So, what non-metal albums to be released next year are you looking forward to? I personally can't wait for the new Deathstars - it's been almost seven years since their last one. Also, the new Rob Zombie is coming out in March, and The Prodigy are also working on new material. I'm also curious about the new Gary Numan, which was supposed to come out this year. Then there's Arditi's "Insignia Of The Sun", which came out digitally in April but hasn't come out physically yet. How about you?

So far, officially announced:

The Dirty Nil - Fuck Art (Jan 1)
The Besnard Lakes - Are The Last Of The Great Thunderstorm Warnings (Jan 29)
The Weather Station - Ignorance (Feb 5)
Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah - New Fragility (Feb 12)
Django Django - Glowing In The Dark (Feb 12)
The Hold Steady - Open Door Policy (Feb 19)
Mogwai - As The Love Continues (Feb 19)
Cloud Nothings - The Shadow I Remember (Feb 26)
Julien Baker - Little Oblivions (Feb 26)
DZ Deathrays - Positive Rising Part 2 (July 9)

Without release date/title, but announced:
FKA Twigs
Garbage
Lana Del Rey (Chemtrails Over The Country Club)
Lykke Li
My Bloody Valentine
Spoon
St. Vincent
Weyes Blood

Not announced, but seem like they are due for something:
Andrew Combs
The Wooden Sky
Capitol
Japandroids
Cymbals Eat Guitars
Action Bronson (seems to put one out every year)
Benny The Butcher / Conway The Machine (also seem to pump things out at a rapid pace)
Jay-Z
Pusha T (been almost 3 years since his phenomenal DAYTONA Album)
Matthew Logan Vasquez
Eric Church
The Barr Brothers
The War On Drugs

Wishful thinking:
Radiohead. They take as long as Metallica between records now. But it's been almost 5 years.

Bruce Springsteen. I have a feeling a huge archive release is coming. Possibly Tracks 2 or a huge expanded boxset of Nebraska/Born In the USA (complete with the electric Nebraska sessions)

Gaslight Anthem. I keep thinking they'll return with something. They can't go out on that piece of shit from 2014.

Loved her first three albums, but couldn't get into the last one. I'll definitely keep my earballs open for this one.

As for my list, wonder how many of these I mentioned a year ago, and they are yet to surface...

The only one I can think of that has a confirmed date is Alice Cooper - Detroit Stories (Feb 26th).

Others that are confirmed or hinted to have been worked on at some point:

Aaron Lewis
Angels & Airwaves
Daniel Johns (ex-Silverchair)
Dry Kill Logic
Godsmack
Guns n' Roses (only vague indications of this one - although I'd rather the unreleased Chinese Democracy era material was put out tbh).
Immortal Technique
Kid Rock
Limp Bizkit
Magnum
Sully Erna
The Offspring (possibly two albums - although this has been delayed for years now)
The Union Underground
Tori Amos
Xzibit

Artists I hope will have new music out (but haven't confirmed / indicated to my knowledge):

Alison Krauss
Angaleena Presley
Ashley Monroe
blink-182
Guano Apes
Ice Cube
Kacey Musgraves
Miranda Lambert
Nickelback
Shakira
Staind

@lordcatfish, full agreement on the unreleased Chinese Democracy era GnR records, allegedly there are two.

As for AVA, I’m beyond skeptical at this point, Tom DeLonge is so far off his rocker with this UFO conspiracy stuff that music seems like an afterthought. That said, the two singles that were released last year were damn good.



WHOA.

As for what else is mentioned in this thread, if Tori Amos, Blink, Miranda Lambert, Twigs, and Garbage all put out records this year, then yeah, good year for music.

My contributions:

-The Killers are allegedly putting out a second album done at the same time as Imploding The Mirage, which is fine by me, that album is just big hook anthemic rock and I would greatly enjoy more of that.

-I say it every year, Tears For Fears. Known to have been working on an album since at least 2010.

-Most importantly, The Cure has been threatening an album since 2018. I believe I read that it’s complete and was slated for 2020, but no release as of yet and no real news. Hopefully it’s out this year.

I'm looking forward to new albums from the following:

Confirmed or likely to release new material:

Foo Fighters
Garbage
Royal Blood

Hoping will release new material this year

Beach House
Cat Power
Courtney Barnett
Kurt Vile
My Bloody Valentine
Queens of the Stone Age
PJ Harvey
Portishead
The Cure
Wolf Alice

Absolutely 100% agree. The last one left me cold. I can't even recall one song I liked on it, but the rest of her discography is solid. I Never Learn is actually my favourite.



Would love this, as well.

Multiple mentions of Garbage in this thread makes me very happy.

There’s also a somewhat little known (at least I don’t really hear anyone talk about them) post-rock/hardcore band from Sweden called Suffocate For Fuck Sake that I hope puts out new music this year. No news from them, just wish listing.

