TPD 2023 Album of the Year List

The 123 best new albums released in 2023

This is my first foray into writing about the music I love. I could say it’s been a year in the making, but it might be more accurate to say that it’s been a lifetime of forty-five years in the making. Music has been an integral part of my existence, having grown up in a musical household, learning to sing and play multiple instruments at a young age, and cutting my teeth on my parents’ collection of records and 8-track tapes from the 1960s and ’70s. There’s no need for me to give my full backstory here. Suffice it to say that what I’m building on with new music this year has a solid foundation.

I’ve been making year-end lists off and on for a decade for my own enjoyment. But never have I cast such a wide net employing such an organized method to my musical madness. Interestingly, I find my musical tastes evolving, even as I’ve aged into my mid-40s, having gained a greater affinity for death metal this year, a subgenre I’ve had a tendency to shun in times past in favor of thrash, prog, doom, stoner, sludge, and atmospheric black forms of metal. With this broadened scope, one should expect to hear relatively fair representation from diverse parts of the metal world.

Also, I was intentional in casting the net across the globe geographically, not focusing solely on North America, but finding obscure gems from a majority of the continents. The US, unsurprisingly, took up the most with 58 spots, followed by the UK (12), Germany (8), and Canada (7). Scandinavia shows up strongly with five bands from Norway, five from Denmark, four from Sweden, and three from Finland. France tallied five. Russia had three. Japan, Ireland, and Switzerland contributed two each. Other countries with one band each are Australia, Turkey, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, and Mexico. These numbers include bands represented in split and collab releases.

For those tracking with me on geography, we can break down the US and Canada even further into states and provinces represented. Population centers in New York and Illinois gave eight acts each to the cause. California and Washington lent six a piece. Massachusetts had four. Ontario, Oregon, Minnesota, and Virginia each scored three, while British Columbia, Colorado, Texas, and Ohio offered two each. There were 12 other states and provinces with one.

I’ve relied on a number of sources for curation, too many to name here. This led me to listen to just under 2,300 albums this year, including singles, EPs, and LPs. Now I’m not quite so psychotic as to listen to every second of every song on every album. Picture, if you will, an internal Gong Show playing out in my head, in which I am host, the full panel of judges, and the ultimate wielder of the imaginary gong mallet. If I determine at any point in the album that it’s fruitless for me to continue listening, I strike the gong and move on to the next. Contrarywise, I may marinate on an album worthy of further listening through multiple immersive sessions. These are the albums that have solidified the top spots on the list.

In this list I will highlight only albums with run times of 30 minutes or more. Concurrently, I have published a companion post highlighting releases under 30 minutes long.

Now let’s get into the meat and potatoes of the list. The list of honorable mentions could, honestly, be as long as 600. That shows how much good music was released in 2023. It has been an outstanding year for metal. So paring down to only 123 albums (yes, only 123) has not been an easy task. As painful as it is, I am excluding some bands I count among my favorites (e.g. Metallica, Helmet, Yellow Eyes, Overkill, Evile, Dead Quiet). I am excluding new projects and side projects of artists whose work I respect immensely (e.g. Dorthia Cottrell, Phil Campbell, Dieth, Patriarchs in Black). There are very good albums that were highly rated and acclaimed on other lists (from publishers I rely upon heavily) that will not appear on my list, not because I didn’t like those albums, but because I liked other albums more.

This list has been a running one, a work in progress that I have kept consistently since January 1, 2023, so recency bias favoring albums released in the last quarter of the year is not a factor. I developed a pretty elaborate grading system that I use as I listen and I track everything on a massive spreadsheet. Needless to say, I nerd out pretty hard on this stuff and take it way too seriously, especially considering the fact that I have next to zero audience with which to share these eccentricities. Yet, here I am typing into oblivion. Surely I am striving after wind, as the Qoheleth says. But this is a cathartic outlet for me, especially now that I’m not actively making music myself.

One record label stood out in a crowded field: Magnetic Eye Records. They can boast six releases on my list, double the next highest. Pelagic Records, Church Road Records, Vendetta Records, and Ripple Music each came with three. Labels with two per include Blues Funeral Recordings (notably with two of the top five!), 20 Buck Spin, Bindrune Recordings, Metal Blade Records, Majestic Mountain Records, Heavy Psych Sounds, Argonauta Records, RidingEasy Records, I, Voidhanger Records, Stickman Records, and Translation Loss Records. A whopping 70 other labels have albums featured on the list, while 13 were independently released.

