Best albums of 2023

[The Rocker]

Defiants
First Signal
Robin McAuley
7th Crystal
Khymera
Art Nation

[Doug]

Extreme - Six

The worst so far, for me it's Avenged Sevenfold's, "Life Is But a Dream." Awful. 

[tts42572]

My favorites through 3/4 of the year so far:

Midnite City

Defiants

Tempt

Eclipse

Really has been a down year so far for my tastes as I struggle even putting together a top 5 and really only feel like listing 4.  Even Eclipse at 4 feels like a stretch as I haven't been very taken by the album.

Degreed was one I wanted to like as I've been a fan of those guys and really liked their last album but I've struggled badly with the new one for some reason.  Heavens Edge was okay and would probably be my #5 if I listed one but I really haven't wanted to listen to it much.  Winger and Extreme were a couple others I had high hopes for but did very little for me.

Looking forward to Station and Temple Balls as those two have a shot to shake things up a little.

 

[nyoilers]

On 6/13/2023 at 11:30 AM, Doug said:

Extreme - Six

The worst so far, for me it's Avenged Sevenfold's, "Life Is But a Dream." Awful. 

The A7X is actually one of my top favorites.

[Glen]

I'm guessing in no order -

Vega

Creye

Midnite City

Defiants 

Story of the Year

Degreed

Lebrock

Eclipse

Tempt

Nighthawk

probably round out a very good top 10.

I suspect Overland will destroy all though in a month's time

First single is 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[nyoilers]

Been re-listening to the 2023 releases that I've bought.

[auslander]

Only one month to go. My favourites are starting to take shape.

Best HH albums top 5 (not in order): Arctic Rain - Unity, Creye - III, The Defiants - Drive, Grand Design - Rawk, Temple Balls - Avalanche.

Best Metal Album: Sleep Token - Take Me Back to Eden

Best Prog Rock album: Voyager - Fearless in Love

Best Mainstream Rock album: Foo Fighters - But Here We Are

Best female vocals: Smackbound - Hostage

TOP 20 SONGS OF THE YEAR (not in order except #1)

1. Extreme - Rise 

2. Greta Van Fleet - Meeting the Master

3. Iggy Pop - Strung Out Johnny

4. Creye - Air

5. Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again

6. Foo Fighters - The Teacher

7. Heroes and Monsters - Let's Ride It

8. Jelusick - The Healer

9. Nothing But Thieves - Welcome to the DCC

10. Sleep Token - The Summoning

11. Smackbound - The Edge

12. Voyager - Promise

13. VV - Echolocate Your Love

14. Winger - Tears of Blood

15. Dirty Honey - Coming Home (Ballad of the Shire)

16. Metallica - Lux Aeterna

17. Bride - We're All Going to Die

18. Angels in Vein - 1973

19. Grand Design - God Bless Rawk n Roll

20. Mammoth WVH - Another Celebration at the End of the World

Edited December 5, 2023 by auslander

[KarpetRydOFunk]

3 hours ago, auslander said:

Only one month to go. My favourites are starting to take shape.

Best HH albums top 5 (not in order): Arctic Rain - Unity, Creye - III, The Defiants - Drive, Grand Design - Rawk, Temple Balls - Avalanche.

Best Metal Album: Sleep Token - Take Me Back to Eden

Best Prog Rock album: Voyager - Fearless in Love

Best Mainstream Rock album: Foo Fighters - But Here We Are

Best female vocals: Smackbound - Hostage

TOP 20 SONGS OF THE YEAR (not in order except #1)

1. Extreme - Rise 

2. Greta Van Fleet - Meeting the Master

3. Iggy Pop - Strung Out Johnny

4. Creye - Air

5. Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again

6. Foo Fighters - The Teacher

7. Heroes and Monsters - Let's Ride It

8. Jelusick - The Healer

9. Nothing But Thieves - Welcome to the DCC

10. Sleep Token - The Summoning

11. Smackbound - The Edge

12. Voyager - Promise

13. VV - Echolocate Your Love

14. Winger - Tears of Blood

15. Dirty Honey - Coming Home (Ballad of the Shire)

16. Metallica - Lux Aeterna

17. Bride - We're All Going to Die

18. Angels in Vein - 1973

19. Grand Design - God Bless Rawk n Roll

20. Mammoth WVH - Another Celebration at the End of the World

Wow. It appears there are a bunch of albums I missed. 

