Dec 012021
 

 

We have now entered the final month of 2021, and that begins the final countdown to the end of the year. In the world of metal, this month we’ll also start seeing more and more lists of the year’s best releases.

Back in 2009, when this site was just a few days old, I wrote a post about year-end lists and why people bother with them. The best reason still seems to be this: Reading someone else’s list of the albums they thought were best is a good way to discover music you missed and might like.

We don’t do an “official” NCS year-end “best albums” list. However, we publish the picks of each of our regular staff writers as well as a group of invited guests, in addition to lists that we re-post from a few print zines and “big platform” online sites.

Every year we also invite our readers to share their lists and we’re doing that again right here, right now.

If you’ve been pondering what you’ve heard this year and have made your own list of the albums, EPs, or splits released in 2021 that you think are the best of what you’ve heard, we invite you to share it with everyone in the Comments section to this post. And if you haven’t made a list yet but want to, there’s still plenty of time (read below).

 

We don’t have any hard-and-fast rules about year-end lists. Your list doesn’t have to be a specific number — it doesn’t have to be a “Top 10″ or “Top 20″ list, it could be a Top 2 list or a Top 15, or any other number.

And it doesn’t have to be a cross-genre list, i.e., the best of all metal you’ve heard this year. It could be the best death metal, or the best black metal, or the best grind, or the best crust or doom or prog or thrash metal, and on and on — pretty much whatever you want to do and feel comfortable doing, as long as it fits your definition of metal.

Don’t be shy, and don’t worry about being judged — if you haven’t figured it out already, it ain’t our style nor is it usually the style of our commenters to ridicule what someone else thinks is great metal.

And if you don’t have a list ready yet, no sweat, because you can come back to this post whenever you like and add your list later — or comment on the lists others have posted. I’ll put a link to this post at the top right side of every page so people can find it quickly — look for the link to 2021 NCS READERS’ YEAR-END LISTS. That will make the comments to this post a collection point for “Best of” readers’ lists. And that link will stay on our page from now through this time in 2022.

Last year we had 114 comments on this invitation, and I think that says something about how interested people are in seeing each other’s lists and reacting to them. So start thinking and start commenting (please, and thank you).

~Islander

  96 Responses to “LISTMANIA 2021: AN INVITATION FOR READERS’ LISTS OF THE YEAR’S BEST METAL”

  1. Greetings to all who contribute to or follow this great site – here’s my personal favourites for this year (but it’s all subjective, of course);

    1. QRIXKUOR ‘POISON PALINOSIA’
    2. GHASTLY ‘MERCURIAL PASSAGES’
    3. LVCIFYRE ‘THE BROKEN SEAL’
    4. DRAWN & QUARTERED ‘CONGREGATION PESTILENCE’
    5. DAKHMA ‘BLESSINGS OF AMURDAD’
    6. EXIMPERITUS ‘ŠAHRARTU’
    7. UNIVERSALLY ESTRANGED ‘REARED UP IN SPECTRAL PREDATION’
    8. ANTEDILUVIAN ‘THE DIVINE PUNISHMENT’

    An amazing year, under the current circumstances, thanks to all those artists for some fantastic music!

  2. 1.The Silver-Ward of Roses
    2.Bizarrekult-Vi Overlevelde
    3.1914-Where Fear and Weapons Meet
    4.Worm-Foreverglade
    5.Alustrium-A Monument to Silence
    6.Bohemyst-Cern A Smrt
    7,Stormruler-Under the Burning Eclipse
    8.Krigsgrav-The Sundering
    8.Kanonenfieber-Menschenmuhle
    10.Misanthur-Ephemeris

  3. Best of 2021

    ⬜ – Mastodon – Hushed and Grim
    ⬜ – Gojira – Fortitude
    ⬜ – Iotunn – Access All Worlds
    ⬜ – Dordeduh – Har
    ⬜ – The Lion’s Daughter – Skin Show
    ⬜ – Voices – Breaking The Trauma Bond
    ⬜ – Tribulation – Where The Gloom Becomes Sound
    ⬜ – Swallow The Sun – Moonflowers
    ⬜ – Terminus – The Silent Bell Toll
    ⬜ – Whitechapel – Kin
    ⬜ – Fractal Universe – The Impassable Horizon
    ⬜ – Rivers of Nihil – The Work
    ⬜ – Interloper – Search Party
    ⬜ – Obscura – A Valediction
    ⬜ – Between The Buried And Me – Colors II
    ⬜ – Green Lung – Black Harvest
    ⬜ – Unto Others – Strength
    ⬜ – Mercury Circle – Killing Moons
    ⬜ – Carcass – Torn Arteries
    ⬜ – The Crown – Royal Destroyer
    ⬜ – Asphyx – Necroceros
    ⬜ – Hooded Menace – The Tritonus Bell
    ⬜ – Impure Wilhelmina – Antidote
    ⬜ – Soen – Imperial
    ⬜ – Evergrey – Escape Of The Phoenix
    ⬜ – The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires
    ⬜ – CROWN – The End of All Things
    ⬜ – Khemmis – Deceiver
    ⬜ – Boss Keloid – Family the Smiling Thrush
    ⬜ – Monolord – Your Time To Shine
    ⬜ – 1914 – Where Fear And Weapons Meet
    ⬜ – Memoriam – To The End
    ⬜ – At The Gates – The Nightmare Of Being
    ⬜ – Omnium Gatherum – Origin
    ⬜ – Vreid – Wild North West
    ⬜ – Baest – Necro Sapiens
    ⬜ – Dvne – Etemen Ænka
    ⬜ – Vokonis – Odyssey
    ⬜ – Eastern High – Halo
    ⬜ – Loch Vostok – Opus Ferox – The Great Escape
    ⬜ – Monster Magnet – A Better Dystopia
    ⬜ – Red Fang – Arrows
    ⬜ – Robots Of The Ancient World – Mystic Goddess
    ⬜ – Alastor – Onwards and Downwards
    ⬜ – Lake of Tears – Ominous
    ⬜ – Wolves in the Throne Room – Primordial Arcana
    ⬜ – MØL – Diorama
    ⬜ – Tombs – Under Sullen Skies
    ⬜ – Endseeker – Mount Carcass
    ⬜ – Abscession – Rot of Ages
    ⬜ – Grand Cadaver – Maw of Death
    ⬜ – Horndal – Lake Drinker
    ⬜ – Wolves in Haze – Chaos Reigns
    ⬜ – King Buffalo – The Burden of Restlessness
    ⬜ – Wheel – Resident Human
    ⬜ – Archspire – Bleed The Future
    ⬜ – Alluvial – Sarcoma
    ⬜ – LLNN – Unmaker
    ⬜ – The Amenta – Revelator
    ⬜ – Trivium – In the Court of the Dragon
    ⬜ – Andrew W.K. – God is Partying
    ⬜ – Four Stroke Baron – Classics
    ⬜ – Be’lakor – Coherence
    ⬜ – Burial in the Sky – Consumed Self
    ⬜ – Hippotraktor – Meridian
    ⬜ – Somnuri – Nefarious Wave
    ⬜ – Urne – Serpent & Spirit
    ⬜ – The Ugly Kings – Strange, Strange Times
    ⬜ – Doctor Smoke – Dreamers and the Dead
    ⬜ – Evile – Hell Unleashed
    ⬜ – Cryptosis – Bionic Swarm
    ⬜ – Bewitcher – Cursed Be Thy Kingdom
    ⬜ – The Limit – Caveman Logic
    ⬜ – White Void – Anti
    ⬜ – We Butter The Bread With Butter – Das Album
    ⬜ – Nightfall – At Night We Prey
    ⬜ – Moonspell – Hermitage
    ⬜ – Light of the Morning Star – Charnel Noir
    ⬜ – Ophis – Spew Forth Odium
    ⬜ – Marianas Rest – Fata Morgana
    ⬜ – Thulcandra – A Dying Wish
    ⬜ – Pestilence – Exitivm
    ⬜ – Frozen Soul – Crypt Of Ice
    ⬜ – Mordkaul – Dress Code: Blood
    ⬜ – Worm – Foreverglade
    ⬜ – Mortiferum – Preserved In Torment
    ⬜ – Eyehategod – A History of Nomadic Behavior

    I have not listened yet for conclusions:

    ⬜ Hypocrisy – Worship
    ⬜ In Mourning – The Bleeding Veil
    ⬜ Lurking Fear – Death, Madness, Horror, Decay
    ⬜ Dream Unending – Tide Turns Eterna
    ⬜ Black Label Society – Doom Crew Inc.
    ⬜ Aquilus – Bellum I
    ⬜ Genocide Pact – Genocide Pact
    ⬜ Funeral – Praesentialis in Aeternum
    ⬜ Atlas – Ukko
    ⬜ Mire – A New Found Rain
    ⬜ Memory Garden – 1349

    • What a list! there’s a few there I’ve not come across yet. Have you heard the new Converge album with Chelsea Wolfe?

      • Yes! A quality release, but is not for me, left me cold.

      • My Top 20 Metal Releases for 2021

        1. Worm – Foreverglade
        2. 1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet
        3. Lake of Tears – Ominous
        4. Hooded Menace – The Tritonus Bell
        5. Green Lung – Black Harvest
        6. Asphyx – Necroceros
        7. Khemmis – Deceiver
        8. Gojira – Fortitude
        9. Carcass – Torn Arteries
        10. Enforced – Kill Grid
        11. Rivers of Nihil – The Work
        12. Tribulation – Where Gloom Becomes Sound
        13. Cryptosis – Bionic Swarm
        14. Unto Others – Strength
        15. Wraith – Undo the Chains
        16. Exodus – Persona Non Grata
        17. Eyehategod – A History of Nomadic Behavior
        18. Terminalist – The Great Acceleration
        19. Spirit World – Pagan Rhythms
        Ruins of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires

  4. My favorite albums of 2021 –
    Archspire – Bleed The Future
    Qrixkuor – Poison Palinopsia
    1914 – Where Fear And Weapons Meet
    Gatecreeper – an unexpected reality
    Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst
    Epiphanic Truth – Dark Triad : Bitter palsms to a sorid species
    Thy Catafalque – Vadak
    Portal – Avow
    Boss Keloid – Family the smiling thrush
    Pathology – the everlasting plague

  5. 1) Voices- Braking The Trauma Bond
    2) Werewolves- What A Time To Be Alive
    3) NakhArA- The Procession
    4) Moral Collapse- Moral Collapse
    5) Lantlos- Wildhund
    6) C R O W N- The End of All Things
    7) Akhenaten- The Emerald Tablets
    8) First Fragment- Glorie Eternelle
    9) Norse- Ascetic
    10)TRNA- Istok
    11) Vrendensval- Fealty Of Diabolism
    12) Khandra- All Occupied By Sole Death
    13) Revulsion- Revulsion
    14) Replicant- Malignant Reality
    15) Wode- Burn In Many Mirrors
    16) HIPPOTRAKTOR- Meridian
    17) Frontierer- Oxidized
    18) Shrines- Ghost Notes
    19) Defod- The Lengthening Shadow
    20) MOL- Diorama

  6. Argh, it’s too soon. I’m not even close to done digesting this year’s offerings. There was a lot of good stuff. I’m not sure there were a lot of truly great releases though.

    Great:
    Stargazer
    Cerebral Rot

    Very good:
    Sijjin
    Iskandr
    Fluisteraars
    Unto Others

    Possibly also very good, but I need to listen to them more:
    Rothadas
    Apparition
    Worm
    Nephilim Grinder
    Mortiferum
    Herzel
    Conjureth
    Sulphurous
    Dypigus
    Venefixion
    Suffering Sights
    Carcass
    Cynic
    Ruin
    Qrixkuor
    Ghastly
    Aenigmatum
    Ungfell
    Grave Miasma
    Morbific
    Concrete Winds
    Hyperdontia
    Civerous

  7. 1. Dordeduh – Har
    2. Kauan – Ice fleet
    3. Empyrium – Über den Sternen
    4. LLNN – Unmaker
    5. Genghis tron – Dream weapon
    6. Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm
    7. Moanhand – Present serpent
    8. Papangu – Holoceno
    9. Dakhma – Blessings of Amurdad

  8. 2021 I enjoyed the most

    Amenra – De Doorn
    Antediluvian – The devine punishment
    Flight of Sleipnir – Eventide
    Fluisteraars – Gegrepen Door De Geest Der Zielsontluiking
    Morgul Blade – Fell Sorcery abounds
    Suffering hour – The cyclic Reckoning
    Unto Others – Strength

  9. Saidan & Klanen – Split
    Saidan – Jigoku- Spiraling Chasms Of The Blackest Hell
    Silver Talon – Decadence and Decay
    Threshing Spirit – Piercing The Menbrane
    Vladimír Pavelka – Spomienky
    Crucifixion Bell – Eternal Grip of the Nocturnal Empire & Splits

  10. ColdCell – The Greater Evil
    Ferriterium – Calvaire
    Fyrnask – VII: Kenoma
    Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm
    Pestilential Shadows – Revenant
    Sermon of Flames – I Have Seen the Light, and It Was Repulsive
    Seth – La morsure du Christ
    Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst
    Tardigrada – Vom Bruch bis zur Freiheit
    Whoredom Rife – Winds Of Wrath
    Woman Is the Earth – Dust of Forever
    Yoth Iria – As the Flame Withers

  11. Darkthrone – Eternal Hails……
    Inhuman Condition – Rat°God
    Wolves in the Throne Room – Primordial Arcana
    Spectral Lore – Ετερόφωτος
    Sněť – Mokvání V Okovech
    Vertebra Atlantis – Lustral Purge in Cerulean Bliss
    Dungeon Serpent – World of Sorrows
    Stormkeep – Tales of Othertime
    Mystras – Empires Vanquished And Dismantled
    Kanonenfieber – Menschenmühle
    Aborted – ManiaCult
    Hooded Menace – The Tritonus Bell
    Autarkh – Form in Motion
    Diskord – Degenerations
    Cerebral Rot – Excretion of Mortality
    Fulci – Exhumed Information
    Marasmus – Necrotic Overlord
    Polemicist – Return of the Sophist
    Eye of Purgatory – The Lighthouse
    Esoctrilihum – Dy’th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath
    Borgne – Temps morts
    Gravesend – Methods of Human Disposal
    Midnight Odyssey – Biolume, Pt. 2: The Golden Orb
    Les Chants du Hasard – Livre Troisième
    Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm
    Frozen Soul – Crypt of Ice
    Full of Hell – Garden of Burning Apparitions
    Ars Magna Umbrae – Throne Between Worlds
    Dakhma – Blessings of Amurdad
    ZAÄAR – Magická Džungl’a
    StarGazer – Psychic Secretions
    Thecodontion & Vessel of Iniquity – The Permian​-​Triassic Extinction Event
    Defacement – Defacement
    Replicant – Malignant Reality

  12. 1. Revulsion – Revulsion

    2. Iotunn – Access All Worlds

    3. Kanonenfieber – Menschenmühle

    4. Wode – Burn in Many Mirrors

    5. Vånda – Covenant of Death

    6. Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm

    7. Lunar Shadow – Wish to Leave

    8. Oldskull – Nether Hollow of No Return

    9. Vomit Ritual – Callous

    10. Inhuman Condition – Rat°God

    11. Typhonian – The Cosmic Pendulum of Time

    12. Mepharis – Eternal Night

    13. Lóstregos – Onde Calan Os Corazóns Ruxen As Pedras

    14. Unendlich – Paradox of a Broken World

    15. Angrrsth – Donikad

    16. Fetid Zombie – Transmutations

    17. Białywilk – Próżnia

    18. Unto Others – Strength

    19. Hooded Menace – The Tritonus Bell

    20. Worm – Foreverglade

    21. 1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet

    22. Noltem – Illusions in the Wake

    23. Decripsy – Emetic Communion

    24. Windfaerer – Breaths of Elder Dawns

    25. Frozen Soul – Crypt of Ice

    26. Mortiferum – Preserved in Torment

    27. Stormkeep – Tales of Othertime

    28. Obscura – A Valediction

    29. Be’lekor – Coherence

    30. Hyperdontia – Hideous Entity

    31. Khemmis – Deceiver

    Those are in order of me hearing them, not preference. Also, I feel like that list is not yet fully realized. But, so far that’s what I got. This has been an absolute banger year for Metal, and it’s hard to pick a number one… But here goes my top 5:

    5. Inhuman Condition – Rat°God
    4. Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm
    3. Mortiferum – Preserved in Torment
    2. Worm – Foreverglade
    1. Kanonenfieber – Menschenmühle

    I think that’s it… Although I had a hard time keeping out the new Khemmis, and that Hyperdontia album. Once again, what a great year for us Heavy Metal fans.

    Hope everyone is staying safe, and sane!

    Nick

  13. 1) Maere – Harakiri For The Sky
    2) The Work – Rivers of Nihil
    3) Eve – Balmog
    4) Christfucker – Portrayal of Guilt
    5) Bloodmoon I – Converge/CW
    6) …Enamel Queen – Black Sheep Wall
    7) Etemen Ænka – DVNE
    8) Vom Bruch… – Tardigrada
    9) Imperative Imperceptible Impulse – Ad Nauseum
    10) Deceiver – Khemmis
    11) Psychic Secretions – Stargazer
    12) De Doorn – Amenra
    13) Interstice – Knoll
    14) Kin – Whitechapel
    15) Foreverglade – Worm
    16) Primordial Arcana – WITTR
    17) Antidote – Impure Wilhelmina
    18) Tales of Othertime – Stormkeep
    19) The Path of Wrath – Wolf King
    20) Death Weight – Whitehorse

  14. I’ve been listening to a lot of older stuff mostly and missed a ton too. These are the few new albums that I’ve purchased and enjoyed.

