BravePicks 2023 - The Scribes Speak!
James Garvin

Top 20 Of 2023
1) SOCIAL DECLINE – Beyond The Gates (Autotunes Records)
2) OVERKILL – Scorched (Nuclear Blast)
3) OBITUARY – Dying Of Everything (Relapse)
4) MALLEUS – Fires Of Heaven (Armageddon)
5) QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE – In Times New Roman…(Matador)
6) TRYGLAV – The Ritual (Extreme Metal Music)
7) METAL CHURCH – Congregation of Annihilation (Rat Pak)
8) FREEROAD – Do What You Feel (Dying Victims)
9) GABESTOK – Med Freden Kommer Hadet (Strange Neons)
10) METALLICA – 72 Seasons (Blackened)
11) L.A. GUNS – Black Diamonds (Frontiers)
12) GODSMACK – Lightning Up The Sky (BMG)
13) NOCTURNAL BREED – Carry The Beast (Dark Essence)
14) HELLRIPPER – Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags (Peaceful)
15) LOVE GANG – Meanstreak (Heavy Psych)
16) THE BLEEDING – Monokrator (Redefining Darkness)
17) PROFANE ORDER - One Nightmare Unto Another (Nuclear War Now!)
18) DOKKEN – Heaven Comes Down (Silver Lining)
19) ACID KING – Beyond Vision (Blues Funeral)
20) KK’S PRIEST – The Sinner Rides Again (Napalm)

Top 5 Concerts of 2023
L.A. Guns – J.D. Legends, Franklin, Ohio.
Glenn Hughes – Blue Note, Harrison, Ohio
King’s X – Blue Note, Harrison, Ohio
Dokken – Riverfront Live, Cincinnati, Ohio
Stephen Pearcy – Blue Note, Harrison, Ohio

Brave Embarrassments
KIM DRACULA – A Gradual Decline in Morale (Columbia?) – Taking the worst of every metal format in every song is not enough. Nope, we also need to add the worst of every music format in every song. Exhibit A for banning Tik Tok.

BJORKO – Heartrot (Svart) – The collaboration with Abba and Zamfir can’t be far behind. 

OTEP – The God Slayer (Cleopatra) – Why? Why? Am I missing something here?

SLEEP TOKEN – Take Me Back To Eden (Spinefarm) – Someone thought a good idea would be to take lounge vocals, screaming vocals, and suburban mall rap and add guitars, solo piano, and atmosphere, often in one tune?

CODE ORANGE – The Above (Blue Grape) – As Yogi Berra said, “It’s Déjà vu all over again.” The suburban white kids watched some videos, got some tats, and decided every song needed the kitchen sink. Problem is, we throw this dreck down the sink hoping never to hear it again, not for it to show up on a record.

Thoughts On 2023
Smaller club shows were the rule for me in 2023. Looking over my list of live shows in 2023, with the exception of Morbid Angel, extreme metal shows were rare, though cancelations and scheduling conflicts added to this. I’ve seen L.A. Guns multiple times, and they are now blasting on all cylinders, better than I’ve ever seen them, courtesy, I believe, of personnel stability, and a killer rhythm section. A highlight was King’s X front man Doug Pinnick turning over singing duties to the crowd for the entire Goldilox encore. Finally, yes, Don Dokken, courtesy of age and a botched surgery, does not have the same vocal range, but don’t let the whiners on the web keep you away. He’s got a great band, he still puts on a great show, sounds good within his range, and the great songs are still great songs.

On the recorded music front for 2023, any of my top three could have been my number one. Think 1A, B, and C. Obituary delivered a punishing, brutal, HUGE, great sounding record, Overkill delivered a thrash classic, with some progressive elements which diminished the aggression not even a little, but more killer riffs from any band not named Slayer carried the day for Social Decline. Described as a crossover band, perhaps a little in the vocals, but, oh, those delicious riffs from beginning to end.

What/Who Needs to Stop in 2024
Since Journey was relatively silent in 2023, I must nominate the train wreck that is Motley Crüe. I won’t regurgitate the nonsensical “agreement,” now that John 5 is in the fold, but from the backing tracks, to how they dicked over Mick Mars, to learning, in BraveWords, from Don Airey about the other three wanting to dump Mick Mars while touring behind Shout at the Devil, and then reading Nikki Sixx trashing Mick Mars, all the while John Corabi presciently reminding us that Mars had not spoken to explain the other side of the story. Sixx could not simply screw Mars over privately, he had to take it to the public. The irony undoubtedly lost on the Crüe boys is that they toured with Def Leppard, who went to great lengths to accommodate their brother’s physical impairment rather than throw him on the street. Perhaps the tour should have been called The Class and The Classless.

Each of my Brave Embarrassments incorporates the two clever by half mentality of throwing virtually every style of metal and vocals in one tune, together with an assortment of pop, rap, and everything else their minds can conjure. Someone must be listening. Certainly not the metalheads I know. Kim Dracula gets ink and tours while the criminally underrated Flots is forced to cancel dates. There really isn’t any justice here.

Metal Predictions for 2024
I’m not very good at predictions. Kerry King will reappear and Judas Priest will appear one year after I predicted last year. The latter without K.K., though I admit my prediction last year was more hope than prediction. At the risk of continuing my lack of success, Mercyful Fate will finally release new material in 2023. Really going on a limb, Loudness will schedule a tour of the U.S., and then cancel when the Visas don’t come through. Oh, wait, that happened in 2023.

Read our BravePicks 2023 countdown where Obituary's Dying Of Everything took the throne at #1 here.

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