Rhys Williams' Top Albums of 2023

OK, so yea verily what put this album at number 10 is absolutely the lead single “Cock on the Cob,” which is a bona fide (boner-fileted?) magnum (lol) opus that you will be powerless to keep from singing in your car, in the shower, in your wife’s ear, or especially on the bus for months after. Sing it with me now: “COCK! ONTHECOB! COCK! ONTHECOB!” Also “Kickstart My Cock” is a simply great song title as well. This is one of those albums where what you see is absolutely what you get: it’s death metal solely about getting one’s wang mangled, one’s shaft shredded, and one’s dick nicked. And let no one say it doesn’t deliver!

FFO: Cretin, Bonginator, Brat

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Now this one here is an interesting waterbird. A three-piece from Maine, with no guitars, only keyboards, in this case a Yamaha (I think) that’s been run through sufficient pedals so as to obtain a deliciously and maliciously creepy Wurtlitzer/Hammond-like sound. Black metal screeches alternate with clean vocals that could almost be described as having a ‘60s Northern Soul sound, there’s a nonzero amount of gospel in there. I’ve said that this record makes me think of something like “blackened B-52s,” and I’ll stand by this assertion: it’s like the soundtrack to a really obscure and eerie 60s black and white horror movie (i.e. “Carnival of Souls”), but by way of 80s deathrock and 2000s USBM. Devil’s Blood may take the first-time listener a few tries to really get into, but once you get it, you absolutely get it.

FFO: Wreck and Reference, Chelsea Wolfe, Christian Death

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[Note: Album art excluded because… well… you’ll see.]

This album is nuts. I mean, it is an absolute effort to listen to. Imagine the hypothetical mashup of Ornette Coleman, John Zorn’s various musical projects, amorphous brutal death a la Encenathrakh, and Last Days of Humanity-style hypergoregrind, and you still wouldn’t come close. Free jazz goregrind brutal death blurrrr that will truly punish any listener without the philosophical fortitude to make themselves understand it sufficiently to enjoy it. But, yet again and not for the last time on this list, once you get it, you can’t get enough of it. That the production is so rich and bass-heavy only accentuates the chaos of the proceedings. Also, it’s the perfect “music” to blast at high volume if you’re having a row with your neighbors: Imagine if Tony’s yacht in “Whitecaps” had THIS playing 24/7 instead of Dean Martin! P.S. Watch out for the album cover if gnarly real gore ain’t your thing.

FFO: Naked City, Painkiller, Effluence

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In a complete 180 from the previous entry, we have long-running USBM champion Austin Lunn and his groundbreaking project Panopticon. I remember checking out Panopticon’s self-titled debut right after it hit local Louisville record stores on May Day 2008, and it has been a treat to see the project slowly evolve into its most maximal form, which The Rime of Memory supplies in its synthesis of all of Panopticon’s past iterations. I’ve heard this project emerge from raw crust black metal into Bathory-esque early Viking metal into the first Appalachian (as opposed to Cascadian) black metal project, to its current blend of Scandinavian and American folk music traditions with what I can only describe as atmoblack played with the precision of techdeath. Joined by an impressive cadre of session musicians who bring their best elements to the table, whether they are violin, Hardanger fiddle, or choral vocals, Panopticon has bested itself once more in the pursuit of the transcendental. Best listened to on a cold winter’s night, outside, huddled around an open fire.

FFO: Agalloch, Galar, Saor

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This is the first entry on this list, but certainly not the last, to make full usage of the vaunted “PING” snare. Cranked to oblivion, taut to the point of resembling a keg of beer when struck, this kind of snare sound lends itself best to the most brutal of death and grind. And how fitting that a band whose very name conjures the maximum level of human violence should be brutal enough to fulfill the promise of PING! Nuclear Remains give you everything you want out of brutal death metal: animalistic gutturals, a thick bassy guitar tone, blasts and slams and PINGs aplenty, hell they even throw in some Dying Fetus-style dueling highs to make the contrast that much more extreme. Listen to this one VERY LOUD!

