(Andy Synn puts one final bullet in the corpse of 2021 with one last edition of “Unsung Heroes”)
I suppose it’s about time to stop looking backwards and start looking forwards at what the upcoming year has to offer us.
However, before that, I thought I’d take this chance to do one last “Unsung Heroes” post about three bands – all of whom were new discoveries for me – that I think you all need to check out, if you know what’s good for you!
(Andy Synn continues his desperate attempt to cover everything he missed last year)
One thing I’ve been trying to get across with these “Unsung Heroes” posts is just how varied and versatile “the scene” is.
Case in point, today we’ve got a triptych of grungy, melodic grooves (Blind Tendril), blast-driven brutality (Carthage), and angst-ridden artistry (Dreamwell), which should provide something for a wide variety of tastes… and maybe even tempt some of you to experiment with something you wouldn’t usually listen to.
Who knows? All I can do is put the music in front of you. Whether you give it a chance or not is entirely your choice!
(Andy Synn presents three more albums from last year that you may have missed)
You may not realise it, but I’m actually a little behind (already!) with this series of “Unsung Heroes” articles, as I’d originally meant to start posting them last week.
Unfortunately I’ve been sick with a (thankfully relatively mild) dose of that which shall not be named for a little while now, and between the lethargy, breathlessness, and general mental fuzziness I’ve not really had it in me to get any writing done.
Until recently, that is, as you may have already noticed that we’ve published one of these articles already (focussing on Grieving, Kollapse, and Monument of Misanthropy), with at least one more… and possibly another after that… lined up to follow this one.
So let’s all cross our fingers and hope that this renewed burst of mental energy I’m feeling portends a quick recovery, as I’ve got lots of albums from last year still to write about even before I get started on whatever 2022 has to offer!
(After a short hiatus Andy Synn returns with the first in a series of articles focussing on some of the “unsung heroes” of last year)
Let me present to you my simple thesis for why these “Unsung heroes…” posts exist.
Quite simply, there’s too much music released every year and I can’t keep up with it all!
This doesn’t mean that I/we haven’t listened to them, by any means – in fact all but one of the albums I’m going to be highlighting over the next week or two were mentioned in my annual year-end round-up – it’s just that listening to and appreciating an album is only the first step… actually finding time to write about them, in any depth or detail, is a whole different matter.
So consider these posts a second chance to catch up with a few albums which I would have recommended (heck, one of the records featured in this article snuck its way into the “bonus features” of my “Critical Top Ten” even though I hadn’t written a word about it before) if I’d had more time to write this year!
Recommended for fans of: Agalloch, Alcest, Wolves In The Throne Room
It’s not just the end of the month, but the end of what’s been a difficult twelve months for most of us, so what better time to get introspective and immersed in the rhythms and cycles of the natural world as we transition from one year to the next?
With three albums now under their belt, VVilderness – the scintillating solo-project of Hungarian vocalist and multi-instrumentalist vvilder – have been exploring the musical boundary between light and dark for a number of years now, each harsh yet haunting composition rich in both bitterness and beauty, atmosphere and energy, rugged metallic riffage and spellbinding melody.
And though the band’s sound is based in Black Metal, such is their embrace of other elements and influences – from dreamlike Doom to gloomy Shoegaze to brooding Folk – that what they create will likely appeal to a much wider audience, if they’re willing to give their music a chance.
(Andy Synn closes out his annual List-Week with a ranked round-up of his personal favourites)
And here we are, finally. Can you hear my sigh of relief ?
Don’t get me wrong, doing all these round-ups and lists is, ultimately, quite a rewarding experience – especially when people tell me that it’s help them discover, or re-evaluate, something they might not otherwise have listened to – but it’s also quite a bit of work, and no matter how early I start putting it all together I somehow always end up having to finish things off in a rush at the last minute.
Thankfully my final list of the week is, this year at least, relatively easy, as I’m 99% certain as I write this that I know exactly which albums I want to include as part of my “Personal Top Ten”.
These albums aren’t necessarily the biggest, or the best, or the most popular/well-known releases by any means, but they’re definitely the ones which have resonated with me the most on a purely personal level.
So let’s just crack on, shall we, and give you all some insight into my listening tastes/habits this year.
Once again Andy Synn sets out to try and capture the best of the year in just ten albums.
Does he succeed? Let’s find out!
For those of you who might be new to the site, allow me to explain.
My “Critical Top Ten” isn’t quite the same as your usual “Top Ten” you’ll find elsewhere.
