Top 25 Albums of 2023
This was a difficult year. I had one hundred and eleven albums on my playlist that I really liked throughout the year and choosing 25 was a nightmare. These are not ranked in order of favorites as I could, theoretically, spend the next couple of decades trying to work that out only to die of old age without reaching a solution. Instead I have listed them in alphabetical order.
Each album art thumbnail links to a related Youtube video and I always try to use official channel videos wherever possible.
Standard yearly reminders: I only include albums in which I found the entirety of the release to be excellent and as such, I don’t include anything on the basis of just a single or any rereleases. Anything that isn’t a full LP release, EP’s and remixes for example, are also excluded, though much to my own chagrin (only because my list is always already so large).
NOTES:
This is the first year in which Clutch had a release that they didn’t make the 25. Not that it was bad - it wasn’t, like at all - there was just a lot of really good shit this past year.
I added my usual 5 honorable mentions.
After that is a memorial, which is something I don’t normally need to do.
At the end I have added a screenshot of the list that I worked from in Numbers so you can see the other stuff that I liked that didn’t make either the top 25 or the honorable mentions.
While I consider myself a metalhead I, at heart, just really love music. All kinds. So for all my fellow metalheads out there that think the new Metallica should be on here: No, it absolutely should not be. It didn’t even make my playlist. There is a really good reason for that. That reason being I couldn’t even finish listening to it. It was boring, unnecessary, and unnecessarily boring.
My Top 25
André 3000
New Blue Sun
I was just as floored as a lot of folks that this was even a thing. I may have been less put off by it than some. I really fucking enjoyed it.
Yada yada edibles something something.
Anti-Flag
Lies They Tell Our Children
I get super stoked whenever Anti-Flag comes out with a new album. Somehow it’s one of the bands my daughter has picked up on and always ends up with on her own playlists.
After all, punks don’t die. They just happen to grow up and have kids who also turn into punks.
Baroness
Stone
Any year in which Baroness releases an album is a great year but Stone is significant in a couple ways that make it particularly special. This is their 6th album but it is the first one after their color period ended and the 2nd with Gina in the band. Baroness has literally followed me through adulthood - from their growth as musicians to John’s increasingly complex and detailed artwork - and this year my oldest son left for college having grown up with them and becoming a fan as well.
In October I was able to get him home long enough to take him to his first real show in Austin. They put on a killer show on this tour and it was the second best live performance Ive ever seen second only to all the times I’ve seen Local H.
Ben Howard
Is It?
While there are those that will argue he has been moving further and further away from his folk roots, to those people I would ask, “Who gives a shit?”
The truth here is that Howard has spent his career doing what makes him happy and this should, in turn, make everyone that enjoys consuming art happy as well.
I keep most of my favorite Ben Howard tracks on rotation in multiple playlists and I actually have one that’s literally just him, Warpaint, and Sandy Denny.
Check him out if you ever want to just sit and chill; on the back deck at sunset works. Maybe take a beer with you. Or wine, or a pipe and some coffee, or maybe some tea. Whatever makes you happy.
Cannibal Corpse
Chaos Horrific
This one is pretty self explanatory for metal fans. A staple in the death metal genre that, despite decades of misunderstanding, has never taken itself too seriously. Except for the grind. They take the grind very, very seriously. Just having some CC on, even in the background, has been known to make one’s body begin to scoop itself rhythmically in strange devilish ways.
I would recommend giving George a follow on instagram to see how the majority of the metal community is just normal people doing normal things.
Cattle Decapitation
Terrasite
I promise this whole list really isn’t metal but it’s been a good year and if you like your metal deep, dark, loud and layered with a healthy amount of animal and environmental activism, you absolutely cannot do any better than these guys*.
They’ve grown a lot over the years and this album is super distinct and stands both apart and above from much of what the genre offers.
*Unless there’s a new BTBAM album out.
Clouds Taste Satanic
Tales of Demonic Possession
As a writer who likes good music that won’t distract me from staring at blank pages for hours acting like I’ve got something to say, I’m a huge fan of instrumental rock and metal because sometimes binaural, ambient and classical won’t cut it. Self described as “Instru-Metal Post Demonic Doom”, Clouds Taste Satanic stay in regular rotation on my writing playlist with bands like 65daysofstatic, Explosions in the Sky, Night Verses (which incidentally you’ll find further down on this list) among others.
Good old fashioned musicianship and a dark aesthetic make them a great gateway to folks trying to get into metal, especially doom, who aren’t yet ready for the vocals. From here you could theoretically jump straight into Graves at Sea’s The Curse That Is or Cough’s Still They Pray.