    Darkthrone- Eternal Hails

    Mastodon- Hushed and Grim

    Knocked Loose- A Tear In The Fabric Of Life

    Gojira – Fortitude

    Go Ahead And Die -s/t

    Panopticon- And Again Into The Light

    Bridge City Sinners – Unholy Hymns

  15. Top 5’s!
    EPs
    Xanathar – The Towers
    Empty Throne – Glossolalia
    Paraphilia – Primordium of Sinister Butchery
    Porta Magna – Swallowed by the Ocean
    Black Hole Deity – Lair of Xenolich

    Death
    Veilburner – Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull
    Anarkhon – Phantasmogorical Personification of the Death Temple
    Craven Idol – Forked Tongues
    Ex Deo – 13 Years of Nero
    Abscession – Rot of Ages

    Black
    Kanonenfieber – Menschenmuhle
    Mystras – Empires Vanquished and Dismantled
    Stormkeep – Tales of Othertime
    1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet
    Sxuperion – Auscaltating Astral Monuments

  16. Mastodon – Hushed and Grim
    Zao – The Crimson Corridor
    Carcass – Torn Arteries
    Every Time I Die – Radical
    Gojira – Fortitude
    Rody Walker – Sharks Fly, Homemade
    Thrice – Horizons / East
    Andrew W.K. – God is Partying
    1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet
    Worm – Foreverglade

    • I really wanted Trivium to be on this list bc I thought last year’s What the Dead Men Say was great.

      I’ve listened through Court of the Dragon 3-4 times now and nothing sticks. I just find myself thinking about the proper pronunciation of Damocles.

      And so continues my on/off relationship with Trivium.

  17. In no particular order:

    * Archspire – Bleed the Future
    * Sentinels – Collapse by Design
    * First Fragment – Gloire Éternelle
    * Knocked Loose – A Tear in the Fabric of Life
    * Rivers of Nihil – The Work
    * Aenigmatum – Deconsecrate
    * Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning
    * Vildhjarta – Måsstaden under vatten
    * Spiritbox – Eternal Blue
    * Atrae Bilis – Apexapien
    * Ad Nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
    * Replicant – Malignant Reality
    * Autharkh – Form in Motion
    * Blindfolded and led to the woods – Nightmare Withdrawals
    * Throne – Pestilent Dawn
    * Frontierer – Oxidized
    * Veilburner – Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull

  18. Worm – Foreverglade
    Cadaveric Fumes – Echoing Chambers of Soul CD/LP/TAPE
    Dvne – Etemen Ænka
    Gateway – Flesh Reborn
    Wheel – Preserved in Time
    Dream Unending – Tide Turns Eternal
    Noltem – Illusions in the Wake
    STORMKEEP – Tales of Othertime
    Crescent – Carving The Fires of Akhet
    Witch Vomit – Abhorrent Rapture
    Cerebral Rot – Excretion Of Mortality
    Skepticism – Companion
    Mortiferum – Preserved in Torment
    King Woman – Celestial Blues
    Atvm – Famine, Putrid and Fucking Endless
    Sermon Of Flames – I Have Seen The Light, And It Was Repulsive
    Rothadás – Kopár hant… az alvilág felé
    Necrofier – Prophecies of Eternal Darkness
    Sulphurous – The Black Mouth of Sepulchre
    QRIXKUOR – Poison Palinopsia

  19. My top 5 2021 AOTY

    1. Non Serviam – Le Coeur Bat
    2. Gaahls WYRD – The Humming Mountains
    3. FLUISTERAARS – Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking
    4. Non Serviam – Il Pleut Partout Derrière
    5. Paysage d’Hiver – Geister

  20. A great year for metal of all kinds

    – Carcass – Torn Arteries
    – Archspire – Bleed the Future
    – Non Serviam – Le Coeur Bat
    – Portrayal of Guilt – Christfucker
    – Mystras – Empires Vanquished And Dismantled
    – Këkht Aräkh – Pale Swordsman
    – Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined
    – Zao – The Crimson Corridor
    – LLNN – Unmaker
    – Lamp Of Murmuur – Submission And Slavery

  21. My Top Death metal for 2021:

    Worm Foreverglade
    Hyperdontia Hideous Entity
    Blood Red Throne Imperial Congregation
    Hooded Menance The Tritonus Bell
    Phrenelith Chimaera
    1914 Where Fear and Weapons Meet
    Mortiferum Preserved in Torment
    Sulphurous The Black Mouth of Sepulchre
    Galvanizer Prying Sight of Imperception
    Drawn and Quartered Congregation Pestilence
    Ghastly Mercurial Passages
    Rothadas Kopár hant… az alvilág felé
    Be’Lakor Coherence
    Suffering Hour The Cyclic Rekoning
    Frozen Soul Crypts of Ice
    Revulsion Revulsion
    Apparition Feel
    Decrepisy Emetic Communion
    Famishgod Rotting Ceremony
    Organic Where Graves Abound
    Cerebral Rot Excretion of Mortality
    Morbific Ominous Seep of Putridity
    Sarcoughagus Delusions of the Sick
    Bizzare Invocation Codex
    Intonate Severed Within

  22. Livløs – And Then There Were None
    Between the Buried and Me – Colors II
    Idles – Crawler
    DVNE – Etemen Ænka
    Gojira – Fortitude
    Hippotraktor – Meridian
    Frontierer – Oxidized
    Humantity’s Last Breath – Välde
    Iotunn – Access All Worlds
    Stortregn – Impermanence
    Every Time I Die – Radical

    Need to spend more time with: Khemmis, Atvm, Mastodon, Der Weg einer Freiheit, Trivium

  23. Here are my top 20 of the year:

    1. Thron – Pilgrim
    2. Majestic Downfall – Aorta
    3. Cult Of Luna – The Raging River
    4. Sepulcros – Vazio
    5. Aetheria Conscientia – Corrupted Pillars Of Vanity
    6. Genune – Inert And Unerring
    7. Blood Red Throne – Imperial Congregation
    8. Aara – Triade I: Eos
    9. Grima – Rotting Garden
    10. Mastodon – Hushed And Grim
    11. Amenra – De Doorn
    12. Paranorm – Empyrean
    13. Hellish Form – Remains
    14. Helloween – Helloween
    15. Asylum – Sharpen
    16. Tribulation – Where The Gloom Becomes Sound
    17. Abstracter – Abominion
    18. Diabolizer – Khalkedonian Death
    19. The Ruins Of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires
    20. Trna – Istok

    And it’s always a possibility there might be new entries once I catch up with those on end of year lists I haven’t heard yet.

    All in all I’d go so far to say it’s been a rather good year.

  24. Twenty 2021 Albums I Love, by Dudeguy Jones

    Atvm – Famine, Putrid and Fucking Endless
    Mefitis – Offscourings
    Ad Nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
    The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires
    The Silver – Ward of Roses
    Paranorm – Empyrean
    Veilburner – Lurkers In the Capsule of Skull
    Archspire – Bleed The Future
    Worm – Foreverglade
    Aenigmatum – Deconsecrate
    Noltem – Illusions In The Wake
    Norse – Ascetic
    Koldovsto – Ни царя, ни бога
    Yautja – The Lurch
    Old Nick – A New Generation of Vampire Chronicles
    Dark Throne – Eternal Hails
    Demoniac – So It Goes
    Polemicist – Return of the Sophist
    Dream Unending – Tides Turn Eternal
    Creature – Eloge De l’Ombre

    • Theres four albums I am highly anticipating before the years end.

      Phrenelith
      Cadaveric Fumes
      Klabautamann
      Dolven

      If any of those are good, and they’ll likely be amazing, then they’ll shake up the list.

  25. Another great year.
    This is my personal favorites, many of them new aquaintances, thanks in part to NCS and other generous people around.

    1:
    Panopticon: … And Again Into The Light
    2:
    Veilburner: Lurkers In The Capsule Of Skull
    3:
    Violet Cold: Empire Of Love
    4:
    Fugitive Wizard: Obscuri Æternum
    5:
    Worm: Foreverglade
    6:
    Suffering Hour: The Cyclic Reckoning
    7:
    Vola: Mirrors
    8:
    Sallow Moth: Stasis Cocoon
    9:
    Grey Aura: Zwarte Vierkant
    10:
    Dvne: Etemen Ænka
    11:
    Sol Kia: Zos Ethos
    12:
    Archspire: Bleed The Future
    13:
    Kaatayra: Inpariquipê
    14:
    So Hideous: None But A Pure Heart Can Sing
    15:
    King Woman: Celestial Blues
    16:
    The Silver: Ward Of Roses
    17:
    Atræ Bilis: Apexapien
    18:
    LLNN: Unmaker
    19:
    Kreationist: Dans L’interminable
    20:
    Violblast: Lazarus Abandoned
    21:
    Khemmis: Deceiver
    22:
    Yautja: The Lurch
    23:
    Moral Collapse: Moral Collapse
    24:
    Ophis: Spew Forth Odium
    25:
    Atvm: Famine, Putrid And Fucking Endless

    Cheers!

    • Oh Lord. Seems I left out Year Of No Light: Consolamentum … terrific album! Ans as I’m listening to the new Dormant Ordeal it’s straight up scandalous not to include them as well. Wonderful work.

