Best New Music - 2021 edition

I’m ashamed to say I’ve only heard three albums from 2021 so far. Just Senjutsu, the Smith/Kotzen disc and John Mayer - Sob rock.

Senjutsu sounds great, but I haven’t listened to it for a while now, have forgot a few of the songs already. Smith/Kotzen I’ve just listened to briefly, it didn’t really impress me much. Sob rock is a very nice and chilling album, perfect for late summer nights. But just not a masterpiece.

So my vote so far is Senjutsu. I have a huge stack of albums waiting to be listened to, including some from 2021. I have big expectations for the new Beast in black album.
 
1641500108084.png
easily.
Vasks, Oboe Concerto / Vēstījums / Lauda in case picture goes at some point
Get it for yourselves, or as a present for those of your relatives and friends who are into that kind of music, or at least give it a spin on Spotify.
The oboe concerto, while slightly reminding of the cor anglais concerto as I'm sure all of you Vasks aficionados would immediately recognize, is a lovely new piece, and 2nd millennium Vēstījums and Lauda definitely stand their ground, anything but fillers. Lovely music from one of the greatest composers alive.
Fantastic 2021 Darkthrone album as well, and the latest from an English band by the name of "Iron Maiden" you might've heard of or not wasn't too bad either.
 
View attachment 18638
easily.
Vasks, Oboe Concerto / Vēstījums / Lauda in case picture goes at some point
Get it for yourselves, or as a present for those of your relatives and friends who are into that kind of music, or at least give it a spin on Spotify.
The oboe concerto, while slightly reminding of the cor anglais concerto as I'm sure all of you Vasks aficionados would immediately recognize, is a lovely new piece, and 2nd millennium Vēstījums and Lauda definitely stand their ground, anything but fillers. Lovely music from one of the greatest composers alive.
Fantastic 2021 Darkthrone album as well, and the latest from an English band by the name of "Iron Maiden" you might've heard of or not wasn't too bad either.
I will take a listen. Thanks for the recommendation
 
Just the Maiden album. Apart from the new Helloween (which I hardly played, due to some songs with irritating vocals by Kiske), I've probably not heard anything else from 2021.
 
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.


Okay, I guess I should play this.
 
Excellent piece of Music. I really enjoyed it. Thanks so much.
Really glad you liked it. Bought the CD as a Christmas present for my dad - retired oboist, and Albrecht Mayer fan (not that I could ever pay back him bringing me the Killers and Seventh Son vinyls from Italy in 1989) - and he liked it a lot as well.
 
El Widget’s best new tunes of 2021

Best metal album & Album of the Year: Crystal Viper – The Cult
Metal album runner-up: Heavy Sentence – Bang to Rights
Best metal song: Epica – Abyss of Time

As a keen fan of the Polish five-piece, this was an album I’d been pinning quite a bit of hope on to ever since the rapid-fire lead single (and title track) pointed a return to the early NWOBHM stylings of their late 2000s output. Upon release, it became clear that the majority of the album picks up the high-speed riffing where the aforementioned title track kicks off, with cuts like “Flaring Madness,” “Down in the Crypt,” and personal favourite ‘Forgotten Land’ all offering subtly different (yet universally excellent) takes on their proven template. Occasional deviations from this occur with the Sabbath-esque ‘Whispers From Beyond’ and the anime-theme-in-an-alternate-timeline ‘Lost in the Dark,’ but just as with the rest of the album, there’s no drop-off in aural enjoyment. Production-wise, it does lack sonic depth (even compared to their own previous output), but contrasted against the generally high standard of songwriting this gives it a highly endearing rough-diamond quality. A clear first-round knockout AOTY pick.

Best rock album: Chez Kane - Chez Kane
Runner-up: The Night Flight Orchestra - Aeromantic II
Best rock song: Sintage – Rock City

Spotify recommendations really came through for me on this one – even if I only clicked on it initially out of curiosity (when was the last time someone wore leather pants on one of their album covers?). This turned out to be a good move, as Kane’s first album is an inch-perfect re-creation of glossy, overproduced late-80s arena rock in the vein of Van Halen et al, with every conceivable genre-specific cliché present and correct. However, given that this album turns out to have been the brainchild of Crazy Lixx frontman and mullet enthusiast Danny Rexon, this is hardly surprising. Up-tempo tracks such as “All of it,” “Too Late for Love,” and the suspiciously familiar-sounding “Ball ‘n’ Chain” all evoke mental images of hairspray, pop-up headlamps and mountains of cocaine, and are generally fun to listen to. More tellingly, even the obligatory ballad “defender of the heart” fails to stall the album in the way so many of its kind do. All up, this is one of the best-executed nostalgia albums I’ve heard in a while, a perfectly romanticized microcosm of a bygone age, and easily my favourite rock album of 2021.


Disappointment of the year: The Darkness - Motorheart
Vice-disappointment: Iron Maiden - Senjutsu

As unenthusiastic as I was about Maiden’s latest release, a part of me always suspected that at some point their (or rather Steve’s) recent tendency toward ever-increasing pomp would eventually topple over into overly bloated meandering, and thus set my expectations accordingly. But the Darkness, modern rock’s most willfully bonkers collection of madmen, surely they’d deliver another grin-a-minute anthem parade in the vein of *Permission to Land” or *Last of our Kind* . . . wouldn’t they? Sadly, this latest effort has seen the band pretty well de-fanged, with the majority of tracks forming a down-tempo, forgettable facsimile of their previous stylings (apart from the title track, which is the closest thing we get to Darkness of old). There’s also a ballad in there, I forget what it’s called. The irony in all this is that the most convincing song on the album, Speed of the Night Time, is the one track that somehow turns this narcolepsy into a strength, as the mellowed-out band delivers a solid A-tier late-night chill-out anthem just begging to be used in a film montage. However, this (and the aforementioned title track) can’t make up for the rest of the album, and though it’s not the worst album I’ve heard all year, it is the one I’ve come away from feeling the most let down.

