End of year lists - are we ready ?

[LarryD]

Aside from Claus getting ready to upload his massive end of year list, I was wondering if anyone else had their lists ready ? Usually at this time there are a few up already, looking forward to seeing what everyone thought was excellent this past year .......

[Sir Exar Kun]

Nope..... Still have a stack of recent releases to work through. Guessing it's going to be early January before I type anything up. I'm a bit shocked at how many studio albums have been coming out in Nov/Dec!

[LarryD]

I think I'm pretty much done for the year ...... although Orphaned Land just released their 30th anniversary show on CD/DVD with a choir and orchestra ..... THAT should be awesome.

[Mardoch]

The end of the year is such a mess for me every time. I'm gonna try to make myself write one, but I doubt it'll happen. I'm pretty sure all the candidates are in for me, though.

[introclaus]

Aside from Claus getting ready to upload his massive end of year list...

Almost there

I was wondering if anyone else had their lists ready ? Usually at this time there are a few up already, looking forward to seeing what everyone thought was excellent this past year .......

I wish Glenn would cross-post his list here, so that we could comment on it. It's so awesome this year. Lots of albums I never heard about.
https://ultimatemetal.com/threads/glenn ... 3.1775422/

[AllMediaReviews]

Round Table discussion in the works....

[jhallum]

I'm close. I've known number 1 for a while, after that is in flux.

-j

[LarryD]

Excellent !!!!!!

[outprogged42]

My top 12 picks within the domain of the typical tastes around here are:

Theocracy - Mosaic
Silent Skies - Dormant
TesseracT - War of Being
Anubis Gate - Interference
Nospūn - Opus
Angra - Cycles of Pain
Confusion Field - Future Impact of Past Diversions
Redemption - I Am the Storm
Hemina - Romancing the Ether
Southern Empire - Another World
Jakub Żytecki - Remind Me
Subsignal - A Poetry of Rain

There are a few albums by other bands I'd rate pretty highly as well, and I haven't heard the new Earthside yet either.

[RickyRock]

I’ll leave the long descriptions to the experts.
Here is my top 10.
Ring of Gyges: Metamorphosis…. Love the emotion and the way this one builds. Can’t understand this not getting more love!!

Southern Empire: Another World. … Just discovered this band and they hit all the right spots. New vocalist maybe not as good as the former, but still fits right in.

Advent Horizon: A cell to call home. .. Huge step up for these guys. Great prog album.

Avkrvst: The Approbation…. This got lots of attention for good reason. Another emotional ride!

Anubis Gate: Interference… Another awesome recording for them. Can’t go wrong with “Cannabis is great”

Soen: Memorial…. Love everything this band does.

Temic: Terror management theory… Eric Gillette!! Nuf said.

Haken: Fauna….. I’m still a Haken nut.

Sunbeam Overdrive: Diama…. Seriously good grungy metal.

Subsignal: A poetry of rain… Lighter but still goosebump inducing.

[Norén]

20 albums I have really enjoyed this year.

Tesseract - War of being
Silent Skies - Dormant

These two are way above the rest.
Other great ones:

Lalu - The fish who wanted to be king
Moon Safari - Himlabacken vol 2
Sleep Token - Take me back to Eden
Jason Bieler and the Baron Von Bielski.. - Postcards from the Asylum
Anubis gate - Interference
Voyager - Fearless in love
The dear hunter - Migrant returned
Karmanjakah - Flying (EP)
Downes Braide Association - Celestial songs
Katatonia - Sky void of stars
Ions - Counterintuitive
Trevor Rabin - Rio
Einar Solberg - 16
Riverside - ID.Entity
Haken - Fauna
eMolecule - The architect
Steven Wilson - The Harmony Codex
Crown lands - Fearless

[introclaus]

My top 12 picks within the domain of the typical tastes around here are:

Theocracy - Mosaic
Silent Skies - Dormant
TesseracT - War of Being
Anubis Gate - Interference
Nospūn - Opus
Angra - Cycles of Pain
Confusion Field - Future Impact of Past Diversions
Redemption - I Am the Storm
Hemina - Romancing the Ether
Southern Empire - Another World
Jakub Żytecki - Remind Me
Subsignal - A Poetry of Rain

There are a few albums by other bands I'd rate pretty highly as well, and I haven't heard the new Earthside yet either.

Very nice list - of these I love Southern Empire and Tesseract, and I really like Subsignal, Angra and Anubis Gate.

I tried Theocracy but it was too "cliche power" for my taste, and not a huge fan of Matt's voice, but ... not a bad album.
Same with Nospūn - not a bad album, just too long for its own good and it becomes too much for me.

My opinion of Earthside is that it's just too much instrumental stuff and the real songs aren't hooking me as much as those on the debut did.

[introclaus]

I’ll leave the long descriptions to the experts.
Here is my top 10.
Ring of Gyges: Metamorphosis…. Love the emotion and the way this one builds. Can’t understand this not getting more love!!
Southern Empire: Another World. … Just discovered this band and they hit all the right spots. New vocalist maybe not as good as the former, but still fits right in.
Advent Horizon: A cell to call home. .. Huge step up for these guys. Great prog album.
Avkrvst: The Approbation…. This got lots of attention for good reason. Another emotional ride!
Anubis Gate: Interference… Another awesome recording for them. Can’t go wrong with “Cannabis is great”
Soen: Memorial…. Love everything this band does.
Temic: Terror management theory… Eric Gillette!! Nuf said.
Haken: Fauna….. I’m still a Haken nut.
Sunbeam Overdrive: Diama…. Seriously good grungy metal.
Subsignal: A poetry of rain… Lighter but still goosebump inducing.

Awesome list - of those Southern Empire and Soen are my favorites, whereas Anubis Gate, Avkrvst, Ring of Gyges and Subsignal all are great.
Temic I found pretty lackluster and Haken was a disappointment after the last two quite solid albums.

[introclaus]

20 albums I have really enjoyed this year.

Tesseract - War of being
Silent Skies - Dormant

These two are way above the rest.
Other great ones:

Lalu - The fish who wanted to be king
Moon Safari - Himlabacken vol 2
Sleep Token - Take me back to Eden
Jason Bieler and the Baron Von Bielski.. - Postcards from the Asylum
Anubis gate - Interference
Voyager - Fearless in love
The dear hunter - Migrant returned
Karmanjakah - Flying (EP)
Downes Braide Association - Celestial songs
Katatonia - Sky void of stars
Ions - Counterintuitive
Trevor Rabin - Rio
Einar Solberg - 16
Riverside - ID.Entity
Haken - Fauna
eMolecule - The architect
Steven Wilson - The Harmony Codex
Crown lands - Fearless

Can't disagree with Tesseract. Killer album!
Katatonia, Einar Solberg and Riverside were all brilliant.
Lalu was quite good - first of his I liked in a while.
Crown Lands and Anubis Gate are both really solid.

Sleep Token has to be the most overhyped, boring music ever put out ... lol ... I can not get into this. I think I've listened through the album ten times or so, and I find myself dozing off every single time. It's just not for me. I'm sure it's good since so many people I respect claim so, but it does nothing for me.

EDIT: just checked out Moon Safari - this is really interesting. Kind of in the vein of ACT. I'll have to listen more. This song is very good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzE4B68a1Uc&t=2055s

[giedrius]

I’ll leave the long descriptions to the experts.
Here is my top 10.
Ring of Gyges: Metamorphosis…. Love the emotion and the way this one builds. Can’t understand this not getting more love!!

Southern Empire: Another World. … Just discovered this band and they hit all the right spots. New vocalist maybe not as good as the former, but still fits right in.

Advent Horizon: A cell to call home. .. Huge step up for these guys. Great prog album.

Avkrvst: The Approbation…. This got lots of attention for good reason. Another emotional ride!

Anubis Gate: Interference… Another awesome recording for them. Can’t go wrong with “Cannabis is great”

Soen: Memorial…. Love everything this band does.

Temic: Terror management theory… Eric Gillette!! Nuf said.

Haken: Fauna….. I’m still a Haken nut.

Sunbeam Overdrive: Diama…. Seriously good grungy metal.

Subsignal: A poetry of rain… Lighter but still goosebump inducing.

I like Temic album quite a lot - if they keep it up with other albums, to me they can get close to the levels of great prog metal bands of 2010s as Leprous, Caligula's Horse, and Haken.

My Top 10 is in the works - I need to make some hard decisions in the coming days

[Random Axe]

This will be the first year I won't be able to participate in the EoY lists. This has been a very odd year full of work stress, my mothers passing and other environmental factors that kept me from liking much of anything. I can't think of a single album I could recommend so I'll read your lists and see of there was anything I either missed or need to reconsider.

I was going to post about disappointments, but thats against the spirit of this thread. I'll keep that shit to myself. Lol. Not gonna be that guy.

[introclaus]

This will be the first year I won't be able to participate in the EoY lists. This has been a very odd year full of work stress, my mothers passing and other environmental factors that kept me from liking much of anything. I can't think of a single album I could recommend so I'll read your lists and see of there was anything I either missed or need to reconsider.

I was going to post about disappointments, but thats against the spirit of this thread. I'll keep that shit to myself. Lol. Not gonna be that guy.

Sorry to hear it's been such a bad year for you.

As for posting "disappointments", I still think it has validity, as it can tell us which albums to approach with caution. I have a bunch of albums that disappointed me this year (where I expected much more from said band), and I'll be listing those in my EoY list. I don't see it as being negative or mean-spirited - so yeah, I'll be interested in seeing those you were thinking about

[Random Axe]

Okay, I'll post my biggest shitburger of the year, and I absolutely never at all expected this.

Kamelot - Awakening

I've grown to love the Tommy era as much as the Khan years. Sure, they're playing a different style of music but it's always had amazing lyrical quality and high production value. Khanelot, until the end, was primarily a Euro-inspired power band. They turned a corner and went a little Goth with Ghost Opera and then almost avant-garde with Poetry.

Tomelot picked up on the dramatic shift and would reach for a new audience, goth chicks. They initially dressed Tommy in Khans old clothes, gave him an emo makeover and moved forward. For the first time they were equal parts band and brand, mixing in female guest vocals in several spots to further entice their newly desired demographic.. Took a while for me to accept it, but after I did I was totally sold and a lifelong fan.

Then Awakening was released this year.

Nothing of what I loved about the previous eight albums was here. The production is bland, zero punch in the drums, walls of ambient sound filling in gaps, non-distinct guitarvtone, Tommy's voice pushed back in the mix(covering up something?). The songs are short and feel like leftovers from previous albums. Zero energy. The epic depths we are accustomed to are gone. This all felt superficial and, honestly, like they were bored making it.

