Here we are, at the end of an amazing year in metal. If you're a headbanger, I don't have to tell you that 2023 produced a mountain of ferocious, incendiary music from all genres and subgenres in heavy music. And now that our 2023 planetary trip around the sun nears its conclusion, it's time for me to once again take stock of all the metal I've spun and enjoyed over the last 365 days.

Making this list wasn't easy. I listened to nearly 950 albums this year, so whittling that down to a select 25 was a painstaking effort. It wounded me to leave off some very deserving records I love, but this is where my choices ultimately landed. If an album you love isn't on here, I'm sorry. But hopefully you'll make your own list and share the albums that impacted you most.

As in years past, I'm delivering my Top 25 in print with descriptions, album covers and Bandcamp links. My selections were originally revealed on episode 145 of the Metalheads Podcast, the 5-hour countdown extravaganza featuring The Top 25 Metal Albums of 2023 from all 6 hosts. You can listen to George, Will, Jay, John, Matt and yours truly gush about our favorite records while we guzzle all the beers. Now available on your favorite podcast app or right here on the Metalheads Podcast website.

If you want to check out all our individual Top 25 lists you can find them on the The Top 25 Metal Albums of 2023 page. We have also unveiled the official Metalheads Podcast Top 25, a scientifically aggregated list based on all our ranked albums and their positions.

Okay, before I dive into my Top 25, I must first wish you all a very Happy New Year, dear metalheads! May your 2024 be filled with love, levity, light and all the saxophone you can handle. Snuggle up to your favorite beast and toss back that glass of bubbly, because here we go.
— Markisan

25. Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Independent Release
https://blackbraid.bandcamp.com/album/blackbraid-ii

I liked the first Blackbraid album, but this is a massive step up from last year's debut for me. It follows the same sweeping melodic black metal blueprint, but this time around the songwriting is stronger. The tracks are more balanced, bombastic and memorable, and the Native American instrumentation is better integrated into this album. I love how Sgah'gahsowáh and friends were able to tweak the formula in such a short amount of time between albums and deliver this anthemic follow-up.

24. A Flourishing Scourge - Sickened Seed

Begotten Records
https://aflourishingscourge.bandcamp.com/album/sickened-seed

This progressive metal album grabbed me right away with its dynamic instrumental variety. There's a lot of heavy death metal on this record, but it's the contrasts and engrossing interwoven elements throughout that make it a favorite. Slick moments of tribal percussion and Latinesque acoustic guitar, strings and woodwinds, alt-rock clean vocal passages... and that's just some of the stuff going on. Plus, Hannes Grossman on drums never hurts. If Swiss army knife progressive death metal sounds interesting to you, give this one a shot.

23. Oak Pantheon - The Absence

Independent Release
https://oakpantheon.bandcamp.com/album/the-absence

The Absence dropped all the way back in January and it's the only album from that first month that made my list. It's a super eclectic and naturalistic mix of atmospheric black metal, post-metal, prog and folk that's full of beautiful arrangements, catchy choruses and gorgeous vocal harmonies. A varied collection of earthy black fables with heart.

22. Blaze of Sorrow - Vultus Fati

Eisenwald Records
https://blazeofsorrow.bandcamp.com/album/vultus-fati

This is exemplary melodic black metal with a medieval folk flair to it. It alternates between rousing battle rally parts and sad wizard sections, with acoustic guitars and bittersweet viola passages. Vultus Fati is also completely sung in Italian, which adds to the ye olden times euro atmosphere. If metal was played in the dark ages this band would be absolutely massive back then.

21. Hellish Form - Deathless

Transylvanian Recordings
https://transylvaniantapes.bandcamp.com/album/hellish-form-deathless

Hellish Form plays heavy, emotional funeral doom with slow sludgy riffs mixed with bright, soaring synths. The combination gives Deathless a warm, dreamy, almost trance-like sound that is quite different from any other funeral doom bands I've heard. This record is like a soothing snuggie of metal being draped over you.

