Keep It Short, Stupid. Get in; get out; get gone. Hit it and quit it. Whichever old axiom you choose, they all mean more or less the same thing: Sometimes brevity is key. Sometimes less time is all it takes to make the same impact. Sometimes the reasons to release a shorter recording are creative ones, sometimes financial ones, or contractual ones, or just simply “this is what we’ve got so we’re going for it,” but for whichever impetus begat the effort, in an artform often defined by loudness and harshness and anger, sometimes short bursts are better than drawing matters out. Paint the picture; tell the tale; scorch the earth; and let’s get on with our day…
So in the spirit of the thing, I’ll keep this faux-philosophical intro mercifully short and sweet, and we can get right to the heart of the matter, which is The Top 10 EPs & Demos Of 2023, and you’ll note that… well, there actually aren’t 10. There are 9, and there are also… 12? Shit’s getting weird around here.
But you’ll see that soon enough, so… whaddaya say we get on with it… [ANDREW EDMUNDS]
9 (tie). POLTERWYTCH / BALBERSKULT –
HEXENWERK AM APPENBERG
“This, erm, bewytching split is 22 minutes of so much fun that you might involuntarily reach for a cigarette afterward. The name of the game is, more or less, horror sleaze rock goosed along by organ and punky black metal rawness. I don’t know why you can’t just leave it at that, but if you insist, I guess it’s sort of like Malokarpatan after grinding up a mountain of early 1980s horror VHS tapes and snorting them like several hundreds of lines of cocaine.” [DAN OBSTKRIEG]
• Last Rites Review via Frig You Friday
• Bandcamp
9 (tie). MOISCUS – IDIOMORPHIC PRACTICES
“Syllables be damned, there are no phonetic sounds to be found in Moiscus’ swamp – merely the hot breath of decay as it blows over a blighted landscape. Tempos shift between manic grind and a more methodical swagger; riffs bubble up, flow through, are tossed away and left behind to rot, replaced with equally hefty bits of gnarled chord and squalling harmonics.” [ANDREW EDMUNDS]
• Last Rites Review via Blast Rites
• Bandcamp
9 (tie). DETERIORATION / TRAFFIC DEATH SPLIT
“Each [song] is exactly what any and every Deterioration fan wants – Jim Kahmann grunts and shrieks, churning out chunky downstroked riffs atop a frantic battery from his brother Joe… …Traffic Death’s frantic chattering thrash harks back to Pacific Northwestern punks The Accüsed, both in terms of their fast and frantic thrashing and Nate Phillips’ goblin-with-strep-throat snarl, and also in terms of their irreverent attitude and love for B-movie splatter.”[ANDREW EDMUNDS]
• Last Rites Review via Blast Rites
• Bandcamp
8. SOLIPNOSIS – SÍNTESIS SILENCIOSA
“Síntesis Silenciosa is simultaneously reverent and forward-thinking, achieving a higher understanding of intricate complexities and contradictions without removing itself from the animalistic barbarity that keeps it grounded. On its surface, it’s premium South American satanik alcoholik thrashing madness, yet behind the veil of insanity a coiled serpent lurks patiently in the shadows. The work demands a focused listen to appreciate its complexity, its layers, its attention to detail–yet it’s still one hell of a skull-whipping album…” [RYAN TYSINGER]
• Last Rites Review
• Bandcamp
7. IHSAHN – FASCINATION STREET SESSIONS
“I personally think it’s pretty cool to see Ihsahn firing up his creative engines in ways that fall outside of songwriting—that’s precisely the sort of innovation that helps keep enduring artists interested in moving forward. And as long as the results end up as high-grade as the Fascination Street Sessions, I’m guessing that will in turn lead to more music in the not-too-distant future. That sounds pretty great to me, literally and figuratively.” [CAPTAIN]
• Last Rites Review
• Bandcamp
6. DELIRIANT NERVE – CONTAMINATED CONSCIENCE
“…getting another 10-minute shot in the arm from this D.C. trio is a much-welcomed treat… …As before, the variety of influences, focus on songcraft and ability to write memorable riffs continue to help set Deliriant Nerve apart from their other modern brethren… …Deliriant Nerve’s steady and consistently high-quality releases are certainly making a case for them becoming required listening in the genre.” [SPENCER HOTZ]
• Last Rites Review
• Bandcamp
5. PHAËTHON – ETERNAL HAMMERER
