2021 was a rough year in many ways, I think that is obvious to most people. Covid was (and is still) raging and I restructured many things in my private life. It is a stressful situation and not all yet solved, but I am slowly getting out of it privately and maybe, just maybe, Covid will enter the endemic phase soon. Not all was bad, since 2021 was also the year I started blogging on instagram and released an album and an EP.
Musically, 2021 was a mixed bag. Looking back at the glory days of heavy music is probably almost always a bad idea - the style was fresh back then, so striking gold was much easier without any risk of being derivative - but even then I found that there was very little that was outright exciting about music. You will notice that a lot of the reviews further down the list will contain a 'But', some weakness that I have to admit or had to get over in my enjoyment of these albums. Still, I do think that this list represents my thoughts and feelings about 2021 music and all of these are albums which I enjoy a whole lot. I narrowed my list down to 10 albums on the list proper and 5 honorable mentions with the honorable mentions not being in any order.
Honorable Mention: Fetid Zombie - Transmutations Genre: Melodic Death / Doom / Gothic Metal
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
I would have never thought to like Goth elements in my metal, but here we are.
While the seed for it had already been sown with acts like Grave Pleasures, the obvious choice Idle Hands or (sadly only cool in concept but unsuccessful in execution) Rope Sect, 2021 seems to be the year I actively liked it and didn´t just define the few bands that I liked in that niche to be outliers. If you look up at the genre descriptor for this album, you´ll find a lot of slashes and it will show you that I had some trouble outlining the style of today's album definitively. I can see the influences rather clearly, as I am familiar with septicflesh´s early material. For septicflesh, I am rather comfortable in just calling them "Atmospheric Death Metal" and move on, but with Fetid Zombie, I am not quite so sure.
'Transmutations' is much more of a guitar album than anything that septicflesh have ever done, but the spirit remains in that Fetid Zombie deliver highly melancholic, atmospheric and melodic Death Metal that still eschews the trends of what Melodic Death Metal has become nowadays. The pseudo-orchestral elements present in septicflesh are missing, but what we get in return makes more than up for it. The post-punk and goth influences that are slowly becoming a trend in extreme metal are present here and lead to some of the most tasteful lead guitar of the year. The lead guitar tone is so creamy that I could listen to it all day and it just oozes a lot of feeling - an ideal tone for a good lead player. It takes a strong album to make a cynic like me be this forgiving with obvious cheese. But maybe my heart has just started melting. Not to forget that the album art is also incredible and you should give riddickart a visit on his instagram page.
Honorable Mention: Devoid of Thought - Outer World Graves
Genre: (progressive) Death Metal
Label: Independent
Writing these end of the year blurbs, it is always a considerable risk to repeat oneself and not have anything new to add. In my original review of 'Outer World Graves', I focused mainly on the fact that many outlets and people online in general compared Devoid of Thought to Blood Incantation unfavorably, honing in on the fact that there was an obvious influence from the space-obsessed proggers. As I said there, I think Devoid of Thought can easily stand on their own and influence doesn´t necessarily suggest a total lack of songwriting quality or originality. While Devoid of Thought lack the more experimental edge of Blood Incantation, I feel they make up for it with increased riffcraft. Riffs from all 5 songs get stuck in my head all the time and yet, there is atmosphere being built like on the beginning of "Four Cerulean Ways".
Devoid of Thought are, despite their proggyness, very much comfortable about being a Death Metal band and being that thing only. The OSDM mood isn´t contrasted with many other styles, but there is no need to here. Devoid of Thought posess a real sense of groove to them and not one moment is really sacrificing that sense of groove. I also feel that there is just the slightest edge of more modern tendencies in Devoid of Thought and, just occasionally, the band channels their inner hardcore brute. While I couldn´t quite avoid comparing the bands in the end, I do hope that, through this writeup, I managed to highlight Devoid of Thoughts actual qualities more and that you give them a listen - this is an independent release, after all, and needs all the publicity it can get.
Note: The band has since been picked up by label Everlasting Spew.