Just kidding, y’all. Don’t do that. Baby steps.
†††
Goodnight, God Bless, I love U, Delete.
††† (Crosses) is the side project of some guy that apparently has another band some people really like.
Chino. It’s Chino Moreno. That other band is Deftones. The guy stays super busy these days with multiple projects and this is one of my favorites. Their 2014 eponymous release is still in regular rotation on several of my playlists. It's weird and chill and fancy.
You’ve always wanted to be weird, chill, and fancy right? It’s a vibe and ††† is providing.
Doja Cat
Scarlet
I’m sure there is an argument to be made for its exclusion from this, or any other list, but honestly I haven’t heard it.
Nor will I.
I will point to the fact that Doja doesn’t give a shit and neither do I and neither should you.
This entire album is fun as hell, her bars are hilarious and the further and further out there she gets into her own head, the better.
Like I said in the introduction, I love music of all kinds and sticking with one type of thing would deprive me of enjoying things I would otherwise not be able to.
And the world is a better place because this collection of bangers exist. As my daughter would say, “She ate.” Or something.
Entheos
Time Will Take Us All
Look. Metal has a ton of genres and subgenres and sub-subgenres. It’s complicated and can be simultaneously helpful and detrimental but if you know any metalheads, we dislike that fact enough to bitch about it but not enough to fix it.
All that being said, Entheos is a tech-metal band. A genre that focus’s on the technical aspects of both instrumentation and vocalization. This album is absolutely all over the place in some of the best ways and they are continuing to show themselves as formidable.
Also, Chaney Crabb is one of the best and most competent vocalists in metal and anyone that doubts that can eat shit.
Fever Ray
Radical Romanitcs
A lot of people will tell you they have no idea who Fever Ray is despite a good many of those same people having watched the opening credits of Vikings.
This is another one of those releases that is almost on this list by default. I really love their music and while I guess most people would consider them an acquired taste, I happen to think those people should just go ahead and fucking acquire some then.*
*I’m kidding. Seriously though.
Horrendous
Ontological Mysterium
Per our previous discussion of metal subgenres, Horrendous is considered Black Metal or Death Metal depending on who you ask.
Like I said, it’s a mess.
This is one of those scenarios in which I discovered a band literally because I saw the album cover for their 2018 album Idol and was like, “What the fuck is that?” and preordered the vinyl without any prior knowledge of them.
I was not disappointed and I’ve since ended up enjoying their entire catalogue. This album is no exception. It’s a loud, controlled chaos of cosmic horror that is, as with Idol, it is not without its moments of shockingly beautiful and complimentary progressive metal sorcery.
Humanity’s Last Breath
Ashen
This is a Swedish band that I’d never heard of before this year. This album took me completely by surprise and I probably listened to it for several weeks straight.
You can never go wrong with dark figures worshiping a giant phallic eclipse on your album cover. The animated one wobbles back and forth too!
Killer Mike
Michael
Music is the great communicator.
To preface, Pharoahe Monch and Black Thought are two of my favorite rappers and there have been times when I’ve felt compelled to defend listening to rap and hip-hop to people who think I shouldn’t be. Usually it’s other people with similar experiences as myself but tend to mischaracterize rap and hip-hop with colorful and subtle racist language.
Look, if we all spent more time appreciating art created by artists whose experiences are different from our own, the world would probably be a much better place.
This doesn’t just go for music, but writing, and other forms of art as well. Hearing other perspectives and other experiences doesn’t only create empathy, it validates the experiences of others that may otherwise be dismissed and ignored.
And sometimes, as in this case, the entire thing is absolutely fire.
Mouthbreather
Self-Tape
I’m not really sure what to say about this one, other than that Mouthbreather is a band that always kind of does what they want.
There isn’t really a set formula for what to expect from them other than knowing that they are going to keep doing whatever they want.
It works for them and they’re really good at it.
Self-Tape is no exception to this.
Nicki Minaj
Pink Friday 2
In 2010, when the world was an entirely different place, Nicki had a feature on Kanye’s Monster, It’s remained to this day one of my favorite verses in all of hip-hope history. From the first time she opened her mouth there was something different about what she was doing and has, ever since, consistently, unabashedly, and seemingly effortlessly maintained her crown as the queen.
With sample credits from Cindy Lauper, Blondie, Billie Eilish, Rick James, Bone Thugs, Biggy, and Lumidee, the Queen has returned.
Full stop.
