2021 Worst Albums

Now I like unintelligible noise, in fact some of my favourite records consist entirely of unintelligible noise but this is, well this is frankly unlistenable. They've decided to essentially meld black and doom Metal and create a form of white noise that has no point and no passion.

This is a messy hardcore punk album that seems to think that hardcore punk’s only virtue is to be noisy and shouty. It misses any of the subtlety or emotional depth that makes good hardcore so engaging.

Metalcore pioneers Atreyu’s first post Alex Varkatzas record sees them venture even further from their roots and even closer to Nickelback territory. This is a slick soulless arena rock album and dispenses with any of the charm or originality that they once had. A sorry state for such an influential band.

What is it with once great Metalcore acts losing their pizzazz? This feels so formulaic and so lacking in any form of inventiveness or ingenuity. It is identikit arena rock designed to do nothing more than sell records.

This is meant to sound ethereal and brooding. It is meant to stretch the definitions and confides of metalcore. It ends up feeling diluted and dull. It doesn’t seems to have the conviction to make the obvious genre splicing work and in the end feels messy and directionless.

They have had five years to come up with ideas and what we get this is this. It’s a flimsy pop oriented album that smacks of “will this do?”. It is bereft of ideas and instead feels a weak attempt to smuggle themselves onto pop radio.

There is a viking folk bandwagon riding through town and Nytt Lands are making a stirling effort to jump on it. This feels cold and it feels calculated. It brings nothing new to the stark nordic ambient world and feels like a cynical cash in.

Prior to Volbeat, Pretty Maids were Denmark’s biggest heavy rock export. Ronnie Atkins is their frontman and this is his first ever solo record. Recorded in-between his ongoing treatment for stage four Cancer, it is meant to be his opportunity to produce an album that captures his exuberant personality. Not wanting to kick a man whilst he is down but this nothing more than a run of the mill rock album. It has nothing at all that makes it stand out from the crowd.

I found this really rather insipid and formulaic. Most of the tracks started with a bang and then retreated back into a very run of the mill structure of restrained versus and bouncy choruses. It was all very one dimensional and found myself not remembering much about it once it had finished.

Complete and utter proof that 50 year old millionaires should not be allowed to make records. This has no flair or self-awareness. It is a bloated and creatively bankrupt set of songs that essentially recycle ideas and riffs that they have used countless times before.

What the hell happened here? I remember a time when Garbage made terrific records, I remember a time when they were one of the most innovative and exciting bands out there. This is horrible. It is nothing but a substandard St. Vincent record.

You need to be bringing the goods if you are going to name yourself after perhaps Pantera’s greatest moment. This is a shouty record that lacks any sort of definition or uniqueness. It goes through it motions without really understanding that to combine punk and Metal you need to do far more than just play a bit of punk and then a bit of Metal. For such an energetic record it is remarkably dull.

Earlier I accused Garbage of making awful St. Vincent albums. Never one to shun the limelight here is St. Vincent herself with an awful St. Vincent record. The last couple of albums were nothing short of ground-breaking. Sexy and sassy, but very much on her terms. This is as about as sensual as a pencil. It is trying to be her “serious” “issue” record and in doing so it removes all the things that made her unique. We are left with stripped back tracks that feel devoid of passion or piazza.

Really boring Heavy Metal that lacks any spark or level of creative songwriting. Seems to think that Metal is all about fast repetitive riffs and lots of Woahoos. Awful!

In my eyes Foo Fighters are rock music for people who don't like rock music. “Medicine at Midnight” is so inoffensive that your gran would like it. Safe corporate rock without the remotest level of ingenuity.

Bad Wolves take a break from the ongoing soap opera that is their relationship with their former frontman Tommy Vext, to release a new record. They needn’t have bothered as this is a sub-standard rock album that offers nothing new at all. It sounds exactly like their previous records (even if Tommy is not around anymore) which in turn were poor facsimiles of Five Finger Death Punch records. Pointless.

Psychedelic rock from Finland that seems to forget that to make this sort of stuff work you need to have the songs. This feels samey and never finds its groove.

To my horror this is described as Goth. It shares no level of DNA with the Goth that I know. This is pop and not even good pop. It is that strain of modern that tries to take it self seriously and forgets that pop is about being sugary and fun.

Worthing based White Stripes plagiarists go disco. Yes it is as awful as it sounds.

In “Demanfacture”, Fear Factory made one of the best and most innovative Heavy Metal albums ever. Twenty six years later that are trying to emulate the formula that worked so well for them and failing miserably. This feels cold, calculated and just a complete waste of everyone’s time.

Why the hell would you create yourself a side project that ended up sounding like an exact carbon copy of your main band? It just does not make any sense. Go explore some other musical forms. Go and be experimental. If you are the guitarist with Alter Bridge don’t make a solo album that sounds exactly like Alter Bridge.

Let’s face it, Bullet For My Valentine have not made a decent record since 2010’s “Fever”, and even then it was two absolutely terrific tracks (‘Alone’ and’ Your Betrayal’) and quite a lot of filler. Since then they tried all manner of variations on their sound, but just haven’t managed to deliver anything that matches “The Poison” or “Scream Aim Fire”. This is yet another disappointment as (pardon the pun) there is no venom here, just lots of mediocre heavy rock tracks. There is nothing that stinks to high heaven but as consistent unit it smacks of a band fast running out of options.

Chris Daughtry shot to fame as a finalist on American Idol in 2006. This is rock band and they are as bland as you would expect. This is grunge lite with all its danger and nuances removed. Safe, predictable and lacking anything to make it stand out from the crowd

There is a single Black Veil Brides album and they have released it six times. “The Phantom Tomorrow” sounds identical to the five records that came before it. There is no evolution and there is a no variation. They have found a formula that unfathomably has made them an arena bothering act and they show no interest in diverting from it at all. It is all highly predictable and pedestrian.

Second post reunion album from the Swedish melodeath and they have seriously dropped the ball. It feels unoriginal and bereft of any ideas that are its own. Everything on here sounds like something you have heard before. Just smacks of lazy song writing.

Unimaginative pop rock from Sweden. Has a retro AOR feel but has no new ideas or concepts to bring to the party. Feels in the idea like an uninspired tribute act.

When did they ditch John Corabi? Glenn Hughes will also bring something to act as a front person as range is so enormous but they seem to have sacrificed all the charm and inventiveness that they once had. This is a fairly standard rock record with no frills and no real spark of innovation. Whatever fire they once had in their bellies has now gone out.

I have written at length about my issues with Sleep Token (666 : The Great Showdown : Sleep Token — ROCKFLESH) so wont go into here. Needless to say this is awful. It attempts to be slight and stirring and just ends up feeling paper thin and insipid. It’s not inspiring or emotive, it’s just a mess of maudlin pop hooks that just don’t hang together.

An unholy alliance of symphonic Metal and pop punk that ends up falling flat on its face as it manages to master neither. They seem to have forgotten that the most important ingredient is passion and this has ended up sounding like a band going through the motions without very much feeling or soul.

Yes them of Three Little Pigs fame. Well I can tell you that the joke is so not funny anymore. This is the sorry tale of a comedy Metal album that is devoid of humour. It is puerile, it is derivative, and it fails to contain a single credible joke. Just horrible.