Jon Rosenthal's Top Albums of 2023

Though I am a longtime El-Ahrairah fan, it took me a little longer to check out T.N.’s solo project for reasons still unknown to me. Featuring a beautiful fusion of Soviet Bloc-inspired black metal and krautrock-infused psychedelia, T.N.’s vision is at its clearest here. It might be a little difficult to find a copy of this album this late in the game, but it is imperative that you hear this thing on vinyl. A tape would be nice, too!

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Oh, do I love Austere. I love them so much that I wrote a literal book on them. I missed this band a great deal, their last album (2009’s To Lay Like Old Ashes) remaining a steadfast inclusion in my listening habits in the years that followed their initial demise. Now back and, dare I say, more mature this time around, Austere’s desperate depression is more palatable and less unbridled. As Desolate and Sorrow have grown over the past fourteen years, so has their once-more-unified musical vision. Austere is “depressive black metal,” but in a more realistic and dismal sense rather than the self-destructive extremeness of the past. Corrosion of Hearts is still a stirring listen, however, and Austere pick up right where they left off.

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I had high hopes for the Romantik I EP’s followup, and musician and songwriter Erech Leleth’s continuation of the Bergfried story is just as exciting, if not more, than what came before it. Bergfried are “traditional” in the sense that there are rocking riffs and sung vocals, and yet there is a lot more going on here. Dokken-esque sleaze, folk metal, black metal, and other influences collide in Romantik II‘s peculiar and infectious metal/rock hybrid traverses the musical landscape with a unique playfulness. Erech Leleth has proven through other projects like Ancient Mastery, Carathis, and Narzissus that he is a master of black metal, but Bergfried reveals that he was an ’80s metal nerd the entire time. Go ahead and revisit Carathis–tell me it isn’t ’80s guitar hero metal!

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Lamp of Murmuur’s departure from the raw black metal world was an unexpected and unannounced one, and it left a lot of babies whining about “sounding like Immortal” or “not being the same.” The most exciting artists, my friends, try new things, and Lamp of Murmuur’s heavy/black metal approach on Saturnian Bloodstorm is by far the most exciting material M. has released to date. In an interview I conducted with him for Decibel Magazine, M. expressed a sense of accomplishment and ego concerning this release, having overcome many obstacles to get to this point, and the pride felt here is palpable.

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Midlake’s The Courage of Others was an earlier foray of mine into the world of the “indie” offshoot world of folk rock rather than my more metal-oriented neofolk and neoclassical “folk” taste. That was, sadly, Midlake’s last album with singer Tim Smith, who chose to leave Midlake and start this band, Harp, in 2011. The most upsetting part of Harp’s birth was the loss of two years of Smith-fronted Midlake material–the band decided to simply abandon the work they’d done together and start again from scratch. Though Harp’s long-long awaited debut album Albion, having first been announced in 2015, has the occasional metaphysical nod to the material Smith left on the cutting room floor, this material is a definite departure from Midlake’s more American approach. With stylistic nods to the English folk revival movement, Albion is a subtle, warm album. Smith’s voice, a welcome return, is as smooth and soft as ever, and his ear for harmony is even stronger than the Midlake days. If it takes another twelve years for Smith to make another album like this, the time will have been worth it.

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So, first off, RIP Urfaust! I remember listening to this band in high school, and it’s amazing how they’d followed me into my 30s. Nothing lasts forever, unfortunately! At least, and it is really to our benefit, Urfaust went out on an incredibly high note. Featuring some of their strongest material in a very long time, Untergang shows this Dutch duo at their most powerful and harrowing. Urfaust was always about that–power (well, that and getting very, very drunk)–and this final album, their very last statement as Urfaust, is a reminder that they will always be the best at their craft, even when they have left it.

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Katatonia is probably my favorite active metal band. Yes, even the nu-rock stuff, and Sky Void of Stars is probably their strongest Jonas Renkse-written material–their frontman having taken over songwriting around the City Burials era. Renkse’s melodic pop sensibilities meld with the band’s overall heavy, proggy rock and metal stylings, making an album which is both immensely heavy and very, very catchy. “Opaline'”s hook has only two notes. Two notes!

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I waited a long time for the followup to Miserere Luminis’ self-titled album, originally released in 2009. Initially conceived as a live concert project and collaboration between Quebecois black metal bands Gris and Sombres Forêts, I didn’t really expect anything to come from this band beyond this effort, but a semi-recent reformation as a live band gave me a little hope. Well, that and Neptune telling me about the album a year before Ordalie was released, but I digress. Though Ordalie is a black metal collaboration through and through, I hesitate to actually call Miserere Luminis a black metal band this time around. Leaning heavily into post-rock and post-metal, the lush and heavily orchestrated Ordalie is a sort of rebirth for these two sorely missed bands, who are generally known more for their presence in the black metal underground. By the way, when are either Sombres Forêts or Gris going to give us proper albums on their own? It’s only been a decade since we’ve heard new recorded material from either band (the Gris album topped my best of the 2010s list, so you must know how dead serious I am about this).

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Another album for which I waited a long, long time. Finnish progressive folk band Tenhi’s last album, Saivo, was released in 2011, then… nothing! At least, until I interviewed member Tyko Saarikko in 2020, where he first made mention of the album that would become Valkama in his first public chat in years. The anticipation killed me. It really did. With such a drastic amount of time dedicated to one album made by a consistently incredible band, Valkama had to approach perfection. It just had to… and it does. Saarikko and bandmate Ilmari Issakainen’s approach to folk music (not quite neofolk like so many declare them to be) is tender and quiet, but heady and complex. Featuring Issakainen’s most complex drumming in years, Tenhi’s once-again mobile selves (when compared to Saivo‘s stillness) capitalizes on their newfound activity and makes what could be their finest album. Somewhere between Kauan‘s raw songwriting talent, Maa​ä​et‘s verdant orchestration, and Airut:Aamujen‘s delicate touch, Tenhi’s Valkama is not only a survey of their most memorable moments, but an expansion upon them, as well. Tenhi spent a lengthy amount of time on this album, and it shows in this album’s more subtle moments. With quiet counter-melodies, interesting syncopations, and a general appreciation for the art of the groove, Valkama quickly entered my listening rotation and never left it.

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Listen to our lengthy podcast interview with Saarikko and Issakainen here.

What’s that? Another eagerly awaited album? That’s right, “DHG” spent an eight year span crafting this album. Frontman Vicotnik’s songwriting acumen–taking songs from breakneck black metal to prog epics and electronic soundscapes with grace and thought–is at its strongest here. Songs can wander through disparate ends of the musical universe and guitarist/songwriter Yusaf “Vicotnik” Parvez twists them carefully so that they make sense together. Opener “Et Smelter” finds its way from guitar ambiance, through a sea of black metal, and finds itself closing as a progressive rock masterpiece. It really is compelling, full of “blink and you’ve missed it” transitions and the tiniest of details placed in exact spots for the most effective response. An avant-garde black metal album in the most classical sense of the genre, Black Medium Current is also an apex of it, as well. Featuring Vicotnik on vocals this time, replacing previous (and original) vocalist Aldrahn, we find a more varied and emotive performance, ranging from softly sung vocals to the harshest of shrieks, and a cornucopia of other sounds that pair with Black Medium Current‘s wacky, colorful void. Having been around for thirty years now, Dødheimsgard have rendered themselves inimitable in a sea of pretenders, crafting the perfect version of what was at one point referred to as “post-black metal.” Also, yes, this means this album is better than the one with Fenriz on it.

Listen here.

Listen to our lengthy podcast interview with Vicotnik here.