Honorable Mention: Musk Ox - Inheritance
Genre: Chamber Folk
Label: Anamnesis Arts
In a year that wasn´t easy mentally, soothing music can be very helpful. There are certain classic I always reach for (The Furies and Davey Arthur live, Plantasia, Phillip Glass) but strangely, my canon of that music seems to not be growing as quickly as my collection of aggressive heavy hitters. Thats why I am so pleased when an album like 'Inheritance' comes around. I wasn´t aware of Musk Ox before this year and if I can be just a little contrarian to what I see online, I do prefer this album to what I have now heard of their earlier material. What I find on 'Inheritance' is a wonderful album that manages to engage while also being relaxing.
Musk Ox clearly show that they are at least metal adjacent, often going into decidedly rhythmic sections with very direct and simple chords, often power chords even (the classical arrangers cringe in horror). Compared to something like Apocalyptica, which in my humble opinion only matters to be a weak pastiche of both involved styles at best, Musk Ox however know that the chamber music aspects need to be dominant to have the right mood. The album is constructed of wonderful arcs and contrasts, always being aware of dynamics and harmony in a way that other acts of this ilk can only dream of. I have a few gripes with the album (hence only landing in the HMs of this series), like the longer tracks and the first half feeling stronger overall and the general issue of an album like this being heavily mood dependant. Yet, nothing in 2021 gave me the same kind of release as this wonderful little gem.
Honorable Mention: Mortiferum - Preserved in Torment Genre: Death / Doom Metal Label: Profound Lore
I generally look for things that give me an experience that is not an exact replica of something I have heard before. Sure, I´ve probably heard around 300 - 400 new Death Metal releases this year, but most of them just refuse to stick. Why should I seek out something that gives me the same experience as I would get if I listened to an actual 90s Death Metal record, in a lesser form no less? The only way bands can prevent this is at least having a unique spin on it of some kind or generally being so good at the game that they don´t seem like a ripoff. Mortiferum manage both in subtle ways. Because of this, I don´t feel confident putting them on the list proper, but they are predestined for an honorable mention. I was a huge fan of the bands debut full length "Disgorged from Psychotic Depths", an album that, if I were to revise my list from that year, would likely make it on a low spot of the list proper. Morty just have a take on Death Doom that is quintessentially oldschool, and yet doesn´t feel like a rip-off - the sweet spot.
In a way, 'Preserved in Torment" is just more of the same. Yet, they manage to improve on it in subtle ways. In a way, the songs feel a bit more distinct and Morty have managed to improve their already great pacing. The band knows when to suddenly speed up, when a ripping solo or spooky melodic lead is needed. Last this has to be one of the best production jobs of the year considering what sound the album is going for. Not one bit of the murk is sacrificed and yet, the album seems clear. I know exactly what every instrumentalist is doing at all times, and yet, the band plays as a whole, like a gigantic, slowly approaching wave of sludge. Last but not least: That damn ride cymbal might as well in its own seperate frequency and whenever it comes, I smile that dumb music nerd smile - always a good sign.
HonorableMention: Jarhead Fertilizer - Product of my Environment
Genre: Grindcore / Brutal Death Metal
Label: Closed Casket Activities
Most people seem to write their Year End Lists in December. I don´t, I find it dishonest in a way - I normally spend the last couple days still working on my list, comparing and editing it. Also, I still check out rogue albums that I might have missed. I also think that its important to consider recency bias and how much of my enjoyment comes from it being a pet genre of mine. Having said all that, I knew pretty quickly after release that Jarhead Fertilizer´s second album, 'Product of My Environment', was gonna stick with me. And while stronger albums came throughout the year, I know that this album has a certain amount of replay value to it for me.
There is a couple interesting things concerning this release.
