Let’s start with a bang, or more accurately let’s start with some hyperactive sugar-rush inducing europop pizazz. Beast in Black sound like a Latvian entry into Eurovision. It’s big on choruses, big on cliché and big on synth hooks. The whole Abba does Metal approach works here because it has the strength in song-writing. Tracks like ‘Moonlight rendezvous’ and ‘Dark New Worlds’ eloquently combine bouncy commerciality with Rock’s outsider attitude. It may be ludicrous in many many places, but it avoids becoming a parody of itself by being overall oodles and oodles of fun.

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Anthemic Black Metal of the highest order. The down-tuned guitars and goblin-esque vocals of Black Metal are wrapped in swirls of beautifully realised symphonic beauty. The album really works because of its stark contrasts. The Black Metal is not tempered or dialled down. It is coarse, corrosive and maintains its demonic intensity. However, the atmospheric element are equally stirring and evocative, but very much the other way. There is a wonderful juxtaposition between splendour and abrasion, as the vocals shift from gruff to clean and the classical waves engulf the harsh guitars. Cinematic, ethereal and utterly immersive.

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Haunting and alluring post-Black Metal from Nottingham. “Our Bodies Burnt Bright On Re-entry” is all about the contradictions and contrasts. There are moments where it sounds like hell itself is ripping opening and the armies of Satan are spilling fourth, but it knows exactly when to recoil and retreat back into fragile introspective instrumental passages. It is its rich mix of primal noise blended with delicate beauty that gives this album so much depth and texture.

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With a name like that, you aren’t going to be quaint indie fodder, are you? This album bridges the gap between technical and old skool Death Metal. It retains the virtuoso guitar gymnastics of the former, but combines it with the grit and grime of the latter. It is a harsh unrelenting album, but it manages to have moments where the light comes in and it is those brief overtures of salvation that makes it so good. It is a perfect amalgamation of outstanding riff wizardry and guttural emotive rawness.

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One of modern Metal’s most inventive and musically curious bands. They have not been content to sit back and churn out the same album again and again. Each release has seen them further stretch the boundaries that they operate within and attempt to continually confound the listener. “De Doom” is yet another cosmic shift in style and approach. It initially doesn’t sound that difference from their previous six Mass albums (imaginatively titled Mass I to Mass VI). However this album breaks from tradition and is sung in Flemish. There are still the same almighty surges of brittle noise, but they are less frequent and therefore the build up to them is longer and more refined. What this means is when they do arrive, they have much more potency and effect. A wonderful whirlpool of jagged sonics and reflective segments.

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First full studio album in eight years for the French sonic experimentalists. It consists of five entwinning tracks that just build and build. This is layers of euphoric sound that drags the listener into a netherworld that feels both familiar but also simultaneously bewildering. Sometimes this type of stuff lacks warmth and sincerity, but this works because it does feel organic and natural. This is not just sonic assault for the sake of sonic assault. Instead, it beautifully and intricately develops over the course of the entire record, like an exquisite flower revealing itself before your very eyes.

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When axe-master supremo Michael Schenker asked Robin McAuley to become the lead singer of his self-titled band, he was sick and tired of prima donnas and hired hands. Robin McAuley was neither. A down to earth Irishman with a strong work ethic, he had no truck with rock n’ rolls excess. He and Michael hit it off big time, to the point that they renamed themselves the McAuley Schenker group to acknowledged Robin’s heightened role in the band’s direction. He remained with MSG until 1993, which is far longer than other vocalists that Michael had worked with and only actually left in order to marry and retire from Music.

Since he hung up his gloves, he has popped up every now and again, most recently as part of Michael’s expensive career retrospective Schenker Fest. And here he is again with his first solo record in twenty-two years. I have always loved his voice. It manages to be simultaneously bluesy and raw but also smooth and alluring. This is essentially a great eighties adult oriented Rock album. I loved it for what it is as it does not pretend to be anything else than a collection of great sing along tracks.

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There is something fresh and vibrant about this record. There is a rampant joyfulness at play here and it is brim-full of a youthful exuberance that is really rather infectious. It has a bounce about it that means you can’t help but being swept in its multi-colour hyperactive. There is probably not that much new here and it owes a lot to both Enter Shikari and Ghost Inside (and that is before you start on the inevitable Paramore comparisons). But in the end its energy and rampant vitality means that you overlook its many short comings.

