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Contributor
Reviews 26
Soundoffs 30
News Articles 2
Band Edits + Tags 3
Album Edits 17
Album Ratings 128
Objectivity 60%
Last Active 01-01-70 12:00 am
Joined 01-01-70
Review Comments 834
| My 2023 in Review
Shocked I haven't done this list yet! Oh well, here are the albums from this year that stuck with me the most! No particular order except for the final one, which is my album of the year | | 1 |  | The Acacia Strain
Step Into The Light
Fun, fast, blistering metal, but what really secures its place on this list was the X-Men sampling on the final track | | 2 |  | Crown Lands
Fearless
AKA Hemispheres Part II. The Rush fan in me literally could not get enough of the opening track. I've heard a lot of "this band sounds like Rush" comments before, this band is the first where I genuinely buy it | | 3 |  | Fall Out Boy
So Much (For) Stardust
Comeback of the year probably? I hated MANIA along with everyone else, but I was actually really fond of Save Rock and Roll and AB/AP, so seeing them combine the theatricality of those albums with the pure rock of their earlier stuff? Pure auditory bliss! | | 4 |  | Johnny Booth
Moments Elsewhere
Blisteringly heavy and unrelenting, 2040 alone would put this album on my best of list. It's an easy listen with plenty of good screaming hooks and chaotic guitar madness | | 5 |  | Spiritbox
The Fear of Fear
A close contender for my EP of the year, if not for Adjy stealing the top spot. The Canadian collective are in fine form here, with powerful riffs and some of the best vocals of their career. Pretty much everything that makes the band great distilled into a glorious 6 tracks | | 6 |  | Adjy
June Songs Vol. 1
Leave it to Adjy to steal my heart once more. My EP of the year is a 5-track summer jam that perfectly balances energetic shout-along tracks with tender professions of love and home. I could say so much here, but I don't really have enough room, so trust me when I say this is a glorious EP that deserves your time | | 7 |  | Foo Fighters
But Here We Are
A tearjerkingly gorgeous album that happens to be the best thing the Foos have released in years. Dipping their toes into progressive rock has proven to be a fantastic choice, and I'm curious to see if it's a pattern that will continue for future releases, if the Foos wish to continue onwards from here | | 8 |  | Better Lovers
God Made Me an Animal
Damn it's good to hear Greg back on the vocals again. 30 Under 13 and Become So Small Become So Small Become So Small Become So Small are promising statements, and I only hope 2024 brings us a full album | | 9 |  | The Callous Daoboys
God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys
Short but tight EP with 3 great tracks! Not their best, but it's hard to live up to Celebrity Therapist | | 10 |  | Green Day
Saviors
A quick shoutout to the singles released this year:
Green Day, good to see you back in fine form! Dilemma is probably in contention for the best modern Green Day song post-American Idiot
BMTH - Amen was a fucking rollercoaster, especially live, and Darkside felt like a fun throwback to the golden 2000's era of LP. I'm nervous for the band's future sound following Jordan Fish's departure, but time will tell as to what will happen
Electric Callboy covering Everytime We Touch was something I did not know I needed, but here we are
Wake the Dead convinced me that I need to check out Blessthefall's back catalogue
Monuments released Nefarious and made a better anime intro then a lot of J-Rock artists could
Set It Off FINALLY returned to their punkier, heavier roots, and the 3 singles they released this year are among some of their absolute best. Can't wait to see them in March!
Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming | | 11 |  | Utsu-P
HAPPYPILLS
As stated in my review, I think this album is bloated to high hell and back. But that doesn't change the fact that a ton of its tracks are absolute bangers, and several have grown on me since writing that review! Especially Hello Builder, I could not get that breakdown out of my head for weeks | | 12 |  | Veil of Maya
[m]other
This is a weird one, because while the lows are pretty low, the great tracks here are REALLY DAMN GOOD. Red Fur and Disco Kill Party are some of my favorite metalcore tracks of the year, and even if tracks like Godhead are mindless chugging heaviness, they're FUN mindless chugging heaviness | | 13 |  | Sleep Token
Take Me Back to Eden
Yeah, I still love this album. The middle doesn't have as much staying power as it did at release, but it's still a fun, overly theatrical, cheesy album that blends genres in a way that shouldn't work but somehow does? I don't put it at AOTY like a lot of metal publications have been doing, but it definitely rocked my world, and I can see it being a gateway drug for a ton of people trying to get more into metal | | 14 |  | Termina
Soul Elegy
A surprising improvement from Nik and Andy, with the welcome addition of Chris Turner on the drums, and a bevy of features that result in a great metal album with more memorable riffs and compositions | | 15 |  | Silent Planet
Superbloom
This was so so close to being my AOTY. Slant Plant fire on all cylinders here, delivering fun banger after fun banger. It's not nearly as cerebral as, say, When the End Began (AKA it doesn't have footnotes), but it makes up for that with some of the year's best riffs and choruses, a killer vocal performance from both Garret and some vocal features, my personal track of the year with :Signal:, and a spellbinding outro track. Shame it was dethroned at the last moment by... | | 16 |  | OK Goodnight
The Fox and the Bird
All my biases to Casey Lee Williams' work on RWBY aside, The Fox and the Bird is a progressive metal masterpiece. God-tier vocals, gorgeous blends of aggression and soft beauty, a story that genuinely made me emotional, and the perfect level of theatricality balanced out by restraint and practicality that makes this a must-listen for anyone looking to get into progressive metal. If anyone wants to do prog metal, look to these guys as a fantastic template to follow | |
AnimalForce1
12.31.23 | Coming in 2024: a whole lot more reviews, full discog runs, and more fun opinions. It's been a wild year guys, in both good ways and bad ways. Here's hoping that 2024 can be just a little bit better and a little bit brighter | Azazzel
12.31.23 | agreed on Crownlands, so satisfying, one of the best classic rock prog revival I've heard
also dug Ok, Goodnight a lot and don't even know what RWBY is so | AnimalForce1
12.31.23 | "don't even know what RWBY is so"
Probably best to keep it that way, both due to the fandom and the quality of the show | LilLioness
12.31.23 | Still need to dive further into fox and bird | pizzamachine
12.31.23 | Nice list | AnimalForce1
12.31.23 | Thanks Pizza!
@LilLioness it's such a good record, better than a lot of prog metal from major labels honestly | Ladron93
01.01.24 | 5 and 13 are good.
Well, Spiritbox is the one I like the most. |
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