20. Enslaved - Heimdal

Nuclear Blast Records
https://enslaved.bandcamp.com/album/heimdal

What more can you say about Enslaved? They're one of the greatest bands ever, and in 2023 they released another tremendous and creative album of epic progressive black metal. It's a record that demands your complete listening attention because it's so layered and engaging, and kind of fucking weird. I love that. I love that this legendary band still sounds fresh and unique, and relevant. I love that they surprise me every time out. Some bands record a few good songs, some bands put out great LPs, but Enslaved makes extraordinary albums that take you on journeys across realms.

19. Anti-God Hand - Blight Year

American Decline Records
https://antigodhand.bandcamp.com/album/blight-year

I've been very high on this band for the last few years because they play an explosive style of progressive cosmic black metal that's honestly tough to describe. But here goes... Anti-God Hand injects a harsh technicality and coldness into its base song structures with a frenetic drum style, precise guitars and banshee shrieked vocals, but layered over that mathematical sound is an uplifting warmth that comes from a melodic, crystalline guitar sound and atmospheric synths. After a handful of EPs and one previous full length, Anti-God Hand not only continues that ice heart exploration on this album, they damn-near perfect it. I've never heard anything like this band in metal. Listening to this Blight Year fills me with endless fascination and the feels.

18. Phobocosm - Foreordained

Dark Descent Records
https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/through-sheer-will-and-black-magic

This album was a very late addition to the list because it officially came out a day before we recorded the Top 25 Metal Albums of 2023 episode for the Metalheads Podcast. But since I'm a fan of the band and it had been 7 long years since their last release, I set aside some time to give it a few spins. I'm glad I did because this is an absolute storm cloud colossus of cavernous death doom. It's like being dropped into a filthy 100-foot abyss and you have to climb back up with a shattered leg before the whole cave collapses in on itself. Foreordained has that kind of claustrophobic, unrelenting feeling of dread to it. The excellent production has a lot to do with that atmosphere. It sounds appropriately murky, but the album's monstrous riffs are clear and deadly, slicing through the grime like a battle axe through flesh.

17. Morokh - Insomnia

Independent Release
https://morokh.bandcamp.com/album/insomnia

This album is a super high octane, venomous black metal record with scorching guitars. Morokh started out as a hardcore band some years ago and then became a blackened hardcore act, but on Insomnia they kick out the core completely and fill the space with obsidian nastiness. Healthy doses of blackened death, post-black and doom help them make a welcome and blistering turn to the metal dark side.

16. Breaths - Floruit

Trepanation Records
https://breaths.bandcamp.com/album/floruit

Doom-gazey, blackened post metal with a 90s rock heart. This album has a slow, dream-like pace to it with sublime clean vocals and bursts of heavy doom havoc and growls. Cryptopsy vocalist Matt McGachy also makes a guest appearance on "We See You," lending some unexpected harmonics to one of my favorite tracks. Floruit is a gorgeous record, full of shimmering atmosphere and heart fluttering emotion, which is often my metal kryptonite.

15. Krigsgrav - Fires in the Fall

Wise Blood Records
https://krigsgrav.bandcamp.com/album/fires-in-the-fall

Krigsgrav plays doomed melodic black metal with a big emphasis on mood. The atmosphere is delivered through the band's superb shifting dynamics. They'll sit down on their metal and let the guitars roar death heavy as vocalist Justin Coleman effortlessly bellows and rasps, then they might flow into a crackling wood fire ambiance with synths, or let loose with soaring guitar passages that set the night ablaze. Fires in the Fall is an incredibly well written, engaging and fierce record.

14. Pupil Slicer - Blossom

Prosthetic Records
https://pupilslicer.bandcamp.com/album/blossom

Blossom is a complex and catchy rollercoaster of math-metal with searing riffs and fun choruses. I really like the punk energy in this band and the manic but infectious swings in the music. There are some synths in there, some post-black metal and indie rock. Pupil Slicer is a hyper aggressive band with the remarkable ability to weave in many different styles and make the mix swirl perfectly like a big lollipop.

13. Selenoplexia - Exalt and Despair

Independent Release
https://selenoplexia.bandcamp.com/album/exalt-and-despair-2

Selenoplexia plays exhilarating blackened death metal with the kind of megaton riffs that make you want to break everything. But just when you're about to smash another bowl, they come into the kitchen and calm you down with soothing instrumental passages on tracks like "Cessation of Reality" and "The Albatross Hangs." Face splitting songs with spicy dynamics and excellent production make this independently released debut LP sound like a big label offering from 20 Buck Spin or Dark Descent. I'd be really surprised if that wasn't the case for the follow-up album.

