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

      View entire list ››

1.Ulthar - Anthronomicon

2.Ulthar - Helionomicon

3.Acausal Intrusion - Panpsychism

4.Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium

5.Convocation - No Dawn For The Caliginous Night

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

1.Hanging Garden - The Garden

2.Katatonia - Sky Void Of Stars

3.Obituary - Dying Of Everything

4.Runemagick - Beyond The Cenotaph Of Mankind

5.Dødheimsgard - Black Medium Current

      View entire list ››

1.VoidCeremony - Threads Of Unknowing

2.Dødheimsgard - Black Medium Current

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

4.Lunar Chamber - Shambhallic Vibrations

5.Sól Án Varma - Sól Án Varma

      View entire list ››

My very subjective ranking of all heard metal and metal-adjacent albums 2023.

1.Fleshvessel - Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed

2.Liturgy - 93696

3.Dead Times - Dead Times

4.Vvon Dogma I - The Kvlt Of Glitch

5.Agriculture - Agriculture

      View entire list ››

1.Insomnium - Anno 1696

2.Nospūn - Opus

3.Katatonia - Sky Void Of Stars

4.Ironmaster - Weapons Of Spiritual Carnage

5.Sleep Token - Take Me Back To Eden

      View entire list ››

1.Thantifaxath - Hive Mind Narcosis

2.Gravenchalice - Messiah

3.Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

4.Fleshvessel - Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed

5.Hasard - Malivore

      View entire list ››

1.Amorphis - Queen Of Time - Live At Tavastia 2021

2.Riverside - ID.Entity

3.Ne Obliviscaris - Exul

4.Finsterforst - Jenseits

5.Paradise Lost - Icon 30

      View entire list ››

Pretty much everything I’ve listened to this year, let me know what I’ve missed and what you’ve found and cheers to 2024 being even better 🍻

Check out my seven favorite album covers that I’ve looked at so many times this year, they’re fucking awesome:















Here’s a link to some of my favorite songs from the year, max 2 per album: Best Songs of 2023

1.Silent Planet - Superbloom

2.Sermon - Of Golden Verse

3.Voice Of Baceprot - Retas

4.Bees Made Honey In The Vein Tree - Aion

5.TesseracT - War Of Being

      View entire list ››

Same deal as always - scenes if I somehow manage to break the 1200-album record I hit last year

1.Sermon - Of Golden Verse

2.Ne Obliviscaris - Exul

3.Fvnerals - Let The Earth Be Silent

4.Enslaved - Heimdal

5.Moonreich - Amer

      View entire list ››

So here are some Brutal, Technical, Progressive and sometimes Atmospheric death metal works I enjoy or that I believe should be given a try because they're unique and interesting, almost an essentials list when it comes to that style. There are some unorthodox choices as well in the mix that aren't just full-on tech death, some bands also incorporate grind, black, core elements or even jazz. Hope you'll all find something that suits your taste! The list is ordered by years. Feel free to comment and give recommendations! Just refrain from telling me an album shouldn't be featured here... All the albums here are deliberately hand-picked and if it made the list, it's for a reason.

Personal absolute favorites of mine have a ★ beside the genre. And my pics of best album for each year are identified by (best of xxxx) beside the albums.

🇨🇦 = From Canada, My Country! We're quite good at Technical and Brutal Death Metal... Trust me. I mean, you'll see for yourself.

-Guib-

- - - - - - - - - - -

Guib's Best Tech/Brutal/Prog Death Metal Album Picks

Best Of 2023:
The Zenith Passage - Datalysium

Best of 2024 So Far:
Exist - Hijacking The Zeitgeist

- - - - - - - - - - -

TAGS: Technical Death Metal, Melodic Tech-Death, Brutal, Atmospheric, Progressive, Blackened Tech-Death, Technical Thrash, Deathgrind, Deathcore, Symphonic, Dissonant Tech-Death, Experimental, Avantgarde, Grindcore, Jazz

Last Updated: May 7th, 2024

1.Atheist - Piece Of Time

2.Nocturnus - The Key

3.Atrocity - Hallucinations

4.Death - Human

5.Suffocation - Effigy Of The Forgotten

      View entire list ››