I conducted an experiment. I loaded all Kamelot albums from Fourth legacy forward into my trucks Playlist. For two weeks I exclusively listened to nothing but Kamelot to and from work. There was such a noticeable drop-off on the Awakening tunes.

I realize I'll be the only PM member with this low opinion of a legacy band within our realm, but this album just falls flat for me. It's sad when my favorite song is the Japanese bonus track.

I lied, Claus. I guess I am gonna be that guy.

[LarryD]

Okay, I'll post my biggest shitburger of the year, and I absolutely never at all expected this.

Kamelot - Awakening

I've grown to love the Tommy era as much as the Khan years. Sure, they're playing a different style of music but it's always had amazing lyrical quality and high production value. Khanelot, until the end, was primarily a Euro-inspired power band. They turned a corner and went a little Goth with Ghost Opera and then almost avant-garde with Poetry.

Tomelot picked up on the dramatic shift and would reach for a new audience, goth chicks. They initially dressed Tommy in Khans old clothes, gave him an emo makeover and moved forward. For the first time they were equal parts band and brand, mixing in female guest vocals in several spots to further entice their newly desired demographic.. Took a while for me to accept it, but after I did I was totally sold and a lifelong fan.

Then Awakening was released this year.

Nothing of what I loved about the previous eight albums was here. The production is bland, zero punch in the drums, walls of ambient sound filling in gaps, non-distinct guitarvtone, Tommy's voice pushed back in the mix(covering up something?). The songs are short and feel like leftovers from previous albums. Zero energy. The epic depths we are accustomed to are gone. This all felt superficial and, honestly, like they were bored making it.

I conducted an experiment. I loaded all Kamelot albums from Fourth legacy forward into my trucks Playlist. For two weeks I exclusively listened to nothing but Kamelot to and from work. There was such a noticeable drop-off on the Awakening tunes.

I realize I'll be the only PM member with this low opinion of a legacy band within our realm, but this album just falls flat for me. It's sad when my favorite song is the Japanese bonus track.

I lied, Claus. I guess I am gonna be that guy.

****Don't feel alone - while I don't analyze Kamelot anywhere near as good as you did, I didn't even buy this one. I have lost complete interest in the band with every release..... I don't think it has to do with Tommy or Khan, although I prefer the Khan era even though Tommy is a great singer ...... it has to do with the "samey" thing for me. As I age, power metal pretty much has become a thing of the past - for various reasons. So for different reasons, we both have abandoned Awakening, but your reasoning is very understood.

In addition - I might even start a "disappointment of the year" list to go with the best of list ...... I was going to incorporate into my list, but I didn't want to taint the good stuff, so I may do that as I have plenty of disappointments to list .......

[jhallum]

Okay, I'll post my biggest shitburger of the year, and I absolutely never at all expected this.

Kamelot - Awakening

I admit, I've not been the biggest fan of Tommy Kamelot over the years. Mostly because their live show has kinda stagnated a bit, and the albums haven't had the same pop. But man, I love The Awakening. I had it in the car last night and in spite of the cheese that is One more Flag in the Ground, those first four tracks absolutely slay. Chunky guitars and huge choruses go a long way to making me happy in the car. After getting away from it, I felt like for the first time, they were back to the Ghost Opera/Black Halo sound (The Great Divide IMO should be on Black Halo). Sorry to hear that you didn't get into as much as I did.

[jhallum]

Here's my top 20 for 2023. There are a bunch of bands here on 2-3 albums, so I feel like the future is certainly bright. I wrote these comments for my radio show listeners (all 5 of them!) so keep that in mind. Somehow a Melodic Death/Doom band is #1, but it's such a pretty album...

---

20. Sermon // Of Golden Verse

I'd never heard of this heavy prog group before this year and was surprised. They fit right into that Tool/Soen/Katatonia/Riverside vibe. Given this is their second album, I expect better things going forward.

19. Haken // Fauna

This resurgent album from these prog metal masters. I didn't care for Vektor/Virus much, but this one has variety and changes pace nicely. They are staying on the heavy side of prog, and I hope they stay there.

18. Ad Inifinitum // Chapter 3: Downfall

This is the third album by Melissa Bonny and her crew. Extremely well crafted gothic metal, and even though there were a plethora of gothic metal albums this year, few of them hit in my book. Most were very good, but none were excellent.

17. Eleine // We Shall Remain

This isn't strictly gothic metal, it's got a harder edge without straying into Epica territory It's more thrashy than deathy if that makes sense.

16. Soen // Memorial

The second heavy prog album on this list. They have a vibe that they've found with Lotus, Imperial and now Memorial that's more catchy than most of the heavy prog bands but still retains a lot of that intricacy. We are sponsoring them at Prog Power this year for the second time in 5 years, that's how much we dig these Swedes.

15. Angra // Cycles of Pain

I've made it no secret on the show how much of Angra fan I was from about 1995 til about 2008. This is a nice follow-on of modern influences from 0mni, but I still can't get used to hearing Fabio's voice with them (he was the singer with the power-metal group Rhapsody from 1993 until 2011 or so). His operatic voice is amazing considering how much he smokes and drinks (check out the last track), and Bruno Valverde and Marcelo Barbosa have gelled with this lineup, and brought the Brazilian influences back.

14. Spirit Adrift // Ghost at the Gallows.

If you like Crack the Skye-era Mastodon, you will dig these guys, guaranteed. They are up-and-coming, and given they skipped the festival date I was supposed to see them at this summer, I thought they were going to do a fall tour, but it never materialized. If they can keep it up, I can see them doing big things.

