What a year for heavy music! Any year in which my two favorite bands (Enslaved and Panopticon) both release a full-length is bound to be a good one, but not including those there was still so much going on to give us a respite from the horrors of the world. 2023 was also my first full year as a member of the Nine Circles crew, and I got the chance to review about 30 albums by my count — most of which were pretty good! It ended up being a great year for me personally too, and right from the start there’s been a fantastic soundtrack to accompany me along the way. Locking in a list this year ended up being fairly easy, so let’s descend into my picks for 2023.

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Honorable Mentions

For the honorable mentions section in my best of 2022 list I chose three artists who shared the trait of a very prolific year, so in keeping with the theme of… well, a theme, I’ve chosen two melodic black metal bards that share in ensuring the flame of castle metal burns bright with sword and axe (at least until the next Obsequiae album graces our ears, perhaps).

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Astu is the debut EP from mysterious solo project Kaikkivaltias, a raw but very promising slab of black/heavy metal. Soaring leads and dungeon synth interludes against a backbone of more traditional heavy metal riffage make for an impeccable atmosphere and a great first release from this act. As I said the production is quite raw (especially the vocals) and probably too much for some, but sounding like it was recorded in a decrepit castle dungeon adds a hefty degree of charm. Similar to how I referred to Calderum back in my mid-year roundup there’s a lot of bands doing a lo-fi medieval aesthetic these days, but few are rising to this level of melody and songwriting (as well as riding the line between goofy and serious effectively). The lead that carries throughout closer “Valtakuntani siluetti laskevan ilta-auringon syleilyssä II” especially is equal parts epic and beautiful — I can’t wait to hear more from this project in the future.

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Weald and Woe’s sophomore album For the Good of the Realm is another piece of melodic beauty that I’ve had in pretty constant rotation since it dropped back in September. For anyone desperately craving Obsequiae-style melodicism, look no further. From “Bless the Stone” all the way through “Rite of Thorns” there’s a bountiful feast of melody to indulge in here — supporting the leads is a foundation of chord-heavy black metal to make you’re still headbanging the entire time. I even got the chance to see the band perform live back in October, and the majesty of the music translated perfectly to the physical realm. If Astu comes from a dark castle dungeon, For the Good of the Realm is a column of knighted cavalry charging into the foes of the light. A truly glorious experience.

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The Best

9. Hellripper — Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags

I’ve talked a lot of shit about speed/thrash metal-adjacent stuff for a while, but twice in a row my doubts have been laid to waste with the album that starts my list at #9. James McBain’s music would be solid if he just stuck to blistering three-minute headbangers, but what sets Hellripper apart from the rest of the black/speed metal world is the adventurousness in extended songwriting; from that oh-so catchy melody that pops in halfway through “The Nuckalevee” to the epic final minutes of closer “Mester Stoor Worm” Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags is filled to the brim with songs both well-written and deliciously fun. To top it all off there’s the glorious bagpipes in the title track, undoubtedly one of the best moments of the entire year — and of course “Goat Vomit Nightmare” to take the cake for song title of the year.

Check out Chris’s review here.

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8. Fathomage — Autumn’s Dawn, Winter’s Darkness

I had a feeling when making my mid-year recap list that Autumn’s Dawn, Winter’s Darkness would end up making the cut, and lo and behold it did. Here Fathomage takes inspiration from some of my favorite bands — the majestic synths of Caladan Brood, atmospheric riffs akin to Wolves in the Throne Room, and acoustic interludes a la Panopticon — and ties all these aspects together with devastating, heavy, yet oft-melodic riffs. “The Majesty and Beauty of a Fallen World” and “Light of the Eternal Dawn” are two of the best examples of this, expertly contrasting mountains of distorted chords with lush symphonic elements. Every metal track is at or near 10 minutes making each a journey in their own right, but if you have the patience I can assure you the trek is well worth it. Being entirely self-produced is a major accomplishment as well, as each and every aspect of the sound is balanced and comes through clearly. Autumn’s Dawn, Winter’s Darkness rises far above and beyond the mantle of mere Summoning clone or yet another nature-inspired atmospheric black metal band as might be expected at first glance, instead showcasing a real vision that translates into a beautiful ode to the natural world.

