Best New Music - 2021 edition

It's a soft-parody. It's just as serious as the bands they are riffing off (mainly Def Leppard, Racer X, Bon Jovi, Warrant, Dokken). After all, it's not Steel Panther. The band's been pretending to exist 30 years back, having gone all in with Ruff Justice (1987 2017) Forever Wild (1989 2019) and now Street Lethal (1991 2021).

Before that they released Loud Minority (2007), New Religion (2010), Riot Avenue (2012) and Crazy Lixx (2014) with various different members including Vic Zino (now in Hardcore Superstar, since 2008) and Andreas Z Eriksson (later in Inglorious with Nathan James on vocals).

They did the soundtrack to Friday the 13th: The Game a few years back and got a real push from that.

I appreciate that they don't acknowledge the parody elements and are not trying to modernize the sound in any shape or form. Most melodic rock bands like Eclipse, One Desire and many others are kind of doing the same thing but with modern elements.
 
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The Noora Louhimo Experience - Eternal Wheel Of Space And Time


I was amazed when I checked back through the thread and realised noone had recommended this! The first solo album from Noora Louhimo, lead singer of Battle Beast. It's a very different flavour of music - think classic rock/blues instead of power metal - but excellently done and one of my favourites from this year.
 
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Louder than Noise. Live in Berlin 2012
The Last Tapes Vol. 1 (Live in Madrid 1995)
No sleep Til Hammersmith (40th Anniversary edition)
Everything Louder Forever. The Very Best of.

All the Motörhead releases of this year are awesome even the 40th Anniversary edition of No sleep til Hammersmith that includes the three previous gigs before the Hammersmith one.
ALL you can find in these releases is Motörhead playing live and Loud. And the fantastic 2CD Compilation with their old hits and another great ones from the last three decades.
 
Running Wild - Blood by Blood
Fantastic album and a very nice surprise with great riffs, catchy melodies and probably the best album since the 90's.
Great tracks and they can be future classics for the band. According with Rolf he was working on this album during the lockdown.


 
Gus G. - Quantum Leap
Great album by this guitarist. Instrumental album with great riffs, melodies and guitar solos. He's not shredding all the time and the guitar solos are very good. The last track is a collaboration with Vinnie Moore. Recommended.

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Dream Theater - A View from the Top of the World
Very good album. Never liked me too much this band, but I recognize that this album has very good songs and very good instrumental passages. The Drummer is awesome and very creative, the guitar solos and melodies are very good too. I still don't like the singer, thank god he refused to sign for Maiden. He's like Ralph Sheppers but without his power. Again it's a solid album.

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Carcass - Torn Arteries
Very good thrash album. I liked the music above all. It's more mature and has some progressive touches sometimes. Great guitar solos and cool riffs. Short and fast songs. Great quality in the sound and good production. Maybe the Thrash album of the year.
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Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Excellent album, maybe too many songs but all of them are very good. 'Gigantium' is my favorite one. I knew it was good at the first listening and today in the second one. I can assure that it's one of the best ones of the year.

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The album of the year for me is: Iron Maiden - Senjutsu (without any doubt). Such a masterpiece!

The other album I would like to mention as a highlight is the self-titled album of Helloween. A great return to form for the pumpkins.

Song of the year is Maiden's ''Hell On Earth''

 
2021 has had some really great releases overall my current top 10 list is below, dashes signify large gaps between them. I really need to give those outside of the top 3 another good listen.

  1. Dream Theater - A View From The Top Of The World
  2. Iron Maiden - Senjutsu
  3. Mammoth WVH - Mammoth WVH
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  1. Evanescence - The Bitter Truth
  2. Dead Daisies - Holy Ground
  3. Tremonti - Marching In Time
  4. Helloween - Helloween
  5. Todd La Torre - Rejoice In The Suffering
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  1. Smith/Kotzen - Smith/Kotzen
  2. Myles Kennedy - The Ides Of March
 
Up till now there's already a fair amount of great releases:

