When I compile my list of favorite records every year, there are always some things I feel that are left out – songs from albums that as a whole just didn’t rise to the level of making my list or maybe songs that were released on a soundtrack or as a single only. I thought I’d show those a little love this year, so here you’ll find some of my favorite songs that didn’t make my “best of” list.
Note that I’m not including songs that were early singles from albums coming in 2024, so no tunes like “Trial by Fire” from Judas Priest, “Afterglow of Ragnarok” by Bruce Dickinson, or “Sober Thing” by Cody Jinks. While those are all incredible songs that hit hard in late 2023, I’ll hopefully have more to say about those this year. These are only songs from albums that didn’t make the cut or stand-alones. And I’m not going to even try to rank them, they’re alphabetical by artist.
BEYOND THE BLACK – “CALL MY NAME”: This song, oddly, was not on the band’s 2023 self-titled album released in January, but popped up mid-year. It would have easily been the best song on that record, and for me, it’s the band’s best song. Inspired by Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga, it’s a dark yet triumphant tune with great hooks. One of my most-listened songs of the second half of the year.
JASON BIELER AND THE BARON VON BIELSKI ORCHESTRA – “INDUSTRIOUS”: One band that I really think got shortchanged in the early 1990s was Saigon Kick. They kind of got pigeonholed with the hit ballad “Love is on the Way,” when most everything else they did was way cooler and more interesting. Guitarist Jason Bieler’s Baron Von Bielski Orchestra is a little like Saigon Kick, only much, much weirder. While I enjoyed a lot of their 2023 album Postcards from the Asylum, it was this song released later in the year that gave me my Saigon Kick fix … sort of.
BOBAFLEX – “MY DARK FLIGHT”: Of the three new singles from Bobaflex (back after a five-year absence in which vocalist Shaun McCoy took a break from the band), “I’ll Blow Your Dreams Into the Sky” is my favorite. But since it was technically released in 2022, I’ll settle for my second-favorite “My Dark Flight.” Lyrically, it’s a bit stalkery and disturbing, but musically it delivers all of the quirkiness and catchiness that I enjoy from Bobaflex.
BUTCHER BABIES – “RED THUNDER”: Here’s a band that’s never really appealed to me at all, but there was something about this song that struck a chord this year. I think it’s the juxtaposition of the heavy and abrasive verse with the darker and more mysterious melodic chorus. It just stuck with me, and while I didn’t truly connect with many other tracks from their album Eye for an Eye, this song stayed on my playlist for most of the year.
CELESTIAL WIZARD – “ICE REALM”: Celestial Wizard’s album Winds of the Cosmos was just fun – power/death/Dungeons & Dragons metal. This was my favorite tune from the album with its clear callout of the gaming aspect. I mean, the chorus is essentially the play-by-play of a D&D character trying to make a saving throw to survive the ice. Geeks unite.
ALICE COOPER – “BIG BOOTS”: I found Alice’s concept album about life on the road to be mostly generic and forgettable, but there were a few fun moments scattered throughout. One of those was this bopper about a waitress with a nice pair of great big boots. I think it’s the only song left from Road still on my playlist, and it’s the least inappropriate of a few inappropriate songs that made this list.
WARD DAVIS – “AIN’T QUITE MARY JANE”: Considering the high regard that I hold Ward Davis as a songwriter, you may wonder why his Sunday Morning EP didn’t make my Top 20. It’s not because it wasn’t good. It was. But it was just such a downer that I avoided listening to it much. So I was happy when this song came along later in the year, a more light-hearted tune about a heartbreaker in a sundress. Despite its lighter nature, it still has some of the great lyrical turns of phrase that I expect from Davis, I’m particularly fond of the line “she’s cyanide and sugar cane.” This may well be the first volley from a new album since I know Davis has been writing and recording, but it hasn’t been announced yet, so it makes the list.
DEATH DEALER UNION – “VOW OF SILENCE”: I initially had two songs featuring Elena “Lena Scissorhands” Cataraga on this list, the other being Infected Rain’s “Dying Light.” I decided to go with this one since “Dying Light” will be featured on that band’s 2024 album. I’ve noticed that a lot of my listening over the last few years has shifted to female vocalists, and I think it’s because I just find what the ladies are doing more interesting than most of the men in metal at the moment. I’m particularly fond of women who can deliver both sides of the beauty and the beast vocal style themselves. Lena certainly fits that mold as she rips your face off with the verse vocal and then delivers a lilting chorus that gets stuck in your head.
DORO AND ROB HALFORD – “TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART”: Two metal legends dueting on a cover of a song that was on every ’80s kid’s mixtape, even us metalheads. I couldn’t name one other Bonnie Tyler song, but I still know every word to this one. Now those metal kids who have become metal grandparents finally have their own version, and with Rob freaking Halford no less.
