May we please start with talking about how happy I am about this list? Legitimate difficult decisions had to be made in order to compose the list you’ll read below, and make no mistake, that’s a wonderful thing. Not since 2014 have I been so privileged as to have to agonize who’s going to make the final, very finite, cut.
To add on to the lengthy and probably overly analytical
conversation that Chris and I had, I think part of what’s happening here is
that maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed, the baseline of music is
improving. Does that necessarily mean a
new wave, a burgeoning fad that will sweep the music-imbibing public and usher
us into a blessed era of radio-conquering prosperity? Nah, probably not.
But don’t lost hope!
Part of what really sets this list, and the choices it forced me to
make, apart from some of its predecessors is that a number of bands, many
listed here in the embellished Honorable Mention section, fell into two groups
– they either wrote amazing singles, but couldn’t maintain that momentum over a
full album, or wrote a great, memorable record, but not so different from their
previous accomplishments. Originality,
or in a baser sense, novelty, can break ties here. So, there’s good news all around; there were
a lot of worthy records that are still worth the investment of your time even
if they didn’t crack this list, and also that this list must contain, as the
kids say, some real bangers. Shoot, I'm even giving away the elusive EP of the Year award, which I don't get to do every year.
Brushing all that aside, here’s part of the litmus test for
me with how highly I personally consider the list below – when my coworkers at
the office, who are dimly aware that I might be a person of varied interests
when separated from the confines of my career, asked me who my top artists
where this year, I could rattle off all eleven of these records without a
second thought. I haven’t been able to do
that in literal years.
Before we begin, a recap of the rules:
-All qualifying albums must be original studio material – no live albums, no
compilations, no re-releases, no covers albums.
-There are eleven albums here, because, of course, it goes to 11.
-Honorable Mention would normally just be one album, but I’m so pleased with
2021 as a musical year (and only as a musical year,) that I’ve decided to
reward a number of albums.
Without further ado, here we go:
Honorable Mention (in alphabetical order) -
The Browning – END OF EXISTENCECharred – PRAYERS OF MALEDICTION
Employed To Serve – CONQUERING
Fear of Domination – VI: REVELATION
John 5 & The Creatures – SINNER
K.A.A.N – KAIZEN
Phantom Elite – TITANIUM
Powerwolf – CALL OF THE WILD
Steel bearing Hand – SLAY IN HELL
EP Of The Year – The Hawkins - AFTERMATH
Not going to go into a ton of detail here for an EP, but man, why isn't there more of this? I mean, I get it, leave them wanting more, but there's barely enough here to know I'm thirsty for this! Infectious and groovy and melodic and perfectly paced. A lot to like.
11 – Andrew W.K – GOD IS PARTYING
I have been doing a year-end best of list every year since I dared call myself a music journalist, which was all the way back in 2008. To that point, Andrew W.K's iconic "I Get Wet" had been released six years prior, and his career was already considered long past toast. Now, nearly twenty years after the revelation that you truly could write a record where every song was about partying, we get another worthy landmark in the pantheon of Andrew W.K...and it's about as far from a party album as you can imagine. Moody, temperamental and introspective, Andrew W.K wanted to show us all that he could execute a serious record while performing all the instruments himself, and he did just that, with great aplomb. It is true that this is a singles record - not every song here is a home run. But the moments that are elevated to greatness are sublime in their orchestration.
10 – We Butter The Bread With Butter – DAS ALBUM
I liked this album a lot the first time I heard it. To the point where I would be listening to it in idle moments at work, and coworkers were starting to notice (generally followed by either a request to know what that awful racket was, an ask to turn it off, or some combination of the two. Philistines.) Then, suddenly it was lost to me. And now, in reviewing everything I listened to this year, it finds itself back in the fold, earning top honors. I won’t lie, it’s not the easiest listen – there’s a density of sound here that rivals anybody on the market, to the point where the album can be physically exhausting to listen to if you’re not prepared for it. The deep bass tones and cavernous percussion are relentless and insistent, but if you’re willing to distill the music a little, there’s a lot of rhythmic sensibility contained in here, and once you get a taste for that, the album unfolds.
9 – Beartooth – BELOW
Let’s not bury the lede – the opening riff of “Devastation” is the best pure adrenaline guitar riff written this year. And that’s no idle boast or one-off, because “Below” is end-to-end positively turgid with great riffs. Real down and dirty metal purists are going to balk at the dramatic, melodic, singalong choruses that borrow from less authoritarian heavy genres, but don’t be intimidated by their ignorant condescension. Beartooth can hammer with the best of them, and excels in writing songs that can change gears but still stay coherent within the musical narrative. I feel like if I say “Below” is a rich man’s Avenged Sevenfold album, that both obfuscates some of the album’s genius and belittles the idiomatic accomplishments of both bands (because “City of Evil” is awesome,) but for some reason I can’t get that phrase out of my head.
8 – 6:33 – FEARY TALES FOR STRANGE LULLABIES: THE DOME
France, as a country, has for centuries been considered the beating heart of European art and culture (with apologies to Italy and specifically the city of Florence,) so refined and so scrutinizing in its taste that what the French culture deems worthy of merit must truly be beyond reproach. So it logically follows that only a French experimental band could get away with writing a devilishly catchy song called “Holy Golden Boner.” 6:33 returned for the first time in six years with an album that made up for lost time by putting more words in the title (bonus points for a cool album cover,) and also stands as a stark improvement over the charming but flawed “Deadly Scenes.” Regardless, at its best moments, 6:33’s music always sounds like a collection of demented, impish showtunes, and “Feary Tales” provides a whirlwind trip of exactly that over its wayward one-hour runtime. Close your eyes and you can almost see the choreography.
