LilLioness
Lani
User

Reviews 8
Approval 100%

Soundoffs 116
News Articles 5
Band Edits + Tags 19
Album Edits 133

Album Ratings 1040
Objectivity 67%

Last Active 05-12-17 8:43 pm
Joined 08-05-12

Review Comments 3,371

 Lists
12.23.23 A LilLioness 2023 ♦12.18.23 BM I'll check in 2024
01.23.16 Been a while03.30.15 Quarterly Reflection (Winter)
12.31.13 A Lanilioness 2013 ♦12.17.13 Hot December Jamz
10.27.13 Shameless Plug04.21.13 Shit Mood
04.17.13 2013 Likes (feb-april 17)02.17.13 2013 Likes (as Of Mid-february)
08.05.12 Top 20 Of 2012

A LilLioness 2023

It has been 10 years, so have another list. There is plenty I didn't get to this year. I am pretty comfortable with my top 10, though.
55Thirty Seconds to Mars
It's the End of the World But It's a Beautiful Day

Why.

What is the point of this? Is there a music industry equivalent of Gordon Ramsay? Can we get someone to yell at them about losing their passion and letting standards slip?

Best track: fuck off
54Godsmack
Lighting Up the Sky

Farewell.

Don’t return.

Best track: Surrender
53Doja Cat
Scarlet

Trash.

All that talk on twitter for months. Dropping a banger like ‘Attention,’ making me think she actually had something to say. Fool me once...

Best track: i just said
52Unprocessed
...And Everything In Between

Lost.

In translation - homie should just sing auf Deutsch for clarity. As it stands, this is a lyrical mess of conflicting themes and symbols. And musically, it is all wankery with lackluster songwriting.

Best track: Hell
51Kali Uchis
Red Moon in Venus

ZZZ.

Was ‘Telepatía’ a fluke? I’d like not to think so, because I remember liking other tracks from around that time. So, why does this record make me question myself? How could this sound ever have been good? This shit’s so dull.

Oh, no. Just checked the older stuff. This record just sucks. And the advance singles from the next one aren’t winning me over, either.

Best track: I Wish You Roses
50PVRIS
EVERGREEN

Bland.

From bland to blander. The production on this is abrasive, but the songwriting is listless. I can feel her struggle to do or say anything interesting. Seeing a once promising gay musician go generic is never fun.

Best track: Goddess
49Crosses
Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.

Boring.

I dig Deftones - made some great records. But Crosses sounds like a bunch of new wave and house stuff I have heard before ad nauseam. This project just isn’t for me.

Best track: Pleasure
48Baroness
Stone

Stoned.

I have always liked Baizley’s paintings: so evocative. But I have never quite gotten into Baroness’ music, even when they were full on sludge metal. Now that they have gone down this alt rock inflected route, I find myself even more unable to contact.

Best track: Bloom
47Eartheater
Powders

Rough.

Sometimes her voice cracks are endearing to me; sometimes I wonder if I am crazy. At least, she is sexy even when it sounds like she doesn’t know what notes are.

Best track: Pure Smile Snake Venom
46Insomnium
Songs of the Dusk

Stained In Red.

Sounds like peak Opeth, so I dig it. The other tracks are alright.

Best track: see above
45Boygenius
the record

Indie.

Another gay act leaving me feeling unfulfilled by the end of their record. And it is wild, because there are some strong Life is Strange vibes on some of this, which should make for an easy win. Instead, this is mostly middling, save for the tracks where they all work together.

Best track: $20
44Ashnikko
WEEDKILLER

Inconsistent.

This woman has some real grimy bangers, but then she has a bunch of other shit. And the shit overwhelms this record. She just cannot pull off seductive without drastically altering her sound, imbue it with some aching verisimilitude. But that might risk sacrificing the viability of her strength: her bratty cuts.

Best track: You Make Me Sick!
43Caroline Polachek
Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

Billions.

Is so far beyond the rest of this record, it’s stunning. It’s easily in my top ten tracks this year, while the rest of this is pretty mid, save for ‘Welcome to My Island’ and ‘Blood and Butter.’

Best track: Billions, obvi
42Invent Animate
Heavener

Worship.

