Best of 2023

 1) Afterbirth - In But Not Of

I love brutal death metal bands... in the way that one loves corndogs. They're tasty and non-serious. You're never going to encounter an outstanding corndog, it'll just handily hit the spot now and again. Nothing too memorable or exciting. This is exactly why Afterbirth is sitting in #1 this year. This is an outstanding brutal death metal album, memorable, even profound at times. This album is the haute cuisine corndog that should not exist.

So what variables have Afterbirth tweaked in order to create such an excellent example of brutal death metal. Attributes like atmosphere, composition, pacing come to mind and while I could wax on about how these particular elements are unique here, I'd be doing the album a disservice in dissection. This is so special to me simply because I've never heard anything like it and it's so much fun to listen to. I'll be bopping my head to churning passages of gore-grind, and then all the disembodied guts will get caught in this multi-dimensional vortex in deep space. The balances of brutality and Zen on display here are truly remarkable. 

I was thinking for a moment this year that it's possible other young upstarts will listen to this and take note, be inspired to carry this sub-sub-sub-genre into something that blossoms, but I came to the eventual conclusion this is unlikely. I honestly think it takes a very unique set of individuals to harmonize violence and transcendence and this record and this band may occupy their niche alone for some time. As long as they keep writing this is fine by me.

Best of 2023

 2) Saturnus - The Storm Within

Nostalgia should be able to bring you just so far toward happiness or contentment. The reminder of a past beautiful moment is not a new beautiful moment, it's the awareness of a reverberating echo that fades over time. This reality gets complicated when a band who's been silent for 10+ years reignites a genre of music that has largely been forgotten. This record could have easily been written, recorded, and stored away in a time capsule around the year 2000. It sounds authentically death/doom from that era, an era I loved deeply.

Of course, just sounding like a record lost in time wouldn't be enough to make the list, especially this high. The Storm Within is also a deeply emotional album full of authentically fragile moments. Death/doom always faces the risk of sounding melodramatic, as if the emotions aren't quite real, that they've been dramatized for aesthetic effect. I never felt that in response to this album. As these musicians grow older they aren't forgetting the rawness of emotions of loss and the resulting confusion and discontent. In saying that I immediately feel a sense of concern for these gentlemen. I hope they simply tap into these emotions for musical inspiration and haven't been spending the last 30 years wallowing in despair. Of course I spend quite a bit of my adult life wallowing in despair, so I'm not in a position to weigh in on others' mental health. 

Best of 2023

 3) Ahab - The Coral Tombs

Ahab has been writing concept albums since they started and I've made a ritual of reading the book in the same year of their album so I can understand the lyrics, give everything context, create feedback loops between music and literature. 

This was by far the most painful of those experiences. Normally the pain would be as a result of the emotional weight of the experience, but this time was different, this time they picked a shit fucking book. I have no idea why 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is considered a classic. In it's 240 pages hardly anything happens. Nemo simply zooms from one end of the earth to the other speaking passively about the evils of man, but never giving us the source from which his hate is derived. He has such an unwavering command of his vessel he makes it clear no one is ever in any danger. Verne completely forgets danger is the fountain from which intrigue pours. His captive Aronnax watches as they zoom around and takes note of all the fish and vegetation at the bottom of the sea. That's 90% of the content of the book.

There are two compelling moments in the book. One Ahab dutifully covered, an underwater funeral complete with ritual and procession. I really enjoyed it when the images between mediums coalesced here. The other compelling moment was an experience near the south pole. The Nautilis is trapped beneath a gigantic iceberg and the crew slowly suffocates while trying to discover modes of escape. Ahab didn't include this as a track and I can't imagine why because they know how to write about suffocation (Aeons Elapse off the Giant is THE best song they've ever written).

Ultimately Ahab are fantastic songwriters, and they did successfully draw enough influence from this turd of a novel to create a compelling, charismatic, heartbreaking album. One can only imagine the quality of the resulting album if the next book is actually good.

