Distorted Sound’s Top 20 Albums of 2023
Ah 2023, you have been a roller-coaster of a year. Whilst it would be easy, and totally understandable, to wallow in the misery of the economic turmoil, the divisive political stage and the burning climate, thank fuck for heavy music. Throughout 2023, from January through to December, we have been truly blessed with a tsunami of quality releases from both established juggernauts and exciting newcomers. Across every sub-genre and every facet of our world, there’s quality to be found and we’ve been enjoyed covering every moment. And now here we are, at the close of another year. And after we first unveiled our Albums Of The Year in our latest digital issue (you can access that via our Patreon), now, we present here our Albums of the Year for 2023!
Following the meteoric success of April 2020’s California Cursed – realistically one of the only good things to happen around that time – Santa Cruz bruisers DRAIN went two for two in classic hardcore full-lengths with the release of Living Proof back in May. That it was going to be an absolute rager was a sure thing for anyone who heard its predecessor, and tracks like FTS (KYS), Evil Finds Light and Weight Of The World delivered in spades, but it was elevated further still by a few surprises like a guest feature from rapper SHAKEWELL on the trap-goes-beatdown of Intermission, and a faithful cover of the DESCENDENTS’ classic Good Good Things that saw the band’s ever-smiling frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro show off some clean vocals for the first time in DRAIN history.
Few would dispute that Ciaramitaro is the MVP throughout, his charisma shining through every shout and snarl as he and indeed all the band do all they can to ensure that everyone leaves with a smile on their face. And the best part? It’s even more fun live, as anyone lucky enough to have caught them here in the summer will confirm without hesitation.
19. Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre – PERIPHERY
It was a painstaking period of time to endure between the release of IV: Hail Stan and the arrival of Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre but it more than made up for the wait! No one quite expected the sheer aggression that the incendiary opener of Wildfire possesses, the crushing riffs which still ring in our ears to this day. What was initially pencilled in as a continuation to Juggernaut took an entirely different path of its own and was all the better for it. It is plain and simple to see, no band sound like PERIPHERY and that is a testament to each boundlessly skilful individual.
Spencer Sotelo pushes his already astonishing vocal chords to new, unfathomable heights. The triple pronged guitar attack of Misha Mansoor, Jake Bowen and Mark Holcomb are in electric form, creating some of the most innovative material in modern metal and last but by no means least, Matt Halpern provides the thunderous backdrop that only he can. With each member having developed their own side hustles over the years it may be a while before we get any inkling of P6 but P5 certainly has plenty of creative layers to satisfy even the most avid devourer of music for many years to come.
18. World Domination – BLOOD COMMAND
Norwegian genre-splicers BLOOD COMMAND had a hell of a 2022. Releasing the brilliant Praise Armageddomism, the first record to showcase the quality of new vocalist Nikki Brumen, and superb live performances, for 2023, the band have gone for broke. Back and armed with World Domination, the band are at their most eclectic: throwing hardcore, metal, disco, R&B, and more into a melting pot and offering a record that throws curveballs at you relentlessly.
From the snotty punk of Heaven’s Hate, the thrashing The Plague On Both Your Houses, or the sombre acoustic ballad of Losing Faith where Brumen and Yngve Andersen; World Domination is BLOOD COMMAND at their most diverse over its near 37 minute run-time. It feels like there is something special occurring with BLOOD COMMAND, and with their new record, it looks like they are set to live up to its namesake and indeed achieve World Domination.
17. A Kiss For The Whole World – ENTER SHIKARI
If this year needed an joyous dose of dance-rock infused positivity, then ENTER SHIKARI sure has hell delivered it. With their signature sound and energy right on form, A Kiss For The Whole World felt like an injection of enthusiasm, from the bittersweet It Hurts, to nostalgic title track, there’s an air of delight in life and everything in it though this album. With some time between records, it’s been great ENTER SHIKARI back at full force, ready to jump away any sense of melancholy we’ve been carrying these last couple of years.
