Top 10 for 2021

TheBigBlack's Rock Top 10

The Pretty Reckless
Death By Rock And Roll

Alternative Rock | Album | 12 February 2021

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Raise The Roof

Rock | Album | 19 November 2021

The Stranglers
Dark Matters

Punk | Album | 10 September 2021

Shihad
Old Gods

Alternative Rock | Album | 14 October 2021

Jerry Cantrell
Brighten

Grunge Rock | Album | 29 October 2021

TheBigBlack's Rock Honourable Mentions

The Beatles
Let It Be [50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition]

Classic Rock | Album | 15 October 2021

Nirvana
Nevermind [30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition]

Grunge Rock | Album | 12 November 2021

Charlie Benante
Silver Linings

Hard Rock | Album | 15 May 2021

Bob Dylan
The Bootleg Series Vol. 16, Springtime In New York (1980-1985) [Deluxe Edition]

Classic Rock | Compilation Album | 17 September 2021

TheBigBlack's Rock Dishonourable Mentions

The Offspring
Let The Bad Times Roll

Punk Rock | Album | 16 April 2021

TheBigBlack's Metal Top 10

Cannibal Corpse
Violence Unimagined

Death Metal | Album | 16 April 2021

Darkthrone
Eternal Hails.....

Black Metal | Album | 25 June 2021

Iron Maiden
Senjutsu

Heavy Metal | Album | 3 September 2021

'Senjutsu' (Japanese for 'tactics') is the seventeenth studio album by Iron Maiden. Their first album in six years, it was a critical and commercial success, praised for its ambitious epic scope.

Iron Maiden have never been a band known for shock value. They stand solid like a British institution, unwavering and unchanging. Sure, they have had a couple of vocalist changes and sometimes we see an unexpected twist or two in their music, but for the most part - you always know what you are going to get. And therein lies both the strength and weakness of most late period Maiden albums. The predictability level is always quite high (there will be multiple epics, with the slow bass introduction, building to the soaring chorus), and on first listen I tend to feel disappointment that this all sounds a bit too familiar - yet something still draws me back for more. Once it all sinks in you see there are still some brilliant songs on display here. On disc 1 the title track opener broods and builds to a massive war epic, and 'Stratego' and 'Days Of Future Past' harken back to the 80s. 'The Writing On The Wall' has a western flavour, and 'The Time Machine' sounds like something from the 90s era. Disc 2 heads into more of the epic territory with only 4 songs, but there are some surprising moments hidden in there. Even at close to 50 the band still has the magic, but there is certainly some bloat that could be removed. Not every song needs to be an epic after all - but which ones would I possibly trim.?

Exodus
Persona Non Grata

Thrash Metal | Album | 19 November 2021

Carcass
Torn Arteries

Death Metal (Grindcore) | Album | 17 September 2021

TheBigBlack's Metal Honourable Mentions

Metallica
Metallica [Deluxe Reissue]

Thrash Metal | Album | 10 September 2021

TheBigBlack's Metal Dishonourable Mentions

Various Artists
The Metallica Blacklist

Thrash Metal | Album | 10 September 2021