Album Of The Year: Cannibal Corpse Violence Unimagined
Top 5 Contenders:
Hactivist Hyperdialectic
Helloween Helloween
Leprous Aphelion
Gary Numan Intruder
Tribulation When Gloom Becomes Sound
Whoa, what a bad year for punk and hardcore. Metal wins! Well, and one seriously good industrial album from a legend. Not a single thing from the punk, hardcore, indie world caught my interest this year. Yes, the new Every Time I Die is good, but so are all their other albums and it just doesn't compete with the ones that truly caught my interest and the newest Hysterese album hasn't had a chance to settle in yet. I'll just chalk it up to a poor release year and not my age. This year I went back to the beginning and found discographies by bands like Seige, The High & The Mighty, Born Without A Face, Voodoo Church and Damage to fulfill all my punker needs. Yep...all bands with releases in the 80s! I'm sure I'm just being cynical, but I searched high and low through my collection to find one new release that stood out from the wide world of punk and couldn't come up with anything The more aggressive and heavy end of the spectrum won out big time with my album of the year coming from what could be the most unlikely band, Cannibal Corpse. I reviewed their incredible album earlier and won't rehash why this is such a surprise, but it truly is! A good one! I also fell head-over-heels with the new releases by Helloween, Leprous and Hactivist who also have reviews from me elsewhere in this blog. It's not a big shock that Tribulation's When Gloom Becomes Sound landed at the top of the heap. Tribulation are a band that continue expanding their creativity and their talent for writing goth-inspired death metal is unmatched. With the departure of main songwriter Jonathan Hulten, I'm curious to see if this is their swansong. I hope not! That brings us to my last pick from Gary Numan. I described him a legend up above, and it's a title he's more than earned and not just for his 80s work. Ever since the release of 1997's Exile album, Mr. Numan has been taking up the industrial reigns and filling the void left by the randomness and mediocre output of Trent Reznor. His new album Intruders is no exception and is excellent. That's it for my quick wrap up of 2021. Happy New Year and stay safe!
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