It’s a bold move to release an 80-minute album, particularly when also pivoting one’s sound, but Bees Made Honey In The Vein Tree have evolved in style. The lumbering stoner doom of 2019’s Grandmother has been taken into psychedelic and atmospheric directions on Aion, at several moments spilling over into post-metal, and the ebb and flow of the songs here is incredibly well structured. As they move from trudging mammoth riffs to tense atmospheric builds or hazy melodic psychedelia, Bees Made Honey In The Vein Tree remain completely in control of the listener’s attention, causing those 80 minutes to magically disappear.

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What do you do when you’ve got the blues for murder only? You seek sanctuary in your local branch of the Church Of Misery. Japan’s premier doomsayers kept us waiting for a little while there, but evil never dies, as they say, and there are still murders yet unsung. Born Under A Mad Sign lurches into view with a warped, warty, groaning stagger that’s as ugly as the heinous crimes it chronicles: when the only constant member and main songwriter is the bassist, you ought to expect that he’d grow comfortable taking center stage, and Tatsu Mikami is not one to shy away from his responsibility to shake the listener’s bones loose. Mikami isn’t the only founder on deck this time around, though: original vocalist Kazuhiro Asaeda returns to lay down his first gravelly bellows with the Church since the very late-released semi-debut, Vol. 1, and the result of this new lineup is a gruesome chemistry that hasn’t been heard in a little while. Stoner metal is not known for its rigid adherence to standards of personal hygiene, but even with all this competition Born Under A Mad Sign is still one of the filthiest albums you're liable to hear all year.

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With now four albums under their belt, Domkraft have firmly established their sound, one that slots nicely into the stoner metal scene while also distinguishing itself from the more generic bands. The group’s use of psychedelia to add a hazy texture around the towering riffs and exquisite guitar solos adds a lot of character, and the long songs on Sonic Moons exhibit patience and growth, evolving in jam-like fashion and conjuring a lurking sense of tension as they wind their way through their convoluted journeys.

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Green Yeti are stoned out of their minds and aren't worried about a damn thing. And why should they be? They're delivering some of the best stoner sounds of the year and making it look so, so easy. Throughout Necropolitan, Green Yeti rely on catchy choruses and fun lyrics, delivered by unpolished, lazily adolescent-sounding vocals that convey raw emotion and add an extra layer of charm to the band. Amidst the psychedelic, fuzzy atmosphere, the thick, meaty bass guitar plays a prominent and especially satisfying role. Within the maelstrom of frenzied guitar-work, the patient, groovy bass acts as a strongly fastened guideline, leading the listener through the murky stoner haze.

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Clandestine Cuts alumni Håndgemeng have matured in style on their debut album, Ultraritual. The merging of harsh, barked vocals from Martin Wennberg with slick desert riffs at times brings Håndgemeng’s fellow Norwegians Kvelertak to mind, but the delightful guitar work takes the sound to another level, from AC/DC-style lead guitar riffs through to Elder-esque psychedelic jamming. Occasional ventures into doom and sludge further expand the range of Ultraritual; it is this variety, along with the intrinsically high quality of Håndgemeng’s songwriting, that elevates their debut full-length above the crowd in the saturated stoner rock/metal scene.

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Mellow Australian psychedelic/stoner rockers Khan have crafted something quite enchanting with Creatures. As might be expected from that genre, there’s big fuzzy riffs and lush downtime in the vein of acts such as King Buffalo, but the execution on this album is remarkable. The band use solos sparingly but incredibly effectively, and their longer jam-style sequences can be enthralling, with psychedelic soundscaping reminiscent of acts such as Weedpecker; at the same time, when they need to bring the noise, the riffs come crashing in with aplomb.

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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is the absolute worst nightmare for an awards like this: they release enough albums in a given year to fill up their own category, and they’re all great, and they’re all impossible to categorize. 2023 was actually a pretty lean year for the psychedelic sextet, this being one of only two studio albums, but it definitely came with enough title for seven or eight, and it delivered on the final promise with gusto: even at the last minute, we had this album down to either Stoner or Thrash, two subgenres so entirely opposite that being so torn between them seems like a joke. Ultimately, labels are not really the crucial point here, but you can bet that ProntoDigestive Alpacas; Or, Dan Of Eternal Spite: An Agglomeration Of Plangent Arse And The Begrudging Of Merkel-less Deutschnation is as trippy a trip as anything King Gizz has yet churned out: crunchy guitar tone, equally crunchy vocals, and a spaced-out focus on cool vibes, but with the breakneck pace, frenetic riffing, and aggressive heaviness of thrash. It’s generally and characteristically weird and worth every year it takes to pronounce its name.

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One of the finest releases to ever grace Clandestine Cuts has been expanded into one of the strongest debuts on 2023. Meridian Sun took their time in turning The Curse, the 22-minute single-song EP, into The Curse, the album; however, the stellar title track, a unique odyssey of progressive stoner doom, has been given two worthy companions on the tracklist. Bands that offer some point of reference for Meridian Sun include Elder and OHHMS, but the grit of the band at their heaviest, and the grandeur of them at their most epic, are just some of the ways in which Meridian Sun announce themselves as firmly having their own distinctive identity on The Curse.

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Rezn’s previous album, Chaotic Divine, featured both crunching stoner doom and atmospheric psychedelia; their follow-up record, Solace, arguably leans more towards the latter. Solace is still a very heavy album when it wants to be, with passages in the vein of acts such as Windhand, but significant portions of the album are dedicated to protracted, elaborately textured music that borders on drone, and Rezn pull off this sound remarkably well here. The expansiveness of the music on Solace is fitting for the epic landscape depicted on its cover, and Rezn take listeners on quite the journey across this album.

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A lot of stoners love Tool, but not many stoner metal bands really tap into them as a source of inspiration. On their debut album, Moonsplitter, Stone Of Duna take on board influence from Tool, which comes through in complex alt-metal riffing that slots into their progressive stoner style, as well as other bands from this musical sphere; Soundgarden also likely provided some inspiration during the writing of Moonsplitter, particularly with the Chris Cornell edge to Marcus Brattberg’s voice. These alt elements add a lot to what is already an effective stoner metal backbone, one that is equally willing to rock out hard as it is to venture off into entrancing instrumental jams.

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