13. The Zenith Passage // Datalysium

The only Technical Death album on my list this year. I didn't get much in the way of this genre this year, but this one is really good. Lots of shorter tracks instead of drawn out opuses makes it much stronger.

12. Lovebites // Judgement Day

Not the only power metal on my list, but one of the best. These five ladies from Japan get it done on stage, and I'm already excited to see them at Prog Power this fall, their live sets on YouTube look lights-out entertaining.

11. The Anchoret // It All Began with Loneliness

This is a fine piece of garbage-can prog metal. There's not just a couple of genres representative here, there's a variety of them on this album. Some death metal, some power-prog, blues, death metal, 90's prog, two flutes, a clarinet, a gospel verse, you name it. You'd think it's a kludge, it is not, it all just works. If you like metal to digest with repeated listens, this one's for you.

10. Wayfarer // American Gothic

If you'd tell me that an album with Western Influences (as in country/western) would hit my top 10, I'd have laughed at you, but here we are. This is blackened metal with strong western influences. With titles like 'The Cattle Thief' and 'Blood on the Oilfields' the lyrics are along for the ride. This works really well.

9. Tardigrade Inferno // Kill the Circus!

Another big newcomer, this album came out of left field and smacked me over the head a couple of months back. Kill the Circus? Nah, that's exactly what this is, circus/cabaret metal. If you've ever heard the playful parts of Diablo Swing Orchestra, these guys carved off the dark cabaret part and released an entire album.

8. Kamelot // The Awakening

Like Angra, I'm a long time fan, and like Angra, I've taken a few years off from Kamelot. But this is the first album to channel some of those great melodies that they had throughout the Oughts, 'The Great Divide' through 'One More Flag in the Ground' is just massively infectious, chunky, and I dare you not to sing along to the chorus.

7. Sleep Token // Take Me Back to Eden

This is a nice varied piece of progressive metal that is way heavier than 'This Place will be Your Tomb', their last album. They embrace pop influences far more than other metal bands (including the dreaded auto-tuner, to a metal fan, this is a pop influence, FYI). 'The Summoning' hit it big in early 2023 on TikTok, and before you know it, they are selling out everything, including one offs next year at Red Rocks in Denver and the Radio City Music Hall in NYC. This album is worth the hype (I didn't care for 'This Place will be Your Tomb' much), it's not as crazy as the Anchoret, and thus its more accessible, IMO.

6. Riverside // ID.Entity

Another Heavy Prog album, but this one, like the one coming still, has an intense modern lyrical vibe. Mateusz Duda chooses to rave about the evils of technology on this album, with titles like 'Big Tech Brother', 'Friend or Foe', or 'Post-Truth' you know exactly where he's coming from. It's a more melodic album, melodic Riverside is better IMO than mopey Riverside.

5. Voyager // Fearless in Love

These Aussies are just so happy. This is pop-prog metal incarnate. The singer gives off a huge Depeche Mode vibe and the melodies run rampant across this album. Just tap your toes and sing-along!

4. Ne Obliviscaris // Exul

If Voyager is happy, Ne Obliviscaris is intense. These guys have a wall of sound and they overlay some great violin work over the top of it. I'm a recent convert to these guys, and you have to dig deep and listen for the intricacies, but it's worth it. The vocals are a nice mix of clean and death, which means the vocals sometimes contribute to the melody.

3. Molybaron // Something Ominous

The other intensely political heavy prog album, those this one is lyrically about the evils of government and society. It's also really short, about 35 minutes long. It's super catchy, I would play more tracks of this on the show, but too many drop curse words, unfortunately.

2. Nuclear Power Trio // Wet Ass Plutonium

Instrumental Heavy Metal Jazz Fusion. That's it. This is ground that has been covered over the years, but rarely is it done this well and by guys wearing intricate masks of political figures, including Trump, Putin, Jong Un, and the former Queen. The masks aren't the reason to like these guys, but the music is. This is absurdly well done and really hits a spot for me that hasn't been covered since Liquid Tension Experiment 20+ years ago.

1. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us

You can say a lot of things about Death Metal, but beautiful is not one of them usually. But this album is beautiful. The basis of this album is crushing and fuzzy guitars and bludgeoning death vocals. It's slow, its weighty and the lyrics are about dealing and experiencing chronic depression. But over the top is this beautiful piano riff which gives each song an ethereal and introspective note. There's certainly a lot of Amorphis to be had here, Swallow the Sun too, but they take it steps further and go all in with the intensity. Easily album of the year.

[introclaus]

Okay, I'll post my biggest shitburger of the year, and I absolutely never at all expected this.

Kamelot - Awakening
....

I lied, Claus. I guess I am gonna be that guy.

Thanks for posting ... I think that was a very thorough review, and you made some solid points. I don't agree with the fact that it's a "shitburger", but that's what's so great about music (what is gold to one is shit to someone else). To me it's a great disc, and while they are far beyond the days of pushing the boundaries, they do this better than most anyone in my opinion.

[introclaus]

20. Sermon // Of Golden Verse
16. Soen // Memorial
12. Lovebites // Judgement Day
11. The Anchoret // It All Began with Loneliness
8. Kamelot // The Awakening
6. Riverside // ID.Entity
4. Ne Obliviscaris // Exul
3. Molybaron // Something Ominous
1. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us

Heck yeah! All of these made my list as well. Good stuff!

