Ah, the smell of list season.  We’ve slowly been teasing you with our picks for this year, and looking at everyone else’s lists, I think I can safely say this is the year with the most amount of overlap between any of us (as evidenced by the stats on our combined list).  Mostly, this is a good thing, because it helps us all get to know our co-conspirators on a better level.  Plus, there’s still enough variety in our tastes so that you don’t get the same list seven or eight times in a row even though we agree on a lot. We are a pretty tight-knit group here, and we pride ourselves on having diverse and varied tastes.  On this list you’ll definitely see some obvious picks and some that others have already waxed poetic about, but I hope I’ve thrown you enough curveballs to make you pleasantly surprised.  It can never be understated how much of a labor of love writing for this site is: we get paid nothing to do this, so all the content we put out is from people who genuinely believe in what we do, myself included.  And I believe these are the best albums you’ll find from this past year.

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Gridlink – Coronet Juniper

If Coronet Juniper was released as eleven tracks of silence, it would still make it on my year-end list simply for existing.  Between a breakup, Takafumi Matsubara almost dying, Takafumi Matsubara almost losing the ability to play guitar and the implacable march of time, Coronet Juniper is an album that was not meant to happen.  And yet, against all odds, we have the comeback of the century, nearly a decade later, and the boys haven’t missed a single step.  This is as good as grindcore gets, a worthy successor to the legacy of Longhena, a triumph of human will, and so much more.  Take a look at them now.

It was my distinct pleasure to write up the review for this album, which you can find here.

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Wayfarer – American Gothic

Way back in 2020 (oh god, 2020 was “way back”…) I called A Romance with Violence the band’s “high water mark.”  I said that it doesn’t get better with them, but I should have known better.  Every single Wayfarer album trumps the last one by a country mile, and American Gothic is no exception.  Everything about this album is refined, polished, and pushed to its limits.  The Western influences keep getting stronger and stronger and have become more than just a backdrop for the rest of the music: they are an integral part of the sound of this band, and they’ve never been more cleverly used.  This is an album that begs repeated listens, but you won’t mind because it rules from start to finish.

Chris (as always) penned an excellent review for this album, which you can find here.  If you want more thoughts, roundtable style, it was also our Audio Thing Album of the Month for October.

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Agriculture – Agriculture

I don’t know how this album ended up here, but one thing is for certain about Agriculture: I can’t put it down.  Even when this album frustrates me, I can’t let it go.  I am compelled to keep listening to it because, at the end of the day, this is the most forward-thinking and delightfully unconventional black metal I have heard in a long time, and it has left a mark on me that is undeniable.  There are so many interesting choices made in terms of the songwriting, album sequencing, instrumentation and melodic structure, it truly sounds like nothing else out there.  I guess there’s only one thing left to say: “I love the spiritual sound of ecstatic black metal from the band Agriculture.”

Agriculture was one half of a two-part Audio Thing Extravaganza for June and July!  Strap in for a doozy of an episode right here.

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Tomb Mold – The Enduring Spirit

Similarly, The Enduring Spirit made it on this list because it is so wildly creative and inventive that I simply cannot ignore it.  Tomb Mold have always broken the…well, mold, but this album goes well beyond that.  The blend of the experimental, jazzy motifs and the ripping death metal is at exactly the right proportions.  The end result is death metal that can be equally described as “scorching” and “thought-provoking.”  And let’s not forget the stellar production that highlights the amazing guitar tones on display.  The clean tones are some of the best I have ever heard in a metal context, and the instrumental prowess on display here is awe-inspiring.  It’s a listen that gets better and better with each spin.

This one was also an Audio Thing Album of the Month chat, and Max and Payson sat down with Buke for an interview!

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Hellripper – Warlocks Grim and Withered Hags

I gotta be honest: I am one of those people that doesn’t really get bored with thrash.  Even when it’s not pushing the boundaries or breaching new territory, it’s still fast and heavy and fun for me.  But when it does land at the ‘extra’ mark…oh boy is it good.  So good that it makes me forget about all the black thrash that came before it and obsessively listen to this album over and over and over.  Because when you spin this thing multiple times, you always walk away with a moment that you missed the time before.  The care and thought that went into this is immediately obvious, and the new directions taken on Warlocks Grim set it up to be so much more than a simple black thrash album.  From the Maiden-esque twin guitar harmonies, to the tempo and key changes that make these songs feel so intentional, to the fucking bagpipes, what you get is so much more than the sum of its parts.

Chris dropped some words about this album way back when, so if you forgot about it, go fix that mistake now.

