Listmania 2021

[JonoBlade]

7 hours ago, navybsn said:

I'm a late comer to this party, but after seeing them live a few weeks ago,  I'm all aboard the train. Probably would have made my list had I discovered it earlier. 

Death doom. 40 minutes. DR12. Two endorsements from learned colleagues?

This is the one that has piqued interest so far from Mark's list.

Will cue up later after Cult of Luna finishes. It'll be a while.

[markm]

 

10. LLNN/Unmaker -Marginally post metal in a similar way that Cult of Luna's massive album The Beyond is post metal. A better descriptor is atmosludge. This is heavy, austere, monolith, dystopian harsh metallic sludge with a hint of industrial. TG says its screamo and djent which is probably correct, but I enjoy this album. I hear the Godflesh associations Sheol wrote about. This is end of days and was a surprise late edition. Needless to say, I'm going in big with this one!

 

[markm]

9. Demiser/Through the Gates of the Eternal-Blackened thrash isn’t so much my thing, not that I have anything against it, it’s just not a major jam for me, but when it’s this infectious and fun, I can’t resist. Just badass. 

 

 

8. Dodsrit/Mortal Coil- I do like some crusty metal. 2018’s Spirit Crusher hit a crusty sweet spot along with bands like Martyrdöd and Agrimonia. I passed on Mortal Coil when I heard the album because Dodsrit traded some of the rawer blackened crust elements for a more epic atmoblack sound. On further inspection the evolution is very worthy.  

 

7. Iron Maiden/Ssenjustsu- Holy shit,  No. 7!?  You see these legacy bands on big platform lists and I usually think yeah, right. I almost didn’t listen. But I’ve grabbed every post 2000 progressive minded Maiden album. They tend to fade after about a  year. I won’t rehash all the discussion points, but this has been one of the best growers for me. Consistently enjoyable when in the mood. I like Dickenson's Celtic lilt throughout, and, it sounds great blasting while driving.By far, my favorite of their 2000’s output. Senjutsu is a majestic melding of prog and classic metal. And as others have said, nobody really sounds like Maiden. 

6. Autarkh/Form in Motion-When I read the review and saw Dedechedron's name dropped, I went back and listened to Kwintessens again, an album I own but don't love. From the ashes of avant-garde black metallers Dodecahedron, rise Autarkh which is a very different animal altogether. Fusing hardcore vocals, dissonance, industrial metal and IDM-that being intelligent dance music-no, I had never heard of IDM either. An an intriguing dystopian mix that is maybe metal? I'm so far past listening to what I should listen to or what I'm supposed to listen to or what is "real metal". All I know is I think this is unique sound and with an interesting concept.  

5. Big Brave/Vital-“… [The] pattern for the history of half-breeds hidden in every culture; historically we are allowed neither the privileges of the ruling class nor the community of those who are ruled. To each side that disowns us, we represent everything the other does not have. We survive only if we are valued, and we are valued only for strength, or beauty, sometimes for intelligence or cunning.” 

The above quote, prominently displayed in the liner notes sets the mood for Vital, socially conscious, some might say “arty” drone with  vocals some describe as "Indy" and I think touch on Janis Jopelin that steal the show, exploring the experience of a passionate young female artist navigating the world as a multi racial woman in fantastic gem of an album. In interviews she describes her life working in bars with men pawing at her, stalked for her exotic looks by obsessed patrons, none of which would matter if the music wasn’t special. It is. A refinement on A Gaze Among Them which was one of my favorite albums in 2018. 

[navybsn]

1 hour ago, markm said:

Iron Maiden/Ssenjustsu- Holy shit,  No. 7!?...By far, my favorite of their 2000’s output.

Absolutely. This has gotten more spins than I would have expected. Definitely the best thing they've done since Brave New World. A bit too long and could use some "editing" but still very enjoyable.

 

[JonoBlade]

23 hours ago, markm said:

 

10. LLNN/Unmaker 

Bought it before the end of the first song. 39 minutes! wooh.

Maiden? Topically I am making my way through the LPs at lunchtime. Will be Powerslave today. My collection stops at No Prayer for the Dying* which is the last time they released an album that fit on one LP. 

Book of Souls was just too much. Will ponder whether this inexplicable praise for Senjitsu at an hour-twenty could possibly be correct.

Not helped by the fact I can get the CD new for £8 or pay £12.49 for 16 bit FLAC download (equivalent to CD) or £14.49 for 24 bit. The world's priorities are so fucked.

* In terms of my own fandom I realised the "classic" metal era ended in 1990. No Prayer for the Dying hardly a good example, but consider everyone else and what was released in 1990, and what came after, i.e. substandard. This coincided with the death of vinyl. 

[navybsn]

1 hour ago, JonoBlade said:

Not helped by the fact I can get the CD new for £8 or pay £12.49 for 16 bit FLAC download (equivalent to CD) or £14.49 for 24 bit. The world's priorities are so fucked.

This shit irritates me so much. No digital file should cost more than $5. What exactly are you producing that could justify more cost?

 

1 hour ago, JonoBlade said:

In terms of my own fandom I realised the "classic" metal era ended in 1990

Would agree. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any release worthy of the title that came after 90.

[JonoBlade]

2 hours ago, navybsn said:

This shit irritates me so much. No digital file should cost more than $5. What exactly are you producing that could justify more cost?

It is almost like record labels want to discourage legal downloading because, as we all know, the better business model is waiting for the user to stream it, like, a million times before making the equivalent income as the download. Or, apparently, insisting on your customers being reliant on obsolete and inferior playback technology.

I think 10 of your US dollars + tax is a fair upper price for an album download ($7 is kind of my threshold for "that doesn't seem much", $10 makes me think twice, but objectively is still fair). It reflects the hard work that went into it and gives it some inherent value. Somebody's blood, sweat and tears is worth more than a deluxe coffee in a disposable cup or a happy meal that actively contributes to the destruction of the planet and the consumer's own health.

You're not buying thin air, you're buying a sonic expression of art.

Must be supplied as 24 bit option with liner notes of course. 

[navybsn]

3 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

Must be supplied as 24 bit option with liner notes of course. 

Which is not how we get them now predominantly. I would say $10 is fair if you got the full package as there is obvious labor and materials that go into those things. For just the audio file....$5 directly to the artist seems reasonable and I would imagine more than most get now per sale of physical media. I don't know those figures for certain, so please correct me if I'm wrong. As an artist, I would want to have a label to handle physical releases but want to retain digital rights allowing me to release & profit directly. Probably a pipe dream, but that's what I would want.

In reality, $7 is the limit for me. After that, it gives me pause. Do I really want this? Am I going to listen to it repeatedly over time? If yes, then up to $10 is reasonable. $15 for a digital release? Nope. I'd rather have the physical media in that case.

And to avoid confusion, I'm not against paying the artist for the art. My problem is with a company (label) overcharging for something that takes them little to no effort to produce en masse, requires little to no physical resources, or overhead to maintain. Just doesn't seem like equivalent value. If they were clear with the distribution of the money (say $2 of this goes to the label, $5 to the artist), I'd look at it differently. I suspect an artist gets the same from a $5 download as a $10 one.

[markm]

9 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

Bought it before the end of the first song. 39 minutes! wooh.

 

It took me a few times, but it's a good one!

[markm]

4.Cerebral Rot/Excretion of mortality-The millennial new wave of OSDM was my gateway to death metal. No doubt there is an oversaturation of such albums, but I’m always on the lookout for a couple of killer OSMD albums each year. With so many albums sounding very similar, what puts Cerebral Rot in front of the pack?  Let’s start with the production. DR: 12. It sounds great on a pair of big ass speakers. This is an album with the requisite  amount of filth, but there’s a clarity of the sound not present in the dearth of many a  cavencore oozing pile of fuzzy goop.

There’s also riff craft with, dare I say, an element of technicality that’s full of stellar lead hooks. Nearly every track has a great lead hook. For me it comes down to these variables: tracks with distinct character, memorable, heavy, highly listenable, excellent genre production, strong replay value. Finally, the magical quality in all of art that can’t be quantified other than the end result is greater than the sum of its parts. My DM AOTY and future classic. 

