Best Death Metal Albums of 2023

We are talking about an institution in death metal and, consequently, a must-have on the list. With an extensive discography behind them, Cannibal Corpse released one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Does the wait for this live up to the hype? I have to confess that I was never a big fan of the group, and that’s the reason why their album doesn’t rank higher on the list. If I have to compare it to their previous albums, we’re not facing one of their best creations. Following the same line as always, Chaos Horrific is a bit more restrained in aggression, although it remains excessive in Cannibal Corpse’s catalog. What is clear is this: if you want something monstrous and heavy, put on Chaos Horrific, and you’ll get what you’re looking for.

Very, very progressive death metal. For my taste, too much so. It’s as if they lose their way a bit in the song compositions, but when they find their path again, it ends up sounding fantastic, blending death metal with jazz. However, they offer a good album experience with smooth transitions, and it perhaps fits more into my style than Chaos Horrific. The production is really good. I prefer the sections with the jazz fusion over the other sections, which I think have less freshness and spark than when The Enduring Spirit becomes more bizarre.

Vomitory has released another really heavy album. It fits a bit more into my preferences than Cannibal Corpse’s work since it brings together more variety, within reason, of elements and styles. All Heads Are Gonna Roll is tremendously frantic and beastly. The production is quite good, and I always like to perceive the bass lines along with the rest of the instruments, without fading into the background. It also has some interesting touches of thrash metal. Perhaps the vocals could be improved, as it seems a bit “homemade” to me. But as I said before, instrumentally, the production is good.

Sulphur Aeon present us a more evolutionary album, Seven Crowns and Seven Seals, one of those that has its more beastly parts, others softer with acoustic sections, alternation between monstrous and clean vocals… It has all the ingredients to be a good album, but I think it fails to meet expectations as it progresses. The production is not the best in the world, and the clean vocals are not very convincing… But the goal of an album as such is to get the listener to listen to it from start to finish. Sulphur Aeon achieves this even with its imperfections because they have managed to understand how to structure the album’s phases well.

The Howling Silence is a dirty, heavy, dark, frantic album… even dissonant at certain moments. But I like it. I like that combination of elements, resulting in a quite eclectic and entertaining composition. However, I believe it’s not an album to listen to in one go because it’s quite abrasive. But listening to 2-3 songs in a row does provide a good experience to induce some solid headbangs. The tone used in the guitar is very cool.

I hesitated about including this album in the top of black metal or death metal. I think that, despite obviously having elements of black metal, it fits more into death metal due to its ferocity, rhythms, and so on. May the Night Fall is abrasive, hard, sinister, and unsettling. It has more old-school songs like “Haunt Me” and others that are more transgressive like “Breath of Satan.” Throughout the album, there are a couple of points to rest from the onslaught to which the listener is subjected, which is appreciated and clever on their part. Both at the level of individual tracks and as a whole, May The Night Fall is a quite complete album, without faltering at any point, but it also does not stand out excessively in others.

One of the most acclaimed releases in the death metal scene, and the truth is that it is totally justified. Terrasite is a very entertaining album, with hard riffs, bizarre and varied vocals… Terrasite is as corrosive as it gets and produces rejection in the first attempts, but if you trust a little, you end up appreciating the brutality and epicness proposed by Cattle Decapitation. It may even put you in a bad mood and give you a stern face, but that’s its goal… And it fulfills it perfectly. I particularly like the title track, “We Eat Our Young,” and “Scourge of the Offspring.” Loved the album art by the way.

With Cursed Mortality, the Belgians bring us a work that at times can remind us of the renowned Death, especially if we listen to “Replicant” with that instrumental tone of lament and mystique. However, as soon as the abominable vocals and thunderous drums kick in, they start to take separate paths, and we see that it has little to do with Death, especially speaking in general terms. Cursed Mortality is a fierce album, full of power but with control, featuring exquisite production. You can even appreciate old-school guitar solos, as in “Maruta.” All in all, a very well-executed work.

Horrendous has earned the affection and respect of the metal scene in general (and mine, as seen in this other post) with Ontological Mysterium, an album with echoes of the old school and a lot of fun. By merging the style of classic death metal with a more progressive approach, the final result is excellent, as is the overall structure of the album. In terms of duration, we could almost be talking about an EP. Whether album or EP, the point is that deciding to create a composition of 37 minutes is a very wise choice, as it’s easy to listen to the entire album in one go. Ontological Mysterium is, ultimately, a work that emanates inspiration.

And speaking of inspiration… What about Alkaloid and their album Numen? They have inspiration to spare. When it comes to Germans in terms of originality, idiosyncrasy, and virtuosity, I can’t think of many bands that can overshadow them. With Numen, they repeat the same formula as in previous works, but they are more refined in assembling the pieces to create a good album with a solid concept, something that didn’t happen in The Malkuth Grimoire, which could have been divided into two parts, for example.

The alternation of a wide range of voices, hard riffs with guitar effects like Gojira, changes in rhythm… The concept is highly original, and they manage to convey it through their sound, which is another dimension compared to the rest of the bands.”Qliphosis” perfectly reflects the essence of Alkaloid. As for my other favorite songs, there are Numen, “Clusterfuck,” and “Alpha Sur,” the longest on the album.

Numen may not be the perfect album, but the dose of originality and spark that Alkaloid brings to the table places it nowhere else but in the top of the death metal albums of 2023.