Around each new year I remember what music the outgoing year was about. Not breaking tradition. I'm recalling ten albums without which I can't imagine 2023.

The top won't even have the new Enter Shikari album, which this time passed me by a bit.

There won't be, of course, the Meteora reissue from Linkin Park either, that would be unfair to other artists, and it's hard to consider it a separate work that I usually talk about.

There also won't be releases from grandson, WLVS, тринадцать карат, Asking Alexandria, nothing nowhere, ПИКЧИ!, PALC, алёна швец, TesseracT, Skrillex, Lana Del Rey, Fall Out Boy, polnalyubvi, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Пневмослон, Maneskin, Holding Absense, Mnogoznaal and many, many others that were memorable only for individual tracks.

This year the top turned out to be, to some extent, unexpected. At the beginning of the year I could have assumed many of the above in it, but not those who actually ended up in it. That's how I want it this time.

Albums

10. 100 gecs - 10,000 gecs

100 gecs is probably the brightest description of the sound I wanted to hear, which is why I'm putting them at the very beginning of the top.

The sound of 100 gecs for me best describes the beginning of the 2020s. As if I've already listened to enough of my classic metalcore and rap, not to mention any alternative, and I was drawn to weirdness.

And this is weirdness in the best sense of the word. A very iconic group, even considering the relative youth of the project.

9. Лилу - Марионетки, клоуны

Modern Russian-language female pop, but with guitars like from the early tens. Literally from the first listen hooked with its catchiness and fat sound. Immediately added several tracks to my collection. In general, I got into it.

Тонкий лёд, feat with TRITIA, and solo ЕБДГО - sound amazing. And Йо-Йо with Пол Пуншем generally takes you back to the end of the tens to the very heyday of Пошлая Молли. In general, guilty pleasure of the year.

8. Грязь - По дороге в психбольницу, Ч.1

An album that I abandoned after a couple of listens. And then a night concert reminded me that I should listen again. A psychological thriller for 46 minutes. You have to approach it in the mood. I really still haven't figured out which mood. There's a feeling that in a good mood it will spoil it, and in a bad mood it's generally dangerous to listen to it.

But, one way or another, this is Грязь's best work since '19, it's worth noting.

After the album Denis released another single Кометы. And this is track of the year for me. I haven't played any other track on repeat like this. For this one alone the position in the top is already deserved.

7. Куок - ДЖАНГЛ

For me Куок opened up at the end of last year, when everyone was summing up 2022. Then Imago was thundering and a lot of people put it in their tops, but I caught up only with time.

Куок 90% sounds like Mujuice from the early tens. This is not surprising, considering that Куок himself repeatedly talked about Mujuice's music, that he was released on his label and has been friends with him since his youth. And if you perceive it this way, then the references are just obvious, and I really like it.

At the same time, for the remaining 10% Куок sounds like a mixture of all the new school, which gives a very fresh and interesting sound. Although ДЖАНГЛ is much more melancholic and thoughtful than Imago, which made it easier for me to love, but it's no less interesting. This is a very good poppy album.

6. Заточка - Острые края

Грязь with Заточка are the only ones on this list whose concerts I managed to attend. That was true even before the release of Острые края and from new songs we only heard singles there.

If an album by Заточка came out this year, then it will be in the top by default, that's the base. But they're listened to, as usual, over distance, I haven't gone that distance yet.

Yura's lyrics as usual are on point and cause laughter, Ilya in terms of music is breaking out more and more. Very glad that the guys grew to Moscow stadium. Just 5 years ago it was perceived more as a wonderful joke.

5. Paramore - This Is Why

Paramore after a long break returned with the best version of themselves since Brand New Eyes, well imho.

This is finally a bit less like Hayley Williams' solo work than the previous couple, and that's wonderful. All three in the band are wonderful. And they're, damn, only 33-35. They've been superstars for half their lives, and this experience is visible and audible in everything.

