Best metal albums of 2021—Top 30

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Before I dig into my top picks for 2021, I reached out to a few familiar faces within the sphere of metal and got them to send me the albums they dug the most this year. I told them the rules for the list are pretty flippant. Here's what they sent me:



Horus aka James Brown III (Harassor, Moonknight, Vorpal Sword, Rising Beast Recordings)



* In no particular order 
10) Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime

09) Trhä - Endelhëtonëg

08) Tardigrada - Vom Bruch Bis Zur Freiheit

07) Circle of Ouroborus - Kiromantia

06) Sadness - April Sunset

05) Kuka'ilimoku - Pahu O ka Ua

04) Zhmach - Euphoria Never Leaves

03) Kêres - Flaming Ash

02) Mooschops - Adventures Above the 61st Parallel North

01) Fugitive Wizard - Obscuri Æternum



Artur de Carvalho (Forever Cursed—Best underground metal blog laid to rest (R.I.P.)


10) The Devouring Void - Hypnagogic Hallucinations


Holy shit I just realised these guys are from Portugal as well.. fuck me!

09) Sermon of Flames - I Have Seen the Light, and It Was Repulsive


Repulsive as fuck

08) Carcinoma - Labascation


Good shit from the UK

07) Gosudar - Morbid Despotic Ritual


Some good OSDM shit from Russia

06) Koldovstvo - "Ni Tsarya, Ni Boga"


Great entrancing BM

05) Fuoco Fatuo - Obsidian Katabasis


Feels like being swallowed by a black hole


04) Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia


A two track, total 48 minutes of filthy obscure DM? Yes please


03) Lykhaeon - Opprobrium


A more traditional approach to BM as we know it, still a banger though)

02) Labored Breath - Dyspnea


A fucking trip into the bowels of the most insane BM you’ll hear this year


01) Reverorum ib Malacht - Svag i Döden


I know these guys have released two albums this year, but I’m a huge fan of this approach

A.L.N. (Mizmor, Hell)

07) Emma Ruth Rundle - Engine of Hell

06) Hoverkraft - Schwebende Musik

05) Vouna - Atropos

04) Grouper - Shade

03) Walt McClements - A Hole in The Fence

02) Andrew Black - Welcome Home

01) Yautja - The Lurch



Mattias Alagna (Abstracter)



06) Filth Chasm - Demo 2021

05) Apostasy - Death Return

04) Grinning Death's Head - Cataclysm

03) Altarage - Succumb

02) Antediluvian - The Divine Punishment

01) Moonscape - Monolith

Big thanks for those that contributed!



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Another year down the hatch. And another year where I am certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have overlooked a few releases (I always do) but I'd say this year in particular I have a pretty firm grip on the records that impressed me the most—I can say that in order to whittle the list down to 30 I have made some hard omissions, but that's just the nature of the beast! Pretty heavy on the black/death metal releases, which either speaks to the quality of the release or where my palette is at. It really doesn't matter, here's what moved me in order:



30) Forsman - Dönsum í Logans Ljóma (Ván Records)



Another example as to why Icelandic black metal is legitimately one of the most consistent and innervating within the second wave of black metal.







29) Abstracter - Abominium (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)



A dizzying descent into a mix of well articulated doom blackened crust, doom, sludge and sonic overall sonic hostility. 

28) Tentation - Le Berceau des Dieux (Gates of Hell Records)



An absolute nod to the old days of heavy metal and a hell of a debut.



27) Divide and Dissolve - Gas Lit (Invada Records)



2-piece doom metal enveloped in a thick cloud of doom. Hits hard and feels significant.



26) Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime (Van Records)



Much like Havukruunu, Stormkeep have managed to capture all the elusive grandeur found in pagan black metal and dungeon synth without succumbing to the frivolity often found in it.



25) Concrete Winds - Nerve Butcherer (Sepulchral Voice Records)



Fast and dizzying death metal with very intentional glances towards grind and thrash. Pretty Spot on!



24) Wanton Attack - Wanton Attack (Black Writs Records)



A potent mix of early heavy metal rife with gritty duelling guitars and speed metal vitatlity!



