Best EP's 2023

Another year, another series of days (or even weeks) where I find myself staring at a tablet/phone screen, sometimes blankly, trying to find just the right words to describe some of the music that resonated with me most throughout the year. I am an overthinker by nature and simply DECIDING on which albums are deserving of a spot on my personal year end list is a task in and of itself, nevermind trying to get all my scrambled thoughts onto a page. I don't consider myself a particularly strong writer, but I always feel as tho I'm able to convey a general sense of how an album or artist makes me feel. It's demoralizing at times when you're staring at the same screen for a few hours and have very little written, but I always feel a small sense of accomplishment and inspiration when I manage to see it through to its completion. As always it starts with some of my favorite short form records of the year.

While there were several other EPs that were more than worthy to appear here, these are the ones that stuck with me the most in the year 2023. As always, thanks for reading. If I can help just one person discover an artist they may not have been aware of previously, and thoroughly enjoy, then I consider this silly little blog a success.

Runners Up:

Stangarigel - Metafyzika Barbarstva

https://stangarigel.bandcamp.com/album/metafyzika-barbarstva

Copse - Old Belief l New Despair

https://copsebm.bandcamp.com/album/old-belief-new-despair

Torn in Half - Crawling From The Abyss

https://torninhalfmetal.bandcamp.com/album/crawling-from-the-abyss

5. Kanonenfieber - "U-Bootsman" (2023)

I think it's safe to say that at this point in his career, Noise, the enigmatic German, black-metal wunderkind can write his own ticket. He's got the Golden (or is it Blackened?) Touch. In addition to helming two other projects (Non Est Deus, Leipa), both of which put out phenomenal LPs in 2023, he once again donned the commander's skull for a pair of unsurprisingly crushing singles with Kanonenfieber. Following in the Panzer treads of 'Menschenmule' (2021) and 'Der Fusilier/Yankee Division' (2022), 'U-Bootsman' wastes no time in launching a blitzkrieg offensive. "Kampf und Sturm" opens with a battering, staccato guitar assault that hits like a pair of Feldhaubitze howitzers, while "Die Havarie" storms the battlefield with an array of weaponized, melodic riffs to cut down anyone that may have survived the initial barrage. Over the span of just a few short years, Kanonenfieber has amassed an incredibly dangerous and dynamic arsenal. World domination is imminent. 

Standout Tracks: "Kampf und Sturm", "Die Havarie"

4. Aanthems - 'New Ruins'

Arguably Aanthems most volatile and pissed off record to date, 'New Ruins' picks up the bricks left behind by 2020's excellent 'Blood Fortune' and hurls them in frenzied protest.  Eight years removed from the likes of 'Old Dogs' (2015) and 'Die Every Night' (2016), brothers Ryaan and Geoff forgo some of the poppier, smling rhythms found on tracks like "Mikey Mikey" or "Paper to Pen" and opt for a more  snarling and aggressive dirge of post-hardcore.  Tracks like "White Weapon" and "Bloodlust" will put a molotov in one hand and form your other into a fist. It's seething stuff and easily the most unapologetically violent sounding effort of Aanthems career. There are some shimmering rays of light to be found by the album's closing minutes, but I'm hoping I get to keep these combat boots laced up for future releases. 'New Ruins' is Pure Fire

3. Orator - 'The Burden of Existence'

It's a special kind of album that can be released almost 12 months ago but still possess the staying power to clinch a year end spot. That's about the highest endorsement I can give Seattle, Washington's Orator. Malevolently melodic but still abrasively heavy, 'The Burden of Existence' sucks the breath from your lungs from the opening seconds of "Failure". There is no recovery period. You'll still be clutching your throat when it roundhouses you in the solar plexus at the 1:18 mark of "Suffering" with series of explosive hooks. It's best to just assume the fetal position at this point and let Orator lay the flaill to your body with the highly melodic but decidedly savage 7 minute closer, "Perseverance". Are you a fan of pre-'Satanist' era Behemoth? Line up for your flogging here.

2. Dragoncorpse - 'The Drakketh Saga'

I'm still smiling about this one.  Whether I'll feel even remotely the same about this EP from international collective, Dragoncorpse, in a years (or even 6 months) time remains to be seen, but it can't be denied that this is probably the most outlandish fun I've had with a metal debut since the early days of 3 Inches of Blood. Essentially a power metal meets deathcore (yes, with two vocalists a'la 3 Inches) concoction of ridiculous extremities, 'The Drakketh Saga' has no fucking business working as well as it does. Laugh if you want, but the pure amount of passion that has clearly been put into this project will quickly turn that amusement into awe. Bright, falsetto vocals give way to absolutely testicle squashing breakdowns as quickly as they soar back to the sky with melodic guitar leads that fit somewhere between 'Somwhere Far Beyond' era Blind Guardian and 'Ridge and Furrow' era Dark Forest. You're either gonna be in for this one--or EXTREMELY out--the first minute of 'Sunlover' telling you all you really need to know (but I'd implore you to listen to the whole thing, it's a fucking doozy). I personally couldn't stop grinning through this albums 26 minutes. If you've ever been curious what any of these aforementioned power metal bands would sound like mashed up with something like Lorna Shore, 'The Drakketh Saga' is the answer. I'm hoping I love this as much as I do by this time next year. Who knows, maybe we'll get a full length. 

1. Polterwytch & Balberskult - 'Hexenwerk & Appenberg'

And you thought Dragoncorpse was weird. Filthy, organ driven wytchpunk that sounds as tho it was recorded in the dank basement of a witches hovel in the middle of a toad-riddled swamp, this split from psychedelic German weirdos Polterwytch and  Balberskult is still as riotous to listen to at the closing of the year as it was upon its release all the way back in February. Peddling in a bewitching blend of spooky, occult-ish black metal, Polterwytch wears the influence of Slovakian metallers Malokarpatan on their sleaze rock sleeves, but dive deeper into the grime than their genre counterparts. Alternatively, Balberskult play a faster, rawer form of blackened punk that still uses the haunting organ blasts to great effect. In both cases, vocals are hollow and errie, like someone croaking into a megaphone constructed out of a bunch of shitty 1970's horror cassettes (just listen to that wail at the 1:28 mark of Balberskult's "Hexengrund"). There's something decidedly lo-fi about the whole affair but it still manages to remain undeniably listenable.  This is the kind of music you'd hang out in a graveyard to and wait for things to go bump in the night. I wholeheartedly loved this weird little EP and it's probably the one I came back to most in 2023.