Our resident King of Enthusiasm and Trad Metal has much wisdom to share and it has been summarized and bullet-pointed in his Top Ten(ish) of 2023 for those of you who weren’t paying attention all year! Listurnalia rolls on, ever more refined.
Enforced
Heavy Moves Heavy 2023 – AMG’s Ultimate Workout Playlist
Do you even lift, brah? If so, we have the soundtrack to your bumper plate annihilation. Grow or die at the AMG exercise vault.
GraveRipper – Seasons Dreaming Death Review
“When I saw the beautiful artwork for Seasons Dreaming Death, the debut album from Indianapolis thrashers GraveRipper, I had high hopes that it would inject some spice into my love affair with the riff, and when I discovered that GraveRipper’s members have been involved with projects sporting distinguished names like Partiac Arrest and Car Door Dick Smash, I figured that I was in store for a good time. Let’s see if these guys managed to leave me satisfied and smiling.” Grave developments.
Systemik Viølence – Negative Mangel Attitude Review
“Punk and metal have a complicated relationship, or at least we treat them like they do. As fans, we like to be something—a metalhead, a punk, a dissobro. As music seekers, we like to have genre guides—punk-born tags like crust, mathcore, grindcore, metal-born tags like doom, death, black, kissing cousins like sludge, thrash, deathcore. And the bands we value tend to play to or play with these expectations. Others eschew the norms of where they’re placed or even fight the idea of being the guitar music we’ve all come to love—but not Systemik Viølence. These Portuguese knuckleheads just wanna play screeching chords, overdriven bass, and venomous vocal lashings loud, fast, and loud.” Feel the wiølence.
Enforced – War Remains Review
“It’s certainly not unusual for me to field accusations of improper scoring around these parts, but, while I usually stand by my assessment of a record long after the review has come and gone, I’m willing to admit that I do occasionally get things wrong. Case in point: Enforced’s 2021 album, Kill Grid. I was initially enamored by that record’s furious hardcore-tinged thrash, and, at the time, a 4.0/5.0 score was a no-brainer. But the intervening years and my countless returns to the album have revealed an inescapable truth: I should have scored it higher. Needless to say, follow-up War Remains approaches the battlefield facing a nearly invincible host of expectations.” Of war crimes and MOAR crimes.
Algebra – Chiroptera Review
“Ask most folks around the world to describe Swiss culture in a word, and I’d bet that “precise” ends up in the top ten most common responses. Switzerland is known for producing precision-made watches, cutlery, and chocolates, and thanks to Coroner’s technical version of the genre, we can probably add precision-made thrash metal to the list. And if we want to emphasize that last point, we need look no further than Swiss thrashers Algebra.” Fast maths.
Misfire – Sympathy for the Ignorant Review
“Sympathy for the Ignorant is ten tracks and 38 minutes of groove-centric thrash metal. Misfire’s sound walks the line between pure thrash and crossover and really doesn’t care which side of the line you want it to stage-dive into. I hear similarities to some of the big-name crossover bands like Enforced and Power Trip.” Thrash til dive.
Holdeneye’s Top Ten(ish) of 2021
Holdeneye picks things up and throws them down, including his Top Ten(ish) of 2021. Ponderous!
Nocturnal – Serpent Death Review
“Of all the things we have reason to bitch and moan about in 2021, whether it be this goddamn pandemic, sports, politics, work, annoying neighbors or whatever frustrating societal issue is pissing you off in these turbulent times, I don’t believe thrash should be on the bitch list. Yes this timeless genre that was a gateway for many folks into the wider realms of metal, has had quite the fruitful year by modern standards. Which brings us to the latest album from unheralded German thrashers Nocturnal, entitled Serpent Death.” Snake Whacking Day.
Rot Away – Nothing is Good Review
“It’s not controversial to say I miss shows. And while it seems there was a brief window where venues were opening back up, it looks like the next opportunity to catch an honest-to-god show won’t be until 2036, when each ticket comes with a complimentary hazmat suit. One thing that has increased my yearning for concerts over the past year and a half isn’t just the pandemic-induced down-tuned drought; it’s also reviewing bands that I know would be an absolute blast to catch live. Even if the score wasn’t particularly high, I can concede just how fun it would be to see that same band tear things up in person. Such is the case with Nothing is Good, the first album from Denmark-based metallic hardcore heathens Rot Away.” Aggressively rotting in a sick world.