19. Haken // Fauna
18. Ad Inifinitum // Chapter 3: Downfall
17. Eleine // We Shall Remain
15. Angra // Cycles of Pain
14. Spirit Adrift // Ghost at the Gallows.
13. The Zenith Passage // Datalysium
10. Wayfarer // American Gothic
9. Tardigrade Inferno // Kill the Circus!
7. Sleep Token // Take Me Back to Eden
5. Voyager // Fearless in Love
2. Nuclear Power Trio // Wet Ass Plutonium

Of these the Ad Infinitum, Angra and The Zenith Passage were all solid, but just didn't make the cut for me.
Nuclear Power Trio was really awesome for the first 15 minutes and then the instrumental stuff just starts boring me.

Haken was a disappointment to me.
I'll have to check out Tardigrade Inferno, and also need to listen more to Wayfarer.

[prog_powermetal99]

Okay, I'll post my biggest shitburger of the year, and I absolutely never at all expected this.

Kamelot - Awakening

I admit, I've not been the biggest fan of Tommy Kamelot over the years. Mostly because their live show has kinda stagnated a bit, and the albums haven't had the same pop. But man, I love The Awakening. I had it in the car last night and in spite of the cheese that is One more Flag in the Ground, those first four tracks absolutely slay. Chunky guitars and huge choruses go a long way to making me happy in the car. After getting away from it, I felt like for the first time, they were back to the Ghost Opera/Black Halo sound (The Great Divide IMO should be on Black Halo). Sorry to hear that you didn't get into as much as I did.

Regarding Kamelot's live show... I think their live show is one of the best out there...I bought the Kamelot Bluray, not knowing what to expect, and holy crap was I blown away! The show was just flat out amazing and epic...........

[Random Axe]

Okay, I'll post my biggest shitburger of the year, and I absolutely never at all expected this.

Kamelot - Awakening

I admit, I've not been the biggest fan of Tommy Kamelot over the years. Mostly because their live show has kinda stagnated a bit, and the albums haven't had the same pop. But man, I love The Awakening. I had it in the car last night and in spite of the cheese that is One more Flag in the Ground, those first four tracks absolutely slay. Chunky guitars and huge choruses go a long way to making me happy in the car. After getting away from it, I felt like for the first time, they were back to the Ghost Opera/Black Halo sound (The Great Divide IMO should be on Black Halo). Sorry to hear that you didn't get into as much as I did.

Regarding Kamelot's live show... I think their live show is one of the best out there...I bought the Kamelot Bluray, not knowing what to expect, and holy crap was I blown away! The show was just flat out amazing and epic...........

Both Kamelot DVD shows are my absolute favorite, alltime. Nothing but class.

I'm not saying the new album is terrible, just horrifically disappointing for me.

If anyone wants to fall in love with Kamelot again, watch reaction vids on YouTube. What we take for granted, what we've known for 20 years is so fresh while watching a first time experience. Seeing both professional vocal coaches and music fans react to Khan and Tommy is inspiring and reinforces why we loved them.

[LarryD]

If anyone wants to fall in love with Kamelot again, watch reaction vids on YouTube. What we take for granted, what we've known for 20 years is so fresh while watching a first time experience. Seeing both professional vocal coaches and music fans react to Khan and Tommy is inspiring and reinforces why we loved them.

****I do believe that this harkens back to what I've been saying for some years now ..... and that is AGE. Sadly, we are aging, and as we do, our tolerance level for certain things goes down ..... while it is fun to watch these kids oogle and drool over singers like Tommy, Todd, Dino and many others, we were all there from the beginning and some of us are just tired of hearing certain bands 30 years later.....doesn't mean we don't like them - just means, I don't want to buy anymore from this band but I'll listen to the 15 other discs I have by them .....and it's ok. I could sit here and list a hundred things that have changed in my taste of music - but, the best example of this will be my year end list..... 8 out of the 10 discs, were prog rock ... not metal. That just sums it up perfectly for me. I still love metal - but, I am now extremely picky about what I listen to and buy .......moreso than I ever was. (beat ya to it Claus).

[prog_powermetal99]

****I do believe that this harkens back to what I've been saying for some years now ..... and that is AGE. Sadly, we are aging, and as we do, our tolerance level for certain things goes down ..... while it is fun to watch these kids oogle and drool over singers like Tommy, Todd, Dino and many others, we were all there from the beginning and some of us are just tired of hearing certain bands 30 years later.....doesn't mean we don't like them - just means, I don't want to buy anymore from this band but I'll listen to the 15 other discs I have by them .....and it's ok. I could sit here and list a hundred things that have changed in my taste of music - but, the best example of this will be my year end list..... 8 out of the 10 discs, were prog rock ... not metal. That just sums it up perfectly for me. I still love metal - but, I am now extremely picky about what I listen to and buy .......moreso than I ever was. (beat ya to it Claus).

I guess I'm in the minority when I say that my tastes have actually gone "heavier" as I've aged....I was always worried when I was young that once I got old I wouldn't like metal anymore.. Even my relatives told me that same thing.. Well, I'm sooooooooooooo glad that didn't happen and I have proven them wrong!! If anything I've become much more of a metal head than when I was young........I guess metal is just in my blood, what can I say....

