Jan 26, 2022
Best of 2021, Part 3, including the #1 album, THE SILVER (Philly)
0:25-7:42
GREY AURA
(Netherlands), album - Zwart vierkant (Black, Modern)
El Greco in Toledo
— Grey Aura builds from a multitude
of instruments like piano and horns creating an avant-garde,
proggy, psychedelic black metal and hardcore with playful
electronics.
8:56-15:26
FRIISK (Germany),
album - ...un torügg bleev blot Sand (Black, Melodic)
De Hoat
— Melodic sludge and black metal with
electric vocals in a bleak and cutting set.
15:57-18:02
FULL OF HELL
(MD/PA), album - Garden of Burning Apparitions (Extreme)
Reeking Tunnels
— If you see this band live, you will
never miss out on another album. An explosive lead singer
mixed with a bright organism of sound that spreads and evolves.
Experimental and grind with synth and
saxophone.
18:20-23:38
PRAISE THE PLAGUE
(Germany), album - The Obsidian Gate (Black, Melodic)
Blackening Swarm II
— Tortured and bleeding vocals in a
mix that is ferocious with speed, swinging from soft to epic.
24:09-27:52
ARCHSPIRE (CAN),
album – Bleed the Future (Extreme)
Drone Corpse Aviator
— The vocalist stands out in a play
of patterns over a playful technical death that is somehow
endearing and beautiful.
28:32-34:34
THE RUINS OF
BEVERAST (Germany), album - The Thule Grimoires
(Hypnotic)
Polar Hiss Hysteria
— This band came out with an album in
2017 that is in my top albums of all time. This album
incorporates a breeze of murmurs and chants in a powerful and
magical tribal sound. I love this man, period. He can
do no wrong.
34:54-40:20
BURIAL (Italy),
album - Inner Gateways To The Slumbering Equilibrium At The Center
Of Cosmos (Death, Doom)
— Absent Visions Conceive Unspeakable
Beings
Pondering, blistering death, and
atmosphere that doesn't lessen the impact.
40:57-45:26
ALUSTRIUM (Philly),
album - A Monument to Silence (Death, Melodic)
Blood for Blood
— Groove cuts across the top of
muscular, technical death that explodes in a million delicious
directions.
45:46-50:44
DREAM UNENDING
(US/CAN), album - Tide Turns Eternal (Death, Doom)
The needful
— Beautiful, minimalist passages and
a soulful voice stands stark against the technical
death.
51:01-56:11
ÆNIGMATUM
(Portland), album – Deconsecrate (Death, Melodic)
Undaunted Hereafter
— Moody, meandering and a bit of jazz
until you are pulled into the aggression.
56:34-1:02:08
KARMA VIOLENS
(Greece), album – Mount of the Congregation
(Speed/Thrash)
The Observer
— A black metal vocalist in a thrash
and technical pace. Just so much here.
1:02:38-1:07:36
IN MOURNING
(Sweden), album - The Bleeding Veil (Death, Melodic)
At The Behest Of Night
— A spectacular vocalist that swings
from soothing to demonic, swinging paces and technical balanced
with emotional.
1:07:57-1:14:00
SPELLJAMMER
(Sweden), album - Abyssal Trip (Stoner, Jams)
Among the Holy
— Bass-heavy stoner with sparkling
romantic melodic. A lovely album to massage your brain to
oblivion.
1:14:23-1:17:21
DISKORD (Norway),
album – Degenerations (Death, Modern)
Dragged For Coronation
— Jaunty, neck-lurching death with a
carnivalesque, story-telling atmosphere.
1:17:36-1:23:12
WESENWILLE
(Netherlands), album - II: A Material God (Black)
Burial ad sanctos
— Sharp knives carve a bloody trail,
the sound changing colors. Beautiful, vivid,
imaginative.
1:23:40-1:26:41
REPLICANT (NJ),
album - Malignant Reality (Death, Modern)
Rabid Future
— Fractured sounds break into the
guttural death with piano and pleading vocals. Soft to horror
to aggression.
1:27:01-1:31-01
CREEPING FEAR
(Paris), album - Hategod Triumph (Death)
Wearing the Skin of the
Wicked
— A burning pace plummets to
mid-paced and slow, all of it groovy with massive energy and
incredible guitar solos.
1:31:34-1:35:39
VIRIAL (Italy),
album – Transhumanism (Death, Modern)
Aurelia I – Deterioration
— Melodic guitar-noodling penetrates
every aspect of this pummeling death structure.
1:36:00-1:40:39
DORMANT ORDEAL
(Poland), album - The Grand Scheme of Things (Death,
Melodic)
Sides of Defence
— Ruthlessly groovy and riveting
compositions, with complex pace and melody. Mosh
thoughtfully.
#1 Album of
2021:
1:41:19-1:46:19
THE SILVER (Philly),
album - Ward of Roses (Black, Modern)
Breathe
— Modern black is just my favorite.
One of the best vocalists of the years that is its own
erupting instrumentation. The sound is a mountain of majestic
black that entreats your entire soul to join.