Calling this list “best of the rest” isn’t intended to indicate that these albums are somehow of a lesser quality than what came before. Rather, it is simply meant as sort of a catchall, since these albums didn’t quite fit into any of the other categories. So, without further ado and in alphabetical order, here’s the final round of albums that grabbed a hold of my crank and kept on yankin’ in 2021…
Amenra – De Doorn (Relapse Records) I have to admit, I never bothered to check out Amenra until I witnessed one of my favorite professional wrestlers, AEW’s Malakai Black, walk out to “Ogentroost” off of their latest album, De Doorn. The ominous, agonizing, ridiculously heavy track made for one hell of an entrance and upon listening to the rest of the album, I found myself utterly mesmerized by the Belgian quintet’s heady brew of doom, sludge and post metal. Sure, the band probably owes some of its inspiration to the likes of Neurosis and Cult of Luna, but one can also hear elements of heavy post-hardcore bands such a Breach and Minus, making for a unique take on the genre that alternates between unsettling and utterly terrifying. While I’m looking forward to exploring Amenra’s back catalog, I find myself still so stuck on De Doorn that I haven’t yet had a chance to venture further.
Cathexis – Untethered Abyss (Willowtip Records) Austin, TX quintet Cathexis creates just the kind of technical death metal that I absolutely love; dexterous and dissonant, but also memorable and organic-sounding. Indeed, Untethered Abyss isn’t your typical million-mile-an-hour, “Hey! Look what we can do!” style of tech death that’s become all too common; Cathexis know when to slow things down and they know how to play with feeling, as opposed to mindlessly shredding for six minutes at a time. The band also understands the value of knowing when to self-edit; the majority of the tracks on the album are under four minutes in length, making for an album that’s both compact and compelling. All in all, Untethered Abyss might be my favorite death metal album of 2021; a mesmerizing example of what technical death metal can be when it isn’t woefully overplayed and overproduced.
The Crown – Royal Destroyer (Metal Blade Records) Goddamn, I love The Crown! It’s been a bit of a rocky road for the Swedish quintet ever since 2003’s fun but uneven Possessed 13; the band reunited with OG vocalist Johan Lindstand, then he left again, then he came back again and they released a couple duds along the way (Doomsday King and Death is Not Dead). But the band regained their footing on 2018’s Cobra Speed Venom and with Royal Destroyer they’ve somehow upped the ante with an album that’s fast, violent, mean and hungry-sounding; it’s great to hear a thirty year old band still sounding like they have something to prove and putting the rest of the scene on notice with absolute bulldozers such as “Motordeath” “Scandinavian Satan” and “Beyond the Frail.” Indeed, after all these years The Crown remain the the kings of death thrash ultraviolence; long may they reign.
Crypta – Echoes of the Soul (Napalm Records) It’s always a bummer when longtime members leave a beloved band, but sometimes you end up getting two killer bands out of such a split, and that’s exactly what happened when former Nervosa members Fernanda Lira (bass, vocals) and Luana Dametto (drums) left to form international death metal powerhouse Crypta. Folks will of course be tempted to compare Crypta to Nervosa, but the two couldn’t be more different; whereas Nervosa play thrash with some death metal tendencies, Crypta’s debut is a pure death metal album and a ferocious one at that. Guitarists Sonia Anubis and Taina Bergamaschi peel off riff after scathing riff on tracks such as “Possessed” “Death Arcana” and “Under the Black Wings,” while Lira howls like she’s possessed by multiple demons and Dametto pulverizes her drums with both power and precision. Echoes of the Soul is one of the best death metal debuts not just of 2021 but of at least the last five years.
Horndal – Lake Drinker (Prosthetic Records) My hometown has never meant much to me, but the same can’t be said for Sweden’s Horndal. The band’s hometown holds such importance to its members that they named said band after it, and over the course of two albums they’ve crafted a soundtrack to the small Swedish village’s tragic history. Although they’ve only been playing together since 2016, the quartet attack songs such as “The Uprising” and “Growing Graves” with such precision and ferocity it’s as if they’ve been honing their craft for much longer; perhaps the shared experience of growing up together in a near-ghost town has put them on the same wavelength. Whatever the case, Horndal are the very definition of a well-oiled machine on Lake Drinker; that may sound like a total cliche, but this is one of the rare cases where the cliche actually holds true.
Honorable Mentions:
- Aborted – Mania Cult (Century Media)
- Blood Red Throne – Imperial Congregation (Nuclear Blast)
- Carnal Savagery – Fiendish (Moribund Cult)
- Desaster – Churches Without Saints (Metal Blade Records)
- Frozen Soul – Crypt of Ice (Century Media)
- Go Ahead and Die – s/t (Nuclear Blast)
- Ingested – The Surreption II (Unique Leader Records)
- Monster Magnet – A Better Dystopia (Napalm Records)
- Nervosa – Perpetual Chaos (Napalm Records)
- Pestilence – Exitivm (Agonia Records)
- Traumatomy – Extirpation Paradigms (Gore House Productions)
- Yautja – The Lurch (Relapse Records)
THKD 