Once again, the usual prologue would be that no one can say that they have listened to almost everything that was released during 2021. Everyone who claims that is wrong, so we will speak just about our favourite releases and the albums we enjoyed mostly in 2021. The "best" albums of 2021 according to Crystal Logic, and a wider review of another covid-year in metal music. Note also, that this time we won't include any hard rock, AOR or melodic rock albums like previous years and everything you will read below, are releases that can be found in physical format. "Releases" that were available only digitally, are not included. Sorry Kenn Nardi, you're also delayed to deliver the album within 2021. Also, Cauldron Born's Legacy of Atlantean Kings rules, but we won't also add re-recordings.
Another difference is that everything you will read below was written within a few hours. Actually this morning. It is not filtered or worked within a bigger time frame of days or weeks. Simple and out of my mind at that exact time. The Top-20 list was already completed in late November since it was asked from Metal Hammer magazine in Greece (where the author of this blog is also a scribe) but there are also a few changes that my Greek friends will notice if they will compare the magazine's list with this one. Sorry, but since printed media are asking so early for the top lists, we might miss a few December releases and one of them was Funeral Mist's Deiform that appeared out of nowhere (or straight from Hell) and made us look silly. Damn you guys! Lists shouldn't be published or requested so early! Talking to you Decibel too, who presented them in mid November missing albums such as 1349 and Deiform...
written by Andreas Andreou
Let's start with those "mini" releases, name them demo, EP, split. Ten of them ruled, including a few new bands that are going to be huge. Check them and catch those names from now.
1. TALES OF MEDUSA - Antiquity (demo)
2. SOLEMN LAMENT - Solemn Lament (tape EP)
3. SPIRIT ADRIFT - Forge Your Future EP
4. DIRKSCHNEIDER & THE OLD GANG - Arising EP
5. EZRA BROOKS / SERPENT RIDER - Visions of Esoteric Splendor (split)
6. CIRITH UNGOL - Half Past Human EP
7. MACE 'N' CHAIN - Upon the Anvil Formed (demo)
8. RAGE AND FIRE - 1986 + 35 (demo)
9. SANDSTORM - Desert Warrior EP
10. TOWER HILL - Fighting Spirits (demo)
Not much to add here, the mystery of Tales of Medusa continues, and we're looking forward to the debut albums of bands such as Solemn Lament, Mace 'n' Chain, Rage and Fire. Check those releases and you will discover bands that are going to occupy your time in 2022 and/or 2023. Ezra Brooks and Serpent Rider joined forces delivering arcane metal, and Udo Dirkschneider alongside Peter Baltes and Stefan Kaufmann brought us back the spirit of the melodic side of Accept.
Let's go to Crystal Logic's Top-20 (plus many more you should check also!)
20. NECROMANTIA - To the Depths We Descend...
A farewell. Blood and darkness. To death and beyond. The last Necromantia album is the closing chapter of a book that sealed the history of black metal.
Check also: MARE COGNITUM - Solar Paroxysm, WODE - Burn in Many Mirrors, YOTH IRIA - As the Flame Withers
19. WOLFTOOTH - Blood & Iron
If you're following this blog, you will remember that each Wolftooth album had a mention every year it was released. What makes you think it will change now? One more cool album, more "epic" than the previous two, still with swords, still heavy, still great. The wolf bites again.
Check also: APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE - Until Darkness Goes, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY - Doom Crew Inc.
18. CRIMSON FIRE - Another Dimension
The third album of the Greek (once, traditional metal) band combines elements that made their music much more addictive, adding keyboards and a strong melodic touch, releasing a few of the unsung hits of 2021.
Check also: HITTEN - Triumph & Tragedy, POUNDER - Breaking the World
17. TERRA ODIUM - Ne Plus Ultra
Looks insane that this album came out by Frontiers Records, the home of sugar music, countless projects, a few legends of AOR and hard rock and the similar sound to all of them. With a line-up including Steve DiGiorgio on bass and other members of bands such as Spiral Architect and Manitou, this is a heavy as fuck and skillful as MacGyver, classy progressive metal debut album, opposed to the wankery of most modern prog bands.
Check also: I guess that when DREAM THEATER releases a new album we should include it, so you can also check A View from the Top of the World. They're not there, but they were once.