For one, there is a connection to grindcore act Full of Hell, who (SPOILERS) will also make an appearance on this list. Jarhead Fertilizers Debut was much different in style and, to me, seem much more in line with the aforementioned Full of Hell. Instead, and this brings me to another point of interest, Jarhead Fertilizer mostly seem to emulate the sound of Mortician with all its grime and riduclous distortion. The question is then, why do I enjoy this album so much if I hate Mortician? In revisiting it for this list, I have thought about this a lot and I think it comes down to the specific degree of irony that JF bring to the table. This is not a parody of the style, far from it - but JF have a degree of ironic distance to the material that makes it enjoyable. Tempo changes will be just abrupt enough, samples just a little too long - and the whole Gutter Punk image is obviously ludicrous. A little irony goes a long way, especially in a genre as ridiculous as this. Maybe this is enough for you to check out this thing that, normally, many people would only touch with gloves or a ten foot pole.
#10: Full of Hell - Garden of Burning Apparitions
Genre: Grindcore
Label: Relapse Records
My writeups for this list so far seem to have mostly be populated by albums where I couldn´t find much to disagree with. It might confuse you that, on this first album of my list proper, I will have at least one negative thing to say. Lets get it out of the way immediately: Having a 3 minute noise interlude as your fourth track on an only 20 minute album is not a good move. It kills the pacing and has been a sore spot, making me debate if this deserves a list spot or is damned to an HM spot. But the reason I think it deserves the list spot is that Full of Hell are very willing to take risks. And on these 12 tracks, excluding the noise interlude, all of them pay off.
The fascinating thing is that Full of Hell very much manage to use noise to their advantage on other tracks. Be it the compelling use of a sample which I assume are actual ping-pong balls being thrown against a wall in "Asphyxiant Blessing" or the almost siren-like swell of Distortion at the end of "Industrial Messiah Complex". In general, there is a wonderful amount of stylistic diversity on 'Garden of Burning Apparitions", like the odd meter riffs of "Reeking Tunnels", the slams in "Industrial Messiah Complex" (actually kind of mirroring the violent murk of sister band Jarhead Fertilizer) or the post-metal atmosphere of the beginning of "Asphyxiant Blessing". A good online acquaintance of mine called the album "Full of Hell does Discordance Axis", even. High praise, certainly. Normally, I dislike mentioning specific moments in albums so heavily as it can make the album seem like a disconnected potpourri of good or great moments. But here, this is not the case. Full of Hell have crafted a diverse yet cohesive album that, despite all their new influences and experiments, still sounds just like Full of Hell. They have mastered the biggest challenge: Familiarity in innovation.
#9: Black Country, New Road - For the First Time
Genre: Indie / Post-rock
Label: Ninja Tune
I didn´t find that much non-metal music this year that connected with me deeply. I try to get out of my comfort zone a lot, despite writing about metal mostly, but I found 2021 to be very disappointing in that regard for the most part. 'For The First Time' came out early in the year and remained one of my favorite palette cleansers throughout the year. It could be the very obvious display of neuroticism the album posesses, that almost mimics the writing of a Charlie Kaufman in a musical setting. It could be the, for post-rock, incredible focus on angular rhythms the album has. In general, 'For the First Time' doesn´t sound like much that I have ever heard and I reached for it whenever 2021 forced me into a very specific, negative headspace.
Two things probably need to be adressed. People who are more knowledgeable about the realm of indie music probably recall an act from the nineties called Slint, in particular their one album 'Spiderland'. I, not moving in those circles as much, was not aware of Slint and that particular sound. I have since listened to Slint and also got a lot of enjoyment out of 'Spiderland'. It is safe to say that Black Country, New Road are more than just a straight Slint clone, though, with Jazz and Klezmer instrumentation creeping in and in general just feeling more frail to me. The other point of note is the vocals. The vocalist utilizes a very pained and warbly vibrato that many people have compared unfavorably to a certain farm animal. I can certainly see the comparison, but we could just as easily compare screaming vocalists to roosters or mumble rappers to escaped mental patients, so I fail to see the point. What is important to me, is that that the emotion expressed on 'For the First Time' feels honest and real to me and that it connects with me on a deeper level than most releases I have heard this year.
