adjacent to your own beliefs as to the real, cos even if we claim to be mixologists of the psyche when we can’t even pull together a bloody Mary of god-fearing “oh my jayzus, you do more than alliteration?”
Superlative strumming imbuement. Until it becomes so vapid that that which is vile is tutted over with no less than carefree abandon.
So instead of taking which is deemed to be comical in its derivation of stereotypical essence-lessness, we bring you the hubris of your pulchritudinous superficiality.
There’s a lot of foreplay about keeping things short, yet each song seems to still have essays’ worth of exposition sans what we really want.
2023 had a drum god’s filling of what we have come to expect as a given in the world of avant-black-prog-deathy-jazzed-up to the fusion of genres that you just have to sometimes be like, damn I missed me some Darkside.
https://www.facebook.com/hauntologist
https://hauntologist.bandcamp.com/album/hollow
- Judas Priest (Birmingham, UK) – Trial By Fire – November 29th 2023
Even if people really wanted to stretch the idea of what it is and means for infections to spread into pandemic formats…. Well, is that not then just fucking radio country pop music? Probably.
It’s a metaphor which becomes a bit contrived if you take it to its furthest extents, namely that for something to be so communicable and tractable for the most amount of people then it is most infectious. Therefore, perhaps it is also good to think about it as how quickly and horribly transmittable it is? Ebola is extremely transmittable, but does the half-life come into question? Or just how scary something is and where it breaks out and the methods used: perhaps it has an effect on whether it can reach the pan- across the endemic lines of oral histories.
This next song should be radio-friendly; it will also knock your socks off when you realize that they not only took the proverbial piss out of 2nd wave black metal music videos, but that they are also still rocking harder than most anyone… That 6/8 displaced snare backbeat of the bluesy persuasion had my best friend more excited than Halford’s epic finale. What a banger.
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialJudasPriest
https://www.judaspriestinvincibleshield.com/
- The Infernal Sea (ENGLAND) – Apostle of Gehenna – 27 March 2023
These purveyors of penetrating penitent pestilence have already released a 2024 album. And this was one of 4 standalone singles from 2023…
If you feel the urge to spell out Satyricon’s homage to the Queen’s husband with periods acronymising – Knucklewalking Iconic Nailstudded Galvanization – then this composition might perk up an ear or two of ye filth-infested noggins. It’s not exactly a Kafkaesque Idiosyncratically Narcotic Gagging or just a Kaleidoscopic Illbedowered Nagasaki Garroting, and even though you might be mistaken for believing that it is a Karmic Ill-assembled Neolithic Ghastliness, you will be excused for accepting that this next track is unwashed linen in a Victorian brothel, filthy and infectious as… uhm, fuck.
https://www.facebook.com/theinfernalsea
https://theinfernalsea.bandcamp.com/music
- Vomitory (Sweden)– The Deepest Tomb – 26 May 2023
I kept going back to this song from an album that induced quite a few heads to roll. Those who have a love for your more classical setup in songs, well this one contains at least 2 solos. More than a decade in the making, or rather released after a 12-year hiatus in recording in long-form, their ’23 album did not disappoint.
And as their name suggests, and what they perhaps attempted to manifest in naming themselves after what they want to materialize in their careers, the track chosen below, as well as the rest of the album, will certainly be a gateway that fills stadiums in the coming festival season. It also gave me a lot of vibes as far as the percussion was concerned from everybody’s pet-hate Sepultura album, especially this song, but haters would be gagging for it if it was released today. Therefore, high praise, from a flagrant mélomane.
https://www.facebook.com/vomitoryband
https://vomitory.bandcamp.com/album/all-heads-are-gonna-roll
Here is a link to the YouTube playlist for the 6 songs above: