Missed Connections: Looking Back on 2021

Best of 2021

Oh hey, you thought lists were all done?  Nope, I’ve got one more in the tank and some more albums to talk about.  I wrote one of these lists last year, amid a flurry of excitement and trepidation that I had missed something truly great, which is kind of a silly thing to worry about now that I think about it.  Of course I did then, and of course I do now.  There just isn’t enough time in the world for me to take every great album in, even in the span of a whole year.  And, not least of all, new bands and new albums are always being thrown my way thanks to the good folks we have on staff.  So, here I sit with some leftovers of 2021, albums that for whatever reason didn’t jump out at me right away but have since found their way into my heart.  Don’t consider these throwaways; they stack up to anything on anyone else’s list, and in fact, many of them WERE on other peoples’ list and that’s what brought them to my attention.  Just consider it a nice bonus present, post-holidays.

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Initial Descent: May 6, 2016

grave miasma band photo

It has rained every single damn day this week. Which, really, is just what I need less than two weeks removed from a breakup. Good job, universe! Oh well, May’s upon us. There’s no way it won’t improve upon April from a lifeical standpoint, but it may also do so from a metallic perspective as well. Quite a bit to look forward to over the next 25 days.

That starts today, with new stuff from U.K. death crew Grave Miasma, who release their gnarly new EP, Endless Pilgrimage. I’ll have a full review of that thing up early next week, but as a pre-emptive TL;DR — it’s worth your time. We’ve also got new albums from AlaricVektor…hell, even one from not-metal-but-yes-awesome synthwave mainstay Perturbator. It’s a solid week, so let’s jump in. Here’s what’s on tap for Friday, May 6:
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CANTO: New songs from Soilwork and So Hideous, plus updates from Killer Be Killed and Swallow the Sun

soilwork-press-2015-billboard-650

I need to start getting ready to get drunk, so I’ll keep this short and sweet.


Isn’t that something? I sure think so. Anyway, that’s enough outta me until tomorrow.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– Corey