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7. Majesties — Vast Reaches Unclaimed

The early work of Gothenburg acts like In Flames and Dark Tranquillity is neither something that I grew up listening to nor has ever been very interesting to me, so I came to Vast Reaches Unclaimed as an Obsequiae and Inexorum fan. To see the minds behind two of the best current bands in melodic black(-ish) metal coming together for some old-school melodeath had me very excited to say the least, and the final product did not disappoint. There’s hints of the trio’s other bands throughout, but Majesties is a project that stands all on its own. A nonstop barrage of great riffs and immaculately-crafted songwriting, Vast Reaches Unclaimed is everything I could’ve hoped for. I have to give a special shoutout to Carl Skildum’s lyrics too, their depictions of distant realms and powers beyond our comprehension are really poignant. At only 38 minutes it’s the shortest album on my list, and not a single second is wasted; no riff or solo ever overstays its welcome, but neither is any song a blurry jumble of disconnected ideas. This album sounds exactly like what it is — three friends coming together to reignite a long-lost flame and bring it into a new and bright future.

Check out Vincent’s review here and Buke’s interview here.

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6. Moonlight Sorcery — Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle

Moonlight Sorcery’s debut Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity ended up topping my 2022 list and with another year to digest it is probably my favorite EP of all time, so to say their impending first full-length had me excited was another understatement. With a cleaner production job and a sound a little less rooted in black metal as a whole Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle wasn’t exactly what I hoped for, but is nevertheless a fantastic album. Inflecting more power metal bombast, technical riffage, and an even greater dose of shredding guitar solos to the preestablished sound of Frozen Eternity and Nightwind: The Conqueror from the Stars, this album sees Moonlight Sorcery continuing to expand their sound — in ways unexpected, but entirely welcome on songs like the pensive “Yönsilmä,” the whimsical instrumental “The Moonlit Dance of the Twisted Jester’s Blood-Soaked Rituals,” or the ballad-like penultimate track “Into the Silvery Shadows of Night.” Following these new titans of melodic black metal from only just after the first music dropped has been a tremendous experience so far, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Check out my review here and my written interview here.

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5. Wayfarer — American Gothic

American Gothic is Wayfarer at their most realized. I’ve been closely following the band since World’s Blood in 2018, and while that album and 2020’s A Romance with Violence are both fantastic in their own right, it felt like they were inching closer and closer to something bigger — this year we finally got it. A self-proclaimed “funeral for the American Dream,” this album surveys the wreckage left behind by the conquest of the frontier and asks if the genocide of Manifest Destiny was worth it just to give the spoils to “oil drillers and railroad barons.” From 9-minute epic “The Cattle Thief” and “To Enter My House Justified” — one of the tightest and best-written songs I’ve heard this whole year — to melancholic closer “False Constellation,” American Gothic is absolutely drenched in authentic, dark atmosphere. Musically the band have mostly moved beyond the post-black crescendos of past work, and I’m not even sure how to best describe the album genre-wise; melodic atmoblack, gothic black/folk… New American Folk Metal? Whatever you want to call it, American Gothic is the new standard of truly American metal, tattered, bloodstained flag and all.

Check out Chris’s review here and our Album of the Month podcast here.

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4. Vosbúð — Heklugjá

One of my favorite albums of 2023 came out in the first week and I didn’t even discover it until almost halfway through the year! Heklugjá is the sophomore album from self-described “Volcanic Black Metal” duo Vosbúð, hailing from (you guessed it) Iceland. Mostly breaking from the dissonant, technical black metal style the country is most well-known for, the music of Vosbúð is atmospheric black metal with a triumphant, pagan edge that comes through in the form of acoustic passages, echoing “viking” clean vocals, and just the right amount of melody. The best way I could describe this album is as if Eld-era Enslaved and Wolves in the Throne Room booked some studio time together in Iceland, and Quorthon showed up to give some songwriting tips. The production is fairly rough and unpolished, yet serves to give the album a smoldering atmosphere. These songs certainly take their time — five tracks, 63 minutes — but are linear in structure, weaving effortlessly between eruptions of layered chords and blast beats, fiery leads, and moments of calmer reflection. Each new riff builds upon the last like an island-forming volcano, resulting in five monolithic pieces of black metal. If some unshipped merch and lack of communication since the album’s release is any indication Vosbúð might already be dormant, but regardless Heklugjá is a massive achievement from a self-produced project.

