The Best of 2023 Year-End Poll is Now Open!
[PLEASE NOTE: This post will remain on top of the page until the poll ends in January. New posts will appear directly underneath. Thanks.]
Best post, best time of the year. I’ll admit the year-end poll kind of snuck up on me in 2023 because, well, that’s pretty much everything, but I’m glad we’re here and I know there’s a ton of music that’s come out in the last 11-plus months worth celebrating.
I’m extremely excited to see what people select as the best offerings of the year, not the least since I don’t consider Album of the Year to be a settled issue for me personally. It’s always a pleasure to watch the lists roll in and see the frame of the year take shape. 2023 has been overwhelmingly packed with releases, and I can imagine a tight race for the top spot. Our maybe I’m wrong and everybody will just turn in the same five records over and over. That’s fun too.
Every year is different. What were the highlights of your 2023?
Rules and whatnot follow the form below:
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Thanks for reading and taking part. Please share the link if you can.
Same rules as always and here they are cut and pasted from last year: Anything from Jan. 2023 to whatever’s coming out between now and Dec. 31 is eligible. If something is out digitally now and physical later and you want to include it, do so. Two lists are tabulated; one of the raw votes, and one in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one.
I said this last year too: If you’re not sure what counts or what to include, please know that the intent here is to be as open as possible. In all things, when you can, err on the side of inclusion. If you’re the only person who votes for a thing, so much the better to turn other people onto it.
As ever, I extend deepest gratitude to you for participating and to Slevin, who even amid a move to Chicago and needing this crap like a hole in the head generally continues to support the site and help it run every now and again. Thank you.
Poll runs until Dec. 31, 2023, unless I decide to give it an extra day. Barring disaster, eesults will be out Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024, along with individual lists.
Have fun, and thanks again!
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Tags: Best of 2023 Year-End Poll, Readers Poll, The Obelisk, The Obelisk Best of 2023 Year-End Poll
Life is precious because it is short whether I choose to wallow in misery is irrelevant etc etc yadda yadda yadda time is moving too quickly and is a construct and speeds up as you move through it blah blah blah how are we to maintain a sense of hope amidst this seemingly all-encompassing bleak future in almost every front and sense one could envision ellipsis ellipsis
YOU KNOW WHAT, I get all that shit, I’ll be honest; I love this post too. It marks my own time, it helps me see why I love life, or particularly living/decorating my time with music, and this year certainly has seen plenty of wonderful records. I feel like my purpose at this point is to find out what my year looked like BECAUSE of these riffs. Every year. It’s fucking cold, I’m fucking tired, I’m a poor working person who is exhausted and addicted to live music, the holiday music makes me metaphorically genocidal, but good got damn. What a lovely year it has been.
This’ll take me too much time to figure out but it’s always worth pretending this can be quantified. We’re all winning with all these riffs, none of it really matters, yeah yeah sure sure, I hear you.
Thanks for doing this, every year, it’s always a joy to see how this all shakes out.
It was pretty clear to me the last few years which albums were going to be at the top. I’m a lot less certain this year as there were a lot of good releases but nothing clearly head and shoulders above the rest.
As usual though, I’ll be using the results to determine what goodies I missed. Thanks for doing it again!
I am not going to over think this and go with what I immediately feel.
1. Acid King
2. Mammatus
3. Bell Witch
4. Howling Giant
5. Mondo Drag
6. Owl
7. Yawning Man
8. Rezn
9. Fire Down Below
10. Mudhoney
11. Handgemeng
12. Hippie Death Cult
13. Black Helium
14. Mondo Generator
15. Giant Brain
16. Dorthia Cottrell
17. Duskwood
18. High Desert Queen/Blue Heron Split
19. Demons My Friends
20. Thunderhorse
Now that I have posted something, I am sure I will shuffle things around. But got to start somewhere. And still waiting for new Mars Red Sky to come out, which I am sure would have made the list I had I waited to post something. But I just want to get this out of the way, not waste too much time thinking over this.
Been out of the loop with a lot of newer music this year but managed to pick a few bangers in the mix. Glad to see it’s still going strong.
Keeping an eye out for labels like Echodelick, Ramble, Desert and Somewherecold going into 2024. Those are the four small labels I lean heavily towards these days.
I have Dungeon Weed’s The Eye of the Icosahedron as my #1 but when I look at Discogs it says it came out initially on cassette (cmon) in 2022 before a proper vinyl release in January 2023.
Not sure if it counts, but it’s a great album.
Keep in mind I’m the Old Hippie in the wilderness looking for anything that could be put right next to the Classics of the late 60’s/early 70s, the Rebirth of the early-mid 90’s, and the OG that defined the Stoner Rock Genre of the late 90’s/00’s… Psychedelic Stoner Rock is NOT dead, it just smells funny… Please check out my Psychedelic Genocide Compilation on BandCamp and my Alternate Reality Show on WRUW-FM and WRUW.ORG… PeAcE…
Oh man!! Forgot to put UADA’s new one in my list. It was in my top 10 for sure. Dammit!
My The Obelisk Top 20
1.Rezn – Silent Future
2.Mars red sky – daw of the dusk
3.Stone of duna – Moonsplitter
4.Siena Root – Revelation
5.Rezn – Solace
6.Graveyard – 6
7.The Re-stoned – spectrum
8.high on fire – art of the self defence
9.IAH – v
10. Mondo drag – through the hourglass
11. Los mundos – eco del universo
12. Bike – arte bruta
13. Church of misery – born under a mad sing
14. Green lung – this heathen land
15. Pelegrin – Ways of avicenna
16. Kind – Close encouters
17. Acid magus – hope is heavy
18. High leaf – vision quest
19. Swam valley heights – terminal forest
20. Blood ceremony – the old ways remain
It’s always difficult to make a “TOP ‘whatever’ LIST”. Some bands/albums/songs hit different at different times. We’re incredibly fortunate to have such an incredible amount of new music in 2023, but I do not envy JJ and the rest of the doom/stoner/heavy underground press for having to sort through the incredible amount of submissions. Huge ups to all of these writers/bloggers/etc. for taking the time to do what they do!
As is the case every year, I feel great about 1-5 (Somnuri, Restless Spirit, Green Lung, Howling Giant, Zalomon Grass), pretty good about 6-10 (Witch Ripper, Blackbraid, Djunah, Beastwars, and Dozer) and then from 11-20 is a free for all with very little difference between them and, say, 21-30.
A lot of good music this year and I have no doubt – as is often the case – an album I hadn’t considered will hit my hard six months from now and I’ll be disappointed it wasn’t given its proper due.
Either way, thank you very much for another excellent year of The Obelisk. I’ve enjoyed reading, learning, and discovering new bands and albums. I appreciate you and all the hard work that goes in.
Peace!
“I have no doubt – as is often the case – an album I hadn’t considered will hit my hard six months from now and I’ll be disappointed it wasn’t given its proper due.”
Ha, always the case!
https://witchsnake69.bandcamp.com/album/deathcult-of-the-snake
https://ohsees.bandcamp.com/album/intercepted-message
https://detoxunit.bandcamp.com/album/liminal
https://chiefofsmoke.bandcamp.com/album/short-cuts-2023
https://allswordsburn.bandcamp.com/album/wearer-of-numerous-forms
https://nomestomper.bandcamp.com/album/mossy-cobblestone-candleight-pagan-nomestomper
https://dhyanadoom.bandcamp.com/album/dzogchen