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Voidceremony – Threads of Unknowing

Long live fretless bass.  Long live Voidceremony and long live Threads of Unknowing.  Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel was an album that got my attention for basically being a jazz fusion album that had the distortion turned up.  But on Threads of Unknowing, I was held captive by the expert execution of every part and piece of this odyssey.  Not least of which happens to be the guitar wizardry of one Mr. Phil “Hyperborean Apparition” Tougas, the newest member of the band and a pickup that solidifies this album as a certified clinic in each respective instrument.  The improvisational chops on display alone make this album worth a spot on this list, but the songwriting has also taken a turn that throws a lot more diversity into the mix and makes Threads of Unknowing a step above its predecessor in every way possible.

I tried really hard, at the behest of Garrett himself, to be critical in my review of this album, and for what it’s worth, we got a thumbs up from the band, so go read it again and boost my ego!  And while you’re at it, listen to Buke’s interview with Garrett because they mostly just talk about video games.

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Blackbraid – Blackbraid II

All I ever wanted from Blackbraid II was for it to be exactly what the title advertises: more Blackbraid.  And, in the best sense, that’s what I got.  Blackbraid II doesn’t switch anything up in the formula, but it does double down on everything that makes Blackbraid such an acclaimed and highly regarded act for being so new to the scene.  The riffs are tastier, the aggression has been dialed up, the aesthetics are stronger (although Sgah’gah’sowah has stated the aesthetics aren’t the core focus of the band), and the gas pedal is practically melted to the floor.  So much of this album is memorable to me, and I find myself really enraptured by the way that all the best of classic black metal gets both highlighted and turned on its head.  There’s even a Bathory cover as a middle finger to the people who are obsessed with quantizing how trve the project is.  But make no mistake, Blackbraid are at the forefront of black metal right now, like it or not.  You can either keep up or get out of the way.

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Majesties – Vast Reaches Unclaimed

Opinions are sharply divided on this one, but I will maintain what I’ve always maintained: Vast Reaches Unclaimed is more than just an exercise in nostalgia.  It is inspired by the 90s Gothenburg melodeath that this album is based on, but it is not merely derivative of it.  It’s Tanner, Carl and Matthew’s love letter to the music that ignited a passion in them, but it’s from that inspiration that they elevate the music they make and help it to take on a life of its own.  Vast Reaches Unclaimed is an album that would end up on this list no matter what inspired it, because it is great all on its own, not merely because it hearkens back to a previous musical era.  The riffs, the solos, the melodies and the execution speak for themselves and stand on their own merits, and what merits they are.

Another stellar review from Vince and another stellar interview from Buke.

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Panopticon – The Rime of Memory

By now you already know that this is not my overall album of the year.  However, as far as metal goes, it’s hard to beat new Panopticon, and this rightfully takes the cake for the best that heavy music had to offer this year.  I wasn’t about to get surprised by this one like I was with And Again Into the Light, so I purposely left the number one spot on my list open as soon as this album was announced.  And I’m so glad I did, because of course I got surprised again.  Every time I say out loud that Austin’s music can’t get better, it does, but the leap going into The Rime of Memory has to be the largest one of all, or at least since Social Disservices into Kentucky.  The production game has stepped up immensely, which serves to deftly highlight all the work Austin has put into his music and lyrics.  This is the most aggressive, the most haunting, the most beautiful and the most intense Panopticon has sounded (yet).  The highest praise I can give for this album is that the 75 minute runtime never feels like 75 minutes.  I just want to start it over again.

Our final regular Audio Thing of the year was a discussion on this album, featuring the glorious return of Anton “The Fighting Fin” Zyklonius.

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Lunar Chamber – Shambhallic Vibrations

This is the EP of all time.  I cannot remember the last time a short release like this knocked the wind out of me, but this definitely did.  A wild and unpredictable ride from the get go, Shambhallic Vibrations blends prog, tech and death metal with esoteric mysticism, Buddhist thinking and stellar individual performances from a supergroup of the most talented musicians going currently.  I have listened to this endlessly since it came out, and that’s not going to stop just because the year is over.  It is my fervent hope that we get a full-length from Lunar Chamber in the coming year, because it will almost certainly appear again on this site one year from today.

This EP also gave me an opportunity to write about a unique drink pairing.  Check it out here!

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I wouldn’t say that’s a wrap for 2023, because you know I can’t help myself.  There might be a little more coming, but this is the big one.  These albums meant a lot to me, and I think looking over this list one more time, I can tell one thing about 2023: this is the first year in a long time that I didn’t find myself wishing it was over from the very start.  Despite the fact that it had more intense downs than ever, it helps that I was never alone going through it, and in the end I feel the least disconnected that I’ve felt in forever.  And that gives me a lot of hope for the future.  As for the metal scene, 2024 is unwritten, but it already looks like a lot of killer acts are lining up their shots for the top spots.  Stay tuned, because we’re gonna be hitting the ground running over here.

— Ian