British sounds have always been a big appeal of ENTER SHIKARI and songs like (pls) set me on fire touches on 80s synths, mid 2010 indie tones and contemporary metal, while Bloodshot leans heavy on their experimental electronica. All in all, there’s rarely a moment on A Kiss For The Whole World that fails to uplift and make you want to throw yourself around.
2023 saw love metal return to our stratosphere helmed by the ethereal Ville Valo who donned the VV moniker for January’s Neon Noir. In a scene dominated by mosh calls and brash attitudes, the dreamy atmosphere which encapsulates the Finnish wordsmith is an oasis within the noise. Neon Noir is a return to form for the former HIM frontman… and the heartthrob status. Though this is no reboot. The essence of HIM weaves itself through Neon Noir‘s DNA. Yet Valo took the helix and brought about a subtle evolution toward the sensuality of pop music.
Armed with the sweet seduction of Loveletting and heady BLACK SABBATH inspired Saturnine Saturnalia alongside the inferno inducing desire of the title track, Valo‘s solo effort simply oozes charisma. Time and time again we’ve housed ourselves within the “citadel of scars” and let ourselves become intoxicated with effortless melancholia. While it may not openly demand the attention of a listener, it’s much like a siren in that once the record spins, the synapses are subtly snatched from beginning to end. While VV may be coming to an end next year, the enchantress that is Neon Noir will live on long after VV‘s demise.
15. Ultraviolet – AS EVERYTHING UNFOLDS
Sophomore albums are always arguably the most challenging, especially so if – like in the case of AS EVERYTHING UNFOLDS – your debut left many grasping for more. There’s a weight to this that many just crumble under the sheer weight of expectation, the other option of course is that you soar and release something beyond any expectations. The title track itself, Ultraviolet, unabashedly unapologetic and cutting straight to the core of AEU’s second offering with little warm up, feels like a labour of love and if you aren’t bouncing around by the time you reach mid-way point of Flip Side then you’re missing the point.
Moving from strength to strength throughout 2023, undertaking multiple UK jaunts, their first full European headline tour, countless festival appearances, the Heavy Music Award-nominated Buckinghamshire group hold nothing back on their second outing – gently blending synths, guttural screams, nu-metal breakdowns, and at times bright moments of sheer joyful pop-rock to present and deliver a stunning full-length you’ll find yourself looping for years to come. Ultraviolet marks not only another beautifully crafted collection of songs from the Brit five-piece alt formation, but a solidification of a band who have defined their sound and announced that they are here to stay.
Having erupted onto the metal scene during the pandemic, British metal upstarts VEXED turned a lot of heads their way with debut Culling Culture. Two years on and intending to accomplish the sophomore album challenge with Negative Energy, VEXED doubled down and made a record that they describe as one they made at rock bottom with nothing to lose.
And the results are astonishing. Showcasing musical progression from their debut, Negative Energy is jam-packed full of killer moments and crushing riffs that hit with the weight of a ten-ton hammer and vocalist Megan Targett further cements her status as one of the best in the game. Channelling all the sadness, anger, disappointment and grief, and capturing it in a bottle on their second record, Negative Energy sees VEXED hit two for two and further cements their place as one of the UK’s most exciting heavy bands.
Rewind the clocks to early 2020 and for POLARIS, the wind was in their sails. They had released the blistering The Death Of Me and looked poised to become one of metalcore’s heavy hitters. But, the last few years have not been kind to the Aussies. First, they lost all the momentum of their second record due to their homeland’s extremely strict COVID restrictions and then this year, they tragically lost guitarist Ryan Siew. For most bands, it would be totally acceptable if they called time but their decision to carry on is as admirable as it is impressive. And third record, Fatalism, is a wondrous triumph against the biggest of adversities.
Showcasing a band firing on all cylinders with numerous metalcore anthems, thumping breakdowns and deft musical intricacies from the late Siew, Fatalism captures the essence of what POLARIS bring to the table. Not only is is a fitting swansong to their fallen bandmate, it is POLARIS at their very best and one of 2023’s essential metalcore albums.