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Mono consistently confound expectation. Every record they release I think is the last word in dynamic soundscapes and then then they come back two years and once more up the game. This is certainly the case here. “Pilgrimage of the Soul” is everything you expect from Mono, but more. More cinematic, more ambiance and much more euphoric cascades. They are peerless at what they do, and this is yet another exhilarating ride through delicate valleys and grandiose peaks that leaves you at the end breathless but desperate to go through it all again.

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We often talk of Europe as being the fertile ground for Power Metal, but Witherfall are part of fine tradition of stateside acts that have embraced the synth, the power-fist and the gigantic chorus. In fact, the dynamic duo behind Witherfall (Joseph Michael and Jake Dreyer) are a veritable who’s who of American Power Metal. Jake (as well as fleetingly Joseph) was in White Wizard and until recently he played guitar in Iced Earth (only parting ways with them when Jon Schaffer decided to go off and storm the capitol building). Meanwhile, Joseph has had the unenviable task of replacing the late, great Warrel Dane in Sanctuary.

“Curse Autumn” is windswept, anthemic but also surprisingly restrained. It has the massive surges of majestic synths, and it has searing power chords, but it also has delicate refined moments where everything is dialled down (usually a cardinal sin in Power Metal). It is those understated acoustic driven moments (specifically in ‘The Tempest’, ‘The River’ and the title track) that lift this record out of the ordinary.

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Metal does indeed go to the places where other genres do not dare (probably folk aside). You would never get a country, or a Hip-Hop album focused on the first world war, but here we are with yet another Metal act deciding to build their whole sound and identity around the great war. This is bombastic blackened Metal with a massive nod towards Primordial and Behemoth. There is quite an inventive usage of brass, vintage audio and traditional songs of the time, and it is these elements that give “Where Fear and Weapons Meet” a real feel of authenticity. What could have come across as quite mawkish and exploitative actually ends up being reverential and respectful.

However it’s greatest moment is saved to the end. I usually find novelty pop covers at the end of metal albums at best unnecessary and at worst a cynical ploy to get noticed. Bucking the trend, 1914’s version of Green Fields of France is nothing short of extraordinary. It takes a reflective and sombre treaty on the futility of war and turns into a roaring chasm of indignant rage. By pumping it full of raw anger and spite, it radically alters the songs meaning without changing a single lyric. Now instead of lamenting the fallen, it screams in flagrant outrage and horror at the utter waste live and the very fact it was allowed to happen. A fitting conclusion to a stirring and evocative album.

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The wonderful thing about Powerwolf is how aware they are of how ridiculous they are. This is pure theatrical escapism; big, bold and flamboyant. Every track here is OTT with the emphasis on the O, T and T. It isn’t subtle and to be honest it is not going to win any prizes for intricateness, but the heart on the sleeves kitchen sink approach works because of the band’s conviction and authenticity. All the way through “Call of the Wild” you are left in no doubt that the band are having as much fun as the listener. It may well be ludicrous and absurd, but it is also buckets full of unreserved fun and frankly sometimes that is all that matters.

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Their 2019 debut also made my TOP 100 in more or less the same position. It was great but owed a great debt to Tool. Their sophomore release sees them widen their sphere of influences and also bring a grittier and more granular feel to their highly proficient prog. It is still highly stylised and technical, but it has a more organic and earthy feel this time around. It is also very very good.

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Wolfsbane were one of a group of homegrown Metal and Hard Rock acts that emerged in the late eighties. They had a rampant energy to them and seemed to have a harder edge than their contemporaries. They were also bloody everywhere and there was a point where they seemed to be the support act on every tour I saw (Anthrax, Alice Cooper, Maiden and Motorhead all come to mind). They also had the auspicious honour of being the first UK act to be picked up by Rick Rubin’s Def American label and to have the man himself produce their debut album. All looked good but then grunge turned up, they were dropped after their second album tanked and then the call came from the aforementioned Maiden.

I started the story with Wolfsbane because no matter how great they were (and they were great), Blaze Bailey will be for most people the man that kept the seat warm whilst Bruce Dickinson went off and did other things. In all he recorded two albums with the British Metal juggernauts (one good “X-factor”, one dire “Virtual 11”) and then was unceremoniously booted out in 1999 when the great man wanted to return.

