Up next we have the stoner king himself, Frazer Jones! He runs the long-standing Desert Psychlist blog, where barely a day goes by without another heavy underground gem being unearthed and written about. Mr. Jones has been a stalwart of the heavy underground and stoner blogosphere, and you can bet your bottom dollar you’ll find something to dig in his list below!
We’re honored to present another list of Favorite Albums of 2023 by one of the Doom Charts Contributors… There are many as you might know; and many already posted their list of Favorite Albums of 2023 on their own sites or the sites they write for. Some of those lists will be published here as well. And for all the others we advise you to check out all of their personal sites… Cause it might just contain your next very favorite album!
“20 of Desert Psychist’s list of 30 best albums of 2023, to see the full list and get links to all the releases go to ….. DESERT PSYCHLIST: DESERT PSYCHLIST’S BEST OF 2023 (stonerking1.blogspot.com)“
20; PRAISE THE SUN ~ SINISTER & UNHINGED
Probably an album that won’t be found on many end of year lists but in our opinion should be gracing them all, this albums tales of serial murderers, police investigations and sons of deities are truly the stuff nightmares are made of..
19; SHADOW OF JUPITER ~ PORTA COELI
Shadow of Jupiter jam a stoner/doom/heavy psych dynamic, a dynamic built not just on riffs but also on atmosphere and texture, all of which are major components of this stunning debut.
18; FIRE DOWN BELOW ~ LOW DESERT SURF CLUB
Fire Down Below hail from Ghent, Belgium so probably the nearest these guys have ever got to an actual desert is a sandpit in their local children’s playground but that has not stopped them capturing that authentic driving desert rock sound we all love and cherish
17; TURN ME ON DEAD MAN – CASSIOPEIA
Great songs, strong musicianship and grooves you can really get your teeth into what more could you possibly want from an album. A truly stunning mix of psych, shoegaze, metal and prog.
16; CAVERN DEEP – PART II-BREACH
The second instalment of Cavern Deep’s Lovecraftian flavoured saga is a masterpiece of musicianship and imagination.
15; HOWLING GIANT – GLASS FUTURE
Howling Giant deservedly sit at the the top table with the likes of Elder, All Them Witches and King Buffalo, bands who consistently deliver the goods while still remaining innovative and exciting. This is their best album yet!
14; MASSASAUGA – THE ONLY GOOD WIZARD IS A DEAD WIZARD
Another release that possibly may not feature on many of those best of lists for 2023 but we fell in love with these tunes from the very first listen and we are still in love with them now.
Looking to dip your toes into the South American underground scene for the very first time then we could not recommend a better starting point than Peregrino’s full length debut, it’s not just a great South American album, it’s a great album FULL STOP!
Those out there with a penchant for the retro tinted witchy grooves of Parrish, Sleepwulf and Green Lung will throw their wicker cross effigies into the air with unbridled joy when they get a load of Spiral Shades “Revival”, but so will those who came to this crossroads on a diet of Pentagram, Black Sabbath and Pagan Altar.
11; ALMOST HONEST – THE HEX OF PENN’S WOODS
A jagged mix of funky prog, spiky stoner metal and schizophrenic hard rock that breaks more musical rules than it adheres to.
10; DOPELORD – SONGS FOR SATAN
If anyone wants to argue that Dopelord are not one the heaviest, most musically tight and most vocally melodic bands currently ploughing a furrow through the stoner-doom scene then they might want to take it up with the man they wrote these tunes for.
09; VOID KING – THE HIDDEN HYMNAL
This is not an album populated with songs about wizards, witches and things that go bump in the night it is instead an album packed with songs that tackle everyday situations and events, subject matter we can all relate to.
08; WITCHTHROAT SERPENT – TROVE OF ODDITIES AT THE DEVIL’S DRIVEWAY
This album sees Witchthroat Serpent moving slightly away from the Electric Wizard influences that have informed much of their previous work and finding their own unique signature sound, still a sum of those influences but not shackled by them.
The musicianship throughout Acid King’s comeback album “Beyond Vision” is off the scale as is its concept of allowing each song to bleed into the next to make it feel more like a complete journey. Acid King are back, may they never leave us again.
06; HAIL THE VOID – MEMENTO MORI
Hail the Void, Hail the Riff, Hail the Groove! This is psychedelic doom of truly high quality, an album of music so good, so vital and so powerful you will be coming back to listen to it not just once or twice but for the rest of your time on this earth.
05; GRANDMA’S ASHES – THIS TOO SHALL PASS
This Paris based trio know their way around a good groove and this album is full of such grooves but what is really mind-blowing is their understanding of how to weave into those grooves elements of light and shade.
04; ACID MAGUS – HOPE IS HEAVY
Riffs and melody combined with strong song writing and killer arrangements makes this a must have in anyone’s book. This is the musical equivalent of South African gold!
03; HIPPIE DEATH CULT – HELICHRYSUM
Trimming down to a trio and pushing their bass player in front of a mic seems to have been the making of Hippie Death Cult, not only do this band sound tighter than they have done before they sound more vital, more forceful and a hell of a lot more exciting, long may that continue.
02; GREEN LUNG – THIS HEATHEN LAND
Everything this band have released to date has been a step up in strength and quality from its predecessor and that is again the case with new album “This Heathen Land”. Many people think rock music can only be deemed “classic” if it has been around for certain period of time, Green Lung disprove that theory by making classic rock for the here and now and hopefully the coming future.
We imagine there will be a few surprised faces reading that Lord Mountain’s “The Oath” has made our #1 spot but this album has become a dominant force here at Stonerking Towers with hardly a day going by without its dulcet doomic tones being blasted out from the Towers upper windows. “The Oath” is an album that recalls a simpler time, a time when “sludge” was just a descriptive term for industrial waste and “blackened” referred to a cooking process using spices, however these grooves should not be considered “retro” as they carry too much originality, “vintage” (something that represents the best of its kind) would be a far, far better description.
Doom Charts 
Great list!
How could I forget Lord Mountain in my own list? I really dig this album!
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