I finally finished my detailed reviews of all the 2023 hard rock and metal releases that caught my interest.
The results:
| 1. Sacred Outcry - Towers Of Gold (2023) - 9.4/10 | Excellent |
| 2. George Lynch - Guitars At The End Of The World (2023) - 7.7/10 3. Blood Star - First Sighting (2023) - 7.6/10 |
Great |
| 4. George Lynch & Jeff Pilson - Heavy Hitters II (2023) - 7.2/10 5. Kings Of Thrash - Best Of The West…Live At The Whisky A Go Go (2023) - 7.0/10 6. Sweet & Lynch - Heart & Sacrifice (2023) - 7.0/10 7. The Banishment - Machine And Bone (2023) - 6.8/10 8. Metallica - 72 Seasons (2023) - 6.6/10 |
Good |
(#5 and #6 weren’t actually tied, but they rounded off to the same decimal value.)
So much George Lynch stuff this year! I didn’t even pick up Lynch Mob’s Babylon because it didn’t do much for me when I sampled it, but there are still 4 other Lynch albums on my 2023 list. Crazy.
I didn’t buy quite as many albums this year as I did the past couple of years, and the overall quality of the albums I picked up was a bit lower than usual – but Sacred Outcry’s Towers Of Gold really knocked it out of the park for me, steadily climbing with each listen until it reached god-tier all-timer status. Just a stunning piece of work, and a must-listen for fans of epic traditional metal and power metal.
(Master review index >)