Synthentral Top 100 Albums of 2021

There was so much amazing music in 2021. Bands released more Singles and EP’s this year than albums, so I started with just under 450 albums to rate.

First step is to get that down to 100 for the Top 100 (here we are). Then I remove 50 more for the Top 50, and finally remove an additional 20 for the Top 30, which will have a corresponding show with one song from each album.

Here are the rules and guidelines I work with for my Top 2021 lists:

• I must own the album to consider it (either through purchase or provided by band or label).
• Only albums qualify: no EP’s or Singles. There are plenty of lists out there for “top songs.”
• To qualify as an album it must have at least seven original songs. Remixes, new versions, covers albums, compilations (“best of”), etc., do not qualify. Intro and outro songs, instrumentals, and intermission songs do not count toward the song total.
• Albums are weighted so that an album with 7 songs has the same point system as an album with 12 songs.
• I judge each song individually, then rate the album overall. Did I want to listen to the entire album? Were there songs I wanted to skip? Was I engaged as a listener and fan?
• I post the lists alphabetically and not in “countdown” style.

I fully recognize that my list (and everyone’s list, for that matter) is subjective. I love that others have different lists and are passionate about different bands and albums! I hope you agree with many of these, but I also hope you have some favorites that aren’t on my list, but more importantly, I hope this list introduces you to a band or album you may have missed in 2021!

I have “LISTEN HERE” links below each album cover, so go and listen and give each band and album a chance, and support the bands you like!

The Synthentral Top 100 for 2021 (in alphabetical order):

AEX – AEon deuX (LISTEN HERE)

All Systems Out – Strike Me (LISTEN HERE)

Angelspit – Diesel Priest (LISTEN HERE)

Balvanera – Courses Of Action (LISTEN HERE)

Beyond Border – Awakening (LISTEN HERE)

Bikini Death Race – Refrigerator (LISTEN HERE)

Black Marble – Fast Idol (LISTEN HERE)

BlakLight – Into The Void (LISTEN HERE)

BlueForge – Soul Rockets (LISTEN HERE)

Blutengel – Erlösung – The Victory Of Light (LISTEN HERE)

Brutalist Architecture In The Sun – Post Democracy The Album (LISTEN HERE)

Сад – Незнакомые лица знакомых людей (LISTEN HERE)

CHVRCHES – Screen Violence (LISTEN HERE)

Clan Of Xymox – Limbo (LISTEN HERE)

Clicks – G.O.T.H. (LISTEN HERE)

Cold Connection – Seconds Of Solitude (LISTEN HERE)

Creature And The Wolf – Night Feed (LISTEN HERE)

Croona – Ascend (LISTEN HERE)

Стереополина – Суперлуние (LISTEN HERE)

Dagon – Adam Krueger (LISTEN HERE)

Daniel Hall – Human (LISTEN HERE)

Das Werk – Aeshma (LISTEN HERE)

Dead Lights – Dead Lights (LISTEN HERE)

Devours – Escape From Planet Devours (LISTEN HERE)

The Distant Minds – Bedlam (LISTEN HERE)

Distoxia – Genocidio Espiritual (LISTEN HERE)

District 13 – Mind Over Matter (LISTEN HERE)

Diverje – Purge The World Before (LISTEN HERE)

Doble Núcleo – Mecánica Orgánica (LISTEN HERE)

Double Echo – ☾ (LISTEN HERE)

Dräger – Goths À La Discothèque (LISTEN HERE)

e:lect – Changing Reality (LISTEN HERE)

echōdead – Random Headnoise Parallax (LISTEN HERE)

Elektroforez – 505 (LISTEN HERE)

Elektrostaub – Reliance (LISTEN HERE)

The Ending Nights – A Landscape To Die (LISTEN HERE)

F.O.D. – Mensch Macht Maschine (LISTEN HERE)

Faderhead – Years Of The Serpent (LISTEN HERE)