23) Suffering Hour - The Cyclic Reckoning (Profound Lore Records)



Suffocatingly heavy death metal from a label that knows a good thing when it sees it. I don't think this record has any weak spots.



22) Vorpal Sword - Omens (Rising Beast Recordings)

The best account of blown out raw black metal I heard all year! A pastiche of noise punk, experimental ambient and shoegaze—It's perplexing how something so abrasive and corrosive in nature can be perceived as beautiful, but it does.

21) Sermon of Flames - I Have Seen The Light, and It Was Repulsive (I, Voidhanger Records)



A bubbling cauldron of cacophonous death metal infused with sludge, crust, doom and black metal with  incredibly devastating pace.

20) Ekulu - Unscrew My Head (Cash Only Records)



Nailed down New York Hardcore with a heavy grip on 80’s metal. Why even bother with Turnstile?

19) Labored Breath - Dyspnea (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

A spiralling churn of death metal infused black metal pushing through a feral wall of sound that straddles the line of the obscure and barbaric. 

18) Labor Intvs - Sunken Crucible (Unsigned/Independant)

This has got to be one of the most overlooked albums on this list. Some of the nastiest death/black metal releases this year heavily exploring elements of doom and the underground obscure.

17) Mork - Katedralen (Peaceville Records)


Mork have pretty consistently been the best example as to how we can still successfully draw from the nearly dried up well of 90's black metal, and this year on Katedralen they prove that point yet again with a bullet.


16) Phrenelith - Chimaera (Nuclear Winter Records)

Massively over-looked death metal in my opinion. Phrenelith aren't exactly incorporating anything new into their sound, but somehow they manage to sound like nothing else—A black hole of dynamic death metal with reverence to the underground. Some of the best drumming on a death meal album this year?

15) Succumb - XXI (The Flenser)

Incredible death metal with Cheri’s possessed vocal belch being the backbone of what makes them unique from their contemporaries. I'm so glad they didn't fuck this up.


14) Fuoco Fatuo - Obsidian Katabasis (Profound Lore Records)



Crushing funeral doom with a lot of mid-tempo death metal influence that will drag you through an hour of some of the most potent and unyielding metal this year. A full listen through of this colossus will leave you bereft and beaten, just the way we like it.



13) Big Brave - Vital (Southern Lore Recordings)



Big Brave's suffocatingly plodding doom intertwined around a whirring mix of reverb-ladened guitars and vacuous space comes full-force on Vital. Beauty and brutality.


12) Koldovstvo - Ni Tsarya, Ni Boga (Unsigned/Independant)

Atmospheric black metal with heavy emphasis on the atmospheric, bordering on ambient or shoegaze. Incredibly raw, visceral and avant-garde with a lot of uncertainty surrounding any information around the band. It's hard to explain, but theres also this inexplicable feeling that comes over me when I listen to this album… Like I am slowly being consumed by madness. A mix of euphoria and malaise. 


11) Altarage - Succumb (Season of Mist Underground Activists)



This release can hang with any of the aforementioned in the department of ferocity and heaviness, clocking in at over an hour of downright unfettered black/death from Spain. 

10)  Defacement - Defacement (I, Voidhanger Records)


Back when I talked about this release earlier in September I said "This is one of those albums that drags you through the abyss—A serpentining downward spiral through cavernous death metal that is equal parts technical, murky and experimental." Yet another album of extremely high caliber that has been buried amidst an ocean of sub-par music with high pay-grades and a full marketing team throwing petals at their feet. Stick with this, you'll thank me later.


09) Fyrnask - VII - Kenoma (Ván Records)

Fyrnask have been quietly creating some of the best atmospheric black metal around for over a decade now and VII - Kenoma is at the helm of it all. Powerfully melodic and thought provoking—Something between Misþyrming, Ash Borer, Morne, and Bölzer. 


08) Voidsphere - To Overtake, To Overcome (Amor Fati Productions)



Spirit inducing black metal that takes shape through blistering riffs built upon a wall of sound. One of the best uses of atmospheric ambience, dense but not without melody or purpose. These Prava Kollektiv guys sure know how to write a record.

