It’s also the kind of death metal album that offers so much more to explore with every new spin. It’s an album that scans even on a cursory listen as thrilling death metal that upholds both the guttural and grandiose torchbearers of the style. Ænigmatum maintain a balance that’s difficult to pull off but seemingly effortless in its presentation, elaborate rhythmic structures juxtaposed with melodic immediacy and unpredictable musical directions. Yet this album feels like their proper arrival, sprung forth fully formed from the head of Chuck Schuldiner and laying down two sides worth of intricately crafted, impeccably performed death metal with a progressive streak and an avant garde undercurrent. Portland’s Ænigmatum isn’t a new band, exactly-maybe the Grammys’ definition of “new” might apply here, but the death metal outfit had been honing their riffs for about four years by the time they released their 20 Buck Spin debut, Deconsecrate.
(I didn’t include Deafheaven though I might contradict myself.) What’s not up for debate is the quality of the selection of albums I’ve chosen these are the best metal albums of 2021, wherever they fall on heavy music’s spectrum.
I made it clear at the beginning of the year that these semantic arguments just don’t matter, and I already included Lingua Ignota-who makes operatic darkwave with screaming-in a previous list, so I think I’ve made my position clear by now. And my number one-my album of the year overall, even-was The Armed’s ULTRAPOP, a record that scans to me as a masterpiece of heavy music, but one that seems to exist in its own peculiar space. That doesn’t mean I won’t go back to the old system next year, but for this year, a hierarchy didn’t make sense with a collection of traditional folk songs at number two. Two of the best bands going right now teamed up to make a folk record, greater melodic elements crept into a number of incredible albums this year, and more than a few bands dared to provoke the schisms between those who want to see heavy music evolve and those who’d prefer to stay in one lane.įor this reason, I’ve decided not to rank my favorite metal albums this year.
But even in the midst of this continually more complicated to navigate present, music has remained a source of inspiration and comfort, something that offers promise and hope and, above all, catharsis.īut music itself was pretty weird too, you know? Nowhere was this more apparent for me than in metal this year, which had plenty of expectedly great entries in death metal, doom metal, black metal and hardcore, but at its best went in some truly odd directions. A series of fits and starts to attempt to get back to a normal we might never see again, in the midst of a global pandemic that’s still here. I don’t think there’s any disagreement about it: 2021 has been a very weird year.
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