RockinTown’s Best Albums of 2023 (So Far)
1. Metallica (pictured above): 72 Seasons
The eleventh studio album by the group made its Billboard 200 debut at number two. It also topped the charts for vinyl albums, top rock albums, top hard rock albums, and top album sales.
Key Tracks: 72 Seasons, Screaming Suicide, Lux Æterna and If Darkness Had A Son
2. Foo Fighters: But Here We Are
The Foo Fighters called this album “a brutally honest and emotionally raw response to everything the Foo Fighters have endured over the last year.”
Key Tracks: “Rescued,” which went to #1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, “The Teacher” and “Under You.”
3. Corey Taylor: CMF2
With the help of his solo band—Christian Martucci on guitar, Zach Throne on guitar, Eliot Lorango on bass, and Dustin Robert on drums—the Slipknot/Stone Sour leader recorded the album. “CMF2” is “the best Rock album of this year and the next,” according to Taylor.
Key Tracks: “Talk Sick,” “Beyond,” “Post Traumatic Blues” and “We Are The Rest”
4. Paramore: This Is Why
Frontwoman Haley Williams of the band’s sixth album said, “(This album) summarizes the plethora of ridiculous emotions, the rollercoaster of being alive in 2022, having survived even just the last 3 or 4 years.”
5. Queens Of The Stone Age: In Times New Roman…
In Times New Roman went to number one on Billboard’s Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock, and Top Alternative charts.
Key Tracks: Emotion Sickness, Paper Machete and Carnaveyeur
6. Nita Strauss: The Call Of The Void
Guest vocalists on Nita’s sophomore solo album include Alice Cooper, David Draiman of Distubed, Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy, and Dorothy Martin of Dorothy.
Key Tracks (w/ guest vocalists): “Victorious” (Dorothy‘s Dorothy Martin), “Dead Inside” (Distubed’s David Draiman), “The Wolf You Feed” (Arch Enemy‘s Alissa White-Gluz), “Winner Takes All” (Alice Cooper) and “The Golden Trail” (In Flames’ Anders Fridén).
7. Blink-182: One More Time…
The lineup of Tom DeLonge (guitar/vocals), Mark Hoppus (bass/vocals), and Travis Barker (drums) for the band’s ninth album is their first since 2011.
Key Tracks: title track, More Than You Know and Dance With Me
8. Butcher Babies: Eye For An Eye…/’Til The World’s Blind
The double set commemorates the tenth anniversary of “Goliath,” the 2013 breakthrough single by Butcher Babies. The album “Eye For An Eye…” and “…’Til The World’s Blind” are the group’s fourth and fifth releases.
Key Tracks: Beaver Cage, Red Thunder and Last December
9. Greta Van Fleet: Starcatcher
Guitarist Jake Kizska said, “‘Starcatcher’ is our perspective and sums up where we are as a group and individually as musicians.”
Key Tracks: Meeting The Master, Sacred The Thread and Farewell For Now
10. Within Temptation: Bleed Out
Instead of trying to record an album all at once, the group concentrated on singles for their eighth studio album. The album consequently gave rise to five singles.
Key Tracks: Entertain You, The Purge, Shed My Skin. Don’t Pray For Me and Ritual.