I welcome all retorts and refutations
 
I finally finished my detailed reviews of all the 2021 hard rock and metal releases that caught my interest.

The results:


(None of these were actually tied, but some rounded off to the same decimal value.)

As someone who typically only picks up 3-5 new albums a year these days, 2021 was an embarrassment of musical riches for me. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed this many high quality releases in a single year — I might have to go all the way back to the 1980s to find something competitive. (I’m sure pandemic-related delays played a significant role in the glut of 2021 releases, though.)

(Master review index >)
 
Last edited:
After some discoveries, re-listening and records that flew under the radar:

10. Negura Bunget - Zau
9. Devin Townsend - The Puzzle
8. Hawkwind - Somnia
7. David Elfman - Big Mess
6. Iron Maiden - Senjutsu
5. Cult Of Luna - The Raging River
4. Fear Factory - Aggression Continuum
3. Memoriam - To The End
2. Enslaved - Caravans To The Outer Worlds

Record of the year:

1. Cynic - Ascension Codes
 
Last edited:
El Widget’s best new tunes of 2021

Best metal album & Album of the Year: Crystal Viper – The Cult
Metal album runner-up: Heavy Sentence – Bang to Rights
Best metal song: Epica – Abyss of Time

As a keen fan of the Polish five-piece, this was an album I’d been pinning quite a bit of hope on to ever since the rapid-fire lead single (and title track) pointed a return to the early NWOBHM stylings of their late 2000s output. Upon release, it became clear that the majority of the album picks up the high-speed riffing where the aforementioned title track kicks off, with cuts like “Flaring Madness,” “Down in the Crypt,” and personal favourite ‘Forgotten Land’ all offering subtly different (yet universally excellent) takes on their proven template. Occasional deviations from this occur with the Sabbath-esque ‘Whispers From Beyond’ and the anime-theme-in-an-alternate-timeline ‘Lost in the Dark,’ but just as with the rest of the album, there’s no drop-off in aural enjoyment. Production-wise, it does lack sonic depth (even compared to their own previous output), but contrasted against the generally high standard of songwriting this gives it a highly endearing rough-diamond quality. A clear first-round knockout AOTY pick.

Best rock album: Chez Kane - Chez Kane
Runner-up: The Night Flight Orchestra - Aeromantic II
Best rock song: Sintage – Rock City

Spotify recommendations really came through for me on this one – even if I only clicked on it initially out of curiosity (when was the last time someone wore leather pants on one of their album covers?). This turned out to be a good move, as Kane’s first album is an inch-perfect re-creation of glossy, overproduced late-80s arena rock in the vein of Van Halen et al, with every conceivable genre-specific cliché present and correct. However, given that this album turns out to have been the brainchild of Crazy Lixx frontman and mullet enthusiast Danny Rexon, this is hardly surprising. Up-tempo tracks such as “All of it,” “Too Late for Love,” and the suspiciously familiar-sounding “Ball ‘n’ Chain” all evoke mental images of hairspray, pop-up headlamps and mountains of cocaine, and are generally fun to listen to. More tellingly, even the obligatory ballad “defender of the heart” fails to stall the album in the way so many of its kind do. All up, this is one of the best-executed nostalgia albums I’ve heard in a while, a perfectly romanticized microcosm of a bygone age, and easily my favourite rock album of 2021.


Disappointment of the year: The Darkness - Motorheart
Vice-disappointment: Iron Maiden - Senjutsu

As unenthusiastic as I was about Maiden’s latest release, a part of me always suspected that at some point their (or rather Steve’s) recent tendency toward ever-increasing pomp would eventually topple over into overly bloated meandering, and thus set my expectations accordingly. But the Darkness, modern rock’s most willfully bonkers collection of madmen, surely they’d deliver another grin-a-minute anthem parade in the vein of *Permission to Land” or *Last of our Kind* . . . wouldn’t they? Sadly, this latest effort has seen the band pretty well de-fanged, with the majority of tracks forming a down-tempo, forgettable facsimile of their previous stylings (apart from the title track, which is the closest thing we get to Darkness of old). There’s also a ballad in there, I forget what it’s called. The irony in all this is that the most convincing song on the album, Speed of the Night Time, is the one track that somehow turns this narcolepsy into a strength, as the mellowed-out band delivers a solid A-tier late-night chill-out anthem just begging to be used in a film montage. However, this (and the aforementioned title track) can’t make up for the rest of the album, and though it’s not the worst album I’ve heard all year, it is the one I’ve come away from feeling the most let down.

I welcome all retorts and refutations

Chez Kane for me as well. Great album and I was already a huge fan of Crazy Lixx so it was a given must have. Also felt the same about The Darkness... Seem to like every other album since the reunion. Hot Cakes - meh, Last of our Kind - amazing, Pinewood Smile - not that great, Easter is Cancelled - great, Motorheart - disappointing.
 
Back
Top