Xibalba – Punk Goes Prenatt

This is part four of four. If you haven’t read part three yet, check it out here.

In 2023, we’re getting several great albums some several great bands and artists, but out of all the albums that are coming out this year, these are the ones you need to keep your eyes on. Here are the most anticipated albums of 2023, in no particular order.

The Acacia Strain

Album: Step Into The Light (Rise)

Release Date: 5/12

Bostonian heavy gods The Acacia Strain are bringing the brutality to 2023. Coming mid-May, Step Into The Light is composed of ten songs produced by Randy Leboeuf (Chamber, Every Time I Die, Left Behind) that’ll be sure to kick you on your ass. And if you’re wondering how heavy this record is, check out the song “Fresh Bones,” which Metal Injection bluntly says, it “rips.” Fuck us up, TAS.

nothing,nowhere.

Album: VOID EXTERNAL (Fueled By Ramen)

Release Date: 3/31

Vermont sadboy nothing,nowhere.’s follow-up to 2021’s Trauma Factory is so close, you can almost feel it. Containing various guests like Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, Underoath, Static Dress, Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos, and SeeYouSpaceCowboy, VOID EXTERNAL is destined to be n,n.’s busiest (and most aggressive) album to date. Working with producer Taylor Morgan (guardin, Sickboyrari, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal,) and inviting only a few people into the studio like ex-Counterparts guitarist Blake Hartman, engineer Brody McKeegan, and some personal friends, nothing,nowhere. aka Joe Mulherin wanted this to be an inspirational album. “I want to be what bands like Linkin Park were to me,” Mulherin said. “I want to provide that level of inspiration and comfort and I want to be a safe haven to a kid who is struggling. I made it exactly how I wanted to with zero outside influence. This is the purest expression I could put down in audio form. This is the music that made me, and I want to return the favor.”

Jesus Piece

Album: …So Unknown (Century Media)

Release Date: 4/14

Philly metalcore outfit Jesus Piece are reaching new heights in their career. After spending the first half of their career with LA label Southern Lord (All Pigs Must Die, High Command, Xibalba,) Jesus Piece signed with Century Media Records (3Teeth, Electric Callboy, Lamb Of God) in December, kicking off not only the next chapter of the band’s career, but also their new album cycle. Coming out next month is their long-awaited second LP …So Unknown. Drummer Luis Aponte told BrooklynVegan, “The making of the record was nothing short of all-consuming. It was an intense and challenging process. The record reflects a lot of confusion, but also, evolution. There was a lot of uncertainty and emotion during the pandemic– we all changed and grew so much. So if there is a single thought or concept to the record, it’s constant metamorphosis. That’s also how we operated as a band on this LP– spending a lot of time songwriting and fleshing things out as a unit, and then upping our game from there. It’s definitely a reflection of us as more mature, playing the best we’ve ever played and feeling like a real band for the first time. A big goal on …So Unknown, outside of songwriting and technical goals, was to capture the same energy on record that we have live – for people to get that sense of urgency and danger.”

The Used

Album: Toxic Positivity (Big Noise)

Release Date: 5/19

Just days before taking the stage at last year’s When We Were Young, influential post-hardcore outfit The Used dropped a fiery new track called “Fuck You,” which will appear on their ninth album Toxic Positivity coming out mid-May via Big Noise Music Group (BOXBOY, Escape The Fate, The Veronicas). Months later, they dropped another banger, “People Are Vomit.” Alternative Press had a first look on the new track, calling it “venomous” and that The Used were returning “to their heavier roots in full force, offering a timely critique of the state of the world and the divisive times we are living in.” The album was produced by longtime collaborator John Feldmann (Avril Lavigne, Jasiah, The Word Alive.)

Closure In Moscow

Album: Soft Hell (Self-Released)

Release Date: 5/30

I have had a massive soft spot for Closure In Moscow for many years at this point. The Australian progressive rock act have been keeping themselves kinda quiet since dropping their second album Pink Lemonade in 2014. But now, a new album is on the horizon. Their third album Soft Hell drops May 30. The album has “the last 9 years distilled down to 50 minutes.” CIM says in a statement, “Getting comfortable with chronic discomfort caused by the choices that fears and trauma lead you to make. This is life in a soft hell. There are enough distractions to stave off facing up to it, you can keep yourself in denial to avoid it, and things can just keep ticking along. Life becomes a fever dream of creature comforts and time killers, floating further into a lake of fire. People come along to pull you out, but they too get burned when you feel too stuck to climb with them.”

The Maine

Album: TBA (Photo Finish/8123)

Release Date: TBA

While nothing has been confirmed yet, Arizona’s finest The Maine have been busy putting stuff out. Last year, they dropped the massive collab with Taking Back Sunday and Charlotte Sands “Loved You A Little” and an acoustic ballad called “Box In A Heart” with Canadian bedroom pop artist renforshort. Could these songs appear on a new album? Possibly. Their last record was 2021’s XOXO: From Love And Anxiety In Real Time, which I put as one of the most anticipated albums of 2021.

