2023: My Favourites

Man, the evolution continues. Or is it a de-evolution? Not society. That's totally fucked. I mean my music listening habits. Long gone are the days of knowing every sub-genre. Or trying to anyway. I really, really feel most at home when I'm enjoying stoner rock and metal, doom, stoner doom, sludge, psych, heavy psych, more and more prog, shit like that. I think I listened to one black metal album all year? ('Blackbraid II') Thrash? Probably just Slayer (more or less) thanks to the Talkin' Slayer podcast by D.X. Ferris. As for death metal well, most of that input was in the live setting. Anyhoo.

Once I got down to it putting together this year's list wasn't so hard. I value my time to the point of not wasting any of it if the tunes don't resonate. That made that long list shorter and the cuts easier to make. There are no consequences. Go with your gut. Music is transcendence. Music is prayer. Music is salvation.

Following last year's format here are the 40(ish) releases that gave me the most feelings in 2023.

Favourites of 2023 Spotify Playlist Song Version

Favourites of 2023 Spotify Full Version

FULLY ENLIGHTENED BEINGS (pure beings devoid of faults)

Hippie Death Cult - 'Helichrysm' (Heavy Psych Sounds)
Baroness - 'Stone' (Abraxas Hymns)
REZN and Vinnum Sabbathi - 'Silent Future' (Blues Funeral Recordings)
Royal Thunder - 'Rebuilding the Mountain' (Spinefarm Records)
Melt - 'Replica of Man' (self-released)
Acid King - 'Beyond Vision' (Blues Funeral Recordings)
Dozer - 'Drifting in the Endless Void' (Blues Funeral Recordings)
Blood Ceremony - 'The Old Ways Remain' (Rise Above Records)
Mutoid Man - 'Mutants' (Sargent House)
Psychic Trash - 'Psychic Trash' (Riding Easy Records)

GODS OF THE FORM AND FORMLESS REALMS (aeons of refined bliss)

Miss Mellow - 'Miss Mellow' (self-released)
Frankie & the Witch Fingers - 'Data Doom' (The Reverberation Appreciation Society/Greenway Records)
Giant Lungs - 'Giant Lungs' (Transporta Records)
Iron Buddha - 'Raze/Repose' (self-released)
Goat - 'Medicine' and 'Levitation Sessions' (Rocket Recordings and The Reverberation Appreciation Society)
Mizmor - 'Prosaic' (Profound Lore Records)
Choose the Juice - 'Meteoria' (self/Artemis Kaiser)
Dopelord - 'Songs for Satan' (Blues Funeral Recordings)
Night Verses - 'Every Sound Has a Color in the Valley of Night: Part 1' (Equal Vision Records)
Astral Hand - 'Lords of Data' (Romanus Records)

DESIRE REALM GODS (enjoyment and satisfaction of desires)

Bongzilla - 'Dab City' (Heavy Psych Sounds Records)
Dead Feathers - 'Full Circle' (Ripple Music)
Dead Quiet - 'IV' (Artoffact Records)
Snakes Don't Belong in Alaska - 'Sounds of a Forming Planet' (Catacomb Family Records)
Swamp Ritual - 'Vol. III' (self-released)
Domkraft - 'Sonic Moons' (Magnetic Eye Records)
Sâver - 'From Ember and Rust (Pelagic Records)
Danko Jones - 'Electric Sounds' (Sonic Unyon Records)
Green Yeti - 'Necropolitan' (self-released)
Gozu - 'Remedy' (Metal Blade Records)

PRECIOUS HUMAN LIVES

Crown Lands - 'Fearless' (Universal)
Black Rainbows - 'Superskull' (Heavy Psych Sounds Records)
Auralayer - 'Thousand Petals' (King Volume Records)
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - 'Slaughter on First Avenue' (Rise Above Records)
Restless Spirit - 'Afterimage' (Magnetic Eye Records)
Howling Giant - 'Glass Future' (Magnetic Eye Records)
Sonic Demon - 'Veterans of the Psychic War' (Majestic Mountain Records)
Warp - 'Bound by Gravity' (Nasoni Records)
Moon Coven - 'Sun King' (Ripple Music)
REZN - 'Solace' (self-released)

FAVOURITE EPs OF 2023 (some of the above were technically EPs too but whatever)

The Budos Band - 'Frontier's Edge' (Diamond West Records)
Stöner - 'Boogie to Baja' (Heavy Psych Sounds Records)
Olde Grale - 'Blood of Fools' (Salt of the Earth Records)
Uncle Woe - 'Well' (Owlripper Records)
Ufomammut - 'Crookhead' (Supernatural Cat)

Nebular Nine: August 2023

We have quite the diverse lineup this month! Some psych doom, some stoner doom, some death metal, some metallic hardcore, some Metal with a capital M, and whatever we call Mutoid Man. 

The collaboration between Rezn and Vinnum Sabbathi is just so fucking cool. Spaced out concept album full of atmosphere and tone, telling a pretty cool story if you ask me. I need the vinyl to put with 'Eldovar' and 'Mariner'. 

Mutoid Man and Uncle Acid came through again this month. Just great albums. The reissue of High on Fire's 'The Art of Self Defense' is pretty great too. As expected. 

I expected the new Ringworm to be as vicious as it is but honestly I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the new Kataklysm. Going to see them play at a coffee shop in November. Rad!!! 

New Moon Coven is pretty good. Need more spins. Ya know, I'm not as excited about recent Spirit Adrift albums as I used to be. 

And holding down the center is Swamp Ritual's 2017 album. I just discovered them thanks to Weedian's Trip to Montana (not pictured. Neither is Trip to Washington). Love them! 

Van tunes (compact discs): Gozu - 'Remedy', NIN - 'With Teeth', Slayer - 'Reign in Blood' and 'War at the Warfield', and Them Crooked Vultures - self-titled.

Instead of another collage of small pictures of more of my listens I made a playlist of one song from every album I listened to at least once in August, in order. It's "only" eight hours long. For now it's just a link. I'll try to embed it later.

August 2023 Spotify Playlist