2023 is over! Well, almost, anyway if you're reading this on the day it goes out. It was the year that brought back Ville Valo, gave us new records from massive acts like Avenged Sevenfold, Metallica and Within Temptation and brought a whole new dimension to the fan culture of Babymetal and Sleep Token.
And like many years before, we've also had a tonne of brilliant new records to dive into. We already asked for your votes to crown the very best metal album of 2023 - Sleep Token's breakthrough success Take Me Back To Eden taking top spot - but below you'll find the official Metal Hammer Top 50 albums of 2023, assembled by our contributors and representing a cross-section of the very best metal had to offer in the past 12 months.
2023's been a wild ride - here's to another brilliant 12 months in 2024. Happy Holidays!
Metal Hammer's 50 best albums of 2023: 50-41
50. Blood Ceremony - The Old Ways Remain (Rise Above)
49. Cannibal Corpse - Chaos Horrific (Metal Blade)
48. Burner - It All Returns To Nothing (Church Road)
47. Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium (Season Of Mist)
46. Ahab - The Coral Tombs (Napalm)
45. Spirit Adrift - Ghost At The Gallows (Century Media)
