• Haken - Fauna
• Baroness - Stone
• Far Beyond - The Moment of Creation
• Smoulder - Violent Creed of Vengeance
• Gatekeeper - From Western Shores
• Omnerod - The Amensal Rise

Tied for top spot are 72 seasons, Metallica; and Goliath, Kataklysm.

They’re extremely different, but they’re both rare albums I can put on and listen all the way through without wanting to skip anything. I will say that 72 seasons is a great album, but not Metallica’s best; but Goliath is the best Kataklysm album, and I’ll fight over that opinion

Seriously, Goliath is wall-to-wall brutal, driving, complex metal. It’s the culmination of the band’s style development into something that stands out from the often repetitive and bland sameness that death metal can be sometimes. “Bringer of Vengeance” is the most played track on my main music device, period. That’s even over songs much older, across many genres. That’s how much I love that fucking song, and the album.

I’m not knocking anyone else’s choices, because music enjoyment is inherently subjective, when I say that about death metal, btw. That’s my opinion for my ears, not a statement about anything else.

That being said!

Exul, by Ne Obliviscaris is a damn close second place to that tied spot :), for one of the reasons Goliath is so incredible. Exul is a band reaching a new level of what they’ve been doing. I’m not sure it’s fair the call it an album, but idgaf about fair lol. Is an album and album because of length or number of tracks? I say it doesn’t matter which criteria is used, Exul is an album, but I’ve seen people call it an EP.

Dying Fetus, from the OP list is fucking great, too. Not sure where I’d place it in a top list of the year, because there’s been so fucking many good albums this year. '23 has been a metal utopia in that regard.

And the fucking dethalbum? C’mon. Fucking brutal :)

You can’t leave out Chaos Horrific, either. Yeah, it’s pretty much the same thing Cannibal Corpse always does, but isn’t that kinda the point? They’ve been cumming blood in our ears for a long time, and they mastered their style ages ago. You can’t improve them. That’s another that doesn’t have a specific rank, but is just too fucking good to ignore.