I really want to be somewhat objective about this one, but everytime the vocalist opens his mouth, he reminds me of Michael Lessard. And, considering the facts that The Contortionist is my personal favorite of the bands stamped with the djent label and that 2017’s Clairvoyant is in my top 10 records of the 2010s, there just was just no chance of it. This feels like a hollow imitation to me, even if Invent Animate are just doing their own thing.

Best track: Immolation of Night
41Suffocation
Hymns From the Apocrypha

Cookie.

This is a very well performed chunk of wall to wall tech-death musicianship. The issue is that straightforward tech-death was ruined for me when Colors dropped. So my enjoyment of this was suffocated by my need for dynamics.

Best track: Seraphim Enslavement
40Slowdive
Everything is Alive

Backstory.

Behind the record is more interesting than the record itself. Didn’t really pick up for me until ‘Chained To A Cloud,’ because it sounds like Slowdive doing their version of a Knife song.

Best track: The Slab
39Sleep Token
Take Me Back to Eden

Comparison.

Bro sounds like Breaking Benjamin with a head cold. Made it really hard to get into initially. The youtube hypebeasts did not help me overcome my holdup at all. Now, though, I see it as perfectly serviceable pop metal. And to that end, it is clearly doing its job. Hating pop metal simply for existing is self-defeating and, unfortunately, a time honored tradition amongst underground music fans.

Best track: Are You Really Okay?
38Autarkh
Emergent

Surprising.

This is way more catchy than I would expect of any band this early into their career. The Record is very uneven, but standouts like ‘Strife’ and ‘Refocus’ demonstrate the bands ability to write infectious hooks within an Extreme Metal framework. It’s not going to win them pop success, but makes for a record I keep going back to.

Best track: Ka
37Better Lovers
God Made Me an Animal

Nostalgia.

I miss Dillinger and I liked ETID. This kinda reminds me of both if I squint at it. Maybe future cuts will refine the sound and pull me in further.

Best track: God Made Me Animal
36Little Dragon
Slugs of Love

Sluggish.

Learn about this crew from their feature on Gorillaz’ Plastic Beach. ‘Empire Ants’ remains one of the best Gorillaz cuts to this day. I was hoping to enjoy this more, but, aside from the bookends, this was mostly okay.

Best track: Easy Falling
35Yeule
softscars

Breathy.

Same problem as Caroline Polachek’s joint: the lead single is so much better than the rest on offer here. ‘Sulky Baby’ is magical and there are a couple other standouts, but nothing reaches that high after she drops that megaton.

Best track: Sulky Baby
34Code Orange
The Above

Throwback.

Some cuts on here are chonky and fun; some spend far too much time looking back. I don’t know what possessed the vocalist to combine a NIN verse with an AIC chorus, but that sort of square peg experimentation doesn’t really pan out, leaving much of the record feeling miscalculated. Spread your wangs.

Best track: Take Shape
33Dying Fetus
Make Them Beg for Death

Solid.

Same story as the Suffocation record, although this one had a few more parts that stood out to me.

Best track: Subterfuge
32Godflesh
Purge

Groovy.

Albeit repetitive. Godflesh is no stranger to hypnotic loops, but these are not my favorite from the band.

Best track: The Father
31End
The Sin of Human Frailty

Thawing.

I can see why this excites the breakdown bros, but most of this doesn’t quite hit like I want it to. It’s only on tracks like ‘Hollow Urn’ and ‘Leper’ where they mix up the formula a bit that stick the landing with me.

Best track: Thaw
30Alkaloid
Numen

Fustercluck.

I love prog. By extension of that, I love prog death. It is a hard genre to mess up by my tastes. So, I had high expectations of this band. They fell short, despite their strong musicianship. There are some standouts here, like ‘Qliphosis’ and ‘A Fool’s Desire,’ but the back half lost me. This record fell prey to the same issue as a few others to come: its length.

Best track: Clusterfuck
29Gorillaz
Cracker Island

Gorilla.

At this point, this project has as many muddy rocks as they have gems. No record is devoid of quality material, but it is a toss up whether we will get something great or something to pass the time. Yet, this one passes the time decently enough. I wouldn’t hate to hear ‘Cracker Island’ or ‘Skinny Ape’ again.

Best track: New Gold
28Spiritbox
The Fear of Fear

Padded.

