Unlike my post for the music in 2022, I don’t have clear top 3 albums for the year. Probably I have a clear #1, and many, many albums that I enjoyed throughout the year, but didn’t have enough time to listen for long enough to be able to build an ordered list.

It will be shorter post too.

Clear #1 album in 2023 for me is Insomnium’s “Anno 1696”. Do not get me wrong, it is not as good as their previous two albums. But as far as I am concerned, I haven’t listened to a better album released in 2023. Insomnium are most likely my favorite band at the moment. With so many good albums in a row, I always come back to their music. On top of it, I saw them at Graspop 2023 and they were amazing. For a “sad boi” band, they had great stage presence and connection with the audience (not to mention how well they sounded).

The rest is a list of good albums released throughout the year, that I don’t feel is right for me to put in an ordered list, as I don’t think I listened to much of them to decide how I like them the most.

Let me start with Saturnus and “The Storm Within”. These guys brought me back in time when I was starting to listen to Doom Metal and bands like My Dying Bride. These album is amazing for its genre (and not only for it). I love the melancholy in it.

Then we have Steel Panther‘s “On the Prowl”. Their previous album was, and there is no other way to put it, terrible. They are so much of a fun band, so I am very happy to hear them back to form. And I am looking forward to seeing them again live this year at Graspop. They are very good on their albums (bar their previous), very good musicians indeed. But seeing them live is completely different level 🙂

There is Fires in the Distance with their “Air Not Meant for Us“. I discovered that I love this album quite later in the year. My bad. Really good melodic death.

Then we have the band with the worst name ever: Sodomisery and their 2023 album Mazzaroth. Another remarkable piece of melo-death that I discovered late in the year. The name aside, these guys definitely know how to play and create good songs.

And last of the albums that really made impression on me are another melo-death band: Genus Ordinis Dei with “The Beginning”. Not pure melo-death, and this is the first time I heard this band and I was impressed. Quite powerful music.

There are few other albums worth mentioning in passing but will not go there as this one is too long already anyway. Strangely, considering my usual musical taste lives exactly in the small area around melo-death, my 2023 albums’ playlist has plenty of black metal bands. I guess a quirk in my tastes.

As a conclusion, 2023 turned out to be rather good year for my musical taste, albeit with nothing that will blow my head off. Just many good albums that I enjoyed. I saw Rammstein live (it was amazing), and I enjoyed Graspop 2023, just like I did enjoy Graspop 2022.

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