Release date: 10/27/2023
Origin: Denver, CO
Personnel: Shane McCarthy-guitar/vox, Joe Strong-Tuscelli-guitar, Jamie Hansen-bass/vox, Isaac Faulk-drums/keyboard
Coming in at #1 this year is Colorado’s Wayfarer. Wayfarer are one of these bands that blends a different musical genre into metal perspective. American Gothic pushes Wayfarer into the realms of the greats doing this kind of mashup of styles along with Panopticon and Huntsmen. American Gothic takes the music of the American Western frontier and combines it with a black metal style. The result is something truly magical. Think of this album as a metal version of the movie There Will Be Blood. This album is the kind of courageous creative swing that I love to see. The end product is really unlike anything else that came out in 2023. And for their unique sound and for just completely nailing it, Wayfarer is the holder the Metal Album of the Year for 2023.
5 flip flops out of 5
The final list:
- Wayfarer-American Gothic
- Baroness-Stone
- Graveyard-6
- The Ocean-Holocene
- Hinayana-Shatter and Fall
- In Flames-Foregone
- Soen-Memorial
- Panopticon-The Rime of Memory
- Mutoid Man-Mutants
- Enslaved-Heimdal
- Thron-Dust
- Harboured-Harboured
- Herod-Iconoclast
- Insomnium-Anno 1696
- Spirit Adrift-Ghost At the Gallows
- Church of Misery-Born Under a Mad Sign
- Primordial-How It Ends
- Imperium Dekadenz-Into Sorrow Evermore
- Royal Thunder-Rebuilding the Mountain
- Katatonia-Sky Void of Stars
DISPATCHES FROM THE VOID 