Best Of 2023: The best songs of 2023

As is customary for almost any musical medium, the time of year comes when it is convenient to look back and review everything that has been released in 2023 to take stock of all the good and bad that the current year has left us. Over the next few days we will be publishing these lists in which we will review the most important release and those that we liked the most, today it is the turn of the best metal songs that have been released in 2023 .

This time we have decided not to make a list following a specific order, so we will not list the releases in a ranking, it is just a compilation of all those that we liked the most in no apparent order.

Vagrant In The Chamber Of The Night (Valdrin)

The melodic black metal project Valdrin was born in 2010 when Dawn Of Wolves decided to change the name we know today. Since their formation they have released four studio albums to date, the most recent of which is Throne Of The Lunar Soul which came out at the end of November via Blood Harvest records. Vagrant In The Chamber Of Night is the seventh song on the album, a perfect combination between the darkest black metal and the greatness of the melodies that serve as accompaniment and that give this song great epicness.

True English Black Metal (Heathen Deity)

Despite having been active for many years, the British black metal band Heathen Deity only has one studio album to date: True English Black Metal (2021). The band led by vocalist Dagon – a member of Frostwork, Thornland, and former member of Hecate Enthroned and Ravnkald – has undergone several lineup changes over the years although since 2016 it seems to have found some stability with guitarist Forst, the bassist Nihil and drummer Stigma, with guitarist Vaelgrimm being the last member to join the band in 2022. The song in question, the one that gives title to their debut album, is a re-recorded version of the one that already appears in their opera first but this time it features the current line-up and also twice as it is accompanied by a live version recorded in Nottingham last year. Pure and uncompromising black metal, what one would expect from a single with a goat on the cover.

I’m also cheating twice, I have selected a song already published in 2021 and I also leave you a video of a complete performance by Heathen Deity in Derby (2023):

Outsider (Night Demon)

I already said it previously in the 2023 album list, Night Demon‘s third full-length is a true raw gem that only strengthens the solid proposal of the trio led by Jarvis Leatherby. The title song of the album itself is also the best on the album, a clean and direct heavy metal that delivers what it promises. One of Jarvis‘s best vocal works that also features a very intense guitar solo by his bandmate Armand John Anthony.

Path Of Fierce Resistence / The Defiant One (The Halo Effect)

Okay, time to cheat again. Since The Halo Effect hasn’t released any album in 2023 and if it had it would be in my TOP3 releases of the year, I allow myself to select the two new songs that they have released in 2023 without any type of remorse. Yes, they are two of the best songs that have been release this year and although my idea was to select only one for each band and album, this one has been very difficult for me. While Path Of Fierce Resistance is a song that In Flames could have written during the 90s, The Defiant One is something that Dark Tranquillity could have included on any of their albums to date. That is the advantage of having a project like The Halo Effect, it is a band with its own identity that also plays with the advantage of having members of the aforementioned bands and, therefore, offering what we like so much. We all win.

Guns For Hire (Tailgunner)

It seems that Tailgunner has managed to garner the well-deserved praise that their debut album Guns For Hire deserves, that’s something its members have earned in their own right. Although it has not finally been included in our list of the best albums of 2023, I feel obliged to include the title song of the album itself as one of the strongest of the genre published in 2023. Catchy choruses, sharp guitars, the most powerful drums and very aggressive bass make Guns For Hire an essential song of 2023.

Pilgrimage To Oblivion (Ihsahn)

The great Ihsahn is one of the most talented musicians on the scene worldwide, a true visionary who has not only taken black metal beyond the limits established with Emperor but has also explored other territories during his solo career. This year he has not only delighted us with one of the best EPs of 2023, such as Fascination Street Sessions, but he has also given us two of the best songs he has composed throughout his more than three decades in the business: Pilgrimage To Oblivion and Twice Born. Not only has he managed to combine the greatness of orchestral music in both songs, but he has also accompanied both releases with his orchestral versions, which makes the Norwegian musician’s compositions even greater.

