- Obituary – Dying of Everything
- Overkill – Scorched
- Nuclear Power Trio – Wet Ass Plutonium
- Dying Fetus – Make Them Beg for Death
- Alkaloid – Numen
- Omnivortex – Circulate
- Lunar Chamber – Shambhallic Vibrations
- Gorad – The Orb
- Enforced – War Remains
- Prong – State of Emergency
- Cannibal Corpse – Chaos Horrific
- Hellripper – Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags
- Frozen Soul – Glacial Domination
- Raider – Trial by Chaos
- Drain – Living Proof
2023 was another excellent year of Heavy Metal with strong new albums coming from long-time metal veterans and many newer bands. My favorite release of the year comes from death metal stalwarts Obituary who are my favorite band since the late 80’s. Dying of Everything exhibits all the best Obituary attributes I love, but the Florida boys expand the sound to include some faster thrash-oriented tracks and close the album with the epic “Be Warned” which treads nicely into doom / sludge territory. Overkill continued their trend of killer new releases with Scorched taking my second spot. Bobby and the boys still shred as they did in the 80’s but their song writing continues to mature and improve with age. Rounding out my top three is Nuclear Power Trio delivering an instrumental masterpiece crossing metal with funk, jazz, and flamenco with melodic hooks all over the place.
I must highlight the 2023 re-recordings of Sepultura’s Morbid Visions & Bestial Devastation by Max and Igor Cavalera. I didn’t include these in my year-end rankings (not really new albums) but they were my most played records in 2023. Max & Igor retained all the rawness and energy of the original recordings but drastically improved the sound quality, we can finally hear all the instruments in the mix. Re-recording of classic albums is often a recipe for disaster, but this is a rare case where the new recording is a major step-up from the original. Highly recommended.
2023 was an equally strong year for live metal and concerts. Attending Wacken Open Air was the clear highlight for me, but I also greatly enjoyed performances by Life of Agony, Vader, Carcass, Obituary,Helloween, 200 Stab Wounds, First Fragment, Kreator, Cynic, Atheist, Pantera and Immolation to name a few. As I write this year end summary, I’m greatly anticipating the next 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise ship festival about a month away.
Lastly, I wanted to acknowledge the excellent team here at The Metal Pit and say it’s been a pleasure working with each of you this year. And a special thanks to Blake who invited me to join the team mid-year despite my lack of writing and photography background. It’s been a blast and I’m still learning with each passing month. My wife would also like to thank The Metal Pit team as I finally have a group of friends who love metal as much as I do, and she no longer needs to hear me ramble on about the music I love (and she hates ).
I wish everyone a happy holiday season and all the best for 2024.
Cheers,
Billy