Looking at all of the excellent songs and albums already mentioned, it's hard to believe that there a further score of better releases, but 2021 has been that kind of year, with the quality threshold increased yet higher than last year. All of the next ten bands have been on the scene already for several years, but this year took their music to another level, regardless of the sub-genre which they represent.
20 Everlust - Land of Dreams
This track is arguably one of the least original in the whole Top 50 musically, but in terms of songwriting is deserving of its place starting off the Top 20. Owing a lot to noughties' goth rock-lite pioneers like Evanescence and Lacuna Coil, with added All About Eve fey whimsy, Latvian band Everlust deliver a well-constructed and beautifully-layered epic whose main hook remains long in the memory. Already impressive in terms of the song's dynamics and nagging melody, the final section where the vocalist unexpectedly jumps up an octave makes for one of the most thrilling track endings of the year.
19 Lucida Fila - Sinister
The ever so slightly over-the-top goth camp promise of Lucida Fila became reality in 2021 with the release of the solid Screams of The Damned album. Cartoon goth stylings, lyrics and vocals notwithstanding, the album delivered song after song of well-paced trad goth rock, with the Mexicans on particularly fine form on Sinister, which rattled along like a creepy graveyard take on The Passenger.
17 Ashes Fallen - We Belong Nowhere
Ashes Fallen's 2021 long-player A Fleeting Melody out of a Fading Dream was a significant step forward for the Sacramento act, with stronger melodies, better vocals and improved production and mastering compared to previous efforts, and single We Belong Nowhere was arguably the best Goth/Post-Punk video of the year, combining an epic chorus with a campaigning lyric about the continuing scourge of homelessness.
16 Byronic Sex & Exile - Unrepentant Thunder
Where to start with UK goth national treasure and one-man scene Joel Heyes, the hearse-driving goth bundle of creative energy whose Byronic Sex & Exile project continues to grow in both quality and popularity. When not embarking on outdoor troubadour treks across the country, running the Goth City festival, raising funds for refugee charities, performing candle-lit live sessions from his Leeds bedsit or recording goth travel guides for his YouTube channel, Heyes has combined a regular 9-5 job with releasing another impressive set of BS&E releases in 2021, from the Yorkshire Gothic EP to a live album, by way of the Unrepentant Thunder album, from which this slow-building title track is taken. Heyes continues to pack more into a year than most manage in an entire career, yet the quality control remains impressively high.
15 A Pale Horse Named Death - Slave To The Master
The undisputed kings of goth metal, A Pale Horse Named Death returned in 2021 with another magisterial album which has rightly garnered rave reviews from rock magazines and websites, although the strangely uplifting melancholy doom and familiar basslines of tracks like Slave To The Master should equally appeal to broader-minded goths, particularly those who followed Sal Abruscato's former band Type O Negative or Alice in Chains, both of whom have clearly influenced the overall AHPND sonic template.
14 Slow Danse With the Dead - Don't Be Like Me, Son
The Alberquerque one-man miserygoth project was as prolific as ever in 2021, releasing a single or EP virtually every month with an increasingly high hit-rate. Tales of despair, anguish, rejection and failure abound in his oeuvre, with the regretful tone of Don't Be Like Me, Son typical of the spartan arrangements and lugubrious vocal delivery for which SDWTD has rightly become famous on the global underground scene.
13 Mark E Moon - Event Horizon
The Isle of Man band (no longer just a duo) released their sophomore album Old Blood on Cold Transmission at the start of the year and subsequently released remixed highlights, as they had done with their debut long-player Refer. Old Blood featured a more refined, homogenous sound which matched their own description of "The Sisters of Mercy meets The Pet Shop Boys". Event Horizon was a great example, with Mark Sayle's warm vocal soaring effortlessly over a lush synth- and sequencer-based soundscape.
12 Ariel Maniki and the Black Halos - Strangers
Costa Rican Ariel Maniki has been a major name on the global scene for many years but raised his profile further in 2021 with the release of the excellent Black Light album. Specialising in Mission/HIM-style light trad goth rock bur with a song palette showcasing greater musical diversity, Maniki's band (including guests from other groups) delivered an excellent set of well-developed songs such as single Strangers on his most accomplished album to date.
11 A Cloud Of Ravens - Tithe and Offerings
Few 2021 releases harnessed the same raw emotion, energy and power as Another Kind of Midnight from Brooklyn duo A Cloud of Ravens, whose guitar-driven dark post-punk has a timeless quality and a classic, epic feel. Slower and more intense than the other tracks on a consistently excellent album, Tithes and Offerings had a stark yet melodic feel and a poetic lyric which drew the listener in.
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