Chaos Masked As Order (End Reign)

It has not been a particularly full year for a genre as tainted as thrash metal, however there is the odd album that is saved from burning and balances the balance in some way. The case of End Reign is one of the latter that I mention, and the Baltimore quintet made up of members of many other well-known bands has debuted this year with an excellent thrash crossover album with overtones of the most authentic metalcore such as The Way Of All Flesh Is Decay, being Chaos Masked As Order one of the greatest exponents of a superlative album in which everything is in its place, perfectly balanced.

Summits (Borknagar)

The Norwegian supergroup led by Øystein G. Brun and ICS Vortex, one of the longest-running bands on the scene whose labels they have pursued over the years remains at the same time one of the most unclassifiable bands in history. Their music sounds like Borknagar, a combination of all the elements that make their proposal unique, having explored as many genres as they could, great proof of this is reflected in two of their best albums to date: Winter Thrice (2016) and True North (2019). Four years after his last release, Borknagar returns to his roots with the song Summits, a hybrid between his first albums The Olden Domain (1997) or Quintessence (2000) and the more recent ones that I mentioned above.

Unshackle Me (Enforcer)

Each Enforcer release is an event that I usually celebrate in style since it is one of the bands that I have grown with since I discovered their debut album Into The Night when it was released in 2008. In these fifteen years I have grown and Enforcer He has also done it by my side, that is something that few bands could boast of in my life. This year, however, I have not been able to include their most recent album Nostalgia in my list of albums for 2023 and it is something that hurts me, but they set the bar so high with From Beyond (2015) and the powerful Zenith (2019) that I have not could see Nostalgia as the worthy successor to the aforementioned albums. However, there are several songs on this album that I find very authentic and one of them is the tough Unshackle Me.

Kratos (Infinitas)

As a fan of video games, one of those who more than two decades ago sought a life to play games without guides or the Internet, I could not leave out of this list the powerful Kratos from the Swiss Infinitas. The folk/heavy metal quartet from Schwyz has two solid studio albums to their credit, Civitas Interitus (2017) and Infernum (2019), although with the entry of vocalist Mary Crane in 2021 and violinist Savannah Childers in 2019 They seem to have managed to find a stability that in 2023 has resulted in the release of two powerful singles: Kratos and Xana. In my case, as a fan of the Santa Monica Studio video game franchise, the powerful Kratos has been the one that has earned a special place in my heart.

Stormcrow (Necrophobic)

The latest single from the legendary Necrophobic follows in the wake of their previous and great album Dawn Of The Damned, which also serves as an appetizer to their long-awaited new album In The Twilight Gray that will be released in March 2024 via Century Media Records. This is where death and black metal go hand in hand, with the successful formula of Necrophobic as a safe bet, with very fast drums and harsh, cutting riffs, with the powerful and cavernous voice of its undisputed frontman Anders Strokirk.

Obliquity Of The Ecliptic (Blood Incantation)

After Timewave Zero, many of us were wondering what the next step in Blood Incantation‘s career would be. The answer was quite simple, almost without prior notice the Luminiscent Bridge EP was released, composed of two new songs with a duration of almost twenty minutes in which its four members return to the death metal fold that characterized their first releases. Both singles are as devastating as they are mandatory listening, but I prefer Obliquity Of The Ecliptic for its sick atmosphere of dark death metal with hints of progressive that only Blood Incantation is capable to deliver.

We Navigate (Frostbite Orckings)

I know that many of you will not agree with my choice, I myself have seriously considered what to do with Frostbite Orckings since, so to speak, there are no musicians playing the instruments. Anyway, even though Frostbite Orckings is a AI-generated band, there is a real person behind the project and I am sure that he is in charge of supervising and ordering what he wants the AI ​​to compose, so the point goes to Stefan Schmidt (Heavatar, Van Canto). Likewise, We Navigate is an anthem that leaves us in 2023 and that no one should overlook. What’s more, I think that if you did the experiment of playing this song to someone without telling them that it was generated by an AI, they would never guess that there was no one playing those instruments.

