Albums of 2023

 

Here are my top 15 albums of the year. I combined the Metal/Punk with the None-Metal 5's. 

Clearly, when history is being made bands create amazing music. I do not remember giving so many bands fives or fours. Over the last few years, I've noticed so many new bands being created. 

I grade albums on a 1-5 scale. One being the worst and five being the best. I also use in between numbers. I include every album I listened to in 2023. I will start with the best albums to the worst. I have also split my album list into "Metal" and "Non-Metal". I grade music based on: style of music, musicianship, lyrics, album art, mixing and production. By now no one should be surprised at how picky I am with my music selection.

Also, I don't include eps or demos. Because I rarely listen to those unless it's a band I love i.e. Undergang. Or it's a band that doesn't have a full length yet i.e. Avowd. 

Please note this is just my opinion. 

*Drum roll please* 

The Album of 2023 goes to Gravesend!!!

Here's the Gravesend album. 

I was torn between Gravesend and Rotten Sound. 2023 was an awful year for me. The only good thing that occurred in 2023 was my engagement to Ryan. Otherwise, I worked too much, people were super rude and constantly tried to try me, or my friends. In 2023, I listened to mostly grind and black metal because I was either very angry or very nihilist. If you combine black metal and grindcore, the result is WARMETAL!!  

I am a person who values human rights above all and seeing the horrors going on in the world is only transforming me back into the angry human I used to be. I'm going back to being very outspoken yet cynical. I did not want people to accuse me of favoritism, even though I think that Gravesend and Rotten Sound should be tied for AOTY. So I made the decision to support a fantastic band from my area! See, adhd people are very capable of making choices. Thank you very much. And thank you Gravesend for helping me not murder someone from how disrespectful humans have been lately. I am too pretty to go to jail, but some people need to learn that they can't run their mouth and say homophobic, transphobic, racist shit or hit animals. "Gowanus Death Stomp" represents my frustrations with humanity. This album and Rotten Sound's "Apocalypse" is like free therapy.  If you don't have a therapist go listen to these two albums now. I do have a therapist and I still listened to these albums several times this year. "Gowanus Death Stomp" is short and sweet. It's the perfect album. Gravesend finally perfected their sound. With "Methods of Disposal" I liked everything, but the production. Gravesend finally nailed the production. It's gritty but also clear. The drums are loud, but they don't over power. The instruments and vocals flow together. 

Metal and Punk: 

5

Everything is perfect! Holy crap what an album! 

2. Rotten Sound-Apocalypse 

3. Revulsed-Cerebral Contamination 

4. Torsofuck-Past Partum Ecstasy 

5. Dødheimsgard-Black Medium Current 

6. Autopsy-Ashes, Organs, Blood, and Crypts

7. Jarhead Fertilizer-Carceral Warfare 

8. Tomb Mold-The Enduring Spirt 

9. Inhuman Depravation-Servants of Supremacy 

10. Cruciamentum-Obsidian Refractions 

11. God Disease-Apocalyptic Death 

12. Afterbirth-In But Not Of 

13. Birdflesh-Sickness in the North 

14. Vastum-Inward to Gethsemane 

15. Cranial Bifurcation-Evisceration Formula 

16. Milking the Goatmachine-Neue Platte 

17. Church of the Dead-Beyond Death 

18. Putred-Repulsive Post-Mortem 

19. Verninmous Serpent-The Malign Covenant

20. Thantifaxath-Hive Mind Narcosis 

21. Thulcandra-Hail the Abyss 

22. Primoridal-How it Ends 

23. Ringworm-Seeing Through Fire 

24. Rytmihäirio-Surmacore

25. Sanguisugabogg-Homicidal Ecstasy 

26. Mournful Congregation-The Exuviae of Gods Pt. 2 

27. Dead Talks-Veneration of the Dead

28. Gel-Only Constant

29. Jesus Piece-...So Unknown

30. Endseeker-Global Warming 

31. Enforced-War Remains 

32. Crypta-Shades of Sorrow 

33. Enslaved-Heimdal 

34. Insomnium-Anno 1696

35. Marianas Rest-Auer 

36. Scar Symmetry-The Singularity 

37. Baroness-Stone 

38. Blood Ceremony-The Old Ways Remain

39. Smoulder-Violent Creed of Vengeance 

40. Arkona-Kob 

41. Sabaton-Stories from the Western Front (My brother just told me this was an ep, but to me it's as long as an album.) 

Re-recorded albums/Collabs/Splits that are also 5

• Pryexia-System of the Animal  
• Full of Hell & Primitive Man-Suffocation Hallucinations
• Glavanzier/Morbific Split 
• Crawl/Feral Split 

4.5

Potential to be a 5 but the production or mixing is off to me. Or something is missing to make it a five. 

