Creeper's fantastic vampire concept rock opera Sanguivore has officially been crowned the album of the year by Metal Hammer magazine. Winning a vote conducted by Metal Hammer's staff and writers, the album, which was released in October and received a rave 9/10 review in the mag, tops an absolutely stacked top 50 albums of the year list that features heavy hitters including Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Sleep Token, Ville Valo, Skindred, Foo Fighters and more.
Speaking to Metal Hammer in their latest issue, Creeper frontman Will Gould comments: "It's so humbling, especially for the type of record we've made, as the reference points we're drawing from aren't really cool records."
Influenced heavily by rock icons such as Billy Idol, Danzig and the histrionic works of Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf, Sanguivore was met with acclaim across the board upon release, landing in the top 30 of the UK album charts.
"We always knew we were going for a darker, vampire-themed album for our third record," explains Gould. "I had the whole story written long before we began writing the music. I must've finished before the pandemic.
"Sanguivore represents Creeper better than any of our previous records," he concludes. "The first had the trappings of this pop-punk world that we were never really part of but just got lumped in with. The second was brilliant, but had so many songs that we couldn't play live because they were too soft. Sanguivore is a real representation of this band and what we're about."
Metal Hammer editor Eleanor Goodman adds: “A love letter to Bat Out Of Hell and classic vampire movies, Creeper have made a blood-and-nostalgia-drenched album that’s dramatic, gothic, and above all: FUN! No wonder it united our critics to win the top spot by a landslide.”
See Metal Hammer's top 50 albums of 2023 below, and pick up the latest issue of the magazine to read all about them.
Metal Hammer's 50 best albums of 2023
1. Creeper - Sanguivore
2. Avenged Sevenfold - Life Is But A Dream...
3. Code Orange - The Above
4. Sleep Token - Take Me Back To Eden
5. Metallica - 72 Seasons
6. Svalbard - The Weight Of The Mask
7. Tesseract - The War Of Being
8. Green Lung - This Heathen Land
9. Baroness - Stone
10. Royal Thunder - Rebuilding The Mountain
11. Myrkur - Spine
12. Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite
13. Urne - A Feast For Sorrow
14. Empire State Bastard - Rivers Of Heresy
15. VV - Neon Noir
16. Godflesh - Purge
17. Wytch Hazel - IV: Sacrament
18. Skindred - Smile
19. Katatonia - Sky Void Of Stars
20. Primordial - How It Ends
21. Vexed - Negative Energy
22. Twin Temple - God Is Dead
23. Obituarty - Dying Of Everything
24. Blood Command - World Domination
25. Dødheimsgard - Black Medium Current
26. Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit
27. Enslaved - Heimdal
28. Pupil Slicer - Blossom
29. Periphery - V: Djent Is Not A Genre
30. Grave Pleasures - Plagueboys
31. Oxbow - Love's Holiday
32. Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
33. Ken Mode - Void
34. Within Temptation - Bleed Out
35. Sylosis - A Sign Of Things To Come
36. Maggot Heart - Hunger
37. Voyager - Fearless In Love
38. Zulu - A New Tomorrow
39. Mutoid Man - Mutants
40. Orbit Culture - Descent
41. KK's Priest - The Sinner Rides Again
42. Khanate - To Be Cruel
43. Hellripper - Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags
44. Foo Fighters - But Here We Are
45. Spirit Adrift - Ghost At The Gallows
46. Ahab - The Coral Tombs
47. Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium
48. Burner - It All Returns To Nothing
49. Cannibal Corpse - Chaos Horrific
50. Blood Ceremony - The Old Ways Remain
