The Uber Rock Approved stampWhile 2021 has been another traumatic and troubled year for the music industry, especially on the live front, rock ‘n’ rollers the Überverse over have once again been proven themselves to be a resilient and imaginative bunch with a continuing avalanche of high-quality new music on a scale that would bury a small eastern European republic. Our team of ninja reviewers have been consistently amazed at how artists, both individually and collectively, have consistently risen to the challenges we have all faced over the past 12 months to produce, in many cases, the best work of their careers to date.

Our reviewers listen to literally hundreds of albums every year, which is reflected in the fact that some 107 of them were submitted for this end-of-year summation. Our tastes cover almost every sub-genre you can think of, which is why the following lists cover everything from NWoCR to black metal, punk to alt-rock, prog to the avant-garde. Some of us faced the almost impossible task of even whittling it down to just our favourite 20 titles, with some lists written and rewritten on several occasions. But here is our final selection of our personal favourites:

David O’Neill

  1. Empyre – ‘The Other Side’Artwork for Weight Of The World by Florence Black
  2. Florence Black – ‘Weight Of The World’
  3. Tremonti – ‘Marching In Time’
  4. Those Damn Crows – ‘Point Of No Return’
  5. Black Stone Cherry – ‘The Human Condition’
  6. The Wildhearts – ‘21st Century Love Songs’
  7. Myles Kennedy – ‘Ides Of March’
  8. Mason Hill – ‘Against The Wall’
  9. Wayward Sons – ‘Even Up The Score’
  10. Syteria – ‘Reflection’
  11. The Raven Age – ‘Exile’
  12. WolfJaw – ‘Starting Gun’
  13. Inglorious – ‘We Will Ride’
  14. Age of Athena – ‘Gate To Oblivion’
  15. Black Spiders – ‘Black Spiders’
  16. Greta Van Fleet – ‘Battle At Gardens Gate’
  17. The Autumn Killers – ‘Darkside’

Jase Walker

  1. The Night Flight Orchestra – ‘Aeromantic II’ Artwork for Aeromantic II by The Night Flight Orchestra
  2. CHVRCHES – ‘Screen Violence’
  3. MEER – ‘Playing House’
  4. STARSET – ‘Horizons’
  5. Trash Boat – ‘Don’t You Feel Amazing?’
  6. Don Broco – ‘Amazing Things’
  7. Spiritbox – ‘Eternal Blue’
  8. VOLA – ‘Witness’
  9. LeBrock vol– ‘Fuse’
  10. Silent Planet – ‘Iridescent’
  11. FROST* – ‘Day and Age’
  12. YONAKA – ‘Seize The Power’
  13. Volumes – ‘Happier?’
  14. Architects – ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’
  15. While She Sleeps – ‘Sleeps Society’
  16. Deadlights – ‘The Uncanny Valley’
  17. Mirrors – ‘The Ego’s Weight’
  18. ERRA – ‘ERRA’
  19. We Butter The Bread With Butter – ‘Das Album’
  20. Interloper – ‘Search Party’

Jim Rowland

  1. Green Lung – ‘Black Harvest’Artwork for Black Harvest by Green Lung
  2. Amyl & The Sniffers – ‘Comfort To Me’
  3. Red Fang – ‘Arrows’
  4. The Limit – ‘Caveman Logic’
  5. Monster Magnet – ‘A Better Dystopia’
  6. The Stranglers – ‘Dark Matters’
  7. Hawkwind – ‘Somnia’
  8. Stöner – ‘Stoners Rule’
  9. Jason Ringenberg – ‘Rhinestoned’
  10. Nuclear Revenge – ‘Dawn Of The Primitive Age’
  11. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss – ‘Raise The Roof’
  12. Steve Hackett – ‘Surrender Of Silence’
  13. Styx – ‘Crash Of The Crown’
  14. Accept – ‘Too Mean To Die’
  15. Alice Cooper – ‘Detroit Stories’
  16. Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine – ‘Tea Party Revenge Porn’
  17. Agent Steel – ‘No Other Godz Before Me’
  18. Chubby & The Gang – ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’
  19. Brian Setzer – ‘Gotta Have The Rumble’
  20. The Specials – ‘Protest Songs’

Jonny Bakes

  1. Gojira – ‘Fortitude’Artwork for Fortitude by Gojira
  2. The Night Flight Orchestra – ‘Aeromantic II’
  3. The Hell – ‘Joris (A Hardcore Opera) Pt. 2’
  4. Beast in Black – ‘Dark Connection’
  5. Green Lung – ‘Black Harvest’
  6. Spiritbox – ‘Eternal Blue’
  7. Iron Maiden – ‘Senjutsu’
  8. Anneke van Giersbergen – ‘The Darkest Skies are the Brightest’
  9. Orden Ogan – ‘Final Days’
  10. Pupil Slicer – ‘Mirrors’
  11. Rise Against – ‘Nowhere Generation’
  12. CHVRCHES – ‘Screen Violence’
  13. Jinjer – ‘Wallflowers’
  14. Be’lakor – ‘Coherence’
  15. Nanowar of Steel – ‘Italian Folk Metal’
  16. Architects – ‘For Those Who Wish to Exist’
  17. Omnium Gatherum – ‘Origin’
  18. Alien Weaponry – ‘Tangaroa’
  19. Trivium – ‘In the Court of the Dragon’
  20. The Offspring – ‘Let the Bad Times Roll’

Monk

  1. Feuerschwanz – ‘Memento Mori‘Artwork for Memento Mori by Feuerschwanz
  2. The Wildhearts – ‘21st Century Love Songs’
  3. Sami Yaffa – ‘The Innermost Journey To Your Outermost Mind’
  4. Chris Catalyst – ‘Kaleidoscopes’
  5. Midnite City – ‘Itch You Can’t Scratch’
  6. Maverick – ‘Ethereality’
  7. Wardruna – ‘Kvitravn’
  8. Me And That Man – ‘New Man, New Songs, Same Shit Vol 2’
  9. Ricky Warwick – ‘When Life Was Hard And Fast’
  10. Wicked Smile – ‘Wait For The Night’
  11. So Long Until The Séance – ‘B Movie Superstars’
  12. A Pale Horse Named Death – ‘Infernum In Terra’
  13. Shotgun Mistress – ‘Shotgun Mistress’
  14. Gypsy Pistoleros – ‘The Mescalito Vampires’
  15. Spiritworld – ‘Pagan Rhythms’
  16. Trucker Diablo – ‘Tail End Of A Hurricane’
  17. Stevie R Pearce And The Hooligans – ‘Major League Son Of A Bitch’
  18. Velvet Insane – ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Glitter Suit’
  19. Diablo Swing Orchestra – ‘Swagger And Stroll Down The Rabbit Hole’
  20. Skarlett Riot – ‘Invicta

Phil Cooper

  1. Green Lung – ‘Black Harvest’Artwork for Diorama by MØL
  2. MØL – ‘Diorama‘
  3. Iron Maiden – ‘Senjutsu’
  4. 1914 – ‘Where Fear and Weapons Meet‘
  5. Wormwood – ‘Arkivet‘
  6. Memoriam – ‘To The End’
  7. Swamp Coffin – ‘Noose Almighty’
  8. Harakiri For The Sky – ‘Maere’
  9. Employed to Serve – ‘Conquering‘
  10. Spiritbox – ‘Eternal Blue’
  11. Trivium – ‘In The Court of The Dragon’
  12. Sleep Token – ‘This Place Will Become Your Tomb’
  13. Architects – ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’
  14. Powerwolf – ‘Call Of The Wild’
  15. Cannibal Corpse – ‘Violence Unimagined’
  16. Whitechapel – ‘Kin’
  17. At The Gates – ‘The Nightmare of Being’
  18. Rivers of Nihil – ‘The Work‘
  19. Jinjer – ‘Wallflower’
  20. Urne – ‘Serpent and Spirit’

We’re sure you’ll agree that is an eclectic selection, touching all the bases of the music we all love. Bear in mind that all our team are volunteers and do this because we genuinely love the music – and love discovering new acts to not just listen to but champion and shout about as loudly as we can.

We’ll now set the ÜRHQ goblins to work on our state-of-the-art abacus, tallying the scores generated by each list and come back to you in our final list of lists: our Top Five ‘Albums Of The Year’…