TOP 75 ALBUMS OF 2023: Part II (#60-#41)
Moving up.
After the introductory fifteen records on the first volume, here’s twenty more. Let’s move it up. A lot of different and fascinating stuff to chew on here - it’s been a very rich year!
60.
Hot Graves
Plaguewielder
(Gurgling Gore)
If this is indeed Hot Graves’ last album, as the band announced, then it’s a real shame they’re going out without receiving the proper recognition they should have. Having done the Midnight-like crusty death/black/thrash rockouts for longer than most bands that are currently gathering praise for it, these four dudes from Gainesville also do it better than most, an always frenetic, raspy, exciting vibe to their songs that makes each album a lot of fun to listen to. My favourite album of theirs will always be their awesome ‘Knights In White Phosphorus’ 2011 debut - I believe I’ve played ‘Worship The Goat’ on every single metal DJ set I’ve ever done -, but ‘Plaguewielder’ (if that title is a too-obvious-to-be-true reference to Darkthrone, more power to them honestly) is actually the most musically accomplished of the lot, with solos flying all over the place, slower songs and slower parts adding variety, a stronger black metal vibe in the faster and more extreme tunes, basically a finely written, solid extreme metal record. D-BEAT DEATHRASH DRUNKING METAL PUNKS FOREVER!
59.
HOST
IX
(Nuclear Blast Records)
First things first - I’m a huge, huge fan of Paradise Lost’s much-maligned 1999 album ‘Host’, and I’ve always been so ever since I heard first single ‘So Much Is Lost’ for the first time way back then. It’s a record that has actually aged well and it’s been a regular listen throughout the years. So it’s with great pleasure that I’ve welcomed this new project by Nick and Greg, which essentially continues that section of their musical inspirations where that album left off, and all of it before a fanbase that now seems much more prepared for this kind of thing than they were 24 years ago. Knowing how these two work and everything they’ve meant to heavy music over the last three decades (and a bit!), there was little concern that this might be some sort of gimmick or whatever, and yeah, it’s just a a fantastic collection of gloomy yet danceable, expertly crafted songs, something that is obvious right from the wonderful opener ‘Wretched Soul’, this record’s ‘So Much Is Lost’, in a way. Though the original ‘Host’ remains a firm classic for me, in a way, even Nick and Greg seem more prepared to do something like this now - Nick’s more mature, seasoned voice fits the songs better and more naturally, and Greg’s evolution as a brilliant songwriter ensures that ‘IX’ is not only a great collection of songs, but also a nearly cinematic experience that holds together as a single piece played from start to end. Can we have some live shows with Host now please?
58.
Hellripper
Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags
(Peaceville Records)
Got excited with “Midnight-like crusty death/black/thrash rockouts” from the Hot Graves blurb up there and you want one more quick fix of that stuff? I mean, who doesn’t, right? Cool, so here’s Hellripper. Though more of a thrashy, black/speed kind of thing, it clearly fits in the same ballpark as all those mentioned bands plus acts like Devil Master, Cruel Force and a whole bunch of others. It’s not really a “scene”, but there’s a lot of people making great records within this style these days. James McBain’s project’s development has been a joy to behold, and having seen them live recently on a festival that was quite different in general from this kind of more openly metal stuff, it’s a pleasure to note that they’ve become quite a fierce stage beast as well, knowing exactly how to hold any kind of audience in their palm and then squishing it repeatedly with great force.
57.
Grails
Aches En Maat
(Temporary Residence Limited)
Grails’ largest gap between albums did their inspiration a world of good. Not that these masters of experimentation were ever in any danger of this music becoming stale, but ‘Anches En Maat’ sounds particularly exciting and revigorated, a lot of new elements creeping in and adding extra dynamics, to the point that the most jaded of Grails followers - I guess I was a bit, now in hindsight - won’t be able to avoid a little jig at some of the record’s most surprising but also most accomplished moments. Having recorded it together old-school style was a great decision, and that vitality and extra punch really shows, both in the performance and in the inventiveness of the writing. “An improbable blend of melted 1980s softcore and daytime soap opera soundtracks, cosmic minimalism, aching Westerns, melancholy electronic pulses, and massive soul-disco strings,” they gleefuly self-describe like on their Bandcamp, but whaddya know, it totally nails it.
56.
