If there’s a theme for my favourite music of year, it’s probably ‘the return of the mid-2000s’ as a few of my childhood favourites return. But as always, there’s the underlying theme of ‘I hope you like heavy metal’. And if you do, check out Cast Iron, which will return in early 2024 – but there’s a great back catalogue waiting for you right now!
11. Mega Drive – 200Xad
As a professional communicator, I spend a lot of time listening to music to support focused work, but often prefer music without lyrics when I’m writing (copy editing in a rush is a job for metal). The Apple Music ‘BEATstrumentals’ playlist is great for deep work, and I also enjoy electronic music – particularly the downtempo delights of Hello Meteor, synthwave, and darkwave, the latter of which you may have heard while playing Hotline Miami back in the day.
Mega Drive records the kind of music you’d hear in Tech Noir before being murdered by the Terminator or while running through Neo LA, stalked by replicants. It’s got a dirty, cyberpunk feel that uses noise generators and synths to sound like the screams of tortured androids in ‘Mnemonic Head Trip’ or the warbling of tears in rain on ‘Code Walker’. Every Mega Drive album sounds similar – although none of it sounds like it has been recorded on a Mega Drive, that’s Savaged Regime – and yet they all have their own distinct personality. There’s no bad place to start: jack in and embrace the sweet nightmare of the mainframe.
10. Kalmah – Kalmah
A self-titled album that’s not a debut record is often a statement of reinvention or rejuvenation. In the case of Kalmah, it’s neither: they’ve had a remarkably consistent career of swampy extreme power metal, even as their release schedule has slowed in recent years. This is an almost relentless procession of hooks and earworms, from the opening one-two punch of ‘Haunted by Guilt’ and ‘Veil of Sin’ through to back-half banger ‘Red and Black’. There’s little time for slowing down except ‘No Words Sad Enough’ – is this the first Kalmah power ballad? – and the mid-tempo epic finale of ‘Drifting in a Dream’. This is old school metal at its finest. See you in another five years?
9. Unearth – The Wretched; The Ruinous
I’ve found Unearth hard to get into: there are usually a few great tracks on every album (and ‘Zombie Autopilot’ is one of the best metalcore riffs ever written) but the consistency isn’t there, and when they lean towards the ‘core and away from the metal, that’s out of my taste zone and I start to lose interest.
The Wretched; The Ruinous (bonus points for the semicolon in the title, my favourite punctuation mark) gets its hooks into me from the first track and never lets go. It leans heavily into the ‘melodic’ part of melodic metalcore, taking inspiration from classic Gothenburg bands like In Flames and Dark Tranquillity, but not so far that they lose their identity completely (which you’ll hear on ‘Broken Arrow’ and ‘Theatres of War’). It’s also got a feeling of urgency and ferocity throughout and the 36-minute run time keeps it focused.
There’s one obvious highlight: ‘Into the Abyss’. More on that later…
8. Ozric Tentacles – Lotus Unfolding
I was introduced to Ozric Tentacles through a Geometry Wars 2 video on YouTube. Their particular blend of instrumental space rock was the perfect fit for the trippy geometric destruction and led me into their classic 90s albums: Pungent Effulgent, Erpland, Strangeitude, Jurassic Shift. I had no idea they were still recording until Lotus Unfolding popped up on the Sputnikmusic home page, and it’s delightful.
‘Storm in a Teacup’ is the album, and band, in a nutshell: ten minutes of ethereal synths, driving bass with momentum that wouldn’t be out of place on a Yes album, incredibly deft and nuanced drumming, beautiful guitar lines, all jamming and sweeping in and out of each other elegantly. It’s followed by ‘Deep Blue Shade’ , another archetypal song showcasing their Eastern influences.
Instrumental prog rock is the kind of music that either grabs you immediately, or you find it inscrutable and insufferable. Personally, it’s the perfect album for a long road trip or a focused afternoon of… pretty much anything. Lotus Unfolding is a great introduction to the Ozrics – better than a Geometry Wars 2 video, anyway.
7. Tesseract – War of Being
Tesseract are a band I should love on paper, and I often love in short bursts, but none of their albums have held my attention throughout and I’m not sure why. I’m not even sure that’s anything to do with Tesseract; my lack of critical listening skills may be to blame, especially considering their last album Sonder was only 36 minutes long. That’s the prog metal equivalent of Suffer!
War of Being is the first Tesseract album so good it could survive my dysfunctional attention span. ’Natural Disaster’ is a warmup that leads into the epic one-two punch of ‘Echoes’ and ‘The Grey’ with everything that’s great about Tesseract: crunchy djent riffs intricately knitted with the bass, and Dan Tompkins’ vocals soaring above it all, effortlessly shifting from harsh vocals to syrupy cleans with an unbelievable range at times. He’s never sounded better.
