Screamed from Pits and Office Chairs! 2021 in Metal
Metal is life's blood...
... drunk from horns and tallboys, screamed from pits and home office chairs – well, more of the latter than the former these days. Like everyone else, I miss shows, but especially the raucous throng of live metal, punk and hardcore. Feels like I missed out on that short window where shows could happen again, especially at Atlas Brew Works here in D.C., and now I'm back to headbangin' all by my lonesome to slam metal CDs in the Subaru! But I had copies of Decibel, Noxious Ruin and the Headsplit newsletter to keep me company, not to mention a stack of heavy metal cassettes.
About a decade ago, I regularly wrote up year-end metal lists for NPR Music both to the celebration and consternation of the scene. I had a predilection for transcendence in doom, black and extreme metal – you could call it trendy, but I'll be damned if Agalloch's Marrow of the Spirit, Panopticon's Kentucky and Cloud Rat's Moksha don't retain their power more than most. Still, though, the gatekeepers of all things tr00 called it "NPR metal" – never quite figured out what was meant by that, only that it wasn't a compliment. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
For a myriad of reasons, I stopped making metal-centric lists; let's bring it back. No wordy blurbs, just a BNCMPR playlist of 2021's chonkiest death metal, sickest slams, gloomiest doom, rawest black metal and 6-pack-chugging-est heavy metal. No ranks, no masters. Up the hammers, y'all.
Zao, The Crimson Corridor (Observed/Observer)
Khemmis, Deceiver (Nuclear Blast)
Cara Neir, Phase Out (self-released)
Stormkeep, Tales of Othertime (Ván)
Znous, Znousland 3 (self-released)
Rude, Outer Reaches (Headsplit)
Stygian Ruin, The Blackened Temple (self-released)
Traumatomy, Extirpation Paradigm (Gore House Productions)
Tyrann, Djävulens Musik (Electric Assault)
Panopticon, … And Again into the Light (Bindrune)
Abominable Putridity, Parasitic Metamorphosis Manifestation (Inherited Suffering)
Sněť, Mokvání V Okovech (Blood Harvest / Headsplit)
Blazon Rite, Endless Halls of Golden Totem (Gates of Hell)
Morgul Blade, Fell Sorcery Abounds (No Remorse)
Рожь, Вечное (Reflection Nebula)
Cynic, Ascension Codes (Season of Mist)
Meshum, Enigmatic Existential Essence (New Standard Elite)
Old Nick, A New Generation of Vampiric Conspiracies (Grime Stone)
Këkht Aräkh, Pale Swordsman (Livor Mortis)
Mystic Storm, From the Ancient Chaos (Jawbreaker / Iron Oxide)
Krallice, Demonic Wealth (self-released)
Mare Cognitum, Solar Paroxysm (I, Voidhanger)
Cauldron Born, Legacy of Atlantean Kings (self-released)
Haunt, Beautiful Distraction (Church)
Scythelord, Earth Boiling Dystopia (self-released)
Yoe, To Exist Among Wolves (American Decline)
Corubo, 2021 - Ajuricaba (self-released)
madam data, The Gospel of the Devourer (FTP)
Dream Unending, Tide Turns Eternal (20 Buck Spin)
Dipygus, Bushmeat (Expansion Abyss)
200 Stab Wounds, Slave to the Scalpel (Maggot Stomp)
Noble Déchet, Le Plus que Très Vénérable Consortium Schizo-Boréal (self-released)
Warrior Path, The Mad King (Symmetric)
Pharmacist, Carnal Pollution (Black Hole Productions / Gurgling Gore)
Eternity's End, Embers of War (Prosthetic)
Andrew Lee's Heavy Metal Shrapnel, Andrew Lee's Heavy Metal Shrapnel (Nameless Grave)
Steel Bearing Hand, Slay in Hell (Carbonized)