16. WHEEL - Preserved in Time
While I wasn't a huge fan of their second album Icarus (2013) but I enjoyed the 2010's same-titled debut, Preserved in Time caught me by surprise! Maybe because of that huge Solitude Aeturnus vibe since we're missing the Texan epic doom metal legend. But don't take the third album of the German doomsters as a copycut, it's just the kind of doom that makes us headbang (we did it in Keep It True Rising!) and raise the fist in the air. Classy!
Check also: NEKROMANT - Temple Of Haal
15. THE SONIC OVERLORDS - Last Days of Babylon
The lads from Sweden play a cool heavy/doom metal in their debut album that brings in mind one of the greatest heavy metal styles you can think of: What Iommi was doing with Black Sabbath in the mid to late '80s. Oh yes, they even brought Tony Martin as a guest singer for the bonus track "Pass the End of Time", that's actually the album's "Sands of Time". And what a great song it is! Something that could even be in Sabbath's The Eternal Idol! That album deserved to be higher in this list since it is one of the year's releases I listened to mostly. Performance is excellent, Marcus Zachrisson Rubin sounds as the most suitable voice for this material, Per Soläng is a groovy pounder, Daniel Ramírez uses his bass as a star and fills with the best possible way everything low-heavy-and-beyond, and Morgan Zocek sounds as a true riffmaster; Lord Iommi would be proud of him. Opening track "Utopia" has a Spiritual Beggars vibe, follow-up "In My Darkest Room" is a doomy cut with a nod to American doom metal and overall The Sonic Overlords have also a classic (heavy) rock feeling in their music. You can listen to it at "Fools" and "Shine" which is the best hit you probably didn't hear in 2021 if you passed this album. Grab it and listen to it!
Check also: THE NIGHT ETERNAL - Moonlit Cross
14. LAMP OF MURMUUR - Submission and Slavery
That riffing at the 8th minute of the 11-minute "Reduced to Submission and Slavery" opening track can put to shame the traditional heavy metal etnhusiast that believes "everything here is just noise" since a few of his/her favourite metal releases of 2021 might lack of the authenticity this American hyped outfit has. The overall authenticity can be questioned though by the anti-hype hunters but Lamp of Murmuur dwell in the past of black metal and at the same time they walk in paths of post-punk, the goth rock ways of Sisters of Mercy, Christian Death, even Dead Can Dance. Mysterious, charming and dark, Submission and Slavery is another chapter in the floodland of modern underground black metal. It's commanding and true.
Check also: MYSTRAS - Empires Vanquished and Dismantled. The new project of Spectral Lore's Ayloss is medieval black metal against empire and aristocracy. Anti-imperialism, anti-fascist and anti-nationalist, Mystras' second album keeps the lo-fi aesthetic and sound adding traditional instruments (such as Turkish ney and santoor) in separate folk pieces and interludes, while keeping the raw black metal harshness in most of the rest.
13. MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY - Biolume Part 2 - The Golden Orb
With more than 100 minutes, the one-man project of Dis Pater from Australia delivers a genre-breaking and grandiose release that's what you can call once you will mix: ambient, dungeon synth, symphonic black metal, progressive, atmospheric black metal. Are you confused? Don't be. Just listen to songs like "Dawn-Bringer" and "Rise of Thunder", two of the best tracks of 2021. More than impressive, with rich and brilliant arrangements, beautiful synths, and a bright sound, Biolume Part 2 - The Golden Orb is a goldmine of inspiration that any real fan of quality music should listen to.
Check also: ESOCTRILIHUM - Dy'th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath. Just a year after the magnificent Eternity of Shaog (that was included in 2020's list) Asthâghul returns with one more experimental and atmospheric black metal album, bizarre and beautiful, different and multi-dimensional.
12. GREEN LUNG - Black Harvest
You listen to this album and instantly understand that it's coming from the United Kingdom, with a warm sound that dwells in the '70s but brings to us something that's also fresh. But let's put away for a while any comparisons and don't mention the band names you probably expect to read. Black Harvest has the riffs, the organ, the perfect voice chanting about old gods, folklore, leaders of the blind, altars and thy satanic majesty. But don't get fooled, Green Lung is not just a band praising the goat, this is a beautiful art that requires your attention and time. Give it to them and you might find a new favourite band. Brilliant!
