While 2023 was full of tons of incredible full length releases, it was also a great year for EPs. I found myself digging through a cornucopia of excellent short form releases that came out, many of which are from right here in Montreal where I’m based. Read on to discover the top five extended plays that I enjoyed throughout 2023!
5. Kapitur – Covered in Dust
This debut effort from Montreal’s Kapitur is a pristine piece of emotionally gripping atmospheric doom metal that reminds me heavily of the works from fellow genre upstarts Faetooth and Newfoundland’s own occultic doomers in Hag as well as the slow burn eccentricities of Chelsea Wolfe. Melding elements of black metal and orchestral music into the mixture, the electric-cello-centric music of Kapitur is beautiful and terrifying all at once.
4. Oblivion Throne – Voidgazer
Absolutely crushing it with this new release, North Carolina’s Oblivion Throne popped up onto my radar for the first time with Voidgazer. It’s a tribute and callback to the glory days of 80’s heavy metal, mixing black metal and thrash metal together with elements of power metal to create a synthesized and distilled collaboration between the three styles. It’s ripping, catchy, and incredibly powerful.
3. The Order of the Precious Blood – I No Longer Wish for Salvation
My Newfoundland homies in The Order of the Precious Blood sure came out with a scorcher on this EP. Incredibly effective local marketing campaign aside, the music on this thing is described by the band as “experimental blackened hardcore”, and I think that’s an apt description. The group throws elements of bands as mathy as The Dillinger Escape Plan or Converge together with the catchy rock and roll vibes of Cancer Bats or Kvelertak. It’s an impeccable collaboration of styles that works wonders on this debut.
2. Held – Held
This one is perhaps the most surprising for me on this list. When my pals Tyler and David, who play in this bind, described this thing as “shoegaze” and “butt rock” respectively, I wasn’t sure what to expect or if I would like it at all. To my complete shock I fell head over heels in love with it. This EP is just so damn catchy, man. Every song on here ticks all my boxes for the kind of grungy melodies that I crave from this style of atmospheric rock music. It’s a stellar debut and makes me incredibly excited for whatever Held has in store next.
1. Murtenscythe – Vodyanoy
Another surprise for me this year was this new EP from my fellow Montrealers in Murtenscythe. The band hadn’t released anything new in ages and their older stuff was good, but not necessarily something that caught my attention. With this thing though? Oh man. All that changed on Vodyanoy. This EP is a master class in melding complex instrumentation and song structures together with melodies that have absolutely no business being as infectious as they are. In a genre like melodic death metal where every other band sounds like a cheap Arch Enemy or Amon Amarth knockoff, Murtenscythe inject their own flavour into it and make it a genre that’s actually worth listening to again. Incredible release.
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 