EDIT: followed up on this band after posting and am pleased to know they do have an album for this year. Very cool.

AFI seem to be teasing new material.
I liked the more post-punk direction of the last two albums (as well as the "Missing Man" EP), especially the quite blatantly goth "Burials" album. "Crash Love" was boring, "Decemberunderground" was a bit of a mixed bag though not awful - "Burials" and "Blood" have been much better imo. I'm currently looking forward to that more than most other non-metal things.

I still have a fucking Despair Faction card in here somewhere.

No new album announced, but The Birthday Massacre are saying there'll be new material out in 2021, probably random recordings & studio stuff during lockdown, but should be interesting to see what they put out.

Their last few albums have been good, albeit weaker than their mid-era material to me, but new material from them is always welcome.

Every Time I Die
- Their last album (Low Teens) was their best ever in my opinion, so I have high expectations. The new singles sound great.

Major Parkinson
- Their last album (Blackbox) was also their best in my opinion. They released a single in Jan 2020, so I assume the album will come soon?

How can I have forgotten about this one? The two new songs were absolute bangers.
Apparently there was another as part of a Christmas stream, which I didn't watch, but it's probably pretty good too.

I totally agree with this. Their past two albums have been without a doubt the best in their discography no contest (despite my love for The Big Dirty), and judging by the new songs it sounds like this one is going to follow suit. Super stoked for this one.

Other than that, I’m definitely looking forward The Cure’s album, which I’ve heard has been in the works, so hopefully we hear something. Same with My Bloody Valentine, which honestly I almost forgot about so thank you all for reminding me!

I’m not really sure of what else is expected to come out, but I have quite a few hopefuls:
Radiohead (A Moon Shaped Pool is honestly one of my favorites in all of Radiohead’s discography so I’m super excited to see where they’ll go next)
Converge (Really hope they don’t continue to take 5 year long stretches between albums)
Kendrick Lamar (DAMN seems like it came out an eternity ago)
Circa Survive (I think I’ve heard that they are starting to get ideas for a new album, doubtful it’ll be anyway close to finished for a 2021 release but we can dream)
Explosions In The Sky
Bjork (Nothing will ever top the first four, but I still am more than happy for a new project from her)

What did you think of their last album? I could never really get into it. It was a letdown compared to AWLWLB, which I think is their best since Jane Doe.

Agreed on both accounts. I saw Radiohead on the last tour in 2018, and it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. I've been a fan for a long time, and don't know why it took me so long. Once this whole thing I sorted out, if they tour again, I plan on making a vacation out of following them for 3 or 4 shows, since they switch the setlist every night.

Re Bjork: yes. The first four (Homogenic is my favourite) are best. Although I feel you can make an absolute classic with the best songs from Volta and Vespertine).

Ah, I forgot about Steven Wilson’s album due this month.

I know a lot of people soured on him, but I always held his solo work over Porcupine Tree (but make no mistake, I love that band), and I thought the advance tracks (especially “Eminent Sleaze”) were tremendous-I can’t wait to get my hands on the vinyl and 5.1 bluray.

I liked it just fine, though I more or less echo your sentiment. AWLWLB is right up there with Jane Doe and You Fail Me. The Dusk In Us is a bit of a let down comparatively and I haven’t found myself revisiting it much, and although I more or less like all of the tracks on the album, they just don’t feel like they hit the same high-water mark. The song Eve however, which was released not too long before the album but bizarrely wasn’t included on the album, that’s one of my all time Converge favorites. Shame they left it off.

Debut-Vespertine is some of my favorite music ever. Medulla and beyond also have their moments, though not nearly as consistently.

Pretty much my thoughts exactly. Everything Medulla on has some gems, it’s just that no entire project is the same caliber as Debut-Vespertine. As someone alluded earlier, you could probably make a killer album out of a handful of tracks scattered across her post-Vespertine material. But as I mentioned earlier, I’m always more than happy to check out any new Bjork release regardless. Judging by how high the high points on even her most recent albums can be (take Black Lake off of Vulnicura for example, what a fucking song), I really do think she has the capability to make one more masterpiece

I really hope so. The only one of her albums I flat out didn't like was the last one. Tried revisiting it not long ago and still couldn't get into any of it.

"Family" might be my favorite on that one. That is about as haunting as it gets.

If you don't already know them, I urge you to check out The Armed. Ben Koller does a lot of their drumming and Kurt Ballou has engineered a lot of their stuff. Their music hits a lot of the same marks as Converge. Less sad and brooding though, and not in a bad way. Any album of theirs will do, their last one Only Love is fucking excellent.