Best of 2023

 4) Rotten Sound - Apocalypse

I took a vacation to visit my family recently. The bulk of the visit was listening to my conservative father complain about the decline of civilization. He didn't make any really compelling points, more just pointing at things like homeless people and young people with anxiety saying, "See, it's obviously getting worse." It's lazy and short-sighted and he should get a hobby.

But is the world actually in decline? Are the aggregated signals of societal health showing a positive or negative trend? Are there more or less existential threats today than in past decades or centuries?

Rotten Sound wrote this collection of grievances and observations clearly indicating their perception of decline. Although Rotten Sound is a crusty veteran grind band who've made a career of being generally negative so you shouldn't take their word for it.

My word is society has never been aligned with ideas like a greater good, or peace, or well-being, or nature preservation, or sustainability. To have the perception that it used to be and it's not anymore is self-delusion or a misinterpretation of history. To have the perception that it will eventually be aligned to those greater goals is naïve. We have always been on a sinking ship that paradoxically becomes bigger and more mechanized the more water it takes on. While I don't agree with the finger pointing Rotten Sound is doing with this album, it is a fantastic soundtrack to our perpetually sinking ship.

Best of 2023

 5) Werewolves - My Enemies Look and Sound Like Me

When I first started my job at a tech company I remember the "ice breaker" question was, "What is the weirdest food you've ever had?" At a certain point leadership at the company determined this question was too divisive, that the word "weird" made people feel less included.

I can't help but think we're losing something by taming our conversations in this way. "Weird" isn't a negative word in my opinion, our weirdness should be held close to our heart and shared whenever a person feels comfortable doing so, sometimes even when they feel uncomfortable doing so, as long as it comes from somewhere honest.

Werewolves pushes this idea to the extreme because the only word that comes to mind listening to this record is "hatred." Are there still avenues where we can express true hatred? Is hatred even a valid emotion anymore? Fuck yes is my answer. If you have a good reason to hate, go ahead and hate and share your hatred. Say something aggressive. If it turns out what you've said is too offensive for your given audience they'll let you know by ousting you from their community. This is how I believe society should work, a collection of honest people expressing themselves freely and grouping based on tribal biases. Self-censoring is lying, it's insulting your audience by pre-emptively deciding they can't handle the truth.

People aren't born weak, they are either sliced into something paper thin, or layered in armor. Werewolves is a reminder that true uncensored expression still exists and anyone who isn't afraid of the extremes of emotion should give it a spin. Those more interested in inclusivity and not ruffling feathers should avoid this one, and by extension avoid me.

Best of 2023

 6) Carnosus - Visions of Infinihility

I remember years ago begrudgingly including a thrash band on my list and then every year since I've had a thrash band here. At the start I was like "I hate thrash, but damn this good," and eventually I realized its not thrash I hate it's the popular execution of thrash, and the old thrash guys putting out boring as fuck albums.

But, when the young sink their teeth into this genre, they sometimes puncture new flesh, sometimes let new blood spurt from the wound.

Carnosus is the thrash band of 2023. Their approach is not so dissimilar from other visionary thrash from recent years, it's just taken one step further. The musicians are tied to this heritage, yet still hungry. Tons of neck breaking riffs, borrowing a little from Gojira groove, borrowing plenty from death metal contemporaries, and bringing more, more, more, in their hunger, feeding me with what I need in my undying addiction to end of year lists.

The risk is future albums. It's rare one of these thrash bands makes a future appearance, so best of luck you lovely lot of thrashers.

Best of 2023

 7) Fires in the Distance - Air Not Meant For Us

This was certainly one of my more stubborn moments of 2023. I kept seeing ridiculously positive reviews of this record, enough to cause me to listen to 30 seconds here, 30 seconds there, but I wasn't sold. There was something about the unconditional praise I didn't trust, and those little listens didn't change my mind. So I dismissed this record without much regret. Then comes the end of the year and once again I see it everywhere. It's on everyone's list. So I put my pride in short assessments I've nurtured over decades to the side and sat down for a full listen. This is a great album, it just has the uncanny ability to be unremarkable taken in little chunks. I think it has to do with how the songs are composed. Each track is quite long and uses the length to win the listener over with these long majestic passages rife with melodramatic piano backing. Each little riff on its own if dissected is quite simple, lots of palm muted pedalling without much tonal variation, but all these little parts add up to a remarkable whole.

