This year was full of new discoveries, from new bands to "old" bands I've never heard before, to bands I knew existed but never actually give it a listen.

Favorite Bands of 2023

With the exception of BABYMETAL (which I knew existed) and MCC (which I was listening to last year as well), all of these bands are new additions to my endless music library. I don't think I ever discovered new bands like I did this year. It was awesome to listen to new and unique music.

BABYMETAL

I first discovered BABYMETAL in 2016, but back then I didn't paid too much attention to. It was only on July that while exploring Doug Helvering's channel I re-discovered BABYMETAL. From that, I quickly felt in the fox hole as they say (if you know, you know), and I've been listening to them daily ever since.

I don't know exactly why I didn't paid too much attention to BABYMETAL before, but I'm glad I did this year. It was thanks to BABYMETAL that I started exploring the JMetal/JRock scene, finding a lot of new favorite bands.

BABYMETAL released their 4th album this year called THE OTHER ONE, although their producer sometimes says that they don't consider it as a 4th album. It's definitely different than the previous ones, as expected.

Now they are back in a trio formation. After YUI-METAL left the band in 2018 due health conditions, MOMOMETAL was officially announced as the new member of the group, joining SU-METAL and MOAMETAL.

NEMOPHILA

Like I mentioned above, it was thanks to BABYMETAL that my journey into JMetal/JRock begun.

NEMOPHILA was one of these discoveries. And what an awesome discovery!

mayu, their vocalist, has a pretty unique voice, being able to switch from clean to growl/guttural vocals with ease, at least it seems.

I can't wait to see them live in 2024!

Crypta

I don't know how and ended up finding about Crypta, maybe some YouTube recommendation? Well, who cares? This Brazilian Death/Black Metal quartet will melt your ears!

With 2 studio albums, they recently opened a show for Ghost in São Paulo.

MCC (Magna Carta Cartel)

A friend of mine recommended this band last year, but throughout the first semester of 2023 I binge listened to MCC daily. It's like Ghost, but less heavy, I dare to say. The band has members who were part of Ghost in the past, and if I'm not mistaken, even Tobias contributed to at least one song for them.

X Japan

A band from the 80s that I've never heard of. Again, thanks to BABYMETAL I found this gem. Unfortunately, their bass player passed away in October.

It's funny how little expose bands from the East get here in the West. If you check those lists of best bands/albums you'll rarely see any band from outside the US/Europe.

ASTERISM

An instrumental "only" band in the list ("only" because they recently released some songs in which HAL-CA, the guitarist, sings). Usually, I don't listen to instrumental only bands, but this one... well, this one rocks! ASTERISM is a trio that's playing together since kids.

Honorable mentions

• Mary's Blood
• LUNA SEA
• LonesomeBlue
• Onmyo-za
• SEIKMA-II
• WagakkiBand
• Koiai
• Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats
• Lovebites
• Sleep Token
• Mitsune
• East of Eden

Favorite Albums

In no particular order, just the albums I listened to most this year.

Most played songs

According to Apple Music, this is the top 10 most played songs. It's not 100% accurate, but it is what it is.

1. METALI!! (feat Tom Morello) - BABYMETAL
2. Monochrome - BABYMETAL
3. Divine Attack - Shingeki - BABYMETAL
4. Light and Darkness - BABYMETAL
5. ZEN - NEMOPHILA
6. METAL KINGDOM - BABYMETAL
7. ADABANA - NEMOPHILA
8. ENTEN - NEMOPHILA
9. Mirror Mirror - BABYMETAL
10. HYPNOSIS - NEMOPHILA