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3. Enslaved — Heimdal

My favorite band only reaching #3 is not just a testament to how good my top two picks are, but to Enslaved themselves after 30+ years and now sixteen full-length albums. Heimdal will always have a special place in my heart since I got the opportunity to review it and interview drummer/vocalist Iver Sandøy (two things I could’ve only dreamed of upon first joining Nine Circles), but even outside of those experiences it’s an epic album. Steeped in the mythology of the titular Norse god and featuring new advances in Enslaved’s ever-evolving sound — the layered black metal fury of “Congelia” and that song’s epic conclusion, the rímur-backed chugs of “Kingdom,” the conclusion of the title track that ties into the 2021 Caravans to the Outer Worlds EP in a way that gives me chills every time I hear it — Heimdal is arguably the strongest Enslaved album thematically to date, and cements this lineup as the definitive one. I don’t need to wax poetic about this album much more than I already did around the time of release, so I’ll end with this: like its subject, Heimdal guides the listener and humanity towards an unknown future, and I’m eternally grateful to my favorite band for bringing us along for the ride.

Check out my review here, Buke and I’s interview with Iver Sandøy here, and our Album of the Month podcast here.

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2. Panopticon — The Rime of Memory

For some reason every time a new Panopticon release is incoming I have some degree of doubt as to whether Austin Lunn can do much to improve on his established sound, and every time these doubts are cast aside like a sapling in the face of an avalanche. The Rime of Memory is a new landmark in the Panopticon discography — one that already contains two of my favorite albums of all time — an album filled to the brim with so many incredible moments. The strings-led intro, “loon doom,” and angelic choir of “Winter’s Ghost.” The monumental conclusion of “Cedar Skeletons,” which still hits as hard as the first listen every time I hear it. The triumphant bells and Windir-esque melody of “Enduring the Snow Drought” and its extended instrumental second half. These moments and so much more are drawn together by the compositional instincts of America’s finest black metal musician, in performances greatly enhanced by violin and cello collaborators Charlie Anderson and Patrick Urban as well as Spenser Morris’ best production job since he began working with Austin. Akin to Vast Reaches Unclaimed this album often feels like a group of friends working together, which the many guest performances on The Rime of Memory make it out to be. The publishing of lyrics for the first time since 2012’s Kentucky is much-welcomed, and gives the whole theme of aging and environmental decay that much more depth. The Panopticon fire is now burning brighter than ever.

Check out our Album of the Month podcast here.

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1. Dødheimsgard — Black Medium Current

There’s many reasons why I love Black Medium Current, but what cements it as my album of the year is how surprised I was by it. Enslaved and Panopticon being among my favorites was a given, but when I sat down to listen to it back in April I had no idea what would be in store. 2015’s A Umbra Omega was an album I enjoyed quite a bit at the time, but my tastes have mostly strayed away from that level of avant-garde weirdness. Dødheimsgard had cast my doubts aside after just the opening track “Et smelter,” with its fusion of more traditional black metal riffs, spacey keyboards and effects, and a synth-rock finale complete with a bluesy guitar solo. That’s not to say Black Medium Current isn’t a weird album, as it certainly is — just listen to industrial dance beats of “Interstellar Nexus” — but there’s a lot of restraint shown here, with every new idea given time to grow and develop. The secret sauce that ties every element of Black Medium Current together is the vocals of songwriter and frontman Vicotnik; from the softness of the opener, the “woah-ohs” of “Tankespinnerins smerte,” the pure venom in “It Does Not Follow” or the furious blackened opening of “Det tomme kalde mørke,” through to the refrain of “Abyss Perihelion Transit” (“blame it on the surface”) that I feel is the climax of the entire album, he gives a varied and emotional performance. Combine this with riffs both atmospheric and melodic where they need to be and immaculate production that showcases every sonic quality on display you have a vulnerable, beautiful piece of music that by the end gives the impression of drifting off into the black abyss of space — with perhaps a glimmer of hope being carried on the solar winds.

Check out my review here.

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Since 2024 is an American election year — and the cracks in the global empire are definitely showing — things are bound to be hysterical, infuriating, embarrassing, some mix of the three, and no doubt some other negative emotion I can’t properly articulate yet. But at least we’ve still got metal to get us through. Aside from a few albums already on the horizon (Vemod, Spectral Voice, Darkspace) I’m not sure what the year will bring aside from hints and presumptions, but if it’s half as good as what 2023 gave us we’re in for a real treat. I’m also eagerly awaiting the opportunity to be able to check off an entry on my bucket list and see a Panopticon metal show for the first time, and if I’m extra lucky it’ll be one of the Roads to the North 10th anniversary shows. Stay safe and healthy, and keep your loved ones close.

Don’t be afraid to bleed, don’t be afraid to dream.

— Colin