As part of our annual LISTMANIA series we re-publish “best album” lists from some of the the few surviving print publications that cover metal, and from a handful of “big platform” sites that include metal in their on-line coverage, along with a range of other music genres and other aspects of popular culture.
We don’t re-publish those “big platform” lists because we think it’s likely to be a source of useful discovery for most of the people who come to NCS, though of course that’s possible. It’s really more a matter of peering at the surface world as a form of modest entertainment.
In that context, and only in that context, today we’re sharing Revolver‘s list of the “30 best albums of 2023”, which they recently published here.
Revolver claims that “millions of passionate consumers” visit their website and view their videos across desktop and mobile; that the print edition is the “biggest hard-rock and metal magazine in North America,” with a subscriber base that’s three times larger than the “next biggest U.S. metal print publication”; and that they have a “highly engaged social following with over 1B impressions per month across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter” (they haven’t updated their text to use X yet).
This scattershot list is what they’re telling those millions of people were the best metal and rock albums of the year. It’s a breathtaking series of selections, and not in a good way. It’s more like this kind of breathtaking (“Oh the humanity!”).
As in past years, the list does include a very small number of albums we wrote about favorably at NCS (very small) — Harm’s Way, Blackbraid, and Fuming Mouth. Whether those belong on a year-end list or belong at the spots where Revolver put them is of course open to discussion. But as for the list as a whole, even taking into account the fact that Revolver covers “hard-rock” as well as “metal”?
We think the list will be as easy for our regular visitors to shoot down as aiming at that dirigible with a Stinger missile (and that will not bother Revolver in the slightest). So we’ll just leave the aiming and firing to you (in the comments of course). Here’s the Revolver list:
30. Ghost – Phantomime
29. Kim Dracula – A Gradual Decline in Morale
28. Periphery – Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre
27. In This Moment – GODMODE
26. In Flames – Foregone
25. Poppy – Zig
24. Baroness – Stone
23. Harm’s Way – Common Suffering
22. Blackbraid – Blackbraid II
21. Silent Planet – Superbloom
20. Babymetal – The Other One
19. Orbit Culture – Descent
18. 3TEETH – EndEx
17. Jesus Piece – …So Alone
16. Fuming Mouth – Last Day of Sun
15. Callous Daoboys – God Smiles Upon the Callous Daoboys
14. Queens of the Stone Age – In Times New Roman…
13. Dying Fetus – Make Them Beg for Death
12. Dying Wish – Symptoms of Survival
11. Code Orange – The Above
10. Scowl – Psychic Dance Routine
9. Dethklok – Dethalbum IV
8. HEALTH – Rat Wars
7. Drain – Living Proof
6. Better Lovers – God Made Me an Animal
5. Spiritbox – The Fear of Fear
4. Avenged Sevenfold – Life Is but a Dream…
3. Crosses – Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.
2. Metallica – 72 Seasons
1. Sleep Token – Take Me Back to Eden
13 Responses to “LISTMANIA 2023: REVOLVER’S LIST OF THE 30 BEST ALBUMS OF 2023”
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Yeah it’s bad.
Sweet zombie jesus… if one were to take that as a legitimate representation of the “best” that the scene had to offer this year then what an indictment that would be.
Thankfully it isn’t, but still!
Also, as the dude who reviewed both the Blackbraid and Fuming Mouth albums (and still really likes the latter) I’d honestly say that neither of them belong in the top 30. That doesn’t mean that they’re bad (although there’s a certain type of person out there who seems incapable of processing any nuance between “best thing ever” and “absolute garbage”, so I’m sure someone will probably take that the wrong way) it’s simply that there’s just too much other good stuff out there (not that you’d know it from this list).
I am, however, dropping a review of one of the other albums mentioned here sometime tomorrow.. although it’s still not “Best of the Year” worthy!
I do Love HEALTH – Rat Wars, though. I guess it’s kinda metal? ish?
wow, I’ve gotta say, I love seeing The Callous Daoboys up there, and with a 3 song EP to boot. They deserve all the praise imo. Weird seeing so many EPs though. Better Lovers and Spiritbox as well. Love them, too, but they wouldn’t crack my top 30, while the Daoboys definitely would
This list is a who’s who of Sirius XM Liquid Metal bands.
What the hell is this happy horse shit!!??
This post is just trolling your fans come
On now!
What a shitshow. The inclusion of EPs is especially infuriating as well lol, like they couldn’t find enough brand names that released albums so they had to back fill it with EPs.
Agree… except that in my particular case, “Jenseits” by Finsterforst being an EP (39 minutes could be considered a normal LP anyway), is a fvcking massive material!!!!
I giggled.
Orbit Culture, Blackbraid and Dying Fetus…..the only good things in a big pile of rubbish…..
Are they trolling us.
Wow, I didn’t think it would be THAT bad, but yikes.