2023 is almost in the books. It’s now a week to Christmas and also I have the last week of the year off work so I’m very much looking forward to getting this week over with. But I also run a music blog and that requires a certain something around this time of the year – my top 10 albums.

This year was a bit more “quiet” for me, at least in terms of me checking out a ton of new stuff. But it’s still very easy to find 10 worthy picks for the annual list. I’ll go straight into that now, and then Wednesday I’ll do a more detailed “wrap up” of the year for this site, me and music in general.

10: Cannibal Corpse – Chaos Horrific

This was the death metal legends’ 16^th effort and showed that CC have not slowed down with age. They have added a fair bit of technical flair to their offerings, this album gave some of that and also a fair bit of the straight-ahead brutal stuff. Death metal is now nearly 40 years old but no one has kept the strain alive or, uh, dead like Cannibal Corpse.

9: Blur – The Ballad Of Darren

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Blur’s first album in 8 years, but whatever expectations were blown away. This is a tight, cohesive set that offers a range of great tracks and a look at Damon Albarn’s perspective on life at middle age. Several Blur albums can be all over the place but this one holds together really well. I wasn’t expecting to like this one nearly as much as I did, I was caught pretty off-guard by it.

Also – best album cover of 2023. I love that shot, it’s great.

8: Overkill – Scorched

I was fully expecting to like this one and I wasn’t at all disappointed. The 20^th album from the New Jersey thrash legends is another chapter in one of the most consistent discographies found in heavy metal. It’s another studded effort loaded with thrash and groove, just as Overkill have been cooking up for decades now.

7: Neil Young – Chrome Dreams

Here’s something to throw everyone for a loop – this album was released in August of 2023, but was recorded in 1977. It took 46 years for this album to finally be released, and I can count that very easily because I was born a few months after it was originally recorded. The album even got a sequel 16 years before its own release. It could be argued whether this should even count on a 2023 best of list, but this is my list so it counts.

Much of what’s on here would find its way re-worked onto other albums like American Stars N’ Bars and Rust Never Sleeps, the latter being my favorite Neil Young album. So it’s no surprise that I’d naturally take a liking to this long-lost record. Two of Young’s best songs, Like A Hurricane and Powderfinger, can be found here, and the rest are fantastic first versions of songs mostly well known. This album is honestly one of Young’s best and it’s just amazing that it took nearly half a century to get an official release.

6: Slowdive – Everything Is Alive

The British shoegaze legends came back this year with an album that had originally been planned during the world-shattering year of 2020. This is not “pure” shoegaze by any stretch – here, Slowdive incorporated some electronic and pop sounds that serve to expand their reach. Kisses was a fantastic lead single that I don’t think anyone would have pegged to come from a band known for the inaccessible strains of shoegaze, and this album is full of mature warmth and the band reaching out to add to their illustrious style.

5: Full Of Hell and Nothing – When No Birds Sang

For the unfamiliar, this is not one band – Full Of Hell is a US grindcore act, while Nothing is a US shoegaze outfit. The two came together to record a collaborative album and wound up delivering results far greater than the sum of their parts. This steps outside the subgenres of both acts and is a harrowing listen. It is at times a noisy, ugly affair and others quiet and beautiful. But at all times it is a very soul-crushing listen and directly confronts the fragile nature of the human psyche. It is one hell of a work.

4: Annabel Lee – Mother’s Hammer

This is the debut album from a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter who I, and probably many others, were not at all familiar with before this year. Generally termed “alt-rock,” this is a mix of songs that range from power and attitude to quiet and mournful. Alas I’m A Lady lashes out at the patriarchy, while All Of My Ghosts is a haunting look at the end of a long relationship. And the song Up is a total monster, it is infectious upon first listen and is “the song from an indie artist that should be a mega hit.” I wasn’t sure what I’d be hearing when I first played this but the fantastic songwriting and Annabel’s powerful voice offered up one of the best spins of the year.

3: Suffocation – Hymns From The Apocrypha

My favorite death metal band ever have returned from a six year recording layoff and their first album with vocalist Ricky Myers, who replaced long-tenured Frank Mullen at the band’s helm a few years ago. Not a beat was missed as Myers integrates himself just fine into the stew of brutality and technical wizardry that is Suffocation. This album lines up very well alongside the band’s best efforts and is everything a Suffocation fan could have wanted.

2: Vandenberg – Sin

Adrian Vandenberg had to fight off ex-bandmates for several years to retain control of the act bearing his own last name, but he was eventually successful and the outfit resumed in 2020 after 35 years away. Sin marks the second album since the group’s rebirth, this time Vandenberg is joined by singer Mats Levén, a man with a miles-long resume across rock and metal.

This album is white-hot hard rock that covers all the bases and doesn’t let up from start to finish. It’s honestly the best rock album I’ve heard in a long time, it’s another one I was completely blown away by. I didn’t expect it to suck but this album was so far beyond expectations it’s unreal. I know Adrian is hoping to work a bit with David Coverdale one more time before David’s retirement, but let’s hope that Vandenberg remains an act this time around, because they are on top of it.

Album of the Year 2023

Enforced – War Remains

The top of the heap this year goes to the Virginia thrash outfit on their third full-length album. I don’t usually start thinking about these album lists until more towards November, but this one lept out at me on first listen in April and let me know that I’d be talking about it on this list. As the year wore on, it became clear that this was the crown jewel of 2023.

There is nothing subtle here, Enforced are out for blood from start to finish. This is thrash metal by all means but also employing a good bit of crossover influence – the vocals have a hardcore quality to them and the drums employ a fair bit of D-beat. The songs are all on average 3-minute bursts of pummeling and pointing out the ills of the world, of which there are many in 2023. This album leaps off the record and goes right for the throat, and the songs translate well live also.

That’s wrap for the 2023 albums. There’ll be some more 2023 stuff to go over on Wednesday as we put this year into the books.