After hitting me with a Kia Soul and forcing me to undergo jokes about me spending an evening in the ER (and thank god it was just that), 2023 decided to throw me a boon that would make this year suck a lot less than it already did in the form of meeting my now girlfriend. If you all haven’t noticed, I’ve been absent from my writing duties for most of the year as I’ve tried to sort my head and life itself out. And while I haven’t been completely successful, I’m steadily moving on the right path. I can only thank my girlfriend and Subway Instagram stalker for keeping me sane through a tough year, and my cat for providing a cuddle when I need it most.
But that’s not all I’m thankful for. We’re here to talk music after all, and as you all know by now, music is the very blood in my veins. The reason I get up in the morning sometimes. I continue to discover incredible new artists through my time at the Subway, and I didn’t write about nearly enough this year (Laudere, Mirror Neuron, Múr and Deception are all worth your time). More than that, I continue to interact with excellent writers and overall incredible people (except for Andy I hate that guy) here at the Subway. They’ve also helped me more than they realize. But, I’m using this as a blank slate. Let’s start again with high hopes for that Dessiderium album this year, because I’ve missed this gig a lot.
Non-Subway Honorable Mentions:
Ulcerate – Cutting the Throat of God: A band that continuously delivers insane music has somehow gotten even better. Ulcerate at their most grim and apocalyptic, and their most accessible.
Kanonenfieber – Die Urkatastrophe: The noises of the machine of war, wrapped in headbanging riffs and screamable vocal lines.
Dvne – Voidkind: An album worthy of the Muad’dib. Riffs heavier than the Shai-Hulud and tinged in the harsh atmosphere of Arrakis.
10. Pyrrhon – Exhaust
Style: Dissonant death metal, technical death metal
Recommended for fans of: Gorguts, Dillinger Escape Plan, Imperial Triumphant, Car Bomb
Something really cool happened with dissodeath this year. A bunch of bands decided to make their best efforts yet, and Pyrrhon is among them. I’ve been following the NY quartet since their 2017 opus, What Passes for Survival, and this is somehow better. This is a (surprisingly) more accessible Pyrrhon, with more structured riffs and less sections of noise for noise’s sake. The result is all wrapped in a stellar Colin Marston production job that even shines on my crappy gym headphones.
Recommended tracks: Not Going to Mars, Strange Pains, Stress Fractures
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
9. Lamentari – Ex Umbra In Lucem
Style: Symphonic black metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Emperor, Ihsahn, Limbonic Art, Fleshgod Apocalypse
2024 wasn’t just a year of great dissodeath, but a year of long-awaited sequels as well. Lamentari established themselves as a force to be reckoned with after releasing two killer EPs with real orchestral backing. Surely a full-length would be absolutely incredible when it finally came out, and incredible it is. Ex Umbra in Lucem revels in excessive grandiosity, and knows how to exercise restraint on top of that. ‘Tragoedia in Domo Dei’ takes a pause on the symphonics to make sure the listener appreciates a fretless bass solo before smacking them in the face with that intro riff.
Recommended tracks: Tragidea in Domo Dei, Appugno, Intra Muros Mentis
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
8. Hippotraktor – Stasis
Style: Post-metal, djent, progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Meshuggah, Dvne, The Ocean, Uneven Structure
I am fallible to error, because being the Subway’s hype man is a duty that wears on me as much as it gives me incredible power. I really love Stasis, but in retrospect, I scored it a little too high. All the compliments in my review I will stand behind, as the sheer weight of this album is something I’ve only found in Dvne’s newest this year. ‘Descent’’s use of the brown note in that stanky intro riff is something to be admired, but overall, it doesn’t quite warrant that score of a 9.
This all being said, Stasis has cemented Hippotraktor as one of those bands I’m always going to get hyped about. Every track is perfectly cut, in line with the album’s trim 45-minute runtime. There’s little to no fat, and every post-metal build serves its purpose well. If every track were of similar quality to the album’s latter half, this would’ve very likely made the top five. But, it’ll just have to sit atop the corpses of the lesser albums it threw aside.
Recommended tracks: Renegade, The Indifferent Human Eye, Stasis, The Reckoning
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
7. Replicant – Infinite Mortality
Style: Dissonant death metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of :Gorguts, Imperial Triumphant
Remember what I said about dissodeath and long-awaited sequels? Replicant found their stride in glorious fashion on 2021’s Malignant Reality, and I knew it would only be uphill from there. Infinity Mortality stacks up to its predecessor, abiding by the almighty riff that holds these New Jersey cavemen’s sound together. There is little in the way of melody or reprieve to be found on this album, instead encasing the listener in sixteen tons of sonic cement. The spacey synths that lead ‘Acid Mirror’ into ‘Shrine of the Incomprehensible’ paint a horrific, aural science-fiction landscape like that found on the cover, and it doesn’t let up for the next 44 minutes.
