Sick Drummer Magazine’s Favorite Drumming Albums of 2023! Our team has gone back and forth and has decided on these releases. They are NOT in any particular order of most to least or least to most favorite. Just a list alphabetized by the drummer’s first name… there is no best album or drummer, just what our team enjoyed collectively.
*If you are featured here, please scroll to the bottom of the page, save/copy/share the ‘Featured Drummer’ image, and link to this page on your social media channels!
When compiling our lists, our team considers creativity, groove, originality, musicality, finesse, speed, technicality, and several other factors. We apologize in advance to those we may not have heard… or overlooked. It’s been another crazy year!
These albums were reviewed and picked by Ian Macdonald, Anton Hefele, Jeff Grindstopher, Jeanne Thomas, Mike Wyatt, Jason Blackburn, and David Culross Jr!
Let’s all show our appreciation for these outstanding performances by these drummers. We are honored and excited to have these records to listen to and learn from. Please share the links to your favorites, and if you can, purchase some records and/or merchandise from these artists. Every little bit helps.
This is the 5th consecutive year Adam Jarvis and Lee Fisher have made this list. If you don’t know, now you know. That’s pretty insane. This year also features several players more than once… Charlie Koryn and Nikhil Talwalkar are on THREE albums with three different bands! This list also features Cody Davidson, John Longstreth, Dan Presland (kinda lol), Nikhil Talwalkar, and Robin Stone on multiple releases each. Outstanding!
We’re always excited to find and share new female drummers and recently discovered Meredith Henderson of VCTMS. Check them out! She’s insane.
Lastly… we must give props to The Zenith Passage and their latest release, Datalysium, which was programmed (by Justin) but absolutely killer.
Thanks to all these Sick Drummers for giving us such amazing works to enjoy, learn from, and share!
Sick Drummer Magazine – Favorite Drumming Albums of 2023
Adam Jarvis | End Reign | The Way of All Flesh is Decay
Adde Mitroulis | Birdflesh | Sickness in the North
Alex Cohen | Contrarian | Sage of Shekhinah
Ali Richardson | Sylosis | A Sign of Things to Come
Anthony Megdaglia (Apollo Xvii) | Till the Dirt | Outside the Spiral (John Longstreth on ‘Insist and Demand’)
Bobby Crow | Signs of The Swarm | Amongst the Low & Empty
Bryan Fajardo | Gridlink | Coronet Jupiter
Bryce Butler | Mortem Obscuram | The Wretched Divinity
Cédric Malebolgia | Molested Divinity | The Primordial
Charlie Koryn | Ascended Dead | Evenfall of the Apocalypse
Charlie Koryn | Thanamagus | Lie in Wait EP
Charlie Koryn | Voidceremony | Threads of Unknowing
Chason Westmoreland | Vesania | Demon King EP
Chris Golding | Sulaco | Spoth EP (RIP Spoth)
Chris Reifert | Autopsy | Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts
Clayton Holyoak | Better Lovers | God Made Me an Animal
Cody Davidson | Putrid Stu | Sawing ‘Til Sundown (solo project)
Cody Davidson | Sanguisugabogg | Homicidal Ecstasy
Dan Presland | Ne Obliviscaris | Exul
Dan Presland | Vipassi | Lightless (tracked and being released 1.26.24 – had to include it)
Danny Walker | Circuit of Suns | Anathema EP – Single Released 11.17.23
Dave Lombardo | Empire State Bastards | Rivers of Heresy
David Haley | Werewolves | My Enemies Look and Sound Like Me
David McGraw | Cattle Decapitation | Terrasite
Dirk Verbeuren | Kill Division | Thoughts and Prayers EP
Dobber Beverly | Necrofier | Burning Shadows in the Southern Night
Don Tardy | Obituary | Dying of Everything
Doug Griffith Jr. | Inertia | The Human Element
Dylan Watt | Torn the Fuck Apart | Kill. Bury. Repeat
Eric Morotti | Suffocation | Hymns from The Apocrypha
Erik Ramsier | The Lion’s Daughter | Bath House
Flo Mounier | Cryptopsy | As Gomorrah Burns
Flo Musil | The Negative Bias | The Seven Seals of Saligia
George Kollias | Embryo | A Vivid Shade on Misery
Gobinda Senchury | Bandit | Siege of Self
Hannes Grossmann | Alkaloid | Numen
Henrik Ohlsson | Scar Symmetry | Singularity Stage II: Xenotaph
II | Sleep Token | Take Me Back to Eden
James Payne | Kataklysm | Goliath
Jason Bittner | Overkill | Scorched
Jason Borton | Dripping Decay | Festering Grotesqueries
Jay Postones | Tesseract | War of Being
Jeremy Salvo | Xoth | Exogalactic
Jesse Beahler | Thy Art is Murder | Godlike
Jimmy Montes | Condemned | Daemonium
John Glassbrenner | Pyrexia | System of the Animal 25
John Katastrophe | Noisy Neighbors | Derailing the Hype Train
John Longstreth | Neurectomy | Overwrought
John Paul Andrade | Kallias | First Ascent
John-Philippe Bouchard | NecroticGoreBeast | Repugnant
Jon Allen | Sadus | The Shadow Inside
Josh Huddleston | Yatsu | It Can’t Happen Here
Karol Diers | Gorod | The Orb
Kevin Boutot | The Acacia Strain | Step into the Light/Failure Will Follow
Kevin Swartz | Lord Dying | Clandestine Transcendence
Kyle Christman | Reap | Born From Plague
Kyle Severn | Incantation | Unholy Deification
Lee Fisher | Fawn Limbs | Vestigal Spectra
Luana Dametto | Crypta | Shades of Sorrow
Lyle Cooper | Urosepsis | Exploratory Autopsy
Marco Coghe | Devangelic | Xul
Marco Pitruzzella | Sleep Terror | Railroad to Dystopia
Matt DeGroot | Beneath the Hollow | Misery Loves You
Matt Kilner | Nithing | Agonal Hymns (solo project)
Meredith Henderson | VCTMS | Volume V. The Hurt Collection
Mike Hamilton | Exhumed | Beyond the Dead EP
Navene Koperwies | Entheos | Time Will Take Us All
Nick Barker | Brujeria | Esto es Brujeria
Nikhil Talwalkar | Ectoplasmorphosis | Vortex of Possessable Flesh
Nikhil Talwalkar | Infibulated | Diabolical Euphoric Subjugation
Nikhil Talwalkar | Putridity | Greedy Gory Gluttony
Nolan Weber | Garoted | Bewitchment of the Dark Ages
Paul Mazurkiewicz | Cannibal Corpse | Chaos Horrific
Paul Seidel | The Ocean | Holocene
Pierce Williams | Morkera | Aggravations
Polwach Beokhaimook | Cadavoracity | Cadavoracity
Ray Hearne | Haken | Fauna
Robin Stone | Ashen Horde | Antimony
Robin Stone | Diabys | Portals of Annihilation
Sam Applebaum | Veil of Maya | [M]other
Senen Solis | Gaffed | Die Already
Shane Matthewson | KEN Mode | Void
Shawn Cameron | Carnifex | Necromanteum
Simon Schilling | Marduk | Memento Mori
Simon Schilling | Arborescence of Wrath | Inferno
Taylor Carpenter | Chamber | A Love to Kill For
Tim Stewart | Blindfolded and Led to the Woods | Rejecting Obliteration
Tobias Gustafsson | Vomitory | All Heads Are Gonna Roll
Trey Williams | Dying Fetus | Make Them Beg for Death
Wilson Henao | Internal Suffering | Rituals
Take a scroll through our other lists!
