10 Best Alternative Rock and Metal Albums of 2023: these are the albums that got us through a crazy year.
It’s almost time to say goodbye to 2023. And that means it’s time for SLIS to do our annual Best-of Year list.
2023 was not a massive year for rock. But what it lacked in quantity it made up for in quality.
As in the past, we’re focusing primarily on alternative rock and metal, from both veteran artists and younger acts. If you’d like to own any of these releases, just click on the album images so you can preview/purchase on Amazon.
Let’s begin!
10. Queens of the Stone Age In Times New Roman
After years of diverting from their heavier roots, QOTSA finally get back to harder rocking basics on their latest. While it may not reach the heights of Songs for the Deaf or Rated R, it’s their best album in years, casting a punchy spell on tracks like
9. Final Gasp Mourning Moon
A friend turned me on to Final Gasp, and I was immediately taken with their unique blend of sonics, which sounds like some unholy marriage between Samhain and Killing Joke. The somewhat lo-fi production draws the comparisons even further, with vocalist Jake Murphy wailing like an undead spirit over squealing guitars and atmospheric flourishes.
8. Baroness Stone
Baroness are a band that somehow manage to come more vital with each release, and Stone is no exception. An emotive, haunting listen that splits the difference between sludge metal, heavy alternative psych and gentle acoustic ballads, it has a slightly left-of-center feel that makes it unique amongst their musical catalogue.
7. Spotlights Alchemy For The Dead
The first of two death-focused albums on this list, doomgazers Spotlights deliver their darkest and most Gothic release yet with Alchemy For The Damned. Combining eerie minor key melodies and bombastic sonics takes each composition to a state both morose and uplifting, most evidence on haunting first single Sunset Burial.
6. SWANS The Beggar
Every SWANS album dabbles in darkness, and 2023’s The Beggar is no exception. That said, it’s also the most uplifting album in their catalogue. Full of the seasick, noise-rock minimalism that lures listeners into a trance, frontman Michael Gira expertly spits out soulful vocals that can be touching and acidic, and ultimately meditative and healing.
5. Iggy Pop Every Loser
Every Loser feels almost like an Iggy Pop greatest hits album that we didn’t know existed. It covers all the bases, from The Stooges inspired Frenzy, to the brooding electronica of Strung Out Johnny. While Pop is now 76 years old, you wouldn’t know it given his impassioned performance on this album.
4. Prong State of Emergency
Always underrated, yet always reliable, Tommy Victor’s groove-industrial-thrash act Prong keep on dishing out delightful alternative metal, and State of Emergency is no exception. Anthems like Disconnected, Non-Existence and Who Told Me are master classes in groove driven metal with fingers in all sorts of other musical sub-genres.
3. Depeche Mode Memento Mori
It’s been noted as deeply ironic that Depeche Mode’s mortality focused album Memento Mori was written before the death of founding member Andy Fletcher. Yet his passing makes this handsome collection of melancholy songs all the more haunting. With songwriting contributions from Martin Gore, Dave Gahan and The Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler , it’s the band’s most affecting album since 2006’s Playing The Angel. Being elder electrionic statesman suits them, and songs like Ghosts Again and Never Let Me Go are as catchy as they are emotionally devastating.
2. The Church – The Hypnogogue
Some fans of The Church got nervous when longtime guitarist Peter Koppes left the group, making frontman Steve Kilbey the lone founding member. Would the new album have the same magic? With their 2023 album The Hypnogogue, the answer was yes and no: the sonic identity of the band remains intact, but the infusion of new blood by guitarist Ashley Naylor resulted in the band’s most ambitious album since their 1992 masterpiece Priest = Aura. It’s the band’s (surprisingly) first concept album, yet intricately constructed songs like the title track and No Other You never overstays its welcome.
1. Slowdive Everything is Alive
When Slowdive reunited in, the hype was huge, and the band overdelivered on their excellent self-titled 2017 comeback album. Now 7 years later, they’ve somehow managed to top themselves again with this majestic assortment of shoegaze gems, each track ebbing into the next, creating a euphoric dream state that lingers long after the last song ends.
Honorable Mentions:
PJ Harvey I Inside The Old Year Dying
Metallica 72 Seasons
Godflesh Purge
Venera (self-titled)
Smashing Pumpkins ATUM
Foo Fighters But Here We Are
The Struts Pretty Vicious
Royal Thunder Rebuilding The Mountain
Acid King Beyond Vision
So that wraps up our list! What are your favorite albums of 2023? Tell us in the comments.