There are so many pants-shitting moments and riffs on this record that I don’t even know what to leave out. If you don’t bang your head to the intro riff of ‘Nekrotunnel’, then you might want to check your pulse. Mike Goncalves continues to be one of my favorite vocalists in dissodeath, combining Gorguts-ian pained shrieks with his own unique flair, and his bass playing shines all over the record. Not to mention the dual guitar genius of Peter Lloyd and newcomer Itay Keren (Windfarer). Every performance is a standout, and it deserves more than one listen if cave-flavored dissodeath is your thing.
Recommended tracks: Acid Mirror, Orgasm of Bereavement, Pain Enduring, Planet of Skin
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
6. Misanthropy – The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance
Style: Technical death metal, brutal death metal, progressive death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Archspire, Analepsy, Atheist, Devourment
This is one of two records on this list that really came out of nowhere. I remembered Misanthropy being a ropey-sounding prog-thrash band not too dissimilar from Atheist with a Coroner-like flair. All of this proceeded to be dashed the moment I heard ‘Of Sulking and The Wrathful’. A First Fragment-like swing riff completely knocked me off guard at the four minute-mark, and I knew this was something special. I dare you to try and find a bad riff on this entire album. ‘A Cure for Pestilence’ is just about the best Atheist song that the classic tech-death band never made, opting for a slower (for tech-death, anyway) build near the middle before launching into a ripping dueling guitar solo.
This is everything I love about braindead (complimentary) tech-death in a nutshell. Batshit technicality without losing rhythmic sensibilities and riff creativity. The production, unlike most of the plasticky, overly compressed nonsense that’s become commonplace, leaves more than enough organic breathing room for each instrument. The sound’s standout being Mark Bojkewycz’s aggressive fretless bass, laying down some abyssal bottom-end for the record’s runtime. Check this out if your desire to return to monke is as strong as mine.
Recommended tracks: Of Sulking and the Wrathful, A Cure for Pestilence, Descent, Sepulcher, Consumed by the Abyss
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
5. Aquilus – Bellum II
Style: Symphonic black metal, classical, folk (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Ne Obliviscaris, Emperor, Agalloch, Chopin, Debussy
Yeah, this one was obvious. Coming hot off the heels of 2021’s masterpiece, Bellum I, Horace Rosenqvist wasted no time getting to work on the other half of this massive double-album. With each listen, it further confirms to me that Bellum’s two-hour runtime is the way these two halves should be listened to. Closer ‘Empyreal Nightsky’’s classical outro perfectly bleeds into ‘By Tallow North’, welcoming listeners back to Aquilus’s perfectly woven sonic tapestry.
This is an album best listened to on the best pair of headphones you could possibly find, in the dark, eyes closed. Like Griseus before it, Bellum masterfully weaves through otherworldly transitions, with Rosenqvist backed by an actual band this time. ‘Night to Her Gloam’ is one of those songs that deserves every second of its 16-minute runtime, as is ‘My Frost-Laden Vale’, the two massive songs that prop this album up. If you haven’t given Aquilus a listen yet, even after this blog gushed, metaphorically, all over them, do yourself a favor.
Recommended tracks: Please for the love of all that is unholy, listen to Bellum in whole.
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
4. Carnosus – Wormtales
Style: Technical death metal, melodic death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Archspire, The Black Dahlia Murder, Revocation, Infant Annihilator
I’m sorry Carnosus, I’ve shafted you yet again. I love Wormtales so much, and that’s why it’s so high on the list, but they’ve yet to hit the coveted number one spot. These guys can practically do no wrong in my eyes, as everything they’ve released is nothing short of great. Like fellow listmakers Misanthropy and Replicant, this is the peak of monke music for the year. Right from the get-go, ‘Birthless’ establishes this as a more melodic-focused record, working in the favor of these cave-wizard’s incredibly focused songwriting. This has some of the best solos you’ll hear all year, but it’s domesticated pterodactyl-demon Jonatan Karasiak that gives one of the best vocal performances I’ve ever heard.