FFO: Encoffinized, Baphomet, Suffocation

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Violence against humans has been done to death (another pun for ya) in slamming death metal, so why not violence against deer? Oklahoma is rapidly becoming fertile ground for groovy death metal, and these Okies are ready to use their formidable slam arsenal against many an unlucky whitetail buck. There may be no PING here, but Field Dressed have that big bass end on lock. Expect some MASSIVE bass drops, a groove so consistent you could set your watch by it, and even a tasteful guide to the 1935 Oklahoma deer hunting season. It may scare off the deer if you try jamming it in the stand, though. To quote Redman, “bobyahed2dis.”

FFO: Diphenylchloroarsine, Extermination Dismemberment, Parasitic Ejaculation

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Have you ever wanted to chill out while also listening to brutal deathcore? Before 2021, I would have said, “What the fuck are you talking about? Why are you in my house? Why are you wearing my pants on your head?” but then the intruder showed me Disfiguring the Goddess’ landmark Sooth EP, and I immediately thanked him before shooting him in the groin with a less-than-lethal shell. El Chocolate Grande has upped himself yet again on his follow-up to that EP, and to me, this one is even more fascinating than the original. 

For those who don’t know, Mr. Chocolate (aka Cam Argon) is also a respected EDM DJ, and has of late been bringing some of the sonic palette that he acquired there into his hitherto strictly brutal output. Here, it’s almost like he’s layering deathcore into vaporwave. There’s some delightfully intricate drum patterns in play as well, the sort of thing that would catch you off kilter if you weren’t strangely kind of blissed. Simply captivating stuff.

FFO: I Declare War, Dripping, Macintosh Plus

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The long-standing rois de grindcore (broyercoeur?) Quebecois are back, and they brought every bit of that Northern thunder on their new EP. This is grindcore at what I feel to be its platonic ideal: mostly blasts with a tasteful smattering of d-beats and two-steps, guitars that actually riff (just very fast), songs that are long enough to be songs but short enough to be grind, and vocals that actually sound like late ‘80s Lee Dorian. Sprinkle in some crunchy production that’s clean enough to emphasize all elements but grimy enough to feel truly primal and you got yourself an absolute winner of a grindcore album. Absolutely perfect for a half hour on the treadmill or making a getaway from a bank robbery.

FFO: early Brutal Truth, Phobia, Deterioration

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Trichomoniasis are a revelation of brutal deathgrind, and an instant member of the “avant-garde brutal death hierarchy.” And of course this means that they have the PING cornered: that snare head is clearly begging for its life as the band pushes it to the absolute limit. Trichomoniasis doesn’t so much play “riffs” as it plays “blurriffs,” the guitarists taking only but a few seconds here and there between finger-shatteringly dextrous displays of absolute brutality. You’ll find little in the way of groove here, this is an album for shaking violently, hostility absolutely unrestrained by any adherence to a beat other than the fastest blasts. Even their long songs do not let up, and it is a true testament to the band’s musicianship that they can endure their level of play for up to four minutes at a time where other, mortal bands would tap out after one. Approach this one with the utmost respect!

FFO: Effluence, Encenathrakh, Last Days of Humanity

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This is the most brutal album released in 2023, bar none. Every single fucking element of what I want to hear in music in general and in death metal in particular is right here: a snare that PINGS relentlessly, blast beats where snare and kick unite rather than fight and leave you speechless, guitars that chug fast, precise, and deep, gutturals that push the limits of the human ability to gurgle, top-notch musicianship that isn’t afraid to groove or riff or shred, a surprising amount of dungeon synth-y atmosphere (particularly on the last track) and production that allows you to become buried in every single instrument. Agonal Hymns is punishing in ways that 99% of the records released this year could never be: the intro of “Wreathed in Sores” in particular will disconnect both sides of your brain. It was a real devil of a choice for first place between Nithing and Trichomoniasis, but Nithing is lethal and pulverizing and catchy and sometimes truly alien-sounding and goddamn it it was love at first listen. NONE. MORE. BRUTAL.

FFO: Brodequin, Disgorge, Malignancy

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