2023 errata

I don’t revisit my old music roundups to right previous wrongs. I can’t listen to everything in a year; I’m bound to miss a gem. But a few weeks ago I discovered an album so good that I’m making an exception. To be fair, I found it on a Reddit thread of “prog metal bands with hardly any listeners”, a niche so small a cockroach couldn’t hide inside.

That album was Sermon’s Of Golden Verse. This two-man band (one anonymous) gives you the decency of a one-minute warmup before smashing your skull in with a crushing anvil of extreme metal. If you’re not feeling it by the end of the one-two punch of ‘Royal’ and ‘Light the Witch’, don’t give up just yet: there’s a surprising amount of variation in here.

Like many proggy bands, Sermon take inspiration from TOOL – especially in the lighter moments – but they’re mostly relentlessly heavy. Head-banging, fist-pumping, adrenaline-surging. I can’t get enough of it. Mea culpa! Holy shit!

On with this year’s music…

Highly commended

STUMPS — Arcadia

I saw STUMPS¹ supporting Boy and Bear last year; they were one of the best support acts I’ve ever seen. Great music, pitch perfect live performance, and they looked like they were having a blast. I had their first album All Our Friends on heavy rotation that spring², and Arcadia is a continuation of that winning formula: indie pop rock with the sensibilities of the 80s, funky bass lines and snappy drumming contrasted with wistful and often melancholic lyrics.

One of those albums that’s perfect for a summer road trip or lazing by the pool. If, like me, you haven’t got a pool, it’s also a decent soundtrack for washing your car.

Alkaline Trio – Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs

Is This Thing Cursed? was a fine return to form for the Trio; Blood, Hair and Eyeballs is even better. This is their last album to feature drummer Derek Grant, who is such an integral part of their sound (which you would expect from a trio!) and a fitting end to an era.

Usually, Trio songs are ‘Matt songs’ or ‘Dan songs’, which you can tell apart from the vocalist. Blood, Hair and Eyeballs has both in one song! What a concept! I feel like any deviation from form, with a punk rock band this tight and well-worn, constitutes a radical evolution of their sound. This means that Matt brings a little lightness and spark to Dan’s more morose songs, such as ‘Versions of You’, and Dan gives his wonderful baritone depth to the vocal mix.

This is a tight album with no time to waste (and I’m not sorry), simple punchy music and deft lyrics — everything you would expect from the Alkaline Trio.

Eternal Storm — A Giant Bound to Fall

My brother Paul and I send each other album recommendations all year round. With this one, I’m not sure who got there first, but we were both digging it in private before we shared it with each other. I’m a sucker for atmospheric melodic death metal and this one gets it hooks in quickly with ‘An Abyss of Unreason’ which brings the blast beats and chugging riffs that tickle the dark parts of my brain.

It’s a little too long for its own good, and it doesn’t break from the conventions of the genre, but when the songs are as strong as ‘A Dim Illusion’, it doesn’t really matter.

The 2024 shortlist

11: Leprous — Melodies of Atonement

Leprous have been a regular appearance in my music roundups, winning in 2015 and rounding out the top ten in 2021. They’ve been on a strange journey since I was introduced to their work with Bilateral and Coal, through The Congregation, Malina… Einar Solberg’s vocals on another level, guitars chopping and drums clattering in brain-bendingly strange rhythms. The fittingly named Pitfalls was a real deviation from the formula, sanding off all the metallic edges of their sound for something much poppier and downright weird. 2021’s Aphelion was an improvement, but not enough of a return to form to dispel all worries.

Is Melodies of Atonement that return to form? Not really! Old Leprous, new Leprous – ¿Por qué no los dos? Now we’ve got ‘Like A Sunken Ship’ a song that floats on the surface of rock before exploding into a prog metal depth charge at the two-minute mark. Some songs like ‘Silently Walking Alone’ are on the heavier side, others like ‘My Specter’ are much softer, and the rest usually have a quiet, brooding build-up into heavier metallic catharsis. There’s nothing truly bone-crushing like the chorus of ‘Forced Entry’ or with the heavy groove of ‘Chronic’ (at the 2:45 mark). While I’d love to hear a heavier Leprous album again without quite so much meandering synth-pop weirdness – or perhaps more forward momentum and a bit more groove, a la Malina – this feels like Leprous are starting to get the balance right. Sounds like atonement to me.