12. Symptoms Of Survival – DYING WISH
Portland metalcore quintet DYING WISH made their case as ones to watch with 2021 debut Fragments Of A Bitter Memory, but with sophomore outing Symptoms Of Survival they’ve firmly claimed their place at the forefront of the genre. Injecting more melodic sensibilities such as on the stirring Paved In Sorrow and soaring closer Lost In the Fall, they also kept the brutality coming at every opportunity.
Starved piled on breakdown after breakdown and Kiss Of Judas served up frantic, pit inciting mayhem. It’s also an album of massive personal growth, not just musical; Paved In Sorrow is wrought in regret and feelings of failure as well as promises to love and protect, while Path To Your Grave looks back on the themes of Fragments’ title track from a much more healed perspective. Jokes about “never beating the Howard Jones vocal inspiration” allegations aside, there’s touches of KILLSWITCH ENGAGE as before, but Lost In The Fall also brings in shades of Amy Lee. Symptoms Of Survival is the sound of a band confident in the identity they’re stepping into and the route they’re taking, eyes firmly on the future while they continue to grow in the now.
You’d be forgiven for being surprised that IN FLAMES have delivered one of 2023’s finest albums. Across three albums in five years, the melodic death metal pioneers lit the touchpaper and torched their legacy. It took a global pandemic to press pause for the Swedes to hit reset, yet Foregone is a triumphant yet unexpected return to form.
Thanks in part to the arrival of ex-MEGADETH/NEVERMORE axeman Chris Broderick, Foregone rolls out riffs like it’s the Oscars’ red carpet, with hooks as jaw-droppingly strong as the gongs themselves. State Of Slow Decay harkens back to Clayman-era IN FLAMES, mixing the metallic crunch of melodeath riffs with the intensity of an arena-rock show a la ALTER BRIDGE or AVENGED SEVENFOLD, and A Dialogue in B Flat Minor and End The Transmission carve out choruses you couldn’t leave off Come Clarity had they existed back then, whilst Pure Light Of Mind moves the IN FLAMES dial forward, presenting a melodeath ballad made for showcasing vocalist Anders Friden’s still-unstoppable vocals. Welcome back, Jesterheads.
10. The Seventh Sun – BURY TOMORROW
Never retreat and never surrender. This has been BURY TOMORROW‘s ethos for many years though they relied on it more than ever leading into the release of March’s The Seventh Sun. A new lease of life and a transcendence for vocalist Dani Winter-Bates led BURY TOMORROW to come bolting out the gates with their best work to date. Mainlining aggression and disgust, The Seventh Sun laid waste to all preconceived notions and expectations. Whilst abrasive upon initial listens, The Seventh Sun is a call to arms.
A banner for fans of band and metalcore alike to unite beneath and face the world post-pandemic. “We are the children of the seventh sun” bleeds into the savagery of Abandon Us‘ “remove the veil and the doubt / They’ll see the worst of us now”. The darkest side of evolution comes to light as Loz Taylor (WHILE SHE SLEEPS) obliterates the obscenely corrosive Heretic drawing out Winter-Bates‘ most venomous performance on record. Yet The Carcass King and Majesty remind us all that the past and our own insecurities will forever haunt us. With the door firmly kicked in by The Seventh Sun, all that’s left to do for BURY TOMORROW is burn their former underdog status.
Opening an album with a powerful bellow of “Where do the memories go?” gives you some indication of where talented trio URNE were heading with their second full length release, A Feast On Sorrow. Whilst packed with furious bursts of wondrously intricate instrumentation, it is also an emotionally intense journey to undertake, particularly from a lyrical standpoint. Frontman Joe Nally bears his soul in a distinctly vulnerable and candid fashion, coming to terms with illness, disease and the finite mortality we must all endure as a species.
It is not every day you get the chance to conceive an album written and produced at the infamous Silver Cord Studios in New York with the iconic Joe Duplantier of GOJIRA at the helm but it is an opportunity that URNE grasped firmly with their collective hands and it is immediately evident throughout. Having already performed tracks from this release on the main stage of the hallowed turf of Bloodstock Open Air this year, the sky is quite literally the limit for this immensely innovative outfit.
