![Aphotic – Abyssgazer [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Aphotic-Abyssgazer-01.jpg.webp)
“Abyssgazer presents as the kind of echoing incantation that must ring through ears from first to last note. No mere synthesis of the acts who fed Aphotic into existence, this sometimes blackened, sometimes funeral doom-weighted, always death metal assembly expresses itself in a peerless manner.” Abyss from a dead rose.
![Wells Valley – Achamoth [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Wells-Valley-Achamoth-01.jpeg)
“When was the last time something supposedly dissonant and avant-garde really gripped you? Maybe it was one of this year’s releases from Blut Aus Nord, Thantifaxath, or Rorcal. Or perhaps you’ve been bored since Obscura. Whichever the case, Achamoth, from Portugal’s Wells Valley has got to rank highly as one of the more arresting examples of extreme metal in recent times.” In the valley of the dark things.
![Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze – The Fractal Ouroboros [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Bull_of_Apis_Bull_of_Bronze-The_Fractal_Ouroboros-768x768.jpeg)
“Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze manages to create a mammoth hour-and-fifteen length that takes its precious time before crushing your soul with calculated second-wave intensity. The swell and lull of its atmosphere has its time and place, thus lending The Fractal Ouroboros its immense but supremely organic feel, each track moving fluidly among its influences and giving each track a unique identity to fuse into the tapestry of the album’s pitch-black palette and atmosphere.” Bull in a delicate shop.
![Victory Over the Sun – Dance You Monster to My Soft Song! [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Victory_Over_the_Sun-Dance_You_Monster_to_My_Soft_Song.jpg.webp)
“Victory Over the Sun is a project of the Portland-based multi-instrumentalist Vivian Tylińska who, along with Jute Gyte’s Adam Kalmbach and Kostnatění’s D.L., represents the diversity and power of the unorthodox take of microtonal black metal. You’ll find Tylińska is more inspired by Liturgy than Darkthrone, touches upon Kayo Dot more than Mayhem, actualizing a more triumphant and avant-garde take on black metal – although her more blackened passages are nothing short of vicious.” Wictory in black.
![Kalmah – Kalmah [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/a1740768079_0-768x768.jpeg)
“I’ve seen surprisingly little hype about Kalmah’s self-titled album. It hasn’t popped up on mainstream end-of-year lists. Alongside bands like Children of Bodom, Kalmah held the reins of Finnish melodic death metal in the early 2000s. Blending blistering melodic riffs with prominent synths, Kalmah defined their sound twenty years ago and has reveled in it ever since. Emerging five years after Palo, Kalmah’s self-titled shows them doing what they do best.” Kalmah down!
![Massen – Gentle Brutality [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Massen_GentleBrutality_01-768x768.jpg)
“If you know me—and most of you should by now—you know that I love bands who fearlessly combine multiple genres into one pot. I want to be blown away by their exploratory vigor, dismissing all pretense of genre loyalty with gusto. Give me something that challenges my advanced ability to categorize and compartmentalize, and you are likely to garner an instant fan. Enter Massen, a Belarusian/German Frankenstein monster who unleashed one of the best records of the year, Gentle Brutality.” Polite hooligans.
![Johnny Booth – Moments Elsewhere [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Johnny_Booth-Moments_Elsewhere.jpg)
“The phrase “metalcore” strikes fear in the hearts of the most hardened metal fans. Breakdowns and faux badassery collide in the most listenable shit this side of the pond. New York DIY metalcore abusers in Johnny Booth know this. While yes, there are breakdowns, one-liners, and enough technical wankery to make a Converge fan drool, every element is weaponized to the full extent to accomplish an unhinged and vicious quality.” Core support.
![Theophonos – Nightmare Visions [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/a4256426977_0-768x768.jpeg)
“Nightmare Visions is a blackened grindcore debut from Michigan’s Theophonos, the brainchild of Jimmy Hamzey (Serpent Column). If that genre label sounds unappetizing, don’t let that deter you. Theophonos took every hard rock and metal song released since 1967, crammed them all into a woodchipper, and assembled the mangled output into a blackened 30-minute hydra. Miraculously, it works.” NightmareER!!
![Omnerod – The Amensal Rise [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Omnerod_TheAmnesalRise_01-2048x2048.jpg.webp)
“Sometimes a record takes its sweet time worming its way into my brain. Other times, a record drills into me with the immediacy of a bolt of lightning. Omnerod’s sophomore full-length, The Amnesal Rise, did a little bit of both to me in 2023. Released back in May, this immense, intense slab of dramatic progressive death metal slowly crept into my skin, but the infection it carried was virulent. I found myself feverishly affected by its horrific tale, and while it took me a while before I returned, once I did, there was no escape.” Bugs on a balloon.
![Dystopia A.D. – Doomsday Psalm [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/a2561097949_10.jpg.webp)
“Boy, did we miss this one. I reviewed Dystopia A.D.’s Rise of the Merciless back in 2020 and very nearly awarded the band a 4.0. I chanced upon that review doomscrolling through my writing history and was struck with curiosity whether anything else was in the pipeline. But no, the pipeline had already shat out a very fine self-produced album in early December, polished by the artwork of the ever-productive Adam Burke no less.” Missing Dystopia.
