My Top 10 CDs of 2021!

[TageRyche]

Much like 2020, the music world took it on the chin again in 2021. Perhaps not as much as last year but things aren't back to normal by any stretch of the imagination. While live concerts have returned, I avoided them like the proverbial plague. The closest I came was stopping by Purchase Street Records on the night Geoff Tate was in town for a show and meeting Tate's guitarist Keiran Robertson outside of the shop. And that was pure happenstance.

So my year in music focused pretty exclusively on writing CD reviews for KNAC.COM and the fifth year of writing my series The Cassette Chronicles for Limelight Magazine.com. I have had a blast continuing to write for both sites and really enjoy what I do.

While there was plenty of bad news in both the "real" world and the music world throughout the year, by far the worst music-related news for me was the death of Metal Church singer Mike Howe. It hit me pretty hard because I was such a big fan of his with the band and had met him a couple of times. As a tribute to him, I wrote about the band's album Blessing in Disguise for The Cassette Chronicles and while it took me a while to put the words down, I thought it turned out to be one of the better pieces I've ever written. You can check it out HERE! Once again, RIP Mike Howe!

I also discovered Brendon Snyder's channel on Youtube and have become an almost daily follower of his music videos. You can check out his stuff HERE!

My buddy George got back into writing about music and started his own podcast called Rock Is George. You can check out some of his stuff on Youtube HERE! There's also links to the interviews he did for Metal Express Radio there as well.

As for the new CDs I wrote about, the year has been pretty busy. Bands are still being pretty creative with so much time on their hands. But until I had a late flurry of reviews written at the end of the year, I was worried about coming up with a Top 10 list of albums I felt were truly worthy of being on the list rather than just ten releases filling spots. But those late reviews made the list feel fully fleshed out to me and I'm pretty happy with my final choices.

One of the best things is when I shared links of my reviews on Facebook and Twitter and the people I wrote about shared, retweeted, liked and/or gave feedback. I heard from a number of artists this year but the best one was the incredible feedback I got from Dee Snider's Twitter account. Thank gawd that release made my list, right?

As always, this is my list. If something you like didn't appear here I either didn't listen to the album or it didn't quite rank high enough to make the list. Please feel free to write your own list! 

My three honorable mentions this year are:

Night Ranger's ATBPO - (My Full Classic Rock Bottom Review)

Todd Michael Hall's Sonic Healing (My Full Classic Rock Bottom Review)

Billy Idol's The Roadside EP (My Full KNAC.COM review)

Anyway, I've babbled on long enough, let's get down to the nitty gritty and reveal my choices for the Top 10 CDs of 2021, shall we?

10. THE DEAD DAISIES - HOLY GROUND (Spitfire Music / SPV) - The newly arrived singer/bassist Glenn Hughes (replacing singer John Corabi and bassist Marco Mendoza) changed the band's sound a bit and while it took me a minute to get used to how The Dead Daisies sounded now, the Holy Ground album demonstrated "the band has found yet another level to explore musically and they do it with great aplomb." Songs like "Holy Ground (Shake The Memory)", "Righteous Days", and "Like No Other (Bassline)" are just some of the album's high points. (My Full Classic Rock Bottom Review)

09. L.A. GUNS - CHECKERED PAST (Frontiers Music Srl) - The rekindled partnership between singer Phil Lewis and guitarist Tracii Guns continued to bear fruit with this year's new album. Tracks like "Cannonball", "That Ain't Why", "Living Right Now" and "Dog" show that there's plenty of attitude driven hard rock to be had on Checkered Past as the album "continues to chart a musically incredible present and future for the band". (My Full KNAC.COM review)

08. CHEAP TRICK - IN ANOTHER WORLD (BMG) - In my original review I said that "Cheap Trick has a really good, if slightly flawed, album on their hands. I may have been a bit harsh in my initial assessment because as I continued to listen to In Another World after my review went up in April, the album really grew on me a lot and it became an album I ended up playing a lot more than I thought I might do when I wrote the review. I loved songs like "The Summer Looks Good On You", "Quit Waking Me Up", "Here's Looking At You" and "Light Up The Fire". And that's how the CD ends up on my list! (My Full KNAC.COM review)