After two strong years, this one didn’t quite land with me. The back half of the ep has some good stuff that I will jam in the future, but the first half can fall into the void and it would change nothing for me. ‘Cellar Door’ is twice as long as it needs to be; ‘Too Close / Too Late’ is their blandest ballad and I am tired of giving ‘Jaded’ second chances. Their batting average has been great so far, though, so I can write this one off as a miss for me.

Best track: The Void
27Sevendust
Truth Killer

Underwhelming.

When my brother first showed me ‘I Might Let the Devil Win,’ I thought I was in for a new career high from the band. Unfortunately, most of the record is fairly standard fare for them and I will likely have to wait a few more years for a new fave to set alongside 1999’s Home and 2013’s Black Out the Sun.

Best track: I Might Let the Devil Win
26Blindfolded and Led to the Woods
Rejecting Obliteration

Experimentation.

Record would grab me more if there was more of it. The mathy riffs are fun and the throbbing bass do set this apart from a lot of tech death outfits, but I was still left wanting. Not until the final track did this one truly open up for me.

Best track: Caustic Burns
25Fires in the Distance
Air Not Meant For Us

Potential.

I see in this band. They need to work on their keys, however. Each piano melody / riff on here is undercooked and thus sounds like they just slapped the same pizza string affectation on each track. Album cover is pretty, tho.

Best track: Harbingers
24Janelle Monae
The Age of Pleasure

Sexy.

Finally a fun and sexy gay record, if uneven. ‘Float’ and ‘Champagne Shit’ get my ass moving and ‘Phenomenal’ brings some Bey energy to the proceedings. Lots of wet imagery on this project delivered with very direct, but not overstated, lyricism. Amongst the standouts, I could almost go with ‘Water Slide’ as my favorite for that smooth as fuck hook or the closer for the breezy groove. Options for days here.

Best track: Lipstick Lover
23Myrkur
Spine

Ethereal.

And dark folk. There is less Black Metal on this record than her early stuff, though that side of her does peek out on tracks like ‘Like Human’ and ‘Mothlike.’ Even when Bruun isn’t busting out the harsh vocals and razor guitars, she is spinning up mini epics like ‘My Blood Is Gold.’

Best track: Spine
22Veil of Maya
[m]other

Cyberdjent.

This is a label that has been to multiple projects already, but I feel it fits best here. Between the extra industrial bit of chonk on the guitars and the frantic synth work, not only is it reminiscent of music found in 2077, but it suits the technological anxiety endemic to the genre as a whole. Paired with soaring hooks on ‘Red Fur’ and ‘Mother Pt. 4,’ this becomes an entertainingly frantic concoction that is, for the most part, highly memorable.

Best track: Red Fur
21Fever Ray
Radical Romantics

Shiver.

Karin coming through with a winner like they always do, even if it is a bit uneven. The first four tracks, produced by their brother, Olaf, feel like a long overdue Knife mini album, all while Karin pointedly expects this reaction, calling it out on the opening track, ‘What They Call Us.’ It is the exact sort of incisive commentary to be expected of Dreijer, alongside blunt expression of desire on ‘Shiver’ and ‘Kandy’ over throbbing synths. Where the project sets itself apart from the comfy familiarity of the siblings working together, is on the Reznor and Ross produced ‘Even It Out’ and ‘North,’ where things get ominous and bleak, respectively. Their fuzzy, sparse work accentuates the festering frustration imbued within the record, contrasting Olaf’s more sensual exploration of theme.

Best track: Even It Out
20Insomnium
Anno 1696

Gloomy.

From the stomping folk opening of ‘1696’ to the agonized lament of ‘Lilian’ and to the absence of real resolution on the ‘The Rapids,’ Anno 1696 is a morbid exploration of witch trials and the damage they caused (also some shit about werewolves). It’s honestly really metal and grows on me more with each listen.

Best track: The Rapids
19Cannibal Corpse
Chaos Horrific

Brutal.

Cannibal Corpse once again proving they are the most fun band in Death Metal. Not much to complain about here, the band is still ripping and tearing decades into their run, smashing us with the likes of ‘Frenzied Feeding’ and ‘Blood Blind’ before thrashing us with the zombie massacre of ‘Chaos Horrific.’ It’s all fun and games. They just want to drain us empty…of life.

Best track: Summoned For Sacrifice
18The Ocean
Holocene

Preachy.