FHTH – Freedom And Love (LISTEN HERE)

Form – This World Is Ours (LISTEN HERE)

The Frixion – To Hell And Back (LISTEN HERE)

Funker Vogt – Element 115 (LISTEN HERE)

Gary Numan – Intruder (LISTEN HERE)

Glass Spells – Shattered (LISTEN HERE)

Gli Occulti Supersovrani – Capolavoro (LISTEN HERE)

Hamerzya – Earth Rebirth (LISTEN HERE)

Hante. – Morning Tsunami (LISTEN HERE)

Honey Beard – Oneiros (LISTEN HERE)

Imperative Reaction – Mirror (LISTEN HERE)

Implant – Cognitive Dissonance (LISTEN HERE)

Ironfield – No Sound (LISTEN HERE)

j:dead – A Complicated Genocide (LISTEN HERE)

Kanga – You And I Will Never Die (LISTEN HERE)

Kat Von D – Love Made Me Do It (LISTEN HERE)

Konstantin Unwohl – Im Institut Für Strömungstechnik (LISTEN HERE)

LARVA – Void (LISTEN HERE)

LAU – Believer (LISTEN HERE)

Laura Dre – Moving Spaces (LISTEN HERE)

Llumen – Polygon Heart (LISTEN HERE)

Lords Assistants – Infrared (LISTEN HERE)

Machine Made Pleasure – Danceland Graffiti (LISTEN HERE)

Most Modern – Dark Lies (LISTEN HERE)

Nation Of Language – A Way Forward (LISTEN HERE)

Nattskiftet – Stämplar In (LISTEN HERE)

Nature Of Wires – Out Of My System (LISTEN HERE)

Neuropa – Frontiers (LISTEN HERE)

No Trust In Dawn – Lost And Apart (LISTEN HERE)

Norderney – Without The Limelight (LISTEN HERE)

Nórdika – Hipnotik (LISTEN HERE)

Nuovo Testamento – New Earth (LISTEN HERE)

Orange Sector – Alles Wird Gold (LISTEN HERE)

Parralox – Travelogue (LISTEN HERE)

Peppy Pep Pepper – Forced Distance (LISTEN HERE)

Piston Damp – Making The World Great Again (LISTEN HERE)

Potochkine – Sortilèges (LISTEN HERE)

Pro Patria – Godless (LISTEN HERE)

Propter Hoc – Blood Moon (LISTEN HERE)

The Rain Within – Horrorshow (LISTEN HERE)

Raindancer – A Different Horizon (LISTEN HERE)

Reality’s Despair – Perfidious Depopulation (LISTEN HERE)

Rector Scanner – Radioteleskop (LISTEN HERE)

The Rorschach Garden – Grain Culture (LISTEN HERE)

S Y Z Y G Y X – (Im​)​mortal (LISTEN HERE)

The Saint Paul – Core (LISTEN HERE)

Sines – A Series Of Moments (LISTEN HERE)

Solar Fake – Enjoy Dystopia (LISTEN HERE)

StaTiK SeKt – Without Tomorrow (LISTEN HERE)

Stridulum – Soothing Tales Of Escapism (LISTEN HERE)

Super Dragon Punch – Feral (LISTEN HERE)

Tenderlash – Hold Still (LISTEN HERE)

thewalkingicon – Shadow Of The Saints (LISTEN HERE)

Tobias Bernstrup – Petrichor (LISTEN HERE)

Uncreated – Symbiosis (LISTEN HERE)

unitcode:machine – Themes For A Collapsing Empire (LISTEN HERE)

Velvet Vega – We’ll Never Get Back (LISTEN HERE)

Venus In Disgrace – Dancefloor Nostalgia (LISTEN HERE)

Yota – Lucid Dreams (LISTEN HERE)

Your Ocean – Last Days Of Alnoxthenya (LISTEN HERE)

Zanias – Unearthed (LISTEN HERE)

Zoodrake – Seven (LISTEN HERE)