A few weeks back, Wall Of Sound published the team's half-yearly lists: what our favourite releases were so far, what we're looking forward to in 2023's second half - all that jazz. Jumping off from there to expand upon my personal top seven from that aforementioned WOS article, and as we're currently in early July (at the time of writing before publishing), I've corraled 20 awesome releases from the first six months of MMXXIII. Releases that the site missed for review but are ones that I strongly feel are absolutely required; essential listening for 2023. And hey, I promise you all it's shorter than my previous 50 best openers list.
THE HIRS COLLECTIVE – WE'RE STILL HERE
What do Frank Iero, Damian Abraham, Shirley Manson, Anthony Green, Geoff Rickly, Jeremy Bolm, and Jordan Dreyer all have in common? They, amongst many others, guest feature on We’re Still Here. An insane new LP from HIRS Collective that bridges the underground and mainstream; an album about survival and existence as rebellion. As an American act containing trans and queer members, who frequently collab with peers and allies alike, during a period in which LGBT+ folks are demonised at cultural and legislative levels more so than ever before, We’re Still Here feels deftly relevant and necessary. And how do HIRS fight back? With some of 2023's sickest and noisiest hardcore. This is powerful heaviness and aggression that flirts with grind, math, power-violence, and metalcore, across a whopping 17 songs coming in at a sweet 30 or so minutes. My current AOTY contender.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LymOqLHSYw4
SLEEPSCULPTOR – DIVINE RECALIBRATION
Divine Recalibration is like a stealth attack from a freight train: it hits you out of nowhere with careening destruction. This fresh beast from Sleepsculptor sounds like your high-school bully has shoved you and some metal guitar nerd who’s trying to learn Frontierer and Vein.fm songs (at the same time) into a laundromat washer, and it’s tossing you both around like a chew toy in gnashing dog’s teeth. This is pure, dissonant, ugly metalcore that’s as demented-sounding and face-melting as it is engaging. Love to see it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNGicLn0PNs
JPEGMAFIA & DANNY BROWN – SCARING THE HOES
In March, two giant yet outer-rim names from rap and hip-hop came together for a massive collaborative project. Like particles smashed together within some unhinged experimental rap super-collider, Danny Brown’s unmistakable vocal tone and insane lyrics marry to JPEGMAFIA's expertly off-kilter production, beats and samples perfectly so. With both men equally sharing the record vocally, it's a match made in maddening heaven. From the very moment this collab was announced, I knew it was a strong LP in the making, and I love it when I'm right. Hopefully, Vol. 2 follows swiftly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2UY_y6IKQE
ZULU - A NEW TOMORROW
Straight-up, this is some of the best fight music all year. A New Tomorrow operates between traditional African culture, moments of reggae and soul, and Zulu's love for bruising hardcore, driven by drummer and co-vocalist, Christine Cadette. Quite a stylish, eclectic and well-spoken record, despite its brutality, this is Zulu's own form of resistance; wanting to celebrate Blackness; the band wanting to celebrate Black people's perseverance and triumphs instead of only focusing on historical traumas. It's special to find a band that has all three of the core perks: music, message and creativity. Food for thought, songs for mosh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evaTG-Pco2c
WOUNDS OF RECOLLECTION - WARM GLOW OF THE END OF EVERYTHING
The annals of black metal, regardless of sub-genre, are filled with one-person projects. A lot of them, unsurprisingly, aren't great. Yet Wounds Of Recollection, the musical output of one particular Atlana-based individual, is quite good, actually. Now, the cooly titled Warm Glow of the End of Everything isn’t some original piece of post-black metal. However, it is a highly competent, extremely well-written one that thoroughly achieves its clear goalposts. Blast beats, well-timed pedal stomps, pained screams, tragic lyrical content, huge walls of sound and plenty of Deafheaven worship abound. It's good stuff! Wrap yourself up in it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxIRd2cG_JY
INCENDIARY - CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT PAIN
One of the year's most critical hardcore records, this is the New York group's finest release so far, bar no other. Change The Way You Think About Pain finds Incendiary's songwriting and sound sharper than ever - heavier, too - and the band has never felt so polished and aggressive. It doesn’t waste a single second, creating a record that more or less captures what it feels like to witness 2023 first-hand. This is consistently furious and energised American hardcore with so much to say about the struggles of the self whilst existing amidst the societal and political debris of an ever-fraying world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOzu8IqKczI
BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS - REJECTING OBLITERATION
