Feb 072022
 

 

In compiling my list of 2021’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal songs I had a big rebound from the year before. The 2020 list died a sad death, withering away from neglect. I made it from Part 1 through Part 17, which collectively included 47 songs, and then I just never got back to it, thanks to my day job crushing me. This year the day job pretty much left me alone and I made it through 25 Parts and 99 (!) songs before voluntarily choosing to end the list.

99 songs is a ton of music, but it’s not the only time I’ve gone that far. My 2018 list also included 99 songs — compared to the 47 songs on the 2020 list, the 60 songs on the 2019 list, the 78 from 2017, and the 71 from the year before that. There’s no consistency in the numbers because I pretty much make up these lists as I go and am not always able to post new installments every day (as I was able to do  this year) .

As I explained in the final installment of the 2021 list on Friday, I’m still not really finished. I began this exercise with a list of candidates that stretched to nearly 640 songs, assembled from recommendations by readers and some of our other writers, as well as a list of my own that I compiled as the weeks and months of 2021 rolled along. Even subtracting 99 tracks from all those recommendations, the balance is still enormous. Inevitably, I had to draw the line somewhere.

I admit that the 2021 list gave short shrift to a few metal genres, but I do think it did a pretty good job of providing a picture of just how much variety and quality metal brought us last year. In putting it together I discovered some music I had never listened to before, in addition to revisiting old favorites. I hope you also discovered something new and valued.

Below you will find links to Parts 1 through 25 of the list as they appeared over time before I called a halt, and of course the names of all 99 songs.

I do want to thank everyone who suggested songs for the list, from the readers who left so many good recommendations in the Comments on this post last November to my NCS comrades who offered some of their own.

 

PART 1
Glimt (Nøkkerose)
Spectral Wound (Frigid and Spellbound)
Teitan (The Grinding Teeth of the Wheel of Time)

PART 2
Burial in the Sky (Mechanisms of Loneliness)
Decrepisy (Embodied Decomposition)
Bourn Ultra (Towers of Fire)

PART 3
1914 (FN .380 ACP#19074)
Archspire (Bleed the Future)
Beastlor (Ignorant Sin)

PART 4
Thundering Hooves (Palid Gaze)
Black Royal (Seance)
Boss Keloid (Gentle Clovis)

PART 5
Worm (Murk Above the Dark Moor)
Suffering Hour (The Abrasive Black Dust Part II)
Mare Cognitum (Antaresian)

PART 6
Fiat Nox (Amok Hymn)
The Silver (Fallow)
Hjelvik (Synkverving)

PART 7
Kryptan (Blessed Be the Glue)
Maze of Terror (Angels of Acid)
GraveRipper (All Life Decays)

PART 8
Gojira (Amazonia)
Pan-Amerikan Native Front (Battle of the Wabash)
Kanonenfieber (Grabenlieder)

PART 9
Carcass (The Scythe’s Remorseless Swing)
Zao (Ship of Theseus)
Moanhand (Nightwings)

PART 10
The Crown (Motordeath)
Veilburner (Vault of Haunting Dissolve)
Alustrium (The Accuser)

PART 11
Zmarłym (Druga Fala)
Xanathar (The Test of Fate)
Signs of the Dying Summer (Oto jest Pustka VI)

PART 12
Chainsword (Daemonculaba)
Chestcrush (Different Shepherd, Same Sheep)
Choir (Triumphant Chants for the Barren)

PART 13
Primeval Well (She Flies Undead)
Thy Catafalque (Piros-Sárga)
Vukari (Omnes Nihil)

PART 14
Portrayal of Guilt (My Immolation)
Merger Remnant (Dregs)
Arx Atrata (Succession)

PART 15
Skepticism (Swan and the Raven)
Rise to the Sky (End My Night)
Dawn of Solace (White Noise)

PART 16
White Stones (Chain of Command)
Send More Paramedics (Totenkopf)
Tvsk (Unholy Soul)
Rivers of Nihil (Episode)

PART 17
Temple of Dread (Aithon’s Hunger)
Redemptor (Further From Ordeal)
SNĚŤ (Kůň Kadaver)

PART 18
Dormant Order (Bright Constellations)
Funeral Mist (Apokalyptikon)
Altered Dead (Thrawing In Agony)
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter (Volle Kraft!)

PART 19
Sarke (Beheading of the Circus Director)
Hooded Menace (Blood Ornaments)
Iskandr (Bloeddraad)
Just Before Dawn (Bloodlands)

PART 20
Panopticon (A Snowless Winter)
Groza (The Redemptive End)
Gravpel (Call to Action / Grind Them to Waste)
Black Jackal (Bloodgate)
Genune (Eastern European Discontent)

PART 21
The Lurking Fear (Cosmic Macabre)
Anti Ritual (No Human Is Illegal)
Hideous Divinity (Chestburst)
Husqwarnah (Ignoto1)
ΣΧΕΔΟΝ ΝΕΚΡΟΣ (ΣΧΕΔΟΝ ΝΕΚΡΟΣ)
Gatecreeper (Emptiness)

PART 22
First Fragment (La Veuve & Le Martyr)
Ophidian I (Diamonds)
Hannes Grossmann (The Sun Eaters)
Stortregn (Multilayered Chaos)

PART 23
The Amenta (Psoriastasis)
Unflesh (Vast Forest of Impaled Cadavers)
In Mourning (At the Behest of Night)
Gateway (Flesh Reborn)
Zornheym (Slumber Comes In Time)

PART 24
Necronautical (Slain in the Spirit)
Cân Bardd (Une Couronne de Branches)
Human Serpent (Vomiting the Herd)
Night Crowned (Enslingen)
Sol Draconi Septem (The Avatar)
Nordjevel (Gnawing the Bones)
Fluisteraars (Het overvleugelen der meute)

PART 25
Atra Haeresis (Pretium?)
Beyond Grace (Hive Mind)
Callus (Ka-tet)
Crystal Coffin (The Starway Eternal)
Cult of Luna (What I Leave Behind)
Funeral Chant (Serpent Pact)
Man Must Die (Bring Me the Head of the King)
Marianas Rest (Pointless Tale)
Norna (The Truther)
Stormkeep (The Serpent’s Stone)
The Lion’s Daughter (Neon Teeth)
Witchden (Renewal)

 Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.