Sarah And The Safe Word

Album: The Book Of Broken Glass (Take This To Heart)

Release Date: 4/7

One of Atlanta’s most fascinating acts is putting out new material next month. The goth cabaret sextet Sarah And The Safe Word recently announced their next album The Book Of Broken Glass, scheduled to come out April 7 via Take This To Heart (The Higher, Marigold, Thanks! I Hate It.) The album is a story (or a book, per se) dealing with a family’s secret and the ghosts who are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure it stays one. Produced by Jim Wirt (Hoobastank, Jack’s Mannequin, The Rocket Summer,) the album is packed with features, starring rapper Jamee Cornelia, queercore act Dog Park Dissidents, and Danbert Nobacon of Chumbawamba. According to Chorus.fm, Sarah And The Safe Word “embrace the strange and the quirky head on an album that is filled with several twists and turns. Much like the title implies, this book is sure to keep your interest as much as it challenges you to grow with the band.” Also check out the video for “Ruby Off The Rails” which features actual furries.

Avenged Sevenfold

Album: TBA (Warner)

Release Date: TBA

Oh it’s happening people. A7X will drop their long awaited eighth album sometime this year. The album which they began working on in 2018 is finished, according to drummer Brooks Wackerman on his Instagram last September. They have been teasing fans about the record, even telling them to “touch grass” and launched a cryptic scavenger hunt online courtesy of an entity named Libad5343. Guess we can only wait for an official announcement. Time to go outside, I suppose.

Code Orange

Album: TBA (Blue Grape)

Release Date: TBA

While no word has been made on a new record, Pittsburgh industrial metalcore troupe Code Orange have been seen in the studio working with Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins. While we wait for that work to come out, the band did drop What Is Really Underneath?, a remixed/re-imagined take on their last record, 2020’s Underneath, along with a 14-minute short film of the same name and an alternate reality game on whatisreallyunderneath.com. An MTV Unplugged-style record called Under The Skin, was released in 2020. This was their final release with Roadrunner Records (Angel Du$t, Motionless In White, Turnstile) before signing with Blue Grape Music, a new label created by Roadrunner founder Cees Wessels and Roadrunner’s former head of A&R David Rath.

Mayday Parade

Album: TBA (Rise)

Release Date: TBA

Late 2000’s pop-punk icons Mayday Parade are currently in the studio right now working on new material. The band posted on social media last month that “new tunes” are being created with longtime producers Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount (Chapel, Go Radio, The Ready Set.) Two songs came out last year, “Thunder” and “Losing My Mind.” Mayday Parade have a busy summer this year, touring alongside All Time Low and Yellowcard, as well as playing the Hawaii Is For Lovers festival with Hawthorne Heights, Emery and Saosin.

If The Warriors are afraid that people forgot about them, then Monomyth, their first album in nearly a decade, will answer that question. And simply put, the answer is no, they’re not forgotten.

Frontman Marshall Lichtenwaldt said in a press release, “I don’t know if people still remember us. It’s been a long time.” Which is true. The Tehachapi, Calif., hardcore legends haven’t released a record since 2011 when they were with Victory Records. Now with Pure Noise Records, home of heavy hitters like UnityTX, Stick To Your Guns, and Knocked Loose, who were influenced by The Warriors, they are back to show that they aren’t dead and are ready to reclaim what’s theirs.

Monomyth was inspired by the hero’s journey concept that was popularized by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces. This album features 12 songs that follow the stages the hero takes, much like the 12 stages in the hero’s journey, starting with the Ordinary World (“All Life Is One”) and ending with theÂ Return With The Elixir (“Last S.O.S.”) The Warriors take the listener on this journey, and it’s up to you to figure out if we learn something from this. Fueled by Eastern philosophies and meditative teachings, Monomyth is the most bizarre record from these guys to date. Hell, it might be the weirdest hardcore album to date.

The album begins with “All Life Is One,” a track fueled by militaristic drums and electronic elements that hype you up for the upcoming journey. It sets you up for what you’ll hear throughout Monomyth: hard hitting mid-2000s hardcore mixed with electronic elements. Sometimes it works (“The Painful Truth”) and other times it bombs horribly (“Fountain Of Euth.”) And unlike the concept of ying and yang, it never really seems to find the perfect balance to make both work.

Monomyth has some pretty heavy hitters on the record like “The Painful Truth” which features Parkway Drive’s Winston McCall, “Death Ritual” featuring Xibalba’s Nate Rebolledo, and “Iron Mind.” But it falls flat the most with “Fountain Of Euth,” having The Movielife’s Vinnie Caruana’s vocals pitched over this trap beat for some godawful reason. It doesn’t flow well with the rest of the album and feels like you hit a brick wall. Not everyone can make trap beats work well with hardcore, unless you’re UnityTX, which The Warriors clearly aren’t.

Throughout the 12 tracks on Monomyth, we go through this weird journey which makes you wonder if you ever want to go on it another time. You do get a feel for the emotion and energy the band pump into each song. The messages the band try to push on this record do hit hard, but some of the songs don’t hit as hard as their past material. While I’m glad The Warriors are back, Monomyth feels like a weird misstep. Maybe the next journey won’t be so bumpy.

Punk Goes Prenatt

The Most Anticipated Albums Of 2023 (Part Four)

Power Trip Frontman Dead At 35

The Warriors Take Us On A Bizarre Adventure Through “Monomyth”

Rotting Out Are Back, Release New Song “Reaper”