07) Warloghe - Three Angled Void (Northern Heritage Records)

Dizzying black metal from the nether, ugly, brutish and filled with cold riffs! I'd even go as far as saying some of the best riffing I heard in a black metal album all year, this is pure fucking armageddon.


06) Portal - Avow (Profound Lore Records)

Portal remain thee lords of hypnotically plodding and nauseating death metal. Lovecraftian obscurity in sonic form. This is up there with my favourite Portal has ever released—It sounds like a lobotomy. And It feels like a nauseating decent into the abyss. Encompassing. 


05) Sulpur - Embracing Hatred and Beckoning Darkness (Amor Fati Productions)

Blown-out black metal doing everything MGLA does but even colder. A barrage of eerie riffs against a galloping tempo with some of the best sounding cymbals in the genre.



04) Darkthrone - Eternail Hails…… (Peaceville Records)

Has everyone forgot about Darkthrone? Hardly any mentions of Darkthrone this year… Am I the only one who loves the direction they’re moving in? I still think they're one of the most important bands in all of music right now. Three decades later and they’re still moving a worn-out genre into new territory. 



03) Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia (Dark Descent Records)



One of the most crushing death metal albums released in 2021. Two songs of obscure death metal that drag you through a serpentining labyrinth of riffs that sound like a spiral into your own absolute insanity. Much like the Defacement release sitting at my number 10, this album is and was way under-appreciated for how good it is. I'm not sorry to sorry to say it, but it's more dynamic and crushing than 99% of the other releases that pass off as death metal. 

02) Antediluvian - The Divine Punishment (Nuclear War Now! Productions)

Few try (with little success) to be as primitive and feral sounding as Antediluvian, its not something that can (or should) be contrived. It needs to come from a festering open wound or a sincere disapproval with some inner or outward force. The Divine Punishment is a pantheon in where these negative forces can live—A barbaric pile of forward-thinking death metal built upon an altar of whirring guitars, abyssal vocals and drumming that sounds like none of its contemporaries. Plodding, perverse, esoteric and entirely new.



01) Lykhaeon - Opprobrium (Repose Records)


Bestial death metal married with black metal and doom is hardly a new concept within the walls of metal, but very few albums are able to traverse new and refreshing soundscapes the way Opprobrium successfully does—An overtone of of ritualistic rites and dirges permeate the many layers of this album as you're dragged through a swath of of musical landscapes, all  equally barbaric and mind altering. The best metal release of the year for me for sure, not a single flaw to be found.

Succumb - XXI (2021)

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SHOM has been keeping a finger on the pulse of San Fran's Succumb since their debut record in 2017 which (like this album) saw its release made possible from the consummate and enigmatic The Flenser—which in my books, is a breath of fresh air in a saturated world of music where sterility and originality are celebrated and touted.

I digress, XXI picks up right where it's 4-year old predecessor left off: Down a serpentining pit of crust, grind and death metal with a sound that encompasses a lurching energy which simultaneously feels unique and familiar—Not much parsing needs to be done to hear a broad musical soundscape that harkens back to Converge, Gorguts, Mitochondrion, Caustic Wound, with tinges of Disfear.

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This album is going to end the year in high ranking with me… I think for all intents and purposes, this record is flawless. You've got to be bent to not get the appeal, brutish ferocity and whirling doom packed into 30+ minutes of abyssal death metal.

Succumb - XXI (bandcamp)

Cult Leader - A Patient Man (2018)

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Cult Leader have released something completely foul in way of A Patient Man; A stand out album in an ocean of louder and angrier than thou records released this year, punching way above its weight class with 50 minutes of untamed, mammalian minded sludge with its cruddy mitts in the vats of doom, grind, death, Crust, D-Beat and sadism. Cult Leader being formed from the husk of Gaza  carry the same overwhelming heft and dizzying structure and tone that Gaza were known and revered for. A Patient Man is crude in its blunt force attack, swinging back and forth from down-tempo glacial riffs and war drum like fodder to moments of frenetic, barbaric sounding crust, but that’s not to say its entirety is mammalian pound fit for Troglodytes hitting the barbells, nay, A Patient Man is intelligent and melodic when it needs to be and does well to counterweight and accent those extremely long bouts of ferocity through moments of plodding drone like doom and foaming atmosphere.

