50. The Maine – S/T
Tempe, AZ, indie pop/pop-punk group The Maine have always been about the craft of songwriting, which is no small part of why the band is still here, 13 years later, armed with their hooked-filled, self-titled ninth studio album. And as fans have come to expect, The Maine is another immediate classic, and arguably their finest outing since 2017’s beloved, Lovely Little Lonely.
Don’t Miss: “Leave In Five”, “Thoughts I Have While Lying In Bed”, “Funny How?”

51. Waterparks – Intellectual Property
If you happened to catch Waterparks last year when the trio opened for My Chemical Romance on that massive stadium tour to end all tours, you probably deduced that the Houston indie-pop/emo outfit are just as vibrant and colorful live as they are in the studio. Led by charismatically quirky frontman Awsten Knight, Intellectual Property serves up more of the infectious whatever-you-want-to-call-it that Waterparks do best, while Knight’s lyrics cheekily toy with his own religious programming.
Don’t Miss: “2 Best Friends”, “A Night Out On Earth”, “Ritual”

52. Four Year Strong – Holiday Special Live
The annual hometown Christmas show that easycore kings Four Year Strong throw in Worcester, MA, at the Palladium is the stuff of legend, and this direct soundboard-style recording from 2020 (originally a live stream event) shows why. FYS are almost uncannily tight—from the dizzying vocal and guitar interplay of Dan O’Connor and Alan Day, to the hyper-frenetic blast beats of drummer Jake Massucco—but it’s really the set list that wins, as FYS has built an impressive catalog some seven records in, with much of their recent outings just as head-pounding and addictive as the earlier albums.
Don’t Miss: “We All Float Down Here”, “Brain Pain”, “Wasting Time”

53. Yellowcard – Childhood Eyes
This year, multi-platinum pop-punk band Yellowcard toured in honor of the 20th anniversary of Ocean Avenue, the group’s gargantuan 2003 mega smash-hit album, underscoring the group’s lasting impact on the genre, while priming the pump for some eagerly awaited new music amid a year when lots of classic bands are reuniting. And voila! We have the new five-song EP Childhood Eyes, Yellowcard’s first release in seven years, which is everything you could want in a Yellowcard record and more. You see, we all defended pop-punk, and now in 2023 it’s not dead anymore.
Don’t Miss: “Hiding In The Light”, “Honest From The Jump”, “Three Minutes More”

54. Veil of Maya – [m]other
It had been six years since metalcore veterans Veil of Maya dropped a full-length, and thus their latest, [m]other, serves as both a comeback album and further expansion onto the band’s sonic bag of tricks. As in prior efforts, metalcore choruses intertwine savagely with djent riffage, dissonant leads and electronic flourishes, but the ever-progressive group’s precision and focus on this new 2023 release is simply next level.
Don’t Miss: “Artificial Dose”, “[re]connect”, “Red Fur”

55. Evile – The Unknown
Yorkshire, UK thrash metal stalwarts Evile have slowed the tempos down a tick on The Unknown, the band’s sixth studio full-length, and the end result is delightfully gloomy, yet brimming with all the head-bobbing riffs you’d want from an Evile record. There’s specifically a Metallica …And Justice For All vibe that becomes apparent from the opening title track onward; except on this album, you can actually hear the bass.
Don’t Miss: “The Mask We Wear”, “When The Mortal Coils Shed”, “Reap What You Sow”

56. Avatar – Dance Devil Dance
Swedish theatre-metal standouts Avatar aren’t going to shock you with a radical new approach on Dance Devil Dance, the group’s ninth studio album, but rather the album sets out to present all of the key components of the Avatar sound at its best (Johannes Eckerström’s wide-ranging vocals, the great twin-guitar attack, and a pummeling rhythm section, to name a few). If you love Avatar, you likely love this too; and if not (yet), this is a terrific starting point.
Don’t Miss: “Chimp Mosh Pit”, “The Dirt I’m Buried In”, “Violence No Matter What”

57. The Front Bottoms – You Are Who You Hang Out With
This new Steve Evetts-produced LP by the Front Bottoms is noticeably light on the nerd-emo slacker sound that characterized earlier outings, leaning more toward expansive indie/pop-rock, but when taken purely on its own merits, You Are Who You Hang With is a pretty damned masterful collection of songs. When the Front Bottoms go old-school here, it’s right on point (“Batman”), while the newer sounding, sonically ambitious compositions (“Paris”) stick the landing more often than not.
Don’t Miss: “Punching Bag”, “Paris”, “Batman”

58. Mustard Plug – Where Did All My Friends Go?
Grand Rapids, MI’s Mustard Plug are true stalwarts of the ska-punk scene, still going strong more than 30 years since their Third Wave inception in 1991, and the outfit’s ninth studio album, Where Did All My Friends Go?, showcases just how well the band’s hard-tinged ska-punk has aged. This one’s an undeniable head-bobber from the start, skanking through 13 tracks with the simple upbeat charm of early ‘90s Green Day, merged with the Two-Tone mastery of The Specials.
Don’t Miss: “Rebel Youth Face”, “Vampire”, “Another Season Spent In Exile”

59. Carnifex – Necromanteum
In case you didn’t already get the memo this year, veteran deathcore act Carnifex dropped Necromanteum to remind us all that the band and genre are alive and well, with this new collection once again finding the group getting thematically ghoulish. Amped-up elements of symphonic and blackened metal only add to Carnifex’s unique and lasting take on the deathcore sound, which nine albums into their career, is a pretty impressive feat.
Don’t Miss: “Death’s Forgotten Children”, “This Is How The Knife Gets Twisted”, “Heaven and Hell”