Wonderbox Metal End of Year List – Best Metal of 2023

Welcome to my annual attempt to make sense of the ridiculous amount of good metal albums out there, awaiting discovery by intrepid metal explorers.

2023’s best of list has been one of the more difficult ones to put together, placing-wise, which is one of the reasons that I’m posting it later than I usually do. Even more so than normal many of the slots are interchangeable, and I especially struggled with positions two-nine – if such a thing were possible, they all deserve to be higher! In the end I decided to stop overthinking it and go with my gut, but the usual caveat of these lists being very subjective and subject to change depending on mood, feelings, etc. is larger than normal here.

There are some notable acts missing form the below. Not because they’re not worthy of inclusion, but because there are only so many spaces to be had. In fact, I almost ended up limiting this list to 20, rather than the now-customary 30, as I found it really difficult to know who to include and who not to. In the end I went with the standard 30 so that I could promote a few extra bands, as they absolutely all deserve it.

As for the top position, I wasn’t expecting it to be filled by a band I’d never heard before, playing a style that I don’t listen to as much as I used to. However, I suppose after last year, I shouldn’t have been too surprised.

I do hope you enjoy this list and find some new music to obsess over. Like always, thanks for your support if you have ever visited this site before, and here’s to a great 2024 for as many of us as possible. Continue reading “Wonderbox Metal End of Year List – Best Metal of 2023”

Artist Deep Dive: Sworn (Review)

Discography Deep Dive SwornAfter recently discovering the Norwegian black metal band Sworn, and thoroughly enjoying their latest record A Journey Told Through Fire, I felt compelled to do a deep dive through their discography. I decided to document this as part of a new named feature on the site. I’m not sure how often I’ll get to do these, but when I can, I will, and I can already think of a few bands I’d love to thoroughly explore in this way. Before then though, we have Sworn. They have three albums other than their latest, and I’m going to concentrate just on these, (they also have a demo, an EP, and some singles to their name). Let’s dig in. Continue reading “Artist Deep Dive: Sworn (Review)”

Sworn – A Journey Told Through Fire (Review)

Sworn - A Journey Told Through FireSworn are a Norwegian black metal band and this is their fourth album.

If you’re a fan of black metal with both melody and atmosphere, then A Journey Told Through Fire is a 50-minute feast of the stuff. Honestly, Sworn have something well above average going on here that combines the best of old and new. Continue reading “Sworn – A Journey Told Through Fire (Review)”