10 Best Rock Albums of 2023
Number 10
Rolling Stones
– Hackney Diamonds
Hackney Diamonds doesn’t try to outdo the Stones’ past. It just shows they still know how to throw punches that land. At this point, they don’t need to prove a damn thing—but they just did anyway.
Number 9
Within Temptation
– Bleed Out
For their eighth studio album, the group focused on singles rather than attempting to record an album in one fell swoop. As a result, the album spawned five singles.
Number 8
Greta Van Fleet
– Starcatcher
“’Starcatcher’ is our perspective and sums up where we are as a group and individually as musicians,” stated guitarist Jake Kizska.
Number 7
Staind
– Confessions Of The Fallen
“There’s an electronic element that there wasn’t in any of our stuff before,” noted guitarist Mike Mushok of Staind’s first album in twelve years. “And it was something as simple as taking a guitar riff that I wrote and playing it on a synthesizer or breaking it up and making some cool sounds out of it.”
Number 6
Blink-182
– One More Time…
The band’s ninth album is the first album to feature the lineup of Tom DeLonge (guitar/vocals), Mark Hoppus (bass/vocals) and Travis Barker (drums) since 2011.
Number 5
Queens Of The Stone Age
– In Times New Roman…
In Times New Roman… finds QOTSA snarling back with bruised riffs, black humor, and desert grit. It’s dense, bitter, and built for late nights and cracked souls—not radio hits. No polish, just pressure. Heavy, human, and Homme at his sharpest in years.
Number 4
Paramore
– This Is Why
This is Why summarizes the plethora of ridiculous emotions, the rollercoaster of being alive in 2022, having survived even just the last 3 or 4 years, explained frontwoman Haley Williams of the band’s sixth album.
Number 3
Corey Taylor
– CMF2
The Slipknot/Stone Sour frontman recorded the album with his solo band: Christian Martucci (guitar), Zach Throne (guitar) Eliot Lorango (bass) and Dustin Robert (drums). Taylor has said “CMF2” is “the best Rock album of this year and the next.”
Number 2
Foo Fighters
– But Here We Are
The band called it “a brutally honest and emotionally raw response to everything the Foo Fighters have endured over the last year.” One ordeal that the band faced was the passing of longtime drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Number 1
Metallica
– 72 Seasons
The band’s eleventh studio effort debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200. It also ruled the Top Rock Albums, Top Hard Rock Albums, Top Album Sales and Vinyl Albums charts. The band is pictured above.
Metallica Bio
Honorable Mention
Mammoth – WVH: II
Nita Strauss: The Call Of The Void
Ten Best Rock Albums were selected based on lyrics, innovative compositions, a unique approach to the genre, production quality, and public opinion/popularity.
