There has been some impressive music this year, including some highly expected albums from I really enjoy.

Top Album

Disillusion – AYAM

Disillusion is (by far) my favorite band, and the chances of this not being my top album for the year were pretty low. The first few songs on the album are amazing and hook into your brain for weeks. The rest of the album is not as infectious but once you give it some time, they really shine for the excellent songs that they are.

Honorary Mention

I also want to call out the song Anoana by Heilung, off their album Drif. I thought the first couple of songs off this album were great but the rest of the album did not click for me. However, I keep coming back to this song and its haunting beauty.

Death

Some great death came out this year, especially in the area of Technical Death Metal. These are unranked and listed in alphabetical order.

• Allegaeon – DAMNUM
• Dystopian A.D. – Doomsday Psalm
• Exocrine – The Hybrid Suns
• Fallujah – Empyrean
• Inexorum – Exquinox Vigil
• Moonshade – As We Set the Skies Ablaze
• Psycroptic – Divine Council
• Soilwork – Övergivenheten
• Soreption – Jord

No Death

In the realm of “everything else” there were great albums to be had.

• Amorphis – Halo
• Blind Guardian – The God Machine
• Clutch – Sunrise at Slaughter Beach
• Ghost – IMPERA
• Mendel – Equilibrium
• Mountainscape – Atoms Unfurling
• Russian Circles – Gnosis
• Joe Satriani – The Elephants of Mars
• Toundra – Hex

EPs

As always, there are a couple of EPs I want to call out.

• The Atrophic – Coagulating Mirth
• Ehrling – Dream Dimension
• Merrow – Mojave Repressions

A Gift to Art

Lybica debuted this year with a pretty solid album of post-metal, and though they did not quite make it on the “No Death” list I wanted to call out the glory of their cover art.

I do not think this glory needs further comment.

Derek Note – Since it’s The Brother’s birthday week, I let him choose the music.

This year I bring you not one song, not two songs, but two full albums… kinda.

Samael is a band that has changed a lot over the years. They started as straight-up black metal before moving into a more electronic/industrial metal.

The mid-point between these two styles was 1996’s Passage – one of my favorite albums and an amazing work:

In 1997, Xy (Samael’s keyboards/drum machine artist) did a side project called Xytras where he redid the entire Passage album as piano and syths. It is a wonderful conversion and well worth a listen even if you do not care for the heaviness of Passage.

Derek: Since this is the last Metal Tuesday of the year, once again I’ve asked The Brother to come on and give his top albums of the year. As most of you know, his tastes in metal are both similar and different than me. Enjoy!

2021 Top Albums

Overall, I would say I overall liked this year’s crop of music better than last year’s, but not to the degree of 2019 (which was really just an amazing year). New bands I came across and really liked this year were Nahtram (instrumental folk-black metal) and Stortregn (melodic tech death)

Top Album

In Mourning – The Bleeding Veil

It took me a few spins to really get into this album. The last In Mourning album that took a while for me to “get” was The Weight of Oceans and that has become my favorite In Mourning album – so there is a lot of hope that The Bleeding Veil continues to get better (and I already really like it). This album sees In Mourning play with the more progressive elements of their sound, but still really bring the hammer when its time.

Death

It was a pretty good year for death (and related extreme) metal. I had to cut a lot of good albums to get to this list of five. Like last year, these are in alphabetical order.

• Alluvial – Sarcoma
• Be’Lakor – Coherence
• Harakiri for the Sky – Maere
• Omnium Gatherum – Origin
• Stortregn – Impermanence
• Valtari – Titans Call

No Death

In the realm of “everything else” there was a great crop this year. I really liked a lot of instrumental rock and shred. And post rock. Really, just a lot of great music.

• For Giants – There, There
• Gemini Syndrome – 3rd Degree, the Raising
• God is an Astronaut – Ghost Tapes \#10
• Nahtram – Forest of Eternal Dawn
• Trivium – In the Court of the Dragon
• Paul Wardingham – Cybergenesis

EPs

Not as many EPs this year, but these three are great.

• Ehrling – Gime Me Summer, Pt. 2
• Empires of Light – How to Build a Monolith
• Insomnium – Argent Moon

Derek’s Note: Since it’s The Brother’s birthday week, I’m letting him choose the track.

I am feeling shifty at 44 and so I bring you a mashup of Behemoth’s Ov Fire and the Void and Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance.

> I’ve asked The Brother to do another year in review.

Gonna be honest, this year there was a lot of good music, but nothing really caught me and kept me coming back to it over and over again. Still some excellent music, though.

Album of the Year

Ehrling – Tropical Confessions 5

My Album of the Year is an EP from an artist I discovered this year through a Minecraft YouTuber who uses it during building timelapses.

The Heavy Stuff

There was good music this year, despite nothing really hijacking my brain. Here is the heavier stuff I got my groove on to. These are listed in alphabetical order. I care not for ranking!

• Dark Tranquillity – Moment
• Fires in the Distance – Echoes from Deep November
• Noumena – Anima
• Slow Fall – Beneath the Endless Rains
• Ulcerate – Stare into Death and Be Still

No Death

And in the more rocking, but slightly less aggressive cohort, we have the following.

• 10 Years – Violent Allies
• Amaranthe – Manifest
• Garmarna – Forbundet
• Andy James – C.S.I.L.
• Katatonia – City Burials

EPs

There were other excellent EPs besides my Album of the Year and I really recommend them. They are all pretty heavy.

• Dawn of Dissolution – Divine
• Hinayana – Death of the Cosmic
• Soilwork – A Whisp of the Atlantic

In this age of lockdown, there are a lot of bands doing online concerts. Though you need to buy a ticket for some, some bands are doing theirs for free and hoping for donations.

One of my favorite bands is Disillusion, and they did a free concert a couple of weeks ago and have also released it on YouTube:

I have also purchased tickets to another show (Insomnium/Omnium Gatherum) and am looking forward to buying more if I hear of more bands I am interested in.

Check in on artist you like and see if they are doing the same. If you can afford it kick them some cash – either through Patreon or other channels (buy some of their music on Bandcamp or merchandise).

With everything closed down, we still need to support the arts if we can.