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I’ve said enough, A Patient Man is what most heavy albums aspire to be, and for this reason among others, don’t be surprised to see this album on many high-nosed, chin to the sky year end lists of 2018 from creeps like me.

Cult Leader - A Patient Man (bandcamp)

Iron Lung - White Glove Test (2013)

I've only fully listened through this album twice, so maybe my opinion is as useless as condoms to a priest but fuck it man, I just wanted to get this on here. Mainly because I think White Glove Test is an interesting release, which is a hearty accolade for a two-piece power violence/grind act, isn't it?

 Maybe I pulled the wool over your eyes when I used the word "interesting", what I really meant was this album will beat you down for the better half of 23 minutes, pick you up, and then beat you back down again with a 23 minute bonus track… Containing an amalgamation of odd sounds, the kind of sounds that would give you night terrors if you suddenly woke up to it playing loudly in your dark, monsters under the bed filled room. Grow up.

Noisy, fast, unpredictable, dizzying and raucous. Oh, and I think maybe something to do with an industrial tinge. Probably not at all.

Download? (Zippyshare) ((Somebody let me know if this version has the bonus tracks, I think it does))
BUY! (Bandcamp) (("DON'T BE SWINDLED BY INFERIOR BLOG DOWNLOAD VERSIONS!!"))

LOGN - Í Fráhvarfi Ljóss, Myrkrið Lifnar Við (In depth review)

I recently did a review for my pal Birkir over at Halifax Collect, I went in-depth on Logn's "Í Fráhvarfi Ljóss, Myrkrið Lifnar Við"… below is a small except from it, I suggest grabbing the album, enjoying it, and reading the words on your screen.


- This young (albeit mature in sound) band hailing from Iceland's capital, Reykjavík, set out to assail your auditory meatus with a cornucopia of musical influences. Audible throughout the unpronounceable album Í fráhvarfi ljóss, myrkrið lifnar við (say that 5 times fast - Icelanders, you can't play) is a palatable blend of crust, grind, hardcore, d-beat and nuances of death metal and sludge that take form in a muddied, non-polished aesthetic. A grizzly host of dark and pissed off tracks that seamlessly teeter in an out of pace, one moment being lulled into a foreboding melancholy that suddenly shifts the calm of the storm and your back on your ass being barraged by a flurry of blasts, pummelling riffs and shattering screams. The tone that permeates throughout the entire album gives everything a very woeful personality further enforcing its grittiness - it's presentation is decorated with subtleties that help it escape the clutches of "heard this before"... (click here for full article)

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To head to the bands bandcamp, click this fucker. (name your price buckos!)
To waste your time, click here.

Napalm Death - Utilitarian (2012)

Alright blokes, here we have deathened grind legends Napalm Death with their 2012 offering Utilitarian, personally I'd rather just spin Heirs to Thievery by Misery Index. Utilitarian however is no slouch, and in fact hoists some rather interesting experimental moments that work out quite well beneath the ensuing mobocracy.

Grab if you like: Nasum, Repulsion, Assück

Utilitarian(s)

Logn - Í fráhvarfi ljóss, myrkrið lifnar við (2011)

My Icelandic friend tells me that "logn describes the weather when it is calm", which I suppose is a bit ironic, because it's the opposite of how these guys sound. Icelandic grind that is chaotic and frantic, yet at times slowing down to churning doom.

Grab if you like: Initial State, Low Places, Dredd

Logn

Gridlink - Orphan (2011)

Here is an album that chops off your head and shits down your throat. 12 minutes of furiously paced grind. Beefy like bison, fast like cheetah, strong as ox, unrelenting like a razorback swine and about as resilient as a honey badger. This album was a pube away from making it into my top for 2011...which I will be posting tomorrow on the first day of the new year.

Grab if you like: Discordance Axis, Wormrot, Mumakil

Flatworlder

Flourishing - The Sum Of All Fossils (2011)

 

 This can be hard to pin down, so let's not worry too much about that shitty shit.

