Year Currently Covered: 2023

Hey folks! Welcome to the greatly coveted Guib Awards! Instead of creating a list every year, I've decided to make a single one that will change yearly to feature my favorite albums of the past one. So this first iteration will feature albums for 2023!

I will not be covering every genre nor a specific one and I won't limit myself to a single album per genre. It will literally be my absolute favorites of the year currently covered or albums that I listened to a lot more than I'd like to admit, so this won't be as big as my usual lists. Also, I will only cover a maximum of 50 albums, all featured on MS and they will be placed in alphabetical order (of the band's name).

Hope some of you will agree with me, but as always... It doesn't really matter, does it?

Cheers to good music and have fun!

Note: Albums with a "√" are albums I voted for in one of the categories of the last MS awards.

Last Updated: April 15th, 2024

1.Altarage - Worst Case Scenario

2.Baroness - Stone

3.Bloodletter - A Different Kind Of Hell

4.Capra - Errors

5.CauseNeffect - Validation Through Suffering

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Not totally clean, and I had to cut some categories to stay in the 1000 lines limit.

1.

2.Avatar - Dance Devil Dance

3.Avenged Sevenfold - Life Is But A Dream...

4.Code Orange - The Above

5.Death Dealer Union - Initiation

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1.Fires In The Distance - Air Not Meant For Us

2.Insomnium - Anno 1696

3.Fen - Monuments To Absence

4.Godflesh - Purge

5.Incantation - Unholy Deification

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A new list at the end of the year. And as always with the same statistics that might be interesting to you.

This year's numbers:

- 140 albums
- Total points given: 1049,1
- Average score: 7,49/10

- Albums with a score of 7 or above: 81,43%
- Albums with a score of 8 or above: 28,57%
- Albums with a score of 9 or above: 0,71%

- Albums with a score of 5 or below: 1,43%

Nationalities: 33

- USA: 33 - 23,57%
- UK: 10 - 7,14%
- Germany: 9 - 6,43%
- Greece: 9 - 6,43%
- Sweden: 9 - 6,43%
- Brazil: 5 - 3,57%
- France: 5 - 3,57%
- Italy: 5 - 3,57%
- Mexico: 5 - 3,57%
- Norway: 5 - 3,57%
- Belgium: 4 - 2,86%
- Chile: 4 - 2,86%
- Finland: 4 - 2,86%
- Hungary: 4 - 2,86%
- Poland: 4 - 2,86%
- Spain: 4 - 2,86%
- Argentina: 2 - 1,43%
- Canada: 2 - 1,43%
- Cyprus: 2 - 1,43%
- India: 2 - 1,43%
- New Zealand: 2 - 1,43%
- Serbia: 2 - 1,43%
- Bulgaria: 1 - 0,71%
- Colombia: 1 - 0,71%
- Ireland: 1 - 0,71%
- Japan: 1 - 0,71%
- Morocco: 1 - 0,71%
- Puerto Rico: 1 - 0,71%
- Russia: 1 - 0,71%
- Slovenia: 1 - 0,71%
- Switzerland: 1 - 0,71%
- The Netherlands: 1 - 0,71%
- Ukraine: 1 - 0,71%

1.Hmunga - Crimson

2.Wardaemon - Black Metal Wardaemons

3.Elvenking - Reader Of The Runes - Rapture

4.From The Ages - II

5.Popiór - Pomarlisko

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My Personal Favorites From 2023

1.Asinhell - Impii Hora

2.Graveripper - Seasons Dreaming Death

3.Overkill - Scorched

4.Varathron - The Crimson Temple

5.Metal Church - Congregation Of Annihilation

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1.Shylmagoghnar - Convergence

2.Sacred Outcry - Towers Of Gold

3.Fires In The Distance - Air Not Meant For Us

4.Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite

5.Moonlight Sorcery - Horned Lord Of The Thorned Castle

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1.Fires In The Distance - Air Not Meant For Us

2.Thy Catafalque - Alföld

3.Omnerod - The Amensal Rise

4.Ne Obliviscaris - Exul

5.Terminalist - The Crisis As Condition

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1.Dødheimsgard - Black Medium Current

2.Arkona - Kob'

3.Fluisteraars - De Kronieken Van Het Verdwenen Kasteel - II - Nergena

4.Taake - Et Hav Av Avstand

5.Thy Catafalque - Alföld

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Albums i've listened to multiple times that were released this year. Ranking will be made at the end of the year.

1.Baroness - Stone

2.Steven Wilson - The Harmony Codex

3.Riverside - ID.Entity

4.Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite

5.Enslaved - Heimdal

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These are albums that I'm currently enjoying. They may be classics that I'm revisiting or new gems I've recently discovered. (Ordered alphabetically)

- A star (⭐️) denotes a new discovery that I find exceptionally special!
- A flame (🔥) denotes an album that I've heard before, enjoyed, and am revisiting this month!

1.Allochiria - Commotion

2.Arkona - Kob'

3.Astral Tomb - Total Spiritual Death

4.Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

5.Christ Of Kather • Markus Maria Hoff - Das Oldschoolformat Der Zukunft

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1.Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium

2.Graveripper - Seasons Dreaming Death

3.Werewolves - My Enemies Look And Sound Like Me

4.Grand Cadaver - Deities Of Deathlike Sleep

5.Dethklok - Dethalbum IV

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Hey guys! Here are my fav albums of the year so far. Ordered from most to least favorite. You can see a taste shaping up down there (why does this phrase sound wrong?)

Any recommendations?

PS Not every album I've listened to this year has made the list, of course.

1.Moonlight Sorcery - Horned Lord Of The Thorned Castle

2.Nothingness - Supraliminal

3.Atavistia - Cosmic Warfare

4.Mental Cruelty - Zwielicht

5.Non Est Deus - Legacy

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I reckon 735 albums in the first 6 months of this year is a 6-month record I will never match, but let's see how many I get through in Q3 and Q4

1.Bees Made Honey In The Vein Tree - Aion

2.Meridian Sun - The Curse

3.The Gorge - Mechanical Fiction

4.Earthside - Let The Truth Speak

5.Wayfarer - American Gothic

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1.Winterage - Nekyia

2.Winterstorm - Everfrost

3.Vendetta (GER) - Black As Coal

4.Bloodbound - Tales From The North

5.Kataklysm - Goliath

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The most difficult way to create the title for an album may be to try something that is clever and/or funny.

Likewise, making a list of these titles is also not easy as it would be a very subjective task. In order to apply at least some objective criteria, the resulting (alphabetical) list consists of album titles that contain a pun or pun-related word play ( - possibly even independent of how well these titles worked).

Puns (or pun-related word play examples) rely on (1) the different possible meanings of a word or (2) the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.
In addition, this list contains numbers in titles that (3) contribute to the sound of the corresponding word or (4) that fit optically to the written word.

Please feel free to suggest more examples of such album titles for this list, if they fit to one of the criteria 1 – 4 (in order to keep the list in shape).
Still, it would also be interesting, if you could share other clever and/or funny album or song titles in the comments.

1.Acid Witch - Witchtanic Hellucinations

2.Afflicted - Prodigal Sun

3.Alestorm - Seventh Rum Of A Seventh Rum

4.Anthrax - Attack Of The Killer B's

5.Alice Cooper - The Beast Of Alice Cooper

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