I was fortunate enough to see some of these bands live this year, including Baroness, REZN, and Blackbraid. REZN, notably, grabs two of the top four spots on the list: #4 with Silent Future, a collaboration with Mexican purveyers of space doom, Vinnum Sabbathi, and #2 with Solace. Other highlights include Tomb Mold with the best death metal album of the year at #6, The Enduring Spirit, as well as my new favorite King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard album in their very illustrious career at #13. Stephen Brodsky—who peaked last year with Cave In on Heavy Pendulum, an album that, in hindsight, is probably going to be my lasting favorite of 2022—is back with Mutoid Man’s Mutants at #18. Don’t sleep on the eccentric Exulansis and their mind-altering Overtures of Uprising at #29, and take heed to the fact that thrash lives with Gama Bomb’s latest, Bats, at #30. Black metal masters, Krallice, surprised the world with two LPs this year and both made the list (#34 and #41). I could go on for days about the rest of the list, but I won’t. I’ll end this train of thought by saying that one of the most interesting artists of the year has to be Trhä, who released 19 albums this year (three full-lengths, 11 splits, and five EPs). That’s just nuts; and, yes, I listened to them all. Machine Music did a really intriguing interview “with the delicate, powerful soul behind Trhä” here.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention the fact that a measure of my “faith” in Christian metal and rock has been restored by a couple of outstanding acts this year, namely Trébuchet SDG and Wytch Hazel. Finland’s Trébuchet SDG melds an unabashed Protestantism and blistering yet beautiful atmospheric unblack metal, landing a respectfully high spot on the list at #21 with Through the Dark Ages. The UK’s Wytch Hazel is upfront with their prodigious dual guitars, intoxicating vocal harmonies, and tasteful NWOBHM flair. But on IV: Sacrament they’re just as upfront about the Christian faith that drives them. Musically, they rival the very best of Blue Öyster Cult, clearly taking cues from progressive rock, proto-metal, and NWOBHM legends of yore. That album ranked at #58 may, with time, prove to be too low.

Without further ado, here it is.

The List

123. Telos – Delude
122. Iron Jinn – Iron Jinn
121. Ulthar – Anthronomicon + Helionomicon
120. Ritual King – The Infinite Mirror
119. Wayfarer – American Gothic
118. Thra – Forged in Chaotic Spew
117. Flashback – The Draconic Oath
116. Witching – Incendium
115. Prieuré – Le Départ
114. Melancholia – Book of Ruination
113. Crystal Coffin – The Curse of Immortality
112. Fleshvessel – Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed
111. Begravement – Horrific Illusions Beckon
110. Hellripper – Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags
109. Swan Valley Heights – Terminal Forest
108. Hail the Void – Memento Mori
107. Fraught – Transfixed on Dying Light
106. Glacier Eater – Tempest
105. Venus – Obscured Until Observed
104. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Land of Sleeper
103. The Gorge – Mechanical Fiction
102. The Ocean – Holocene
101. Felonie – De Sève et de Sang
100. Burner – It All Returns to Nothing
99. Occult Hand Order – Silence by the Raging Sea
98. Kind – Close Encounters
97. IAH – V
96. Edena Gardens – Agar
95. Woe – Legacies of Frailty
94. Krigsgrav – Fires in the Fall
93. Rivers Ablaze – Omnipresence
92. Battlemaster – Greedgripped & Spellspoilt
91. Underdark – Managed Decline
90. Ostraca – Disaster
89. Harm's Way – Common Suffering
88. Moonreich – Amer
87. Fen – Monuments to Absence
86. Warcrab – The Howling Silence
85. Green Lung – This Heathen Land
84. Westing – Future
83. Trhä // Sunset – Split
82. Tongues – Forml​ø​se Stjerner
81. Flukt – Omen ov Darkness
80. Surut – Unelma
79. Cestode – Flesh
78. Dominion of Suffering // Phobonoid – Split
77. Travo – Astromorph God
76. Stone of Duna – Moonsplitter
75. Thantifaxath – Hive Mind Narcosis
74. Enforced – War Remains
73. Last Giant – Monuments
72. Agriculture – Agriculture
71. Polymoon – Chrysalis
70. Friisk // Hallig – Split
69. High Priest – Invocation
68. Howling Giant – Glass Future
67. Weald and Woe – For the Good of the Realm
66. Aara – Triade III: Nyx
65. Mars Red Sky – Dawn of the Dusk
64. Nadir – Extinction Rituals
63. KEN mode – VOID
62. Abyssal Rift – Extirpation Dirge
61. Somnuri – Desiderium
60. Chorosia – Stray Dogs
59. Rană – Richtfeuer
58. Wytch Hazel – IV: Sacrament
57. Passéisme – Alternance
56. Eyes – Congratulations
55. Mycorrhizae – The Great Filtration
54. Rotor – Sieben
53. Witch Ripper – The Flight After the Fall
52. Weite – Assemblage
51. A Flourishing Scourge – Sickened Seed
50. Икотка – Р​а​с​п​а​д
49. Lesotho – Through the Dying Light
48. These Beasts – Cares, Wills, Wants
47. Afsky – Om hundrede år
46. Turbid North – The Decline
45. Rile – Pessimist
44. Crown Lands – Fearless
43. Gods of Sometimes – Gods of Sometimes
42. Strider – Midnight Zen
41. Krallice – Mass Cathexis 2 - The Kinetic Infinite
40. Church of Misery – Born Under a Mad Sign
39. Chrome Waves – Earth Will Shed Its Skin
38. Vexing – Grand Reproach
37. Nepenthes – Grand Guignol
36. Hot Graves – Plaguewielder
35. Urne – A Feast on Sorrow
34. Krallice – Porous Resonance Abyss
33. Radiant Knife – Pressure
32. Deathchant – Thrones
31. Restless Spirit – Afterimage
30. Gama Bomb – Bats
29. Exulansis – Overtures of Uprising
28. Pnakotic Manuscript – Dark Prometheus
27. Queens of the Stone Age – In Times New Roman…
26. Kadabra – Umbra
25. Signo Rojo – There Was a Hole Here
24. WuW – L'Orchaostre
23. Slow Wake – Falling Fathoms
22. Kvelertak – Endling
21. Trébuchet SDG – Through the Dark Ages
20. The Golden Grass – Life Is Much Stranger
19. Slomatics – Strontium Fields
18. Mutoid Man – Mutants