[Mardoch]

I guess I'm in the minority when I say that my tastes have actually gone "heavier" as I've aged....I was always worried when I was young that once I got old I wouldn't like metal anymore.. Even my relatives told me that same thing.. Well, I'm sooooooooooooo glad that didn't happen and I have proven them wrong!! If anything I've become much more of a metal head than when I was young........I guess metal is just in my blood, what can I say....

Same for me. I've gotten more into tech death in the last couple years than I ever would have expected. The more I deal with people the more the misanthropic sounds of extreme metal appeal to me. Maybe I should be a hermit instead lol.

[LarryD]

I'm glad to hear that some of you are getting more into certain metal now more than ever ......... I wish that was the case for me, but as I'm putting together my Top 10 for the year, it looks like 8 / 10 of the discs are prog rock - only 2 are metal. If I were to look back over the years, I would see somewhere back in time it was the other way around .... not sure when that was, but there is a part of me that doesn't want to know .......

Sure, I can still put a Dream Theater disc on and love the hell out of it .... I can throw on a King Diamond concert and still say " holy shit that was good " .... no problems there. But when I put on a show like Neal Morse's " The Similitude " tour and watch Eric Gillette go at it, and Mike Portnoy playing in a prog rock band, it just gives me shivers and goosebumps. Or now when I put on the latest Night Ranger show, and marvel at how good these guys are doing it at this age, or put on a Mystery concert and wish I had the chance to see those guys just once .....but none of that is metal.

Conversely, I put on a Judas Priest show from 1982, and somehow saddens me to think I was at that tour and how awesome it was to see that show back in the day ....and wish that I could get that feeling back again with metal the way I used to have it ....... it really is a weird phenomenon.......

As someone in a movie once said - " life sure has a sick sense of humor " ........ that actor is gone now, but he was so right .......

[LarryD]

My top 12 picks within the domain of the typical tastes around here are:

Theocracy - Mosaic
Silent Skies - Dormant
TesseracT - War of Being
Anubis Gate - Interference
Nospūn - Opus
Angra - Cycles of Pain
Confusion Field - Future Impact of Past Diversions
Redemption - I Am the Storm
Hemina - Romancing the Ether
Southern Empire - Another World
Jakub Żytecki - Remind Me
Subsignal - A Poetry of Rain

There are a few albums by other bands I'd rate pretty highly as well, and I haven't heard the new Earthside yet either.

***Excellent list - we have two in common, but Silent Skies and Nospun almost made mine ..... so we had almost 4 in common. I should like the Southern Empire, but I can't say why I don't . ... it just didn't click with me.

[LarryD]

Here's my top 20 for 2023. There are a bunch of bands here on 2-3 albums, so I feel like the future is certainly bright. I wrote these comments for my radio show listeners (all 5 of them!) so keep that in mind. Somehow a Melodic Death/Doom band is #1, but it's such a pretty album...

---

20. Sermon // Of Golden Verse

I'd never heard of this heavy prog group before this year and was surprised. They fit right into that Tool/Soen/Katatonia/Riverside vibe. Given this is their second album, I expect better things going forward.

19. Haken // Fauna

This resurgent album from these prog metal masters. I didn't care for Vektor/Virus much, but this one has variety and changes pace nicely. They are staying on the heavy side of prog, and I hope they stay there.

18. Ad Inifinitum // Chapter 3: Downfall

This is the third album by Melissa Bonny and her crew. Extremely well crafted gothic metal, and even though there were a plethora of gothic metal albums this year, few of them hit in my book. Most were very good, but none were excellent.

17. Eleine // We Shall Remain

This isn't strictly gothic metal, it's got a harder edge without straying into Epica territory It's more thrashy than deathy if that makes sense.

16. Soen // Memorial

The second heavy prog album on this list. They have a vibe that they've found with Lotus, Imperial and now Memorial that's more catchy than most of the heavy prog bands but still retains a lot of that intricacy. We are sponsoring them at Prog Power this year for the second time in 5 years, that's how much we dig these Swedes.

15. Angra // Cycles of Pain

I've made it no secret on the show how much of Angra fan I was from about 1995 til about 2008. This is a nice follow-on of modern influences from 0mni, but I still can't get used to hearing Fabio's voice with them (he was the singer with the power-metal group Rhapsody from 1993 until 2011 or so). His operatic voice is amazing considering how much he smokes and drinks (check out the last track), and Bruno Valverde and Marcelo Barbosa have gelled with this lineup, and brought the Brazilian influences back.

14. Spirit Adrift // Ghost at the Gallows.

If you like Crack the Skye-era Mastodon, you will dig these guys, guaranteed. They are up-and-coming, and given they skipped the festival date I was supposed to see them at this summer, I thought they were going to do a fall tour, but it never materialized. If they can keep it up, I can see them doing big things.

13. The Zenith Passage // Datalysium

The only Technical Death album on my list this year. I didn't get much in the way of this genre this year, but this one is really good. Lots of shorter tracks instead of drawn out opuses makes it much stronger.

12. Lovebites // Judgement Day

Not the only power metal on my list, but one of the best. These five ladies from Japan get it done on stage, and I'm already excited to see them at Prog Power this fall, their live sets on YouTube look lights-out entertaining.

11. The Anchoret // It All Began with Loneliness

This is a fine piece of garbage-can prog metal. There's not just a couple of genres representative here, there's a variety of them on this album. Some death metal, some power-prog, blues, death metal, 90's prog, two flutes, a clarinet, a gospel verse, you name it. You'd think it's a kludge, it is not, it all just works. If you like metal to digest with repeated listens, this one's for you.

