the Top 10 Doom Albums of 2023

 

I love to celebrate death and darkness, Doom is the music that should not only embrace a sense of loss and depression but sonically express it. These  are the albums that did that best captured that feeling this year .   After I sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of the year. 2023. The very fact these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list; and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway here are the top 10 Doom albums of 2023.

10-Adversvm-"Vama Marga"

This  band is capable of traversing sonic depth and on the heavier side of death doom as needed. This German band recently added the keyboardist from Evoken to their ranks, which is what made me take notice. This marks the band's third full length. Not sure I would quite  lump them into funeral doom as I am not getting that same sense of depressive longing , so they seem more like an atmospheric death doom band .

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/05/adversvm-vama-marga.html

 9-Saturnus- "the Storm Within"

 It could be said these guys are death doom if your definition of the sub-genre weighs heavily on the vocals. Musically there is a very lush expanse of sound summoned from what this Danish band does. They have been around since the 90s and this is only their 5th album, so they take their time. They have what they do very dialed in

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/06/death-is-june-saturnus-storm-within.html

8-Isole-" Anesidora"

I  really liked this Swedish band's 2019 album "Dystopia". They seem to be heading into even more melodic territory. Deliberate and dark, but not doom in the way it is most easily defined. There is more drive, almost in the same sonic zip code as Hangman's Chair, the vocals have a more regal operatic feel, and the singer is clearly not as depressed. This majestic soaring feel, is what separates them into their own niche. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/03/isole-anesidora.html

7-Usnea - "Bathed in Light"

I was a fan of this band's 2017 album. They are back at it with a greater mix of atmospheric moods and crushing doom that carries the dirty heft of sludge. Though a great deal of it has been smoothed out due to the attention to detail that was spent recording this. The vocals go from a low guttural growl to a more anguished scream. In the past six years since their last album they have been polishing every element of what they do. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/05/usnea-bathed-in-light.html

6- Ahab- the Coral Tombs 

8 years of chaos have passed since this German doom band released their last album. Chris Noir of  Ultha lends his voice to the highly aggressive black metal start of the opening track before it ebbs down into the doom you expect from this band. The croon of the baritone vocals here, is delivered with more power and presented more forward in the mix. The vocals play a bigger role in the overall sound this time around. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/01/ahab-coral-tombs.html

5- Shores of Null- the Loss of Beauty" 

I really enjoyed this Italian band's 2017 album, now they are proving to be just as hard to pin down. Musically there is a great deal in common with black metal, but the crooned vocals throw that comparison off to some extent. The growled vocals feel more death metal. The tremolo flow of guitar could also come from something pagan metal like Tyr, so a great deal is going on with some interesting melancholy passages to add to the dynamics.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/03/shores-of-null-loss-of-beauty.html

4- the Abbey-"Word of Sin"

Hailing from bands like Man Eating Tree and Shape of Despair, this doom band out of Finland , does what I wish Ghost did, by playing dark metal, with catchy layer vocals . The cadence and how the vocals are layered is what brings Ghost to mind. Unlike Ghost this has the balls of metal to it even when draped in doomy goth finery

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-abbey-word-of-sin.html

3-GODTHRYMM - "Distortions"

UK doomsters Godthrymm return with their dark and gritty vision of metal. It's vision that is true to the classic while not gazing into the stagnation of retro obsessions. Unless we are talking about the 90s as this would have fit well into the doom that was coming out then. They feels like they are chugging forward rather than meandering in droning sprawl.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/07/godthrymm-distortions.html

2-Orphans of Dusk -"Spleen"

 They are doom band with low sung baritone vocals , but also use death metal snarls as well, which not what Peter Steele did, so yes there is influence there, but Woods of Ypres, Moonspell, Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride could all be influences as well. If you just label them a Type O tribute then you are telling me you have a very limited range of musical knowledge. They 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/04/orphans-of-dusk-spleen.html

1- Mansion- Second Death 

This Finnish band does doom most uniquely at times they blend a minimalist folk not unlike what a  cult would sing as their mantra, as they lurch along in a very creepy manner. The tangible darkness of the music is heavier than the distortion of the guitars of the volume, though they are capable of applying those dynamics as well. I think they tap into cool dark places that few go in a new way. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2023/11/november-is-doom-mansion-second-death.html

Usnea : " Bathed in Light"

 I was a fan of this band's 2017 album. They are back at it with a greater mix of atmospheric moods and crushing doom that carries the dirty heft of sludge. Though a great deal of it has been smoothed out due to the attention to detail that was spent recording this. The vocals go from a low guttural growl to a more anguished scream. In the past six years since their last album they have been polishing every element of what they do.  The second song, has a darker atmosphere. Things get creepy and accented in a more chant like fashion with the vocals. The song writing is more dialed in as well, as it occupies a more deliberate space in the sonic spectrum.  The atonal yet melodic guitar is a nice touch. 