I definitely know The Armed! I really like Only Love, it’s a super fun listen and probably one of the most inventive takes on the Converge-esque/traditional metalcore sound. The only thing that bothers me about that album is it’s production. Which no doubt was entirely intentional since if anyone knows what he’s doing, it’s Kurt. I’m sure they were aiming for something unique, but the production still bothers me nonetheless. My favorite songs from the album were actually some of the mellower tracks like Nowhere To Be Found and Luxury Themes, though Apperception is killer. I’m personally more partial to their older stuff, particularly the EP’s with Chris Pennie on drums. I’m a huge fan of his drum work with The Dillinger Escape Plan and there’s really not a lot of material of him out there (besides that Coheed album where he was severely underutilized), so those EP’s are a real treat for me.

^ "fun" is the perfect word to describe their music, man. I think its funny you should describe Luxury Themes as "mellower". I get what you mean because of the verse and the singing, but god DAMN does that chorus and outro bring the fire. My fav song from them by far. I agree on what you said about Pennie too, although I haven't delved into all of their EPs yet.

(shameless self promo: you might wanna click on one of the links in my sig, SWÆRMM, heavily influenced by Converge and the like)

Yeah, fun really is the best descriptor! I hope I didn’t sound overly critical of the album, my gripes about the production aside, I think the sheer uniqueness and creativity of the album more than makes up for it. I listened to Only Love like clockwork the year it came out, definitely was one of my favorites of that year. But yeah, there’s really no song that you can say is mellow all throughout, even Nowhere To Be Found devolves into blast beats at the end of the song, and a song like On Jupiter turns into a complete audio barrage by the end. I also love the addition of female vocals on songs like Fortune’s Daughter and Parody Warning, it reminds me of Julie Christmas or something.

As far as the EP’s go, there’s really not much information as to how much Pennie was involved in all of them. I know he’s the drummer all throughout the Spreading Joy EP, and he has a few credits on at least on song on both the two prior EP’s, but I don’t know if he did all the drumming on those two. And we haven’t mentioned the first full length, but I dig that one a lot too. “Forever Scum” from that album never fails to get me pumped up.

To get back on topic though, The Armed is definitely a 2021 hopeful for me.

As far as albums that are more or less confirmed that I didn’t mentioned previously, I’m looking forward to Polyphia’s new album! Not sure how much of a draw they have here on M-A, but I’m sure anybody in the guitar community is well aware of Tim Henson and Scotty LePage. While their older stuff is pretty unremarkable technical metalcore-tinged stuff, albeit with great musicianship, their last album was really something new and inventive, and really shows a new way in which guitar-based technicality could be utilized outside of a metal or math rock framework. The bassist has got more than enough chops to keep up with them too, and the drummer knows perfectly how to keep things interesting, while reigning it all in with steady rhythm.It’s got groove, it’s suave, and it’s extremely complex without coming across as overly heady or intellectual, there’s not even a hint of pretension in what they do. Super looking for their next offering.

Speaking of great guitar work, I’m not sure if anyone here is into TTNG (This Town Needs Guns), but does anyone know what they are up to? They are well overdue for a new album.

New Perturbator confirmed by Blood Music.

2021 is shaping up to be a potentially massive year. Let’s see if any of these albums deliver.

Yeah, I wish this whole scene had a name for it. Their earlier albums are good and Tim in particular is a monster player, so I'm optimistic for this one. I might mention it soon in the worthwhile albums of '21 thread (actually, I think it doesn't even exist yet), but Sithu Aye's latest album just came out and is quite good and also in the modern guitar-focused instrumental vein.



Definitely looking forward to this. This is probably my other favorite 10s non-metal scene.

Quite looking forwards to the new Jane Weaver album now - I last picked up her work in 2017 (Modern Kosmology), and managed to miss the 2019 release somehow - still, she's turning up the 70s proggy influences based on the new single, so that should be a great afternoon off album ! (release is in the article)

https://www.loudersound.com/news/jane-weaver-releases-video-for-new-single-heartflow

I never seem to be on top of new albums coming out. I did not know Guns N Roses was planning to come out with a new album. If it is with the current members, I would be excited to hear anything that they put out with this lineup. I would love if Izzy was involved in the writing process, but I know it is unlikely.

The only other album that I am looking forward to in 2021 is the new one from Overkill. I know they said last summer, they were working on material for 2021. They are one of the few bands, that I still anticipate anything that they put out.

Humanity's Last Breath - Välde is going to be massive judging by the three released songs.

Also the really looking forward to Band-Maid's new album Unseen World that's released next week I think. Amazing band.

New Mikey Erg album coming soon. I thought his last couple solo records were pretty good. If you liked The Ergs!, you'll obviously like this. If you haven't heard them, they're basically somewhere within the vicinity of the Descendents. His solo stuff isn't that far off from that either. Anyway, pretty stoked on this.