Top 10 Albums From Each Of The Last 10 Years

We have a feeling this will be a divisive one. Feel free to comment below. What do you agree / disagree with? What would yours be…?

2024

1. Green Day - Saviors

2. Opeth - The Last Will and Testament

3. Twenty One Pilots - Clancy

4. Bring Me The Horizon - POST HUMAN: NeX GEn

5. Feeder - Black / Red

6. The Smile - Wall of Eyes (and Cutouts)

7. Linkin Park - From Zero

8. Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere

9. Gatecreeper - Dark Superstition

10. The Last Dinner Party - Prelude To Ecstacy

2024 was a fantastic year for rock, metal and punk, with several other acts (The Offspring, Marilyn Manson, Nightwish, Mad Caddies, Rotting Christ, Judas Priest, Many Eyes, Better Lovers, Alkaline Trio and Sum 41, to name but a few) who could easily have made it into the top 10. There has been something of an indie revival brewing too, with strong albums from Cast, Shed Seven, Razorlight and The Cure throughout 2024). In our opinion, Green Day came out narrowly on top, by producing their best album in 20 years, which has the timelessness of American Idiot and Dookie.

Listen to Green Day on Spotify

2023

1. Code Orange - The Above

2. Metallica - 72 Seasons

3. Paramore - This Is Why

4. In Flames - Foregone

5. Blink 182 - One More Time

6. Foo Fighters - But Here We Are

7. Rancid - Tomorrow Never Comes

8. Orbit Culture - Descent

9. Ash - Race The Night

10. Hundred Reasons - Glorious Sunset

2023’s top albums came mostly from acts with an extensive, long-established pedigree, who each produced their best album in years, in some cases bouncing back from devastating loss (Foo Fighters) and in other cases resulting from reconciliation (Blink 182 and Hundred Reasons). Of the newer acts, Orbit Culture are establishing themselves as ones to watch; and Code Orange took a further step up from Underneath and Forever, expanding their brutal assualt into 90s alt-rock territory. ‘The Above’ gets better and better with every listen.

Listen to Code Orange on Spotify

2022

1. Machine Head - Of Kingdom And Crown

2. The Mars Volta - The Mars Volta

3. Feeder - Torpedo

4. Parkway Drive - Darker Still

5. The 1975 - Being Funny In A Foreign Language

6. Daniel Johns - FutureNever

7. Rammstein - Zeit

8. Coheed & Cambria - Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind

9. Lorna Shore - Pain Remains

10. The Weeknd - Dawn FM

Everyone thought that Machine Head were dead and buried after half the band walked out overnight - but Robb Flynn had other ides. The new line-up may be more ‘Robb, Jared and friends’ now, but ‘Of Kingdom and Crown’ was CRUSHING. What a masterpiece. Alongside this, The Mars Volta reformed after 10 years, Daniel Johns came back from the wilderness with an eclectic 2nd solo album, Lorna Shore proved that brutal can also be beautiful, and The Weeknd produced a bona-fide concept album. What a year!

Listen to Machine Head on Spotify

2021

1. Weezer - OK Human

2. Cradle of Filth - Existence Is Futile

3. Spiritbox - Eternal Blue

4. Bullet For My Valentine - Bullet For My Valentine

5. Twenty One Pilots - Scaled & Icy

6. Turnstile - Glow On

7. Architects - For Those That Wish To Exist

8. Carcass - Torn Arteries

9. Royal Blood - Typhoons

10. Biffy Clyro - The Myth Of The Happily Ever After

Rivers Cuomo is an incredibly prolific songwriter. Not only did Weezer produce the Beatles-influenced masterpiece ‘OK Human’, but also the 80s hair metal-worshipping ‘Van Weezer’. Elsewhere, Spiritbox released a barnstorming debut full-length, BFMV came back heavier than ever, and Turnstile made the perfect hybrid of punk, hardcore, RnB and pop. 2021 was also the year of incredible live streams, in the absence of touring. Check out Biffy Clyro, Architects, Twenty One Pilots and Weezer all making incredible presentations of their latest albums.

Listen to Weezer on Spotify

2020

1. Lamb of God - Lamb of God

2. Nightwish - Human :II: Nature

3. Pure Reason Revolution - Eupnea

4. Moron Police - A Boat On The Sea

5. Trivium - What The Dead Men Say

6. Biffy Clyro - A Celebration Of Endings

7. Less Than Jake - Silver Linings

8. HAIM - Women In Music

9. Taylor Swift - Folklore

10. Vader - Solitude In Madness

Chris Adler has such a unique drumming style, that when he left Lamb of God it could easily have led to the demise of the band. No-one expected them to bounce back so well, and their self-titled 2020 record, with new sticksman Art Cruz, was easily as strong as ‘Ashes of the Wake’ and ‘Sacrament’. Speaking of new members, Less Than Jake also produced their first album with a new drummer; and Nightwish proved that Floor Jansen was here to stay as their 3rd (and hopefully final) singer, with the masterful follow-up to 2015’s ‘Endless Forms Most Beautiful’.