Much like its excellent 2021 predecessor, Rejecting Obliteration is an excellent slab of progressive death metal, positioning these New Zealanders as one of extreme metal’s best acts currently. Ludicrously intensive and bleak, crushingly heavy and technical, yet memorable and streamlined, with dynamic instrumental breaks and organic production to boot, this monster sees the band cranking it up a notch. Seldom few do it as well as Blindfolded And Led To The Woods. Someone tell Kapper about these guys pronto!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ET9LUyl-C8
LIES – LIES
At this point in their musical careers, the Kinsella's can seemingly do no wrong, it seems. Here, Mike and Nate reunite for a lovely new project, called LIES. Far away from the pair's past mid-west emo works in American Football or for those who celebrate, Joan Of Arc, LIES is a glorious tapestry of glittering synth-pop, trance-inducing loops, bright strings and some of the cousins' biggest arrangements to date. (Both as individuals and in their other projects.) It's a beautiful, eclectic record from two men who not only still have something to say but are evidently nowhere near past their primes as songwriters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQybuKLIFC4
FROMJOY - FROMJOY
Remember Underneath, Code Orange’s best album? Course you do! Fromjoy's incredible self-titled record is sorta like that release, except this is even moodier, far heavier, more electronic, and sounds like that kickass Code Orange LP was fucking melting. Brutal, emotional, glitchy and creative forward-thinking musical chaos, this one be. This crusher rewired my brain at times; one of my favourite discoveries of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbpvKuIWn9k
ENDLESS, NAMELESS - LIVING WITHOUT
Featuring my favourite guitar work of 2023, outside of Guitar Fight from Fooly Cooly's latest EP and that wicked new Burner album, we have Endless, Nameless' Living Without, one of the year’s greatest accomplishments. A band that's definitely not named after a popular song by a totally iconic grunge band or anything, this quartet pull off punchy, proggy math-rock over very tiny splatterings of skramz and blackgaze. Another winner from Silent Pendulum Records, who brought us that killer Sleepscultpor album above, Endless, Nameless delivers stellar performances matched with lively recordings and dynamic songwriting. Certainly don't live through the rest of 2023 without being around this beauty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hTW9HVc4Tc&list=OLAK5uy_mk-yCKZODIMDpfeahj4V3VbpzRge54EsM
THE ST. PIERRE SNAKE INVASION - GALORE
First off, dope name! Second off, Galore sees The St. Pierre Snake Invasion undergo metamorphosis, now performing a superb balancing act between heavy noise-rock, dance-punk, alt-pop and even some electronica, eschewing most of their previous hardcore-orientated ways. (Though fierce remnants slice through occasionally.) Filled with angular riffs, on-edge moods, captivating vocals, biting bass lines and a penchant for truly pummeling choruses, Galore is like Queens Of The Stone Age and Death From Above 1979 bickering over who'll tour with Nine Inch Nails whilst Every Time I Die watches on with glee. It’s dark, infectious, loud, and - I really can’t stress this next part enough – fuckin’ sick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cORrKNZ_VA
YAZMIN LACEY - VOICE NOTES
Yazmin Lacey’s latest LP isn't anything more or less than what it needed to be. It's a great singer moving her lovely vocals over solid beats and lush production with good vibes aplenty. Voice Notes is an album where the “imperfections” are what make it such fun, what makes it feel homey and friendly. A wonderful RnB/soul release with hints of funk and jazz, and one that swept me off my feet once it got going. Nothing wrong with diversifying your musical platter with more than just heavy music, after all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojp1BXMrDwY
Entropia – Total
Entropia’s approach to music is so interesting to me. See, just when you’ve got them figured out - BOOM! They shapeshift into something else. Total sounds like heavy music from the future sent back to us Terminator style in order to make that future a reality one day. A sublime blend of technicality and extremity, of melody and psychedelia, organic and electronic, this is staggering. Hell, maybe even overwhelming at times. Four albums in and this Polish collective just signed off on their best work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft_3vuhE8B4
Phoxjaw – Notverynicecream
Super weird and chaotic shit? That's my biggest kink! Phoxjaw is one of those very cool, very rare bands that always surprise. This is a band that only really sounds like them. Their odd-ball, from-left-field approach to alternative, post-hardcore, punk and dissonance place them in a category mostly of their own making. Notverynicecream only emboldens them further. Like a nursery rhyme twisted beyond recognition or a panicked descent into a feverish nightmare, the U.K. group's latest album is an eccentric experiment set loose. An album that goes from this to this in the span of a single track. Geez and I thought their last record was good; Notverynicecream is on a whole other planet!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pwm1ixOqAg
Pupil Slicer – Blossom
