Tag best of

2021 In Review: Music

Peter Jones Leave a comment

Best of 2021

  • Archspire – Bleed the Future
    • A tour de force of technical death metal. Yet still balances that with more quiet, calm moments. Understanding that, even at only 32 minutes, it would be too much if it was unrelenting. Also, songs. Not just display of technical ability, actual songs.
  • 1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet
    • WWI will always be a bleak subject, and here it is handled with aplomb. Blackened death metal, with the addition of some symphonic elements this go around. Interspersed with music and quotations from the time. The music is perfect for the subject matter: harsh, harrowing, yet with moments of emotion.
  • Mastodon – Hushed and Grim
    • Too long, yes. But honestly, every song wins me over at some point. Even the songs that start off in a style I despise (country anyone?) eventually grow into something that I appreciate. Packed with emotion, this one took a couple of listens, but definitely won me over.
  • AMENRA – De Doorn
    • Not Mass VII. And shame on us for wanting Mass VII. De Doorn is still classic AMENRA. Powerful, haunting, balancing being abrasive with being introspective. A shining example of what draws me to post-metal: quiet contemplation balanced with crushing brutality.
  • Black Sites – Untrue
    • Just damn good heavy metal in the classic sense of the term. Lead member’s previous band Trials was a much heavier act. Black Sites brings some of that edge, but couches it in a modern yet classic metal veneer. Catchy songs, excellent choruses, interesting compositions.
  • IOTUNN – Access All Worlds
    • Progressive death metal with a sci-if theme? Sign me up! And Jón Aldará on lead vocals? Oh hells yes. This is huge, grandiose progressive metal with death growls and soaring cleans, this just hits all the right spots for me.
  • LLNN – Unmaker
    • So. Heavy. LLNN deal in the heavier aspects of post-metal. This is crushing, brutal, truly heavy music. Yet it is still subtle. That seems impossible, but mixed in with the monolithic riffs and the tortured vocals are weaved synths as well as layered “field recordings” of sounds from the real world. Probably the best single word for this is devastating.
  • Spiritbox – Eternal Blue
    • On paper, I shouldn’t really like Spiritbox. While difficult to place in a genre, metalcore would be the best fit. And I don’t really love most metalcore. And while I appreciate and love the heavy (“Holy Roller”), what elevates Spiritbox and Eternal Blue for me are all the things that are distinctly NOT metalcore. The gorgeous cleans of Courtney Laplante, the electronic elements, the ambience, the effects and the ever present guitar skills of Mike Stringer. Spiritbox just strikes me as something special, and their first full length album confirms that.
  • Year of No Light – Consolamentum
    • I love almost all things post. It’s true. Add post-metal or post-rock tag to anything and I am immediately 5 times more likely to check it out. Then make it instrumental? Gaaaahh. Okay, I’m sold. And then the fact that the music is so good, moving, driving, atmospheric. Having never heard of Year of No Light before, I immediately became a huge fan.
  • Crescent – Carving the Fires of Akhet
    • Egyptian themed death metal. Yawn. Nile has been doing that for years. But Nile has also not really wowed me for years (though their most recent album is a winner). Enter Crescent. Combining the heaviness of death metal with middle eastern musical cues and styles, they have created a really powerful album of music. This was an easy one to keep coming back to this year.

Honorable mentions

  • Be’lakor – Coherence
    • I really like the melodeath of Be’lakor, and this album is no different. Could have been higher had I listened to it more.
  • Emma Ruth Rundle – Engine of Hell
    • “Return” might be my favorite song of the year. This album is raw, simple, ERR. And she excels and bringing the emotion she is so adept at conveying.
  • Evergrey – Escape of the Phoenix
    • I just love Evergrey. This is an excellent distillation of what makes this band who they are. And that is why it isn’t ranked higher. It is Evergrey, once again, doing what they do. Good thing they do it so well.
  • Exodus – Persona Non Grata
    • Exodus be Exodus. Don’t expect them to change. And here they don’t. This is reliable thrash with a brutal guitar tone and Zetro’s unhinged vocal delivery.
  • Frontierer – Oxidized
    • WTF. Literally every time I listen to Frontierer I just think WTF over and over. Pure chaos in musical form, cranked all the way to 11.
  • Impure Wilhelmina – Antidote
    • I really like this band and their blend of metal with smooth, Brit pop style crooning. And this might be the best example of that blending ever. Probably should be higher on my list, I just didn’t listen as much as I would have liked.
  • Khemmis – Deceiver
    • Late in the year, not enough time to really appreciate this. But a reliable Khemmis record. Not their best (don’t know if Hunted will be able to be topped), but another great release from this band and an album I have enjoyed quite a bit this year.
  • Swallow the Sun – Moonflowers
    • Where are the tissues? Why is it so dusty in here? Why won’t my eyes stop watering? Death doom designed to rip your heart out and leave it on the floor. The loss of Aleah Stanbridge continues to haunt Juha Raivio, and that radiates from this record.
  • Clouds – Despartire
    • Yeah, seconded. Minus the loss of Aleah. Do not, I repeat DO NOT listen unless you want to wrap yourself in sadness and despair. But if you do, this is the softest, fuzziest blanket of despair you’ll find.

