In Helsinki and still looking for something to do this weekend? Don’t hesitate and start your festival season early by going to Desert Hel 2024 that has a stellar line-up with Finnish bands Heezer, Orbiter, Polymoon, Kairon; IRSE!, Dome Runner, Skyjoggers, Mansion and Maan Tomu and excellent visitors from abroad with Italian doom rockers on the rise Messa and stoner rock legends Truckfighters! If that doesn’t convince you enough, be sure to read more details on why we think you should go!
After the team sent in their top lists at the end of last year, and calculating the results, we got to an interesting “albums of the year 2023” list featuring releases from Marduk, Kludde, Blink-182, Blackbraid, Orbit Culture, Gloryhammer, Ne Obliviscaris, Hypno5e, Periphery, Dying Fetus, Obituary, Avatar, Svalbard, VV and Sleep Token! Do you agree with any of these? What did you have in your top list?
Samoht was clearly somewhat inspired by dark Americana and country inspired music looking at his albums of the year 2023 list featuring artists like Dorthia Cottrell, Osi and the Jupiter, Wayfarer and The Coffinshakers, but also massive albums by bands like Frozen Soul, Serpent’s Oath, SLOW, OAK, Smoulder and Bell Witch!
Xavier apparently spent more time catching up with what he missed in 2022, than discovering new releases in a year that he seemed somewhat disappointed about what was coming out. He still picked out a handful of releases that stuck out for him with Nytt Land, Avatar, Gloryhammer, Kludde and Dymna Lotva!
Gary’s albums of the year venture away from our more standard metal selection with a bunch of stellar punk releases from bands like The Bar Stool Preachers, Grade 2, The Darts, The Dollyrots, Rumkicks and Rancid, but also sidesteps into other music like the special brand of rock that Public Image Ltd. brings, blues rock with Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton, an acoustic Dropkick Murphys and a trip back into time, reminiscing about London’s legendary Batcave Club!
While we are still regularly looking back at what 2023 brought us, we of course also need to look forward. So here is the first edition of our 2024 series of articles where we bring the editorial team’s most anticipated releases with Escuela Grind, Green Day, The Empire Strikes, Saxon, Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, Static-X, The Gems, Lucifer, Manticora and Hiraes in January!
With Glenn’s selection of his albums of the year, there is a bunch of metalcore, deathcore, djent and some surprising entries with Thy Art Is Murder, Avenged Sevenfold, Within Temptation, Tesseract, Avatar, In Flames, Sleep Token, Periphery, Invent Animate, and Chelsea Grin!
Our resident extreme metal reviewer Mazen has a selection of stellar (mostly) black and death metal releases as his favorite of the year with Sulphur Aeon, Varathron, Moonlight Sorcery, Cruciamentum, Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Asphodelus, Marduk, …And Oceans, and Cirith Ungol!
Annet’s favorite albums of the year 2023 involve a mix of punk rock and modern metal, bringing in loads of emotions going from deep and intense, to fun and light with albums from Green Day, Enter Shikari, Hexa Mera, Chris Maragoth, Powerwolf, Nanowar of Steel, Angus McSix, Blink-182, Gloryhammer and Bury Tomorrow!
The summer festival season is over, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of exciting fests happening over the next couple of months this autumn/winter in Finland with Helsinki Techfest and Kaamos Metal Cruise already this weekend, HKI SKEPU FEST V, Lost In Music, Steelchaos, Hellsinki Industrial Festival 2023, Fall Fest 2023, Black Box Mikkeli, Melancholy Mass Festival 2023 and Unholy Winter Fest!
