My Favorite Albums of 2021

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Far delayed, but nevertheless, here is a list of my top twenty albums released in 2021 - yes, you read correctly - 2021, not the last year! That one will come sooner, hopefully - perhaps, with additional words even.

But first, some honorable mentions here (click on the album art for YouTube links):

My Top 20 Albums from 2021

20. Lugubrum - Bruyne Kroon

19. Melvins - Working With God

18. Cult of Luna - Raging the River

17. Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

16. Archspire - Bleed the Future

15. Mortiferum - Preserved in Torment

14. Yoth Iria - As the Flame Withers

13. Tardigrada - Vom Bruch bis zur Freiheit

12. Moral Collapse - S/T

11. Cannibal Corpse - Violence Unimagined

10. Bummer - Dead Horse

09. Nadja - Luminous Rot

08. Fluisteraars - Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking

07. Black Sites - Untrue

06. Obsolete - Animate//Isolate

05. Kowloon Walled City - Piecework

04. Paysage d’Hiver - Geister

03. ATVM - Famine, Putrid and Fucking Endless

02. Dvne - Etemen Ænka

01. Demonic Death Judge - Kneel

…and there we have it. For those interested, there is a Spotify playlist I made with all these albums as well. Check it out here.

Year-in-Review: Metal Albums - Top 20 in 2020

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Again, for the second year in a row, I apologize for the lack of bandwidth to write excerpts behind my choices, however, I am happy that this was made in the nick of time, before more than a year-of-time passes from the last best-of entry! Additionally, my choice of twenty instead of ten albums hopefully sweetens the deal a little. But, boy, what a year! Here are my top 20 metal album releases during the era of COVID (click on the images for YouTube links; here is my 2020 Metal playlist on Spotify):

20. Intronaut - Fluid Existential Inversions

19. Foot - The Balance of Nature Shifted

18. Hazzerd - Delirium

17. Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkment

16. Houkago Grnid Time - Bakyunsified

15. Armored Saint - Punching The Sky

14. Kvelertak - Splid

13. Puteraeon - The Cthulhian Pulse: Call from the Dead City

12. Hellripper - The Affair of the Poisons

11. Cryptic Shift - Visitations from Enceladus

10. Pale Divine - Consequence of Time

9. Sweven - The Eternal Resonance

8. Afterbirth - Four Dimensional Flesh

7. Ulthar - Providence

6. Havok - V

5. Elephant Tree - Habits

4. Demonic Death Judge - The Trail

3. Ulcerate - Stare Into Death and Be Still

2. Ilsa - Preyer

1. Grin - Translucent Blades

Year-In-Review: 2019 Metal

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The bizarre year of 2020 is nearing its midpoint and here we are, in the midst of a global pandemic with absolutely no end in sight, and protests against police brutality all over the US. The failure of leadership across the board has been a sad thing to witness. I'd never thought I'd be nostalgic for 2019 so soon, but here we are. On the metal front, 2019 was a so-so year overall, according to me. However, it did have it's fair share of amazing albums. I don't have it in me to type up much about each album (as is customary), and I hope normal programming will resume next year. Nevertheless, I wanted to put my list down:

Honorable Mentions: Rogga Johansson - Entrance to the Otherwhere, Firebreather - Under a Blood Moon, Yawning Man - Macedonian Lines, White Ward - Love Exchange Failure, A Pregnant Light - Broken Play, Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance, Abbath - Outstrider, Waste of Space Orchestra - Syntheosis.