Ba'al

Timely as ever, a few of us have selected our album highlights from last year. Read on to see our picks, and listen to one track from each release in the Spotify playlist below.

Chris – Guitar

I listened to a lot of albums this year, in an (ultimately futile) attempt to dislodge Nick from his “most music consumed” throne within Ba’al. The final tally was 207 albums released in 2023, and 254 that were new to me overall – and quite frankly, that’s far too much music to keep track of, so I won’t be doing it again! It starts to reduce listening down to a tick-box exercise, about gathering data for the sake of it rather than actually trying to achieve anything, so this coming year I’m just going to listen to whatever I feel like and make notes about any particularly good albums I come across. All that said, here are the 5 best albums I heard from 2023:

5. The Ocean – Holocene

If I ever do an AOTY list in a year when the Ocean have released a new album, and they’re not on that list, please check whether I’m being held hostage by ne’er-do-wells. As is well established, probably my favourite band, and one of the most consistent groups out there – their quality level never dips below “great”, and Holocene continues that trend. It’s not as riff-heavy or guitar-focused as previous albums (which was an intentional choice) but it retains their lyricism, their experimentalist tendencies and their penchant for big atmospheres.

4. Wounds of Recollection – Warm Glow of the End of Everything

Starting off with some tinkly, almost Christmas-like chimes, this album very quickly unfurls into an absolutely gorgeous slice of blackgaze, with lush, shimmering chords and tremolo sections over anguished vocals. It calls back to the more shoegaze-y bits of Deafheaven for me, which is very much a compliment – I have a limited tolerance for atonal black metal where everything sounds the same, so the variety and melody on show here is very welcome. The whole album feels suffused with warmth and light in a way that really lifts my spirit.

3. Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan – The Nation’s Most Central Location

“Melancholic brutalism” is probably my best description of this – an album of electronica with an incredibly specific sense of time and location. It evokes the brutalist attitude to town building in 1970s UK in a way that I can’t really articulate – the album name and cover do a lot of the lifting on that, but you can feel it in the music. My listening notes say: “Experimental electronica about the collapse of the ‘New Town’ in England – wistful with an undercurrent of anger at our current concrete dystopia” which I still think sums it up pretty perfectly.

2. Hellish Form – Deathless

This album kind of reminds me in places of Sojourner, who I absolutely love. Big, epic, atmospheric doom-death, with towering walls of crashing distortion that envelop you in sound. It has that feeling of a soundtrack from a far off (horrible) land, which is definitely helped by the Blasphemous-esque cover artwork. Put it on, turn it up, lose yourself in a world of big chords, mournful leads and screaming. Bliss.

1. Gunship – Unicorn

This ran away with my number one slot pretty much from the second listen. It’s just an incredibly polished record, in a way that really works for the style of music on display – beefy, bouncy synthwave rock with soaring choruses and a staggeringly deep list of guest vocalists. I dare you to listen to ‘Empress of the Damned’ and not get the hook stuck in your brain – real “put it on in the car and sing along as loud as you can” stuff. Highly, highly recommended.

Richard – Bass

This year I listened to 134 albums, which is a strikingly high number for me and meant I couldn’t whittle my list lower than a top 40… The closest runners up for my top ten were Panopticon, Nightmarer, FVNERALS, Torpor, Steven Wilson, Periphery, Föllakzoid, Mitski, Rorcal and ТДК. As for the agonised-over top ten itself…

10. Ostraca – Disaster

Emo/screamo-inflected post metal that also builds in the building-levelling, grim grooves of Amenra. Smash your face on the floor and have a good cry about it.

9. Enslaved – Heimdal

There’s no such thing as a bad Enslaved record, but for me this is the best since the mighty RIITIIR. It’s refreshing for a band now known for being so expansive, proggy and psychedelic to retain such a clear fondness for the straight-up, aggressive and fun black metal riffing of their youth alongside everything else.

8. Austere – Corrosion of Hearts

After a 14-year hiatus, the Australian atmospheric/post-black metal icons have managed to top their previous work with this slab of hypnotic, emotive power. Apparently another new album is already coming next year, too, so that’s nice, isn’t it.

7. Daughter – Stereo Mind Game

Not to be pluralised and confused with the noise rock band ruined by that abusive wanker, Daughter trade in much prettier, dreamier textures, plus just plain superb songwriting. It’s the real attention to detail in the production and their ear for an absolutely magnetic, emotional yet understated hook that makes this one a winner.

6. Harboured – Harboured

You know when a band just do a genre pretty straightforwardly but absolutely fucking nail it? Harboured have done just that with post metal on their pleasingly succinct debut. Cult of Luna grooves, Mastodon energy, The Ocean melodies, and just an unstoppable force of riff and texture.

5. Hasard – Malivore

You know when a band just do a genre in a way that sounds totally fucking alien and unlike anything else? Hasard have done just that with black metal on their first album since shortening their name from Les Chants du Hasard. It’s the modern classical keyboards and strings that take these already avant-garde compositions into a completely other realm, and it’s a whole world of melodrama all its own.

4. Telos – Delude

The midpoint between Amenra and Fronteirer that I never knew I needed. I have to thank Nick for alerting me to this absolute monster of aggression, because itreally hits the spot when it comes to pummelling groove with a chaotic edge and an unrelenting nastiness.

3. Sci-Clone – Radio Therapy – Pt. 1

Jazzy drum’n’bass powered by organic instrumentation, good vibes and shiny production. It’s like if someone took Louis Cole’s energy and melodic sensibility but smoothed it all out into a polished, serene but still endlessly uplifting, groovy package that is impossible not to nod along to.

2. Ne Obliviscaris – Exul

There was a lot of discussion in the Ba’al chat over the course of 2023 about the bizarre bass tone on this album, which is unreasonably twangy and sticks out like a sore thumb. However, such is the strength of the songwriting (and my existing love of some NeO of old) that even that couldn’t stop me having Exul on repeat. As well as being the best bunch of songs they’ve written since their debut, it’s the real step up in string arrangements that made this one stick for me, with Tim Charles really expanding into multiple layers of violin that were a very timely inspiration for our own new material.

1. Model/Actriz – Dogsbody