  26. My top albums for the year:

    Honorable mentions:

    13. Dead Exaltation- Despondent
    12. Monte Penumbra- As Blades In The Firmament
    11. Avtotheism – The Sleeper Awakens

    The best:

    10. Sallow Moth – Stasis Cocoon
    9. Malgoth – Glory Through Savagery
    8. Groza – The Redemptive End
    7. Knowledge Through Suffering – Concealment
    6. Issolei- Cilicium
    5. Crypts of Despair – All Light Swallowed
    4. Qrixkuor – Poison Palinopsia
    3. Misotheist- For The Glory Of Your Redeemer
    2. Suffering Hour- The Cyclic Reckoning
    1. Ferriterium- Calvaire

  27. 1. Gravenchalice – Samael
    This album is absolutely crushingly brilliant. It’s just in a league of its own.
    2. Leitha – Sisyphus
    3. Knowledge Through Suffering – Concealment
    4. Goath – III Shaped by the Unlight
    5. Dream Unending – Tide Turns Eternal
    6. Vrykolakas – And Vrkolakas Brings Chaos and Destruction
    7. Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning
    8. Seth – La morsure du Christ
    9. Valdaudr – Drapsdalen
    10. Hate – Rugia
    11. Gorgon – Traditio Satanae
    12. The Slow Death – Siege
    13. Crypts of Despair – All Light Swallowed
    14. Decrepisy – Emmetic Communion
    15. Hypocrisy – Worship
    16. Fossilization – He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten
    17. Stikkersven – Demo
    18. Deconsecration/Reburied Split
    19. Hellish Form – Remains
    20. Clandestine Blaze – Secrets of Laceration

  28. Let’s see…

    In no particular order :

    Concrete Winds “Nerve Butcherer”
    Iotunn “Access All Worlds”
    Archspire “Bleed The Future”
    Lamp of Murmuur “Submission and Slavery”
    Funeral Chant “Dawn of Annihilation”
    Veilburner “Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull”
    Diskord “Degenerations”
    Ringarë “Thrall of Winter’s Majesty”
    Worm “Foreverglade”
    Headshrinker “Callous Indifference”
    Stone Healer “Conquistador”
    Sanguisugabogg “Tortured Whole”

    This was a good to great year (especially enjoyed Lamp of Murmuur, Archspire and Iotunn). Can’t list Deviant Process “Nurture”, which I waited for very long, but was too irregular in the end.

    And I wish we got a new Tomb Mold record…

  29. This list would be different obviously at the end of December, January or next year. But so far this is it. More or less in order:

    1 Atvm – Famine, Putrid and Fucking Endless

    2 Sunless – Ylem

    3 Mefitis – Offscourings

    4 Civic – Future Forecast

    5 Vomit Spell – Vomit Spell

    6 Diskord – Degenerations

    7 Ænigmatum – Deconsecrate

    8 Devoid of Thought – Outer World Graves

    9 Ekulu – Unscrew My Head

    10 Vertebra Atlantis – Lustral Purge in Cerulean Bliss

    11 Wode – Burn in Many Mirrors

    12 Stone Healer – Conquistador

    13 Vijay Iyer / Linda May Han Oh / Tyshawn Sorey – Uneasy

    14 Jeff Rosenstock -SKA DREAM

    15 Rapture – Malevolent Demise Incarnation

    16 Hyperdontia – Hideous Entity

    17 Concrete Winds – Nerve Butcherer

    18 Bicep – Isles

    19 Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst

    20 Slant – 1집

    21 King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Butterfly 3000

    22 Heavy Sentence – Bang to Righ

  30. My top albums of 2021:

    10. In Mourning – The Bleeding Veil.

    9. Demoniac – So It Goes

    8. Thyrfing – Vanagandr

    7. Harakiri for the Sky – Maere

    6. Helloween – Helloween

    5. Malignament – Hypocrisis Absolution

    4. Cân Bardd – Devoured by the Oak

    3. Fear Factory – Agression Continuum

    2. Los Males del Mundo – Descent Towards Death

    AND THE BEST OF THE BEST:

    1. Mānbryne – Heilsweg: O udręce ciała i tułaczce duszy

  31. 1. Nature Morte – Messe Basse
    2. Amenra – De Doorn
    3. Crystal Coffin – The Eternal Stairway
    4. Der Weg Einer Freihet – Noctvrn
    5. Los Males del Mundo – Descent Towards Death
    6. Dödsrit – Mortal Coil
    8. Dola – Czasy
    9. Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst
    10. Wolves in the Throneroom – Primordial Arcana

    Song of the year: Trna/Gaerea – Shining
    Best teaser for 2022: Wiegedood – Now Will Always Be

  32. No specific order:
    Paranorm – Empyrean
    Møl – Diorama
    Portrayal of Guilt – We are always alone
    Demoniac – So it goes
    Amenra – De Doorn
    Spectral Wound – A diabolic thirst
    Backxwash – I lie here buried with my rings and dresses
    Aara – Triade I : Eos
    Cryptosis – Bionic Swarm

  33. 1914- Where Fear and Weapons Meet
    Archspire- Bleed the Future
    Cerebral Rot- Execretion of Mortality
    Craven Idol- Forked Tongues
    Heavy Sentence- Bang to Rights
    Hooded Menace- The Tritonus Bell
    Hulder- Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry
    Kanonenfieber- Menschenmuhle
    Mare Cognitum- Solar Paroxysm
    Outre tombe- Abysse Mortifere
    Spectral Wound- A Diabolic Thirst
    Stormkeep- Tales of Othertime
    Suffering Hour- The Cyclic Reckoning
    Withered- Verloren
    Yoth Iria- As The Flame Withers

  34. Amenra /De Doorn
    Mare Cognitum /Solar Paroxysm
    Lamp of Murmuur /Submission and Slavery
    Panopticon /And Again Into The Light
    Non Serviam /Le Couer Bat

  35. Thank you for your invitation, here’s my list of the albums who left a mark in my mind…for years to come:

    1914: Where fear and weapons Meet

    DARKTHRONE: Eternal Hails

    GRAVE MIASMA: Abyss of wrathful Deities

    MANBRYNE:Heilsweg: O Udręce Ciała I Tułaczce Duszy

    UNANIMATED: Victory in Blood

    HYPERDONTIA: Hideous Entity

    MORTIFERUM: Preserved in Torment

    LVCIFYRE: The broken Seal

    AT THE GATES: The nightmare of Being

    DIABOLIZER: Khalkedonian Death

    SUFFER YOURSELF: Rip Tide

    FULCI: Exhumed Information

    CEREBRAL ROT: Excretion of Mortality

    PORTAL: Avow

    OSSAERT: Pelgrimsoord

    ALTARAGE: Succumb

    AARA: Triade I: Eos

    TRIBULATION: Where the gloom becomes Sound

    HYPOCRISY: Worship

    LOS MALES DEL MUNDO: Descent towards Death

    WARDRUNA: Kvitravn

    GAAHLS WYRD: The humming Mountain

  36. In no specific order:

    Khemmis – Deceiver
    Burial in the Sky – The Consumed Self
    Rivers of Nihil – The Work
    Asphyx – Necroceros
    Ophidian I – Desolate
    Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm
    Swallow the Sun – Moonflowers
    Amenra – De Doorm
    Wolves in the Throneroom – Primordial Arcana
    Omination – NGR (surprised album)

  37. I am still working on my own list, but here are the numbers regarding the Reader’s List :

    So far, 366 different albums have been mention. Of that number, 119 have gotten at least two votes.

    Worm appears on eleven list.

    1914 is second with nine mentions.

    Archspire is third with eight.

    Amenra, Mare Cognitum and Suffering Hour got seven mentions each.

    Six readers have Cerebral Rot, Khemmis, Mortiferum, Spectral Wound and Stormkeep on their list.

    That’s it for now but I will probably give an update somewhere in the month.

  38. Aephanemer – A Dream of Wilderness
    Alustrium – A Monument to Silence
    Anna Pest – Dark Arms Reach Skyward…
    Atvm – Famine, Putrid and Fucking Endless
    Between the Buried and Me – Colors II
    Carcass – Torn Arteries
    Chorosia – A Call to Love
    Maitreya – Hyper Reels
    Osiah – Loss
    Rivers of Nihil – The Work
    Worm – Foreverglade
    Zao – The Crimson Corridor

    Top 12 in alphabetical order because fvck trying to keep it to just 10 or rank them this year was STACKED!

