- Dying Fetus – Make Them Beg for Death
- Suffocation – Hymns from the Apocrypha
- Primordial – How It Ends
- Enslaved – Heimdal
- Tsjuder – Helvegr
- Incantation – Unholy Deification
- Extermination Dismemberment – Dehumanization Protocol
- Sanguisugabogg – Homicidal Ecstasy
- Katatonia – Sky Void of Stars
- Overkill – Scorched
- Marduk – Memento Mori
- Obituary – Dying of Everything
- Wolves in the Throne Room – Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge (EP)
- Cattle Decapitation – Terrasite
- Xasthur – Inevitably Dark
Honorable mention: Iotunn – Mistland Single
By far the highlight of 2023 was my trip to Bergen, Norway this past August for the annual four-day extreme metal festival, Beyond The Gates. This year’s edition was pure perfection, with incredible performances by Deicide, Gorgoroth, Primordial, Enslaved, Dimmu Borgir, Kreator, Bolzer, Perturbator, among many others.
It seems that 2023 was also the year that live shows returned with a vengeance. There were so many great tours that it looks like things are finally getting back to normal. With all these awesome tours and festivals, 2023 was also a year that made it easy to make some lifelong friends, both closer to home (Canada) as well as overseas. No matter where I go, I now have a crew of like-minded, metal-thrashing mad friends to hangout with!
Finally, it was also the year that saw all our hard-work here at The Metal Pit grow into something incredibly special. We now have a fantastic crew of contributors who pump out world-class metal coverage. All that hard-work is being noticed as the site is growing by leaps and bounds! Onward and upward into 2024 we go!