BEST OF 2023 – WallyGator Norton (Radio Host/Writer/Owner) 🇨🇦
You can find the Collective List as well as all our Best of 2023 content including contributors’ individual lists, podcasts and radio DJ shows here: CGCM’s Best of 2023 (Year in Review)
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! I am not talking about Christmas, I am talking about the CGCM Rock Radio Top Ten Lists! I love the excitement of getting to see everyone else’s lists and getting to share my favourite albums of 2023 with all of you. A time of reflection on the year that was and a time to celebrate all of the amazing music that has pleased our ear holes this past year. At the end of 2022, there was a lot of anticipation of albums to arrive in 2023. New albums from some big 80’s acts were on the horizon, Winger, Extreme, Metallica, L.A. Guns, Alice Cooper and others. Some of these made my list, others did not.
#10 🇳🇴
INVASION – Invasion
Holding the number 10 spot is the self-titled debut album from the band Invasion. I remember enjoying the album when I first gave it a spin back in June and then I promptly forgot about it. Good thing that I was somewhat organized this year and had been writing down album titles that caught my ear, so I had a pile of albums to re-visit when compiling this coveted top 10 list. Unfortunately, there isn’t much info out there to share about this band. Independent, they hail from Norway and the album is a crunchy melodic metal feast for the ears. Production is lush and stellar and the vocal stylings of Jørgen Bergersen remind a little of Storm Force’s Patrick Gagliardi. Highlights – “Streets are Burning”, “Acolytes” and “Wings Of Steel”.
#9 🇺🇲
DIRTY HONEY – Can’t Find The Brakes
I remember back in late 2021, I was driving home from work and listening to Between the Stacks with Bob Bannister on CGCM Rock Radio and he was going on about the band Dirty Honey. At that time, I was hard at work on my own personal Top 10 and I went inside and gave the Dirty Honey album another spin. Boom it immediately jumped into my 2021 list so I was quite interested to see if 2021 was beginner’s luck. Dirty Honey are back in 2023 with the sophomore release, Can’t Find The Breaks. 70’s influenced bluesy hard rock n roll done to perfection. Huge grooves, big choruses and songs dripping with attitude. Dirty Honey are the red-headed stepchild of the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Highlights – “Can’t Find The Breaks”, “Satisfied” and the super infectious “Won’t Take Me Alive”.
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#8 🇺🇲
METALLICA – 72 Seasons
Tallica! It was late 2022 when a surprise new single, “Lux AEterna” was released out of nowhere and the announcement that April 17th we would get a new Metallica album. Metallica, the band that made thrash metal palatable for the masses was back with 72 Seasons. I know of many who washed their hands of Metallica upon the release of the Black album. I am not one of them! They lost me a little with Load and Reload, St. Anger has its moments and I don’t count Lulu as part of their discography (for good reason) but since Death Magnetic they have been consistent.
#7 🇫🇮
TEMPLE BALLS – Avalanche
One of the more anticipated releases here at CGCM, Temple Balls are back in 2023 with Avalanche. This Finish band hit a home run with 2021’s Pyromide, an album that made many of the CGCM Top 10 Lists. Avalanche looks to better those results. Eleven barn-burning rockers with nary a ballad to be found. That fact should place it high on the Meister’s list. Highlights, “All Night Long”, “Stand Up and Fight” and “Trap”. Fun fact, until recently I did not know the origin of the name Temple Balls and its connection to a popular THC pastime. Very rock n roll indeed.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM
#6 🇬🇧
THE HOT ONE TWO – Superbia
This was a late entry to my top 10. It was CGCM’s Trevor the “Psycho One” who brought this album and band to my attention. Strange band name but holy shit-balls this new band grabbed me by the short and curlies. Hailing from Cambridgeshire, their website claims they are “putting the swagger back in Rock n Roll!” Sounds good to me, Superbia is full of big chunky guitar riffs great songs with a powerful modern rock production. Highlights – “The Frey”, “Godforsaken Blues” and “Playing With Fire”. The Hot One Two is the second band in my top ten that before 2023 I never knew existed.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM
#5 🇺🇲
THE BITES – Squeeze
Remember in the 80s when the Sunset Strip was the mecca for sex, drugs and good-time rock n roll? The Bites are a brand new band out of Los Angeles that seems determined to re-ignite the Strip with some high-octane rock and roll. From the opening riff of “Knockin’ On The Door” it was a total flashback. Ten tracks of hair metal fun! I could see the fishnets and the big hair walking past in my dreams. Squeeze is the name of their debut album and if you grew up with Crue, Ratt and Poison you should totally dig this!
