What an interesting year it’s been. The Progressive Subway saw tremendous growth in viewership in 2023; whereas our best month in 2022 netted us 8.8k viewers, this year we peaked at a whopping 18.7k in December! And 2024 looks set to smash all our records—thanks to all you readers for your continued support. What was once me posting notes on obscure bands I found on Metal-Archives on Reddit is now turning into an established, reputable review site!
But enough about that. The collective feeling that persevered throughout our staff on 2023 releases is a rather middling one. Compared to 2022, there were plenty of great albums, but little that really blew us away, which is reflected in the scores we’ve given. We only gave three perfect 10s this year (and two of those were given by our resident overrater, Zach), and there was little consensus among the staff as to what the best releases were. In the process of putting our top ten together, our nine writers ended up nominating fifty-three unique albums, so it’s definitely worth looking at our individual top tens (linked below) to see the breadth and diversity of great underground releases that came out in 2023.
Nevertheless, we did end up with a fantastic overall top 10! Each of our writer’s individual top tens acts as their voting ballot: their tenth place gets one point, their ninth place gets two points, all the way up to ten points for their number one pick. To qualify, a band needed to have been covered here which means at some point this year, their Spotify monthly listener count was lower than 20,000 (we are an underground review site, after all!) We’ve also included the five bands who were the closest to making the list in our honorable mentions. Without any further ado, here are The Progressive Subway’s Official Top 10 Albums of 2023!
- Sam’s top 10
- Christopher’s top 10
- Sabrina’s top 10
- Andy’s top 10
- Zach’s top 10
- Ian’s top 10
- Cooper’s top 10
- Doug’s top 10
- Ryan’s top 10
Honorable mentions:
- 15. Finsterforst – Jenseits
- 14. Kostnateni – Upal
- 13. Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis – Calibrating Friction
- 12. East of the Wall – A Neutral Second
- 11. Afterbirth – In but Not Of
10. Sermon – Of Golden Verse
Style: Progressive Metal, Alternative Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Tool, Katatonia, Soen, The Ocean, Athemon
Write-up by: Sam
Progressive metal has reached a watershed of sorts. The djent sound has started to become cliched and bands are searching and experimenting with new paradigms. The progressive metal mainstream has yet to undergo a significant shift, but in the underground Sermon is one of the leading examples of this desire for innovation. Dark, ritualistic, but also melodic with a flair for serious drama; Of Golden Verse is a compelling, dynamic affair. Its riffs sound modern and heavy, yet they’re neither djent nor brick walled like most 00s prog metal. Major shades of Tool and Katatonia suffuse their sound but Sermon are always their own band, and most importantly, they’re very strong songwriters too. From the entrancing chants that open the album all the way up to the wonderful melding of melancholic clean vocal melodies over extreme metal drumming in the chorus of closing track “Departure,” Of Golden Versetakes you on an intense journey full of interesting twists and captivating hooks that’s very hard to resist. A well performed, unique slab of progressive metal like this was an easy common ground among our writing staff, netting them a much deserved place on this list.
Recommended tracks: Royal, The Distance, Wake the Silent, Departure
Related links: Original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
9. Temic – Terror Management Theory
Style: Progressive Metal, Electro-prog (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Caligula’s Horse, Maraton, Haken, Frost*, soft Devin Townsend
Write-up by: Christopher
An ex-Haken keyboardist, a Maraton singer, an Arkentype drummer, and a Neal Morse/Mike Portnoy guitarist walk into a bar. Then they realise they’ve made a wrong turn and ask for directions to the recording studio, and then they record one of the best albums of the year. Temic’s debut had understandably high expectations attached but they fulfilled them with ease, bestowing upon us an airy, synth-driven work of catchy prog metal replete with incredible performances from a band who sound so tight that you’d think they’d been working together for a decade. Terror Management Theory displays a level of confidence and acumen that’s a delight to behold, and its many earworms will burrow into your cortex and comfortably nestle there for the rest of the year. An exciting career awaits Temic, and we’ll be right there listening.