07. U.D.O. - GAME OVER (AFM RECORDS) - The Game Over CD struck me as a "typical" U.D.O. album but that's actually paying it a big compliment. Why? Because "typically" a new U.D.O. album is a damn fine thing to hear. And Game Over was no exception. Ballsy rockers like "Unbroken", "Metal Never Dies" and the incredible "Like A Beast" provide plenty of heavy metal fire and fury and "amply demonstrates why the fans keep coming back for more from Udo Dirkschneider these last few decades". (My Full KNAC.COM review)

06. DAMON JOHNSON & THE GET READY - BATTLE LESSONS (DOUBLE DRAGON RECORDS) - I picked this album up from the Damon Johnson website and it was well worth the wait to say the least. The band wasted no time in driving home the slamming hard rock nature of the music on Battle Lessons and with one great song after another, it left me immediately wanting more. With songs like "Shadow Country", "Love Is All You Left Behind", the title track and "Casual Beast", the album "needs no further qualifying than to simply say it is a fantastic album!" (My Full KNAC.COM review)

05. JOEL HOEKSTRA'S 13 - RUNNING GAMES (FRONTIERS MUSIC SRL) - The Running Games album is chock full of melodic hook-laden songs that are full blown hard rocking songs at the same time. Guitarist Joel Hoekstra took five years between albums but that time sure paid off with songs like "Heart Attack", "Reach The Sky" and the outstanding "Take What's Mine". Frankly "anyone with a love of highly charged, energetic and melodic driving rock and roll will want to check out the devastatingly great Running Games!" (My Full KNAC.COM review)

04. ROBIN MCAULEY - STANDING ON THE EDGE (FRONTIERS MUSIC SRL) - Having been a fan of Robin Mcauley's singing since hearing him front the McAuley-Schenker Group, I was pretty excited when this solo album was announced. That excitement grew once I heard the album and I've been playing it quite a bit throughout the year. Of course, it isn't hard to keep listening to an album that has such stand out tracks like "Late December", "Say Goodbye", "Supposed To Do Now", "Wanna Take A Ride" and the killer track "Running Out Of Time". "This is an album that will be seen as a classic in the years to come and I just freaking love it!" (My Full KNAC.COM review)

03. DEE SNIDER - LEAVE A SCAR (NAPALM RECORDS) - When Dee Snider released the solo album For The Love Of Metal, I loved it so much that it has earned a permanent spot in my workbag. I listen to it a lot still. And with Leave A Scar, I can say the very same thing. I carry the album with me wherever I go and I'm playing still playing it all the time. While always steeped in the rock and metal genre, the songwriting is quite varied and songs like "S.H.E." and the slow burn anthemic "Stand" are right alongside power driven metal like "Down But Never Out", "In For The Kill" and "Silent Battles". "Dee Snider's refusal to rest on the considerable laurels of his past has staked him to yet another fantastic album that shows he's far from done and continues to fit right into today's scene!" (My Full KNAC.COM review)

02. TODD LA TORRE - REJOICE IN THE SUFFERING (Rat Pak Records) - When I told a friend of mine that I was planning to check out the Todd La Torre solo album Rejoice In The Suffering, he warned me that it wasn't going to sound like what I might be expecting. That any expectation that the album would sound like the work La Torre does with Queensryche would leave me a little disappointed. He added that the album was pretty heavy. He knows the types of music I like pretty well. But despite this album being a pretty brutal and effective pure heavy metal album, I just freaking loved it! It's another album that I carry with me everywhere and play it quite a bit. La Torre brings every side of his vocal persona to the material and even when he gets into that death metal vocal style at times (the song "One By One" is a good example), it just works! The album's title track, "Darkened Majesty", "Vanguards Of The Dawn Wall", "Hellbound and Down" and the fantastic "Vexed" are just some of the highlights for the album. "The overall quality that is woven through Todd La Torre's solo debut makes for an electrifyingly entertaining listening experience!" (My Full KNAC.COM review)

And now, here's my pick for the best album of 2021!