[Darkstone]

16 minutes ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

Wow. It appears there are a bunch of albums I missed. 

Join the club.

It's very hard to keep up with everything. 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Darkstone

[PeterS]

Far and away Gunship - Unicorn my fave

 

 

[tts42572]

Feeling like my list is pretty well set this year unless I discover something over the next couple weeks.

For me, 

1.  Temple Balls - Avalanche

2.  Midnite City - In At The Deep End

3.  Station - And Time Goes By

4.  Tempt - S/T

5.  Defiants - Drive

6.  Eclipse - Megalomanium

Not really much beyond that I spend a lot of time with or that really grabbed me.  However, even though it came out 5 years ago, one of my most listened to albums this year according to my spotify list is Godsmack's When Legends Rise so that probably should get an honorable mention since it was really a new discovery for me this year.  In reality, I'd probably put it 3rd on my list above if I included it. 

If I were picking a top 5 songs, probably would be:

1.  19 Summertime - Defiants

2.  Someday - Midnite City

3.  Trap - Temple Balls

4.  Camouflage - Tempt

5.  If You Want Me Too - Station

Pretty decent year overall for my tastes.  We'll see what next year brings.  As of now, I think my most anticipated album is probably Kissin' Dynamite as they recently announced a new album will be out sometime in 2024.

 

[Kristian]

6 hours ago, Darkstone said:

Join the club.

It's very hard to keep up with everything. 

Yeah, I'm waaay behind as well.

I don't think I've seen Ronnie Atkins - "Trinity" or Enforcer - "Nostalgia" mentioned yet, I think they are both excellent albums, but again... there's so much I have yet to listen to.

[Doug]

Still need to do a good look back, but off the top of my head:

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Extreme - Six

Mammoth WVH - II 

[Doggy]

These are not, I mean not, particular order.

Kent Hilli - Nothing Left to Lose

Midnite City - In the Deep End

Dreams (finally released)

Defiants - Drive

Mitch Malloy - the Last Song

Eclipse - Megalomanium

Andy Taylor - Man's A Wolf To Man

Vandenberg - SIN

Edited December 6, 2023 by Doggy

[Geoff]

So let's discuss the best album of the year (spoiler alert) that people seem to be purposely dodging and I need to understand why. I've missed the memo.

First Signal - 'Face Your Fears.' You dudes are my people, but hit me with it. What trivial reason are we all ignoring this album for? Can't be the songs because they're killer. 

If we pause what we're doing now and just put this in your ears;

 

Obviously no genuine member of this site is hearing that and thinking, "Oh my, that is yuck garbage." So why is everyone ignoring this album? Like I said, you're my people, but if there's on this thing this forum as a collective can do it's to get caught up on something trivial and insignificant and roll with it. Do we not like this album because it's another Frontiers project album? Fill me in, dudes. As someone who takes each album on it's own merit, this is pretty easily slaying most of what I hear this year (except maybe Creye) but it can't even earn a mention on any other list, on a melodic rock site? I am flummoxed. 

If it wasn't Hess singing someone else's songs for a Frontiers project, but it was a new band with the same album would everyone be falling over themselves for it? 

[The Rocker]

7 hours ago, Geoff said:

So let's discuss the best album of the year (spoiler alert) that people seem to be purposely dodging and I need to understand why. I've missed the memo.

First Signal - 'Face Your Fears.' You dudes are my people, but hit me with it. What trivial reason are we all ignoring this album for? Can't be the songs because they're killer. 