The crack of the whip, the swing of the hammer, the heed of the call. The will of the gods, the foretelling of prophecy, the whisper of myth; all delivered with the acoustics of an all-but-empty barroom being transformed into the lands north of Aquilonia. The secret of steel and a sensible bar tab. True to the name, Eternal Hammerer showcases hardy, fire-forged promise from the smithies in Phaëthon. Old metal of might with fresh magic, yarlin’ with power and strength. [RYAN TYSINGER]
• Bandcamp
4. SAVAGE OATH – SAVAGE OATH
Apparently, 2023 trad metal is a dish best served sans fanfare and in abbreviated form by members of Sumerlands, Visigoth, and Ironsword. Mastered by Dan Swanö, Savage Oath’s self-titled EP came seemingly from nowhere when it made its relatively quiet Bandcamp debut back in March. But its two tracks—“Warlock’s Trance” and “On We March”—belie their somewhat muted premiere
Not one minute of the twelve here is wasted. And tempting as it is to rely on the obvious musical genealogy here for comparisons, Savage Oath is its own, confidently executed venture. Brendan Radigan’s (Sumerlands) commanding vocals and Leeland Campana’s (Visigoth) weaving riffs are the highlights, but the musicianship here is uniformly outstanding. There’s a familiar and inevitable force to these two songs, no doubt. You can’t get this group of musicians together without there being that bounce or gallop. Yet it is recorded, of course, with deceptively exquisite detail, the kind requiring repeated listens to get the full picture.
That a two-track EP is this year’s finest trad metal release says more about the quality of these songs than anything else. Often you’ll hear that these kinds of records are “promising.” But this Savage Oath EP knocks it out of the park, and the band makes it look easy doing it. [CHRIS C]
• Bandcamp
3. FLUISTERAARS –
DE KRONIEKEN VAN HET VERDWENEN KASTEEL –
I – HARSLO / II – NERGENA
Fluisteraars has almost unassumingly turned into one of the best black metal bands on the planet, managing to shift from ice cold sounds to near-post ebb-and-flow to more standard atmospheric flair and even some indie rock flavors without a single hitch (or a sense that anything is telegraphed). As if to emphasize their ability to diversity, they released four songs on two EPs in 2023, none of which repeats another, moving from bombastic but kinda nutty violence and buzzing malevolence to melodic occultism and beautiful, escapist resolution. De kronieken van het verdwenen kasteel might have been released as two EPs, but it’s one magnificent arc. [ZACH DUVALL]
• Bandcamp
2. STANGARIGEL – METAFYZIKA BARBARSTVA
Coming off of 2022’s excellent debut LP, this twenty-minute amuse-bouche from Slovakia’s Stangarigel also arrives during a year in which Stangarigel member Lesodiv’s higher-profile band Malokarpatan released the excellent Vertumnus Caesar. Rather than spreading themselves too thinly, however, this abundance of material seems to represent a blossoming of inspiration that unfolds across styles. Compared with last year’s Na Severe Srdca, Metafyzika Barbarstva makes even more space for acoustic folk, synthy interludes, and cinematic atmosphere, but Stangarigel’s core sound is still a devout, traditionalist worship of the more atmospheric end of black metal’s second wave. Satyricon’s Dark Medieval Times, in particular, looms large in the haze, as does Dimmu Borgir’s For All Tid. Stangarigel’s music, in keeping with the atmosphere of its forebears, is almost aggressively distant, as if the more you crank the volume up, the more it seems to stalk away and recede into a forest shrouded in mist. [DAN OBSTKRIEG]
• Bandcamp
1. SCALP – BLACK TAR
“The Fuck You-balls on the grooving swagger of ‘Endless Relapse’ is basically like Scalp’s version of a ‘Where the heck is Wall Drug?’ bumper sticker, in that it will probably both piss off and mystify your neighbors. Did you ever wish that Entombed’s Wolverine Blues built a time machine and kidnapped Nails’s Unsilent Death and then came out as a split on Victory Records but also came out of New York’s early 80s no-wave scene with Swans? If you said yes, you are probably already in jail.” [DAN OBSTKRIEG]
• Last Rites Review via Frig You Friday
• Bandcamp
Sick list. My favorite EP this year was Régicide’s Immortels.
Oh hey, I just had that on again!