"To the Deathless' opens with retro synths, that are organic in a manner that I would not expect from these guys. The song it self is a pounding storm of down trodden unrest.     Not the best but still more sonically interesting than most doom that has come out this year. "From Soot and Pyre" is a more feral explosion of sound that throws the mood into a tribal chaos that drones with anger propelling the pulse. "Premeditatio Malorum" is more solemn in the slow burn it builds. When it does kick in, there is the massive feel of  the soaring heights things plunge from. There is still a simmering chaos. It builds into a droning chant, as guitar wanders around it. 

"Uncanny Valley" finds them screaming into a tempestuous void that storms around them before descending into a funeral like doom. The eerie guitar melodies emerge , but the song works off a more tormented mood. Overall the sonic textures and dynamics of this album work well and help to set it apart from the bulk of their peers as it equates to something with more moods than just aggressive anger. I will give this album a 9. 

Usnea: "Portals Into Futility"

I have just resigned my self as a fan of doom the days of expecting the opening song to not be at least 12 minutes is over. Once I get over that fact I can enjoy how thick the sound of despair this band is churning out. The drummer is a monster is not in a doom band just because he can't play any faster, he plays around the hesitant riffs with a flurry of fills that still serves the song. The balance the beauty and brutality well with oppressive atmosphere on " the lathe of heaven" . The vocals are largely choked screams that sound like they are coming from a chick or teenage boy, there are lower sung vocals peppered about to give it a more Atriarch feel. I like how they build things up without going to obvious way with them.

There are lowered death metal like growls to "Demon Haunted World" ,but  aside from a few guitar melodies I am not feeling this song as heavilly as I was the first two. The offer some syncopated pounding to try to change my mind and it doesn't since my rule is cool riffs alone do not make a good song. I would not say this is a bad song it just doesn't live up to what these guys have shown me they can do. I am half way into "Pyrrhic Victory" before I realize I am not just listening to the previous song which has moved into a much more melodic place. The guitar lines become very captivating.

At nineteen minutes I am expecting it to become tedious, but so far after building out of a creeping unease " a Crown of Desolation"  is an interesting call and response between chanted sung vocals and screamed. This exchange goes on for almost seven minutes before building up into another movement that dies down into more emptiness. The singing takes a larger role almost becoming a gothy ballad at the thirteen and a half minute mark. I like the depressing hollowness the chords ring out with here, before exploding back out into a more black metal flavored part. Overall this album is pretty satisfying, I will give a few more listens I am not sure if it will make it over into my iPod or how many spins I'll get after this. I enjoyed the songwriting and craftsmanship and think this creates a mood most fans of doom will enjoy so rounding it up to a 9. Out on Relapse Records.

Usnea: Random Cosmic Violence

Seems like they are even darker and doomier than before, this sacrificed a little of the death metal element from the first album, but that is fine by me as they have open a new door to a different dimension of sounds. The drone of the spoken vocals at the beginning of "Lying in Ruin" is not far removed from something you might find on an older Atriarch album.The vocals often take on a more maniacal Graves at Sea type scream.Like we say about most extremely heavy bands the weight that they hit you with has so much momentum the first song is going to wow you regardless of how original it is or isn't just out of sheer heaviness.On the merits of the crushing riffs at the eight and a half minute mark alone, the song wins me over.

The snarl of the vocals hits you firs on "Healing Through Death", they are going to need to pull out more tricks here as I am now used to their rumble. What the band has going against them in terms of how much actual play I will get from this album, is the fact all of the songs ...and there are four of them, clock in at at least 12 minutes the longest 15. With doom that's not too long considering how they take there time getting from one not to the next .I would almost say they are sludged out doom, rather than funereal doom, which has a more romantic mourning to it.They touch on a few of these melodic passage,but are more
 interested in crushing you.At the seven minute mark they briefly at a melodic funereal doom melody, but resort to being more punishing.

The clean guitar intro of the title track kinda falls out of the previous song. The low drone of the vocal chant follows before the slowly bring the distortion on harsh vocals. One of the more dynamic songs as they quickly switch from clean tones to an aggressive death metal influence stomp.They speed up in full
blown  blackened death metal, as their death metal roots come out and they are unable to maintain the plodding tempo.

It closes with a more standard doom piece "Detritus". It takes a slightly angular take on a doom riff midway through but mainly rumbles along the road more frequently travelled. I think this album's strength is they are a death metal band coming at doom from a different perspective rather than guy who have spent their lives worshiping Black Sabbath.I'll give this one an 8, the last songs is them taking the easy way out but, if you like really mean doom in the vein of Graves at Sea, but more melodic, then check these dudes out.