I haven’t given their past records a close listen, so I don’t know if this is a recurring issue, but it can distract from the quite well constructed music at times. Musically, it kinda sounds how I imagine Isis would sound today if they were still around. And, as was sometimes the case with Isis, I feel the buildup works better than some of the payoffs here. ‘Boreal’ and ‘Sea of Reeds’ hint at a bigger eruption than what ‘Atlantic’ offers, although the latter track is strong in its own right. It is not until the final track, ‘Subatlantic,’ where things come to a true head, and it suffices as a cathartic climax.

Best track: Subatlantic
17Panopticon
The Rime of Memory

Endure.

This crushing run time and find some gems within. Perhaps I am just not kvlt enough, but 15+ minute nigh impenetrable bm epics are still a big ask of me. That is not to say that what is on offer here is not good. There are beautiful melodies and riffs aplenty within and around the roaring avalanche crushing you under its indomitable weight. As overlong as ‘Winter’s Ghost’ and ‘Cedar Skeletons’ are, their frosty atmosphere paints before you a tempestuous blizzard on the tundra, uprooting trees with gnarled roots and spitting their desiccated husks into a whitened sky. If 20 minutes could have been shaved off this record (collectively), this would have been a pretty easy top 10. As it is, this is a project I will return to in pieces.

Best track: Autumn Snow
16Ahab
The Coral Tombs

“I’ve seen the Antediluvian beast.”

On their fifth LP to date, Ahab build off of their core sound in some interesting ways, while retaining their gloomy, crushing sound, for better and worse. On the strong end are the melodic, scene setting opener, erupting with a blackened flurry of riffs and screams before relaxing into a theatrical chorus, and the menacing ‘Mobilis in Mobili,’ with its bubbling atmosphere and eerie central riff. As we delve deeper in the darkness, there are moments of beauty and compelling heaviness scattered throughout, but they can at times get lost in the murky abyss as we wait for the lingering beast to swallow us. The ‘Maelstrom’ that closes the journey is satisfying enough and even calls back to the motif that begins the record, but I wonder if they could have experimented more towards the end for a greater climax.

Best track: Prof. Arronax Descent into the Vast Oceans
15Till Lindemann
Zunge

“Wenn jeder wäre so wie ich, schlechte Menschen gäb es nicht.”

Till Lindemann is a complicated guy. And, despite what the quotation implies, I don’t get the impression he likes himself very much. For as much perversion as there is to be found on this record, there is enough grime and disgust to match it. The seedy ‘Nass’ and ‘Lecker’ feel off in away even the most self-effacing Rammstein cuts don’t, the verses on ‘Nass’ in particular sounding deranged before erupting into an almost pleasant hook. Lindemann has always been a man of dark poetic inclinations, bringing to each of his band’s record unsettling story songs, such as Reise Reise’s ‘Dalai Lama,’ about a father accidentally suffocating his child during plane turbulence, and the Untitled LP’s ‘Puppe,’ a grim tale about a child losing their mind while listening to their prostitute sister’s screams as she violated. It has always been where Rammstein truly shines, lyrically speaking, leaving an impression that endures even as the rest settles into a comfortable zone of enjoyment. On ‘Alle für die Kinder,’ Lindemann veers into this territory again on a song that is functionally a companion piece to previously released, ‘Ich hasse Kinder.’ Paired with the more approachable tracks on offer, like ‘Sport Frei’ and ‘Übers Meer,’ creates an impression of a record at war with itself, the darkness within threatening to overtake the few glimmers of light.

Best track: Zunge
14Horrendous
Ontological Mysterium

‘You’ll bear witness to the new leviathan.’

It is the 1980s: a few years prior, the Jim Henson company delivered to theaters a fantasy film about a couple of elf creatures who confront their cruel rulers to liberate the crystal they have corrupted. Now, there is a new film at the local cinema, replete with grim matte paintings, richly detailed miniatures of alien structures, hideous puppets that ooze malice and a tale of cosmic horrors descending from the void to eat the world the protagonists inhabit. This film does not exist, but is nonetheless brought to life by the evocative songwriting and relentless shredding encased inside this record. It sounds so of the time it is harkening back to, yet also out of place within that aural landscape – clearer production and uncharacteristic verbiage conveying its message from spaces beyond.

Ontological Mysterium looks back by moving forward, allowing decades of evolution and hindsight guide its stygian hand across shredfests like ‘Chrysopoeia (The Archaeology of Dawn)’ and ‘Neon Leviathan,’ manifesting the obelisk to creation that ‘Exeg(en)esis’ activates, inviting terrors of outer dimensions to gleefully to rend what slivers of light yet remain from the very fabric of reality.

Best track: Exeg(en)esis
13Blut Aus Nord
Disharmonium – Nahab

‘The darkness always teemed with unexplained sound…’ - HPL.

And in that sightless night, chaos reigns. With only the the fleeting respite of a ‘Hideous Dream Opus’ to prepare you, the void belches out incomprehensible phrases to disharmonious melodies on ‘Mental Paralysis,’ arresting you in a state of panic as ‘The Endless Multitude’ cull the wailing masses around you, swallowing them up in a directionless cacophony of carnage. And at the realization that you may yet be a bystander, the absence of physical stimuli affording you the hope that you may be spared direct involvement in apocalyptic torment, the ‘Queen of the Dead Dimension’ descends upon you, sucking you up into ‘The Black Vortex’ to assail you with a discordant pulses of horns. You are a captive witness to the waning beauty of the ‘Nameless Rites’ and as the hope inside of you decays, she vomits you out into ‘The Ultimate Void of Chaos,’ leaving you alone to weep as your body thrums with the agony of a wounded universe in a ‘Forgotten Aeon.’

Best track: Mental Paralysis
12Queens of the Stone Age
In Times New Roman...

“If I followed you, I’d be lost, too. That could never be.”

Losing what you love is difficult in the best of circumstances; doing so at your lowest point can stress your resolve to continue to its breaking point. When it rains, it pours, and sometimes the pour is a cataclysmic storm. Addiction, divorce, nasty custody battles and cancer are some of the things Josh Homme has had to deal with since his previous record and the pain, frustration, grief and weight of uncompromising responsibility are baked into the very foundation of In Times…, materializing in the form of numb riffs, understated hooks and plainspoken lyrics. This is a record that he sat on for years and it is reflected in the sound.

This isn’t a fresh experience - there are callbacks to previous parts of the Queens discography both sonically and musically - and it isn’t pristine. It takes a few tracks before it truly finds a groove on ‘Time and Place,’ but once it kicks in, it doesn’t let up until the final moments on ‘Strait Jacket Fitting.’ Between the ending refrain on ‘Made to Parade’ that cuts to the core and the hooks on ‘Carnavoyeur’ and ‘Emotion Sickness,’ Homme explores the theme of grief (of love lost and those who are no longer with us) with stark sincerity. The pain persists, but so does responsibility.

Best track: Made To Parade
11Andre 3000
New Blue Sun

Warning: No Bars.

And at times the weight of expectation is itself damaging and is best thwarted. Others who think the world of you can heap unto you their demands and prohibitions, stifling your ability to be effective at what you do best. Ice Cold has spent the last two decades showing that he has little else to say through the medium of rap music. While he may do a feature on the occasional massive project, he has steered clear of trying to pull together a Love Below 2 or tap into the raucous energy of the earlier Outkast records on a full length. Despite all fan supposition, he hasn’t been spitting new iconic bars on selfishly unreleased material.

3000 has been learning new instruments to play music of an entirely different intent. New Age isn’t the most obvious new direction, but it is the most freeing for a creative spirit facing such astronomical hype. The best way to answer excessive entitlement is wipe the slate clean and begin anew in a low stakes environment where you can tease new things out of yourself and the instruments with which you reach into that internal abyss.

Best track: Ants To You, Gods To Who?
10Peter Gabriel
i/o

‘I’m just a part of everything.’

From here, you can tap back into what you loved about creation in the first place. Sure, what flows from you may not be the most surprising or complex work you have brought into the world, but it can remind others what they love about your artistic expression. i/o is something of a concept record that echoes his worldbeat inspired output in the 80s, particularly on the bookends ‘Panopticom’ and ‘Live And Let Live.’ Gabriel blazed trail parallel to his former bandmates in Genesis, bringing their progressive songwriting tendencies to pop music, resulting in tunes that are recognizably upbeat and approachable, yet unique in the mainstream stratosphere, such as the atypical structure of ‘The Court’ and the infectious pounding energy of ‘Road to Joy.’

