Estimated reading time: 5 minute(s)

Hey freinds,

Barring any last-minute writeins or surprises, this is my set of the finest new releases I heard in 2023.

Here’s the list of new releases that were considered. (If you’ve got TIDAL, here’s a link to the full playlist. Only 55 1/2 hours!)

Honorable Mentions:

• The Acacia Strain – Failure Will Follow
• Blut Aus Nord – Disharmonium – Nahab
• Cattle Decapitation – Terrasite
• Enslaved – Heimdal
• Insomnium – Anno 1696
• Mutoid Man – Mutants
• Sleep Token – Take Me Back To Eden
• The Zenith Passage – Datalysium
• Gorod – The Orb

The Best Of The Best (in ascending order):

• 15. Chelsea Grin – Suffer In Heaven
• 14. Vintersea – Woven Into Ashes
• 13. In Flames – Foregone
• 12. Johnny Booth – Moments Elsewhere
• 11. Cryptopsy – As Gomorrah Burns
• 10. Gridlink – Coronet Juniper
• 9. Empire State Bastard – Rivers Of Heresy
• 8. Katatonia – Sky Void Of Stars
• 7. Dødheimsgard – Black Medium Current
• 6. Jesus Piece – …So Unknown
• 5. Suffocation – Hymns From The Apocrypha
• 4. Night Verses – Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley Of Night: Part 1
• 3. Pupil Slicer – Blossom
• 2. TesseracT – War Of Being
• 1. The Armed – Perfect Saviors

A couple of things to note:

• None of these are four-star releases. I had worried that moving to an 8-criteria scoring system would skew the math and make top marks impossible, but looking at the data, I don’t think that’s actually true; rather, this year’s best doesn’t feel as great as previous winners. But tell me if you disagree!
• The closest thing we have to a 4-star is the 3.8 I gave to The Armed’s latest album. That call is a bit controversial, as it’s only occasionally metal! Still, they are former Arsies winners, so they’re automatically in the conversation.
• I finally really liked a Dødheimsgard album! it reminds me of Ihsahn, if that helps.

This post has responses:

December 19, 2023 Re: Arse

Thanks for the list! As usually, I have heard very little of them. Enjoyed the Enslaved a lot, and have heard some of the In Flames (saw them open for...

December 20, 2023 Re: Re: Arse

Overkill Inc. never miss! That said, if I had to pick one album from my best-of that I really want you to check out, it's the Night Verses. The Armed...