3.Funeral Mist/Deiformed-Man, I love me some occult Antichrist apocalypse. Sure, I know it's mostly bullshit. But there's part of me that wants to believe just a little in the Rosemary's Baby fantasy. Every once n a while, I'll come upon one of these characters that makes me think, maybe this guy is actually really into this shit.

Arioch, Mortuus, Daniel Rosten, a man of many names. Besides his primary duties fronting Marduk, Rosten’s multi-instrumentalist work in his band Funeral Mist provides Rosten the vehicle to spew his unadulterated occult worshiping message. Call me naïve, but I'm convinced that this is a man who takes his message seriously, “contemplating the nature of divinity and mortal existence through the fiery lens of black metal culminating in spiritual violence in its crudest form.” (Bandcamp).  At any rate, he has a very specific vision and puts a lot of effort into his craft. He’s not holding anything back or keeping his message a secret behind hoods of anonymity or hieroglyphics.

I tend to give credit for complete package-albums-in this case that includes the music, concept and even visuals-grotesque photography. I like a little mystery in black metal. Let me buy into  the mystique. Emperor accomplished this feat, poetically, romanticizing their adolescent Satanic fantasies and in the process forged their own mythology. Rosten’s approach is more vile. Ultimately, he seeks to corrupt, invert and subvert Lemming thinking under the ruse of Christianity and usher in something darker.  Like DSO and BAN, Rosten applies his skills with an intelligence that goes well beyond simplistic Satanic tropes. 

Compared to past efforts, Deiform is a bit more streamlined with fewer experimentations, but it has all the hallmarks-seething, hateful blasphemous sermons, children’s choirs, bizarre samples, blasting BM and his own unique blitzkrieg of tremulo riffing. Oh, and those vocals. Those fucking vocals. Give this man an Oscar. His music is hyper agro and it’s bizarre. It’s a singular vision and passion dedicated to dark mystical powers.

The production delivers in spades but differs from the fuzzy, low fi BM popular amongst a number of posters here-this is a drier, almost stringent production, diamond sharp. Like the lyrics that he publishes, he wants his audience to hear every instrument. Nothing hides behind a veneer.

 I’d like to think that, in troo Lucifarian form, he's a light bringer. What that light exactly means escapes me.  Good art seldom points a direct line. But I do know it’s destuctive.   A vile, viscous, beautiful album.  

2. Plebeian Grandstand/Rien ne suffit-Honestly, I’m pretty surprised to see an avant-garde black metal album place so high up on my list. Weird-ass experimental metal definitely holds a special place in my listening. The avant garde in extreme metal has exploded since I started paying attention in the aughts, but it tends to exist in a “sometimes” box on the back of the shelf.  Blut Aus Nord is one of my all time favorite bands. I’m a fan of DSO. However, I don’t love Krallice, Imperial Triumphant, Pyrrhron or Portal.

 But excellence speaks for itself. This album simply is a tour-de-force for the genre. I can think of any number of avant black bands that do madness and depravity but this one takes the cake. Rein ne Suffit is a roller coaster of perfectly fused experimental electronica, black metal and a bunch of other genres that are over my head. The first time I listened, I was nearly shell shocked, on the edge of my seat. Quite simply-this rules. 

1. Lingua Ignota/Sinner Get Ready-My favorite album of the year is not metal but is so transcendent, It demands the no. 1 spot. Kristin Hayter came to international prominence in the metal press as well as all music media platforms for her outstanding metal adjacent album, Caligula in 2019 that examined an abusive relationship reportedly from one of the members in the noise band, The Daughters. Caligula is a series of eviscerating survivor anthems performed by a woman hell bent on blackened scorched earth destruction like a black winged khaleesi character. Haytner is a classically trained singer and pianist. Caligula was a startling mix of classical, opera, noise, industrial and black metal influences but was fundamentally experimental music. 

This time around, Haynter moved to rural Pennsylvania and immersed herself in an Appalachian evangelical community. In interviews she talks of the extreme isolation and loneliness she experienced during the pandemic. Through it all she was inspired by the people and the pastoral beauty.

