Between co-owning and booking Saint Vitus Bar, making music with his industrial solo project Confines, and recently bringing his post-hardcore band Primitive Weapons back for their first show in four years (and first with the original lineup in 10 years), David Castillo had a very busy 2023. To wrap up the year, he’s made us a list of his 40 favorite albums of ’23, including Incendiary, Westside Gunn, Pain of Truth, Blood Incantation, Tomb Mold, Janelle Monáe, Private Mind, Jeromes Dream, and more. He writes:
Trying to qualify a year of new music is always a hard thing to do and ranking it all seems rather useless honestly. I tried to think of this exercise instead as my version of a radio top 40, Casey Kasem style. If I were the program director at my own station this is what would be playing. Thank you to all the artists that helped me get through 2023.
Skourge – Torrential Torment
Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!
Randolph and Mortimer – The Incomplete Truth
Kali Uchis – Red Moon in Venus
Incendiary – Change the Way you Feel About Pain
Mareux – Lovers from the Past
Wreckage – Our Time
Westside Gunn – And Then You Pray For Me
Nuovo Testamento – Love Lines
Envision – The Gods That Built Tomorrow
Khanate – To be Cruel
Torture Rack – Primeval Onslaught
Godflesh – Purge
New World Man – The Beast is back
Puerta Negra – Playa Sola
Human Garbage – Straight Not Giving A Fuck
Arbor – Behold… The Age of Pagan Blood
Drab Majesty – An Object in Motion
Thantifaxath – Hive Mind Narcosis
Pain of Truth – Not Through Blood
Blood incantation – Luminescent Bridge
Nuxx Vomica – FTEV
Temple of Angels – Endless Pursuit
Harms Way – Common Suffering
Spotlights – Alchemy for the Dead
Blood Magic – Goetic Blood Spells
Kylie Minogue – Tension
Nothing + Full of Hell – When No Birds Sang
Tomb Mold – The Enduring Spirit
The Limiñanas + Pascal Comelade – The Incomplete Truth
Keys To The Astral Gates And Mystic Doors – Self Titled
Janelle Monáe – The Age of Pleasure
Lethal – Lethal’s Hardcore Hit Parade
Private Mind – The Truth You See
Lamp of Murmur – Saturnian Bloodstorm
Golpe – Assuefazione Quotidiana
Tassel – New Covenant
Scowl – Psychic Dance Routine
Yellow Eyes – Master’s Murmur
Jeromes Dream – The Gray in Between
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Confines also recently put out this remix EP, featuring Kontravoid, Annuziata, Biproduct, and White Ring. Check it out: