Heavy metal’s never better than when it’s being blasted out in-person – and no year has proved that more definitively than 2023. With live music’s instability right after the pandemic in the rear-view mirror, the past 12 months have overflowed with monumental tours. Metallica innovated yet again by playing two shows at every stop they made, Iron Maiden revived lost songs from their golden era for the Future Past run and Gojira finally claimed arena status. All the while, up-and-comers like While She Sleeps and Sleep Token crammed 10,000-plus people together for the very first time.
2023’s been so good for live heavy metal that getting one journalist to list every top-shelf show of the year just wouldn’t be enough. So, Metal Hammer’s global panel of critics have come together, each of them naming the most marvellous concert they’ve attended since January. From Ghost to Rotting Christ, stadiums to sweat-drenched basements, no gig was too immense or intimate to dazzle us.