Apparently there’s a VR sci-fi adventure game tie-in on Steam and it’s actually pretty good.
6. Ne Obliviscaris – Exul
I’ve been a huge fan of NeO since my brother introduced me to them through Portal of I: between them, Be’Lakor, Caligula’s Horse and Voyager, Australia has a wonderful selection of innovative and exciting metal bands. I was surprised at how long it took me to get into Exul: at first listen it wasn’t clicking in the same way as their previous releases, but it’s grown on me. If you’re new to NeO, they combine extreme progressive metal – blast beats, death growls, shredding guitars – with violins and a mix of clean and harsh singing that sounds ridiculous on paper yet just works in practice.
I’m pleased that Exul is less diminishing returns, more delayed gratification, and at its best – ‘Equus’ is a 12 minute epic about the Black Summer bushfires that raged across Australia in 2019-20201, or the incredible middle section ‘Anatomy of Quiescence’ with an undulating, mesmerising bass / guitar / violin face-off – this is a band that moves and inspires me like few others.
5. Mercenary – Soundtrack for the End Times
Mercenary’s The Hours That Remain is one of my favourite melodic death metal albums ever: great melodies, great vocals, uplifting with just the right amount of cheese. I can’t fault it. I’ve listened to it countless times over the years; it’s metal comfort food. Soundtrack for the End Times is more delicious comfort food, with that signature riffing like bursts of machine gun fire – which you can hear right from ‘Burning in Reverse’.
It’s a great blend of heavier tracks – ‘Heart of the Numb’ guest starring Matt Heafy from Trivium – and lighter, poppier yet no less compelling songs like ‘Anthem for the Anxious’. It keeps the momentum going through the back half banger ‘Black Blood Soil’ but there’s a good mix of slower vs more intense tracks. It’s not particularly innovative or clever, but that familiarity is what makes it such compelling comfort food for me.
4. In Flames – Foregone
In Flames are back! Really! After a decade of music that has ranged from mediocre to downright awful (despite what you may have read), Foregone is the real deal, the album fans have been waiting for since 2006.
Maybe it’s the addition of Chris Broderick, formerly of Megadeth, that has given their music a shot of adrenaline; maybe it’s all those former band members banding together into The Halo Effect and releasing my favourite album of last year that did the trick. The reason doesn’t matter as much as the results, which is mostly a proper In Flames album without the strained clean singing and children’s choir gang vocals. From the acoustic noodling of ‘The Beginning of All Things’ that explodes into ‘State of Slow Decay’, an old school melodic death riff that reminds me of ‘Blinded by Fear’ from At The Gates’ Slaughter of the Soul, it’s clear that In Flames are finally, finally listening to all of the complaints from their dwindling, exasperated fan base – myself included.
Foregone doesn’t throw out the pop elements completely, and that’s mostly for the better. ‘Meet Your Maker’ is a standout track with the right mix of crushing verse riffs and a catchy chorus with an unforgettable lead guitar, and it is made better by the combination of light and heavy elements. This isn’t to say the album is a masterpiece like The Jester Race or Colony – ‘Pure Light of Mind’ is the same kind of power ballad crap we heard on Battles – but it completely eclipses their recent work, and I can’t wait to hear what they record next, which is not something I would have said 3 years ago.
3. Voyager – Fearless in Love
It feels like Voyager have been on a long voyage journey to escape the conventional trappings of prog metal for a few years now. 2017’s Ghost Mile took them in a more accessible direction with some great successes , but 2019’s Colours in the Sun was largely forgettable. Voyager have been further developing their sound since then, leaning heavily into a 1980s pop sound with ‘Dreamer’, which should have been Australia’s Eurovision entry in 2022 if there was any justice in the world. Undeterred, they returned in 2023, competed in Eurovision with ‘Promise’ and finished in 9th place – not bad for a country that’s not even in Europe.
Fearless in Love is the logical culmination of Voyager’s sonic experimentations. It’s unashamedly poppy, silly fun, but it also keeps the jaunty metallic crunch of their previous work. ‘Prince of Fire’ and ‘Ultraviolet’ are a great mix of heavy and light: catchy verses, soaring choruses, brutal breakdowns. ‘Twisted’ has a pulsating bass line straight out of a 90s Eurodance song. The whole album slaps. They even got ‘Dreamer’ and ‘Promise’ on there!
Voyager cancelled their 2023 European tour after singer Danny Estrin was diagnosed with cancer – I wish him a speedy recovery.
2. VV – Neon Noir
VV sounds like an innocuous name for an artist until you realise it stands for ‘Ville Valo’, former frontman of legendary goth rock band HIM. HIM are one of my favourite bands – a love I share with Lewis, who has a heartagram tattoo on his chest – and so I came to Neon Noir with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. I need not have worried: this is a HIM album in all but name.
I will leave the explanation of their music to the aforementioned episode of Cast Iron, but their unique blend of driving hard rock combined with Valo’s ludicrous vocal range and even more ludicrous lyrics is on full display – only Valo could pull off a song called ‘Baby Lacrimarium’.
The songwriting is as strong as ever, from the heavier ‘Neon Noir’ and ‘Salute the Sanguine’ to the lush, velvet ballad ‘Vertigo Eyes’, showing the full range of Valo’s talents. Where Neon Noir falls a little short of HIM’s best work is in instrumentation: Valo is a one man band and, while the composition is fine, it lacks the dynamic punch of Gas Lapstick on the drums, Linde’s fuzzy riffing and Mige’s throbbing, undulating bass lines. Don’t get me wrong: Neon Noir is a terrific album that compares favourably to the HIM canon and is much stronger than their last album Tears on Tape. Yet at the same time, I can’t help but wish for a reunion.
1. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation
This was a relatively pedestrian year for King Gizz: only 2 albums instead of 4 in 2022, but PetroDragonic Apocalypse (and its trippy companion piece, The Silver Cord) really lives up to that long title I won’t be typing a second time: it’s a monstrous jam-metal odyssey bursting with imagination that marches from the classic thrash of ’Motor Spirit’ and ‘Supercell’ that recalls Motörhead, through the hypnotic polyrhythms of ‘Witchcraft’ to the lumbering sludge metal of ‘Gila Monster’ with some Megadeth-style solos shredded over the top.
The atmosphere and intensity steadily builds until culminating in the prog-metal masterpiece ‘Dragon’ – the Gizz took their own signature style, blended in a little Mastodon and Tool, and then torched the whole thing with a flamethrower. After the first 30 seconds, I was hooked; around the 6:30 mark I was transcending to a higher plane of consciousness. Most of these songs are long and repetitive, but the repetition is what makes it so compelling: like the best Tool songs, it elevates the melodies and rhythms into mantras. The songs all work at the individual level, but they blend into such a compelling narrative that it’s hard not to indulge in the whole album every time I listen.
I love hearing a new album for the first time that I know is going to be an all-time fave, something I can return to in moments when I need inspiration or an extra push to finish a long run. Bring on the apocalypse.
The Spyro Memorial Lick of the Year
We unexpectedly lost Spyro to cancer in August. We took him in for a scan on what we thought was a muscle tear, and said goodbye to him 24 hours later. If he were here today, he’d be sitting next to me while I write this, waiting patiently for his next walk (impatiently, if after 4pm). The sudden shock of it and the overwhelming grief were unbearable at times, and months later, I miss my little buddy every day. As Scott Van Pelt puts it, in a beautiful tribute to his dog Otis that makes me cry every time I watch it, “If this hurt is the cost of the transaction from being on the receiving end of a mighty love… then I pay it with enormous gratitude”.
We set up a marathon fundraising appeal in Spyro’s memory and raised almost $3000 for Greyhound Rescue. The support of our family, friends and colleagues was the only thing motivating me over the line in the most gruelling run of my life. Naturally, music has always been a source of comfort and consolation for me in the hardest times as well, and certain albums are forever associated with Spyro. The Spyro Lick of the Year will go on, even if it’s now a memorial award, for the riff of the year that’s tastier than roast chicken.
This year there was only one contender: ’Into the Abyss’ by Unearth (and the preceding track ‘Aniara’ if you’re listening to the album) which starts off with nice acoustic noodling before dropping a riff that sounds like radioactive laser cannons raining down on a monster truck rally. Three minutes of meltdown later, it fades out and I’m left in the warm glow of the fallout before listening to it yet again. According to Apple Music this is only my 4th most played track of the year, although it may be 3rd by the time I’ve finished writing this.
Honorable Mentions
Before the Dawn – Stormbringers, Blink-182 – One More Time, Boy & Bear – Boy & Bear, Bury Tomorrow – The Seventh Sun, Ghost – Phantomime EP, Katatonia – Sky Void of Stars, Metallica – 72 Seasons, Omnium Gatherum – Slasher EP, Rise to Fall – The Fifth Dimension, Sevendust – Truth Killer, Soen – Memorial, Spiritbox – The Fear of Fear EP, Thrice – The Artist in the Ambulance (Revisited)
- 2019’s favourite music remains lost to time. Marriage, house, greyhound, bushfires – big year! ↩