Grab if you like: Rorschach, Ulcerate, Baring Teeth

A Thimbles Worth

Ed Gein - Bad Luck (2011)

Bad fucking luck, we all experience it from time to time. Some more than others, but Ed Gein as a band have experienced a fuck lot. Broken into, robbed, lost, crashed, stolen, time after time.

This album is about packaging all the rage one would experience during a string of bad luck into a solid 22 minute release. Same ol' Ed Gein approach, balls to the fucking wall grind.

Robbed

God Harvest - Demo (2011)

Kudos to the internet gnat and buddy of mine DoctorNutcheez for recommending I take a listen to this. So I did just that, and he was right, It's pretty fucking awesome. In the realms of Nails & Trap Them, which have been posted on here already. Down-tuned crushing force.

Harvest God

Benighted - Asylum Cave (2011)

Not exactly a feast for the brain, but Benighted remains to be among the elites in forward-thinking deathgrind. The intro initially had me second guessing if I was listening to the wrong album...I wasn't. I have only listened through this once though, so I am unable to give it my full praise, but from what I heard it was quite good. Everything you would expect from Benighted, and then some. I do recall raising an eyebrow or two though. More breakdowns then a...well, mental asylum. ZING!

"Why are you so brutal to me?"

Trap Them - Darker Handcraft (2011)

3rd album from Trap Them is fucking tits man, merging elements of hardcore, black metal, death metal and grind into a murky quagmire of musical deliciousness. It's music, listen to it for yourself instead of reading about it. Until next post, then you better fucking read again.

Trap Them

Mumakil - Behold the Failure (2009)

Enter Mumakil from Switzerland, a grind band named after those burly elephants in LOTR that stomp fuckers into a bloody mist, leaving nothing but a trail of bones and human pancakes in their wake. Behold The Failure does the exact same thing...but to your ear holes. 27 songs playing for a total of 35 minutes at a blistering speed with crunchy tones. It's about as heavy as an "oliphaunt" and as fast as Legolas.

Behold The Failure (fixed link 320)

Rotten Sound - Cursed (2011)

"Fast music for slow people" That is what my newly acquired Rotten Sound shirt says on the back. I saw these guys last week at the Finnish Metal Tour and they did not disappoint unlike Ensiferum with a very weak sound. The lead guitar was inaudible and me and a couple friendlies were having full fledged rage fits whilst bordering the pit, that is just unacceptable. (Any good show allows for no talking during the set, unless the two people talking are J.R. Hayes and Travis Ryan)

These crazy one-word song title loving Finns deliver another worthy release of their grind prowess. The overall sound seems to hoist a heavy murkiness that really makes it come across as heavily fast. (What the fuck does that even mean?) I dunno, listen to it, like it. It's not just a clever name.


Fast Music For Slow People

Wormed - Quasineutrality (2010)

Brutal, a word so overused it really is a shame we couldn't hide it from the kiddos dawning New-Era hats with that shitty sticker on the brim. You know the type. The fact is, this is brutal. Really, it is.

It may only be a 2 song promo but it hasn't stopped Wormed from creating something entirely crushing and deserving of some praise. its been eight years since "Planisphaerium" but Wormed has returned to fuck your ear holes. Open Wide.

Brutal cyclops

Defeatist - Sixth Extinction (2010)

Listening to this album is like drinking copious amounts of whiskey with Blanka and challenging him to a match of bare-knuckle boxing. The end result? Pure fucking unadulterated pain with a side order of vomit.

What we have here is some noisy, feral sounding grind from these chaps of New York City. A total of 19 tracks running for 27 minutes. Enjoy it.

Headache

Blasphemophagher - ...for Chaos, Obscurity and Desolation... (2010)

There goes a saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover" which I am sure you are all familiar with. I am quite aware that this isn't a book, though the saying is still conducive to my point. If you were to judge this album by its cover, you would probably get what you expected.

If you expected an unholy onslaught, bible spitting, altar vomiting, Christians to the lions, type of album, you were correct. Here, allow me to show you:

'scuse me, I have the sudden urge to put on a satanic war robe, sacrifice a goat, and smear its blood on my face. Bleh, nevermind, I will leave that to the professionals.


Jesus on the cross