  39. Palus Somni – Monarch of Dark Matter
    Aristarchos – s/t
    Malgöth – Glory Through Savagery
    Suffering Hour – Cycling Reckoning
    Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst
    Full of Hell – Garden of Burning Apparitions
    Gespenst – Den Sinste Faerd

    EPs
    Feral Light – Ceremonial Tower
    Mur – Truth
    Serpent Column – Katartisis

  40. Bonus
    Fyrnask – Kenoma

  41. Best metal albums of 2021:

    1) Archspire – Bleed The Future

    2) Monument Of Misanthropy – Unterweger

    3) Pathology – the everlasting plague

    4) Rivers of Nihil – The Work

    5) Portal – Avow

    • No particular order

      StarGazer – Psychic Secretions
      Ænigmatum – Deconsecrate
      Drawn and Quartered – Congregation Pestilence
      Diabolizer – Khalkedonian Death
      Hyperdontia – Hideous Entity
      Sulphurous – The Black Mouth of Sepulchre
      Sijjin – Eastern Promises
      Concrete Winds – Nerve Butcherer
      Cambion – Conflagrate the Celestial Refugium
      Witches Hammer – Devourer of the Dead
      Galvanizer – Prying Site of Imperception
      Archgoat – Worship the Eternal Darkness
      Lvcifyre – The Broken Seal
      Witch Vomit – Abhorrent Rapture
      Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst
      ASM – Purifying Blade
      Mooncitadel – Onyx Castles and Silver Keys
      Martial Barrage – Agents of the Wolf Age
      Zofos – Erevothen
      Chamber of Unlight – Realm of the Night
      Mefitis – Offscourings
      Craven Idol – Forked Tongues
      Unanimated – Victory in Blood
      Proscriptor McGovern’s Apsû

  42. Best of 2021
    1. Havukruunu – Kuu Erkylän Yllä
    2. Anti – Anti
    3. Altered Dead – Returned to Life
    4. Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst
    5. Vortex of End – Abhorrent Fervor
    6. Fulci – Exhumed Informatiion
    7. Signs Of The Dying Summer -Oto Jest Pustka
    8. Qwälen – Unohdan Sinut
    9. Fiat Nox – The Archive of Nightmares
    10. Malignament – Hypocrisis Absolution
    Alkerdeel – Slonk
    Inferno – Paradeigma (Phosphenes of Aphotic Eternity)
    Pan-Amerikan Native Front – Little Turtle’s War
    1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet
    Civerous – Decrepit Flesh Relic
    Wolves In The Throne Room – Primordial Arcana
    NecroticGoreBeast – Human Deviance Galore
    Taser – Filthcrawl
    Age Of Woe – Envenom
    Necrochaos – Mortal Angels Descent
    Typhonian – The Cosmic Pendulum of Time
    CRYPTS OF DESPAIR
    Kanahn -Fall Prey
    Vulture Lord – Desecration Rite
    Arde – Ancestral Cult
    SERVANT – Blessed by the Light of a Thousand Stars
    Colotyphus – My Nostalgia
    Luctus – Užribis
    Olio Tähtien Takana – Spectral Katharsis
    Cruel Master – Repeat Offender
    Doedsvangr – Serpents Ov Old
    Rothadás – Kopár Hant… az Alvilág Felé
    Maze of Terror – Offer to the Fucking Beasts
    Der Weg einer Freiheit – Noktvrn
    Grand Cadaver – Into The Maw Of Death

  43. Amenra – De Doorn
    Dödsrit – Mortal Coil
    Dola – Czasy
    Dream Unending – Tide Turns Eternal
    Glassing – Twin Dream
    Ossaert – Pelgrimsoord
    Portrayal of Guilt – We Are Always Alone
    Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst
    Wolves In The Throne Room – Primordial Arcana
    Worm – Foreverglade

  44. top 2:
    Cerebral Effusion – Ominous Flesh Doctrine
    Antediluvian – The Divine Punishment

  45. 20 – Vouna “Atropos”
    19 – Koldovstvo “Ni Tsarya, Ni Boga”
    18 – Winter Lantern “Festering Vampirism”
    17 – Rivers of Nihil “The Work
    16- Full of Hell “Garden of Burning Apparitions”
    15 – Gojira “Fortitude”
    14 – Violet Cold “Empire of Love”
    13 – Krallice “Demonic Wealth”
    12 – Kekht Arakh “Pale Swordsman”
    11 – Khemmis “Deceiver”
    10 – Waldgefluster “Dahoam”
    9- Tribulation “Where the Gloom Becomes Sound”
    8 – Carcass “Torn Arteries”
    7 – Spectral Wound “A Diabolic Thirst”
    6 – Alda “A Distant Fire”
    5 – Mare Cognitum “Solar Paroxysm”
    4 – Stormkeep “Tales From Other Time”
    3 – Tvaer “Uvaer”
    2 – Wolves in the Throne Room “Primordial Arcana”
    1 – Panopticon “…And Again Into the Light”

  46. Great year, though I feel like I haven’t spent half the time I wanted to on the albums I liked – so the exact order between 30-50 is a bit muddy in my mind.

    1. Rivers of Nihil – The Work
    2. Groza – Elegance of Irony
    3. Kauan – Ice Fleet
    4. The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires
    5. Whitechapel – Kin
    6. Der Weg Einer Freiheit – Noktvrn
    7. Cradle of Filth – Existence is Futile
    8. Agrypnie – Metamorphosis
    9. Archspire – Bleed the Future
    10. In Mourning – The Bleeding Veil
    11. Swallow the Sun – Moonflowers
    12. Erdve – Savigaila
    13. Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst
    14. Hanging Garden – Skeleton Lake
    15. Rise to the Sky – Let Me Drown With You
    16. Gràb – Zeitlang
    17. Trna – Istok
    18. Ghost Nebula – Ascension
    19. All Life Dies – Ghost Dust
    20. Panopticon – …And Again Into The Light
    21. Profeci – Aporia
    22. Dawn Fades – Ode
    23. Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm
    24. Cult of Luna – The Raging River
    25. Rise to the Sky – Per Aspera Ad Astra
    26. Insomnium – Argent Moon
    27. Be’lakor – Coherence
    28. Clouds – Desparite
    29. Malist – Karst Relict
    30. Sterbefall – Verlorene Zeit
    31. Amiensus – Abreaction
    32. Omnium Gatherum – Origin
    33. Duskmourn – Fallen Kings and Rusted Crowns
    34. Zao – The Crimson Corridor
    35. Wolven in the Throne Room – Pirmordial Arcana
    36. Netherbird – Arete
    37. Akhlys – Melinoë
    38. Wode – Burn in Many Mirrors
    39. Frigoris – …in Stille
    40. 1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet
    41. Tribulation – Where the Gloom Becomes Sound
    42. Grand Cadaver – Into the Maw of Death
    43. Earthsine – My Bones Shall Rest Upon The Mountain
    44. Noltem – Illusions in the Wake
    45. Moonspell – Hermitage
    46. Harakiri for the Sky – Maere
    47. Miasmata – Unlight: Songs of Earth and Atrophy
    48. Nightland – The Great Nothing
    49. Lethian Dreams – Last Echoes of Silence
    50. Hypocrisy – Worship

    • Some albums on this list are from 2020 not 2021.

      • My bad. Any chance you want to point me to these? 🙂

        • Amiensus and Akhlys ; Melinoë was my AOTY last year 😉

          • Cool, thanks 🙂

            I add new interesting albums to a ‘2021’ Spotify list as I find them, so when they’re in there, I assume they’re from 2021 – apparently this isn’t fool proof, since I discover new albums from past years that I can misplace.

            Melinoë is a brilliant one indeed, so I’m happy to have discovered it this year 🙂

            Anyway, hopefully Islander will notice your posts and omit these two from the aggregate list that’s being made in the end.

  47. Ad Nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
    ColdCell – The Greater Evil
    Destruction Ritual – Destruction Ritual
    Ferriterium – Calvaire
    Gloosh – Sylvan Coven
    GROZA – The Redemptive End
    Kõdu – Unusta kõik
    Monte Penumbra – As Blades in the Firmament
    Mānbryne – Heilsweg O udręce ciała i tułaczce duszy
    Pestilential Shadows – Revenant
    Reverorum ib Malacht – Svag i Döden
    Sermon of Flames – I Have Seen the Light, and It Was Repulsive
    Serpent Column – Katartisis
    Sorguinazia – Negation of Delirium
    Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst
    Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning
    svrm – Занепад & Розпад
    The Silver – Ward of Roses
    Valdaudr – Drapsdalen

  48. I’m just sticking my nose in here quickly to thank everyone who has contributed to this resource so far. I hope more lists will come. This is kind of amazing.

  49. I have to saymy favorites this year is:

    1.proscriptor Macgoverns Apsu
    2.Issolei-Cilicium (and the two ep’s)
    3.Reverorum Ib Malacht-Svag I Döden
    4.Abigor-Totschläger
    5.Furze-Black Psyche Tormentor
    6.Reverorum Ib Malacht-Not Here
    7.Ofermod-Mysterion Iniquitatis
    8.Laetitia In Holocaust-Heritage

  50. My 10 favorites

    Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa – Corrupted Pillars of Vanity
    Cave of Swimmers – Aurora
    Cult of Luna – The Raging River (EP)
    Dusk in Silence – Beneath the Great Sky of Solitude
    Ellende – Triebe (EP)
    Felled – The Intimate Earth
    Steel Bearing Hand – Slay in Hell
    Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning
    Thy Catafalque – Vadak
    White Ward – Debemur Morti (EP)

    My biggest disappointment this year is Obscura. How can you go from being the leader of a gendre to become a ”random melo-death band #178”???? Sorry, I had to say it

    Now I can’t wait to hear some new stuff by Anciients and Ne Obliviscaris.

  51. I. Ruin of Romantics: Velvet Dawn
    II. Ropes of Night: Impossible Space
    III. Ikarie: Cuerpos en Sombra
    IV. Forhist: Forhist
    V. Lament Cityscape: Wet Pneumatic
    VI. Infidel Reich: N.W.O. New World Outrage

  52. The Ruins of Beverast »The Thule Grimoires«
    1914 »Where Fear and Weapons Meet«
    Nightmarer »Monolith of Corrosion«

  53. 11 for 21 (in no particular order):

    Lvcifyre – The Broken Seal
    Blood Red Throne – Imperial Congregation
    Worm – Foreverglade
    Grave Miasma – Abyss Of Wrathful Deities
    Ghastly – Mercurial Passages
    Cerebral Rot – Excretion of Mortality
    Memoriam – To The End
    Ungfell – Es grauet
    Pestilence – Exitivm
    Tardigrade – Vom Bruch Zur Freiheit
    Hooded Menace – The Tritonus Bell

  54. The Ruins of Beverast “The Thule Grimoires”
    Gojira “Fortitude”
    The Night Flight Orchestra “Aeromantic II”
    Mastodon “Hushed & Grim”
    Bongzilla “Weedsconsin”
    Greenleaf “Echoes From A Mass”
    Tribulation “Where The Gloom Becomes Sound”
    Enslaved “Chronicles Of The Northbound”
    Red Fang “Arrows”
    Dvne “Etemen Aenka”
    Iron Maiden “Senjutsu”
    Alastor “Onwards and Downwards”
    Dark Throne “Eternal Hails”
    Panopticon “…And Again Into The Light”
    Frozen Soul “Crypt Of Ice”
    MOL “Diorama”
    Khemmis “Deceiver”
    Carcass “Torn Arteries”
    Fluisteraars “Gegrepen door de Geest der Zielsontluiking”
    Cannibal Corpse “Violence Unimagined”
    Cult Of Luna “The Raging River”
    Wolves In The Throne Room “Primordial Arcana”
    Monolord “Your Time To Shine”
    Ministry “Moral Hygiene”

  55. My 10 favorites.

    Archspire – Bleed the Future
    Diabolizer – Khalkedonian Death
    Enforced – Kill Grid
    Dormant Ordeal – The Grand Scheme of Things
    Outre-Tombe – Abysse Mortifere
    1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet
    Amenra – De Doorn
    Worm – Foreverglade
    Steel Bearing Hand – Slay in Hell
    Stormkeep – Tales of Othertime

  56. My favourites this year, in no particular order:

    Mānbryne – Heilsweg: O udręce ciała i tułaczce duszy
    Issolei – Cilicium & Devouring Currents (Parts 1 & 2)
    Ænigmatum – Deconsecrate
    Hedvig Mollestad Trio – Ding Dong. You’re Dead
    Monte Penumbra – As Blades in the Firmament
    Beyond Man – Beyond Man
    Qrixkuor – Poison Palinopsia
    Rothadas – Kopár hant​.​.​. az alvilág felé
    Cantique Lépreux – Sectes (EP)
    Malignant Altar – Realms Of Exquisite Morbidity
    Iron Maiden – Senjutsu
    Whoredom Rife – Winds of Wrath
    Hexorcist – Evil Reaping Death
    Malakhim – Theion
    The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires
    Woman Is The Earth – Dust of Forever
    Portrait – At One With None
    Exodus – Persona Non Grata

    Cheers!

  57. Thanks for all the odious lists! Mine is late, but then as someone mentioned: Funeral Mist is still to come! (quite a few of these included I think dropped late in the year too)

    Top 13, no order, except for Order:
    Esoctrilihum – Dy’th Requiem For The Serpent Telepath
    Stonehealer – Conquistador
    Kanonenfieber – Menschenmühle
    Dormant ordeal – The grand scheme of things
    Forhist – Forhist
    Vredensdal – Silence is eternal
    Thy catafalque – Vadak
    Order – The Gospel
    Kehkt arahk – Pale horseman
    Stormkeep – Tales of othertime
    Goldspire – Goldspire
    Midnight odyssey –Biolume Part 2 – The Golden Orb
    Zmarlym – Druga Fala

    10 Honorable mentions+2 non metal:
    Ofermod – Mysterium Iniquitatis
    1914 – Where fear and weapons meet
    YOTH IRIA – As The Flame Withers
    ÆNIGMATUM – Deconsecrate
    Mesarthim – CLG J02182–05102
    Inferno – Paradeigma: Phosphenes of Aphotic Eternity
    Ninkharsag – The Dread March of Solemn Gods
    Civerous – Decrepit Flesh Relic
    Diablation – Allégeance
    Redemptor – Agonia
    Deafheaven – Infinite granite
    Papangu – Holoceno

  58. Top 3
    Fluisteraars – Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking (Netherlands)
    Blurr Thrower – Les Voûtes (France)
    Ewige Eiche – Wohl Dem Der Heimat Weiss (Germany)

    Other great albums
    Ewige Eiche – Wohl Dem Der Heimat Weiss (Germany)
    Nexus Imperium – Nexus Imperium (Greece)
    Downcross – To the last sunset at the gates of Collapse (Belarus)
    Dordeduh – ? (Romania)
    Spectral Wound – A diabolic thirst (Canada)
    Helheim – WoduridaR (Norway)
    Svrm – Poanas (Ukraine)
    Inanes – Acedia (Poland)
    Mānbryne – Heilsweg O udręce ciała i tułaczce duszy (Poland)
    Yoth Iria – As the flame withers (Greece)
    Friisk – .​.​.​Un Torügg Bleev Blot Sand (Germany)

    From December last year that should have been in 2020 list
    Deha – Contrasts II (Belgium)

    Probably will be on the list but only heard the title track
    In Nomine Belialis – Banishment (Brazil)

  59. Some clean some not, but solid tunes for any metal head…

    1914-Where fear and Weapons Meet

    ARDE-Ancestral Cult

    Death By Unga Bunga- Heavy Male Insecurity

    Johnny Mafia-Sentimental

    Maestitium-Tale of the Endless

    Malist-Karst Relict

    Mare Cognitum-Solar paroxysm

    Noctule-Wretched Abyss

    Nofx-Single Album

    Take Over and Destory-Fade Out

  60. My top 25 albums (no ep’s)

    1. Hænesy – Garabontzia
    2. Wolves in the Throne Room – Primordial Arcana
    3. Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst
    4. Dödsrit – Mortal Coil
    5. Shores of Ladon – Witterung
    6. Crescent – Carving the Fires of Akhet
    7. Sentiero dei Principi – Lustmord
    8. Warmoon Lord – Battlespells
    9. Ringarë – Thrall of Winter’s Majesty
    10. Aara – Triade I: Eos
    11. Nazxul – Irkalla
    12. Grima – Rotten Garden
    14. Forhist – Forhist
    15. Délétère/Sarkrista – Opus Blaspematus
    16. Ungfell -Es Grauet
    17. Dai-ichi / Lamp of Murmuur – Virgin Womb of Eternal Black Terror
    18. Seth – La Morsure du Christ
    19. Mefitis – Offscourings
    20. Shores ofLadon – Heimkehr
    21. Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxism
    22. Autarcie – Apogée.Ivresse.Agonie
    23. Wesenwille – II A Material God
    24. Doodswens – Lichtvrees
    25. Serpent of the abyss – wrapped in darkness

  61. Quick update about the Reader’s Lists

    We are now at 58 lists totaling 509 albums of which 182 were mentioned at least twice.

    So far, the top 3 goes to 1914, Spectral Wound and Worm, as they each appear on 15 lists.

    With 11 votes, honorable mention goes to Archspire, Mare Cognitum and Wolves in the Throne Room, while Suffering Hour got 10.

    I will do another update sometime in january.

  62. Atræ Bilis – Apexapien
    Carcinoma – Labascation
    Cathexis – Untethered Abyss
    Dakhma – Blessings of Amurdad
    Defacement – Defacement
    Dessiderium – Aria
    The Devouring Void – Hypnagogic Hallucinations
    First Fragment – Gloire Éternelle
    FŌR – The Life Feeding Flame
    Fractal Generator – Macrocosmos
    Interloper – Search Party
    Neurotech – Solace
    Obnubilo – Nascentes Morimur
    Oceana – The Pattern
    Our Place of Worship Is Silence – Disavowed, and Left Hopeless
    Sigil – Nether
    Vertebra Atlantis – Lustral Purge In Cerulean Bliss

    Top EPs:

    All Life Dies – Ghost Dust
    Apogean – Into Madness
    Bacchus – Bacchus
    Mors Verum – The Living
    Sequelae – Systemic Epilepsis
    Turris Eburnea – Turris Eburnea