If we pause what we're doing now and just put this in your ears;

 

Obviously no genuine member of this site is hearing that and thinking, "Oh my, that is yuck garbage." So why is everyone ignoring this album? Like I said, you're my people, but if there's on this thing this forum as a collective can do it's to get caught up on something trivial and insignificant and roll with it. Do we not like this album because it's another Frontiers project album? Fill me in, dudes. As someone who takes each album on it's own merit, this is pretty easily slaying most of what I hear this year (except maybe Creye) but it can't even earn a mention on any other list, on a melodic rock site? I am flummoxed. 

If it wasn't Hess singing someone else's songs for a Frontiers project, but it was a new band with the same album would everyone be falling over themselves for it? 

Love it, best since the debut!  Was my second now my 3rd for best of 2023

[tts42572]

7 hours ago, Geoff said:

So let's discuss the best album of the year (spoiler alert) that people seem to be purposely dodging and I need to understand why. I've missed the memo.

First Signal - 'Face Your Fears.' You dudes are my people, but hit me with it. What trivial reason are we all ignoring this album for? Can't be the songs because they're killer. 

If we pause what we're doing now and just put this in your ears;

 

Obviously no genuine member of this site is hearing that and thinking, "Oh my, that is yuck garbage." So why is everyone ignoring this album? Like I said, you're my people, but if there's on this thing this forum as a collective can do it's to get caught up on something trivial and insignificant and roll with it. Do we not like this album because it's another Frontiers project album? Fill me in, dudes. As someone who takes each album on it's own merit, this is pretty easily slaying most of what I hear this year (except maybe Creye) but it can't even earn a mention on any other list, on a melodic rock site? I am flummoxed. 

If it wasn't Hess singing someone else's songs for a Frontiers project, but it was a new band with the same album would everyone be falling over themselves for it? 

I think you nailed what it was for me.....I've grown pretty tired of these Fontiers projects.  I'm not buying the anymore and hardly listening to them either.  The ones I do listen to are those that I've really liked and sort of already made room for in my head lol....WET, Nordic Union, The Defiants, etc.  The Defiants might be more of a band than a "project" anyways as at least they've played some live shows.....Same with W.E.T.

Either way, I want to spend my time listening to and actually supporting bands that I might actually have a chance to see live someday, who are active on social media, etc.

As a result, I pretty much just skim past these projects now unless something comes along that absolutely blows me away.  This sounds pretty decent but I haven't been too into previous First Signal stuff I've heard in the past when I did check them out some.  I'm not huge into Hess for whatever reason.....even the Harem Scarem stuff is hit and miss for me.
 

[Geoff]

43 minutes ago, tts42572 said:

I think you nailed what it was for me.....I've grown pretty tired of these Fontiers projects.  I'm not buying the anymore and hardly listening to them either.  The ones I do listen to are those that I've really liked and sort of already made room for in my head lol....WET, Nordic Union, The Defiants, etc.  The Defiants might be more of a band than a "project" anyways as at least they've played some live shows.....Same with W.E.T.

Either way, I want to spend my time listening to and actually supporting bands that I might actually have a chance to see live someday, who are active on social media, etc.

As a result, I pretty much just skim past these projects now unless something comes along that absolutely blows me away.  This sounds pretty decent but I haven't been too into previous First Signal stuff I've heard in the past when I did check them out some.  I'm not huge into Hess for whatever reason.....even the Harem Scarem stuff is hit and miss for me.
 

I like all the First Signal albums, some more than others, but this one's a bit of a different beast to the others. Far more harder rocking, generally speaking, and to me it's a nice switch-up. I don't think you'd have to like their other albums to dig this one separately. To each their own, but to me this is very well worth an unbiased listen.

As for Hess, even as what I'd consider to be a massive Harem Scarem fan, I have to admit I've always been a bit 50/50 on his voice. I love it because it's the voice of one of my favourite bands, but I would also understand someone 100% if they weren't a fan of his voice, specifically, not that you actually mention that separately.

