Top 10 of 2023 (Secular)

Because top 5s are too hard. Go!

1. Rexoria: Imperial Dawn
2. LOVEBITES: Judgment Day
3. Delain: Dark Waters
4. Beyond the Black s/t
5. Dark Sarah: Attack of Orym
6. Frozen Crown: Call of the North
7. Stargazer: Life Will Never Be the Same
8. Man Must Die: The Pain Behind It All
9. Blood Star: First Sighting
10. No One Alive: Don’t Leave Your Child Alone

Nothing came out and dominated like last year for me but plenty of good albums.
Gatekeeper - From Western Shores
Frozen Soul- Glacial Domination
Metal Church - Congregation of Annihilation
Sulphur Aeon- Seven Crowns and Seven Seals
Raider - Trial By Chaos
Obituary- Dying of Everything
Memoriam- Rise To Power
Majesties- Vast Reaches Unclaimed
Overkill - Scorched
Winger- Seven

Forgot about MC. Might need to bump NOA for that one.

Favorite Secular Albums of 2023:

- All My Shadows - Eerie Monsters 
- Soledriver - Return Me To Light
- Blue Oyster Cult - 50th Anniversary Live - First Night
- Paul Rodgers - Midnight Rose
- Peter Gabriel - i/o
- Robin Trower featuring Sari Schorr - Joyful Sky
- Dokken - Heaven Comes Down
- Yes - Mirror To The Sky
- Urban Heat - Wellness (Reissue)
- Erja Lyytinen - Diamonds On The Road (Live 2023)


(I'm going to include Soledriver in both lists because I still haven't seen lyrics yet, and I believe it's intended for either market)

Umm... I really don't know any
1. Metallica
2. Megadeth
Those are really the only two I know, and I barely know them

And Megadeth was last year 

That's true... I forgot about that

Then I'll just say that 72 Seasons is underrated. As of know, this would probably be my ranking

1. ...And Justice For All
2. Master of Puppets
3. Ride the Lightning
4. The Black Album
5. Kill 'Em All
6. Death Magnetic
7. 72 Seasons
8. Hardwired to Self-Destruct
9. Re-Load
10. Load
11. Pathogenic Occular Dissonance

Our top 5 are the same, actually.

Pethead wrote:Our top 5 are the same, actually.

Nice! I know some people would strongly disagree with putting TBA above KMA, so I'm glad to see someone who agrees with that!

StevenCressler wrote:That's true... I forgot about that

Then I'll just say that 72 Seasons is underrated. As of know, this would probably be my ranking

1. ...And Justice For All
2. Master of Puppets
3. Ride the Lightning
4. The Black Album
5. Kill 'Em All
6. Death Magnetic
7. 72 Seasons
8. Hardwired to Self-Destruct
9. Re-Load
10. Load
11. Pathogenic Occular Dissonance

One of these things is not like the others…

seth wrote:

StevenCressler wrote:That's true... I forgot about that

Then I'll just say that 72 Seasons is underrated. As of know, this would probably be my ranking

1. ...And Justice For All
2. Master of Puppets
3. Ride the Lightning
4. The Black Album
5. Kill 'Em All
6. Death Magnetic
7. 72 Seasons
8. Hardwired to Self-Destruct
9. Re-Load
10. Load
11. Pathogenic Occular Dissonance

One of these things is not like the others…

Yeah, I just hate writing down opinions that are the same as literally everyone else in existence, so I tend to put my most "duh" opinions with an obvious replacement, such as when I swapped Mirror of Souls and The Gift of Music on my answer to the fav/least fav Theocracy songs per album

1. Alice Cooper - Road
2. Winger - Seven
3.  Extreme - Six
4. Dokken - Heaven Comes Down
5. Hurricane - Reconnected
6. L.A. Guns - Black Diamonds

I just got the new one by Adam & the Metal Hawks but haven't played it yet.  I might get the new Cobra Spell as well.

I need to check out that Hurricane, completely forgot about it.

I didn't buy a whole lot of Secular stuff this year, but here's what I did get and enjoy:

1. Angra - Cycles Of Pain.  This is a very strong album that merges well their new sound with that classic Angra feel.
2. Tublatanka - Uprostred Chaosu.  I'm enjoying this one much more than I expected.  It's just very nice melodic rock/metal with a lot of charm.
3. Dauðaró - like 10 albums haha.  That guy's a machine!  Of all the genres, funeral doom has the highest potential for being exceedingly boring, but Dauðaró is anything but boring.  Everything he's put out is very creative and engaging.
4. Nathanael Larochette - Old Growth.  Not metal, but he has his connections with the metal scene.  This is a stripped-down and simplistic album but somehow it is quite rich and a really lovely listen.

Oh and Dusk's new album will certainly end up on this list, though I'm still waiting for it to be available on CD from the band before I buy it.

I'm aiming to have this figured out by the end of January. I have a list of about 150 releases this year so re-visiting them and creating lists has been no small task.

To be honest I didn't have as much time as usual to check out new albums, because of my move back to the Netherlands and the accompanying stress of acquring a house (almost impossible these days) and starting a new job. I did find enough time to create a top 10 but it isn't as definitive as usual; repeated listens in the future could cause some shifts but I think the top 3 is pretty much fixed.

Also I will give my top 10 regardless of whether the band is christian or secular.

10: Wytch Hazel - IV: Sacrament
9: Gloryhammer - Return to the Kingdom of Fife
8: Nanowar of Steel - Dislike to False Metal
7: Galneryus - Between Dread and Valor
6: Eterknight - Forgotten Tales
5: Bloodshed Walhalla - Glory to the Sacred Land
4: Twilight Force - At the Heart of Wintervale
3: Firienholt - White Frost and Elder Blood
2: Edu Falaschi - Eldorado
1: Theocracy - Mosaic

Albums released from November onward pretty much never stood a chance to be given a fair listen by me.

As a pastor the holidays get so busy so I’m with you on albums released later in the year.

Scott Waters’ list is up:

Scott Waters has such a giant musical palette, he's forgotten more music than I can remember.  That being said I really don't care to know about every rock and metal release in the secular market.