Check also: HOUR OF 13 - Black Magick Rites
11. SILVER TALON - Decadence and Decay
You definitely read many times about US power metal blah blah blah but actually, the Portland-based band featuring past and present members of acts such as Spellcaster and Unto Others is something more. And while the Nevermore vibe is more than obvious, Silver Talon's metal is more technical than the average NWOTHM or a modern screaming USPM band, and in Decadence and Decay you can locate a songwriting influence by King Diamond (guitarist Andy LaRocque is also a guest) while the spirit of Judas Priest is all over too. Let's put away the "progressive" term for a while and bring on the "modern technical power metal" that it is. Riffefficacious and skillful metal for those who need deeper music than radio hits.
Check also: CHEMIKILLED - Aftermath
10. WARRIOR PATH - The Mad King
Guitarist and main songwriter Andreas Sinanoglou had a specific vision of a heavy/power metal band in his mind for years. He probably didn't care about commercial success and he just needed to materialize this vision. Finding multi-instrumentalist and producer Bob Katsionis (solo, Outloud, ex-Firewind, etc,) in his way is the key that unlocked the doors to his vision. After 2019's same-titled debut album the return marked the recruiting of singer extraordinaire Daniel Heiman (ex-Lost Horizon) and the result is an album that brings back the glory of European '90s and '00s heavy/power metal. Note that this album isn't an underground "true metal" thing, this is a high quality release that could be released by bigger labels if the band wanted. Name them No Remorse Records (that did just the vinyl version) or Napalm Records, they could do it if they wished, and they could definitely sell a few thousands copies more. Everything a fan of European heavy/power metal needs is here and if The Mad King would be kinda squeezed if it was released in the late '90s to early '00s between all those HammerFall, Lost Horizon, Stratovarius, Kamelot etc. releases, in the 2020s it simply rules and it's the master of its game.
Check also: ANCIENT EMPIRE - Priest of Stygia, BLAZON STONE - Damnation, BRAINSTORM - Wall of Skulls, CLAYMOREAN - Eulogy for the Gods, CRYSTAL VIPER - The Cult, HELLOWEEN - Helloween, PALADINE - Entering the Abyss
9. PHARAOH - The Powers That Be
Professor Black's Pharaoh is back bringing again the powers of the great songwriting and the force of the riff. Excellent from start to finish, Pharaoh's fifth album has all the elements that made US power metal what it is. And if the band looks more of a "miss" in "hit-and-miss" in terms of recognition in the wider scene, one can't really argue about their high quality and that's what you should keep in mind. While Professor Black wrote Dawnbringer's Into the Lair of the Sun God (2012) in the key of H (Headless Cross, Heaven Forbid, Hammerheart, Hail to England, Holy Diver...), The Powers That Be looks like written in the key of R regarding bands, and you can spot the Running Wild influence in "Freedom" or an overall vibe of Riot. The quality of songs like "Dying Sun", "We Will Rise" and "When the World Was Mine" is unmatchable. Do yourself a favor and don't let this band pass you by.
Check also: IRON FATE - Crimson Messiah
8. UNTO OTHERS - Strength
After changing the name from Idle Hands to Unto Others, the lads from Portland, thankfully, didn't lose their momentum and the second full-length album is here with us, through a bigger record label. Let me add just one note about this change. It's always great for a band to be in the roster of a label such as historical and big like Roadrunner but in the modern era of the music industry, once a label can offer the same things in terms of royalties, distribution and promotion, you probably need to check only how easy or difficult the communication and co-operation can be. What do I mean? Unless it is a band choice, having the CD version of Strength already released in September and vinyl not yet out, looks like something "wrong" or something just not planned well for a label such as Roadrunner, let alone the lack of proper distribution in specific territories where Unto Others have a strong fan base (talking about Greece). Pre-ordering like half a year earlier, is not something the fans really like too. Back to the album, Gabe and Co. delivered a brilliant release that just lacks the element of surprise Mana had. It happens many times in music history and this is an unavoidable trap. The new album has one of the best sounds of any album released in 2021. What an amazing production this is! Courtesy of Arthur Rizk's wizardry and settings, Strength has the SONGS and a beautiful bittersweet feeling that after a few listens it becomes addictive, with all those excellent hooks and melodies. Still though, Strength needs its time to dwell its melancholy within you but in the end you will be rewarded.