Everything else aside, though, I just think the songs deliver on this album. 

[KarpetRydOFunk]

15 hours ago, Geoff said:

So let's discuss the best album of the year (spoiler alert) that people seem to be purposely dodging and I need to understand why. I've missed the memo.

First Signal - 'Face Your Fears.' You dudes are my people, but hit me with it. What trivial reason are we all ignoring this album for? Can't be the songs because they're killer. 

If we pause what we're doing now and just put this in your ears;

 

Obviously no genuine member of this site is hearing that and thinking, "Oh my, that is yuck garbage." So why is everyone ignoring this album? Like I said, you're my people, but if there's on this thing this forum as a collective can do it's to get caught up on something trivial and insignificant and roll with it. Do we not like this album because it's another Frontiers project album? Fill me in, dudes. As someone who takes each album on it's own merit, this is pretty easily slaying most of what I hear this year (except maybe Creye) but it can't even earn a mention on any other list, on a melodic rock site? I am flummoxed. 

If it wasn't Hess singing someone else's songs for a Frontiers project, but it was a new band with the same album would everyone be falling over themselves for it? 

I completely forgot this album existed. This was 2023? 

[Geoff]

27 minutes ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

I completely forgot this album existed. This was 2023? 

Yes, it was, you Canadian Harem Scarem fan.

 

[KarpetRydOFunk]

10 minutes ago, Geoff said:

Yes, it was, you Canadian Harem Scarem fan.

 

This year was so fucked. Lost complete track of time. Just the other day I was talking about something that happened five years ago thinking it was only this July. 

[Glen]

On 12/7/2023 at 9:19 PM, Geoff said:

I like all the First Signal albums, some more than others, but this one's a bit of a different beast to the others. Far more harder rocking, generally speaking, and to me it's a nice switch-up. I don't think you'd have to like their other albums to dig this one separately. To each their own, but to me this is very well worth an unbiased listen.

As for Hess, even as what I'd consider to be a massive Harem Scarem fan, I have to admit I've always been a bit 50/50 on his voice. I love it because it's the voice of one of my favourite bands, but I would also understand someone 100% if they weren't a fan of his voice, specifically, not that you actually mention that separately.

Everything else aside, though, I just think the songs deliver on this album. 

One of the main issues with this album is Hess screaming over every track. Don't get me wrong I love Hess but for some reason he renders this album almost unlistenable. When they were recording this someone should have reeled him in imo.

There are some good songs, but a mixture of downtuning (Always Be There), frantic uncomfortable listening (Rain for your roses) or just average elements (like solo in Shoot The Bullet) just means it fell off my radar and I can't see me returning to it in 2024.

Imo the Vega album is miles better 🤷

[Glen]

mine, in no order cos I like them all :

 

Vega

Creye

Midnite City

Defiants 

Story of the Year

Degreed

Lebrock

Eclipse

Tempt

Nighthawk

Hugo's Voyage 

Overland

Modx 

 

My fav non HH album was Maneskin. Absolutely love it. Not seen them live but their televised set at Glastonbury was 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[The Rocker]

1. The Defiants - Drive
2. Temple Balls - Avalanche
3. First Signal - Face Your Fears
4. Nitrate - Feel The Heat
5. Midnite City - In At The Deep End
6. Eclipse - Megalomania
7. Stardust - Kingdom Of Illusion
8. Seventh Crystal - Wonderland
9. Robin McAuley - Alive
10. Dokken - Heaven Comes Down
11. Degreed - Public Address
12. Creye - Weightless
13. Artic Rain - Unity
14. Khymera - Hold Your Ground
15. Station - And Time Goes On
16. Art Nation - Inception
17. Rian - Wings
18. Ronnie Atkins - Trinity
19. Crowne - Operation Phoenix
20, Extreme - Six

[heavyharmonies]

I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened... there is a late-year monumental shift in Dan's Top 5 for 2023. A new contender has entered the fray.