Overworld (Scar Symmetry)

I already said it in my previous list of best releases of 2023, Scar Symmetry‘s latest album is easily in my TOP3 of the year. Much of the blame lies with Overworld, one of the best songs that the band led by drummer Henrik Ohlsson has composed to date. What I like most beyond the catchy guitar riff is how perfectly balanced the clean voices of Lars Palmqvist and the gutturals of Roberth Karlsson are, I think it is a most elaborate work that also leaves us with one of the best songs of the year as a result.

Flammen (Vreid)

Windir‘s legacy remains more alive than ever thanks to Vreid, a band that has not only had to deal with the great weight of being the successor to its previous project but has also had to distance itself from it to offer something unique that its members have managed to achieve in the almost two decades that they have been active. Formed by bassist Hváll, drummer Steingrim and vocalist and guitarist Sture Dingsøyr, all of them ex-members of Windir, guitarist Strom (Mistur, ex-Ulcus and ex-Windir) completes the line-up of the Norwegian project that currently has nine studio albums. Flammen, one of the only two singles released in 2023, could well have been part of the band’s excellent last album to date, Wild North West, but this leads us to think about what the future holds. If the next album is only half as good as the last, we won’t have any complaints.

Don’t Be Lazy (Austrian Death Machine)

I had no hope that vocalist Tim Lambesis‘ Austrian Death Machine project would ever return. Although his third album was released after the musician had entered prison, the project has remained inert since Lambesis left prison in 2016 while As I Lay Dying has remained active after his return. of its vocalist. In October, the new song No Pain No Gain was released almost by surprise and it was announced that the fourth studio album Quad Brutal would be released in February 2024. The aforementioned Don’t Be Lazy is the second single released to date and despite which differs greatly from the original Austrian Death Machine albums and is closer to the sound of As I Lay Dying, it still seems like an absolute outrageous song to me.

Black Mountain (Orbit Culture)

Descent is one of the best albums I’ve heard in recent years and a lot of the blame lies with Black Mountain. The heartbreaking riff and the powerful drums accompanied by a more than successful production make this song one of the strongest of the year, with amazing tempo changes. I liked the three most recent singles from Orbit Culture a lot but next to Descent they pale a bit. Here everything is in its place, the Swedes have hit the right buttons and have found the key to their proposal.

Morgöth Tales (Voivod)

I couldn’t miss a good dose of one of my favorite Canadian bands. Voivod was celebrating four decades on the road in 2023 and to celebrate they wanted to recover some of their forgotten songs to re-record them with the current lineup. They have also composed a song like Morgöth Tales to commemorate their four decades of history and it is just what one would expect from Voivod. If you didn’t get enough of Synchro Anarchy, you’re already taking a while to listen to this album.

Hungry For Your Insides (Sanguisugabogg)

Death metal fans are in luck since in 2023 they have been able to enjoy the release of the highly anticipated second album by the Ohio-based Sanguisugabogg, one of the greatest promises of the genre in recent years. Homicidal Ecstasy is not a perfect album but its members are more than aware of it and have been able to exploit the most perverse side of their proposal thanks to songs like Necrosexual Deviant or Testicular Rot, although I particularly like the hilarious and casually grotesque Hungry For Your Insides.

Forbidden Storm (W.E.B.)

Despite the gruesome cover art that accompanies the EP, Greeks W.E.B. (Where Everything Begun) have managed to deliver a colossal symphonic black metal release such as Into Hell Fire We Burn, released at the end of October via Metal Blade Records. My favorite is the aforementioned Forbidden Storm but I must say that each of the songs that give life to the EP is worth it. Perhaps Clamor Luna Orchestram is the heaviest since it is an instrumental song of almost 14 minutes but don’t let that hold you back since for the end they have left one of the biggest surprises of the release, a cover of Non Serviam by their compatriots Rotting Christ.