There were soooo many great records this year….it was hard to boil it down to 20. These were the records I kept coming back to each and every week. The albums on this list represent growth. Records like Life Under the Gun, Black Radical Love, and A New Tomorrow all document a newish bands both shifting & perfecting the sound of earlier EPs. While Desolation’s Flower, Hellmode & Metta World Peace show artists still evolving after releasing previously amazing records. But overall, it was Cheap Grills for me. Sincere Engineer is breathing new life into (typically male-dominated) orgcore and I’m here for it.
Happy 2024! These were my favorite records of 2023.
-vh
LPs
1. Sincere Engineer - Cheap Grills
2. Fiddlehead - Death Is Nothing To Us
3. Envision - The Gods That Build Tomorrow
4. Ragana - Desolation's Flower
5. Militarie Gun - Life Under The Gun
6. Move BHC - Black Radical Love
7. Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit
8. Jeff Rosenstock - Hellmode
9. Ice Spice - Like...?
10. Magnitude - Of Days Renewed
11. Zulu - A New Tomorrow
12. Sunami - s/t (LP)
13. Scalp - Black Tar
14. Krallice - Porous Resonance Abyss
15. Soft Kill - Metta World Peace
16. Dying Wish - Symptoms of Survival
17. Sunrot - The Unfailing Rope
18. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean - Obsession Destruction
19. Pulsatile Tinnitus - The Finer Art of Heartwork
20. Ethereal Tomb - When The Rivers Dry
EPs
1. XweaponX / World of Pleasure - Weapon of Pleasure
2. Scowl - Psychic Dance Routine
3. Blood Incantation - Luminescent Bridge
4. Stateside - It's What We Do
5. Dead Heat - Endless Torment