10 Metal Records from 2021
Albums for this review were taken from Nik Nocturnal’s Modern Metal Playlist and his 2021 top albums of 2021. Links to these will be provided at the end of this blog…
The rules are simple…
Scores are 1-10 and are based on a points system. 10 being the highest. It should be noted that I do not give out 10 point scores very often. 10 is like the speed of light. It cannot be obtained naturally. It requires something special. With that said my 2 perfect tens, down the board, are for Slaughter to Prevail – Kostolom and Bullet for My Valentine – Self Titled. Both these records are amazing and are so good I cannot even give them a fair review, so they are excluded from this list.
Go and listen to those. You won’t be disappointed…
This isn’t a top 10, or best metal records of 2021. Since Nik did his video
review already, most of these bands I had not yet heard of so I wanted to
take a stab at it myself with my own opinion on those records. So with that
said the points scale is as follows:
Very Few
10 scores and 9s would be given out if I feel it is the best of the 10
records here when compared to that specific point’s category. Most of the
time 8 will be the on the high end. 9, super special and 10 is warp speed…
Categories are: 1) Album Length. 2) Does
it Grove? 3) Quality of Breakdowns (if any exist) 4) Vocals 5) Guitars 6)
Bass 7) Drums 8) Quality of Hooks ( if present), 9) Other instrumentation such as
samples | keyboards or a DJ. 10) Technical Prowess…
Points will be added and that will be the final score.
As previously stated Slaughter to Prevail/Bullet for My Valentine’s newest
records are excluded because they blow all these records out of the water.
No need to praise these any more than they already are being praised. Plus
this is more or less trying newer music I may or may not like.
I am not really into: • Black Metal • Death Metal • Doom Metal • Speed
Metal • Screamo • Extreme Industrial Metal • or any of the “Fusion” Metal ( fusions between these) subgenres. When it comes to newer metal the
subgenres I tend to listen to are: • New Wave of American Heavy Metal •
Groove Metal • Metalcore • Deathcore (I’m picky though) • Djent •
Experimental…
I think I covered all the bases here. Let’s get to the scoring.
I am not going to go too deep on the reasons why I scored this and that. If
you want to know specifics like that, comment or direct message me. The
idea here to get people talking about stuff like this or going to check out
the records on their own. Not just a simple/easy/lazy communication with an
emoji.
Shall-We-Begin…
Twelve Foot Ninja – Vengeance
1) Album Length. = 3
2) Does it Grove? = 9
3) Quality of Breakdowns (if any exist) = 9
4) Vocals = 9
5) Guitars = 8
6) Bass = 7
7) Drums = 7
8) Quality of Hooks (if present) = 8
9) Other instrumentation such as samples | keyboards or a DJ. = 9
10) Technical Prowess = 10
Total Score = 79
Wage War – Manic
1) Album Length. = 3
2) Does it Grove? = 7
3) Quality of Breakdowns (if any exist) = 7
4) Vocals = 7
5) Guitars = 8
6) Bass = 7
7) Drums = 7
8) Quality of Hooks (if present) = 7
9) Other instrumentation such as samples | keyboards or a DJ. = 6
10) Technical Prowess = 7
Total Score = 66
Volumes – Happier?
1) Album Length. = 7
2) Does it Grove? = 7
3) Quality of Breakdowns (if any exist) = 8
4) Vocals = 8
5) Guitars = 8
6) Bass = 6
7) Drums = 6
8) Quality of Hooks (if present) = 6
9) Other instrumentation such as samples | keyboards or a DJ. = 7
10) Technical Prowess = 8
Total Score = 71
Spiritbox – Eternal Blue
1) Album Length. = 8
2) Does it Grove? = 7
3) Quality of Breakdowns (if any exist) = 7
4) Vocals = 8
5) Guitars = 7
6) Bass = 9
7) Drums = 7
8) Quality of Hooks (if present) = 7
9) Other instrumentation such as samples | keyboards or a DJ. = 6
10) Technical Prowess = 7
Total Score = 73
Silent Planet – Iridescent
1) Album Length. = 5
2) Does it Grove? = 6
3) Quality of Breakdowns (if any exist) = 4
4) Vocals = 6
5) Guitars = 5
6) Bass = 6
7) Drums = 7
8) Quality of Hooks (if present) = 6
9) Other instrumentation such as samples | keyboards or a DJ. = 5
10) Technical Prowess = 6
Total Score = 56
Of Mice & Men – Echo
1) Album Length. = 7
2) Does it Grove? = 9
3) Quality of Breakdowns (if any exist) = 8
4) Vocals = 8
5) Guitars = 7
6) Bass = 7
7) Drums = 5
8) Quality of Hooks (if present) = 7
9) Other instrumentation such as samples | keyboards or a DJ. = 6
10) Technical Prowess = 7
Total Score = 71
Ice Nine Kills – Welcome To Horrorwood
1) Album Length. = 5
2) Does it Grove? = 7
3) Quality of Breakdowns (if any exist) = 7
4) Vocals = 7
5) Guitars = 7
6) Bass = 7
7) Drums = 7
8) Quality of Hooks (if present) = 7
9) Other instrumentation such as samples | keyboards or a DJ. = 7
10) Technical Prowess = 5
Total Score = 66
Gojira – Fortitude
1) Album Length. = 9
2) Does it Grove? = 8
3) Quality of Breakdowns (if any exist) = 6
4) Vocals = 7
5) Guitars = 8
6) Bass = 7
7) Drums = 7
8) Quality of Hooks (if present) = 7
9) Other instrumentation such as samples | keyboards or a DJ. = 8
10) Technical Prowess = 10
Total Score = 77
Brand Of Sacrifice – Lifeblood
1) Album Length. = 8
2) Does it Grove? = 7
3) Quality of Breakdowns (if any exist) = 6
4) Vocals = 7
5) Guitars = 7
6) Bass = 7
7) Drums = 7
8) Quality of Hooks (if present) = 5
9) Other instrumentation such as samples | keyboards or a DJ. = 10
10) Technical Prowess = 9
Total Score = 73
Archspire – Bleed The Future
1) Album Length. = 5
2) Does it Grove? = 6
3) Quality of Breakdowns (if any exist) = 4
4) Vocals = 3
5) Guitars = 5
6) Bass = 6
7) Drums = 8
8) Quality of Hooks (if present) = 3
9) Other instrumentation such as samples | keyboards or a DJ. = 1
10) Technical Prowess = 9
Total Score = 50
Regardless of what score I gave on these I really enjoyed listening to all
these. Outside of Archspire – Bleed The Future. I
really didn’t like them too much, but still appreciated what they were
doing. It’s just too much brutal speed for my tastes. People who would like
faster more extreme metal than I tend to talk about would probably really
love this. It’s just not for my tastes. My best explanation for it is, it
just doesn’t groove enough for my liking. All these other records do that
at a high level in what I like.
Here are the links to the playlist(s) and YouTube Videos for the source
material. I would love for this to be my own original work and it sort of
is, but based on someone else’s content. That is basically what all content
is nowadays. Someone’s reaction to something else. Well, this is mine.
I highly recommend you go check out Nik Nocturnal’s contributions to Heavy
Metal content creating. Be it his own original music, his playlists of
newer metal or his YouTube channel. Show some love…
Nik Nocturnal’s Modern Metal Playlist
Nik Nocturnal’s Best Metal Breakdowns of 2021
Nik Nocturnal’s Best Metal Albums of 2021