I think what this album lacks is showmanship, and that's ultimately why I'm putting it here in my list. The musicians sound mature and they balance each other's presence so well, I found myself in deep admiration of the restraint. Of all the genres of music I've always believed metal bands have a talent for this kind of restraint, for each musician to quiet themselves in sacrifice to a greater whole, and this album is a prime example.

Best of 2023

 8) Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite

I first got into Cattle Decapitation with To Serve Man, and really only because the album art was fucking brutal. This was the same year I picked up Impaled's Mondo Medicale which had a cover so obscene the record company needed to make a "mall record store acceptable version." I was picking albums simply by looking at the cover. If it made me wretch a little, I'd drop allowance money on some new brutality. Very mature I know.

Cattle Decapitation has come a long way since 2002. I dusted off To Serve Man and while I still really enjoy the riffs and those gurgly brutal death metal vocals, it is a largely unpolished album, very much a garage rock approach to death-grind.

Terrasite is grown up big boy death-grind. The musicianship, composition, production, are all polished chrome and razor sharp. Upon saying that I can see someone walking away from that description with a negative perception toward this album. Death-grind is largely about gut slop and sewage, and it's natural to expect some rough around the edges qualities to the resulting product. I just think I'm so enamored by the journey these men have been on for the past 20 years. Their catalog is a natural evolution of getting better and better at something not even their mothers could love. They will not be remembered for this journey by anyone save a microscopic slice of death metal aficionados. Why did they keep going? Why did they try so hard? What does it feel like to succeed so completely at making perfect death-grind? Likely their answer would be "The fans." I hope we damaged few are enough to keep them going for the foreseeable future. 

Best of 2023

 9) Totenmesse - Fiktionlust

I was ready to make this review about a single individual, thinking about how much I loved the vocals on Odraza's Rzeczom and seeing the same vocalist here, but to my surprise the vocalist from Odraza is actually the guitarist on this project and the vocal duties are being handled by a man named Mold. I'm not being hard on myself for not immediately noticing the difference, but this does speak to something I'm finding as a theme in Polish black metal. It's the undeniable charisma of Polish black metal vocalists, or maybe what I'm witnessing is a little microcosm of borrowed style of delivery among a small group of friends. Whatever it is I love it. The artfully syncopated rhythms, the extremity of how far the rasps are pushed, the textures between guttural bellows and shrieks. I don't know any other metal movement pushing this hard and raw on the vocals outside of maybe the veterans of grind. There's also a stark militancy present like it's in some way influenced by Poland's communist past. I've always loved when Eastern Bloc communist culture comes crashing into boundless artful expression. I'm carrying on, but Polish black metal has been on my lists for the past few years for good reason, not only for vocals, but the passion, the stretch toward something truly extreme.

Best of 2023

 10) TORPOR - Abscission

I'm in the middle of a green pasture lit by torches and moonlight. There are men on either side of me, their strong arms hooked under my shoulders. I am being dragged through a crowd of people all yelling and spitting and carrying on. A man wearing a black hood is standing on a platform 20 paces in front of me. He walks to an iron brazier, brightly lit with fire. Aggressive contours of the hooded man's face are revealed in the relief of glowing yellow reflection and shadow. With each step I try to find words in the cacophony, but I can't find the beginning or end of any syllable, it's a guttural smear of speech. Closer, closer, I'm not fighting the direction of momentum. I'm pressed against a pine wood pole, my arms pulled backward with enough force to tear the muscle in my chest. Course, splintering rope is wrapped around my wrists behind the pole and I am spread open, heart exposed to waves of flowing hatred. I am blindfolded, the noise is louder. There is heat on my heels, for a moment comforting on the briskly cool night. Then pain as the fabric against my skin is consumed by hungry flame. Moments, moments, the fire licks up my body, cooking skin, melting fat. The sound is now coming from me, louder and stronger than the mob, but it again has no words. It is simply a noise transforming my lifesblood into wet heat and air.

I feel nothing now. I have learned nothing.