Subsequently he has reformed Wolfsbane (twice and there is rumours of an impending new album), played numerous “the Iron Maiden years” sets and also built a quite impressive solo career. For the last eight years he has worked with the Manchester band Absolva and for “The War Within Me” they once again form his backing band. This is a great sci-fi themed proper Metal album. It is epic and (occasionally) pompous but the production is so on point and it sounds utterly glorious. Blaze’s vocals are both raw and expansive and perfectly contemplate the expansive but also magnificently heavy musical accompaniment. Extraordinary return to form, if he needed one.

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Named after the legendary Sleep album, Dope Smoker could not be anything else than a Stoner Metal act. They hail from costal South Wales, where there is apparently nothing to do but Surf and smoke dope. “Devil’s Bridge” is their second full album in as many years, and it actually has real character to it. Yes, it is absolutely packed full of slow brooding riffs, but it does not feel as identikit as you would expect. They have managed to stamp their own identity on a style that can sometimes feel quite samey. Overall I found the tracks more memorable than other examples of this and sometimes that is all you need.

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Anneke is a Metal singer, has been in Metal bands (most significantly The Gathering) and works with Metal artists such as Amorphsis and Devin Townsend. However, this is very much not a Metal album. It was written as her marriage fell apart and is a melancholic and introspective treaty on the subject of divorce and loneliness. It is stark, emotively raw but also exquisitely beautiful. You can feel the hurt tumble out of her as she relates her attempts to save her relationship. Insular, haunting and effecting, it may stick out like a sore thumb on this list but it so deserves its place.

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With the vast majority of records on here I know to a greater degree what to expect. I either am already familiar with the artist or at least the genre that they operate within, or I have been pointed their way by a friend or press coverage. This is one of those releases where I had no idea at all what to expect and therefore ended up pleasantly surprised. This is the third album from the St. Louis based trio, but their first to pass under my gaze. This feels like the score to a post-modern horror movie.

There is the eerie un-settling synths that you would find in a John Carpenter flick, then on top of that they have poured a vat of lumpy sludge metal. Rather than leave it at that, they have then added a sheen of catchy alt-metal choruses. The whole thing feels unsettling and creepy, but like the best horror movies it is also incredibly intoxicating, and its disconcerting nature drags you in. Whilst familiar in places it also feels unique and slightly twisted, like the axis of the world has shifted. One of the more “unique” records on this list.

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Every so often I do think there is nothing else you can do and nowhere else you can go with Death Metal. And then a release like this comes along that broadens my horizon and reaffirms my belief that Death Metal still has decades of evolution left within it. This is an incredibly clever record that decides not to tie itself to the mast of one particular iteration or version of Death Metal, but instead to borrow liberally from nearly forty years of re-invention and re-generation. The riffs are technic and concise but it also drags in the hall marks of the more progressive and melodic tendencies. By combining and blending so many of the avenues that Death Metal has wandered down over the decades, Beyond Grace have actually managed to move the genre forward.

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Contemporaries of fellow countrymen Katatonia, Lake of Tears have sort of fallen by the wayside over the last fifteen years (this is their first album in ten years). Like Katatonia they were initially Paradise Lost fanboys but they have gone for a bit of magical mystery tour around Metal’s many sub-genres. Now down to just guitarist and vocalist Daniel Brennare, they have returned to the goth with a vengeance. This is a dark, brooding album that obviously comes from an unhappy place. However no matter how maudlin and morose it is lyrically, “Ominous” still manages to retain goth’s marvellous grandiosity and aural elaborateness. It just sounds wonderful, operatic and anthemic even though at heart it is as dark as the night itself.

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Listening through I am realising that this is not a happy list and Hull’s Mastiff (self-proclaimed “miserable band from a miserable town”) are not going to help. This is one of those albums that starts as impenetrable noise (and I suspect for many of you will stay at impenetrable noise) and only starts to reveal its musical riches after a number of listens. There is actually lots and lots of texture and depth here but it does take its time to emerge. However if you do work with it, this is a highly inventive and incredibly rewarding record but don’t expect any sort of redemption. Mastiff have looked into the heart of humanity and found it be broken and decayed and this record captures that. It is dark, nihilistic and in many places unsettling. A magnificent pessimistic diatribe of the end of times.

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