Check also: LUNAR SHADOW's Wish to Leave is an album you're gonna like too. Actually, Max Birbaum's band is not really doing what Idle Hands (now Unto Others) did, since you already had the magnificent "Roses" track in The Smokeless Fires album that was a hint for the future, let alone that all "this thing" was already in the scene here and there, and Lunar Shadow was always a diverse band with an enormous variety of influences, bands from any genre you can think but also inspiration from life, night and everything Max could breath, hear, see and feel. The album is not as negative as it may sound in the first place, it has an excellent sound opposed to many overproduced metal albums and Max understands that not everyone needs to ride that train to the end, but he'll stay a little while longer and see where it takes him. We're aboard with him.
7. IRON MAIDEN - Senjutsu
When the first song "The Writing on the Wall" was published, I didn't like it at all. I still don't, even if the guitar solo part sounds great, but in the album's flow it doesn't bother me. The most negative issue I noticed at that specific track was Bruce Dickinson's performance, the production and the songwriting itself. Let's take them one by one and see how different they can be when the physical copy is on your stereo.
Bruce sounded a bit tired on that first track and like a vowel singer more than ever. When I used to listen to older Maiden tracks, I could understand every word without needing to read the lyrics (even if that completes the listening experience). However, in the new album it doesn't really happen. That means something. Well, the man was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue and he beat that. And he still sings in the Heavy Metal Empire so he is a hero. But, sometimes it sounds like there is a problem with the pronunciation of the "s" letter or his joint but weird enough, this comes and goes and it is not something you listen to the complete album. Iron Maiden are recording in the way the songs should be performed live, so I guess that the songs that will be included in the setlist intentionally have some "imperfections" or it just happened.
Jumping to production, the album also has the live feeling, just like most of the Maiden albums after Dickinson's and Smith's comeback. But how's the sound? It depends on the format and where you're listening to the album. If you believe that everywhere it is the same, sorry but you're wrong. Or you just don't know correctly about how a new album should be mastered. And that's because a new album should have three different masterings, one for the CD, one for vinyl and one for digital outlets. So, you have three different "sounds" plus it always depends where you're listening to the album. The album is not perfect in terms of production but never forget that this is also a matter of taste, let alone the fact that one can't ignore what the artists really want for their art. Let's say that digitally the limitations are stronger, CD is just... CD, and vinyl sounds much better with a warm analogue sound that sounds more outspread. So, if you want a better sound experience for Senjutsu, I suggest the vinyl format. Instruments? Bass guitar is loud as always, the three guitars don't always justify the "there-are-three-guitarists!" and the days of the glorious Smith/Murray dual masterwork and Birch-sound of the '80s is a long past. If someone believes that current producer Kevin Shirley is not a good one, oh lord, you are so naive! He is a top producer but here you probably have what Cap' Steve wants and asks for. What I really enjoyed about this album's sound is the drum set. Organic and nice, a thing I am missing sometimes in the era of all those Sabaton-whatever overproduced albums where everything is red-locked, triggered and sampled.
And finally, what about the songwriting, the thing that matters most? If you don't like what the British legend is doing over the past years, this album won't change your mind. But if you liked The Book of Souls you're loving this one already. It is that simple, but damn... who needs one minute of waves and seagulls at "Darkest Hour" or the ten minutes of "Death of the Celts" that could be cut down to seven? And there's more to cut, including parts of those long intros but anyways, this album has "Hell on Earth", one of the best Maiden songs of the past 30 years, "The Parchment" and "Darkest Hour" that brings back the glory of the last three solo Dickinson albums. By the way, Bruce sounds so awesome on this track, like it's a different session from "Stratego" and a few other songs. Like this will be a studio-only track so he doesn't care how it will sound live. If you think that I mentioned too negative things in an album that's so high in the list, it's Iron Fuckin' Maiden and the empire strikes back.