#8: The Ruins of Beverast - The Thule Grimoires
Genre: Atmospheric Black / Doom / Gothic Metal
Label: Ván Records
The Ruins of Beverast had a lot to live up to and in a way, if I held them to the standard that 'Exuvia' had set, I would have had to be disappointed. 'Exuvia' was an extremely experimental record filled with subtle weird experiments, always in the service of establishing a semi-psychedelic, tribalistic atmosphere. While 'The Thule Grimoires' feels decidedly less experimental, it is not less heady or dense in the slightest. Attempting the concept of the actual end of the world, with all the biotopes dying one by one, the album has a certain sacral atmosphere to it. The album achieves this atmosphere by an increased focus on lead guitar work. 'The Thule Grimoires' is probably The Ruins of Beverast's most melodic album. This effect is also heightened by a seeming gothic influence (this must be a thing in the air right now, right?), especially harkening back to Peter Steele of Type O Negative vocally many times.
'The Thule Grimoires', as all Ruins of Beverast albums, is challenging in many ways. The scope of the album is, again, unfortunately extremely long making it a bulky listen - especially combined with the very measured pace of the album and what many could interpret of a lack of intrigue or aggression with clean vocals being more present than ever and high speed attacks being especially rare. Still, I can´t help but fascinated by The Ruins of Beverast - von Meilenwalds capabilities to challenge and push for subtle innovation that never feels gimmicky, his sense for atmosphere that doesn´t need to rely purely on a ridiculous amount of repetition and reverb and his dedication to, often somewhat esoteric, high-concept lyrical themes make the Ruins of Beverast a unique listen that I would never want to miss.
#7: Unto Others - Strength
Genre: Gothic Metal / Hard Rock / Traditional Metal
Label: Roadrunner / Warner
You probably anticipated it reading the mention of my newfound appreciation of Goth influences in metal and there is one very obvious candidate in the current metal climate for it. Unto Others' debut album "Mana", published under the infinitely superior Band Name Idle Hands, made some waves in the metal world and ended up on many lists, mine included. At the time, I admittedly struggled with the sound a bit and initially gave it a middling score. Yet, something urged me to revisit it multiple times, liking it more with each spin. The sound Unto Others had was unusual at the time and probably took me some getting used to, but drilled itself into my brain slowly. 'Strength', to me, had a much more immediate effect. I pretty much liked it on first spin and found many of the songs to be incredibly catchy and infectuous.
Compared to the debut record, 'Strength' is somehow both angrier and cheesier, which justifies it as its own thing - again, as mentioned in my Full of Hell review, innovating while staying true to your specific familiar sound is hard and Unto Others nail it on here. The cheese is occasionally a little overbearing (prepare for repeated eagle screech samples), but that is part of the fun for me. As with Full of Hell, I have to admit that the album has certain weaknesses - a common trend in 2021. In particular, the album slumps a little just before the end, before title track 'Strength' picks it back up and the aforementioned cheesy eagle screeches in particular are very hard to justify without a degree of irony - and I am not sure if irony was the intent. Still, Unto Others deliver something here that is pure fun for me and that I am sure I will revisit during certain times and in certain moods.
#6: Bloody Cumshot - Nymphomania
Genre: Melodic Death / Extreme Power Metal
Label: Independent
HATE FUCK! ALL CAPS! THIS IS NYMPHOMANIA AN ALBUM BY JAPANESE MELODEATH BAND BLOODY CUMSHOT. Seriously, all caps song and album titles are usually more silly than anything else, but damn, does this album deserve some of that sweet, sweet caps-lock action. Nothing about Bloody Cumshot is subtle, none of it is very nuanced and yet, it is probably not what you think when you look at that odd, strangely unfitting combination of band name, album cover and how the music actually sounds. Simply put, Bloody Cumshot play melodic death metal and are one of the few bands in the genre that don´t forget the "extreme" part of Extreme Metal. Leave it to the japanese to bring back the aggression of melodeath.