Night Verses
Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley Of Night: Part I
Another of my favorite instrumental bands and this is probably one of my most listened to albums of 2023.
These guys are very tight in their execution. Surgical without feeling over produced and technical without being dizzying. There’s a ton of ear candy here as tracks are sprinkled with thematic spoken word samples that neither reveal themselves as a full narrative nor do they feel like they need to. The time changes are earned and there are plenty of beautiful moments of serenity within the structured pacing.
tldr; Night Verses albums are like listening to a novel in which the narrative is told strictly through music.
Where’s part II?
Peter Garbiel
I/O
In a room full of Genesis fan’s I’ve always been the one in the corner waiting for someone to talk to about Peter, but no one wants to. They keep me in their peripheral, unsure of how to approach because, let’s face it, we’re weirder, artsier, and are generally far less approachable.
Being his first full album of original music in over twenty years, I was super stoked for this. It’s 12 tracks but each with two mixes, a dark side and a light side.
This man never sleeps, in the intervening years, he’s stayed busy with music and technological endeavors. He empowers artists and ideas. I really don’t want to take away from this album because it is fucking fantastic
but…
It’s super disappointing that he launched a contest to have his new videos created by AI. He’s always been at the forefront of technology, so I kind of get it… I guess. I’m pretty vocally on the side of artists in this debate and I love Peter too much to attach it here, despite my disappointment. I kind of just feel like it would distract from this great album, which I’m assuming was made by a hard working human with incredible talent.
¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
Rancid
Tomorrow Never Comes
I’m sorry was there something else that needed to be said here?
It’s Rancid. Punks never die. Eat shit.*
*Sorry, I forget myself.
Svalbard
The Weight of the Mask
One of my favorite bands of the last few years. I discovered them in 2020 when they released their 3rd album When I Die, Will I Get Better? That album making that year’s top 25 list.
Svalbard is a British post-hardcore metal band (those pesky genres again) with a heavy focus on mental health and social issues. Their music can be simultaneously scathing and somber, in both musicality and vocals.
I’ll suggest and instagram follow here as well. These kids are great.
The Lion’s Daughter
Bath House
This is another band that makes my list every year in which they release an album.
Their sound is distinct, disturbing, and mysterious. There’s just a lot to appreciate with these guys.
Imagine if David Lynch’s Eraserhead was a coma dream and when Henry Spencer woke up he formed a metal band with some nice, not overly done, synth work.
I sleep to this album.
Thomas Bangalter
Mythologies
Formerly half of Daft Punk Thomas Bangalter, has turned his attention from house/electronic dance to the classical form with this massive composition of 23 movements.
There is no trace of his former robot here and it is an incredibly rich listen.
Weather your a fan of Daft Punk or Classical or both, its a great listen on a rainy day.
I read 17 books in 2023 and wrote almost two whole drafts of my 100,000 word novel, much of that while listening to this masterpiece.
Twin Temple
God Is Dead
Satan doesn’t listen to metal, he listens to doo-wop. I’m an atheist and Twin Temple is the only band that’s ever made me question that.
It’ll make you burn candles and bibles and babies. Bring back the Satanic Panic of the eighties and let the pearl clutching commence. God is dead. Satan lives!
I shouldn’t need to point out the sarcasm here so don’t be stupid.
Veil of Maya
[m]other
Two important things here:
First, for those of use who’ve been listening to this band since the early days, they have grown a lot. Like, a lot. It’s not easy to not only survive what basically amounts to a subgenre change, but to thrive because of it.
Second, they have been able to do so primary because of their inability to write songs that aren’t total bangers. They never fail. Start to finish these guys have always been on point. Clean vocals or not - death core, tech, grind, or whatever - everything they touch is on fire and glorious.
Young Fathers
Heavy Heavy
Finally, we come to the end of the 25.
Like many people, I discovered Young Fathers in 2023 for the first time and holy shit, I’m glad I did. A masterclass in patient writing and eclecticism in practice.
Absolutely astounded by this album and everything these guys have been doing.
Honorable Mentions
Basically while I’m working through the top 25 I make a separate list of the albums I really want on the list but can’t find room for, and then from that list I pick my five favorites.
Like I’ve said before, this is a completely difficult process and involves something they used to refer to as, Aspergers.
Below are those 5.
Clutch
Sunrise on Slaughter Beach
I’m going to admit a bit of confusion on my part here, as Clutch is actually one of my favorite bands of all time. For decades I’ve been annoying family and friends with their eclectic blend of strange storytelling and metal tinged blues rock. On my list of top five favorite guitar players Tim Sult is number 3 behind David Gilmore and John Frusciante. The dude is super underrated.