Enslaved - Caravans To The Outer Worlds
Fear Factory - Aggression Continuum
Iron Maiden - Senjutsu
Radiohead - Kid Amnesia Exihbition
Cult Of Luna - The Raging River
EDIT: Hawkwind - Somnia (Thanks @The_7th_one)

Jerry Cantrell's Brighten, Gojira's Fortitude, Bizarra Locomotiva's Fenótipvs, Mastodon's Hushed And Grim, Big|Brave's Vital and even Carcass's Torn Arteries have their moments too

And then there's Cynic's Ascension Codes. If the remaining 5 tracks are as good as the 3 I've already listened to picking the album of the year is a wrap in my book. That if Devin doesn't release The Puzzle in time... You never know what Townsend can pull out of his hat.
 
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Seven Spires - Gods Of Debauchery


This is a strange recommendation as I wouldn't say I'm a fan of every song on this album, but that's simply a result of how varied it is. It ranges from power metal to ballads to black metal and back to dance music without skipping a beat. I've posted the power metal song because it's one of my favourites but I'd strongly recommend having a look at the other songs and choosing to taste because it has a ton to offer.
 
The_7th_one said:
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Excellent album, maybe too many songs but all of them are very good. 'Gigantium' is my favorite one. I knew it was good at the first listening and today in the second one. I can assure that it's one of the best ones of the year.

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Mixed feelings on this one for me. These are truly somber compositions (by far the darkest album by Mastodon so the tittle is absolutely on point) and that includes even the calmer stuff. The exceptions are Gigantium and Teardrinker, easily the more uplifting material here (nevertheless I don't like either of those).
IMO some of the tracks just seem to drag themselves while others are truly exciting and the latter are among my favorite Mastodon stuff in years (some even on par with their first three albums). Heavy cuts featuring some intricate powerful passages like The Crux, Pushing The Tides or Savage Lands could easily be featured on Blood Mountain and (quality and style wise) they would mesh perfectly with the remainder of the album (and that says a lot). More Than I Could Chew is a terrific slow grinding stomper while Pain With An Anchor and Peace And Tranquility mix different moods and elements (some even outside what we expect from later Mastodon) in quite a magical fashion. Sickle And Peace is also interesting (just a bit boring). When it comes to quiet stuff Dagger and Gobblers Of Dregs are really moody and well penned songs. As for the the remainder of the songs they all come as a blur to me. Although not being bad, it's a bit samey (and really bleak) and nothing really stands out.
Overall at least half of the record is really good and that's enough running time to make a normal album for me so... yeah! Furthermore after what I consider to be the band's worst album (Emperor Of Sand) I really think this is one hell of a rebound even bearing the fact it is a double album and more than often this means you'll have lots of tracks and chances are you won't like all of them. But at the end of the day I truly think the boys came out with some true quality stuff on this one.
 
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DJMayes said:
Seven Spires - Gods Of Debauchery


This is a strange recommendation as I wouldn't say I'm a fan of every song on this album, but that's simply a result of how varied it is. It ranges from power metal to ballads to black metal and back to dance music without skipping a beat. I've posted the power metal song because it's one of my favourites but I'd strongly recommend having a look at the other songs and choosing to taste because it has a ton to offer.
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It's good. The female vocals and melody are great. The problem to me is the double drums all the time. It's a kind of repulsion to me. I think the normal tempo in these songs could works fantastic but… They must like a lot the sound of helicopters flying over their houses, I don't know…
 
Up to date I've listen over 150 albums released this year from Pop, Prog Rock, Jazz, Fusion, Classical and Metal. Some of them fantastic and others nah. I will put a Top 10 or Top 20 in the middle of next month. I'm still listening new ones.
 
The_7th_one said:
It's good. The female vocals and melody are great. The problem to me is the double drums all the time. It's a kind of repulsion to me. I think the normal tempo in these songs could works fantastic but… They must like a lot the sound of helicopters flying over their houses, I don't know…
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I can appreciate that, though it doesn't put me off at all. I don't think all of the songs on the album are guilty of this particular style of drumming though.

Possibly my favourite aspect of the album (and the band in general) is how prominent their bass is.
 
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