12. Fires in the Distance - Air Not Meant for Us

Prosthetic Records
https://firesinthedistance.bandcamp.com/album/air-not-meant-for-us

Air Not Meant for Us is an inferno of modern melodic death metal with soaring guitars, big melo-doom riffs, raspy death vocals and sparkling goth synths that give the album a unique and infectious sound. The last Fires in the Distance album was very good. It had the kindling in place to ignite a quality fire, but this time around the band tossed some massive birch logs on the blaze. Echoes From Deep November was a comfortable little campfire. Air Not Meant for Us is a raging bonfire with naked witches dancing around it.

11. Kasm - Lux Obscurata

Independent Release
https://kasmblackmetal.bandcamp.com/album/lux-obscurata

This is sinister cosmic black metal with arresting melodic layers to it. I love the grand, floating in space type feeling this album gives me. It's a perfect blend of viciousness and an otherworldly, atmospheric sense of place in the universe. The band just dropped Lux Obscurata of nowhere as an independent release which was a little surprising to me, given that it features vocals from Kyle Ball of WAKE. Kasm added a note to Bandcamp for any record labels interested in releasing the album to contact them. So, if you're reading this, please sign the band so I can have the vinyl.

10. Majesties - Vast Reaches Unclaimed

20 Buck Spin Records
https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/vast-reaches-unclaimed

Ohhhh yes. Old school 90s melodeath is back and it's better than ever! This new band by members of Obsequiae and Inexorum has completely revived the short-lived Gothenburg sound that mixed the intensity and aggression of death metal with the melodies and twin guitar harmonies of new wave British heavy metal. Think early At the Gates and especially older In Flames, whose triumphant albums Whoracle and Colony ruled my teen metal life. The stomp lightning chords and milky smooth hooks are just relentless on Vast Reaches Unclaimed, which has ruled much of my middle-aged metal life in 2023.

9. Rannoch - Conflagrations

Willowtip Records
https://rannoch-uk.bandcamp.com/album/conflagrations

Conflagrations is the darker, monstrous cousin of early Opeth, laying down multifarious arrangements of elaborate guitar passages, atmospheric synth and immersive melodies that all bend and coil without sacrificing the brutality. This album features some of the most gargantuan riffs in 2023 and Ian Gilling's voice is a commanding blend of harsh and clean vocals that shift perfectly with the complexities and emotions of the music. Conflagrations is one of the most dynamic metal albums of the year. Rannoch discharged a multi-star flare into the sky with their third record, emphatically signaling that they have arrived.

8. Gatekeeper - From Western Shores

Cruz del Sur Records
https://gatekeeper.bandcamp.com/album/from-western-shores

From Western Shores is my top, epic traditional metal album this year and my favorite since the last Atlantean Kodex record. Galloping thunderwatt riffs, fun folk elements, triumphant solos and savage fantasy world themes that make me want to reach for my sword and search for glory. On top of that, new vocalist Tyler Anderson just rockets this band to the top of Mount Doom with a powerful voice that occasionally gets possessed by King Diamond. When he lets out those short burst screams it’s like Beastmaster squawk-summoning his hawk for the battle ahead. I have no choice but to heed the call.

7. Convocation - No Dawn for The Caliginous Night

Everlasting Spew Records
https://everlastingspewrecords.bandcamp.com/album/no-dawn-for-the-caliginous-night

No Dawn for the Caliginous Night is a towering tsunami of death doom with funereal waves that crash and swallow all the light in my listening universe. The songs often have an angel choir backdrop that makes it sound like heaven exploded and all its souls are falling down to the earth on fire, like plummeting stars. Yes, this album is so good that I clearly can't help but imagine the songs as visual pieces of an impending apocalypse. This is massive, infernal annihilation in musical form.

