Collated by Monk

Well, it’s come to that time, hasn’t it? You know, the one when we cast a backward glance over our shoulders at the events that have taken place in the rock ‘n’ roll Überverse over the past 12 months and pick out our highlights. So, in the first of our annual #ThatWasTheYearThatWas retrospectives, our small team of ninja reviewers share with you, our devoted and much-loved readers, their favorite albums of 2023…

David O’Neill

  1. Black Stone Cherry - Screamin' At The Sky - ArtworkBlack Stone Cherry – ‘Screamin’ At The Sky’
  2. Empyre – ‘Relentless’
  3. Those Damn Crows – ‘Inhale Exhale’
  4. Foo Fighters – ‘But Here We Are’
  5. Rival Sons – ‘Darkfighter’
  6. Samantha Fish Jesse Dayton – ‘Deathwish Blues’
  7. The Rolling Stones – ‘Hackney Diamonds’
  8. Greta Van Fleet – ‘Starcatcher’
  9. Black Spiders – ‘Cant Die Won’t Die’
  10. The Cadillac Three – ‘The Years Go Fast’
  11. The Answer – ‘Sundowners’
  12. Kenny Wayne Shepherd – ‘Dirt On My Diamonds Vol 1’
  13. These Wicked Rivers ‘Black Gold’
  14. Bernie Marsden – ‘Working Man’
  15. Alice Cooper – ‘Road’

DJ Astrocreep

  1. Earthside – ‘Let The Truth Speak’
  2. PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS – ‘Land of Sleeper’
  3. Haken – ‘Fauna’
  4. The Damned – ‘Darkadelic’
  5. Be Your Own Pet – ‘Mommy’
  6. Puscifer – ‘Existential Reckoning: Re-Wired’
  7. Mudhoney – ‘Plastic Eternity’
  8. Ne Obliviscaris –‘ Exul’
  9. Queens of the Stone Age – ‘In Times New Roman’
  10. The Wytches – ‘Our Guest Can’t Be Named’
  11. Steven Wilson – ‘The Harmony Codex’
  12. Public Image Ltd – ‘End Of World’
  13. 3Teeth- ‘Endex’
  14. Cannibal Corpse – ‘Chaos Horrific’
  15. In This Moment – ‘GODMODE’
  16. Circa Waves – ‘Never Going Under’
  17. Avatar – ‘Dance Devil Dance’
  18. The Hives – ‘The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons’
  19. The Ocean – ‘Holocene’
  20. Katatonia – ‘Sky Void of Stars’

Jase Walker

  1. Superlove – ‘follow:noise’
  2. Fromjoy – ‘Fromjoy’
  3. PVRIS – ‘Evergreen’
  4. Emarosa – ‘Sting’
  5. Enter Shikari – ‘A Kiss For The Whole World’
  6. Haken – ‘Fauna’
  7. Battle Tapes – ‘Texture’
  8. The Intersphere – ‘Wanderer
  9. Tesseract – ‘War Of Being’
  10. Periphery – ‘Djent Is Not A Genre’
  11. Gunship – ‘Unicorn’
  12. Polaris – ‘Fatalism’
  13. Silent Planet – ‘Superbloom’
  14. Arch Echo – ‘Final Pitch’
  15. Invent Animate – ‘Heavener’
  16. Hypno5e – ‘Sheol’
  17. Humanity’s Last Breath – ‘Ashen’
  18. Hanabie – ‘Reborn Superstar!’
  19. CLT DRP – ‘Nothing Clever, Just Feelings’
  20. Pterodactyl King – ‘Pterodactyl King’

Honourable Mention: Cotoba – ‘4pricøt’ (Came out 2022 but I just discovered them this year)

Jim Rowland

  1. C.O.F.F.I.N. – ‘Australia Stops’Artwork for Australia Stops by C.O.F.F.I.N
  2. Evil Blizzard – ‘Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale’
  3. Sparks – ‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte’
  4. Civic – ‘Taken By Force’
  5. Rolling Stones – ‘Hackney Diamonds’
  6. The Damned – ‘Darkadelic’
  7. Green Lung – ‘This Heathen Land’
  8. Swans – ‘The Beggar’
  9. Hellripper – ‘Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags’
  10. Wingmen – ‘Wingmen’
  11. Gong – ‘Unending Ascending’
  12. Crown Court – ‘Heavy Manners’
  13. Hip Priests – ‘Roden House Blues’
  14. Grade 2 – ‘Grade 2’
  15. Metallica – ’72 Seasons’
  16. Brian Setzer – ‘The Devil Always Collects’
  17. Ozric Tentacles – ‘Lotus Unfolding’
  18. John J. Presley – ‘Chaos & Calypso’
  19. Teiger – ‘Teiger’
  20. Grace Potter – ‘Mother Road’

Monk

  1. The Crawling – ‘All Of This For Nothing’Artwork for All Of This For Nothing by The Crawling
  2. Slomatics – ‘Strontium Fields’
  3. Dead Addiction – ‘…Of Vice And Men’
  4. Hrafngrimr – ‘Holmganga’
  5. Daddy Long Legs – ‘Street Sermons’
  6. Extreme – ‘Six’
  7. King Kraken – ‘MCLXXX’
  8. Midnite City – ‘In At The Deep End’
  9. Empyre – ‘Relentless’
  10. Dirt Box Disco – ‘Rokapokalips’
  11. The Ground Shaker – ‘Rogue Asylum’
  12. Einar Solberg – ‘16’
  13. Glorious Bankrobbers – ‘Back On The Road’
  14. Craggy Collyde – ‘The House Next Door’
  15. Diamond Dogs – ‘About The Hardest Nut To Crack’
  16. Slamdinistas – ‘Shoot For The Stars’
  17. Leather Catsuit – ‘Leather Catsuit’
  18. The Hip Priests – ‘Roden House Blues’
  19. Myrkur – ‘Spine’
  20. Crossfire – ‘Switch To Reset’

Such is the diversity of taste among our very eclectic team that only four albums were featured on more than one list of selections, making it virtually impossible for us to choose an overall ‘Album Of The Year’, but we did a bit of number crunching on ye olde ÜRHQ abacus, and finally managed pick a shortlist of three, with the final tally coming in as follows:

  1. Haken – ‘Fauna’
  2. The Damned – ‘Darkadelic’
  3. Empyre – ‘Relentless’

So, there you have it… goodbye and fare thee well to 2023, here’s to an equally, if not more productive 2024… see y’all on the other side \m/