Haytner was raised Catholic and clearly has a complicated, if not tortured relationship with religion that is pervasive in her work. While making this album, she became fascinated with Amish and Mennonite culture. This album is an expose of the harsh realities of the lives of these people. She gets rid of the extreme vocals and distortion and utilizes Appalachian folk instruments, but she does it with reverence for their music.

In this Appalachian black mass, Christianity is turned upside down. Sinner tells stories of hardened, lonely people pledging obedience to a harsh, vengeful God. There is no kindness or compassion here. This is a cruel religion. It’s a gut punch. The music is experimental and simply amazing. 

That said, Sinner is uncompromising. It took me several listens and was a head scratcher the first time through. After the primal revenge fantasies of Caligula, the Appalachian influence gave me many WTF reactions when I first listened. But, I came around. Like Plebeian Grandstand and Funeral Mist, Sinner is a complete package of sound, lyrics and album art. It’s mesmerizing. I’m confident most people here will hate this album. TBH, I'm surprised I connected so strongly with this piece, but I’m also confident with my assessment that It’s brilliant. 

 

[markm]

A couple of unforgivable omissions. I shuffled the ordering of my albums quite a bit over the past month. Due to an ill fated cut and paste, I  removed two of the best albums of the year that should have held these positions:

 10.  Emma Ruth Rundle/Engine of Hell-Rundle shouldn’t need any introduction. But here goes-Non metal but tangential metal associations with Thou and Russian Circles. This is ultimately a minimalist, acoustic, dark themed introspective pandemic album and is incredibly beautiful.  The only question was whether she could pull off an album predominantly consisting of nothing more than voice, acoustic guitar and piano. And she does so in a big way. It's so intimate, tortured and personal, it makes you want to lean in as if overhearing a conversation not meant for your ears.  Engine of Hell has been one of my quiet spaces all year long. 

9. Morbific/Ominous Seep of Putridity

Nooooo! Not another OSDM album. But, yes, this was one that seeped through and caught on so even I was aware. I think it even made Surge's list he published on NCS. The fact that the band are basically a group of Finnish teens is pretty impressive. Everything I said about Cerebral Rot avoiding the fuzzy, ooze of caverncore definitely does not apply here. But, man it's done well and I love this style reminding me a little bit of Funebre's children of the scorn and assorted demos on Bandcamp that GG hipped me to several years ago with one of his DM lists and has become one of my OSDM faves. Anyway, this gets the MarkM seal as being pretty great. 

 

[FatherAlabaster]

^^^ Great writeups there.

[markm]

Truly thanks to everyone for making my lazy habits and new music finds a lot easier across a variety of genres.

So, my reordering as of now looks something like this for best 2021 in my personal Musicalverse :

Honorable mentions:

• Asphyx/Necroceros 
• Converge & Chelsea Wolfe/Blood Moon-
• Deafheaven/Infinite Granite-
• Dinosaur Jr. /Sweep it Into Space
• Grimma/Rotten Garden (atmospheric BM)
• Hooded Menace/ Tritonus Bell
• King Woman/Celestial Blues 
• Kuaun/Ice Fleet 
• The  Lamp of Murmor/Submission And Slavery 
• Mystras/Empires Vanquished And Dismantled
• Pupil Slicer/Mirrors 
• Spelljammer/Abyssal Trip 
• Subterranean Masquerade/Mountain Fever
• Vouna/Apropos 
• Viagra Boys/Welfare Jazz 
• Wolves in the Throne Room/Primordial Arcana
• The Ruins of Beverast/ The Thule Grimoires 

 

