So here we are! Wrapping up the Top 50 Songs of 2023! Songs must have been released after 1/1/23, and only one entry per artist allowed!
This is Part III! If you missed Part II, you can check it out here.
10. Holding Absence – False Dawn
Holding Absence’s material across their first two albums was thoroughly enjoyable, with huge emo anthems that loosely delved into post-hardcore and metalcore. However, this year saw the release of their third album, and their finest work to date.
’False Dawn’ is the perfect example of this band’s evolution. Constructed in a similar vein as previous tracks from the band such as ‘Monochrome’, ‘Afterlife’, and ‘Beyond Belief’, this track is an immensely catchy affair that is crammed with huge choruses and fantastically singable melodies. But what makes it stand out is just how the band have truly perfected these elements.
Everything here is so much bigger and bolder than ever before, with Lucas Woodland’s lyricism in particular shining through. Grappling with imposter syndrome and existential dread, the songs cuts deep with bars such as ‘I’m mourning/All the versions/Of my person
I could have been’ and ‘From humble beginnings to humble ends/Yeah, I’m going nowhere – from whence I came’. Woodland’s incredibly evocative vocal performance is surrounded by instrumentation that perfectly balances the vibrant and catchy with the introspective and melancholy.
9. Paledusk feat. VIGORMAN – I’m ready to die for my friends
Not only did Paledusk drop of the best music videos of the year, the song that it accompanies is easily one of 2023’s standout releases.
’I’m ready to die for my friends’ is a wild experience from start to finish, showcasing just what makes Paledusk so special in the modern metal world. A complete disregard for musical conventions and a total lack of respect for genre, there are incredibly catchy pop styled choruses colliding with furious metalcore breakdowns and a slick rap verse from VIGORMAN, all performed with the insane technical proficiency that Paledusk are well known for at this point.
There’s even a McDonalds jingle styled post-chorus, and it just fucking works. Musical insanity AND genius.
8. Bring Me The Horizon – LosT
You know that a song has to be good if it can get away with the line ‘Watching Evangelion with a big fat slug of ketamine’.
It’s been a chaotic year for Bring Me The Horizon. Bigger than ever before with a headline Download set that silenced the naysayers, the band have also struggled to release the latest entry in their Post Human series of projects. What was originally meant to be five EPs in a year has transformed into one mini-album in three years, with no sign of the follow-up. To round things off, the band parted ways with legendary musician Jordan Fish, who has been instrumental in shaping not just BMTH, but modern metal.
However in the midst of all this, we got a killer emo anthem that packs one of the catchiest melodies of the year. Simple and punchy pop-punk riffs, huge singable choruses, and a distinctively BMTH breakdown that feels like it may have appeared on their ‘That’s The Spirit’ record, the band do just enough to make the questionable lyricism mostly work. It’s fantastic fun from start to finish, and demands repeated listens.
7. [NULL] – Fencewalker
Anyone who says that metal is dead is a liar, a fraud, a cheat, and just a bit daft. This year [NULL] dropped their debut four-track EP, featuring the juggernaut that is ‘Fencewalker’, and showed just what good hands metal is in.
An utterly ferocious beast, [NULL] blend together metalcore with elements of modern hip-hop to produce a scathing statement on systematic police violence and ongoing civil brutality towards black people. Bars such as ‘Take our style wanna be us/Wring us out they don’t need us/Lock us down they don’t free us’ and ‘you’ll never understand the exhausting feeling/When waking up feels criminal/A poor excuse for being free/I need an excuse for being me’ are viscerally powerful moments.
‘Fencewalker’ ultimately acts as incredibly important song in the metal scene; too long has it turned a blind eye to black communities and musicians, and the white supremacy that runs rampant in the scene. Metal isn’t dead, and anyone who says so probably isn’t paying any attention to the black, trans, and queer musicians driving it forwards.
6. HMLTD – The Worm
’And if you meet the Worm on the road to the promised land/You must kill the Worm’.
The title track of HMLTD’s sophomore album is one of the grandest releases of the year. Sweeping, apocalyptic strings, rousing choral vocals, and Henry Spychalski front and centre delivering one of his finest performances to date, all culminating in a cinematic sonic experience like no other.
On one hand, this is Spychalski and his Grunter Rebels rising up against the Worm that has consumed England, a rallying cry in a medieval cesspit. On the other, this is Spychalski deep in the throes of his depression, hemmed in by socioeconomic violence and crushing psychological distress. There’s nothing else like this, and I don’t think there will ever be.
5. Dreamwell – Blighttown Type Beat
Not every song needs to be a six minute progressive behemoth to be worthy of note. Sometimes, it just needs to be utterly incendiary screamo that spells out a yearning for death.
Dreamwell released their phenomenal sophomore album, ‘In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You’, earlier this year to high praise. A densely packed, powerfully executed musing on heartbreak, self-destruction, defiance, and co-dependence, it’s an immense album to behold, with an incredible amount of love and artistry poured into its creation.