Recommended tracks: Through the Sands of Time, Falling Away, Acts of Violence
Related links: Original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
8. Omnerod – The Amensal Rise
Style: Progressive Death Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: heavy Devin Townsend, Between the Buried and Me, old Leprous, Dissona, Rototypical
Write-up by: Christopher
The Amensal Rise cemented Omnerod as the logical successors to hevy Devy with this Deconstruction-esque tour de force. A constantly evolving, seventy-minute-long grand symphony that completely eschews conventional structure, it’s a dense affair to say the least, but one that proves infinitely rewarding when given the time and attention it deserves. Romain Jeuniaux’s vocals are simply transcendent, the angular riffs feel actively threatening, and the sense that chaos lurks just a note away never abates—and when it comes it pummels the listener into submission. And yet moments of great beauty also suffuse the pandemonium: eerie soundscapes, belting cleans, and existential lyrics cutting through like shafts of sunlight through a tempest. For all you lovers of chaotic prog that sounds as though it was forged in the dark heart of a malevolent cosmic deity, The Amensal Rise is an absolute must-listen.
Recommended tracks: Spore, Towards the Core, The Commensal Fall
Related links: Original Review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
7. Fires in the Distance – Air Not Meant For Us
Style: Melodic Death Metal, Doom Metal (Harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Insomnium, Be’Lakor, Swallow the Sun, Eternal Storm, The Circle
Write-up by: Zach
There is truly nothing more cathartic than well performed sadboi melodeath. The soaring emotion and somber leads that form the very core of Air Not Meant for Us encapsulate everything I love about this style. Fires of the Distance clearly put the work in between their debut and this, because the jump in quality is unbelievable. ‘Harbingers’ is my definitive underground SOTY, and my only qualm is that the rest of the album isn’t quite as mind-blowing as the opening. However, don’t mistake that statement for a dig at Air Not Meant for Us. This is one of the finest melodeath releases since Winter’s Gate, and an incredible album that deserves your attention!
Recommended tracks: Harbingers, Psalm of the Merciless
Related links: Original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
6. The World is Quiet Here – Zon
Style: Progressive Metal, Metalcore (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Between the Buried and Me, Slice the Cake, The Human Abstract, Rototypical, Future Corpse
Write-up by: Ryan
It’s always a treat when a band enters the scene and is clearly composed of prog nerds making music for prog nerds, like Native Construct, Painted By Exile or Others by No One. Funnily enough, members of all those bands all feature on our number six entry! This year, the prog nerd title goes to The World is Quiet Here who surprised audiences in late January with Zon, an album that embarks upon a twisting journey through the band’s musical DNA. On the surface is the firm Between the Buried and Me backbone, with a litany of vertebrae ranging from Devin Townsend to Rivers of Nihil to Opeth. While their debut LP, Prologue, demonstrated their inherent talent, The World is Quiet Here have taken their sound to new heights on Zon.
Recommended tracks: White Sun, Ossuary, Moonlighter
Related links: Original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
5. Nospūn – Opus
Style: Traditional Progressive Metal (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Haken, Dream Theater, Altesia, Novena
Write-up by: Sabrina
The aptly named Opus by Nospun has nearly every indicator of a prog metal classic. When one introspects on the common elemental links between albums such as Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory, The Mountain, or Back to Times of Splendor one will find most, if not all, of these elements displayed with dignity here: Common album structures chronicling an epic story through relentlessly melodic lyricism, playful executions of time signature and tempo changes, plentiful riffage walking the fine line between catchy and technical, sonic eclecticism shown without relying solely on the core metal instruments, a glistening album mix with carefully produced instrumental components, and an overall unified musical signature (every song fitting together like a coherent jigsaw puzzle). This is prog metal approaching compositional perfection. Nospūn does not dabble in extreme metal like Haken attempted to in Aquarius, but they’ve convinced me that they could pull it off if they wanted to. Debut albums that come out the gate showing such a mastery of the genre are rare (thus far, I’m talking “Once per decade” rare). It is for these reasons that Opus deserves the highest praise from the underground prog metal community.
Recommended tracks: Earwyrm, …And Then There Was One, 4D Printing
Related links: Original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
4. Ions – Counterintuitive
Style: Progressive Metal, Djent (Mostly clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: VOLA, Haken, TesseracT, Ihlo, Turbulence
Write-up by: Doug
Ions took The Progressive Subway by storm late in the year, a coup for which I like to think I can take at least partial credit (the rest goes to the band for creating such an excellent album). Between the late-season release and our collective complete lack of familiarity with the band, the quality on display from Counterintuitive came as a huge surprise, and clearly several of us became enamored with it as a result. In short, despite being penned by a relatively inexperienced band, this album displays surpassing talent in songwriting and a veteran’s ear for melody and harmony. Although not entirely unique within the realm of progressive metal, Ions offer an unconventional mix of genres (their closest counterpart being fellow undergrounders Ihlo), where djent and synth elements rub shoulders with traditional metal and heavy progressive rock. The resulting blend suits Ions’s compositional talents, equally supporting quiet emotional moments and intense sequences of strife and contrast. As we wait for 2024 to ramp up and start delivering hits of its own, check out this unforeseen gem from the year prior, and don’t forget to tell all your friends!