6. Sarcoptes - Prayers to Oblivion

Transcending Obscurity Records
https://sarcoptesblack.bandcamp.com/album/prayers-to-oblivion

This album is a monstrous and ambitious war cry of black metal full of destructive thrashy riffs, skilled demonic drumming, howled vocals and haunting orchestral key parts that make the album sound gigantic and ethereal. Prayers to Oblivion also delivers some of the most kinetic, sinister breakdowns I've heard this year. A record of primal sophistication that never stops ripping the bones out of your body.

5. Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit

20 Buck Spin Records
https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/the-enduring-spirit

With The Enduring Spirit, Tomb Mold makes a pretty bold and aspirant turn toward prog that I didn't see coming. The band's music got more imaginative and more interesting without sacrificing the megalodon-sized death riffs and menace of their previous records. Grizzled guitar-focused devastation is interwoven with unconventional melodies, jazzy passages and refined surprises around every corner. Imagine mid-era Death being dragged through a sewage explosion on LV-426. That's The Enduring Spirit.

4. Fvnerals - Let the Earth Be Silent

Prophecy Productions
https://fvnerals.bandcamp.com/album/let-the-earth-be-silent

This album is a hypnotic, ritual doom-cocoon of absolute darkness. It's one of the most haunting, atmospheric metal records I've ever heard, and every time I spin it I just feel completely enveloped by the supernatural horror it creates. Fvnerals previously played a dark shoegaze meets ethereal drone sound that I've loved for a long time. Their former music was intensely captivating, but it wasn't metal, so I did not expect them to add a big gloomy explosion of guitars and embrace doom like they have on Let the Earth Be Silent. There are quite a few metal bands who have turned down their amps to become more accessible, but I've rarely seen a band choose to become heavier. Fvnerals' decision to do just that on Let the Earth Be Silent made them even more unsettling, seductive and powerful.

3. Horrendous – Ontological Mysterium

Season of Mist Records
https://horrendous.bandcamp.com/album/ontological-mysterium

Back in August, all 6 Metalheads Podcast hosts chose the same release as our Album of the Month. It was only the 2nd time in the history of the show that the pentagrams aligned. This Great Conjunction only occurs when an album is special, and Ontological Mysterium is certainly that. Five years after their last record, Horrendous has delivered a triumphant work that surprises and dazzles with its eclectic mix of ferocious death and anthemic prog sorcery. The album's 38 minutes of incendiary riffs, dynamic rhythms, exciting and unexpected vocal variations, and shape-shifting song structures leave me breathless every time I spin it. Ontological Mysterium is daring and unique. It’s brilliantly forged. It’s essential.

2. Fagus - Inter

Silent Future Recordings
https://fagusofficial.bandcamp.com/album/inter-2

There are a lot of celebrated black metal albums this year, but this is by far my favorite. Fagus plays dark, atmospheric black metal with an eerie, majestic sound. The song layering on this album is gorgeous, meticulous and energetic, giving it a colossal windswept sound. But the way this band also manages to capture such a stark and reflective tone throughout the record, while still playing vigorous black metal is exceptional. The songs on Inter are propelled by an emotional undercurrent that makes me feel like I'm alone on a glacier beholding the wonders of the earth, as the ancient icy gusts of the mountain slip between my bones. A gracefully crafted, ominous album that feels immediate and personal to me.

1. The Anchoret - It All Began with Loneliness

Willowtip Records
https://theanchoretofficial.bandcamp.com/album/it-all-began-with-loneliness

Whenever I put this album on, I marvel at how Ed Levitsky managed to gather so many amazing players from around the world, and carefully craft such a masterful and cohesive progressive metal record. His songwriting is absolutely wondrous. How it shifts and flows in a way that makes every musical piece matter to the songs AND to the overall composition of the album is really something to hear. And then vocalist Sylvain Auclair ties it all together so beautifully with his stunning and varied delivery.

The virtuoso talent and the technical artistry on display would be enough to turn my ear in any year, but what really sets this record apart for me is the passion that bleeds out of every note. I feel the sentiment in every song. Rage. Frustration. Sadness. Loneliness. Love. All the tracks are amazing, but the closer, "Stay" is my favorite. I often catch myself singing it softly, especially the phrase, “You and Me Holding the Line." Every time I do, I get a lump in my throat and I feel a longing for loved ones lost before they should have gone.

It All Began with Loneliness is a special album. It's a spectacular achievement in modern progressive metal.