Experimentation within popular music is more commonplace than it had been decades ago, due in large part to the increasing fragmentation of music communities in the post social media age. Gabriel is just one of many testing the boundaries of what makes a bop, like the spacious ‘Oliver Tree,’ and a ballad, like the bittersweet and sparse, ‘And Still.’ He distinguishes himself by letting his age and experience guide him, knowing the power of music to heal, but also its ability to give voice to the pain that colors memories as times change and people depart this life, metatextually realized by dividing the two creative instincts into ‘bright’ and ‘dark’ versions of the record.

Best track: Road To Joy
9Poets of the Fall
Rebirth: Greatest Hits (Old Gods of Asgard)

“Show me the champion of light, I’ll show you the herald of darkness.”

Much as we try to separate the two, pain and joy are forever bound together. One without the other would lack context and, therefore, would be impossible to truly appreciate or understand. To bask in the light of day, one must also dive into the abyssal lake and confront awaits under the surface.

Alan Wake II was a horror epic over a decade in the making, the roots of its plot reaching as far back as 2016's Quantum Break, major plot details scribbled down in chalk on the blackboard in the title’s early moments. One method writer/director Sam Lake has used for coyly communicating plot details over the years has been his collaborations with Poets of the Fall under the guise of the in-universe Old Gods of Asgard, lyrically informing protagonists Alan Wake, Saga Anderson and Jesse Faden of their paths forward through the nightmarish hurdles and oblique puzzles they face.

And this is achieved with fictional arena rock classics with badass shredding and undeniable hooks, such as the labyrinth-shifting ripper ‘Take Control’ or the time-bending stomp of ‘Dark Ocean Summoning.’ And the crowning achievement of it all is the musical centerpiece of the otherworldly record: ‘Herald of Darkness.’ The genre-melding monster elevates the collection to greater heights of face melting riffage, soaring vocal melodies and evolving meta commentary.

Best track: Herald of Darkness
8Avenged Sevenfold
Life Is But a Dream...

“Don’t let it be.”

Life Is But a Dream… is much a reaction to itself as it is to Avenged Sevenfold’s previous work. Manic opener ‘Game Over’ and the shape-shifting ‘We Love You’ practically break the fourth wall with how much attention they draw to their own construction as if we stumbled in on the band in middle of their brick laying, staring back at us like a herd of deer in the headlights. It is a record that consistently threatens to come apart at the seams, holding together through the storm of public reception with sticks and bubblegum. Even on more, for lack of a better word, conventional cuts like hard-rocker ‘Mattel’ and the centerpiece ballad ‘Cosmic,’ the trajectory of musical journey on offer never ventures into radio friendly territory, opting instead to test the boundaries of its audience. It is a colossal risk that could only be matched by Metallica and Lou Reed’s Lulu.

And it is one that pays off. The core refrain on ‘Cosmic’ is worth the price of entry alone and ‘Beautiful Morning’ is the closest any band has come to tapping into Mr. Bungle’s creative energy without ripping them off, flowing between musical ideas with grit and grace. From there, the band eschews any remaining expectations tying them to a specific sound, opting to jam, and delve into dance funk, classical and big bang inspired pop, all while maintaining the sinister vibe.

Best track: Beautiful Morning
7Cattle Decapitation
Terrasite

‘And this world will go on without you.’

From the opening moments of ‘Terrasitic Adaptation,’ the mood is set, one of malignant disgust that mutates as the perspective character transforms over the course of the record. Travis Ryan’s unnatural black metal shrieks and so called goblin singing are used to great effect on each track alongside his impressively coherent gutturals, giving unique voices to each actor in the series of events, with the skin-crawlingly creepy utterances bringing the parasitic creatures to life. You buy into the idea that these anthropomorphized insects are the villains of the story.

And then the back half of the record clarifies the metaphor. The parasites are just humans portrayed in a metaphorical manner to punctuate the depth of Cattle Decapitation’s misanthropy. People equals shit, as it were, and the shit is devouring the Earth, ruining the biosphere we inhabit. ‘We Eat Our Young’ and we are the ‘Dead End Residents,’ contaminating our own ecosystem, dooming ourselves to annihilation. “Slaughter us, forgive us,’ we cry, and yet the world goes on without us. Even as we fade into memory, the Earth will persevere, broken as it may be.

