Metal Insider’s Combined Top 15 Albums of 2023

For the year 2023, we decided to implement an actual point system instead of the mathematical approach we experimented with in 2021 to compile a consolidated list of the best albums of the year. With a bit of assistance from AI, we’ve learned the importance of not relying entirely on artificial intelligence and always maintaining confidence and trust in human intelligence. We’ve fine-tuned our point system for better accuracy. Here’s how we approached it: Zenae’s list featured a Top 25, Siegfried’s had a Top 8, and Chris’ included a Top 5. Our methodology involved using only the Top 10 from Zenae’s list. For Chris’ list, the points started at 6, and for Siegfried’s, they began at 3. To clarify, the point distribution is as follows: Album #10 receives 1 point, #9 gets 2 points, #8 earns 3 points, #7 accumulates 4 points, #6 scores 5 points, #5 is awarded 6 points, #4 gets 7 points, #3 receives 8 points, #2 attains 9 points, and #1 secures 10 points. We took into account the albums that appeared on multiple lists, adding up their respective numbers. For those remaining with 10 points, we followed the order in which the lists were completed. Lastly, additional numbers were determined by tallying before individual numbers. Ultimately, we added up the points for each album across all the lists. The higher the total points, the higher the album ranks in our combined list. So, after doing this for all the albums, we get a new list that shows which albums got the most points overall, indicating the best albums of the year according to the combined rankings from lists from this year’s Metal Insider contributors’ willing participants: Tom, Siegfried, Lisa, Ian, Matt, Zenae, Alex, Kyle, Mar, Chris.

2023 had a heap of new music, as we continue to see what was created during the covid-19 pandemic. We thank each contributor who were willing to take their time to formulate a list out of the thousands of albums that were released this year. And of course, thank our readers for checking out everyone’s input. We also thank Elise for compiling her best rock songs of 2023, along with the shocking moments, and Miguel for sharing his incite on European festivals for 2024. You can tell with our now extensive New & Noteworthy, sharing artists of all levels, it’s been a year with releases, while also looking at our Metal By Numbers to see how some of these albums debuted in charts for 2023. Don’t forget each list comes with a playlist (including this one!), and we have a monthly playlist for this year, in case you want to hear more from our Spotify channel.