Jan 2, 2024
Part 1 (of 2) of my 50 Best Albums of 2023! My #2 album is STORTREGN (Switzerland), album - Finitude. Next week my #1 album!
0:25-5:26
ÚLFÚÐ (Iceland),
album - Of Existential Distortion (Black)
song - Faceless
— According to bandcamp, pronounced
“ool-wooth”. Vocals that shake the world, romantic black
metal guitars create meditation with a bit of death leaning
dissonance also in the album. Each song becomes a world.
7:18-13:21
UNCAVED
(Switzerland), album – Dogmatorraistes (Death)
song - La Propagande
— Debut album. Proggy death
that borders on experimental jazz, and sinister, grim guitars that
circle like vultures.
13:54-17:20
RUIN LUST (NYC),
album – Dissimulant (Black and Death)
song - Imperium
— Burning guitar tone, tumbling
chaotic pace, and a storm of thorns.
17:49-21:50
AFTERBIRTH (NY),
album - In But Not Of (Death, Modern)
song - Devils With Dead
Eyes
— Realism mixed with fantastical and
unbelievable, otherworldly musicianship. My best Modern Death
in 2020, and this is another achievement. Psychedelic grind, raging
and melodic pops.
22:13-27:53
NEXORUM (Norway),
album - Tongue of Thorns (Black, Modern)
song - Eldritch
Abominations
— Haunting black metal, melancholy
beauty and tremelo intensity leading into whopping
riffs.
28:27-35:45
NIGHT DEMON (CA),
album – Outsider (Retro)
song – The Wrath
— This band is led by a stunning
vocalist that does battle with any of the Swedish greats in this
beautiful 70’s and 80's heavy metal style with amazing ballads.
Tons of groove and soul.
36:09-40:42
DEMON KING (TN),
album – Vesania (Death)
song – Worshipping the Idols of the
Insane
— Members of Inferi in a tight,
intense fury of speed and death and breathtaking complexity of
magical guitar fingers.
41:04-46:41
FROZEN DAWN (Spain),
album - The Decline of the Enlightened Gods (Black,
Melodic)
song – Mystic Fires of Dark
Allegiance
— Epic melodic black with immense
amounts of thrash groove, wild guitar licks, tight
production.
47:03-52:21
VILE RITUAL (MD),
album - Caverns of Occultic Hatred (Death)
song – Living Hell
— Cavernous death churns out seething
venom with proggy meditative melodies.
52:48-57:18
NECROFIER (TX),
album - Ensemble Burning Shadows in the Southern Night
(Black)
song – Whispers That Burn in the
Dark
— Blistering, badass black metal
debut with a blast of thrash, pummeling riffs and beautiful guitar
solos.
57:46-1:02:33
SERPENT OF OLD
(Turkey), album - Ensemble Under the Dark Sun (Death,
Melodic)
song – Idiosyncrasy
— Melodic death that is complex and
groovy and filled with tremendous riffs and epic pinnacles.
1:02:59-1:10:57
CH'AHOM (Germany),
album - Knots of Abhorrence (Black and Death)
song – Chavín de Huántar
— Debut album. Tribal, fervent,
swarming primordial death and black. An acid trip of creeping
experimentation.
1:11:21-1:14:27
ASTRALBORNE (Ohio),
album - Across the Aeons (Death, Melodic)
song – Skybreaker
— Magic guitars that harmonize and
solo in an epically large death metal all about shredding and
pummeling, with a touch of some folky-melodic threads in the
distance for more texture.
1:15:00-1:19:50
TEITAN
(Netherlands), album - In Oculus Abyss (Black,
Modern)
song – Murder Me
— Murky alien mutterings in an
inconceivable landscape off-kilter tempos, psychedelic avant-garde
meanderings, and peppered with lovely nostalgic
compositions.
1:20:19-1:23:42
REBAELLIUN (Brazil),
album - Under The Sign Of Rebellion (Death)
song – Hostile Presence
— Flowing haired, hot Brazilian
intricate and extremely groovy death.
1:24:19-1:29:28
PUTRASCENSION (NJ),
album - Forever Below (Black)
song – Stillness
— A supergroup from a number of other
bands, like Replicant and Tombs. Instruments constantly
outdoing each other, with a werewolf singer in a chomping black
metal.
1:29:58-1:35:56
ABYSSAL RIFT (OH),
album - Extirpation Dirge (Death, Modern)
song – The Rune
— Blistering and weird, with a
lava-heated singer creating atmospheric before you die.
1:36:25-1:40:43
AVOWD (Chicago),
album - Vol.1 (Black)
song – Spectre of Nadezhda
— A scrape of surreal vocal in a fury
of suspense, horror and noise that imprint
forever.
1:41:20-1:45:24
CARNOSUS (Sweden),
album - Visions Of Infinihility (Death)
song – Ossein Larcenist
— A proggy dance with limbs flailing,
until it mashes to a blast-beated death and thrash, a tumbling
avalanche of vocals, and proggy guitar compositions.
1:45:45-1:50:11
FAGUS (Germany),
album – Inter (Black, Melodic)
song – Aurora
— You try saying this band name out
loud. Their black metal gently cradles, and compositions
enrapture with snarling vocals.
1:50:28-1:55:31
GOROD (France),
album – Orb (Death, Modern)
song – We Are the Sun Gods
— French perfection in technical and
production continues with Gorod. Opeth-styled prog beauty
with a spectrum of rage and glorious guitars.
1:55:55-2:00:19
FORGOTTEN SUNRISE
(Estonia), album – Elu (Industrial)
song – Meating 808
— Classic industrial with
experimental and sound effects, and modern death twists. But
still danceable!
2:00:53-2:05:22
DEN EDELE DOOD
(Netherlands), album - Het vlammende zwaard en de verschroeide
aarde (Black, Modern)
song – De Spaarzame Spranken Licht In
Uw Duisternis Zullen Wij Ontnemen
— A Gnawing Their Tongues project,
prolific under many different project names. Swarming
nightmare effects, textural suffocation, a single thread of melodic
underpinning. It is magical.
2:05:53-2:10:59
BIZARREKULT
(Norway), album - Den Tapte Krigen (Black,
Melodic)
song – Du Lovet Meg
— Post-black melodic plays with
contrasts, rasped and rough, strummed and fury, slow builds and
unexpected.
2:11:45-END
#2 album, STORTREGN
(Switzerland), album - Finitude (Black and
Death)
song – A Lost Battle Rages
On
— A best of 2021 band, Stortregn
continues their galaxy driven, textured heavy technical death,
melodic psychedelic black proggy blast. A perfect blend of
technical proggy death and melodic psychedelic black with an
excellent chilling vocalist. Incredible
production.