This is part four of four. If you haven’t read part three yet, check it out here.
In 2023, we’re getting several great albums some several great bands and artists, but out of all the albums that are coming out this year, these are the ones you need to keep your eyes on. Here are the most anticipated albums of 2023, in no particular order.
The Acacia Strain
Album: Step Into The Light (Rise)
Release Date: 5/12
Bostonian heavy gods The Acacia Strain are bringing the brutality to 2023. Coming mid-May, Step Into The Light is composed of ten songs produced by Randy Leboeuf (Chamber, Every Time I Die, Left Behind) that’ll be sure to kick you on your ass. And if you’re wondering how heavy this record is, check out the song “Fresh Bones,” which Metal Injection bluntly says, it “rips.” Fuck us up, TAS.
nothing,nowhere.
Album: VOID EXTERNAL (Fueled By Ramen)
Release Date: 3/31
Vermont sadboy nothing,nowhere.’s follow-up to 2021’s Trauma Factory is so close, you can almost feel it. Containing various guests like Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, Underoath, Static Dress, Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos, and SeeYouSpaceCowboy, VOID EXTERNAL is destined to be n,n.’s busiest (and most aggressive) album to date. Working with producer Taylor Morgan (guardin, Sickboyrari, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal,) and inviting only a few people into the studio like ex-Counterparts guitarist Blake Hartman, engineer Brody McKeegan, and some personal friends, nothing,nowhere. aka Joe Mulherin wanted this to be an inspirational album. “I want to be what bands like Linkin Park were to me,” Mulherin said. “I want to provide that level of inspiration and comfort and I want to be a safe haven to a kid who is struggling. I made it exactly how I wanted to with zero outside influence. This is the purest expression I could put down in audio form. This is the music that made me, and I want to return the favor.”
Jesus Piece
Album: …So Unknown (Century Media)
Release Date: 4/14
Philly metalcore outfit Jesus Piece are reaching new heights in their career. After spending the first half of their career with LA label Southern Lord (All Pigs Must Die, High Command, Xibalba,) Jesus Piece signed with Century Media Records (3Teeth, Electric Callboy, Lamb Of God) in December, kicking off not only the next chapter of the band’s career, but also their new album cycle. Coming out next month is their long-awaited second LP …So Unknown. Drummer Luis Aponte told BrooklynVegan, “The making of the record was nothing short of all-consuming. It was an intense and challenging process. The record reflects a lot of confusion, but also, evolution. There was a lot of uncertainty and emotion during the pandemic– we all changed and grew so much. So if there is a single thought or concept to the record, it’s constant metamorphosis. That’s also how we operated as a band on this LP– spending a lot of time songwriting and fleshing things out as a unit, and then upping our game from there. It’s definitely a reflection of us as more mature, playing the best we’ve ever played and feeling like a real band for the first time. A big goal on …So Unknown, outside of songwriting and technical goals, was to capture the same energy on record that we have live – for people to get that sense of urgency and danger.”
The Used
Album: Toxic Positivity (Big Noise)
Release Date: 5/19
Just days before taking the stage at last year’s When We Were Young, influential post-hardcore outfit The Used dropped a fiery new track called “Fuck You,” which will appear on their ninth album Toxic Positivity coming out mid-May via Big Noise Music Group (BOXBOY, Escape The Fate, The Veronicas). Months later, they dropped another banger, “People Are Vomit.” Alternative Press had a first look on the new track, calling it “venomous” and that The Used were returning “to their heavier roots in full force, offering a timely critique of the state of the world and the divisive times we are living in.” The album was produced by longtime collaborator John Feldmann (Avril Lavigne, Jasiah, The Word Alive.)