Better Than it Should Be

  • Chevelle – Niriatas
    • Chevelle hasn’t really interested me in years. But somehow this one grabbed my attention enough I listened to it multiple times this year. That shocked me.
  • Between the Buried and Me – Colors II
    • Following up such a landmark album like Colors is a difficult task. And the fact that BtBaM do it as well as they do here is surprising. I still have to be in the correct mindset for BtBaM and their “kitchen sink” approach to music, but here it works better than expected.

Disappointments

  • Gojira – Fortitude
    • Too many moments or tracks that just halt the momentum of this album. Like it’s predecessor Magma, this album just doesn’t click for me. I know a lot of the metal community continue to slather praise on Gojira and treat them like the second coming of the Lord. But while I admit they have had some amazing albums in the past, Fortitude continues the trend of albums that I have little to no interest in coming back to.
  • Iron Maiden – Senjutsu
    • It’s Maiden. It’s reliable. It’s also getting slower, songs feel more bloated, and fewer and fewer moments really stand out. This isn’t a bad album, it just isn’t one I came back to after the first week or so. I love that these guys are still rocking into their late 60s, but maybe it is time to wind down? Maybe?
  • Leprous – Aphelion
    • It is fine, if you want proggy pop-rock. But if what you loved about Leprous all started to fade with 2015s The Congregation this album will do little to nothing to win you back over. It certainly didn’t win me over. At least it isn’t any worse than their last 2 albums.

Listmania 2019 – The Honorable Mentions

Peter Jones Leave a comment

It’s that time of year again. A time of reflection, contemplation, deep thought. A time for serious introspection, for critical analysis. This is serious business, and sharing this work is vital to the survival of any self-respecting blog.

Yes, I mean year end lists.

But really, it seems to almost be a tradition at this point. People will reflect on the year gone by and make lists about their favorites. In this case, that would be favorite albums. And since I have been so remiss in writing lately, I felt it would be well for me to appropriate the list-making agenda and do so here. So there you have it, Listmania 2019.

Today, I’ll be starting with the honorable mentions. These are 5 albums that, when making a list for my favorites of the year, appeared on the list, but just didn’t quite make the top 10. No order here, just some really, really good albums that were (narrowly in some cases) beaten out by the competition. Each one of these albums is a staggeringly good work of art, and well worth contemplation and repeat listens.

Second to Sun – Legacy

Having previously written about this album, it should come as no surprise this was a top album of the year. Legacy is just so good. Synthesizing black metal aesthetics with death metal sensibilities, and layering on top of that Russian history and folklore makes for a haunting, captivating listen. The music is heavy, progressive at times, and thoroughly engaging. Second to Sun continue to impress with each new release.

Wilderun – Veil of Imagination

I really, really like what Wilderun are doing. This band from Massachusetts been progressive death metal with folk metal/music in a brilliant manner. After all the superlatives thrown at their previous release from 2015, there was a lot riding on where they would go from there. Well, Veil of Imagination proves they had more to give, as it is better in every way. Honestly, the only reason this album is an honorable mention is I just haven’t been able to give it the time it deserves. Every time I listen I think “I really need to listen to this album more/again”, and every time I don’t. I can tell this is a brilliant album, one that would rank much higher had I given it the time it deserves and requires.

Arch/Matheos – Winter Ethereal

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. John Arch is one of, if not the, very best metal vocalists ever. His vocal lines are brilliant, unusual, lovely, haunting and so unique. And Jim Matheos is one of metal’s greatest songwriters. Having these two together will always make me smile. I love Winter Ethereal, and it was probably one of my most anticipated albums of the year, as previous release Sympathetic Resonance is a masterwork of progressive metal. Winter Ethereal doesn’t quite hit the same highs as predecessor, though, and that is the only reason it ends up here in the honorables, rather than up in the top 10.

Sermon – Birth of the Marvellous

This one came out of nowhere. First release from a one person band (with some help), Birth of the Marvellous is a marvelous album of progressive music. Think somewhere between Soen (who also had a brilliant album this year), Porcupine Tree, with hints of Katatonia. If those comparisons don’t pique your interest, check your pulse, you might be dead. But really, this is a progressive masterpiece and another album that, had I spent more time with it, very likely would rank higher on my list. A concept album, an existential journey, a true work of art.

Slow – VI – Dantalion

Look, this album rules. Okay? It just does. I love everything about it. I even love that it is dense, off-putting, super slow. It takes real effort to get into VI – Dantalion, and that is the only reason it didn’t rank higher. There are plenty of times I have thought “Let’s listen to Slow!” Only to say to myself, “Maybe not today, not sure I’m up to it.” Such is the music of Slow. It is unrelenting in its inexorable march to the murkiest depths of despair. But it is also wonderful, brilliant, and the best funeral doom I have heard all year.