"Very good" or above. The top 20 are the best of the year. Everything else ranges from 8 to 9.5 on a "10" scale.

1.Afterbirth - In But Not Of

2.Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite

3.Godthrymm - Distortions

4.Fvnerals - Let The Earth Be Silent

5.Notturno - Inside

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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.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.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

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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

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New releases - albums, EPs and singles

1.Haavard - Haavard

2.Insomnium - Anno 1696

3.Killing Joke - Full Spectrum Dominance

4.Hanging Garden - The Garden

5.Gggolddd - I Let My Hair Grow

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The list has gone back to it's original format: my favorites of the year regrouped and ordered by release date (now earliest at the top). The ranked list thing didn't work out for me in the end.

1.Ahab - The Coral Tombs

2.Beyond The Black - Beyond The Black

3.Crom - The Era Of Darkness

4.Haxprocess - The Caverns Of Duat

5.Obituary - Dying Of Everything

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All 2023 released studio albums I listened to in 2023, ranked from best to worst.

1.Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

2.Crypta - Shades Of Sorrow

3.Vomitory - All Heads Are Gonna Roll

4.Insomnium - Anno 1696

5.Hellripper - Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags

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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

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Another year begins. This time I'm adding Country of origin next to the rating and genre.

1.Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

2.Wayfarer - American Gothic

3.Varathron - The Crimson Temple

4.Hellripper - Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags

5.Shylmagoghnar - Convergence

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Do you know this feeling when you stumble across a random word, and then suddenly that name pops up just about everywhere? That specific term haunting yours truly has long been "Portland, Oregon". It seems to me that every new discovery was founded in Portland, apparently every other album was mastered at Brad Boatright's Audiosiege Studio in Portland, and every single of my favorite bands had, at some point, performed on a stage somewhere in Portland.

In the 1980s, LA was undeniably the world's glam metal capital, alongside with San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal as a counter development. Then we witnessed the death metal boom of the early 90s, with Tampa, Florida as its global hotspot. Not to forget the New York punk and hardcore scene (NYHC), the rise of sludge metal from the swamps of New Orleans during the late 80s, grunge from Seattle gaining mainstream prominence in the early 90s...
Apparently, there has always been a tendency in the US towards rapidly developing, locally restricted music scenes, in whose environment a completely new style or genre could develop in order to have a lasting impact on the global musical landscape within a few years.

So I just had to find out if my mind was playing tricks on me or if Portland really is the current capital of the US for heavy music and extreme metal - hence this list.

Inclusion criteria:
featured on Metal Strom and
established in Portland or
a long-term creative phase in Portland or
still active and currently based in Portland
(that's why Leviathan is here but Lurker Of Chalice isn't)

Only one album (preferably the most recent full-length album) per band.

By the way, according to this article, Portland harbors the highest amount of active metal bands per capita in the US. Quite a surprise, isn't it?

While we are at it, what's your favorite Portland band?

1.Abhorrent Affliction - Forever Will He Reign

2.Acathexis - Acathexis

3.Ænigmatum - Deconsecrate

4.Ævangelist - Dream An Evil Dream III

5.Agalloch - The Serpent & The Sphere

      View entire list ››