As I said in the introduction, this is the first year in which a Clutch ablum was released that it didn’t make the top 25.
As this album is everything a fan would expect it to be, for all intents and purposes, it’s perfect. That’s what makes it great. There was so much going on this year in music that it just kind of ended up here.
Clutch is great. You either like them or don’t but give it a shot and find out.
Haken
Fauna
I really love everything about this album. I’ve listened to it a bunch and it still bums me out that I couldn’t fit in on the list. I actually considered doing a top 30 this year just so I could fit it and Clutch, but then what? That snow balls into another 5 being mentioned honorably and then I’d have to… I just… I can’t.
It basically came down to how honest I wanted to be with myself and while this gets a lot of play for me, a bunch of the top 25 just really hit for me this year and Haken is and will always be Haken. Awesome but not entirely unexpected.
If you’re in the market for great prog-metal that isn’t too heavy, full of screaming, and isn’t super complex, this will do well. Despite what some metalheads will tell you, none of those are actually bad things.
John Frusciante
:II.
Depending on what decade your stuck in, the following opinion may be unpopular but I’ve always kind of felt like the Chili Peppers were just an okay band, except during the on-again, off-again eras in which John played with them.
As previously mentioned, behind only David Gilmore, Frusciante is my second favorite guitar player. For me, his improvisation with Chili Peppers is that one thing that pushed them into greatness. He brings a very clear voice to whatever he works on, whether its playing with The Mars Volta or just Omar, or his other bands, his output is absolutely immense.
His 2009 solo album The Empyrean is a classic.
This 13th solo album is an ambient electronic fare not far removed from the path he’s been going on his prior records. Despite not having a direct voice on this album his ability as a guitar player very much informs how this ambience functions.
It’s been one of my favorites for background noise this year. If that’s not your thing, cool but if so, check it out, maybe go back through his catalogue and check out his axe chops as well, especially if your a fan of his eras with the Peppers.
Polaris
Fatalism
Polaris is an excellent example of the new generation of metal core. They are one of those rare shining variables in a subgenre that can grow quite stagnant at times.
Their albums get progressively better with each release and I find this one to be the one in which they have most clearly discovered who they are as a band and where they plan on going.
Sadly just a few months prior to its release their lead guitarist, Ryan Siew, passed away.
Keep an eye on these guys if you like some fast, tight chonky-boi crushers.
Pupil Slicer
Blossom
I really dig this album. A lot of people don’t and I’m not really sure why.* Their first album Mirrors in 2021 was good but didn’t connect with me on a deep level like this one did.
They definitely seem to be finding their footing and their voice. I’m keeping this in the rotation and super stoked for whatever they do next.
*This is mostly sarcasm. There’s still a lot of sexism, misogyny, and bigotry in the metal community.
Memorial
Remembering Jamie
Blue October
Spinning the Truth Around, Pt. II
This’ll be a bit longer than the rest but context is important here. Bear with me there’s more after this.
In early October I, and countless others, lost a good friend. She was not only a huge influence on who am, but also pretty much saved my life by just being around. There’s a whole post about it on my Facebook here.
I’ve never really shied around my past, and many of you have probably heard, read, or seen me talk about my past with addiction and my lifelong struggles with severe anxiety and depression disorders.
I met Jamie at one of the worst and most confusing times in my life. I’m talking early days, like, summer 2002 early days. We’d already known each other but she hired me for a job at the recommendation of a mutual friend. She was only a few years older than me. She never expected anything of me but to be as close to on-time as possible, to show up smiling, and to be kind. We became close friends quick and remained so ever since.
She had this car back in the day, a black hatchback VW covered in stickers and dents. One day I was running errands for her this was not long after I started working for her - and when I got in the car there was a CD in the deck.
I’d been going through a ton of stuff at the time including a breakup, lack of housing, inability to meet obligations - all things that were mostly my fault (opiate addicts are like that y’all), and the song that came on was Breakfast After 10 by Blue October from their album Consent to Treatment. A band from up the road from where I’m at here in Texas that, at the time I’d only heard mentioned - the world was different then y’all.
It was over from there and I was a fan. As life moved around us, and we moved apart, we stayed friends online and again when I returned back to Texas. I’ve been listening to them ever since,
Except this one.
It came out exactly a week after she passed and, right now, as I’m working through writing about it I’m listening to it for the first time.
I’m not crying, you are. Fuck off.