‘Solastalgia’ pervades this record, the emotional distress that results from environmental change. It is sickening, confronting us with the reality that we are each ‘Just Another Body’ in the grinder, chewed up between its obsidian teeth as it sings our demise.

Best track: We Eat Our Young
6Swans
The Beggar

“To a home that never really was.”

Facing the end is something we only truly ever do once, though we do face microcosms of this experience throughout our lives in the losses of others and our own personal failures. Michael Gira has known failure as much as any other. He has also known success of a kind, but success is fleeting and, judging by the flagging trajectory post 2014’s To Be Kind, there is likely little success to be had in the future. How fitting that this seems to be framed as his final offering, at least under the Swans moniker. And how fitting that this was the first record to forge a real connection with me.

The previous nu-Swans releases were each mixed bags for me, some better than others, but each excessive and, at times, impenetrable. From ‘The Parasite’ to ‘Why Can’t I Have What I Want Any Time I Want?’ The Beggar keeps me engaged, feeling the ebb and flow of the mounting chaos, each new track another step in the journey. The lack of real climax before the sonic titan that awaits on the second side of this record keeps the tension ratcheting further rather than abating, signposting what lies ahead without offering a way out. Choral coos usher you on as Gira’s crone grows increasingly agitated, ruminating on his fuck ups and the reality staring him down.

You are the chosen witness to the terrible glory that overtakes the proceedings, submerging you in that dark ocean of a starless night, signaling that Michael is finally done.

Best track: The Beggar Lover (Three)
5Dodheimsgard
Black Medium Current

“There’s No Way Out of Here.”

The void is vast and endlessly complex, open to a nigh infinite number of ways to explore its awesome splendor. The Black Metal genre is strange to variations on this theme, however Dodheimsgard live up to their reputation as experimental pioneers on their sixth LP, delving into the farthest reaches of space in an epic that bends reality as much as genre convention. At no point does Black Medium Current feel like a realistic depiction of interstellar travel, but it certainly captures wondrous terror one might feel to be so far from the safety of home.

‘Tankespinnerins Smerte’ is gorgeously alien with gritty guttural verses leading into serenely wailed choral passages, building into a transcendent bridge to greater lows, the captivatingly deranged ‘Interstellar Nexus’ and the wildly proggy ‘It Does Not Follow.’ The middle track, ‘Voyager,’ served as a tasteful palette cleanser before erupting into the more depressive side of the record.

While the front half is wide-eyed and explosive, the back half is resigned and more comfortably melodic. Hooks and harmonies overtake ‘Halow’ and ‘Abyss Perihelion Transit,’ carrying them to ethereal finales following fatalistic lyrical passages. As the closer, ‘Requiem Aeternum,’ brings the narrative to its end, there seems to be no way forward, no light to guide the way out - or, at least, the belief in none.

Best track: Abyss Perihelion Transit
4Various Artists
Hi-Fi Rush (Original Game Soundtrack)

“Keep your beacon shining bright, baby.”

Nothing is predetermined. There may be dark times and it may feel like the world around you is against you, but that is not an absolute. What may seem to be a destiny for failure can also be an opportunity to rise above the expectations of others, crushing their attempts to kick you back down in the process. By all accounts, Hi-Fi Rush should not have been a success. It is a rhythm game by a horror studio, shadow dropped in January on the day it was announced, comprised of alt rock music that would have been in fashion 15 years ago and characters named after food items, as if the premise of a wannabe rockstar becoming a hero wasn’t kitschy enough. The odds were stacked against the game in nearly every conceivable way.

And it rocks harder than nearly every other record and game this year. Not only is the game itself a brilliantly executed old school experience (yes, the 360/PS3 era is old school at this point, you’re welcome), but the soundtrack is easily one of the best offerings of 2023, covering genres like Jazz Fusion, Industrial, Pop Punk and the aforementioned Alt Rock and containing hooks for days. The core score features thick bass lines, tight grooves, fuzzy guitars, dreamy breaks and soaring choruses, such as those on ‘The Beacon,’ ‘I Got This,’ ‘Heatwave,’ ‘This’ll Be Rough,’ ‘Negotiation’ and ‘Through the Halls of History.’ Given the Hi-Fi Rush also makes use of a few licensed songs, there are also original works to serve as replacements for streamers, although not all of them are winners - the replacement of NIN’s ‘The Perfect Drug,’ in particular, being too similar to its alternate to truly work.