For one thing, it’s not a ranked list. Rather, it’s purposefully structured to present a – hopefully – broad overview of the year’s best albums, ones which I think exemplify, in different ways, the best of their respective genres, in an attempt to feature as many different faces and facets of the year’s Metal scene as I can fit into just ten selections.
Of course, this is inevitably coloured by my own tastes, no matter how much I might try to be objective about things, and limited both by what I’ve actually heard (I can’t judge it if I haven’t listened to it, after all) and by the fact that ten albums is never enough to fully represent the vibrant variety of the last twelve months (case in point, I had to drop both In Asymmetry and Dordeduh at the last minute in order to keep it down to ten).
But, still, I’ve spent many hours agonising over each one of these choices (including the “bonus” recommendations for those already familiar with my main selections) hoping that, collectively, they at least aspire to being a representative sample of 2021 – the albums which are, you might say, critical, to understanding and appreciating the last twelve months in Metal.
Tomorrow, of course, I’ll be publishing my list of my “Personal” favourites of the year, something which is generally a lot easier and a lot less pressure, but for now… enjoy!
(Today Andy Synn brings you his suggestions for the albums which represent the top tier of this year’s metallic crop)
So we’re now halfway through “List Week”, although it’s probably more than that considering yesterday’s “Good” post was easily the most complicated and time-consuming of all the week’s articles.
Case in point, today’s round-up of the “Great” albums – the ones which I think represent the crème de la crème of their particular genre(s), whether by pushing them further or simply by exemplifying their very best qualities – is less than half the length of yesterday’s.
After all, while greatness comes in many forms, trying to define it, even pseudo-objectively, means you’ve got to be a little more selective.
Obviously, this list isn’t comprehensive or definitive in any way (never trust any site or reviewer who claims otherwise) since it’s impossible for any one writer to hear everything that comes out in a given year, and you’ll probably spot the notable omission of albums by Frontierer (don’t worry, DGR will probably include that one), Clouds (excellent on first listen, but needs more time to really sink in), Møl (not a bad band, but overhyped in my opinion) and many more that I simply didn’t get around to due to the fact that time remains annoyingly linear.
You’ll also note that I’ve left off both albums I was involved in this year since I’m not arrogant enough to review my own records, but if you fancy checking out Apathy Noir’s final full-length, At the Edge of the World, or Beyond Grace’s second album, Our Kingdom Undone, feel free to do so in your own time!
Anyway, with all that preamble now out of the way here’s a collection of what I thought were the “Great” albums of 2021… and if you don’t see it here, that’s probably because I didn’t hear it (or I forgot about it).
(Andy Synn continues his annual round-up of the year in Metal)
Now that all the furore over yesterday’s debacle of disappointments has (hopefully) blown over, it’s time to get into the good stuff.
And I do mean the “Good” stuff, as while the wide variety of albums featured in this article (some 200+ by last count) run the gamut from just “pretty good” to “almost great”, they all have different things to recommend about them, some more so than others, obviously, and my hope is that this list will help at least some of you discover – or even rediscover – a bunch of new bands you’d otherwise overlooked.
Because, let’s face it, the real purpose of this particular piece – which, to be clear, is in no way comprehensive, as there’s lots of things I didn’t get chance to hear (and probably several things I did but have forgotten to include) – is simply to provide a useful round-up for our readers to pick and choose from at their leisure so they can, hopefully, catch up on some of what they might have missed!
In that spirit I’ve made some slight tweaks to the formatting this year, both to make things easier on myself and to make it easier for our audience, so – without further ado – here’s all the new releases from 2021 that I think didn’t quite make the cut for the “Great” list (although some of them came very, very close).
And, bear in mind if you don’t see something you’re looking for here there’s always a chance it will make an appearance in tomorrow’s list!
(Andy Synn officially begins “List Week” with a round up of the year’s most “Disappointing” releases)
As has become my custom I’m kicking off List Week with what is always the most controversial entry, my list of the most “disappointing” albums of the year.
Now, to be clear, this article isn’t about just attacking bands you don’t like. So if you’re coming here to performatively shit on someone else’s work just to make yourself look big and clever… jog on.
No, the point is simply to acknowledge that the artists we love sometimes let us down – whether that’s because they simply fail to live up to their own potential, or because their latest release is more hype than substance – and to give readers a place to communicate, and commiserate, and come to terms with the fact that even our favourite bands aren’t perfect.