End Reign
The Way Of All Flesh Is Decay
(Relapse Records)
Recognise that font on the album title? Yeah, Voivod have used it a couple of times. If you’re going to nod, at least do it in an unmistakable awesome direction, I say. In any case, it’s not like End Reign sound anything like Voivod. A little supergroup of sorts, featuring Domenic Romero (Integrity, Pulling Teeth) and Sebastian Phillips (Exhumed, Noisem) on guitars, Adam Jarvis (Pig Destroyer, Misery Inidex, Lock Up) on drums and Arthur Legere (Bloodlet) on bass, with Mike Score assuming the role of rabid vcalist, and even sharing his own throat duites with a first class list of guests (Dwid Hellion, Dylan Waker, Ed Ka-Speal), the album is almsot surprisingly well put put together and will offer you a genuine, rough, old-sounding slab of to-the-point metallic hardcore.
55.
Ancient Of Days
Celestial Stalker Fantasy
(Deep Storm Productions)
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Ancient Of Days are a bit of an oddball mix of styles, considering they feature two thirds of the former Black Sun line-up - Kevin Hare and Graeme Leggate are now joined by Ricky Walsh on drums, and while the two bands aren’t really comparable, the mega-heaviness that always crushed us on those classic weirdo-sludge records is still present here. Sludge is but one of the elements this new trio present on this, their full-length debut, and variety is its main spice - sometimes thrashing it up, sometimes crawling along with a more doomy stomp, and sometimes even a mix of both that can only be described as Lair Of The Minotaur-esque (see closer ‘Mountain’) all topped by a manic vocal performance where shrieks, wails, growls and croons are all tools to the same effect, it’s a wonder any of this sounds cohesive. And yet it does, very much so, even offering some catchy tunes to haunt the rest of your day (you too will be screaming “there is nothing you can do” for a while after your first listen of ‘O Thing‘, one of the coolest tracks) and a fun, tongue-in-cheek approach to it all.
54.
Diminishing
The Unnamable
(Anti-Corporate Music)
Just like Ancient Of Days on the previous position, I get the feeling this has been a very under-appreciated record this year. I did try my best, selecting them on The Devil’s Month in June and doing a little interview with the guys shortly after, but let’s face it, when you play music that is, as I have described it before, “situated somehwere in the wasteland between industrial, harsh noise, dark ambient and drone”, chances are you’ll probably be overlooked for that sweet Super Bowl half-time spot, at least. In any case, for the maniacs among you looking for a Gnaw Their Tongues-ish sort of sonic experience/torture, look no further, this is it. As I said previously on that edition of The Devil’s Month, “there’s plenty of spine-chilling moments, from the sinister, soundtrack-y eeriness of ‘That Sinking Feeling‘ to the Lustmord-ian slow-burn of ‘Altruistic’, just to mention a couple of highlights. This album offers a gripping, uneasy journey from start to finish,” so go for it if you like this sort of punishment in your musical diet.
53.
Terveet Kädet
Kaikki Kaikkia Vastaan
(Svart Records)
Another band that I made sure you guys heard about on The Devil’s Month (last March), and the second album on this list featuring frontman "Läjä" Äijälä, Terveet Kädet are a true hardcore punk legend, with a career dating back to 1980 and reportedly having been an important influence in dudes like Max Cavalera of Mike Patton, that you might have heard about vaguely somewhere. The good news is that they still maintain their relevance intact today, and their noisy, raw and thrashy take-no-prisoners kind of punk still kicks most petulant kids’ bands to the curb on ‘Kaikki Kaikkia Vastaan’. May they long continue to spit on faces.
52.
Deathgrave
It’s Only Midnight
(Tankcrimes)
If a record appears described as “influenced by the likes of Napalm Death, Rudimentary Peni and Impetigo,” you immediately sit up and take notice, right? And then you realise it’s Greg Wilkinson’s band (remember him on our podcast?), and everything makes sense. Not only are his Earhammer Studios one of the choice spots to record your ugly metal record these days, but as a musician, this dude has been spreading talent throughout his bands and other people’s for a while now, and his pedigree is absolutely impeccable - Autopsy, Brainoil, Static Abyss, Shrinkwrap Killers, Leather Glove… you kinda wish he’d join or form a band that sucks, just for a little balance, right? Well, Deathgrave ain’t it, as their mix of grind, punk and death metal is second to none in terms of savagery and intensity.
51.
Cobrafuma
Cobrafuma
(Lovers & Lollypops)
Yeah, there still isn’t much to say about Cobrafuma since I selected them as Band Of The Week a few months ago that isn’t easily described in a few words. As I mentioned back then, they like Motörhead, whiskey, weed and playing really loud, and that’s pretty much all you need to know. Now go rock out.
