Top 10 for 2021

TheBigBlack's Rock Top 10

Plush
Plush

Hard Rock | Album | 21 October 2021

Mammoth WVH
Mammoth WVH

Hard Rock | Album | 11 June 2021

'Mammoth WVH' is the debut album by Mammoth WVH. It was completed in 2018 with Wolfgang playing all instruments himself.

Limp Bizkit
Still Sucks

Nu Metal | Album | 31 October 2021

Various Artists
Flag Day (Original Soundtrack)

Grunge Rock | Album | 9 October 2021

'Flag Day (Original Soundtrack)' is the soundtrack album to the film 'Flag Day'. It features original music by Eddie Vedder, Glen Hansard and Cat Power. It marks the musical debut of Vedder's then-17-year-old daughter Olivia, who also sings lead on two songs.

Melvins
Five Legged Dog

Grunge Rock | Album | 15 October 2021

'Five Legged Dog' is the twenty-fifth album by Melvins. It contains acoustic versions of songs that appeared on earlier albums and is the first acoustic album released by the band.

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; Reissue; Deluxe Edition | 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 | Album; Compilation | 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

Bewitcher
Cursed By Thy Kingdom

Speed Metal | Album | 16 April 2021

'Cursed By Thy Kingdom' is the third studio album by Bewitcher.

Flotsam And Jetsam
Blood In The Water

Thrash Metal | Album | 4 June 2021

Fear Factory
Aggression Continuum

Metal (Industrial) | Album | 16 June 2021

Archgoat
Worship The Eternal Darkness

Black Metal | Album | 26 November 2021

'Worship The Eternal Darkness' is the fifth album by Archgoat.

White Stones
Dancing Into Oblivion

Death Metal (Progressive) | Album | 21 August 2021

'Dancing Into Oblivion' is the second album by White Stones.

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; Reissue; Deluxe Edition; Boxed Set; Remasters | 10 September 2021

Reissuing an album as beloved (and bestselling as Metallica (aka 'the black album') in deluxe form is not something to be taken lightly. Expectations were of course high, but as with the majority of things the band does, Metallica came through with the goods. Sporting a whopping 6 slabs of vinyl and 14 CDs (and even 4 DVDs for the visually inclined), the box contained a timeline of the creative process and creation of the album and on through the massive two year tour that supported it. The original album is remastered, but to be fair - the sound was reference quality to begin with, so a remastering is barely noticeable. The extras in the package are what really matter. As with previous packages a single is included, this one being the odd choice of the 'Sad But True' single, originally released in 1993 in the final stages of the tour. Although the included singles are more a 'collectable' than something important (as all tracks are available elsewhere in the box), surely 'Enter Sandman', the song often seen as their signature tune, would have been a better option? Thankfully a second extra is included, this being the 3 track 'Live At Wembley, April '92' collection recorded at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. The tracks are nothing to write home about, and the later performance that featured James Hetfield performing 'Stone Cold Crazy' with Queen themselves isn't included, but it is a great addition to the box - as it was previously only available in the U.K. and Australia. Onto the real content, and the box opens with a five discs of demos, rehearsals, studio takes and rough mixes. Listening through the content in one sitting is hard work, especially when the first two discs are mostly low quality riff tapes and demos - but if you do persevere you heard the songs slowly shaped from a riff or two through demo form (with the obligatory 'nah nah nah-nah' vocals by James) to pre-production run-throughs, and eventually rough mixes of the recordings in their almost final state. It is a fascinating look at the construction of the album, and one that very few artists generally provide to fans. Four full live shows follow. Firstly, the famous performance at Tushino Airfield in Moscow where the western world was finally able to perform behind the iron curtain. The show, which also included The Black Crowes, Pantera, and head-liners AC/DC, was supposedly played to a crowd estimated at around a million people. Although only short in comparison to other Metallica shows at the time, it is a tight and energetic show, and potentially the highlight of the box. It easily takes its place as one of the all-time great Metallica live recordings. The second concert, recorded at Oakland's renowned 'Day On The Green' in 1991 is not bad, but not particularly essential. The performance is lacking punch (feeling like a warm-up show), and the sound quality is also lacking. The Sacramento show from January in 1992 is also hindered by average sound quality. It is very typical of a concert of the period, along with the rehearsed pre-song banter by Hetfield. It is somewhat sloppy though, and not a particularly well-performed show. It needs to be said that a possible better inclusion would have been a remix of the audio from the San Diego 1992 concert video released in the Live Shit, Binge & Purge boxed set back in 1993. The final show, recorded in Germany on the final leg of the tour, is a better show and performance, and is really only stopped from being a great recording by its lack of any crowd noise. The soundboard tapes used for these shows were no doubt recorded with no intention of any future release in mind, so the audience is clearly not miked at all - making it sound like the band is performing to an empty arena. It is an issue that plagues many of the shows released from the era (even those as part of the band's The Vault concert series). The varied quality of the live shows, especially considering how important the album is to fans, is one of the areas where the boxed set is let down. The other major downside was including two whole CDs of interviews. As with all the previous deluxe reissues, these are one-listen items, and take up space that could have been used to include another concert from the era. Being the album that took the band into the stratosphere, anticipation was high that all the content would be exceptional in quality, but it seems that at that point in the band's trajectory they were still very selective about which shows were recorded with eventual release in mind. Considering many of the band's earlier important highlights (such as Day On The Green in '85 or Donington in '87) were not recorded professionally, we should be thankful to have shows like the Moscow show in '91 captured in such amazing quality. The box isn't perfect, but if the content is the best that was available, it is still priceless as a document of the period. The only addendum to this is that if the Live Shit, Binge & Purge boxed set is not getting a deluxe reissue or remastering, the addition of it's content here would have increased the quality overall of the set.

TheBigBlack's Metal Dishonourable Mentions

Various Artists
The Metallica Blacklist

Thrash Metal | Album; Compilation; Tribute; Remasters | 10 September 2021

mk's Metal Top 10

Fear Factory
Aggression Continuum

Metal (Industrial) | Album | 16 June 2021

My first decent listen to a FF record in 10 years. I'm a huge fan of their earlier work and haven't given them a fair listen for about 10 years. Considering this is the final record with Burt in charge of vocals, it deserves a good listen. I'll be honest in saying I have only given it a few listens. My first opinion is that it is very 'mechanical' with the music, which has been their footprint since the start, but song after song is not the norm. Timings, breakdowns etc. This is very much Dino though, so I shouldn't be surprised. Burt's clean voice is as it sounded 30 years ago, which I do like. I note they have added a keyboard into the mix, which is very evident in places. Not a fan of that. I'll keep listening, but not a classic in their catalogue. ILYOSBTYNS! Is all I can say, which won't come as a surprise.