Listen to Lamb of God on Spotify

2019

1. Tool - Fear Inoculum

2. Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind

3. Korn - The Nothing

4. The Interrupters - Fight The Good Fight

5. Cattle Decapitation - Death Atlas

6. Volbeat - Rewind, Replay, Rebound

7. Bad Religion - Age Of Unreason

8. Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

9. Amon Amarth - Berserker

10. The Cat Empire - Stolen Diamonds

A lot has been made of the gap between ‘10,000 Days’ and ‘Fear Inoculum’, and people often forget that we had plenty from Puscifer and A Perfect Circle to give us our Maynard fix in the interim. But there is something about the combination of Danny Carey, Justin Chancellor, Adam Jones and Maynard James Keenan that no other band can achieve, and none of the members can do by themselves. ‘Fear Inoculum’ may have sounded underwhelming on first listen, but it gets better every time, and its 6 ‘main’ songs have all blossomed into some of Tool’s best live tracks. 2019 was a hell of a year for music. Korn and Slipknot could both have taken the number 1 spot if it wasn’t for Tool’s return.

Listen to Tool on Spotify

2018

1. Muse - Simulation Theory

2. A Perfect Circle - Eat The Elephant

3. Ghost - Prequelle

4. Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog

5. Parkway Drive - Reverance

6. Superorganism - Superorganism

7. Pennywise - Never Gonna Die

8. Soulfly - Ritual

9. Burn The Priest (Lamb of God) - Legion XX

10. Alkaline Trio - Is This Thing Cursed?

Inspired by the huge success of Stranger Things, Muse fully embraced their love for 80s Sci-Fi in ‘Simulation Theory’, bouncing back from the messy ‘Drones’. Not only was the concept fantastic, but it was matched perfectly by the synth-heavy sound, and from top to bottom it was their strongest album since 2006’s ‘Black Holes and Revelations’. Elsewhere, Parkway Drive found the ideal blend of melody and brute force on ‘Reverance’; a group of multi-cultural housemates from London formed ‘Superorganism’ and made percussion out of cruching apples (seriously); and A Perfect Circle released their first album in over 10 years, with a more piano-driven sound.

Listen to Muse on Spotify

2017

1. Trivium - The Sin And The Sentence

2. Mastodon - Emperor Of Sand

3. Sikth - The Future In Whose Eyes?

4. Weezer - Pacific Daydream

5. Primus - The Desaturating Seven

6. Lorde - Melodrama

7. Power Trip - Nightmare Logic

8. Queens Of The Stone Age - Villains

9. Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark?

10. At The Drive-In - in.ter a.li.a

Trivium’s revolving drumstool led to some patchy albums in 2013’s ‘Vengeance Falls’ and 2015’s ‘Silence in the Snow’. Recruiting new drummer Alex Bent was the best move they could have made, as he is an absolute BEAST behind the kit. ‘The Sin And The Sentence’ is a masterclass of modern metal and earns Trivium the accolade of best album of 2017. On reflection, 2017 was a curious year for rock music. Primus turned the weirdness dial up to 11 with a concept album about seven goblins who remove colour from the world. QOTSA worked with pop uber-producer Mark Ronson. And Power Trip brought the reverb-drenched vocal sound of the 80s back to thrash metal with ‘Nightmare Logic’.

Listen to Trivium on Spotify

2016

1. The Cat Empire - Rising With The Sun

2. Metallica - Hardwired…To Self Destruct

3. Weezer - The White Album

4. Jimmy Eat World - Integrity Blues

5. Opeth - Sorceress

6. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation

7. Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep Of Reason

8. Babymetal - Metal Resistance

9. Gojira - Magma

10. My Vitriol - The Secret Sessions

Australia’s The Cat Empire are an incredibly fun live band, with a range of world music influences and endless improvisation to add to their rock / ska / funk / soul / pop sound. It hadn’t translated fully into the studio until ‘Rising With The Sun’, which has absolute belters in ‘Daggers Drawn’, ‘Bulls’, ‘Wolves’ and ‘Bataclan’, the latter of which was a joyous call for unity following the tragic shooting at the Eagles of Death Metal show in Paris the year before. 2016 was a year of some bands (Babymetal, Gojira and Meshuggah) really coming into their prime, while it was sadly the end of pioneers The Dillinger Escape Plan, who went out on a high with 'Dissociation’.

Listen to The Cat Empire on Spotify

2015

1. Ghost - Meliora

2. Cradle Of Filth - Hammer Of The Witches

3. Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor

4. Good Riddance - Peace In Our Time

5. Daniel Johns - Talk

6. Bring Me The Horizon - That’s The Spirit

7. Best Coast - California Nights

8. Tame Impala - Currents

9. Parkway Drive - Ire

10. Halestorm - Into The Wild Life

After two promising albums and an EP, Ghost finally realised their potential on ‘Meliora’, a record of sheer class - not to mention a Grammy nomination for ‘Cirice’, which also attracted the attention of James Hetfield who then invited Ghost to open for Metallica a couple of years later. Elsewhere, Cradle of Filth returned re-energised and rejuvinated with a new line-up, producing their best album in years; Tame Impala embraced 80s synth-pop to excellent effect; and Daniel Johns broke his post-Silverchair silence with a superb debut solo album, showing his soul and R’n’B influences.

Listen to Ghost on Spotify