Bloody Cumshot came out of nowhere and is apparently a side project by a japanese author called Zemeth, who also releases music under his own name. His main project is more of the typical japanese production for the genre: sparkly, very clean, with lots of orchestral samples and the typical mix that makes ever instrument sound strangely fake, as if it were a VST. Bloody Cumshot is also noticeably japanese, mainly in how loud it is. But luckily, Bloody Cumshot doesn´t give a hoot about being pretty. Bloody Cumshot is fast and vicious, overly indulgent in its bodom-esque melodies and the constant high speed attacks it is delivering. Vocal wise, it might as well be a grindcore record with a vicious, hoarse shriek being thrown at the listener with a vitriol that you won´t find much in melodic death metal otherwise. Western bands need to take note of Bloody Cumshot - this is what melodeath can be and maybe, just maybe, should be
#5: Ad Nauseam - Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
Genre: Technical / Avantgarde Death Metal / Dissonant Death Metal
Label: Avantgarde Music
I like movie analogies and have not made a single one yet, so let me say this: if bloody cumshot is something like Evil Dead 2 - an indulgent and silly, but meticulously constructed work - then Ad Nauseam is like a dark arthouse film, something that straddles the line between art and exploitation but untimately, for its great understanding of the craft, ends up being pure art (I would make the argument for films like Antichrist, Posession or the original Maniac). To get fully lost in analogy land, I´ve seen it compared to free jazz by reviewers who clearly have never heard Free Jazz. To believe an improvisatory approach for "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" is plain wrong as it is meticulously constructed and thought out. Songs are written as more than just riff salads with clear sections and build-ups and an emotional core and flow to all of them.
I talked about this at length in my original review of it, so this time around, I want to talk about the production choices made. In a way, Ad Nauseam is deliberately underproduced. The band vows that everything we hear is, ultimately, a sound from the amp, and the real performance by the band. Everything is basically constructed at the source, with an insane attention to every detail of an amp sound. I believe these songs are so dynamic because they are basically captured like a classical performance - likely in one take (even though most classical performances have at least some degree of cheating in it), with all the original band feel and interaction being captured. Few bands do it like this nowadays (NWobHM act Satan comes to mind), but I think it is a very worthwhile thing to do. Polish is all good and well, but the integral subtleties of a performance can be best captured in this way. Another achievement of a great record.
#4:So Hideous - None but a pure Heart Can Sing
Genre: Post Metal / Hardcore / Screamo
Label: Silent Pendulum
Despite what some people on the internet might tell you, you do have to have a very high IQ to understand So Hideous. Joking aside, I think there is a lot to like even for the more purist types on here. Sure, I can see some metalheads not jiving with the vocals, but is the screamo tone so much different from the tortured wail of your average DSBM vocalist? Orchestral timbres might also be scare to the most trve of us, but haven´t we accepted similar timbres on albums by bands like Emperor or, to some degree, Neurosis before? I think it is important to not get deterred too much by that screamo tag and just take the album for what it is.
The albums big strength is its fantastic sense of flow and momentum. The whole album feels like a desperate push forward, a fight against forces stronger than you that you might only barely survive - if at all. So Hideous manage to keep the tension up brilliantly - each newly introduced texture and instrument just serves to keep the momentum up and running, sometimes intensifying it. Furthermore, each of them seems to be just slightly different enough to make an album that may seem samey on paper be very engaging and diverse. It all culminates in a last track - suddenly, a major key! We survived and we earned our catharsis. Simply put, an album that is both smartly constructed both on a track by track basis and on an album basis.
#3: LogisticSlaughter- Lower Forms of Life
Genre: Brutal Technical Death Metal
Label: Ungodly Ruins Productions
Brutal Death Metal, especially Brutal tech, is one of my favorite subgenres of metal. Sadly, a lot of it falls either into the "So bad its good" territory or ends up being outright bad. Being on the prowl for good BDM, I listen to a lot of crap. I didn´t expect too much when I saw LogisticSlaughter on the list of upcoming releases one friday, it being on a label I had never heard of, and put it on simply because it was that pet genre of mine that I binge almost constantly. Suffice it to say, I was floored by it. Brutal Death Metal is a genre that makes it hard to innovate, as the utmost extremes of what can be done seem to rapidly approach the ceiling of brutality. LogisticSlaughter manages to crack that ceiling, if only a little bit.