10. Wayfarer // American Gothic

If you'd tell me that an album with Western Influences (as in country/western) would hit my top 10, I'd have laughed at you, but here we are. This is blackened metal with strong western influences. With titles like 'The Cattle Thief' and 'Blood on the Oilfields' the lyrics are along for the ride. This works really well.

9. Tardigrade Inferno // Kill the Circus!

Another big newcomer, this album came out of left field and smacked me over the head a couple of months back. Kill the Circus? Nah, that's exactly what this is, circus/cabaret metal. If you've ever heard the playful parts of Diablo Swing Orchestra, these guys carved off the dark cabaret part and released an entire album.

8. Kamelot // The Awakening

Like Angra, I'm a long time fan, and like Angra, I've taken a few years off from Kamelot. But this is the first album to channel some of those great melodies that they had throughout the Oughts, 'The Great Divide' through 'One More Flag in the Ground' is just massively infectious, chunky, and I dare you not to sing along to the chorus.

7. Sleep Token // Take Me Back to Eden

This is a nice varied piece of progressive metal that is way heavier than 'This Place will be Your Tomb', their last album. They embrace pop influences far more than other metal bands (including the dreaded auto-tuner, to a metal fan, this is a pop influence, FYI). 'The Summoning' hit it big in early 2023 on TikTok, and before you know it, they are selling out everything, including one offs next year at Red Rocks in Denver and the Radio City Music Hall in NYC. This album is worth the hype (I didn't care for 'This Place will be Your Tomb' much), it's not as crazy as the Anchoret, and thus its more accessible, IMO.

6. Riverside // ID.Entity

Another Heavy Prog album, but this one, like the one coming still, has an intense modern lyrical vibe. Mateusz Duda chooses to rave about the evils of technology on this album, with titles like 'Big Tech Brother', 'Friend or Foe', or 'Post-Truth' you know exactly where he's coming from. It's a more melodic album, melodic Riverside is better IMO than mopey Riverside.

5. Voyager // Fearless in Love

These Aussies are just so happy. This is pop-prog metal incarnate. The singer gives off a huge Depeche Mode vibe and the melodies run rampant across this album. Just tap your toes and sing-along!

4. Ne Obliviscaris // Exul

If Voyager is happy, Ne Obliviscaris is intense. These guys have a wall of sound and they overlay some great violin work over the top of it. I'm a recent convert to these guys, and you have to dig deep and listen for the intricacies, but it's worth it. The vocals are a nice mix of clean and death, which means the vocals sometimes contribute to the melody.

3. Molybaron // Something Ominous

The other intensely political heavy prog album, those this one is lyrically about the evils of government and society. It's also really short, about 35 minutes long. It's super catchy, I would play more tracks of this on the show, but too many drop curse words, unfortunately.

2. Nuclear Power Trio // Wet Ass Plutonium

Instrumental Heavy Metal Jazz Fusion. That's it. This is ground that has been covered over the years, but rarely is it done this well and by guys wearing intricate masks of political figures, including Trump, Putin, Jong Un, and the former Queen. The masks aren't the reason to like these guys, but the music is. This is absurdly well done and really hits a spot for me that hasn't been covered since Liquid Tension Experiment 20+ years ago.

1. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us

You can say a lot of things about Death Metal, but beautiful is not one of them usually. But this album is beautiful. The basis of this album is crushing and fuzzy guitars and bludgeoning death vocals. It's slow, its weighty and the lyrics are about dealing and experiencing chronic depression. But over the top is this beautiful piano riff which gives each song an ethereal and introspective note. There's certainly a lot of Amorphis to be had here, Swallow the Sun too, but they take it steps further and go all in with the intensity. Easily album of the year.

****That is one, bad ass list right there ........ well written.

[Guillaume]

Not posting a lot here but working on the usual top 50 as I type...

[giedrius]

Here's my top 20 for 2023. There are a bunch of bands here on 2-3 albums, so I feel like the future is certainly bright. I wrote these comments for my radio show listeners (all 5 of them!) so keep that in mind. Somehow a Melodic Death/Doom band is #1, but it's such a pretty album...

---

20. Sermon // Of Golden Verse

I'd never heard of this heavy prog group before this year and was surprised. They fit right into that Tool/Soen/Katatonia/Riverside vibe. Given this is their second album, I expect better things going forward.

19. Haken // Fauna

This resurgent album from these prog metal masters. I didn't care for Vektor/Virus much, but this one has variety and changes pace nicely. They are staying on the heavy side of prog, and I hope they stay there.

18. Ad Inifinitum // Chapter 3: Downfall

This is the third album by Melissa Bonny and her crew. Extremely well crafted gothic metal, and even though there were a plethora of gothic metal albums this year, few of them hit in my book. Most were very good, but none were excellent.

17. Eleine // We Shall Remain

This isn't strictly gothic metal, it's got a harder edge without straying into Epica territory It's more thrashy than deathy if that makes sense.

16. Soen // Memorial

The second heavy prog album on this list. They have a vibe that they've found with Lotus, Imperial and now Memorial that's more catchy than most of the heavy prog bands but still retains a lot of that intricacy. We are sponsoring them at Prog Power this year for the second time in 5 years, that's how much we dig these Swedes.