50.
Cavalera
Morbid Visions
(Nuclear Blast Records)
I know, I know, I wrote a whole thing on the first post about how reissues don’t count and shit like that. But hey, as a re-recording, this sort of falls through the cracks, right? If I didn’t include it in this list, it would never get included anywhere, because let’s face it, no one will ever do a list of the best re-recordings, since they all suck, especially in metal. So whatever, fuck the rules and let me enjoy this - and that’s the whole point, I needed to include this somewhere because this is really, really good. Re-recordings of anything are almost always a bad idea, but now we kinda have to use the “almost” when voicing that opinion because somehow Max and Iggor (plus Max’s son Igor, also of Go Ahead And Die, on bass, and Gruesome/Possessed’s Daniel Gonzalez on lead guitar) really fucking nailed this recreation of Sepultura’s legendary first album. It works on any level - if these songs are imbedded in your own damn soul, like it happens with me, it’s a really respectful and cool update in terms of sound and performance that keeps the exact same vibe that made them such bestially amazing classic in the first place; but if you were a casual fan or never really rated this record, go for it anyway and listen to it as a new thing, and it’ll blow you away anyway. Maybe let’s not get carried away and tempt fate by trying the unholy concept of re-recording ever again, but I, for once, am happy the Cavaleras had the balls to try and mess with something as sacred as this and came out winners on the other side. Oh, and by all means include their re-recording of ‘Bestial Devastation’ that came out at the same time in this entire opinion too, of course.
49.
Thronehammer
Kingslayer
(Supreme Chaos Records)
“THE KINGSLAYEEEEEEER!” - the falsetto yell let loose by Kat Shevil Gillham before Thronehammer launch into the title-track really tells you everything you need to know about this record and this band. Delivering what is by far their strongest album with this third full-length, it offers simply colossal metal hymns like you might think they don’t do ‘em anymore. There’s power, there’s melody, there’s epic and rousing battles, there are doomy, mournful tunes as the warriors hang their heads in deep melancholy after a particularly bloody battle, all of it delivered by fat riffs, massive rhythms and those unique Kat vocals. Nothing to not like here, which is why they were Band Of The Week as soon as the first single was out.
48.
Dorthia Cottrell
Death Folk Country
Yes, that is Dorthia from Windhand, and a good way to quicky explain the appeal of this solo record of hers - apart from that title which, to be honest, already does a pretty good job of summing it all up - is to think of it as a Harvestman/Steve Von Till to Windhand’s Neurosis. While it is a folk record for sure, there are ambient parts and sombre passages that make clear the connection between these two vehicles for Dorthia’s music. Bleak and unforgivingly raw and yet exuding elegant beauty with every note, ‘Death Folk Country’ is a collection of songs that will stay in you long after the music has stopped playing. Check out a bigger description on The Devil’s Month volume where it was featured, but don’t be afraid to dive in right now if you haven’t yet.
47.
Yellow Eyes
Master’s Murmur
(Sibir Records)
Released without warning on a cold day in late October, somehow it feels that we’re still kind of digesting that sudden hard slap. On top of it, according to the band’s own words, ‘Master’s Murmur’ is but “the first of two complementary releases conjoined in spirit, a surreal, sinister industrial folk prelude to an upcoming full-band LP", so even when you are in full freakout mode with the leftfield, oblique horror of these compositions, the disorienting alien quality of the vocals, even the creepy factor they achieve with a simple sample of bleating animals, rest assured, little child, this is just the beginning. Yikes.
46.
KEN mode
VOID
(Artoffact Records)
What, another one?! That’s right, exactly one day less than a year after ‘NULL’ was dropped on us, KEN mode go all funny on us and they just throw another record out there, as if theirs is cute music that is easily digestible and forgotten about in just a few months, even if aided by a couple of very welcome opportunities to have seen them live performing this stuff. Well, as I said on The Devil’s Month volume where I featured them, “it wouldn’t be shocking either if they were just two normal separate records, as there are also significant differences. KEN mode are seasoned enough as songwriters by now to make each song a nasty, creepy individual little universe of its own anyway, and when going through the relentless chaos of ‘Painless’, the menacing melancholy of ‘These Wires’, the Cop Shoot Cop-ish rumble of ‘He Was A Good Man, He Was A Taxpayer’ or even the smokey, jazzy closing chapter of ‘Not Today, Old Friend’, you’ll be long past trying to draw any comparisons to any other record, or any other band for that matter.” So yeah.