10: VOLA – Friend of a Phantom

Even by the weird standards of prog metal, Friend of a Phantom is a weird album. The song titles and lyrics have that mellifluous, nonsensical quality that only Scandinavians can pull off (VOLA are from Denmark). Their styles lurch from the crunchy alt-metal of ‘Cannibal’ – guest starring Anders Friden of In Flames – to the trance-influenced ‘Break My Lying Tongue’. We get indie metal stadium rock in ‘We Will Not Disband’ (probably my favourite track) then the eerie ballad ‘Glass Mannequin’, and that’s just the first four songs. What the hell am I listening to? How the hell is it so coherent despite everything being thrown into this musical melting pot? It’s still metal, sort of, if you squint your ears a little.

Sometimes VOLA can be too quirky for their own good, like on the closer ‘Tray’ which falls flat, but mostly you’ll be singing “I don’t know how we got so far down here, I don’t know how the silence broke our ears” without much thought to it. They pull it off because the music is so hauntingly beautiful and hooky, from Asger Mygind’s ethereal vocals to Adam Janzi’s unconventional drumming that’s hammering polyrhythms one minute, fizzing and sprinkling tasty fills the next.

9: Wheel — Charismatic Leaders

Wheel have gone from strength to strength: their 2021 release Resident Human was one of my favourites that year, and Charismatic Leaders is just as strong. They have a distinct style of progressive metal that is clearly influenced by TOOL: polyrhythms, intricate and impossibly polished riffs, restrained clean vocals. But they rip off that sound, instead building their own unique style on the shoulders of metal’s giants.

What I find compelling about Wheel’s music is the anger behind it: not the “fuck you, mum and dad!” anger that typifies metal, more of a burning righteous indignation against the worst of society. The opening track ‘Empire’ is a great example: it’s a hatred of hate itself, a call to arms against the bad aspects of what makes us human. No prizes for guessing where Charismatic Leaders directs its ire, but it’s much more thoughtful than an “orange man bad” album. It’s full of big ideas and long, thoughtful songs, culminating in ‘The Freeze’, which is one of those prog metal juggernaut tracks you need a while to fully digest.

More important than the message, this album rocks. It’s heavier than Wheel’s previous work while retaining their signature, bass-heavy groove; proggy yet tight and focused, never indulgent or meandering, immediately engaging, but there’s something new to hear on every listen.

8: In Vain – Solemn

Solemn is a curious blend of a classic melodic death metal sound, gratuitous tremolo picking, screams, and uplifting prog rock music with beautiful soaring choruses, stitched together with saxophone solos. In the same song.

Do you think you can handle that? Do you like all of those three things? Because I think you really do to get the most out of Solemn. It commits to each of its sub-genres wholeheartedly: these aren’t mere sonic dalliances, like when Jordan Rudess does that weird vaudeville thing in a Dream Theater song. You won’t be able to listen through the heavy or light bits you don’t like; you need to embrace all of it. If you can, this album rules.

The high points of Solemn are among the best music I’ve heard all year. ‘Where the Winds Meet’ is an incredible song which sweeps you up in its emotional intensity: you’ve got to listen through the first minute or so of this to understand what this band can do, it’s remarkable. The only reason it doesn’t rank higher is that there aren’t quite enough memorable hooks in there. Every song is great while it’s playing, but they aren’t individually distinct in my mind afterwards.

7: Pure Reason Revolution – Coming Up to Consciousness

Coming Up to Consciousness is a prog rock album about grieving for a beloved dog. You need to know that upfront because if the words “dead dog” are painful for you, as they are for me, then this is a challenging record. It’s the heaviest thing I’ve listened to all year, but not in the usual sense.

This album makes me feel almost unbearably sad at times. It’s in the lyrics that really capture the heartbreak and guilt of having to say goodbye to your friend by putting them to sleep. It’s the front cover of the dog looking at you the way my dog would look at me: pensive, slightly sad, possibly up to no good.

I first listened to this on a train ride home from work, holding back the tears as the memories of that last day with Spyro came flooding back. This album offers comfort, knowing that someone else has gone through that pain and gets it (although of course you wouldn’t wish it on anyone). Every so often, your emotional wounds re-open themselves during significant anniversaries, or just the changing of the seasons. This kind of music is a part of the healing process.

Can I recommend it as a listening experience? It’s hard for me to tease the emotional resonance of the subject from my usual emotional responses. But I think, objectively as I can, that absent of all emotional valence, this is still musically superb. It reminds me of Porcupine Tree’s lighter moments or an Anathema record. There’s a bit of the Pineapple Thief in there (although in this case, ‘The Toast Thief’ is more appropriate). It’s on the softer side of prog with beautiful lighter moments like ’The Gallows’, heavier bits with ‘real’ guitar riffs like the back half of ‘Dig Till You Die’, and it’s also on the shorter side of prog — 47 minutes with a couple of interludes. I’m not sure if I would have the stamina for much more.

6: Sgàile — Traverse the Bealach

I love it when an album appears out of nowhere (or your brother sends you a link to it — thanks Paul!) and takes your breath away. Sgàile (Gaelic for ‘shadow’) is a one-man band from Glasgow, playing metal that is challenging to define. At times, it sounds like Insomnium or Be’Lakor, melodic death metal with a folk twist (and clean vocals!), other times it’s more obviously Celtic. One particular breakdown in ‘The Ptarmigan’s Cry’ reminds me of Slugdge: while there are undoubtedly slugs in the Highlands, this is not a slug metal album.

However you classify it, Traverse the Bealach is majestic stuff. Expansive, soaring melodies, long songs that rarely outstay their welcome… this would be impressive for an entire band, never mind a one-man band. ‘Lamentations by the Lochan’ is an early highlight for me, but it’s all great. I have no idea what a bealach is, but if this is what traversal sounds like, it’s worth the trek.

5: Caligula’s Horse — Charcoal Grace

I still remember listening to In Contact for the first time, a few years ago on Survival Day. It’s a prog metal magnum opus filled with soaring, intricate guitar lines, beautiful vocals and great songs that stick in your mind long after you’ve heard them. Much like Haken’s The Mountain, In Contact is an almost impossible act to follow – but I love to hear them try.

Rise Radiant was a solid follow-up to In Contact, and Charcoal Grace is… another solid follow-up. The opening one-two punch of ‘The World Breathes With Me’ and ‘Golem’ is a promising start, the title track is a dense 20-minute sonic odyssey that took a while for me to fully parse and appreciate. The back half is perhaps the strongest: ‘The Stormchaser’ is a beautifully subdued ballad with a driving syncopated rhythm, and ‘Mute’ starts softly before morphing into a majestic metal beast.

Charcoal Grace did not grab me the way In Contact did at first listen, and that felt like a major disappointment, but the blame lies with me on this one. It’s another superb release from one of the most consistently excellent progressive rock bands around.

4: Any Given Day — Limitless

Every year, there’s an album that offers slice after slice of irresistable metalcore cheese, and vegans like me need to consume all the cheese we can³! I’ve heard Limitless described as ‘gymcore’: when it comes to crushing riffs and inspirational “one more rep” lyrics, this album is stacked harder than Dennis Diehl’s biceps. It has a relentless forward movement from ‘Get That Done’, a song I am convinced has shaved a few seconds off my running personal bests, to the slight reprieve of ‘Come Whatever May’ with its dirty cowboy groove (and the only track that doesn’t take itself too seriously).

It’s not particularly imaginative, rather clichéd at times, but that doesn’t matter to me when it’s so much fun. Diehl has a phenomenal voice, particularly on the title track ‘Limitless’ when he moves from growling to baritone crooning and soaring choruses within a few bars (at least, I think he’s doing all of it). Any Given Day’s previous album Everlasting is probably better, but Limitless is still a volcanic record, gushing hot magma metal cheese. This has dominated my top ten most played songs of the year.

3: Cemetery Skyline – Nordic Gothic

Cemetery Skyline are a goth rock supergroup featuring Michael Stanne (Dark Tranquility, The Halo Effect), Markus Vanhala (Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum), Santeri Kallio (Amorphis), Victor Brandt (Dimmy Borgir) and Vesa Ranta (Sentenced). If those names don’t mean anything to you, you might still enjoy this because Cemetery Skyline sound nothing like those bands!

My first impressions of Nordic Gothic were “this could pass for a HIM album at times”, and from here I stumbled upon the vague sub-genre of ‘Suomi metal’ – I could not believe there was a whole host of bands with that delightful gloomy, crunchy hard rock sound. (It’s a bit late for this roundup, but I enjoyed Sentenced’s 2002 album The Cold White Light.)

Nordic Gothic is a victim of modern music distribution: half the album was released as singles over the course of a year, and I felt like I’d heard most of it already (which I had!) One or two singles is a great way to promote a new release, but six out of ten is too much. I digress – every song is a banger, and I’m happy to listen to them on repeat – but I do miss the mystery and discovery of new releases. It’s a real challenge to keep from spoiling the album for myself.

Cemetery Skyline made a great first impression with ‘Violent Storm’. Supergroups can be hit or miss – for every Halo Effect, there’s a Chickenfoot or Chyra – but these guys have nailed it. ‘Behind the Lie’ is my favourite song, really nailing that 2000s goth rock sound; I’d also recommend a track that wasn’t leaked as a single, the back-half banger ‘Anomalie’. A brilliant album from start to finish, and I hope Cemetery Skyline continue.

2: Unto Others – Never, Neverland

Unto Others’ Mana dropped into my Apple Music autoplay queue like an atomic bomb in 2021. It was a solid wall of goth-rock fire that melted my face off: I played it on repeat for weeks. I loved the follow-up Strength as well, although it was arguably more of the same with slightly diminishing returns. Going into Never, Neverland, I was concerned: how long can they repeat the same sound before I lose interest?

Thankfully, this is not Mana Part 3. On one hand, it is a direct continuation of the last two Unto Others records. Opener ‘Butterfly’ would fit on Mana, Strength, or even maybe a HIM album. But then we get the thrashy, punky ‘Momma Likes the Door Closed’ opening with a monstrous guitar solo, and it’s clear that this is an evolution of their sound. You can hear the Ghost influences (producer Tom Dalgety also produced Ghost’s Popestar and Prequelle and was involved with their recent release): Ghost have had a similar evolution from genre-and-time-bound heavy metal (in that case, 70s styled doom) into something more like macabre stadium rock.

At times, Never, Neverland is classic Unto Others: ‘Raigeki’ has the trademark hooks and intensity, the Iron Maiden-esque guitar licks, while ‘Fame’ is like a Smiths track on steroids. But then it throws a curveball at you: ‘Flatline’, with its frantic black metal vibes, ‘When the Kids Get Caught’ with a much more expansive sound and jangling guitars, the 80s movie soundtrack funk of ‘Cold World’.

Mostly, it’s just a truckload of fun: singalong lyrics that are wittier and more sensitive than first impressions might suggest (‘Suicide Today’); big bouncy guitar anthems with flourishing, soaring solos; a clip with Navi from Ocarina of Time saying “hey, listen!”; and just when I thought there weren’t enough of the signature “HUAH!” grunts and wolf howls, you get ‘Hoops’, a song where HUAH is the only lyric – yeah, yeah, alright, they’re allegedly saying “hoops”. Suuure.

Never, Neverland is different to Mana, which was this lightning in a bottle masterpiece (and what makes Strength such a treat – it’s a second flash of the same bolt). If I had written a Favourite Albums writeup for 2019, I would have rewritten it in 2021 to correct a great injustice⁴. So let me correct the record and rave on about how awesome this band is. Whatever direction they go in, I’m sure I will follow. But please guys: – don’t ever drop the grunts and howls! HA! HOO! HUAH! AAARRROOOOOOOOO!

1: Judas Priest – Invincible Shield

Yes! Judas Priest! In 2024! Invincible Shield would be an impressive album from any band: Rob Halford and Glenn Tipton are in their mid-70s, and they’re still tearing it up like 20-year-olds. ‘Panic Attack’ sounds like something from Priest’s seminal 90s album Painkiller, it’s a crushing metal monster. One track alone wouldn’t be remarkable, but it just keeps going… and going…

‘As God as my Witness’ has that speed metal riffing I adore, ‘Trial by Fire’ is such a groovy riff… it’s camp… it’s classic Judas Priest, 50 years later, and it’s remarkable. You’ve heard these styles of songs before – because Priest invented them – but they still sound fresh and the production is tight. This is one album where too much can be enough: the bonus tracks on the special edition (and Apple Music release) aren’t as strong as the regular album, and in particular, ‘The Lodger’ is a weak finish. I am grading this one up to ‘Giants In The Sky’ and no further.

Some years I find it agonising to pick a winner, but when Invincible Shield dropped — in January! — I suspected it would be a tough act to follow. ‘Panic Attack’ never got old; it became the perfect 180 RPM soundtrack to my running intervals. That last crescendo in ‘Trial by Fire’ became something to anticipate and savour. ‘As God Is My Witness’ still strikes me as grammatically odd⁵, but I’ve looked it up and it is legit.

Spyro’s Memorial Lick of the Year

This is the best year for riffs in a decade. Normally, I’ve got a favourite in my head all year, but this year had so many that I needed to sit down and revisit them in an extended riff-off.

Somehow, I am not choosing any of these: Panic Attack, Trial by Fire, Versions of You, Get That Done, Raigeki, Time Goes on, Behind the Lie, Steel Mountains, The Last Imagination. And I’m not including the singles from albums due to launch in 2025 (Detonate, Perfect Soul, Spirit Of No Return, Night Terror…) There are so many great choices, I can’t be bothered looking up the links on YouTube.

One album I discovered late this year (as in, last week) is Andy Gillion’s Exilium. Andy is the former guitarist and principal songwriter of melodic death band Mors Principium Est. If Lick of the Year had been a feature in years gone by, he’d have won it twice for ‘The Ghost’ and ’Lost in a Starless Aeon’.

We saw Andy supporting Be’Lakor last year, and at the time I wished he’d added vocals to his instrumental music. My wishes have come true, and Andy is a surprisingly good singer! Unsurprisingly, Exilium offers a smorgasbord of epic riffs, and it’s tough to choose a favourite. But choose I must, and this year’s winner goes to ‘The Haunting’ with its shredding in the verses leading into that tasty chorus harmony.

The runner-up is ‘Avenging the Fallen’ showing that Andy only needs one string to write a masterful guitar lick.

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More good music

Absolute Elsewhere – Blood Incantation, Empire of the Sun – Ask That God, Fallujah – The Flesh Prevails (10th anniversary remaster), Ghost – Rite Here Rite Now (Jess’s personal recommendation, which I can confirm she has listened to 200 times), Haunt – Dreamers, Hello Meteor – everything, pick one!, Intervals – Memory Palace, Jebediah – OIKS, King Stingray – For The Dreams, Kingcrow – Hopium, Night Verses – Every Sound has a Color in the Valley of Light, Nightrage – Remains of a Dead World, Opeth – The Last Will and Testament, Pinguini Tattici Nucleari – Hello World (another Jess pick, which includes my highlight “Fuck You Vincenzo”) Wolfheart – Draconian Darkness

1. Why is this band’s name shouting at me? Same reason Blink-182 released ONE MORE TIME, I guess. ↩
2. Southern hemisphere spring, that is ↩
3. “to drive up demand”, I tell myself ↩
4. Better than Fear Inoculum, though? ↩
5. I would say “with god as my witness”, were I to say it at all, but it’s all good. Just not “as god as my witness” ↩