THE NICSPERIMENT'S TOP NINE ALBUMS OF 2023

* FOR A BRIEF ENTRY ON SONGS I LIKED THIS YEAR FROM ALBUMS THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE BELOW LIST, CHECK OUT MY POST FROM YESTERDAY*

Maybe the dopamine kick I get from experiencing new music is finally waning as I hit 42 this year, or maybe 2023 just wasn't the best year in music. There is little I heard to which I feel I'll return, but thankfully, I was able to find some new stuff I liked, much of it metal, so here are my nine favorite albums of 2023.

9. Sermon-- Of Golden Verse

Inventive hard rock, featuring a highly talented, masked vocalist/guitarist, a tom-happy drummer who absolutely smashes them in a percussive avalanche, a skilled bassist, and some excellent songs full of dynamic moments.


8. Blackbraid -- Blackbraid II

Black Metal music from a Native American angle, with all the blastbeats and shredding I expect, along with flute and other Native American instrumentation I don't, full of fist-pumping, badass moments that hint at even better possible music to come.


7. Spiritbox -- The Fear of Fear

25-minutes of great music is enough for me to ignore the "EP" tag here, as The Fear of Fear is awesome, and displays the best blending of Spiritbox's harsh and smooth textures to date, with songs that feel huge and epic, bolstered by a violently dichotomous vocal performance by Courtney LaPlante that should elevate her to legendary status.


6. The Acacia Strain -- Failure Will Follow/Step Into the Light

A deathcore band decides to create a double-album where the first part somehow transforms their usual two-minute, face-punching style into three 10-plus minute sludgy doom metal songs, full of bleak, yet beautiful atmosphere, and the second further refines that quick-hitter, face-punching sound. Both albums interweave not only similar fatalistic themes about the brutal nature of life on Earth, but repeat certain lyrics and musical motifs for an overall package that strangely reminds me of late 90s Portishead, not in sound or genre, but in tone and feel. Even the album artwork, best featured in the incredible vinyl versions, works together in concert to create a beautifully bleak and cruel short story (spoiler alert, mama bird chokes on that deer meat). From this anti-nihilist listener, the only way I ever want nihilism to be presented is purely as it is, and this music is so hopeless, it actually comes back around to a strangely hopeful place, where the mantra of "failure will follow" almost becomes a message of hope, i.e. failure is a constant companion in life, so it's nothing to fear. Also, the 9:20 mark on "Pillar of Salt" features not only the most stunning musical transition I've heard this year, but one of the most stunning musical transitions I've heard, ever.


5. In Flames -- Foregone

In Flames has historically been the poster boy band for the melodic death metal genre, excellently blending beautifully melodic guitar riffs into their otherwise abrasive music. Foregone ups the ante in the melody department, by containing a loaded arsenal of melodic song choruses, which may disappoint fans of the band's more extreme side, but delights my ears, as this is one the more highly listenable, and purely enjoyable metal albums I've heard in recent memory.


4. Dad Hats -- Spill 

Possibly the most obscure album on this list, but it shouldn't be, as Spill is a wildly enjoyable take on the pop-leaning, yet punk-influenced radio rock of the mid-00s, generally a subgenre I didn't enjoy back then in my 20s, but one I can't resist here in my 40s when it's done so well, and with such relatable lyrics throughout most of its runtime. This is a great album from front-to-back that deserves many more ears!!!


3. Majesties -- Vast Reaches Unclaimed

I guess I was in a melodic death metal mood this year, because I returned to this...majestic album from Obsequiae frontman, Tanner Anderson, again and again. While Obsequiae has been categorized as medieval death metal, with Anderson utilizing medieval scales and instruments, Majesties is purely focused on adding in as many sweet guitar melodies as possible, resulting in a waterfall of gloriously beautiful riffs, with some lovely, atmospheric acoustic breaks thrown in at select moments to fill out Vast Reaches Unclaimed's highly enjoyable sound.


2. Project 86 -- Omni

The end has finally come for the storied Christian hard rock band who've essentially now been only frontman, Andrew Schwab, and guest players for nearly half of their 27-year run. Omni is a double-album, with the first part released in 2023. Schwab, always one to go against the grain, has not softened in his old age, and instead made Project 86 HEAVIER than ever, utilizing members of Norma Jean to give Omni a crushing, djent-influenced metalcore sound, at the service of the culmination of the lyrical themes the talented, often literary-influenced Schwab has been writing throughout the band's career. Schwab somehow predicted the vast majority of the first 23-years of America's 21st Century on the band's 2002 album, Truthless Heroes, from the creation of and focus upon hyper-narcissistic social media, to the endless, corporately-motivated military conflicts that have found much fuel from said social media. He was right then, but I sure as hell hope he's not this time, as the future the towering doom prophet screams about on Omni makes our current hellscape look like Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.


1. Tomb Mold -- The Enduring Spirit

I've enjoyed Tomb Mold's dense death metal albums well enough up to now. However, these wily Canadians have kicked things up to the stratosphere on The Enduring Spirit, incorporating dreamy guitar melodies and textures into their complex song structures without compromising their previous heavy sound, or veering away from harsh vocals. The result is a strangely emotional album that stuns and surprises, even many listens in, culminating in a gloriously twisting 12-minute final track whose title reveals a second part to the album's moniker, "The Enduring Spirit of Calamity." If Tomb Mold are able to consistently create albums of this caliber, and somehow maybe top it, even the sky may not be the limit.