Check also: SKYEYE - Soldiers of Light
6. THRONEHAMMER - Incantation Rites
7 songs, 75 minutes. Damn you sludgers, that's epic! Just by that, you can understand what to expect. And it won't fail you. The UK/Germany based band features past and present members of many underground acts, and delivers crushing ultra heavy doom metal with a sludge vibe alongside an epic feeling and lyrics. Confident vocals with an excellent emotional performance, huge riffs, an insane guitar tone, huge riffs, a monolithic and suitable rhythm section, huge riffs, a strong '90s British doom (and doom/death) metal vibe and huge riffs. Tracks like "A Fading King" and "Of Mountaintops and Glacial Tombs" simply rule. This album is a beast. An earthquake. Heavy as Godzilla marching.
Check also: WORM - Foreverglade
5. SEVEN SISTERS - Shadow of a Fallen Star Pt.1
That album is dominated by the art of great songwriting and the lost art of great vocal lines. Damn, I miss that thing! Well, there aren't many out there that can do what Shadow Gallery did, but we're missing even the basic stuff. Not many people understand that the most important thing in a song, is the songwriting, and part of it, is also the vocal lines. A few of the greatest songs in metal music were arranged around a vocal line, just like a few of the early Ozzy Osbourne albums where Oz had the vocal line, the song title and a few words here and there, and then the band built the song around it. Or what Dio was doing in his solo career. How important is the vocal line? Very, very much! Like a song within a song, the thing that stays with you, the melody you sing. The thing that's missing in KKs Priest's debut album Sermons of the Sinner that was out the same period with Seven Sister's third album. Having the better singer doesn't mean you will have the better songwriting, or the better vocal lines, or the better performance, and in the end, you don't have the better album. And one can say that Tim Owens is a better singer than Kyle McNeill and no one will fight this opinion of course, but does it really matter when we're talking about music? In the end of the day, Owens rips his throat screaming here and there, but for the year 2021 and those albums, McNeill is a performer while Ripper is a screamer. And Tim's problem, just like many singers that "can hit the note, can keep the tone, can blah blah blah" is that he can't write good vocal lines. And as it seems, no one in KK's Priest did it for him, while Seven Sisters' Shadow of a Fallen Star Pt.1 is full of great vocal lines and a better songwriting. The youngsters from the United Kingdom put to shame many older bands, many better singers, many better musicians, many better "put-what-you-want-here" because they have the SONGS. Sorry, but you can have the better singer or the better guitarist but if you don't have the songs, you have shit. Shadow of a Fallen Star Pt.1 rules. It's full of great hooks, great melodies, great guitar parts, great vocal lines, GREAT SONGS.
More heavy, clean or dirty, metal to check: BLACK SOUL HORDE - Horrors from the Void, FORTRESS - Don't Spare the Wicked, HEAVY SENTENCE - Bang to Rights, HERZEL - Le Dernier Rempart, KONQUEST - The Night Goes On, LUCIFER'S HAMMER - The Trip, PORTRAIT - At One with None, TOWER - Shock to the System, TYRANN - Djävulens Musik, WANTON ATTACK - Wanton Attack
4. FUNERAL MIST - Deiform
It came out of nowhere. One of the best black metal releases of the past years will be the paradox of the years to come since you won't see it in most of the "top lists" of 2021. Why? Check the prologue. But who cares about lists besides the fun of making them since they (maybe) only represent the moment? Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and satanic voice, Daniel Rostén (using the name Arioch in Funeral Mist, also known as Mortuus in Marduk) delivers another different album in Funeral Mist's dark catalogue. From the chanting of the "Twilight of the Flesh", to the child choir in "Children of Urn" and the doomy "Deiform", Arioch added an atmosphere and parts of a melodic lunacy that showcase his many talents redefining Funeral Mist. You still have the Marduk-like ultra speed but Funeral Mist is Funeral Mist, a different beast releasing different albums of orthodox and unorthodox black metal that rips your spirit. I didn't expect such an album, ravenous and atmospheric, a milestone for the years to come, capturing the old essence of black metal. To catch up things, Rostén is not the regular guy you will see often in interviews and has a shady character that will be brought upfront in a few cases. If that's an issue, you don't have to listen to Deiform and you will survive the spiritual violence. Otherwise, here's a modern black metal masterpiece for your black soul.
