Best of 2021: Corey’s List

Best of 2021

Is that it? Am I the last one? Dang. Again. Wait, maybe one more to come… Anyway, I guess I’ll start this off on my soapbox as always, by noting that I truly cannot comprehend where we are as a society. Well, I suppose I can, which is even more frustrating. If 2020 wasn’t a brutal enough year (not in a good way), 2021 seemed to serve as an appropriate encore. Seemingly everything we experience in life has been weaponized for political gain in one way or another, a global pandemic has been widely accepted as an endemic thanks, in part, to widespread misinformation, and, just as bluntly, climate disasters resulting from human activity are on the brink of running rampant for the duration of humanity’s remaining existence… however brief that may be. And those are just my three favorite, non-personal, items to discuss in our corner of the universe. It sucks, and I’m burnt out. Optimism has completely faded at this point, and I’m ready to run screaming into the woods. But hey, cheers to 2020, right?!

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Best of 2021: Zyklonius’s List

Best of 2021

Huh, it appears that I blinked and a whole year went by just like that. Luckily there was metal, a lot of it in fact, to the extent that none of the albums on my list ended up on our staff’s combined list, which shows just how much diversity there is, in terms of releases, genres and our respective tastes and preferences. With majestic hails to the bands whose releases enriched my life in the past 12 months, the following contains my 20 favorite albums of the year. I hope you will find something that intrigues, excites and animates you. 

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Initial Descent: September 19 – 25, 2021

Unto Others

Look, I don’t know all the answers, nor does anyone else for that matter, apparently. However, I do know a good one which is something the old guard of country knew well: let’s just get wasted and kick all the footlights out. Very effective. Anyway, new metal time and we’ve got another long list ahead that’s full of it. First up are the undisputed kings of goth metal, Unto Others, with their second full length that’s everything you loved about Mana, but better. Next up is a technical platter from Rivers of Nihil who continue to show how adept they are at exceptional ideas and making them heavy as lead, then we’ve got Wraith who show that the thrash revival is better than ever, and last up top is LLNN with their healthy serving of sludge, hardcore, and post-metal. Many, many more follow these picks so jump in and grab them all.

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