The Gamers Arms

So, just what the title suggests, what is your favourite album of 2021?

There have been some good offerings this year on the punk/metal side of the tracks. Contenders included:
Amyl & The Sniffers - Comfort to me, brilliant album that has kept creeping its way back onto rotation, especially for driving.

Gojira - Fortitude, another belter of an album, but more exciting to me is that rumour that they are going to follow it with an exceptionally heavy album in the vein of Mars to Sirius... yum!

Mastodon - Hushed & Grim. This one I am less certain of - it is soooo long and I can't help feel that it should have been trimmed down to a single album. That said, I keep finding new elements that sink their hooks in.

Wormwood - Arkivet. I have liked Wormwood since their first (and possibly best) album Ghostlands. I was pleased to pick up a signed edition of their latest this year, and there is more of the same weird mix of death metal and Pink Floyd-esque guitar breaks. Good album but the last track has an awful spoken 'news feed' in the middle of it, keeping it shy of the top spot.

Also rans include Carcass, At the Gates, 1914 and a few others. Dev's offerings in Puzzle and Snuggle didn't do anything for me.

AOTY for me for 2021 is Danish newcomers Iotunn with their immense debut Access All Worlds. This just keeps on getting played, and is so damned good. The mix could be better but the tracks are epic, with polyrhythmic drumming, phenomenal guitar work and a singer with an absolutely superb range. I had tickets to see them in London supporting Arcturues in February but cunty covid has put paid to it with the tour having been cancelled.

How about the rest of you?

I'm struggling to even think of what albums came out this year. Gojira is a big highlight for sure. I feel the same about Mastodon, if it were a bit shorter it would have been more memorable.

Iron Maiden's Senjutsu was a pretty good effort from them, though not one of their all time best. Puzzle and Snuggle are very interesting textured art projects, Snuggle in particular has been a pleasant background music over Christmas.

Mega Drive - Neuroframe was a pretty standard release of hard driving synthwave. Likewise with Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments, though he took things in a slightly more noir gothic direction with that release.

I'm a little bored by all the usual offerings at the moment. For most of this year I've been gradually delving into stuff from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s and just listening to a ton of jazz and lo-fi.

Gojira probably wins out overall though.

New Amorphis in Feb