Pupil Slicer have grown up a lot since their 2021 debut album, the extreme underground hit, Mirrors. Both as people and as musicians, that much is crystal clear from the first few movements of Blossom. A rare sophomore album from a young band that doesn't care about laurel-resting, and is out to prove that no one can box them in. Blossom really was an accurate title, as the U.K. trio's mathy musical madness truly blossoms out into newer realms for them, offering something familiar and in some instances, real surprises as well. Recreating the serrated sights and sounds of Mirrors would've been easy and safe (and I still probably would've liked it), but there's no chance it would have been anywhere near as good or as interesting as this sophomore's approach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL_ncCzAq-E
HOME IS WHERE - THE WHALER
With harmonica in hand and folksy intentions at the front of their minds, Home Is Where delivers prime, roaring indie-emo content for 2023 with The Whaler. Honestly, this is the best follow-up to their damn fine 2021 EP that I personally could've hoped for. Through solid hooks, a great track flow and album dynamic, astute lyrical observations and high levels of melancholia, with bolder and even more chaotic directions, Home Is Where sounds like they're right at home here, funnily enough. Better yet, no whales were harmed in the making of this album. (I mean, probably, I assume so.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXGOwsz85Sg
JUDICIARY - FLESH + BLOOD
Another excellent hardcore release in the robust form of Judiciary's Flesh + Blood? Someone somewhere keeps answering my selfish musical wishes. (Who said thoughts and prayers were useless?) Judiciary finally cops the slick production foundation required to match their fearsome, thrashy metallic hardcore framework, resulting in front-to-back the Texas unit's strongest release. Solos and divebombs fire off rapidly, mosh parts are bountiful, and constant moments of instrumental violence rip through this sucker without warning. You could tell from the pre-release singles this was going to be a serious ass-beater, and the full release made good on that threat. Closed Casket Activities once again delivering the goods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv9xx1QDfkQ
JYOCHO - AS THE GODS SAY
In early 2023, Netflix released a new adaption of various Junji Ito works. A hero of Japanese horror, Ito’s mangas – his detailed artwork, creepy stories, and sense of humour - are iconic. Army Of One, Window Next Door, Town Without Streets, Enigma of Amigara Fault - all memorable, chilling works. Some of his stories, once again (IYKYK), received the anime treatment. For the ending credits of each episode, sometimes in stark contrast to what's just preceded it, this bright piece of Japanese math-pop would jump out. One Google search later, and I find that it’s by a pretty neat band called Jyocho, who make these jazzy, simple-yet-complicated and highly catchy compositions. A lot like what's found on their latest four-track EP, As The Gods Say. Sometimes it really is meant to be, you know?
LOMA PRIETA – LAST
Here we have some beautiful, noisy waves to sink deep below. Just an utter whirlwind of emotions all backed up by one hell of a punch, Last is an evocative and erratic hardcore punk/screamo listen from underground legends Loma Prieta. It's an album as joyous as it is distorted, which is to say of both aspects, a hell of lot! Given the name, is it their final outing? Only the band themselves would have any clue about that one, but as it currently stands, this would be a colossal high point to end matters on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1mjuR96lkk
THE ONGOING CONCEPT - AGAIN
This first album in six years by The Ongoing Concept is like a reboot of a movie franchise that hasn’t had an entry in aeons. Except here it’s a wicked blend of metalcore, rock, country, pop, and southern, seeing the U.S. band returning with their strongest lineup, taking songs from the previous two albums and gloriously reworking them. Some have entire arrangements altered, others remain practically the same in riffs and tempo and hooks but vocal arrangements, various instrumental lines and certain lyrics are rephrased in delivery and context. Some are blends of old ideas with completely new choices. But no matter which, it all works! With their production now finally on par with their deep musical creativity, Again is a phenomenal re-introduction to one of the better yet underrated Solid State acts around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2utdcQD5Js
dust - et cetera, etc
Okay, I lied. There are actually 21 albums in this list. Please don't tell the Wall Of Sound High Council, they'll put me back in the hole again. I hate it down there, guys, it's dark and it smells like I'm not the first one to be put down there. So this will be our little secret, yeah? Great! So, dust are a rad indie post-punk band from Newcastle, and one of the coolest new Aussie acts breaking through this year. They're kinda like Iceage meets IDLES except they're from here. Which automatically makes them better in the eyes of us Aussies, right? I think that's the rule. Anyway, they're doing cool shit, and are slowly taking over the country and soon enough, the world. Here's a proper banger off of their wonderful et cetera, etc EP, saxophones and all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrzzozZaXIA
Written by Alex Sievers