Thanks to This Is Why and recent concert recordings Paramore literally played with new colors and entered my pantheon. Got to the point that I re-listened to the entire discography several times and got a lot of pleasure.

The News from this album is listened to to death. It's musically incredible and the lyrics are right on point.

Every second, our collective heart breaks

All together, every single head shakes

Shut your eyes, but it won't go away

Turn on, turn off the news

Hayley's Nashville friend, also Spotify's top 1 artist Taylor Swift, is taking Paramore on tour through Europe in 2024. Considering the galactic scale of her popularity, for Paramore this could be a takeoff to the same space, although now it's hard to call them unknown.

4. saypink! - Когда погаснет свет

This year I listened to quite a lot of contemporary stuff and saypink! definitely stood out from all of it. Very high quality and very, by the way, diverse pop rock, power pop if you will.

There's everything here. From amazing bangers for slamming, to melancholic ballads for girls. Well, drum-and-bass beats and flirtations with electronics are always the surest way to end up in my playlist. For fans of the new wave of Russian rock like Мукка, Три Дня Дождя and similar - should go down perfectly.

In the post-Soviet space five years ago they found a new formula for how to write hits and continue to abuse it. So far it's still a blast.

3. Saluki - WILD EA$T

Wild East - is 25 tracks, each of which is molded like a patchwork quilt from several seemingly completely unrelated parts, but at the same time each of them fits perfectly into the overall picture. This is generally Saluki's style.

Perhaps this is the most interesting rap album of the year on the planet, not to mention those written in Russian. We live in interesting times.

2. Sleep Token - Take Me Back To Eden

I have a craving for bands that hide their faces, ha-ha. Slipknot, Hollywood Undead, Феофан, now Sleep Token too.

It's simply impossible to miss this album, honestly. Everyone I follow has been talking about it all year. The release of Take Me Back To Eden is 100% the main event of the year in metal.

And when I say metal, it's unlikely to even come to mind that on this album Sleep Token sound like all the bands you can think of at once. The most obvious thing that comes to my mind is like Panic At The Disco and indie like Hozier with breakdowns, some djent riffs, with very heavy and very heartfelt music. And because of this the crusty metal community hates this album a bit, saying not true, poppy. Yes, poppy, but it's a blast though.

For special connoisseurs, Vessel's British accent is just the cherry on top.

Here in an hour-long timeline you won't have enough fingers on all hands to count the moments when you're sitting in complete confusion about how after what you heard 10 seconds ago this even started, what you're hearing now.

The degree of paradoxicality can be raised even more by remembering the fact that The Summoning is popular on TikTok. It's a 6 and a half minute track.

Top. From a band warming up for Architects, to a band more popular and hyped than Architects in a year. In 2024 touring with BMTH, and there maybe even headlining European festivals, although for that they'd need to release something similar again.

1. Kickrox - THE NOTE(s)

Discovery of the year for me along with Sleep Token. I haven't listened to and re-listened to anything more actively this year. One of the best albums in heavy music in Russian in recent years, for me for sure.

Kickrox - this is really heavy music with a bit of the most tender vocals drowned in it. This is an amazing combination. Absolute dissonance in the head, but it's assembled into a single picture that you like. In this sense it's like Sleep Token or Deftones at home.

The sound of the record is worked out just to the smallest details. For a young band the level is amazing. In general Kickrox is not only about music, it's also about the visual component. Videos, covers, style - it's all a blast.

I love giving the top spot to little-known guys. This time is no exception. There's a feeling that these are the new stars of our heavy scene.

Conclusions

While writing this text, I caught myself on how often I talk about some dissonances and non-standard moves. This probably says something about me as someone who's completely lost it, who got bored with all "my" standard stuff. Well, basically that's true. Russian-language music this year prevailed heavily over English-language for me. There wasn't very much heavy music in the playlist like any rap. Well, okay, an interesting year it turned out.

Playlist

Also by tradition I collected a playlist with favorite songs of this year.