Andy’s Top 10 Albums of 2023!

This has been a perilous year to be Andy as a progressive metal fan. I had a lot of big life changes, some mental health problems came up, and I realized that I might like *gasp* other types of music besides prog metal, so I explored less prog than I normally would–rest be assured it’s still more than most people, though. Additionally, it was also the weakest year for prog metal since I started listening to new releases religiously in 2018, and I think pretty much of all my peers would agree. Altogether, it was a perfect storm to not have a full top ten for the blog out of protest about the state of the scene, but I scraped together a list I’m quite happy with. Without further ado:

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Honorable mentions:

• Ne Obliviscaris – Exul: my overall album of the year, this is prog metal perfection. I cannot describe how amazing this album is in only a sentence or two as an honorable mention, but it’s the most essential album this year.
• Laufey & Iceland Symphony Orchestra – A Night at the Symphony: my celebrity crush has a beautiful voice, and live with an orchestra she transcends her (also awesome) studio work. One of the best pop albums ever recorded.
• Panopticon – The Rime of Memory: a late-comer to the list, this is the zenith of American black metal. A mix of Agalloch, second-wave worship, and its own unique contributions, The Rime of Memory is some of the best black metal you’ll ever hear.
• HMLTD – The Worm: I hate punk, so when an obnoxious post-punk/prog rock outfit makes my list, you should trust me it’s great.
• McKinley Dixon – Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?: smart, sublime rap with a keen ear for jazzy beats and excellent lyricism. Short and sweet.
• Haralabos Stafylakis – Calibrating Friction: Harry Stafylakis impresses with his debut work as a truly forward-thinking prog visionary. Keep an eye on his career…

EP o’ the Year:

• Lunar Chamber – Shambhallic Vibrations: this is long enough to be an LP and would have made the list proper had they classified it as such, but Shambhallic Vibrations is in the new generation of prog/tech death. Taking cues from proggy death metal from Cynic through Blood Incantation, this EP is tight, ferociously performed, spiritually heady, yet extremely diverse. It’s a must for tech fans.

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10. Wormhole – Almost Human
Style: brutal death metal, technical death metal, dissonant death metal, slam (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Devourment, Gorguts, Ulcerate, Artificial Brain, Afterbirth

“Tech slam OOOOOOOUGGGGGGGGGUUUUOGHHHHHHOOOOOUGH.” Need I say more? Don’t listen to my friend Zach about Afterbirth being the peak of slam; it’s Almost Human. Rather than appealing to the caveman-esque metalheads of stereotype, this is brutal death metal for the thinking man, imbuing the genre with a squeamish, Ulcerate-y dissonance while still maintaining their humorous sound clips of the previous few albums. Dissoslam is genius–two thumbs up. 

Recommended tracks: Elysiism, Data Fortress Orbital Stationary, Almost Human
Related links: original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook

9. Vestígio – Vestígios
Style: prog black metal, melodic black metal, atmospheric black metal, folk black metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Wolves in the Throne Room, Mare Cognitum, Kaatayra, Vauruvã, Bríi, Kostnateni, Oksät, Pessimista, IER

Caio Lemos has a fever, and the only prescription is having an album on my list. Clearly not placing as highly as Bríi’s first place album last year (since raised to the ultra-rare Andy 10/10), with Vestígio, he has proven he knows the way of the riff better than anybody in addition to the million things that make him one of my favorite composers ever (like his folk and electronica inclusions). Replete with fraught orchestrations and enough blast beats to make a tech death musician blush, Vestígios is an awesome edition to the Caio Lemos catalog (ie my heart) as a more focused version of Vauruvã.

Recommended tracks: Ausência, Segredo, Resquício
Related links: original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram

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8. Thantifaxath – Hive Mind Narcosis
Style: avant-garde black metal, dissonant black metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dodecahedron, Deathspell Omega, Portal, Hebephrenique

Dissonant black metal is what’s hip in 2023 (especially in my household), and this is some of the best the year had to offer. I listen to Thantifaxath in my beanie and Imperial Triumphant shirt sitting in my third wave cafes and love every second of it. Adorned with barbed harsh vocals, its endlessly ascending scales are dizzying and scratch my brain in a way little else does, sounding completely unpredictable yet totally accessible for the style. Intoxicating and suffocating, Thantifaxath picked up the torch that Dodecahedron abandoned when they split up as leaders in the scene of smart, challenging black metal.

Recommended tracks: Surgical Utopian Love, Hungry Ghosts, Mind of the Sun
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook

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7. Dream Unending & Worm – Starpath
Style: atmospheric/symphonic death/doom, blackened post metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Emperor, Mournful Congregation, Ahab, Tomb Mold, Kayo Dot, Rise to the Sky, Void Ceremony, Cthe’Illist, Shambhallic Vibrations

Each band expanding on their sound in tasteful ways, Starpath shows off both the power and detriment of an amazing split. Dream Unending’s psychedelic spirituality has me thinking and praying and crap, and then Worm comes in to blow me away with newly symphonic/blackened death/doom. It seems like an unlikely pairing, but it works as well as peanut butter and jelly. Resplendent and gaudy, this split is two great bands transcending to another playing field.

Recommended tracks: So Many Chances, If Not Now When, Ravenblood, Sea of Sorrow
Related links: original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook

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6. Fires in the Distance – Air Not Meant for Us
Style: melodic death metal, doom metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Insomnium, Shylmagaghnor, Be’Lakor, Swallow the Sun, Countless Skies, Hinayana, Atavistia, Ocean of Grief, Enshine, Cold Insight, Slumber

I claim to have transcended the need for melody, yet Fires in the Distance is an essential album from 2023 as a squarely melodic act. How can that be? Well mixing the intoxicating compositionally epic, meandering songwriting of Shylmagaghnor with Fires in the Distance‘s own brand of dulcet, aching guitar leads, Air Not Meant for us crawled right into my heart at their own doomy pace. Sprinkled with juxtaposing piano and cavernous low ends, Air Not Meant for Us is melodeath done right–painfully beautiful.