Another early release chronologically, but very much overdue in the hearts of many: This Is Why. From the moment back in late September 2022 that the album’s title track first aired, one thing is for dead certain – this is, has always been, and will always be PARAMORE; though not in the way you probably anticipated. This also though, as it turns out, is actually a very, very good thing. Still retaining many of their trademark quirks as musicians that we have come to learn and warmly recognise over the course of their now near 20-year lifespan, This Is Why sets itself apart from the rest of their discography both lyrically and sonically in just about every possible way imaginable.
Leaning away from their pop-punk and emo fuelled roots and more distinctively pulling inspiration from the likes of TALKING HEADS, their 2023 UK native tour mates BLOC PARTY and likewise fellow Brits FOALS, PARAMORE have created a polarising debate within their fanbase with this release yet, perhaps more crucially, have been unafraid and authentic to themselves enough to do so. The infamous three-piece’s sixth LP outing is brash yet nuanced, idiosyncratic yet comforting, and mature but unequivocally fresh and wholly worthy of its place on this Albums of the Year list.
7. Sky Void Of Stars – KATATONIA
KATATONIA have forged a successful career with their masterful blend of melancholic but endearing creations for multiple decades. Their twelfth full-length effort, Sky Void Of Stars, all solely written by founding architect Jonas Renkse during the seemingly never ending periods of lockdown, sticks to that much favoured blueprint, offering up a package of beautifully crafted melodies, anthemic choruses and surges of heaviness all neatly tied together with a stream of such emotive tones.
Each piece whisking you away on a voyage of pure, cathartic escapism. No further evidence is required to justify how brilliant this release is considering the fact it was released in January and is still considered one of the best albums 2023 had to offer, a year which has arguably been one of the most competitive in some time. It is without doubt Sky Void Of Stars will stand the test of time and be considered as one of KATATONIA’s standout moments.
6. The Noble Art Of Self Destruction – HOLDING ABSENCE
When Lucas Woodland stood in a studio in Canada and sung out “I am a puzzle, I am a painting, I am a work of art in the marking”, there’s no way he knew spilling his soul into The Noble Art Of Self Destruction’s movingly majestic closer The Angel In The Marble would result in something more special than solid gold.
Yet, every track on HOLDING ABSENCE’s third album is a cut above 2021’s breakthrough The Greatest Mistake Of My Life. Whether its the soaring harmonies of False Dawn, the sinister screams of Scissors, or Liminal’s stadium-sized drums, every track here is a moving rumination on the hardships of life, and finding something beautiful in self-destruction. Along with showcasing Woodland’s Ivor Novello-worthy soul-bearing songwriting, The Noble Art Of Self Destruction is the sound of British alternative music’s future showing up.
5. A Sign Of Things To Come – SYLOSIS
Roaring back from the dead in early 2020 with Cycle Of Suffering, British metallers SYLOSIS made a triumphant return only for the pandemic to halt all momentum. Three years on from that stunning comeback record and with the world open once more, there’s a lot riding on album number six (A Sign Of Things To Come) to keep the band at the forefront of heavy music fan’s minds.
Lean and mean over its 45 minutes, on A Sign Of Things To Come SYLOSIS crank everything up to eleven and deliver a record of sheer metallic fury. The riffs and grooves are utterly exquisite and just beg for you to bang your head, the solos from band leader Josh Middleton are insanely wicked, and there’s so many quality moments that the record rarely lulls. Having been one of the most underrated bands in British metal for years and years, with A Sign Of Things To Come, here’s hoping that SYLOSIS finally reap the rewards that they so rightfully deserve.
CREEPER are no strangers to soundtracking the greatest movies never made. Whether it’s punk rock for paranormal period dramas or glam-rock for gothic Greek tragedies, they pick up where Jim Steinman left off. For their third full-length, Sanguivore, they offer up their magnum opus: a vampiric rock opera for goths and new romantics, influenced as much by MEAT LOAF, NICK CAVE, and THE SISTERS OF MERCY as it is The Lost Boys and Near Dark.