• Extermination Dismemberment-Dehumanized Protocol
• Snuffed on Sight-Smoke
• Goatburner-Fatal 
• Grand Cadaver-Deities of Deathlike Sleep 
• Guts- Decay
• Dying Fetus-Make Them Beg for Death 
• Epicaricacy-Clinging to Misery 
• Kraanium-Scriptures of Vicennial Defilement 
• Harms Way-Common Suffering 
• Suffocation-Hyms From the Apocrypha 
• Coffin Mulch- Spectral Intercession 
• Sanctuarium-Into the Mephitic Abyss 
• Runemagick-Beyond the Cenotaph
• Saturnus-The Storm Within 
• Ahab-The Coral Tombs 
• Demoncy-Black Star Gnosis 
• Marduk-Memento Mori
• The Crawling-All of This For Nothing 

4

Not quiet a 5. But definitely not average. 

• All Out War-Celestial Rot 
• Bandit-Siege of Self 
• Brujeria-Esto Es Brujeria 
• Frozen Soul-Glacial Domination 
• Abraded-Unadulterated
• Vomitory-All Heads are Gonna Roll 
• Wretched Fate-Carnal Heresy
• Outer Heaven-Infinite Psychic Depths 
• Horrendous-Ontological Mysterium
• Kalmankantaja-Kohti Valon Kuolemaa
• Kaunis-Kuolematon-Mielenvalta
• Night Crowned-Tales
• Taake-Et Have Av Avstand
• Tjuder-Helvegr
• Skàlmöld-Ýdalir 
• Void Ceremony-Threads of Unknowing 
• Blut Aus Nord-Disharmonium-Nahab
• Sulpher Aeon-Seven Crowns and Seven Seals 
• Cattle Decapitation-Terrasite (Better than the last 4 albums they've made.) 
• Stam1na-X
• Kamelot-The Awakening
• Powerwolf-Interludium 
• Panopticon-The Rime of Memory 

3.5 

Above average, but still needs some more work. 

• Necroticgorebeast-Repugnant
• Wormhole-Almost Human
• Memoriam-Rise to Power 
• Racetraitor-Creation and the Timeless Order of Things 
• Aeternus-Philospher
• And Oceans-As in Gardens, So in Tombs
• Bell Witch-Future's Shadow Pt.: The Clandestine Gate
• Within Temptation-Bleed Out ( Would have been a 5, but they decided to do AI art instead of hiring an artist.) 

3

Average. Good. What I have come to expect from these bands. 

• Incantation-Unholy Deification
• Cannibal Corpse-Chaos Horrific
• Obituary-Dying of Everything
• Kalmah-Kalmah
• Cadaver-The Age of the Offended ( Would have been a 3.5 if the album didn't have a cringe title.)
• Creeping Death-Boundless Domain
• End-The Sin of Human Frality
• Keep of Kalessin-Katharsis
• Kveletak-Endling
• NervoChaos-Chthonic Wrath 
• Cardinal's Folly- Live By the Sword 
• Cruachan-The Living Dead 
• Elvenking-Reader of the Runes 
• Solemn Vision-Despite the Rise of the Sun 

2.5

I can tell the artist or band is trying. 

• In Flames-Foregone

2

A for effort. But these albums do not spark joy in me. 

• Mercenary-Soundtrack to the End of Times 
• Cryptopsy-As Gamorrah Burns 
• Blackbraid-Blackbraid II

1

"Oh baby what is you doing?!" Such a disaster. Whose idea was it to release this? The material on these albums should have been reworked. Music is all over the place. I have no idea what is going on. 

• Gridlink-Coronet Juniper (Grind should not sound like this. Bandit isn't false Grind. This is.) 
• Liturgy-93696 (Literally sounds like a middle school Varsity band warming up.)
• Hatesphere-Hatred Reborn
• Svalbard-The Weight of The Mask (Not folk metal, not metalcore. It's both and therefore garbage.) 

Non-Metal 

There are bands included in here who have changed their sound or are a different genre. 

• Xysma-No Place Like Home 5
• Gunship-Unicorn 5
• Osi and Jupiter- Cedar & Sage (Riders of the Gallows Vol.1) 5 
• Dance With the Dead- Out of Body 5
• Fever Ray-Radical Romantics 4.5
• Katatonia-Sky Void of Stars 4.5 
• Fordom-Alster (Piano Version) 4.5
• Kauan-ATM Revised 4.5
• LP-Love Lines 4.5
• Lumsk-Åsmund Frægdegjevar 4.5 
• Liv Kristine-River of Diamonds 4 
• Megadrive-200XAD 4