However, the blistering, claustrophobic tornado of ‘Blighttown Type Beat’ has become the point that has been most impossible not to return to. Vocalist KZ Staska weaves a tale of a flooded basement haunted by the souls of those yearning to fill the empty void in their home, their vocals ducking and diving between outlandish near-spoken word, and unnerving, frenzied screeches, all set against a backdrop of swirling musical chaos. Guitars slam into one another, behemoth riffs against unsettling arpeggios, whilst the rhythm of bass and guitar thunders away with apocalyptic urgency.
4. Fireworks – I Want To Start A Religion With You
The lyric ‘Just for once make some time for me/Jesus died at thirty three’ alone marks this track as being something special. So few songs grapple with mortality in such a beautifully earnest way as this one does, let alone through just a single bar.
’Higher Lonely Power’ released all the way back on the first of January this year, and was a thoroughly enjoyable listen, as the band ruminated on their relationships with God, America, death, and the people they love. However, it is the phenomenal second song of this album that has remained a highlight all year long. Understated yet catchy melodies are delivered over a glittering pop rock styled instrumental, one that urges you to get up and dance yet remains acutely aware of the deeply introspective nature of this track.
Above all of that, however, is the truly magnificent lyricism; a perfect balance of abstract and earnest, with incredible stand-out lines such as ‘I did what I was told/American wife and American home/I want to start a religion’ that truly hammer home a sense of being stranded without meaning in life after years of doing what you thought you needed to do, and not what you want to do. This is a track that will be staying in rotation for a very long time yet.
3. The Throwaway Scene – Who Else Is In The Room
It’s clear that 2024 is going start with a bang for one simple reason: we finally get the debut EP from The Throwaway Scene.
Having evolved into a four-piece, the post-hardcore outfit returned this year with a fresh new appearance, and two absolutely killer singles. Whilst it was a hard choice, only one could take the number three spot, and ultimately it went to their latest release, ‘Who Else Is In The Room’.
With the EP’s tracks tying into the Kübler-Ross Model of grief, ‘Who Else[…]’ appears to exist as a manifestation of the second stage, anger, and this translates as a ferocious emo anthem that is a delightfully theatrical yet searingly visceral experience. The vocal delivery is some of the best yet from the band, bringing the snappy and cleverly written lyricism to life with a paranoid, tense energy, particularly on bars such as ‘Cause of the pain hidden in plain sight,/Talk to me quick ‘cos we’re burning daylight.’
Beneath the vocals, punchy riffs slam into deftly weaving percussion, conjuring up something that is undeniably catchy, yet losing none of the raw heaviness and bite that permeated the band’s first releases. It’s clear that this is a band that has an artistic vision, and their debut EP ‘On Death & Dying’ is certainly to be a phenomenal experience for that very reason.
2. the great nothing – dirty dishes
Any other year, this track almost certainly would have been number one.
the great nothing are the greatest new act to emerge in 2023, and that is not hyperbole. Their debut EP, ‘no one.’, is an incredible collection of four alternative anthems, and there was no doubt that one of them would make this list. Ultimately, it ended up being the outrageously catchy and brilliantly performed emo banger that is ‘dirty dishes’.
The choruses are so fantastically written, with that central hook (‘Tear myself apart a final time/And I’ll embrace the dark and make it mine’) packing a massive, infectious punch. Alongside these huge pop-punk tinged choruses are moments of grittier aggression, such as the second verse that rips by with a ferocious hardcore punk percussive rhythm.
Every moment of this track is packed with such visceral energy, every riff, every harmony, every percussive strike, all of it crackles with an explosive passion that is so indicative of a band that doesn’t just want to write music, but feels a need to write it. Magnificent stuff.
1. Sleep Token – Euclid
There was no other way to end this list than with one of the finest closing tracks in a very, very long time.
Not only acting as a closing track for Sleep Token’s immense third album, ‘Euclid’ serves as the bookend of the band’s story so far, tying together material as far back as their debut EP with their most recent effort. It is a moment of letting go and self-reflection, the moment at which Vessel releases his grip on the love has been obsessed with, even at the expense of his own wellbeing (‘Call me when you have the time/
I just need to leave this part of me behind’).
From the gorgeous lead piano melody, to the charging guitar riffs that almost lend a power-pop energy to the whole affair, ‘Euclid’ feels less like a final chapter, and more like an epilogue, the moment of the slow credits scroll after a trilogy of cinematic masterpieces. It’s indicative of a band that not just seeks to release collections of songs, but instead construct fully fleshed out albums that weave stories that marry what is deeply human with what seems infinitely mystical.
The night may belong to us, but 2023 has certainly belonged to Sleep Token.
VINYL FANTASY REVIEWS SONG OF THE YEAR
2021 – Adjy – Where June Meets July: III. at a Dance Where the Stars Cross
2022 – nightlife – fallback
2023 – Sleep Token – Euclid
The Top 5 EPs of 2023 will release tomorrow, so be sure to check that out! Who appeared on your song of the year list? Be sure to let me know!
VINYL FANTASY REVIEWS 
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