Spook and Mercy’s murderous tale is told through stadium-sized horror-punk (Sacred Blasphemy, Chapel Gates), new-wave goth-rock club bangers (Black Heaven, Lovers Led Astray), and bombastic rock-opera numbers (Further Than Forever). Elsewhere, Ian Miles slays solos like there vampires at Sunnydale High (Cry For Heaven), and More Than Death moves you to crying into your gatefolds. Simply put, Sanguivore is a masterpiece few bands ever make.
3. The Weight Of The World – SVALBARD
SVALBARD’s music has always been bluntly emotional; across their works they’ve tackled sexism, exploitative jobs and mental health. Latest album, and first for Nuclear Blast, hones in on the latter of those, focusing on vocalist/guitarist Serena Cherry’s experiences with depression over the past few years. Understandably, it’s often quite bleak listening, with Lights Out offering biting lines like “I’m screaming for help / While I’m muting myself” about the difficulties of reaching out for help, or the heart-wrenching How To Swim Down that tackles unrequited love with a video that’ll leave you in floods of tears.
Musically, its textures draw as much on black metal as they do video games; Cherry has said her lead work is often inspired by the video games that help her when depression is particularly heavy. Elsewhere, they bring in violins courtesy of co-guitarist and vocalist Liam Phelan, expanding their already broad palette into new, shimmering pastures. It builds on their blackened post-hardcore base, with glimmers of post-rock and black metal swirled through. The end result is an outstanding album that’s uplifting musically while emotionally devastating lyrically; The Weight Of The Mask is a landmark release for the band consistently proving themselves one of the UK’s best.
2. This Heathen Land – GREEN LUNG
When Black Harvest was released in 2021, GREEN LUNG seemed to explode out of the murky London underground. It gained them a support slot alongside stoner rock legends CLUTCH on their international tour in 2022 as well as a slot at Damnation Festival. With expectation and anticipation mounting, the band’s follow up album had to be special. Whisking themselves away into the mists of old Albion, stewing over cauldrons of riffs, stirring in weird and wonderful tales of British folklore alongside their ritualist grooves. The result was This Heathen Land.
This riff heavy, intense and mystical album was everything you wanted from GREEN LUNG and more. Over nine spelling tracks they take you across the country to ancient standing stones and sacred sites, alongside the stories of contemporary witches from the 1960s like Maxine Sanders. With their unique doom sound and scorching lead guitar melodies, This Heathen Land is a truly mesmeric musical journey into Britain’s forgotten past. With Tom Templar’s soaring vocals and bewitching lyrics conjuring up vivid imagery, it is more than safe to say that This Heathen Land is one of the year’s most captivating albums.
1. Take Me Back To Eden – SLEEP TOKEN
Regardless of the opinion; 2023 was the year of SLEEP TOKEN. Everything from visualisers for singles to heart wrenching lyrics were consumed in every sense of the word before Take Me Back To Eden was even birthed. The chokehold the collectives’ third album has on the metal world hasn’t slipped since its release in May. Fishbowl soundscapes created by lush walls of noise dominate. Vore‘s dalliance with black metal weaves into the likes of Aqua Regia‘s lo-fi nature and Rain‘s delectable seduction. Sensual and soul ensnaring, tracks such as Ascensionism rise through the ranks of SLEEP TOKEN‘s best work.
Though not just sonically. Laying a soul to the vultures is still Vessel‘s intention with The Apparition‘s “Just let me go or take me with you”. The eight minute title track may beg to return home to where we no longer know pain yet we dwell within the aural mirror which reflects that which makes our soul bleed. Many will deem this entry cheap. However the multi-faceted devastation Take Me Back To Eden bore cannot be denied. It is pensive with abrasiveness, coarse with sensitivity, and a work of near perfection which will only become better as it ages.
Words: James Weaver, Ellis Heasley, Tasha Brown, Laura McCarthy, Jack Press, Dan McHugh, Will Marshall, Chelsea Cochrane