15. Angra // Cycles of Pain

I've made it no secret on the show how much of Angra fan I was from about 1995 til about 2008. This is a nice follow-on of modern influences from 0mni, but I still can't get used to hearing Fabio's voice with them (he was the singer with the power-metal group Rhapsody from 1993 until 2011 or so). His operatic voice is amazing considering how much he smokes and drinks (check out the last track), and Bruno Valverde and Marcelo Barbosa have gelled with this lineup, and brought the Brazilian influences back.

14. Spirit Adrift // Ghost at the Gallows.

If you like Crack the Skye-era Mastodon, you will dig these guys, guaranteed. They are up-and-coming, and given they skipped the festival date I was supposed to see them at this summer, I thought they were going to do a fall tour, but it never materialized. If they can keep it up, I can see them doing big things.

13. The Zenith Passage // Datalysium

The only Technical Death album on my list this year. I didn't get much in the way of this genre this year, but this one is really good. Lots of shorter tracks instead of drawn out opuses makes it much stronger.

12. Lovebites // Judgement Day

Not the only power metal on my list, but one of the best. These five ladies from Japan get it done on stage, and I'm already excited to see them at Prog Power this fall, their live sets on YouTube look lights-out entertaining.

11. The Anchoret // It All Began with Loneliness

This is a fine piece of garbage-can prog metal. There's not just a couple of genres representative here, there's a variety of them on this album. Some death metal, some power-prog, blues, death metal, 90's prog, two flutes, a clarinet, a gospel verse, you name it. You'd think it's a kludge, it is not, it all just works. If you like metal to digest with repeated listens, this one's for you.

10. Wayfarer // American Gothic

If you'd tell me that an album with Western Influences (as in country/western) would hit my top 10, I'd have laughed at you, but here we are. This is blackened metal with strong western influences. With titles like 'The Cattle Thief' and 'Blood on the Oilfields' the lyrics are along for the ride. This works really well.

9. Tardigrade Inferno // Kill the Circus!

Another big newcomer, this album came out of left field and smacked me over the head a couple of months back. Kill the Circus? Nah, that's exactly what this is, circus/cabaret metal. If you've ever heard the playful parts of Diablo Swing Orchestra, these guys carved off the dark cabaret part and released an entire album.

8. Kamelot // The Awakening

Like Angra, I'm a long time fan, and like Angra, I've taken a few years off from Kamelot. But this is the first album to channel some of those great melodies that they had throughout the Oughts, 'The Great Divide' through 'One More Flag in the Ground' is just massively infectious, chunky, and I dare you not to sing along to the chorus.

7. Sleep Token // Take Me Back to Eden

This is a nice varied piece of progressive metal that is way heavier than 'This Place will be Your Tomb', their last album. They embrace pop influences far more than other metal bands (including the dreaded auto-tuner, to a metal fan, this is a pop influence, FYI). 'The Summoning' hit it big in early 2023 on TikTok, and before you know it, they are selling out everything, including one offs next year at Red Rocks in Denver and the Radio City Music Hall in NYC. This album is worth the hype (I didn't care for 'This Place will be Your Tomb' much), it's not as crazy as the Anchoret, and thus its more accessible, IMO.

6. Riverside // ID.Entity

Another Heavy Prog album, but this one, like the one coming still, has an intense modern lyrical vibe. Mateusz Duda chooses to rave about the evils of technology on this album, with titles like 'Big Tech Brother', 'Friend or Foe', or 'Post-Truth' you know exactly where he's coming from. It's a more melodic album, melodic Riverside is better IMO than mopey Riverside.

5. Voyager // Fearless in Love

These Aussies are just so happy. This is pop-prog metal incarnate. The singer gives off a huge Depeche Mode vibe and the melodies run rampant across this album. Just tap your toes and sing-along!

4. Ne Obliviscaris // Exul

If Voyager is happy, Ne Obliviscaris is intense. These guys have a wall of sound and they overlay some great violin work over the top of it. I'm a recent convert to these guys, and you have to dig deep and listen for the intricacies, but it's worth it. The vocals are a nice mix of clean and death, which means the vocals sometimes contribute to the melody.

3. Molybaron // Something Ominous

The other intensely political heavy prog album, those this one is lyrically about the evils of government and society. It's also really short, about 35 minutes long. It's super catchy, I would play more tracks of this on the show, but too many drop curse words, unfortunately.

2. Nuclear Power Trio // Wet Ass Plutonium

Instrumental Heavy Metal Jazz Fusion. That's it. This is ground that has been covered over the years, but rarely is it done this well and by guys wearing intricate masks of political figures, including Trump, Putin, Jong Un, and the former Queen. The masks aren't the reason to like these guys, but the music is. This is absurdly well done and really hits a spot for me that hasn't been covered since Liquid Tension Experiment 20+ years ago.

1. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us

You can say a lot of things about Death Metal, but beautiful is not one of them usually. But this album is beautiful. The basis of this album is crushing and fuzzy guitars and bludgeoning death vocals. It's slow, its weighty and the lyrics are about dealing and experiencing chronic depression. But over the top is this beautiful piano riff which gives each song an ethereal and introspective note. There's certainly a lot of Amorphis to be had here, Swallow the Sun too, but they take it steps further and go all in with the intensity. Easily album of the year.

I have been listening to Fires in the Distance quite a few times recently. I don't remember ever listening to such a warmly sounding death metal record - I also hear Amorphis, Swallow the Sun vibes, as well as melodic death metal of mid 90s.

[Norén]

Advent Horizon: A cell to call home. .. Huge step up for these guys. Great prog album.

Just discovered this one. What a fantastic album.