JERIS JOHNSON – “WHEN THE DARKNESS COMES”: A random YouTube find. I really dig the blend of classical sounds, drum machine, and Avenged Sevenfold-influenced hard rock with a nice dark lyric. His other work that I’ve found doesn’t hit me quite as hard, but I love this one.
THE LONELY ONES – “TIME BOMB”: While Shaun McCoy was away from Bobaflex, the rest of the band went on to form the Lonely Ones, which really is just an extension of Bobaflex. They seem to have chosen the single route rather than making albums, but they’ve been on a roll with a string of solid songs released over the last few years. Of the four released in 2023, “Time Bomb” was my favorite, really giving me the Bobaflex feel. It’s got a great hard-rocking riff and it’s loaded with memorable hooks.
SOPHIE LLOYD – “RUNAWAY”: Like fellow female shredder Nita Strauss, Sophie Lloyd invites a bunch of guest vocalists on her album Imposter Syndrome. For this track, she features Michael Starr of Steel Panther, and it delivers what I wish Steel Panther would give me – some fun, glitzy, hooky 1980s hard rock that’s just a good time (without any cringe).
ORBIT CULTURE – “FROM THE INSIDE”: I caught Orbit Culture opening for Avatar back in the spring and loved the energy of their live set. They were debuting this song on the tour, and when it actually arrived a few weeks after I saw them, it went straight to my playlist. I really like the way that the band mixes extreme metal and industrial with more accessible melodies and that occasional blast of old school Metallica flavor, particularly in Niklas Karlsson’s cleaner vocals.
PRONG – “BREAKING POINT”: Prong’s State of Emergency was the album that I most regretted not finding a spot for in my best of list this year. It was a real return to form, and “Breaking Point,” with its squealing guitar riff, memorable hookiness, and lyrical expression of frustrations that a lot of people are feeling these days, was far and away my favorite tune on the record.
THE RATTLEBACKS – “RATTLEBACK”: Sometimes you’re not sure how you stumbled upon something but you’re glad you did. That’s the case with “Rattleback,” a completely random find on YouTube. It hit immediately though, a mix of energetic punk-influenced hard rock that put me in mind of Appetite for Destruction-era Guns ‘n’ Roses. There’s only one way to play this song, and that’s at full volume. All four songs on their Kink EP show great promise, and I’ll be very interested to see what this band does in the coming years.
RAY SCOTT – “DON’T GO TO HELL”: Another inappropriate song from an inappropriate album. Ray Scott’s Wrong Songs: Musings from the Shallow End pretty much delivered exactly what the title says. Don’t expect any deep and meaningful songwriting, but there were a couple of fun tunes on it, this one being the best in my opinion. And I don’t care who you are, “I’ll say farewell, but don’t go to Hell, cause I don’t want to see you again,” is a great country music line.
SKYND – “EDMUND KEMPER”: This band is certainly not for everyone. Heck, most of their stuff is not even for me. Their female singer, who goes by the same name as the band, uses a ton of vocal effects to sound like men, women, children and demons, and the music is a weird mix of rock, metal, industrial, pop, and sometimes just noise. Oh, and did I mention all of their songs are about serial killers? Still, this tune got stuck in my head with its big infectious chorus where Skynd uses her natural voice, which is quite good.
SPIRIT ADRIFT – “BARN BURNER”: Spirit Adrift’s Ghost at the Gallows was another solid effort, blending their doom roots, stoner-ish sounds, and a healthy respect for Sabbath. “Barn Burner,” which opens with a chromatic guitar run reminiscent of Iron Maiden’s “Wasted Years” before dropping into a grooving metal celebration was probably my most listened track from the album. Just throwback, ‘70s-influenced hard rock goodness.
STEEL PANTHER – “1987”: I really dislike Steel Panther, and it’s primarily because I’d probably love them if their lyrics weren’t so horribly cringy. Yeah, I realize it’s supposed to be comedy, but I find it more stupid than funny, which is a shame because some of their stuff is musically pretty good. This song, though, a nostalgia trip back to the year of the title really hit home for me, bringing back some good memories. As an old geezer, I felt it in my soul, satire or not.
THE STEEL WOODS – “DEVIL IN THIS HOLLER”: To me, the Steel Woods’ 2023 album On Your Time was just missing some of the darkness that I really enjoyed in their 2017 debut Straw in the Wind, my favorite of their four. But this song really captured the grit and vibe that I was looking for, telling the story of a man who risks his life everyday to put food on his family’s table.
WHEELER WALKER JR. – “FUCK THIS JOB”: If David Allan Coe had written “Take This Job and Shove It” for one of his X-rated albums, this might have been the result. Wheeler Walker Jr. is, essentially, the country version of Steel Panther. I generally like one or two songs from each record, and I’d probably really like him if he’d take it down a few notches on the cringeworthy sexual lyrics. There’s still a little cringe even in this song from his first rock ‘n’ roll album, but it really hit home for me at the time of its release and, in the words of Hank Williams Jr. on “I’d Love to Knock the Hell Out of You,” “expresses those deep down emotions that we all feel inside.”
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