Check also: FLUISTERAARS - Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking, SPECTRAL WOUND - A Diabolic Thirst, UNGFELL - Es Grauet
3. MEMORY GARDEN - 1349
The best doom metal album of 2021 comes from Sweden and that's not a surprise. It took them a while but the power-doom masters known as Memory Garden offer us their best album since Mirage (2000). With a crystal clear production and a masterful sound, 1349 is a conceptual album and the storyline covers both fact and fiction, taking place during the pandemic years of the black plague, released the years of a modern pandemic. A classy album in the vein of the fewer albums and style you can think of, the one of previous Memory Garden albums and also Candlemass' Chapter VI and the milestones of Memento Mori. Power doom metal, skillful and technical (do you want to add the "progressive" term?) with excellent melodies, huge riffs and really great guitar solos, something that's missing from modern metal releases. Bring us back our solos! Don't put one just because you have to, write the one that the song needs! Just like Memory Garden! There are so many highlights here that makes no sense to separate a few parts but let's just add that singer Stefan Berglund is an underrated vocalist with a voice that's an iconic part for Memory Garden. I don't think it is necessary to add how great guitarist Simon Johansson is, right? He is a master of his craft and a part of what I call "the Scandinavian metal style" that includes the likes of Hank Shermann, Michael Denner, Andy La Rocque and Mike Wead. That specific Scandinavian guitar metal style is very heavy, suitable for power metal bands (but not the US power metal bands or the Helloween-style bands), doom bands with power metal elements, it is technical and there are always many solo parts. That's one thing that you will find in 1349. Listen to the album and you will find more if you're looking for a high quality doom metal release.
Check also: SERVANTS TO THE TIDE same-titled debut album is a melancholic, dramatic, and melodic doom metal offering influenced by bands such as Atlantean Kodex and While Heaven Wept, and it sounds as the beginning of greater things to come.
2. STORMKEEP - Tales of Othertime
Isaac Faulk is a youngster born the year of Black Sabbath's Headless Cross and Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness, also known as the drummer of Blood Incantation and Wayfarer, here using the (complete) stage name of Grandmaster Otheyn Vermithrax Poisontongue, handling vocals, guitars and additional key sorcery, writing also the majority of the album. With a company of other counts and lords, they created one more hyped awaited underground black metal record following 2020's highly-acclaimed Galdrum EP. "Stormkeep represents medieval fantasy, ancient legends and magick exclusively" is written in the booklet of the album, with its first pressing in both CD and vinyl format sold-out within a few days. What do we have here? Here is what we can call "epic black metal" (or "symphonic black metal", that once was called "majestic black metal") with its melodic parts, the dungeon synth and the fantasy lyrics. There are so many things that make this medieval black metal (you can also call it like this) cool: the riffs, the interludes and synths, the adventurous spirit, the storms and the dragons, but most importantly, the brilliant songwriting. And the Top-2 album of 2021 can go hand in hand with...
1. MORGUL BLADE - Fell Sorcery Abounds
The hyped debut album that will pierce your flesh is something really outstanding. Epic heavy metal with a nod to second wave black metal, clean and harsh vocals, and lyrics about Nazgul, magick and might, forlorn battlefields, heroic deeds and beings of unlimited power. If it sounds cool and nerdy, it's actually much greater. The 4-piece from Philadelphia, PA, USA presents something unique. It is not "epic black metal", it is not like all those Bathory-inspired acts and definitely not like those "blackened heavy metal" or "blackened thrash metal" bands you already know. And even if the band also loves Malokarpatan, it's still not the same. Fell Sorcery Abounds brings something new and actually it is epic heavy metal with huge riffs ("Sons of the Night" is the year's ultimate banger!) and each song has the vocals it needs. Name them evil, or the Witch King's voice, or the sound of demons' walk amongst men. And then, you have a voice that appears like an oak in the mist, or a voice that will light the flame. They know it or not, there's also a strong vibe of Hellenic black metal therein, and Morgul Blade's Fell Sorcery Abounds was equally loved by the underground metal fans and by band members of acts such as Smoulder and Lamp of Murmuur. We don't know where the second album will take us, the band members keep digging and following the current underground metal scene while they're also establishing themselves in the top of the current best newcomers. But this album is a breakthrough. It rules, it's a banger, it's Nazgul Metal!
Hopes and wishes for 2022? Freedom! We hope this pandemic-thing will end.
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