Closure In Moscow
Album: Soft Hell (Self-Released)
Release Date: 5/30
I have had a massive soft spot for Closure In Moscow for many years at this point. The Australian progressive rock act have been keeping themselves kinda quiet since dropping their second album Pink Lemonade in 2014. But now, a new album is on the horizon. Their third album Soft Hell drops May 30. The album has “the last 9 years distilled down to 50 minutes.” CIM says in a statement, “Getting comfortable with chronic discomfort caused by the choices that fears and trauma lead you to make. This is life in a soft hell. There are enough distractions to stave off facing up to it, you can keep yourself in denial to avoid it, and things can just keep ticking along. Life becomes a fever dream of creature comforts and time killers, floating further into a lake of fire. People come along to pull you out, but they too get burned when you feel too stuck to climb with them.”
The Maine
Album: TBA (Photo Finish/8123)
Release Date: TBA
While nothing has been confirmed yet, Arizona’s finest The Maine have been busy putting stuff out. Last year, they dropped the massive collab with Taking Back Sunday and Charlotte Sands “Loved You A Little” and an acoustic ballad called “Box In A Heart” with Canadian bedroom pop artist renforshort. Could these songs appear on a new album? Possibly. Their last record was 2021’s XOXO: From Love And Anxiety In Real Time, which I put as one of the most anticipated albums of 2021.
Sarah And The Safe Word
Album: The Book Of Broken Glass (Take This To Heart)
Release Date: 4/7
One of Atlanta’s most fascinating acts is putting out new material next month. The goth cabaret sextet Sarah And The Safe Word recently announced their next album The Book Of Broken Glass, scheduled to come out April 7 via Take This To Heart (The Higher, Marigold, Thanks! I Hate It.) The album is a story (or a book, per se) dealing with a family’s secret and the ghosts who are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure it stays one. Produced by Jim Wirt (Hoobastank, Jack’s Mannequin, The Rocket Summer,) the album is packed with features, starring rapper Jamee Cornelia, queercore act Dog Park Dissidents, and Danbert Nobacon of Chumbawamba. According to Chorus.fm, Sarah And The Safe Word “embrace the strange and the quirky head on an album that is filled with several twists and turns. Much like the title implies, this book is sure to keep your interest as much as it challenges you to grow with the band.” Also check out the video for “Ruby Off The Rails” which features actual furries.
Avenged Sevenfold
Album: TBA (Warner)
Release Date: TBA
Oh it’s happening people. A7X will drop their long awaited eighth album sometime this year. The album which they began working on in 2018 is finished, according to drummer Brooks Wackerman on his Instagram last September. They have been teasing fans about the record, even telling them to “touch grass” and launched a cryptic scavenger hunt online courtesy of an entity named Libad5343. Guess we can only wait for an official announcement. Time to go outside, I suppose.
Code Orange
Album: TBA (Blue Grape)
Release Date: TBA
While no word has been made on a new record, Pittsburgh industrial metalcore troupe Code Orange have been seen in the studio working with Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins. While we wait for that work to come out, the band did drop What Is Really Underneath?, a remixed/re-imagined take on their last record, 2020’s Underneath, along with a 14-minute short film of the same name and an alternate reality game on whatisreallyunderneath.com. An MTV Unplugged-style record called Under The Skin, was released in 2020. This was their final release with Roadrunner Records (Angel Du$t, Motionless In White, Turnstile) before signing with Blue Grape Music, a new label created by Roadrunner founder Cees Wessels and Roadrunner’s former head of A&R David Rath.
Mayday Parade
Album: TBA (Rise)
Release Date: TBA
Late 2000’s pop-punk icons Mayday Parade are currently in the studio right now working on new material. The band posted on social media last month that “new tunes” are being created with longtime producers Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount (Chapel, Go Radio, The Ready Set.) Two songs came out last year, “Thunder” and “Losing My Mind.” Mayday Parade have a busy summer this year, touring alongside All Time Low and Yellowcard, as well as playing the Hawaii Is For Lovers festival with Hawthorne Heights, Emery and Saosin.
Punk Goes Prenatt 