We’re halfway through 2023 and Consequence is looking back at the best pop culture has had to offer so far this year. Check out our list of the 20 metal and hard rock albums of 2023 below, and also take a look at our ranking of the best overall albums, best songs, and best films of the year to date.
The year 2023 has been one of transition for heavy music, following suit with the rest of the music industry. Aside from Metallica dropping 72 Seasons in April, there haven’t been a ton of major releases in the realms of hard rock and heavy metal, and many bigger acts are either touring, writing/recording, or simply taking a breather after a period of post-COVID hyperactivity in late 2021 and throughout last year.
That doesn’t mean there’s been a lack of strong heavy album releases; rather, it’s given us a chance to highlight a plethora of up-and-coming bands and indie label releases that have caught our ear over the past few months. From the dark dream pop of Sleep Token’s Take Me Back to Eden, to the avant maximalism of Liturgy’s 93696, to the orchestral black metal of Portrayal of Guilt’s Devil Music — so many of the acts on this list testing the extremes of their respective genre (or eschewing it entirely) via daring experiments and sonic exploration.
Even if some of those bands might be unfamiliar to the passing casual headbanger, there’s a sense of forward motion in the various subsects of heavy music that’s elevating a new crop of artists to the forefront. These acts are the present and future, and they’re making the most of a relatively slow year in the major-label circuit, deservedly standing alongside a household name like Metallica on our list of the best heavy albums of 2023 thus far (listed in alphabetical order below).
Jon Hadusek,
Senior Staff Writer
Anti-Flag — Lies They Tell Our Children
Anti-Flag have been delivering politically-charged punk rock for more than 30 years now, and they show no signs of slowing down on their latest effort, Lies They Tell Our Children. On their 13th studio album, frontman Justin Sane and company tackle such topics as climate change, imperialism, and Big Pharma, while welcoming such guests as Killswitch Engage’s Jesse Leach, Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath, and more. It’s another uncompromising collection of powerful songs from the veteran Pittsburgh punkers. — Spencer Kaufman
BABYMETAL — THE OTHER ONE
Having proven themselves as more than a novelty act, BABYMETAL have cemented their legacy by growing musically and continuing to defy genres with ease on their fourth album, THE OTHER ONE. The ambitious concept album hooks the listener with the epically symphonic opener “METAL KINGDOM,” then continues on with catchy beats and alt rock undertones on songs like “LIGHT AND DARKNESS” and “DIVINE ATTACK-SHINGEKI.” The track “MONOCHROME” combines wicked double bass drum beats and soaring guitar riffs with a very catchy poppy chorus. Fans of the metal pop fusion now known as “kawaii metal” that BABYMETAL basically invented will not be disappointed. — Colette Claire
Bonginator — The Intergalactic Gorebong of Deathpot
Aside from the synthwave interludes, sci-fi overtones, and the sophomoric humor that lands more often than it should (take, for example, “Zombie Party Rockers/ They came to rock/ They will suck your d**k/ Then eat your c**k”), Bonginator’s debut reaffirms that, when done well, nothing feels as good for the soul as metal. It is, in a word, satisfying, because Bonginator’s foundation is stronger than their window dressing suggests. The group’s Cannibal Corpse affectations and laser-focus on weed certify The Intergalactic Gorebong of Deathpot as one of the purest death metal strains you’ll smoke in 2023. — Colin Dempsey
Boris & Uniform — Bright New Disease
Bright New Disease, brings together Japanese experimental metallers Boris and New York industrial-metal act Uniform. Two of the singles leading up to the album’s release — “You Are the Beginning” and “Surprised” — let listeners know that both bands are wholly represented on the album, equally leaning into the best elements of each depending on the flow of the song. Uniform’s Mike Berdan grates his voice like industrial steel, while Takeshi and Wata hold down their own textured clamor. — Cervanté Pope
Cattle Decapitation — Terrasite
If the world is in need of a soundtrack for our eventual environmental collapse/extinction event, look no further than the eighth studio effort from San Diego deathgrind masters Cattle Decapitation. The portrait that the band paints on Terrasite is a damning one, a brutalist reminder that us humans and our “neurosis of entitlement” are wholly to blame for what we’ve wrought on this planet. Let the vicious blastbeats, scythe-like guitar work, and vocalist Travis Ryan’s unholy screech be the last sounds in our ears as we return to dust. — Robert Ham
Danava — Nothing but Nothing
Within the metal community of Danava’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, it became a running gag that the heavy rock band would never actually finish their fourth studio album. Well, the joke’s on those naysayers as Nothing but Nothing was finally unleashed on this world and immediately upended any and all expectations for what leader Dusty Sparkles and his gang of prog-boogie accomplices were capable of. The eight tracks on this LP are tightly wound epics of time signature abuse and denim-clad groove. — R. Ham
DevilDriver – Dealing with Demons Vol. II
Dez Fafara has been busy as of late, reviving Coal Chamber while continuing his full-time work as the frontman for DevilDriver. After a taking a reprieve during COVID, the latter picked back up with their Dealing with Demons saga, dropping the second iteration back in May. Melding personal lyrical content with DevilDriver’s groovy, blackened thrash, songs like lead single “Through the Depths” are the mark of a veteran band that has matured gracefully and diverted the malaise that so often sets in after two decades of the industry grind. — J. Hadusek