Recommended tracks: Harbingers, Crumbling Pillars of a Tranquil Mind
Related links: original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook

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5. Alkaloid – Numen
Style: prog death metal, technical death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Obscura, Black Crown Initiate, Augury, Gojira, Gorod, Obsidious, Linus Klausenitzer, Dark Fortress, Noneuclid, Hannes Grossmann, Supertramp

How could you not love proggier Obscura? Among the startling technical death metal (“The Cambrian Explosion”), prog pop-tinged death metal (“Qliphosis,” “Clusterfuck”), and the immensely fitting epic finale (“Alpha Aur”), Alkaloid absolutely stun with the quality of their performances. Christian Muenzner in particular deserves a shoutout for his rad guitar-work, some of his best ever in a career built on being one of the undisputed tech goats. Everybody loves this record, even curmudgeonly old Chris, and it’s easily deserving of all the praise it’ll get from my peers as well (but god is it hard to write a lot about a band you just reviewed lmao).

Recommended tracks: Qliphosis, The Cambrian Explosion, Clusterfuck, Shades of Shub-Niggurath, Alpha Aur
Related links: original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook

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4. Galya Bisengalieva – Polygon
Style: dark ambient, modern classical, post rock, electroacoustics (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Steve Reich, Floating Points, Kali Malone, Krzysztof Penderecki, Murcof, Osvaldo Golijov, Bruit ≤, Scarcity, Sabled Sun, Raphael Weinroth-Browne

This is the single most left-field pick on any list at the Subway, but it absolutely deserves a place among the best prog-adjacent stuff of the year. Polygon is harrowing, a horrifying, shifty ambient album steeped in deeply felt ecological and cultural disaster. With each warped rhythm and haunting string part, Galya Bisengalieva further pushed herself an echelon above every other electronica and ambient artist in the last couple years. This is an essential album for experimental and ambient and even classical fans.

Recommended tracks: Polygon, Chagan, Balapan
Related links: original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook

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3. Stortregn – Finitude
Style: technical death metal, melodic death metal, melodic black metal, prog death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dissection, Obscura, Beyond Creation, Inferi, Archspire, Impureza, First Fragment, Virvum, Alustrium, Equipoise

I will admit here that I overrated this album in my initial excitement and rush to get the review out before other major publications: it’s a strong 9, not a 9.5. However, Finitude is wicked, insanely tight despite its technicality with a blackened swagger and enough melody to make the whole gang happy. Paced to perfection and never losing sight of the goal, Finitude is a force to be reckoned with, placing Stortregn fully an echelon above the rest of the scene. It’s also got the underground guitar solo of the year with the insanely addictive climax of the album in “The Revelation.” Except for an unfortunately loud production, Finitude is near flawless, and Stortregn are one of the primary forces to be reckoned with in tech right now, as fun and interesting as they are talented.

Recommended tracks: A Lost Battle Rages On, Xeno Chaos, The Revelation
Related links: original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook

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2. Horrendous – Ontological Mysterium
Style: prog death metal, technical death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Death, Atheist

We’ve arrived at what may be the best underground prog album of the year. Despite not being in first place, Ontological Mysterium has every note perfectly in place: equal parts Unquestionable Presence and The Sound of Perseverance. If you love old school tech death, this album is a dream come true, and even if you like a more modern sound, Ontological Mysterium‘s insanely amazing production should keep you listening for ages. Heck, this album sounds better than just about any death metal except Opeth, Ad Nauseam, and Gorguts. Beyond that, every riff is a straight slapper, especially the riff of the year in “Chrysopoeia (The Archaeology of Dawn)…” and when it comes back with a reprised tremoloed version I can’t hold in my amazement any more–truly one of the greatest riffs ever, in an echelon with the main riff of “Spirit Crusher.” God this album is good. 

Recommended tracks: Neon Leviathan, Chrysopoeia (The Archaeology of Dawn), Cult of Shaad’oah, The Death Knell Ringeth, Preterition Hymn
Related links: original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook

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1. Kostnatění – Úpal
Style: folk black metal, experimental black metal, dissonant black metal (mostly harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Blut Aus Nord, Deathspell Omega, Mare Cognitum, Melechesh, Scarcity, Ad Nauseam, Ars Magna Umbrae, SkyThala

So if Ontological Myserium is the best, why is Úpal here? While Horrendous wrote and performed essentially flawless tech/prog death, it was distinctly a mix of Death and Athesit. Úpal is unique, essential, and pretty damn close to perfect anyway. As the years pass me by, I am more and more attracted to genuine innovation, and Úpal is cutting edge. When I think about the best underground prog release this year, it couldn’t be another album. Incorporating microtonal Turkish folk music, African rhythms, and the timbres of Western experimental black metal, this album is simply stunning. Moreover, it’s paced amazingly, building in intensity from the onset until its desert-y heat overwhelms and I’m pushed to the edge of sanity (oh shoot, maybe that joke was better for Horrendous). The genius writing and frightening dissonance culminate in a sweltering album which incinerates everything in its path. Úpal certainly deserved the top spot with its blend of stellar performances, insane innovations, and overall arc–Úpal burns bright.

Recommended tracks: Řemen (The Belt), Rukojmí Empatie (Hostage of Empathy), Skrýt se Před Bohem (Hide from God) 
Related links: original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram