With the end of 2023 almost upon us, it’s finally time to see and hear what you fine readers of this site have been indulging in the most across the past 364 days. It was certainly an interesting year for the metal genre, with TikTok success seemingly continuing to be the biggest driver of note in breaking bands.
With relatively younger bands like Sleep Token, Ghost and more reaping the benefits, one can only hope that their success trickles down to the rest of the metal scene as a whole. The high tide raising all ships, if you will.
While not an official ‘Theprp.com’ best-of list, I found myself personally listening to the latest album from Crosses the most these past twelve months. However, somehow rather than albums as a whole, I frequently wound up being more intrigued by singles. If I had to narrow down my top 5 most listened to records of 2023, it’d look something like this:
- Crosses (†††) – “Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.“
- Aesop Rock – “Integrated Tech Solutions“
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – “PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation“
- Mutoid Man – “Mutants“
- Humanity’s Last Breath – “Ashen“
2023 proved to be an immensely challenging year for me, so with my focus often elsewhere, singles managed to take precedence. While there’s the obvious drops from the bigger releases to consider, I’d rather shed some of the spotlight on a few songs that caught my ear this year from lesser known artists. Consider if a throwback to the ‘Learning Curve’ of old if you will. Below you can find some of the tracks that stuck out most to me in 2023.
Graywave – “Blur Into One“:
Theftuous – “Cannibal“:
Spotlights – “Sunset Burial“:
The Armed – “Modern Vanity“:
Initiate – “Alone At The Bottom“:
Fight The Fight – “12800“:
Pincer+ – “Closer To God“:
Somnuri – “What A Way To Go“:
Ignea – “Nomad’s Luck“:
Split Chain – “Get Inside“:
Johnny Booth – “Collapse In The Key Of Fireworks“:
