By describing themselves as a "slam death bulldozer from South Africa" they are doing my job for me. This is raw and brittle Metal that dials up the brutality as far it will go. Coarse and full of indignation, “Praenuntius Infiniti” this is the sound of a band thoroughly pissed off with their lot in life and hellbent on telling us all about it. There is no subtly or textured layers here, “Praenuntius Infiniti” wears its unadulterated aggression and rage on its (heavily tattooed) sleeve. It is an unrelenting torrent of noise, and it is that power and unfaltering energy that makes its such as an impressive album.

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It is very rare that I come across something that is truly unique, but I can hand and on heart say that “For the First Time” sounds like nothing else on this list or that you will come across this year. There is free form jazz here and some traits of eighties indie, there is also bits of country and springles of folk and also quite a lot of things I really can’t identify. What I do know is that it is sprawling boundary-less record that seems in no hurry to get where it should be going.

It seems intent on leaving conventions behind and in many places is atonal and unorthodox in the way that it unfolds. The structure of tracks is fluid and in numerous places it jettisons melody altogether in favour of repetitive discombobulating refrains. What I do know that it is refreshingly different. It is intriguing and feels more like a puzzle to solve than an album to listen to. Strange, angular but also utterly entrancing.

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Over the last few years public perception of Toby Jobson has shifted from seeing him as the guy that used to front Little Angels to seeing him as the guy that currently fronts Wayward Sons. They have worked hard to build their current level of visibility, countless supports, lots of festival slots (when of course allowed) and three albums in four years. Their debut “Ghosts of Yet to Come” was corking, follow up “The Truth Ain’t What It Used to Be” was sadly less corking. Thankfully “Even Up the Score” is a return to form (if you can say that after one not so good album). It is a tight slick suite of songs that has one eye on commerciality but the other on articulating the bands social consciousness. Tracks like “Sign of The Times” and “Land of the Blind” manage to be both grand sing along rock songs and politically astute protest songs. Sticking two fingers up at the man never sounded so good.

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What did you achieve when you were around fifteen, sixteen? I scrapped through my GCSE’s, held a Saturday job down and managed to be completely unattractive to the opposite sex (I also read the entirety of the Thomas Covenant saga which might explain that). Well, be prepared to feel inadequate. The youngest member of Manchester trio Tortured Demon is 15 and the eldest is 17 and they have managed to produce a record that musicians double their ages would be well proud of.

“In Desperation’s Grip” is an intriguing mix of thrash’s immediacy and Metalcore’s love of big shouty choruses. Without making big sweeping statements, I believe this is what it must have felt like hearing “Kill ‘em All” for the first time. As with Metallica’s debut, “In Desperation’s Grip” is not by any means the finished product (it is raw and could do with a good polish) but God, does it drip with potential.

You can tell that there is so much promise and untapped talent here just waiting to explode. What it also shares with “Kill ‘em All” is the energy levels and exuberance which are both off the charts. “In Desperation’s Grip” is one hell of calling card and it screams “We are Tortured Demon, remember our names”

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Noctule is Svalbard frontperson Serena Cherry’s one women side project, conceived during lockdown to keep her sane. Rather than be some cathartic personal bloodletting session, Wretched Abyss is a fantastical reimagining of the worlds of online role-playing game Skyrim via the medium of Black Metal. Yep non more metal! What it also is, is really rather good indeed. Because Serena handles all instruments there is a sparse and minimalistic feel to it, the searing riffs feel uncluttered and have plenty of room to breathe.

Whilst substantively different to her day job, Noctule does retain Svalbard’s balance of nihilism and positivity. Rather than be knurled and down-tuned, her guitar work is euphoric and up-tempo. There are also a number of dreamy instrumental sections that contain to build the atmospherics. Overall, for a one person endeavour this is a remarkably effective and efficient slice of both Black Metal and world building. Haunting, evocative and very much music to slay dragons too.

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An uncharacteristic earthy bath for undoubtedly one of my favourite bands in the world. All the ingredients that you would expect in an Iron Maiden album are present and correct; Bruce’s lung cracking screams – check, numerous mentions of god to keep born againer Nicko on side – check, Obscure historical references – check, Galloping riffs – check, Bass high up in mix – check, REALLY long songs – check. It contains all the components to be a classic Iron Maiden record, so why has it, comparatively, fared so badly.

The answer is that it plods, and the over-arching feeling is one of familiarity. It is when all is said and done a bit safe and predictable. You know where every song is going to go, there is no mystery and danger here. Nothing new is being added to the mix. It is still a very good album (remember it has made 55 on a year with some really really strong release) but what it isn’t, is a great Iron Maiden record.

The songs feel long simply because that is what the band does, as opposed to them actually needing to be long. Everything feels rather forced and it lacks any spontaneity. As I said it is not by any mean a terrible record, but this is Maiden and we expect more than mid-table obscurity from them. I have been through it numerous times, hoping that it will be on this spin, that the penny will drop, but every time single run through ends the same. A distinct feeling of disappoint and haunting realisation that my beloved Maiden have, whisper it, produce a rather dull album.

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It is often said that the devil has the best tunes, and this album proves it. It seems like an oxymoron to use the word catchy when describing Black Metal, but this album has proper songs with proper chorus and proper earworms that burrow into your head. They seem to have taken the aesthetics of Melodic Death Metal (i.e. Maiden esque riffs combined with Death Growls) and applied it to Black Metal.

“Burn In Many Mirrors” is an epic record that reveals itself in a cinematic fashion. It is still very much Black Metal and has the obligatory atmospherics of fear and menace, but there is also a vibrancy and positivism to their approach that lifts it well beyond their peers. There are points where it feels and sounds happy, which usually in Black Metal circles would see them having their inverted crosses snapped and sent out of the room to have a good long think about themselves. But on “Burn in Many Mirrors”, it works, really works.

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It’s all boom bust with my beloved Manics. 2018’s “Resistance is Futile” was terrible. A creative vacuum of an album with no redeeming features. But never a band to sit around feeling sorry for themselves, they have bounced back with an absolute corker. The Manic Street Preachers are at the best when they are melancholic, for all the commercial successes they are not a happy band and that was “Resistance is Futile’s” problem. “The Ultra Vivid Lament” recaptures their most important USP, the ability to smuggle in ultra-depressive lyrics disguised in pleasant melodies.

With “The Ultra Vivid Lament” James dispensed with convention and wrote the songs on a piano as opposed to his customary battered acoustic. This has given the album a more pop and ballady feel. But rather than use that to go out-right sugary and anthemic, they have instead headed inwards and created an album that sounds insular and restrained. This is the Manics being reflective and reserved and it really suits them.

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A dark, contemplative album that exists on the very fringes of Metal (in fact, Big Brave are often described as Fringe Metal). It is a sludgy and pendulous take on post Metal. Instead of the usual eutrophic interludes, “Vital” intersperses its Metal with dense grumpy noise. Still atmospheric but with the joy and delicacy removed.

This is an album about pain, the pain of not belonging and the pain of not being understood. It would be easy to articulate that pain with screams and crashing noise, but instead Big Brave use a low frequency creeping melody. What may feel like monotonous sound is instead a complex eco-system of melancholic sound. A deep and oblique album that you have to work with, but believe me it is worth it as there is so much beauty in the despair. It may take a number of listens but this is an album that will penetrate your soul.

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Another one-woman Black Metal Project, however where as Noctule were quite straight forward in their delivery, Vouna seem to go out of their way to be as obtuse and stubborn as possible. This is the definition of a difficult album and you get the distinct impression that Yianna Bekris does not give one hoot if nobody else in the world ever hears “Atropos” or at least listens to more than its first five minutes. It is heady mix of different styles and textures, some that merge eloquently together and others that jar horribly.

It is that disregard for convention and accessibility that makes this such an enticing record. It is a monumentally personal record with Yianna concocting the vast spirals of mournful synths and bleak doomy riffs for no other reason than to sedate her own soul. You feel all the way through that you are eves dropping on someone else’s misery and perversely that makes it such an intoxicating listen. Rhythmic, hypnotic and at times completely non-linear, it is nevertheless a triumph in cohesion and immersion. It may be at times a hard album to follow, but it is one that leaves a deep and lasting mark on your soul.

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This records inclusion is even more poignant because Big Big Train’s lead singer David Longdon tragically died last week after a traumatic fall (and there you were thinking that this list couldn’t get any more depressing). His sad passing could not have come at a worst time as “Common Ground” looked like it would finally see this underground Prog revelation finally get the plaudits that they so richly deserve.

Active in some form or another since 1990 and responsible for thirteen albums over that time, it has taken Big Big Train three whole decades to become an overnight sensation. Initially a studio project for Greg Spawton and Andy Poole with an ever-revolving cast of guest members, they starting making traction in the mid noughties as the progressive revival gathered speed. Very much a word-of-mouth sensation, they only started operating as a live act in 2015 and even then they kept their appearances few and far between. They seemed to reveal in their position as the prog connoisseur’s band of choice. It became a badge of honour showing your prog credentials if you professed to being a fan of Big Big Train.

With a first ever UK tour in 2019 and a planned (but never fulfilled) headline slot at Ramblin Man Festival, “Common Ground” (and its already planned follow up “Welcome to the Planet”) were going to be the albums that finally allowed Big Big Train to transcend from cult status to mainstream concern. “Common Ground” is like Hot chocolate (with rum in it of course) on a cold day. Warm, restorative and reassuringly familiar. This is Prog with all its technical authoritarianism removed.

Unlike most prog records it does not feel like the musicians are looking down their noises at you because they can do death-defying feats with their instruments, and you can’t. This is a comforting and emotive album that is actually about songs rather than providing hollow showcases of musical prowess. It is sincere and earnest in its delivery, wearing its heart very much on its sleeve. Big Big Train have created “Common Ground” for no other reason that they love making music together and that passion and honesty flows through. The premature loss of David Longdon is heart-breaking in itself but the what could have been with an album as good as “Common Ground” makes it a double tragedy.

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Expansive and atmospheric post-rock from Poland. This is a relatively short but incredibly effective record. In fact, one of its best features is that it does not out-stay its welcome. The trio create an other-worldly sound that borrows as much from jingly jangly indie as it does from other post rock pioneers. There is a habit with this sort of stuff for bands to get lost within a song, endlessly repeating a refrain because they simply can’t figure out an effective way to bring a song to its conclusion. “Bridges” is refreshingly succinct in the way that it presents its goods and restrains from over-egging the pudding. It never gets too pretentious or euphoric and instead manages to weave its magic in a restrained and measured way. Self-control has never sounded so wonderful.

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Exactly twelve months after Jim Bob’s passive aggressive masterpiece of a well-mannered protest album, he is back with another set of self-aware anthems about why the world is currently such as shit place. Actually, there is a bit more positivity in “Who Do We Hate Today” than there was in “Pop-Up” (not a lot I grant you, but still there is a bit more). There are actually chinks of light in up-beat numbers like “Summer of No Touching” and “Song for the Unsung” and you get the feeling Jim Bob is proactively attempting to see the good in the world.

However on other tracks it is business as usual. Pun-tastic lyrics filled with pop-cultural references and a refined courteous rage. Yes Mr. Jim Bob is mad as hell and he is not going to take it anymore, but he is also English, so he is going to channel his belligerence into a quirky semi-humorous song. And humour is the weapon of mass destruction of choice here. For all its indignant horror at the state of the world, it has decided that rather than become despondent and depressed, the best thing it can do is to make comic quims involving rhyming couplets. A refreshingly entertaining two fingers up to the world in general.

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Lots of the albums on this list have been dark, grounded and rather depressing. Well. lets then travel to the other end of the dial. This is pure and utter absurdity bottled. Ambitious, over the top and utterly rooted in fantasy, this is by far the most expansive and elaborate thing that they attempted. Omega is big in all proportions. Big in sound, big in length (over seventy minutes) and big in the amount of ideas and concepts that it manages to squeeze in.

It also is very conscious of its own limitations and that of the genre that it operates in this. This is unashamedly Symphonic Metal and it isn’t trying to go off and do anything else. It embraces its bombastic nature and revels in being epic and extravagant. Free of self-doubt and any level of self-consciousness with is a sumptuous slice of multi-colour escapism.

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This is Ghost but with added razor blades. Self-described as goth-bob, this is how Sleep Token should have sounded. This is pop music reimagined and remodelled through the prism of Black Metal, “We are the Dragon” is glitzy and glam but also simultaneously grim and grimy. It also has a mysterious and enigmatic air, an atmosphere heightened by the fact no one knows who Cvlt ov the Svn actually are.

