Another year in the books. I’m always tempted to say “down the drain” but this year has been different for me. Undoubtedly, 2023 was the hardest year of my life, but it is also the first year in a long time where I genuinely feel like I ended in a much better place than I started. My life has been enriched by new friendships, a deeper appreciation for myself, and by some truly incredible music to keep me company along the way. 2023 was one of the strongest years for heavy music I can think of in recent memory, and this is the first year in a few that building my year end list was genuinely a difficult task. There are many albums that I was actually painfully sad to see not make my cut, but alas I have not the time or inclination to be someone who publishes two or three or four lists like some of my esteemed conspirators. So, fashionably late as ever, here is what I considered to be the cream of the crop for 2023.
Honorable Mentions
Death Goals – A Garden of Dead Flowers
Downfall of Gaia – Silhouettes of Disgust
Dream Unending/Worm – Starpath
Full of Hell/Nothing – When No Birds Sang
Horrendous – Ontological Mysterium
Obliti Devoravit – Under My Michigan Sky
The Winner’s Circle
9. Gridlink – Coronet Juniper
If 2023 gave us nothing else, it gave us a new Gridlink album, and that alone is something mind-blowingly good. Longhena was the swan song to end all swan songs, single-handedly the best grindcore album ever made in this writer’s humble opinion, and somehow Gridlink managed to make their comeback album just as good, made all the more poignant given that Takafumi Matsubara was slated never to grace us with his signature riffing again at one point (and has put out two albums since then). An absolute triumph and a new high water mark of the genre.
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8. Big | Brave – Nature Morte
Big | Brave are the undisputed masters of dynamics, using silence as a tool in their arsenal to offset the outrageous amounts of noise the trio can produce. Nature Morte leans more on the ambiance than previous releases, but a good ambient track has never steered me away from anything before, and it features no shortage of thick riffs along the way.
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7. Returning – Severance
Severance is an album that almost completely flew under my radar. Released in February, it wasn’t until much later that I actually managed to experience this album, and I mean what I say when I use the word ‘experience.’ Returning’s music is not just an album but a full on live theater performance set to black metal in the style of Diadem-era Wolves in the Throne Room and Skagos replete with costumes, props, and audience participation. It was a magic evening that left me in awe, and I am thankful that the accompanying soundtrack stands alone as some of the best black metal I heard in 2023.
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6. Panopticon – The Rime of Memory
There are very few words I have left to say about The Rime of Memory that I haven’t already waxed poetic about on our recent podcast episode, but my word what an incredible addition to an already towering discography. Austin’s best work since Autumn Eternal, and I’ll fight anyone who wants to fight about that point.
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5. Laster – Andermans Mijne
Oh hey, the first album on this list I actually reviewed this year. I feel like I say this every time I get the most wonderful opportunity to write up a new Laster album, but the weirdest act in black metal have outdone themselves once again. Poppy, catchy, jazzy, danceable metal that is a guaranteed good time from start to finish. Long live Obscure Dance Music.
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4. Majesties – Vast Reaches Unclaimed
The best In Flames album released in 2023. You can read more detailed thoughts of mine on the subject here, but really it’s as simple as that.
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3. Tomb Mold – The Enduring Spirit
There were a lot of very good moments in music in 2023, but very few that left my actual jaw hanging open in real life, and The Enduring Spirit was definitely one of them. I expected good things from a new Tomb Mold album because every one of their albums is good, but the absolute level-up in the four years between Planetary Clairvoyance and The Enduring Spirit is something I was not prepared for. Without sacrificing any of the teeth-baring riffs that made me fall in love with them in the first place, Tomb Mold managed to add so much to their sound that genuinely feels ‘progressive’ without succumbing to prog tendencies, making this so much more than just old-school death metal. Whip-smart and razor-sharp, this is an album that I truly cannot stop listening to.
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2. A Pregnant Light – Capacity for Living
Did these songs technically come out in 2022? Yes. Do I care? Not even in the slightest. As Damian Master, the man behind the project himself says, if you think you can do it better than this, then you do it. Remastered, re-worked with a new track order, and featuring two certified goth club bangers as bonus tracks, Capacity for Living is so much more than just a compilation album, it presents these ten songs in a way that elevates them even beyond their already incredible nature by way of keen attention to detail.
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1. Dreamwell – In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You
Taking the number one spot out from under someone else yet again, Dreamwell’s sophomore release manages to take everything that I loved about Modern Grotesque, an album that tangibly changed my life, and up the ante by injecting fresh musical elements, added emotional intensity, and a streamlined songwriting process that gels the narrative the album tells masterfully. In My Saddest Dreams is a journey of an album, a painful and poignant walk through the ugliness of mental illness, but a necessary story told by voices necessary to the heavy music scene. If you are not on board with Dreamwell already fix that or be left in the dust. This is the best album of 2023, hands down.
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That’s all folks. I’ll see you somewhere down the line. Until then, be good to each other, and don’t let the fire burn out.
— Vincent
Nine Circles 