  63. Here’s my top 50
    1.) Kekht Arakh- Pale Swordsman
    2.) Thy Catafalque- Vadak
    3.) Mol- Diorama
    4.) Earthshine- My Bones Shall Rest Upon the Mountain
    5.) Panopticon- …And again Into the Light
    6.) Yith- Passage
    7.) Tvaer- Uvaer
    8.) Gråt Strigoi- Communion of The Nameless
    9.) Spectal Wound- A Diabolic Thirst
    10.) Amenra- De Doorn
    11.) Misotheist- For the Glory of Your Redeemer
    12.) Dream Theater- A View from the Top of the World
    13.) Coffin Lurker- Foul and Defiled
    14.) Darkthrone- Eternal Hails
    15.) Dödsrit- Mortal Coil
    16.) Grima- Rotten Garden
    17.) Noctule- Wretched Abyss
    18.) Suffering Hour- The Cyclic Reckoning
    19.) Unreqvited- Beautiful Ghosts
    20.) Violet Cold- Empire of Love
    21.) Transilvania- Of Sleep and Death
    22.) Sur Austru- Obarsie
    23.) Rorcal & Earthflesh- Witch Coven
    24.) Sepulcros – Vazio
    25.) Portal- Avow
    26.) God is an Astronaut- Ghost Tapes
    27.) Cultum Draculesti- Cultum Draculesti
    28.) Between The Buried and Me- Colours II
    29.) Beautiful Death- Hymns of Winter
    30.) Antediluvian- The Divine Punishment
    31.) Fluisteraars- Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking
    32.) And Now The Owls Are Smiling- Dirges
    33.) AA williams- Songs From Isolation
    34.) Stormkeep- Tales of Othertime
    35.) Portrayal of Guilt- Christfucker
    36.) Genune- Inert & Unerring
    37.) Ethereal Shroud- Trisagion
    38.) Ehnare, N- Jacob
    39.) Dordeduh- Har
    40.) Cult of Luna- The Raging River
    41.) Dakhma- Blessings of Amurdad
    42.) Alda- A Distant Fire
    43.) Aristarchos- Self Titled
    44.) Beleriand- February
    45.) Flame, Dear Flame- Aegis
    46.) Elderwind- Fires
    47.) Can Bardd- Devoured by the Oak
    48.) Crimson Dimension- Crimson Dimension
    49.) Tribulation- Where the Gloom Becomes Sound
    50.) Ulvik- Cascades

  64. 1. Burial in the Sky – The Consumed Self
    2. Xenosis – Paralleled Existence
    3. Wode – Burn in Many Mirrors
    4. Stortregn – Impermanence
    5. Tribulation – Where the Gloom Becomes Sound
    6. Worm – Foreverglade
    7. Vaelmyst – Secrypts of the Egochasm
    8. Alustrium – A Monument to Silence
    9. Mānbryne – Heilsweg: O udręce ciała i tułaczce duszy
    10. Stormkeep – Tales of Othertime

    Honourable Mentions:
    In Mourning – The Bleeding Veil
    Havukruunu – Kuu Erkylän Yllä
    Be’lakor – Coherence
    Ancient Mastery – Chapter One: Across the Mountains of the Drämmarskol

  65. My 30 favourite metal albums from 2021:

    1. Portrayal of Guilt: We Are Always Alone
    2. Funeral Mist: Deiform
    3. Ustalost: Before the Glinting Spell Unvests
    4. Misotheist: For the Glory of Your Redeemer
    5. Spectral Wound: A Diabolic Thirst
    6. Teeth: Finite
    7. Amenra: De Doorn
    8. Asphyx: Necroceros
    9. Fluisteraars: Gegrepen door de geest der zielsontluiking
    10. Udånde: Life as a Purist

    11. Panopticon: …And Again Into the Light
    12. Forhist: s/t
    13. Hellish Form: Remains
    14. Djevel: Tanker Som Rir Natten
    15. Whoredom Rife: Winds of Wrath
    16. King Woman: Celestial Blues
    17. Białywilk: Próżnia
    18. Iskandr: Vergezicht
    19. Groza: The Redemptive End
    20. Paysage d’Hiver: Geister

    21. Burial: Inner Gateways To The Slumbering Equilibrium At The Center Of Cosmos
    22. Phrenelith: Chimaera
    23. Kold: s/t
    24. Enevelde: Gravgang
    25. Abstracter: Abominion
    26. Lock Up: The Dregs of Hades
    27. Hope Drone: Husk
    28. Doedsvangr: Serpents ov Old
    29. Yautja: The Lurch
    30. Kalmankantaja: Waeltaja

  66. My favorite albums of 2021
    in no particular order

    Brii – Sem Propósito
    Altarage – Succumb
    Hadit – With Ardour and Joy Through the Incommensurable Path
    夢遊病者 (Sleepwalker) – Noc Na Krayu Sveta / Валаам
    Dakhma – Blessings of Amurdad
    Sunk Heaven – Y Serpentine (and everything else they do)
    Suspiral – Delve Into the Mysteries of Transcendence
    Kayo Dot – Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike
    Plebeian Grandstand – Rien ne suffit
    Scanner – Earthbound Transmissions
    Final Cop/Cop Funeral – Split
    Mastodon – Hushed and Grim
    hyacinth. – insomniac beats.
    Here Lies Man – Ritual Divination
    Ethereal Shroud – Trisagion
    Cremation Lily – Cremation Lily Smells the Flowers
    Aquilus – Bellum I
    The Dura Hotel – Room Service
    Somnolent – The Infernal Expanse
    Porridge Fist – California Resort
    Pa Vesh En – Maniac Manifest
    Fyrnask – VII: Kenoma
    Moin – Mute!
    L’Rain – Fatigue
    DSKNT – Vacuum y-Noise Transition
    dinky mirage – 005 + 007 + 016
    Wolves in the Throne Room – Primordial Arcana
    Iskandr – Vergezicht
    Lorna Shore – …And I Return To Nothingness
    Pan-Amerikan Native Front – Little Turtle’s War
    babelfishh – Coma Worthy
    Ars Magna Umbrae – Throne Between Worlds
    Moor Mother – Black Encyclopedia of the Air
    Abkehr – In Blut
    Panopticon – …And Again Into The Light
    Human Failure – Crown On the Head of a King of Mud
    Succumb – XXI
    IDLES – Crawler
    massaith – 4 · my inner demons speaks · chapter one
    Sorcier Des Glaces – Ghastly Memories EP
    Donald Miller – Transgression!!!
    Spire – Temple of Khronos
    Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio – I Told You So
    Bisk – Vacation Package
    Portal – Avow + Hagbulbia
    Divide And Dissolve – Gas Lit
    Funeral Mist – Deiform
    Monte Penumbra – As Blades in the Firmament
    Useless – Downfall
    Hail Spirit Noir – Mannequins
    cop funeral – meditations in discomfort
    Black Country, New Road – For the first time
    Chaos Echoes – Ecstasy with the Nonexistents
    Fashion Pimps And The Glamazons – Jazz 4 Johnny
    Somalgia – Inverted World
    Anthony Joseph – The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives
    Arabrot – Norwegian Gothic
    Portrayal of Guilt – We Are Always Alone + Garden of Despair
    Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon
    Disimperium – Malefic Obliteration
    Alkerdeel – Slonk
    Thumbscrew – Never Is Enough
    Valac – Burning Dawn Of Vengeance
    Qrixkuor – Poison Palinopsia
    Ûkcheânsâlâwit – Alaskan Escape
    Decoherence – System I
    LLNN – Unmaker
    Asthma Choir – Spent My Life in Sugar Town
    Drawn and Quartered – Congregation Pestilence
    Five The Hierophant – Through Aureate Void
    Worm – Foreverglade
    Thy Catafalque – Vadak
    Hiraki – Stumbling Through The Walls
    newmath – kudzu
    Reverorum ib Malacht – Not Here/Svag i Doden
    Mzylkypop – Kiedy Wilki Zawyja?
    8-Hour Animal – Resigner
    Vessel of Iniquity – The Doorway
    Chestcrush – Vdelygmia
    Concilium – Desecration
    Carcass – Torn Arteries
    Sunburned Hand of the Man – Pick a Day to Die
    Spectral Lore – Etepoqwtoc
    Senyawa – Alkisah
    Why Bother? – Why Bother?

  67. The Black Lodge 2021 Top 30 List (in alphabetic order):

    1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet
    Amenra – De Doorn
    Antediluvian – The Divine Punishment
    ColdCell – The Greater Evil
    Converge & Chelsea Wolfe – Bloodmoon: I
    Culted – Nous
    Der Weg einer Freiheit – Noktvrn
    Dormant Ordeal – The Grand Scheme of Things
    Emptiness – Vide
    Flood Peak – Fixed Ritual
    Fossilization – He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten
    Frontierer – Oxidized
    Funeral Mist – Deiform
    Fyrnask – VII: Kenoma
    Gravenchalice – Samael
    Inanes – Acedia
    LLNN – Unmaker
    Lvcifyre – The Broken Seal
    Misotheist – For the Glory of Your Redeemer
    Mourning Dawn – Dead End Euphoria
    Norse – Ascetic
    Omination – NGR
    Redemptor – Agonia
    The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires
    Sermon of Flames – I Have Seen the Light, and It Was Repulsive
    Succumb – XXI
    Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning
    The Devouring Void – Hypnagogic Hallucinations
    Veilburner – Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull
    Yoth Iria – As the Flame Withers

    Special mentions:
    – Total Dissonance Worship killer EPs (Maere, Nightmarer, Mors Verum, but also such great LPs by Sigil, Michel Anoia, Klexos, etc.)
    – Cult of Occult – Ruin (what a 20’+ song…)
    – Arabrot – Norwegian Gothic (don’t think this is metal, but it’s a hell of an album)
    – Psychonaut – Emerald split (their song, The Great Realisation is amazing)

  68. Didn’t buy or listen to very much metal this year…been studying theory and listening to lots of Chamber Rock/Contemporary Jazz Guitar stuff
    Here is my list and practically 87% of my purchases
    I grab old favorites and some new Bandcamp finds. I don’t even have much loved Hooded Menace, Thy Catafalque, Hail Spirit Noir, Cannibal Corpse, Wode, Mare Cognitum…!?!

    Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning
    Converge & Chelsea Wolfe – Bloodmoon: I
    Spire – Temple of Khronos
    Papangu – Holoceno
    Archspire – Bleed The Future
    Replicant – Malignant Reality
    Ænigmatum – Deconsecrate
    Grey Aura — Zwarte Vierkant
    Dvne — Etemen Ænka
    HIPPOTRAKTOR — Meridian
    Gojira – Fortitude
    Dordeduh – Har
    Fractal Universe – The Impassable
    Rivers of Nihil – The Work
    Boss Keloid – Family the Smiling Thrush
    Dvne – Etemen Ænka
    King Buffalo – The Burden of Restlessness
    CREATURE –Eloge De l’Ombre
    Cynic — Ascension Codes
    Dormant Ordeal — The Grand Scheme of Things
    Dungeon Serpent — World of Sorrows
    Gojira — Fortitude
    Lantlôs –Wildhund
    Malignant Altar — Realms of Exquisite Morbidity
    Siderean — Lost on Void’s Horizon
    Silver Talon — Decadence and Decay

    Non-metal goodies

    Soda Blonde – Small Talk
    Ghost Rhythms – Spectral Music
    Danny Elfman – Big Mess
    Bizirik – Ceremonia II
    Far Corner – Risk
    Kacy Hill – Simple, Sweet, and Smiling
    Laufey – Typical of Me
    McStine & Minnemann – Any Kind Of Light
    Electro Compulsive Therapy – Electro Compulsive Therapy
    Quicksand – Distant Populations
    Rebecca Vasmant – With Love, from Glasgow
    Tom Bukovac – Plexi Soul
    Trip the Witch – Trip the Witch
    Cardinal Black – Cardinal Black
    Fake Fruit – Fake Fruit

  69. Super delayed in posting the releases that I got off to the most, but life got in the way many times and I refused to cease composing my personal list of the year’s favorites without reaching the bottom of my list of albums to examine. Thus, without further adue:

    1. First Fragment – Gloire Éternelle
    2. Waking The Cadaver – Authority Through Intimidation
    3. Fractal Universe – The Impassable Horizon
    4. Ophidian I – Desolate
    5. Archspire – Bleed the Future
    6. Obscura – A Valediction
    7. Cognitive – Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction
    8. Replicant – Malignant Reality
    9. Rapture – Malevolent Demise Incarnation
    10. Khemmis – Deceiver
    11. Abiotic – Ikigai
    12. Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined
    13. Aeon – God Ends Here
    14. Inferi – Vile Genesis
    15. Vulvodynia – Praenuntius Infiniti
    16. Ominous Ruin – Amidst Voices that Echo in Stone
    17. Archemoron – Flagellum I
    18. Windfaerer – Breaths of Elder Dawns
    19. Harakiri for the sky – Mære
    20. Mire – A New Found Rain
    21. Between The Buried and Me – Colors II
    22. Asylum – Sharpen
    23. Virial – Transhumanism
    24. The Silver – Ward of Roses
    25. Burial In the Sky – The Consumed Self
    26. Signs of The Swarm – Absolvere
    27. Stortregn – Impermanence
    28. Pupil Slicer – Mirrors
    29. Les Chants De Nihil – Le Tyran Et L’esthète
    30. Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm
    31. Varmia – Bal Lada
    32. Mol – Diorama
    33. Hands of Despair – The Crimson Boughs (And Other Short Tales)
    34. Worm – Foreverglade
    35. Ghost Bath – Self Loather
    36. Eternal Valley – Kingdom Of Misery
    37. The Beast Of Nod – Multiversal
    38. Our Place of Worship is Silence – Disavowed, and Left Hopeless
    39. Hate – Rugia
    40. Ænigmatum – Deconsecrate
    41. Glassing – Twin Dream
    42. The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires
    43. Wormwood – Arkivet
    44. In Mourning – The Bleeding Veil
    45. Humanity’s Last Breath – Välde
    46. Creeping Fear – Hategod Triumph
    47. Interminable Corruptions – Abysmal Revelation
    48. Yautja – The Lurch
    49. Dream Theater – A View From the Top of the World
    50. Soen – Imperial
    51. Pestilence – Exitivm
    52. Vallendusk – Heralds of Strife
    53. Thulcandra – A Dying Wish
    54. Blindfolded and Led to the Woods – Nightmare Withdrawals
    55. Malignant Altar – Realms of Exquisite Morbidity
    56. Gojira – Fortitude
    57. Xenosis – Paralleled Existence
    58. Swallow The Sun – Moonflowers
    59. Whitechapel – Kin
    60. Iron Maiden – Senjutsu
    61. Ad Nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
    62. Noctambulist – The Barren Form
    63. Alustrium – A Monument to Silence
    64. Alluvial – Sarcoma
    65. Perennial Isolation – Portraits
    66. Woman is The Earth – Dust Of Forever
    67. SeeYouSpaceCowboy – The Romance of Affliction
    68. So Hideous – None But A Pure Heart Can Sing
    69. Ablaze My Sorrow – Among Ashes and Monoliths
    70. Tribulation – Where the Gloom Becomes Sound
    71. Brand of Sacrifice – Lifeblood
    72. Screaming Banshee – Pierceive
    73. Jarhead Fertilizer – Product of My Environment
    74. Diabolizer – Khalkedonian Death
    75. Drawn and Quartered – Congregation Pestilence
    76. Burn Down Eden – Burn Down Eden
    77. Deformatory – Inversion of the Unseen Horizon
    78. Unflesh – Inhumation
    79. Slaughter to Prevail – Kostolom
    80. The Day of The Beast – Indisputably Carnivorous
    81. Arcaeon – Cascadence
    82. The Plot In You – Swan Song
    83. Her Last Sight – Mirrors
    84. Besatt – Supreme and True at Night
    85. Mental Cruelty – A Hill to Die Upon
    86. Zao – The Crimson Corridor
    87. Oxygen Destroyer – Sinister Monstrosities Spawned by the Unfathomable Ignorance of Humankind
    88. Baest – Necro Sapiens
    89. Depths of Hatred – Inheritance
    90. One With the Riverbed – Absence
    91. Der Weg einer Freiheit – Noktvrn
    92. Lvcifyre – The Broken Seal
    93. Seth – La morsure du Christ
    94. Dessiderium – Aria
    95. Portrayal of Guilt – We Are Always Alone
    96. Yoth Iria – As the Flame Withers
    97. Noctule – Wretched Abyss
    98. Wolf King – The Path of Wrath
    99. Solstice – Casting The Die
    100. Abolishment of Flesh – In the Presence of Darkness

    EP’s:
    EP’s:
    1. Hideous Divinity – LV-426
    2. Knocked Loose – A Tear in the Fabric of Life
    3. Teeth – Finite
    4. Cult of Luna – The Raging River
    5. Unfathomable Ruination – Decennium Ruinae
    6. Ether Coven – Language Is The Instrument Of The Empire
    7. Sojourner – Perennial
    8. Demon King – The Final Tyranny
    9. Era ov Dolor – From t he Land of Sorrow
    10. Ereb Altor – Eldens Boning

    Also want to give honorable shout-outs to: Acausal Intrusion, Asphyx, Deviant Process, Employed To Serve, Existence Void, Eyehategod, Handsome Prick, LLNN, Noise Trail Immersion, Purgatory, Rivers of Nihil, Stargazer, Sunless, The Absence, The Stone, and Traumatomy.

  70. 1. Meshuggah – “Immutable”
    1. Duir – “T.S.N.R.I. – Impermanenza
    3. Shadow of Intent – “Elegy”
    4. Mourning by Morning – “A Step Away From Light A Step Into Abyss”
    5. BlackBraid – “Blackbraid I “
    6. Fit for an Autopsy – “Oh What a Future Holds”
    7. Voidfire – “W Cienie”
    8. Nordicwinter – “Beneth the Fleeting Light”
    9. Nocturnal Graves – “An Outlows Stand”
    10. Aethereus – “Leiden”
    11. The Design Abstract – “Metemtechnosis”
    12. Αχεροντας (Acherontas) – Malocchio: The Seven Tongues of Δαημων
    13. Panzerfaust – “The Suns of Perdition – Chapter III The Astral Drain”
    14. Insomnium – “Lilian”
    15. Sarg – “Demon” only on YT
    16. Pure Wrath – “Presages from a Restless Soul”
    17. Mist of Misery – “Severance”
    18. ORM – “Intet”
    19. Suffer in Silence – “Obscurity”
    20. Evergrey – “Escape of the Fenix”

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