Recommended tracks: True Friendship, Faith, Split Character, Birds of Reminiscence
Related links: Original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
3. Horrendous – Ontological Mysterium
Style: Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Thrash Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Death, Atheist, Tomb Mold, Skyglow
Write-up by: Cooper
Beginning the podium finishers we have the masterful Ontological Mysterium from the Philadelphia-based death metallers Horrendous. This album encapsulates all the elements we at The Progressive Subway–specifically meaning Zach, Andy, and me–adore about progressive death metal, seamlessly packaged for endless listening pleasure. It pays unapologetic homage to genre pioneers like Death and Atheist, but goes beyond mere emulation, and thanks to its pristine production, Horrendous achieve heights that their muses could only have imagined. Each instrument is given space to breathe, creating an immersive experience as if the musicians were performing right in the room with you. The riffs are sharp and unforgettable, and the lyrics mirror the poignant and audaciously bold style of Horrendous’s inspirations. Horrendous has not just crafted an amazing album but redefined an entire era of progressive death metal and returned the genre to its former glory.
Recommended tracks: Chrysopoeia (The Archaeology of Dawn), Preterition Hymn
Related links: Original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
2. Stortregn – Finitude
Style: Technical/Progressive Death Metal (Harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dissection, Obscura, Beyond Creation, Inferi, Archspire. Metasphaera
Write-up by: Ian
With their monstrously complex, uncompromisingly intense, yet insidiously melodious latest effort, Swiss madlads Stortregn have laid clear their claim for this year’s tech death crown. By focusing more on intricacy and compositional acumen than on raw notes per second (although, make no mistake, there is plenty of velocity to go around), Finitude delivers a masterclass in counterpoint the level of which you’re unlikely to find this side of a Bach fugue. Sinuous guitar lines twist and ascend over punishing riffs and blackened shrieks, and the second the heaviness threatens to get stale, they masterfully shift into majestic interludes of echoing clean guitar and virtuosic flamenco-backed bass solos. Yet, for all their death-defying feats of musical engineering, Stortregn never once feel like they’re being excessively self-indulgent or noodling for noodling’s sake- every musical detour serves the overall song, and the entire album is kept to a tidy forty-three minutes. Finitude all comes together for a phenomenally entertaining, utterly kickass listen that is bewildering in the best of ways.
Recommended tracks: A Lost Battle Rages On, Rise of the Insidious, Omega Axiom, The Revelation
Related links: Original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
1. Alkaloid – Numen
Style: Progressive Death Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Obscura, Black Crown Initiate, Gojira, Gorod, Obsidious, Linus Klausenitzer, Hannes Grossmann, Supertramp
Write-up by: Andy
With great pleasure I get to write on our second annual collective album of the year, Alkaloid’s excellent new opus, Numen. Consistently wowing our staff with its standout instrumental performances and Morean’s unique vocals, Alkaloid are as much of a shoe-in for a consensus pick as this year had to offer. Numen is both intricate in its technicality and subtle in its songwriting, perfectly marrying progginess with tasteful indulgence. Alkaloid were the prog death band to look out for after Liquid Anatomy in 2018, and they capitalized on their previous success to craft some of the best songs of the year, a complete prog metal package. Between its catchy choruses (“Qliphosis”), badass riffs (“Shades of Shub-Niggurath”), crazy lyricism (“The Cambrian Explosion”), and exploratory songwriting (“Alpha Aur”), this album is a crowd-pleaser with the full range of what prog death has to offer. All those reasons and more make Alkaloid’s Numen a well-deserving Album of the Year.
Recommended tracks: Qliphosis, The Cambrian Explosion, Clusterfuck, Shades of Shub-Niggurath, Alpha Aur
Related links: Original review | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
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Review: Hannes Grossmann - Echoes of Eternity - The Progressive Subway · February 14, 2024 at 16:00
[…] which mixed the stunning-sounding Numen for Alkaloid (our Subway album of the year, check it out here), did not translate the clear sound to his own release: Echoes of Eternity’s production is […]