01. ILLUSORY - CRIMSON WREATH (ROCKSHOTS RECORDS) - If I'm being honest, I don't think I can say anything better about this truly awe-inspiring work of art than what I wrote about it in my original review. But I sure as hell am going to give it a whirl! How much did I love this album? I got the download link to listen to the album in advance of its release from PR maven Jon Asher and got to experience a double shot of something increasingly rare for me. The first was discovering a love for a new-to-me band. I rarely find that happening these days. But even more incredible was as I listened to Crimson Wreath, it felt like I was hearing "one" moment of transcendent, perfect beauty! Yes, I love the album THAT much! I put in my order for the physical CD and waited for what seemed like forever for it to show up. 

From the opening "Besetting Sins" to the closing epic "Fortress Of Sadness", every song is just impossibly great! The band deals with a variety of topics in the music, from the legend of Achilles ("Ashes To Dust"), racism ("All Blood Red"), mental health ("S.T. Forsaken"). And the three individual songs ("Past Forever Lost", "The Isle Of Shadows" and "Agony's Last") that make up 'An Opus Of Loss and Sorrow" are just on another level. Weaving heavy and progressive metal music and incredible vocal performances with interstitial spoken words performances from Greek actor Grigoris Valtinos and others helps lift Crimson Wreath to a level of respect from me akin to Queensryche's Operation: mindcrime!

I was so moved by this album that I even did an KNAC.COM interview with the members of Illusory. You can check that out HERE!

(Now if only the band's webstore had shirts in size 3XL so I could order one and continue to visually support this album!)

In the end, what I wrote in my original review of Crimson Wreath is the best summation I can say about what I experienced listening to the album: "If it is true that a band's third album is supposed to be their "breakthrough" release, then Illusory has certainly done their part in proving that belief to be true. Despite a run time of over 75 minutes, not once does the album drag. Rather, you can't believe it when the album is over because you want to keep listening. I strongly feel that not only is Crimson Wreath one of the singular best albums you could hope to come across this year, but it will come to be seen as Illusory's magnum opus release!

(My Full KNAC.COM review)

In 2021, there were lots of albums I liked (and some that I didn't). But these ten outstanding albums were the cream of the crop for me. Check out the review links, listen to the music via the links I included and I'm sure you'll find plenty to enjoy as well.

For now, here's looking at 2022 with a lot more music for us all to enjoy!

And as always, ROCK ON!

[Yngve J. Chapleen]

The albums I haven't listened to are: 1, 3, 6, and 9.

And the only one I own in the bunch is the U.D.O. Box-Set which isn't one of the 7 slots I knew will make my list, but so far it is in close running for the next spot available with Temple Ball's "Pyromide". Whether it will end up on my Top 10 list or not also depends on the 4 CDs I have yet to fully listen to, which are also pretty strong candidates for inclusion based on my preliminary streaming experience of them.

I also own the Todd Michael Hall CD, but I also know for sure it won't make my list.

[TageRyche]

If I did ties, the Todd Michael Hall album would've made my list but I didn't want to go that way. But I did love it, which is why I put it in the honorable mentions along with Night Ranger and Billy Idol.

[Yngve J. Chapleen]

I love it enough too. In the original idea where I would have 3xTop 10 List, it would have been on it for sure, but in a competition of 30 CDs to 1 Top 10 list, it had no chance. I liked Hall's singing. And the songs were great too, but the album sounds different on "Overdrive" and everything else. It's the music performance on the "rest" that drags it down. I went through the whole booklet and I couldn't find who played on this album? (Have you)? Which makes it very suspicious to me. My theory is, the Metal Church guy played all the instruments, and if that's the case, he ain't Mike Oldfield.

[TageRyche]

I didn't see anything on the liner notes about who played on the album, but the writing credits said Hall and Kurdt Vanderhoof wrote all the songs. I'm guessing Vanderhoof at least played all the guitars on the album.