Rolling 2021 Metal Thread

It's so good! Happy to see more love.

This, folks, is some damn good old school Finnish deathgrind:

https://mesacounojo.bandcamp.com/album/prying-sight-of-imperception

oh, this is quite good. I never totally clicked with their last record but this seems like a significant step up. love that outro.

I am rounding out my concert calendar and I am debating the merits of seeing some geezers in 2021:

Testament / Exodus / Death Angel
Judas Priest
Bad Religion

Discuss...

Bad Religion are always fun, and JP is always amazing.

Thanks for the Galvanizer recommendation; I bought both their albums.

What's a metal concert?

I wouldn't go see Judas Priest in 2021 for several reasons:

• the rona
• they're touring with Sabaton, who I just cannot find it in me to care about
• I saw them in 2007 with Testament, Motörhead, and Heaven and Hell, and that was an experience that IMO couldn't be topped

Re the Testament/Exodus/Death Angel tour, is there a headliner for that collection of perpetual support acts?

The last Bad Religion album I liked came out in 1989, and even that was a step down from Suffer, so...shrug emoji.

All that said, I'm sure every band you listed is still putting on good shows, so get out there!

I appear to be in the minority but I really dig this new Psychic Hit tape

https://psychichit.bandcamp.com/album/solutio-2

Retro 70s heavy (think like Wishbone Ash more than Sabbath) and slightly proggy stuff, kinda wish there was more violin.

Sabaton are great, sure they only really know how to write one song and slight variations thereon, but they do know how to put on an excellent live show around it.

Sabaton would be a phenomenal opener, and perfect for the Priest crowd. A lot of my fellow olds who don't follow the metal scene anymore would get a huge kick out of them.

And Priest have been sounding great with Sneap, plus he and Ritchie have been pushing Rob and Ian to dig deeper in the back catalogue. Two years ago they were playing stuff like Tyrant, The Sentinel, Starbreaker, Take These Chains.

We got Starbreaker, All Guns Blazing, and Killing Machine at my last Priest show

Well, okay! My son is having me take him to Korn next week (I don't dislike the band but I never would have guessed that Korn playing an amphitheater would be my first post-COVID show bacK) so I told him he needs to listen to Priest on Spotify and tell me if I can take him to see them. He got to see Motorhead before Lemmy died so it feels like something that just needs to happen.

Aduanten never got mentioned above which is a bit of a surprise - the band is self-described as a "dark-textured death metal collaboration formed in late 2019 from the ashes of melodic death metal cult favorites Vex and featuring members of Obsequiae, Panopticon, and Horrendous."

Their debut EP came out back in May and it's quite good, definitely brainier than most death metal but not at all pretentious and super melodic at times as well.

http://open.spotify.com/album/3LmeTgRTNQ1ioOf7pJKq5P?si=wimRxhxhQvGdZIFFSfK7sA&dl_branch=1
http://aduanten.bandcamp.com/album/sullen-cadence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05rjYI8hom8

Trve kvlt Buddhist-themed black metal from India, although you'd be forgiven for wondering whether this isn't yet another Western impersonator:

https://siddhatthagotama.bandcamp.com/album/-

A roundup of recent favourites I haven't seen cited itt:

https://solbrud.bandcamp.com/album/levende-i-br-nsh-j-vandt-rn (there's a quasi improvisatory slant to Solbrud when they play live, which brings out the best in them)

https://bloodharvestrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mokv-n-v-okovech (Czech OSDM that doesn't sound stale – I have no idea how they pull it off)

https://blutumhang.bandcamp.com/album/the-fires-of-domination (second wave Norwegian BM worship that plays up the folksy, keening ambient bits)

https://sanctuaire.bandcamp.com/album/spectre-de-mondes-pass-s (a Monarque alias that flirts with dungeon synth and possibly the best QC BM album I've heard this year)

https://drycough.bandcamp.com/album/to-the-endless-depths (caverncore made viable again by a bunch of Swedish teenagers who sound like they're discovering it for the first time, because they are)

This was already mentioned upthread, but special shoutout to Marie (aka Brouillard/Sphere) for putting out three stellar records in 2021, under those two monikers plus Transcending Rites (with Déhà). Wouldn't be surprised if there was a fourth one in the pipes.

Oh yeah, and the new Ænigmatum is dropping tomorrow:

https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/deconsecrate

Hopefully this one will provide them with the attention they deserve. That they were picked up by 20 Buck Spin is an excellent sign in and of itself.

It is my duty to inform you that a new Anal Stabwound EP just dropped on New Standard Elite and it's pretty darn good: https://analstabwound.bandcamp.com/album/abstraction-bathes-in-sunlight

Portrait have a new album, At One With None, coming out September 3. It's pretty epic. They've made two videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCmak39UYLw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwyt6IaiczA

Neptunian Maximalism update: Now that I have really big speakers, Éons sounds fucking amazing in my living room.

This has already been an incredible year for tech death (Ad Nauseam, Atvm, Ophidian I, Seputus, Siderean, StarGazer) and now I may safely add Diskord to that list:

https://diskordband.bandcamp.com/album/degenerations-dissonant-technical-death-metal

I started listening to that Diskord record and liked what I heard, but I'm currently neck deep in the new Spirit Adrift EP. It's only three songs, 20 minutes, but it's exactly the right kind of retro.

haven't listened to the diskord yet but it's gonna hard not to like an album that starts with a song titled "loitering in the portal"

As far as hopelessly retro metal goes, the Herzel remains excellent but if NWOBHM revival with a vocalist who rivals Lemmy is what you're hankering after, look no further:

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-sentence-bang-to-rights

Probably old news (I mean, it is) but these are all tons of fun and new to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A6R5GDXD2E

Guitarist Mike left Destruction back in March, so now it's apparently Schmier and three youngsters. They've got a new song (with a video clearly filmed in isolation), and it's fine, I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-62qSa5efOo

this laceration record sounding like one of the death metal records of the year to me on my first listen

https://rottedlife.bandcamp.com/album/demise

this new Diskord record is extremely my shit

Good day for hipster black metal fans with new albums from both Deafheaven and Wolves in the Throne Room!
I have held back on listening to the advance tracks and will be checking them out for the first time shortly.

I've been playing the hell out of the Deafheaven all day. Any thoughts on the WIITR? I hope to get to it over the weekend.

#NowPlaying @BLASCREATION - Forsaken Dynasty

This came out a few years ago but was reissued by @hpgd666 and is my first exposure to the Nevada bangers. What separates it from other death-thrash troupes is a commitment to thrash that this hesher who came of age in the '80s loves. pic.twitter.com/L1hyK3NQEm

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) August 20, 2021

Listen at @Spotify https://t.co/tSEVJL00vn

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) August 20, 2021

Listen at @Bandcamp https://t.co/NxPhZcKIC5

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) August 20, 2021

this new Diskord record is extremely my shit

ooooh! gonna have to check that out.

The Diskord absolutely pwns, everyone needs to check it out.

I enjoy the new Deafheaven, as expected seeing as I've never been entirely sold on their shrieks. Resolving the BM vs shoegazing tension in favour of the latter was the correct move.

As for the Wolves in the Throne Room, it's a solid outing as usual, but it certainly won't dislodge any of the albums they cut back in their prime.

lucubration
https://lucubration.bandcamp.com/album/aspiration-of-corrupted-ancient-blood

oksennus side project. primitive war metal with lots of noise and feedback. reminds me of corrupted in ways i’m having trouble articulating. love this stuff.

so now i finally threw this diskord record on and it sorta sounds like… prog death der kreuzen with lots of cowbell fills? not at all what i was expecting but i’m on board.

haha oops, i mean die kreuzen, shit is hard to write, mama mia

I've caught up with my 2021 playlist at long last. If anyone's curious, here are the metal albums I've enjoyed the most this year, roughly and debatably organized by subgenre (please assume maximum subjectivity throughout):

Black Metal

Beastlor – Galaxies of Death (USA)
Blutumhang – The Fires of Domination (Norway)
Brouillard – Brouillard (France)
Daius – Ascuns (Romania)
Escumergamënt – …ni degu fazentz escumergamënt e mesorga… (Sweden)
Ferriterium – Calvaire (France)
Koldovstvo – Ни царя, ни бога (?)
Леший – Поганые сны (Russia)
Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm (USA)
The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires (Germany)
Sanctuaire – Spectre de mondes passés (Canada)
Sarkasm – Les affres du néant (France)
Solbrud – Levende i Brønshøj Vandtårn (Denmark)
Sphere – π (France)
Sur Austru – Obârșie (Romania)
Transcending Rites – Enthronement of the Third (France/Belgium)
Ungfell – Es grauet (Switzerland)

Black/Death Metal

Esoctrilihum – Dy’th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath (France)
Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning (USA)

Death Metal

Cerebral Rot – Excretion of Mortality (USA)
Drawn and Quartered – Congregation Pestilence (USA)
Galvanizer – Prying Sight of Imperception (Finland)
Morbific – Ominous Seep of Putridity (Finland)
Patriarcha – Tumulus (Slovakia)
Sněť – Mokvání v okovech (Czech Republic)
Steel Bearing Hand – Slay in Hell (USA)

Death Doom Metal

Black Wound – To the Endless Depths (Sweden)
Civerous – Live Promo MMXXI (USA)
Decrepisy – Emetic Communion (USA)

Drone Metal

Gaunt Emperor – Femur (USA)

Funeral Doom Metal

Horre – Songs of a Wanderer (Finland)

Gothic Metal

Tribulation – Where the Gloom Becomes Sound (Sweden)

Post-Metal

Big Brave – Vital (Canada)
Dola – Czasy (Poland)

Progressive Metal

Dordeduh – Har (Romania)
Dvne – Etemen Ænka (United Kingdom)
Iotunn – Access All Worlds (Denmark)
Papangu – Holoceno (Brazil)

Stoner Metal

Sleep – Iommic Life (USA)

Technical Death Metal

Ænigmatum – Deconsecrate (USA)
Ad Nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse (Italy)
Diskord – Degenerations (Norway)
Ophidian I – Desolate (Iceland)

I already forgot about them at 12” and got absurdly excited that a new Sleep album was imminent.

The 'rona got Eric Wagner.

He was, again reportedly, unvaccinated.

gutted. I loved Eric's vocals. I fist-bumped him at The Earl in Atlanta while he made terrible jokes between songs.

it didn't have to happen, goddammit.

oh no :(

Goddamit. Trouble made some of my favorite music. When I heard he got COVID IU was really nervous - he's a bigger dude, he chain smokes on stage so he probably smokes a lot off it as well... But I hoped I was worried about nothing. Fuck.

Ach, horrible news. The self-titled and Manic Frustration are two of my favourite records. RIP big man.

I always thought that Hooded Menace were good but fell beneath the threshold of greatness. The new one might pierce that glass ceiling but I need to listen a few more times. There's a lot of old school Paradise Lost here methinks and there's a greater emphasis on melody, both of which are catching me by surprise as I listen the first time.

The new Wormwitch that came out today is also quite good, lots of black metal meat to stick to one's bones!

The new Antediluvian is a minor masterpiece of ritual, Bataillean avant-metal:

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2021/08/30/an-ncs-album-premiere-and-a-review-antediluvian-the-divine-punishment/

Pleasantly surprised to see this reviewed in p4k even though the rating is rong:

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/aenigmatum-deconsecrate/

Superdigging the new Fluisteraars. It's rough and raw but its a lot more than that as well. Love the variations in vocals. The little instrumental flourishes, the stretched out guitar parts.