45.
Tomb Mold
The Enduring Spirit
(20 Buck Spin)
While I might not rate it as highly as several other publications have, I nevertheless am really happy about all the praise that has fallen on Tomb Mold this year after the release of this apparent landmark album for death metal. I like living in a world where death metal bands are on the cover of magazine and are talked about on big fancy websites and appear on end of year lists in high positions picked by people who aren’t necessarily your death metal troll that has been listening to this stuff and enduring the resulting brain damage (trust me, I know) for decades. And yeah, if the turning point award goes to Blood Incantation or these guys, it has my full support. ‘The Enduring Spirit’ is a real rollercoaster of lofty ambition, restless creativity and at the same time respect for those who came before without that translating as any kind of rule shackle. It oversteps genre boundaries at will - sometimes with an obvious malicious glee - and just manifests supreme confidence in all the crazy decisions that are taken throughout. There’s a great quote on the Pitchfork review of it that I can’t resist sharing with you as I think it really sums this record up: “black metal kids in Scandinavia used to take the piss out of death metal bands by calling their music “life metal.” For Tomb Mold, that epithet would likely come as a compliment.”
44.
Nattehimmel
Mourningstar
(Hammerheart Records)
I have a lot of feelings, and therefore a lot of opinions, on In The Woods… and everything that came out of that band and those musicians throughout the years, and unfortunately most of them in the last couple of decades have been a little disappointing. Kudos, then, to Albert Mudrian, who threw Nattehimmel - featuring the Botteri twins and James Fogarty - my way, knowing of my relationship with those old In The Woods… classics after we nerded out about ‘Omnio’ on an episode of the podcast, and made me realise that there is still hope, that magic can still pour out from whence it did before in such large quantities. You can find the full extent of my bulky, overthought opinion on this record here, but for now, suffice to say, and in my own words from a few months back again, “as a much more black metal-oriented, less meanderingly experimental but nevertheless spacey, expansive and wonderfully inspiring album, this would hold up no matter what names are in the musicians’ pasts.” At the end of the day, all context and personal history removed, a great record is a great record, and this is one.
43.
Teksti-TV 666
Vapauden Tasavalta
(Svart Records)
Is it getting annoying that I keep referring you to old The Devil’s Month posts? Sorry if it is, but hey - it’s natural that some of the records I thought were the best of each month end up here, and there’s no reason to repeat myself when the short’n’sweet go-listen-to-it-now description is already there, right? So yeah, of course Teksti-TV 666 rocked my world back in February, with their kraut/psych-infused rock-outs, as if a punk band was trying to interpret Amon Düül songs or whatever. Or as I also crazily imagined back then, “The Stooges playing abbreviated Can songs, or Wooden Shjips developing a weird tongue-in-cheek Finnish sense of humour and playing 78rpm unhinged versions of their songs.” If you don’t know this band and none of that has made you press play on the Bandcamp player down there yet, do check your pulse (and the quality of your record collection).
42.
Seek
Kokyou De Shinu Otoko
(Silent Pendulum Records)
If Envy aren’t densely metal enough for you, or if you’d like to see ‘Souls At Zero’-era Neurosis reimagined through a Japanese cultural lens, or if you’d just like to be hit by the massive wall of sound of a relentless blackened post-hardcore album that really reflects what that vague genre is (or should be) all about these days, look no further, Seek are what you, erm, seek. Constantly grey and laboured, as if someone took all the fun and will to move out of a Converge song - and I mean this as a good thing! -, it’s not a record that you’ll put on all the time, but for that exhausting, barely able to breathe type of mood, this’ll hit the spot. Over and over.
41.
Laster
Andermans Mijne
(Prophecy Productions)
Last time I saw Laster live I wrote a few words about it here, and in the middle of my happy confusion, which is more or less the state this band always leaves me in, I said that “their forthcoming album will probably dissolve what’s left of our collective brains.” Well, here it is, and do consider at least my brain contribution to that collective duly dissolved. I know I’ll probably regret not rating this album higher in the list once I fully get to grips with it, which will most likely happen sometime during this performance in a few months, but in a way, with this music, those mundane things like lists and numbers are beside the point. Laster continue to exist in a world very much their own (rumour has it that it originated from a piece of debris scattered of planet Ved Buens Ende), and ‘Andermans Mijne’ is yet another profoundly strange perspective into a brand new landscape of that world. That should be all you need to know to dive in fearlessly into this dissonant, unpredictable, sometimes even awkwardly danceable piece.