That’s not to say everyone else is bad, in fact it’s quite the opposite. Wormtales features Carnosus at their most varied, with the band ripping through chugging riff after riff, restraining themselves to make the apeshit technicality all the more pleasing when it finally rears its slimy head. With SOTY contender ‘Yearnings of a Rotten Spine’ and the entire back-half practically being on par with Visions of Infinihility, they’ve earned their high spot on my list. I know you’ve got the desire to ape out, so go ahead. Stick this on.
Recommended tracks: Birthless, Yearnings of a Rotten Spine, Neglectikon, Harbinger of Woudism, Solace in Soil
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
3. In Vain – Solemn
Style: Progressive death metal, progressive black metal, melodic death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Borknagar, Insomnium, Disillusion, Countless Skies
Here’s where it started getting hard. The next two albums I flip-flopped a few thousand times before finally deciding on an order. Despite not making it into second place, In Vain delivered one of the best slabs of prog-death of the year, and probably some of the best I’ve heard period. I wish someone had recorded my first listen to that hair-raising chorus on ‘Shadows Flap Their Black Wings’, as I probably looked like I was staring into the face of a mountain god. With obviously Opethian influence, and a few Borknagar stylings here and there, In Vain set themselves apart from the laymans prog-death as expert songcrafters above all.
And expert this album is. I would be kicking myself if I didn’t mention the closer, ‘Watch Me on The Mountain’ as one of my all-time favorite prog-death songs. This song made me cry on first listen before making me headbang, and I still find myself getting choked up when I listen. This is all thanks to Subterranean Masquerade’s Vidi Dolev and his golden voice, and the transition into a killer breakdown near the song’s end. As someone who’s been a huge fan of In Vain since Aenigma, it’s great to see them finally make the masterpiece I always knew they had in them.
Recommended tracks: Shadows Flap their Black Wings, Season of Unrest, Beyond the Pale, Blood Makes the Grass Grow, Watch for Me on the Mountain
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
2. Iotunn – Kinship
Style: Progressive death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Amorphis, In Mourning, Ne Obliviscaris, Insomnium
That FFO is really revealing a bias I have. Biased or not, Iotunn delivered arguably my most hyped album of the year in spades. From those soft, arpeggiated notes of ‘Kinship Elegiac’ to the final chorus of ‘The Anguished Eternal’, Kinship expands on the formula created by 2021’s Access All Worlds in masterful fashion. Opting for a less spacey and more folk-oriented sound this time around, Kinship is the best of overdramatic melodeath a la Amorphis or Insomnium, elevated by Jon Aldara’s incredible vocals.
I remember when ‘Mistland’ came out last year, and knew then that this album would be a list-topper for me. However, I couldn’t imagine how incredible just about every song would be. Iotunn’s songwriting strength lies in epic, overdramatic death metal, and every song Every riff hits like a truck, and the heavier moments leading to Aldara’s crystalline cleans makes for an overall unforgettable album.
Recommended tracks: Kinship Elegiac, Mistland, Twilight, I Feel the Night, Earth to Sky
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
1. Orgone – Pleroma
Style: Progressive death metal, chamber music, folk, classical, jazz (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gorguts, Opeth, Iamthemorning if they were a dissodeath band, Ne Obliviscaris
Not even I expected this. A band I’d previously not even heard of taking the top spot on my list. Over Aquilus? Over motherfucking Iotunn?? It’s practically inconceivable, but I underrated this. I don’t even think I scratched the surface of what makes this album so incredible in my review, because Pleroma is about as dense as the innards of my skull, and I’m sure as hell not doing it in two paragraphs. Orgone takes the songwriting prowess of the best prog-death bands, mixes it with the most unique style of guitar playing I’ve heard all year, and sprinkles it all with violins, brass, and other unconventional instruments. This is practically a bear trap with my name written all over it.
It only took the dueling violin and guitar combo in ‘Valley of the Locust’ to sell me, and the continuously changing style of each song is what kept me firmly invested over Pleroma’s 65-minute runtime. The film-noir like saxophone in ‘Flâneurs’ took me by surprise the first time around, and the triumphant end of ‘Pleroma’ is only scratching the surface of what makes this album truly special. Listen to it a few times for yourself, and slowly, Pleroma will open up to you as it did for me. What was an incredible first listen slowly became the best thing I’d heard all year, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll understand why this is my album of the year. They aren’t on Spottily, but Pleroma is more than worth the seven dollars on Bandcamp.
Recommended tracks: Valley of the Locust, Flâneurs, Lily by Lily, Ubiquitous Divinity, Trawling the Depths, Scheme of Fulfillment, Pleroma
Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | original review
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