7 - Vaelmyst – SECRYPTS OF THE EGOCHASM
As Chris and I have discussed at some length on this site
over the years, there are several splinter genres of metal that have been all
but played out – there’s little to no more room for experiment, expansion or idiomatic
adjustments. We normally make this
argument with specific regard to power metal, but if we’re being honest in our
heart of hearts, death metal is also in many ways a dry well. And yet, Vaelmyst found a way to take all the
desiccated mores of an overplayed idiom and revive them in such as a way as to
be interesting and novel and dare I say, catchy? The concept of catchy death metal often seems
like a contradiction in terms at best and anathema to a possessive fanbase at
worst, but the fact that I caught myself humming some of Vaelmyst’s better
riffs during quiet moments at work speaks to the power that this band has
unlocked. And that was after having listened
to the record just once. I found myself
going back to this album over and over throughout the months subsequent to its
release, whenever I needed that particular fix for death metal done right.
6 - Erdling – HELHEIM
Erdling and I have danced around for a few years ago, but we’ve never been able to connect in any meaningful way. Their album from last year, “Yggdrasil,” is as close as we’ve come to me giving them real accolades….until now. For this, their fifth full-length album, Erdling locked in on the magic formula and found just the right combination of melody and groove and synth-industrial might to make “Helheim” stand out not only from their own catalogue, but from the effort of a lot of worthy contemporaries this year. By the way, singles be damned, “Vogelfrei” is the best offering on this record. NDH has spread out from beyond it’s original borders by a wide margin, but Erdling is proving that the home country still brews some of the best.
5 - CueStack – DIAGNOSIS: HUMAN
This was a latecomer to the list, and I admit that there may be some projection here on my part – “Diagnosis: Human” reminds me in many ways of the pomp and circumstance and hook-y energy of Peter TÃĪgtgren’s excellent side project PAIN, and my fandom of that band is such that I might be pleased just to hear something that reminds me of that in the first place. That’s not to say that CueStack can’t stand on their own, far from it – they exist at the burgeoning crossroads of electronic music and metal, and this debut full length shows the promise of a full synthesis of the two genres, ranging from the typically aggressive to the impressively muted. In what typically can be a caustic mix of overwhelming sounds, CueStack found a way to weave some nuance into presentation, so the ceiling is high.
4 - Fear Factory – AGGRESSION CONTINUUM
I’m grinding my teeth a little that I have this album this high, but game has to recognize game (the implication here is that I also have game, when most contemporary evidence points to the contrary.) As I said at the time of release, I didn’t want to like this album, since it was released on the heels of the most serious acrimony of a band who has spent much of their career soaking in acrimony. Some of the members may be possessed of some…difficult….character traits. Nevertheless, this is the best Fear Factory record since “Archetype,” and it’s not especially close. Maybe even since “Obsolete.” All of the proper violence of the band’s, well, archetype, is represented here in full, but couched within that cacophony is the proportionate mixture of riff and groove that has always made FF stand out from their contemporaries. This is a really great effort, regardless of circumstances.
3 - Bokassa – MOLOTOV ROCKTAIL
In cooking, there is often equal reverence for the competing skills of ornate, detailed and time-intensive preparation, and the ability to do the simple with a level of practiced magnificence. Bokassa’s album from 2021, “Molotov Rocktail,” fell squarely into that second camp. Mixing some tenets of stoner rock, gutter punk and straightforward metal, the band assembled a roaring diesel engine of edgy rock, blending all the complementary elements into the blast furnace at its heart. The album also possesses a chef’s kiss blend of sarcastic fun, gritty realism and implied menace to make for a listen that’s easy and accessible, but never boring. The entire proceeding is punctuated with chant-worthy punk sing-along choruses that help bind the hooks and melodies into easily hummable touchstones. In the modern era of music, it’s hard to impress solely by doing the simple things better than anyone else, but that’s what Bokassa has done here, and they should be celebrated for it.
2 - Dead Poet Society - -!-
What’s happening to me? There was a time in my life when I would have bypassed this album without a second thought. Maybe I’m becoming more open-minded, or, as I prefer to think, perhaps the world has finally come around to see music my way (unlikely.) If I said to you ‘Breaking Benjamin on steroids,’ that’s an oversimplification of what’s really happening here, but it lends some idea of the contents of “-!-“. The attraction to Dead Poet Society’s album comes from the deep juxtaposition of earnest, clean vocals and impossibly throaty rhythm. It’s an insistent, deep sound that hasn’t really been heard since the microcosm of Soundgarden’s “4th of July,” and Dead Poet Society artfully stretched that out into an entire record. The record doesn’t utilize a lot of virtuosity, but as rare as it is to say, that kind of styling is unnecessary here and would have actually been a mistake. “-!-“ is all about fury and emotion and the undulating earth beneath our unsteady feet.
1 - Cave of Swimmers – AURORA
It doesn’t seem possible that the best album of the year could be produced by a mere two musicians, but here we are. While “Aurora” is impressive in its depth and intricacy and layers, the album also impresses upon the attention from the first strains. Riding that line between instantly catchy and philosophically interesting is perhaps the most difficult of all feats in music, especially in metal, where one is almost invariably sacrificed for the good of the other. And that’s before we reconcile with the idea that the lyrics and themes from this album range from the relatable, to the typically prog, to the utterly ridiculous. Yet every moment is packed with some distinct hook, some well-orchestrated edge, some synthesis of percussion and guitar that rings true in the ear in the listener. “Aurora” is as bold a statement of arrival as we’ve had in recent years, and Cave of Swimmers is not to be missed.
