Year Currently Covered: 2023

Hey folks! Welcome to the greatly coveted Guib Awards! Instead of creating a list every year, I've decided to make a single one that will change yearly to feature my favorite albums of the past one. So this first iteration will feature albums for 2023!

I will not be covering every genre nor a specific one and I won't limit myself to a single album per genre. It will literally be my absolute favorites of the year currently covered or albums that I listened to a lot more than I'd like to admit, so this won't be as big as my usual lists. Also, I will only cover a maximum of 50 albums, all featured on MS and they will be placed in alphabetical order (of the band's name).

Hope some of you will agree with me, but as always... It doesn't really matter, does it?

Cheers to good music and have fun!

Note: Albums with a "√" are albums I voted for in one of the categories of the last MS awards.

Last Updated: April 15th, 2024

1.Altarage - Worst Case Scenario

2.Baroness - Stone

3.Bloodletter - A Different Kind Of Hell

4.Capra - Errors

5.CauseNeffect - Validation Through Suffering

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A new list at the end of the year. And as always with the same statistics that might be interesting to you.

This year's numbers:

- 140 albums
- Total points given: 1049,1
- Average score: 7,49/10

- Albums with a score of 7 or above: 81,43%
- Albums with a score of 8 or above: 28,57%
- Albums with a score of 9 or above: 0,71%

- Albums with a score of 5 or below: 1,43%

Nationalities: 33

- USA: 33 - 23,57%
- UK: 10 - 7,14%
- Germany: 9 - 6,43%
- Greece: 9 - 6,43%
- Sweden: 9 - 6,43%
- Brazil: 5 - 3,57%
- France: 5 - 3,57%
- Italy: 5 - 3,57%
- Mexico: 5 - 3,57%
- Norway: 5 - 3,57%
- Belgium: 4 - 2,86%
- Chile: 4 - 2,86%
- Finland: 4 - 2,86%
- Hungary: 4 - 2,86%
- Poland: 4 - 2,86%
- Spain: 4 - 2,86%
- Argentina: 2 - 1,43%
- Canada: 2 - 1,43%
- Cyprus: 2 - 1,43%
- India: 2 - 1,43%
- New Zealand: 2 - 1,43%
- Serbia: 2 - 1,43%
- Bulgaria: 1 - 0,71%
- Colombia: 1 - 0,71%
- Ireland: 1 - 0,71%
- Japan: 1 - 0,71%
- Morocco: 1 - 0,71%
- Puerto Rico: 1 - 0,71%
- Russia: 1 - 0,71%
- Slovenia: 1 - 0,71%
- Switzerland: 1 - 0,71%
- The Netherlands: 1 - 0,71%
- Ukraine: 1 - 0,71%

1.Hmunga - Crimson

2.Wardaemon - Black Metal Wardaemons

3.Elvenking - Reader Of The Runes - Rapture

4.From The Ages - II

5.Popiór - Pomarlisko

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1.Shylmagoghnar - Convergence

2.Sacred Outcry - Towers Of Gold

3.Fires In The Distance - Air Not Meant For Us

4.Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite

5.Moonlight Sorcery - Horned Lord Of The Thorned Castle

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1.Disembowelment - Transcendence Into The Peripheral

2.Weakling - Dead As Dreams

3.Greylotus - Dawnfall

4.John Petrucci - An Evening With John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess [Collaboration]

5.John Petrucci - Suspended Animation

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1.Hanging Garden - The Garden

2.Katatonia - Sky Void Of Stars

3.Obituary - Dying Of Everything

4.Runemagick - Beyond The Cenotaph Of Mankind

5.Dødheimsgard - Black Medium Current

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2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015

1.Prognan - Naši Životi Više Ne Postoje

2.Non Est Deus - Legacy

3.Fires In The Distance - Air Not Meant For Us

4.Hypno5e - Sheol

5.Aara - Triade III: Nyx

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I've been meaning to start a 2023 list for quite a while, just trying to keep up, so here is the start of it. These are the albums that impressed me. I will update the list, obviously a work in progress.

1.Riverside - ID.Entity

2.Klone - Meanwhile

3.Zopp - Dominion

4.All My Shadows - Eerie Monsters

5.The Enigma Division - The Enigma Division

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New releases - albums, EPs and singles

1.Haavard - Haavard

2.Insomnium - Anno 1696

3.Killing Joke - Full Spectrum Dominance

4.Hanging Garden - The Garden

5.Gggolddd - I Let My Hair Grow

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1.Avenged Sevenfold - Life Is But A Dream...

2.Metallica - 72 Seasons

3.Voice Of Baceprot - Retas

4.Nospūn - Opus

5.Dominum - Hey Living People

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1.Riverside - ID.Entity

2.Katatonia - Sky Void Of Stars

3.Obituary - Dying Of Everything

4.Uriah Heep - Chaos & Colour

5.In Flames - Foregone

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1.Amorphis - Queen Of Time - Live At Tavastia 2021

2.Riverside - ID.Entity

3.Ne Obliviscaris - Exul

4.Finsterforst - Jenseits

5.Paradise Lost - Icon 30

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1.Flesh Of The Stars - The Glass Garden

2.Dødheimsgard - Black Medium Current

3.TesseracT - War Of Being

4.The Ocean - Holocene

5.Ne Obliviscaris - Exul

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The list has gone back to it's original format: my favorites of the year regrouped and ordered by release date (now earliest at the top). The ranked list thing didn't work out for me in the end.

1.Ahab - The Coral Tombs

2.Beyond The Black - Beyond The Black

3.Crom - The Era Of Darkness

4.Haxprocess - The Caverns Of Duat

5.Obituary - Dying Of Everything

      View entire list ››

My top 50 albums of 2023

1.Shylmagoghnar - Convergence

2.Atavistia - Cosmic Warfare

3.Saturnus - The Storm Within

4.Fires In The Distance - Air Not Meant For Us

5.Ne Obliviscaris - Exul

      View entire list ››

Pretty much everything I’ve listened to this year, let me know what I’ve missed and what you’ve found and cheers to 2024 being even better 🍻

Check out my seven favorite album covers that I’ve looked at so many times this year, they’re fucking awesome:















Here’s a link to some of my favorite songs from the year, max 2 per album: Best Songs of 2023

1.Silent Planet - Superbloom

2.Sermon - Of Golden Verse

3.Voice Of Baceprot - Retas

4.Bees Made Honey In The Vein Tree - Aion

5.TesseracT - War Of Being

      View entire list ››