La Crème de la Crème

17. Draken – Book of Black

16. Sandrider – Enveletration

15. Novere – Nothing Stays Hidden in Daylight

14. Gozu – Remedy

13. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation

12. Domkraft – Sonic Moons

11. Mammatus – Expanding Majesty

10. Panopticon – The Rime of Memory

9. Tilintetgjort – In Death I Shall Arise

8. Machinations of Fate – Celestial Prophecies

7. Blackbraid – Blackbraid II

6. Tomb Mold – The Enduring Spirit

5. Dozer – Drifting in the Endless Void

4. REZN, Vinnum Sabbathi – Silent Future

3. Pyrolatrous – Inveterate

The best black metal album of the year comes courtesy of Brooklyn cohorts, Pyrolatrous. The band features Nolan Voss of Anicon (my favorite black metal band) on guitar, alongside his busy bandmate, Lev Weinstein (probably my favorite drummer on the planet today), whose résumé is too long to explore here. Inveterate really starts to cook on the fourth track, “Idolatry of Failure,” and doesn’t relent in its fervency through to the final track, “Slave of the State.” Some of the most scintillating musical compositions in USBM history have been offered up here, so I highly recommend listening through this one multiple times to let it sink in.

2. REZN – Solace

A low and slow build to memorably loud yet melodic crescendos, an incomprehensible number of sonic layers via a masterful use of effects and synth, and a sultry sprinkling of saxophone combine to create REZN’s unique sound. To my mind, Solace is a continued progression toward something so great that we cannot even begin to understand what it is that we are going to witness when we get to our destination, inevitably somewhere in the dark depths of outer space (especially if Silent Future is any indication). It may be our own collective doom, but if REZN’s discography is any indication it will continue to be a blissful ride until the end of the line. Any other year, this album would have easily nabbed the top spot.

Album of the Year

1. Baroness – Stone

Stone is yet another masterpiece in a long line of masterpieces from one of the most prolific and talented bands of this century, Baroness. John Dyer Baizley, an artist in every sense of the word, has flanked himself with tremendous talent. Guitar virtuoso and vocalist Gina Gleason brings an aura and energy that is truly unmatched in the metal world. The rhythm section composed of bassist Nick Jost and drummer Sebastian Thomson lock in together to solidify the sound in an absolutely masterful way. The unorthodox guitar solo in “Last Word” is, for me, the most emotion-evoking piece of music I have ever heard. That is not hyperbole. When I say that I find myself having to choke off the water works with nearly every listen, I mean it. There’s something inexplicably painful and terrible in that song that breaches the boundary of the body-soul connection and seems to rip the two away from one another in a way rivaled only by our last enemy, death itself. It is utterly brilliant.

The evolution of the band is evident on tracks like “Beneath the Rose,” where spoken-word meets twin guitars meets saccharine, melodious splendor. The wickedness bleeds over into “Choir,” where hauntingly eerie, poetic allure pierces the consciousness briefly, until a sonorous, scintillating beauty whets the appetite for sorrow in “The Dirge.”

The guitar work on “Anodyne” beckons back to Blue Record legend, setting the stage for “Shine” and its call back to the nautical voyages of Yellow & Green, as we revel in the glory of the added angelic vocal harmony that Gina brings to the mix. This is further developed in “Magnolia,” another composition that’s subdued, until it’s not; and then it’s as though we are left to drink generously and widely from the periodic table of elements while breathing in the fresh, crisp, late Summer breeze.

The album concludes with the penultimate fiery track, “Under the Wheel,” and an ode to their Appalachian roots, “Bloom.” The lyrics are so close in proximity, geographically and spiritually, to my own experience, circularly appealing to the “simple life” that was opined about in the first track of the album, “Embers.” Again, it is a masterpiece.

The vocals throughout are sweet ear candy. Gina’s voice is so much more than a mere compliment to John’s. Words fail here. Their blend of the heart-rending, soul-squeezing wails in flawless harmony exhibits, with great force, the power that music can have over the psyche of man. This album penetrates to the deepest marrow.

Over time, I expect that this album will hold up as being head and shoulders above everything else in its class. That makes it the only obvious choice for album of the year. Congratulations to Baroness on another Herculean release. This band deserves every bit of the continued success that comes their way.

Listen Here

This list has been published as a public playlist on Spotify, but please note that some of the albums are not yet available on that platform. I’ve linked to the bandcamp pages for those releases in the list above.

Here are a few of my previous AOTY lists in the form of Spotify playlists: 2013, 2014, 2020, 2021, 2022.