Rumours are that they amount to no more than a secretive shrouded band leader and that all live members are just hired hands. Whoever they actually are, the raspy baritone delivery does bring to mind Andrew Eldritch and the whole Goth goes pop approach is reminiscent of the much maligned but actually brilliant “Vision Thing”. Shadowy, playful and as camp as a jamboree, this is malignantly flamboyant album that reverentially mixes light and darkness.

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Authentic sounding 70’s rock from Canada. Soulful vocals combine with groove encrusted guitar to create something that feels familiar but simultaneously highly exciting. The Damn Truth seem to have unearthed and re-engaged with those magic ingredients that makes Rock n’ Roll so special. This is a simple and straight forward record that gets rid of 90% of all the packaging and distractions and instead concentrates on the passion. Recorded live in one take by the legendary Bob Rock, it captures the beauty of rock n’ roll in full flight. Foot to the floor simplicity at its very best, “Now or Nowhere” showcase the minimal beauty of guitar, bass, vocals and drums. Upbeat, optimistic and just a pure slice of nostalgia for a world we thought we had lost.

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This list has a tradition of having (relatively) high entries from artists that the rest of the world considers as missing in action. In the past Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult and Marillion have all scored entries in the top entries of the list. Well, this year it is turn of power pop pioneers Cheap Trick with their twentieth (count them) record.

This is a breezy, sun-drenched collection of inconsequential bubble-gum rock. In many ways its business as usual for Cheap Trick, but given the context of the last two years “In Another World” just feels so right. It’s happy with its lot in life and it doesn’t want to change the world or even complain about it. It simply wants to pull back the roof and enjoy life. Yes, it’s light weight and yes Robin Zander’s voice is wearing a little thin, but there is something zealously joyous about this record that made me want to listen to it again and again. 45 minutes of carefree bliss, very much what the doctor ordered.

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A thoroughly modern sounding record that wears its heart on its sleeves. Heavy music has a reputation for being macho and emotionally repressed. Modern Grotesque is anything but. It is a fragile and intricate beast that uses a tapestry of noise to express various emotional states. There is a raw vulnerability at play here, as vocalist Staska uses stark personnel lyrics to bear their soul. The music behind it is a complex eco-system of intertwined harshness and sensitivity. It has layers and layers of interconnecting sonics that together provide an immersive canvas that engulfs the listener. Emotive, evocative and utterly compelling.

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The reason I love doing this list is that it means that I need to listen diligently to a large proportion of the albums that are released each week. It takes me out of my comfort zone and exposes me to records that I would have otherwise undoubtedly missed. As they say, you don’t know what you like until you hear it. This is one of those albums that would not have come on my radar if I wasn’t diligently trying to sample as many records as possible.

This is a disconcerting and challenging record but it also highly rewarding and enticing. It is deconstructed Metal, the pieces are all there, they are not necessarily in the order that you were expecting. There are parts of it which feel akin to crawling through an underground tunnel; close, claustrophobic and unending. But then it opens up into expansive majesty and there is the exhilaration of reaching something that feels like safety.

Still may be on their first ever release but they understand how to mix shock and awe with introspective contemplation. The album ebbs and flows, taking the listener through a sonic journey. There are points where it is difficult to make out what it is trying to do but then it suddenly it makes aural sense again. { } is a highly intelligent and fiercely independent record that feels lightyears away from the traditional definitions of Rock and Metal. Bold, enlightening and continually evolving, this is album that feels completely different each time I listen to it. Astounding!

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The pioneers of Power Metal return with a wonderful blend of their classic and current line-up. The Pumpkins reunited line-up (essentially the 2016 version of the band with the added involvement of former members Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen) undertook a lucrative and well reserved reunion tour that lasted nearly two years. Kiske, who had always derided the idea of returning to the band as retrograde step, particularly seemed to be enjoying himself and therefore it was no shock when this enhanced line up announced that they were heading to the studio.

“Helloween” the album is everything that is wonderful about Helloween the band but escalated and expanded. Kiske, Hansen and Deri’s diverse vocal styles complement each other and giving the album a conversational and collaborative feel. The whole thing feels special and luxurious and the band’s signature sound is giving extra resonation with the addition of a third guitarist. Big, epic and utterly unphased by the passage of time, this is everything I had hoped it would be and more. Pure Power Metal.

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