Top 20 Albums of 2023 by Saxy S

While I did embrace much more of my rock/metal side this year, black metal became a bit of an outlier as being too far off the rails from the mainstream alternative, progressive and metalcore. But with a new Fen album, I had to leap at the opportunity and wow I'm glad I did. This feels like the culmination of the atmospheric bliss of Winter combined with the progressive pivot of The Dead Light, while also producing some of the bands heaviest material to date; fitting to match the subject matter.

Thank goodness Ne Obliviscaris took their time with this one because I was extremely nervous after Urn. The new album, Exul revived my faith in this band by proving that they weren't just a one-trick-pony with their heavier emphasis on progressive death metal this time around. As always, the main attractions are the performances with the polyphony between the clean and harsh vocals that sound better than ever, the excellent melody and soloing of the guitar and violin, the prominent bass lines and the pummeling drums. Songwriting is also about as good as it has ever been.

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard suffer by having a discography that is relentless in its output. But for some reason, this album shows off the groups psychedelic side over a progressive thrash framework and it seems to work the best for their sound. The large focus on heavier tones and progressive compositions means that the instrumentals aren't drone psychedelic and boring. Long songs have a sense of purpose and the vocals, while inconsequential, have a stellar presentation.

While I still really don't "get" djent music and its incessant "rhythm over melody" approach to songwriting, I was thoroughly impressed by the new TesseracT album War of Being. The songwriting is in pristine form with the inclusion of some of the bands best songs of their career. And all of the instrumental elements are complimentary to the forms rather than serving the base purpose of rhythmic virtuosity found throughout metalcore and djent. These progressive giants are in peak form and their is no sign of slowing down with this!

Haken found themselves back on the upswing in 2023, doing what got me into Haken in the first place: having fun. Fauna has its fair share of sparkling moments and was surprisingly catchy. I hope they stay on this path in the future.

Black metal did not get a very much love from me this year due to scheduling changes, but when I did embark into some there were some highlights; none more so than Saguenay's own Bludgeon Oath. I was impressed by not just the timbre, but also the songwriting. The album opens with ten-and-a-half minutes that is well constructed and performed. The remainder of the album is rather short, but that is a testament to the groups self-control.

Horrendous are a band that I've struggled with over the years. And so, it may be in character for me to say the bands most progressive album is easily their best. This record loses much of the death metal and starts to develop what I can only describe as a thrash metal Opeth with slower, groovier tempos, while also invoking wide timbre of sounds that all feel developed. The long songs feel deserved and the simpler ideas compliment the more progressive songwriting.

A great follow-up to Limbo sees Ok Goodnight venturing into concept album territory and while it might not hit the mark in all the right places, the band has certainly refined a sound that works and it shows off in some special ways here. The group is also not afraid to step out of the shadows for some unconventional moments, and for the most part, they fit not only the bands sound, but also the concept of the album

My 2023 saw a deeper dive into the world of technical/brutal death metal and while the results were not astonishing, Wormhole surprised me with some pummeling brutal death, but still managing to maintain some semblance of creativity in the songwriting. Almost Human's melodic moments compliment the intensity instead of feeling like progressive side shows.

Like with Periphery, Night Verses new album is a well balanced record between its heavy, aggressive moments, and the softer, post-rock. Instrumentals don't feel like avenues for endless guitar solos and the rest of the performances are excellent as well.

When looking for thrash metal, it can be tough pickings. Malleus are making unabashed blackened thrash metal and it works oh so well! If you enjoy the more dank side of 80s thrash from Slayer/Hellhammer, then you'll enjoy this modern twist on it.

Periphery came back in 2023 with some really melodic djent/progressive metalcore and was likely my most listened to record of the year. This album is heavy and relentless at time, but complimented well with some excellent softer moments.

I finally decided to bite the bullet this year and listen to more mainstream metalcore and I struggled to enjoy most of it. However, Dying Wish are an impressive new spin on the genre, while still retaining a clear influence/nostalgia for the mid 2000s sound.

Gateway albums are sparse this year, despite listening to a lot more of them this year. My favourite of the bunch is by Klone. I found it to be an enjoyable piece of Katatonia worship, but with enough variation to make it stand out.

Doom-y sludge metal with a healthy dose of uncomfortable mixing through the vocals and the constant guitar buzzing. This album gets away with it though, by balancing it out with some solid songwriting techniques.

In terms of hook-y thrash metal, there are very few bands that can combine these ideas together as strongly as Enforced. This album has some super memorable moments through the heavy shout choruses, and guitar solos. The aggressiveness is relenting, but never for its own sake.

I'm not the most keen on the super extreme side of death metal, but I can tell when it is done well and Lunar Chamber's debut EP is done exceptionally well. The balancing is very nice as each instrumental part compliments the mix rather than overpowers it. The prominent bass is always a welcome sound, and the almost thirteen minute doom like closer is oh so powerful with hints of Ahab and that's high praise.

The newest Aviations album is technically impressive, progressively ambitious project. I really enjoy how the different styles blend together while still maintaining a sense of groundedness, It's also a record not ashamed of its instrumental proficiency, but never feels overindulgent.

This feels like a well crafted hybrid of the melodic side of Allegaeon, combined with the technical sides of Revocation/Vektor. If more technical thrash/death metal sounded closer to this, I would probably enjoy the genres a lot more.

Insomnium continue to impress since 2016 and the new record shows off why that is the case. Great production, solid melodic ideas, impressive progressive songwriting. The acoustic and electric guitars are mixed as good as any metal album I've heard in recent years.