#4 🇺🇲
RCMC (ROCK CITY MACHINE CO.) – RCMC
So back in 2017, Gene Simmons recruited some musicians to back him up for some solo dates. Basically, he raided Nashville’s Rock N Roll Residency to assemble his solo band. At some point, through some Kiss twist of fate, they also became the backup band for Ace Frehley who had booked a bunch of shows. Fast forward to 2023 and Ryan Spencer Cook, Jeremy Asbrock, Philip Shouse recruited drummer Rick Ficarelli and Rock City Machine Co. was born.
July 28th they released their self-titled debut album and to be honest, I completely missed it. It wasn’t till November that I finally got my ears on this one. So glad I did! Killer musicians, great rock songs and an amazing cover of Bob Seger’s “Ramblin, Gamblin Man”. Highlights – “Can’t Stop The Train”, “Summer Song” and “Soul For the Gold”. They wear their KISS influences on their sleeves, no wonder I love this album so much.
#3 🇨🇦
CROWN LANDS – Fearless
So I think it was CGCM’s Ivan Galesic that originally introduced me to the band Crown Lands, I remember liking their song “White Buffalo” but I never really dove in and checked them out properly until 2023’s Fearless hit my headphones. Sometimes you just have to be in the right mood for music to resonate and Fearless RESONATES. You don’t have to look far to spot the influence, Crown Lands are to Rush what Greta Van Fleet are to Zeppelin. Many times I have listened to Rush thinking “Wow there are only three of them making that huge sound!”, only to find out the Crown Lands pull it off with only two. Oh and did I mention they are Canadian? Beauty Eh? Highlights, “Dreamer of the Dawn”, “Right Way Back” and “Reflections”. If you miss Rush, Fearless fills the void with pure perfection.
#2 🇺🇲/🇨🇦
BLACKBIRD ANGELS – Solsorte
At the beginning of the year, I had no idea that this band and album were a thing. So the story behind this album is quite interesting. It seems that Tracii and Todd Kearns (Slash, Toque, Minefield, Heroes and Monsters, Age of Electric) had been discussing doing an album together for some time. In 2022 Tracii started writing songs for what he thought would be the Guns/Kearns project. It was then that Frontiers Records started asking for a new L.A. Guns record. So that batch of songs was re-routed to become Black Diamonds.
He then got to work on another batch of songs that became the album Solsorte (Danish for Blackbird) with the band name Blackbird Angels. I was stoked to hear this album as Tracii has always been my favourite guitarist and Todd Kearns is an exceptional vocalist, musician and Canadian to boot! I was blown away with this record. The lead-off teaser single “Shut Up! (You Know I Love You)” was just a taste of an exceptional album. Rounding out the lineup are Adam Hamilton (drums), Johnny Martin (bass) and Sam Bam Koulton (Guitar).
The album was created as a tip of the hat to their 70’s rock heroes and you can tell. Eleven tracks of nothing but solid rock n roll! Highlights include “Mine All Mine”, the aforementioned “Shut Up! (You Know I Love You)”, “Only Everything” and a beautiful ballad, “On and On/Over and Over”. This particular track reminds me so much of Kiss’s “I Still Love You”. Solsorte has been a mainstay in my iPod since its release and it gets better with each listen.
TRACII GUNS FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM
#1 🇺🇲
L.A. GUNS – Black Diamonds
I became an L.A. Guns fan on January 4th, 1988, taking a bus from my hometown to Toronto to spend the day record (cassette actually) shopping. I purchased a few that day but the entire reason for the excursion was to get my hands on the self-titled L.A. Guns debut album. It was the perfect blend of sleazy melodic metal, punk influences and raw energy. Soon after they rolled into my hometown opening for AC/DC and they tore up the stage. Between 1988 and 1994 they released 4 outstanding albums.
Things become a little strange after 1994 with a revolving door of members, musical direction changes (American Hardcore), and then a major rift that resulted in two different versions of the band. This happened not once but twice! An interesting history indeed but that is not why we are here. In late 2016 vocalist Phil Lewis and guitarist Tracii Guns reunited and reset the classic sound of my L.A. Guns.
Black Diamonds is the 4th album from the band in the last 6 years and it truly is a diamond of a listen. There is a chemistry when Phil and Tracii work together, a sort of intangible magic that isn’t there on the albums apart. From the haunting opener “You Betray” to the closing chords of “Like a Drug”, this album is a rollercoaster of a ride. It contains everything I loved about their debut album, snotty, snarly, sleazy rock n roll. Not a bad song here but the jewel of this album and one of the greatest L.A. Guns songs ever written is “Gonna Lose”, quite possibly the greatest ode to Zeppelin I have ever heard! The last three L.A. Guns albums made my top ten lists but none of them hit my number one spot. Until now!!!