The sour notes are the rare exception, however. This soundtrack as a whole elevates an already great experience to an essential one, a reverie of joy and wonder.

Best track: I Got This
3Enslaved
Heimdal

“Raising sails toward the outer worlds”

As the fog rolls in across the surface of the ocean, a new chance to confront the self within arises, though time is limited. The coming storm will trap you in the cycle just like the others before it if you can’t come to terms with what is weighing you down. And the storms will always come as long as you exist, so the only options are to look inward to see beyond or let the maelstroms have their way with you. Go ‘Behind the Mirror’ and unwind your gordian knot of worries and anxieties, leaving them behind.

‘Congelia’ is a beautiful Black Metal epic leading into the spacey prog opus, ‘Forest Dweller,’ pushing us further into self-reflection, past the point others can follow, fading into the background as discovery takes priority. In our ‘Kingdom,’ we tap into the primordial and identify our innermost nature. We traverse ‘The Eternal Sea,’ carrying memories of bygone eras, as we find the ‘Caravans to the Outer Worlds,’ weathering the astral storms to locate the truest self, wounded and seething.

Now begins the process of healing. However, ‘Heimdal’ shows us it will be no simple matter.

Best track: Caravans to the Outer Worlds
2TesseracT
War of Being

“The serpent In my eyes”

Relapsing into old, harmful habits is easy. They are learned patterns of behavior that are imprinted onto our psyches, taking over during immense stress and times of crisis because we let them. We must choose to challenge them, to prevent them from taking control. We must choose the unknown willingly, gazing out into the void and entering it over sticking with the deceptive comfort of the familiar.

We are each a ‘Natural Disaster,’ tearing apart our own world and piecing it back together, just to repeat the process. We can only blame ourselves, though we frequently don’t, projecting the problem onto others, ‘Echoes’ of our own obstinate refusal to improve. War of Being is a confrontation of the inability to move forward, of wallowing in the rejection of self-improvement. While not quite as consistent as 2018’s stellar Sonder, this record is an even more emotive deviation from the Djent standard, reaching new expressive heights on the colossal title track, the twisty groove of ‘The Grey,’ and the vocally centric ‘Legion,’ pushing vocalist Danil Tompkins’ voice to its furthest extremes in a fit of visceral despair.

The strengths of War of Being exceed its predecessor, despite the sum of its parts falling slightly short. It is a therapeutic listen for someone lost in their own confusion and agony, who sees themselves as only a ‘Burden,’ and its power grows with each successive revisit.

Best track: Natural Disaster

AND Track of the year: Legion
1Periphery
Periphery V: Djent is Not a Genre

“Your heart Is open”

From the moment I heard the angular chorus of ‘Wildfire’ this January, I knew Periphery V would be the record to beat this year. And while several came quite close, it has remained undefeated through these final days of December. Djent Is Not a Genre calls back to old ideas (particularly of the Juggernaut records), building upon them and elevating them in a package whose emotional resonance doesn’t diminish over its 70 minute runtime.

Each of Periphery’s past efforts were mixed bags for me, some hitting harder than others and each with their own strengths. This is the first truly consistent LP they have dropped, all tracks being standouts both for experimentation and their reliable heaviness. ‘Thank Nobuo’ is a tender tribute to the famed game composer, interpolating his work on the Final Fantasy series in a celebration of the brevity of experiences. ‘Dying Star’ is an earnestly brutal ballad about finding self worth. ‘Atropos’ confronts hypocrisy through poppy choruses and heavy riffage leading into a volatile coda. ‘Everything is Fine!’ so long as you don’t hide from yourself.

And even though it is another in a long line of joke songs, ‘Dracul Gras’ goes harder and heavier than most other metal songs I have heard this year. Nothing too deep to say about its lyrical content and themes, it is about worshipping a fat Dracula. Some of the best hooks and riffs of this year are in that song, though. ‘Zagreus’ is much more serious, imploring the listener to find their sense of self-worth and embrace the world as it is. And that is all one can truly do between now and the grave.

Best track AND runner up Track of the year: Wildfire
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