'Lower Forms of Life' shows the band never slowing down. I don´t only mean this in the context of speed - even though the album is indeed quite fast - but especially in regards to the inventiveness of material and the constant flurry of ideas that the band dishes out. The band varies techniques so much and changes it up so frequently that it is an exhausting listen and very hard to follow the first couple times. As most fantastic BDM releases, a real grower. Last but not least, Logistic Slaughter might just have one of the best vocalists in the genre right now that transitions between techniques with relative easy, can hold pig squeals for a ridiculous amount of time and has a couple vocal tricks that I have never heard anywhere else, particularly a type of whistling vibrato pig squeal (a technique that eludes me and for which I would really appreciate a vocal tutorial). 'Lower Forms of Life' is high intensity, high technique, high creativity and leads to inevitable Kreygasms in the chat in every online listening session.
Note: The band has since changed labels and is now signed to Transcending Obscurity.
#2: Veilburner - Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull
Genre: Progressive / Avantgarde Blackened Death Metal
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
What a year for transcending Obscurity. After release, this was my favorite album of the year for a long while and only recently and with a lot of debating I gave the spot to another album. Veilburner have, in my opinion, outdone themselves on 'Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull'. While the twangy, vibrato bar guitar leads of preceding album 'A Sire to the Ghouls of Lunacy', are scarce, Veilburner make more than up for it by applying a range of reified sounds (reified meaning that the sound produces a mental connection through it´s common usage - imagine how certain melodies make you think immediately of Star Wars or how certain string arrangements will make you think of an old Disney Film). In particular, it seems like Veilburner have really taken a liking to old 50s science fiction and 70s italian horror films. Many of the sounds remind me of the outer-space vibrato of a theremin or the cheap, bright synthesizers of italian genre cinema.
All of this would mean very little if the band didn´t also know how to create an engaging song, and Veilburner do. Another element that a band can have to make me me drool all over their work is a good understanding of structure. Veilburner have meticulously crafted songs that make elements appear and reappear, recontextualising it and giving it new meaning. Long build-ups will be justified by the warped reappearance of an earlier riff, melody or rhythm. In the end, the production is what sells it: The breadth of creative guitar tones, interesting vocal production and production choices is astounding and, where many lesser acts have these choices as a gimmick or to merely enhance some cookie-cutter songwriting, the production is inherently woven into the songwriting for Veilburner. Not many bands manage even half of what Veilburner do on 'Lurkers [...]'.
#1: Stortregn - Impernanence
Genre: Technical / Melodic Death Metal
Label: The Artisan Era
There are more technically adept albums on this list, albums that push the envelope more and those that hit more unique emotional notes but none of them have been as much of a constant companion to me as Stortregns 'Impermanence'. Stortregn have always been a great band but somehow, a lot of their past material has refused to stick with me for much longer than the duration of its respective record. The music is fast, hypermelodic and goes between ideas quickly but in the past, it seemed like a run-on-sentence of, admittedly, fantastic ideas. Each album has been slowly working its way up though, and improved on the last and I was already pretty fond of preceding album 'Emptiness fills the Void'. On 'Impermanence', Stortregn finally crack the barrier of being truly great.
What seperates good bands from great bands is, in my opinion, the ability to have a purposeful structure to their compositions. Stortregn manage to compose their music with motivic development in mind, melodic fragments lead the album and their appearance and reappearance gives songs a meaning beyond just fun melodic wank. Despite what could be considered a lousy dynamic range, there are actual dynamics to the album which the band achieves with the strategic dropout of certain instruments, the switch-up of instrumental timbres (those acoustic sections just really tie the album together) and repeats of sections often having subtle variations to it. Simply put, Stortregn sit at a special sweet spot between replayability and ease of listening on one side and technical prowess and true songcraft on the other. 'Impermanence' is not only my favorite, but my most played album of 2021. I didn´t expect it, but I love a surprise.
That So Hideous is supremely underrated elsewhere. Also I should retry Full Of Hell. To make the list must mean I missed something.