25.  Gatecreeper/An Unexpected Reality 

24. Spectral Wound/A Diabolical Thirst

23. Diabolizer/Khalkedonian Death-

22. Ethereal Shroud/Trisagion

21. Mortiferum/Preserved in Torrent

20.   Mastodon/Hushed and Grim

19. Dream/Unending/Tide Turns Eterna

18.   Bummer/Dead Horse

17. Dorderuh/Har

16. Paysage d'Hiver/Geister

15.  Succumb/XXI

14.  Ophiuchi/Shibboleth

13.DVNE/Etemen Tænke 

 
12. LLNN/Unmaker 

11. Mare Cognitum/Solar Paroxysm

10.Demiser/Through the Gates of the Eternal 

10. Emma Ruth Rundle/Engine of Hell

 9. Morbific/Ominous Seep of Putridity

8. Dodsrit/Mortal Coil

7. Iron Maiden/Ssenjustsu

6. Autarkh/Form in Motion

5. Big Brave/Vital-

4.Cerebral Rot/Excretion of mortality

3.Funeral Mist/Deiformed

2. Plebeian Grandstand/Rien ne suffi-

1. Lingua Ignota/Sinner Get Ready
 

• A lot of atmospheric black metal across genres of black metal.
• Electronic-metal blending-it’s been there for years, but I’ve found more of it in my top 10 or 20. 
• Given the pandemic and global events,a lot of despair, sadness, angst and dystopian themes. I mean these themes have been in metal for years, but that’s what I’m feeling.
• Religion-metal has questioned authority and traditional religion since the beginning, and it presents pretty obviously in my top 10. Luckily, there are some bands that raise bar and bring intelligence to the usual-”we hate Christianity” blah, blah,blah. 
• Fuck it-I'm done with twenty-one.
   

[navybsn]

Great work @markm as always. Very well thought out and written. 

[markm]

1 minute ago, navybsn said:

Great work @markm as always. Very well thought out and written. 

Thanks! I've been wanting to pump this out for a long while, but I really felt I needed time to live with these albums to make it mean something rather than just slap something together for the sake of doing it. I'm still enjoying these albums a lot and makes for a good playlist than I haven't gotten bored with yet. 

[Hungarino]

2 hours ago, markm said:

Religion-metal has questioned authority and traditional religion since the beginning, and it presents pretty obviously in my top 10. Luckily, there are some bands that raise bar and bring intelligence to the usual-”we hate Christianity” blah, blah,blah. 

You mean like Nunslaughter?

JK man this is great. Some goat-worthy additions for sure. I am playing this Lingua Ignota as we speak. 

[markm]

2 hours ago, Hungarino said:

You mean like Nunslaughter?

JK man this is great. Some goat-worthy additions for sure. I am playing this Lingua Ignota as we speak. 

This can't end well.

Caligula has some metal influence. Sinner Get Ready has zero metals.....very experimental. 

[Hungarino]

Well...its very dark. Thematically and mood wise its similar to some Gothic dark crazy metal. 

But overall its pretty weird and wild and manic. Very interesting and definitely unique! 

[markm]

5 hours ago, Hungarino said:

Well...its very dark. Thematically and mood wise its similar to some Gothic dark crazy metal. 

But overall its pretty weird and wild and manic. Very interesting and definitely unique! 

Thanks for giving her a listen!

[JonoBlade]

22 hours ago, navybsn said:

Which is not how we get them now predominantly. I would say $10 is fair if you got the full package as there is obvious labor and materials that go into those things. For just the audio file....$5 directly to the artist seems reasonable and I would imagine more than most get now per sale of physical media. I don't know those figures for certain, so please correct me if I'm wrong. As an artist, I would want to have a label to handle physical releases but want to retain digital rights allowing me to release & profit directly. Probably a pipe dream, but that's what I would want.

In reality, $7 is the limit for me. After that, it gives me pause. Do I really want this? Am I going to listen to it repeatedly over time? If yes, then up to $10 is reasonable. $15 for a digital release? Nope. I'd rather have the physical media in that case.

And to avoid confusion, I'm not against paying the artist for the art. My problem is with a company (label) overcharging for something that takes them little to no effort to produce en masse, requires little to no physical resources, or overhead to maintain. Just doesn't seem like equivalent value. If they were clear with the distribution of the money (say $2 of this goes to the label, $5 to the artist), I'd look at it differently. I suspect an artist gets the same from a $5 download as a $10 one.

I agree with all those points. 

My observation is that downloads are overpriced and an afterthought (since rarely bundled with something as simple and logical as a CD-equivalent booklet PDF). Labels want you to buy physical media just because they are stuck in that mindset. If there were a good digital package - album + art lyrics in a format that would interface with a player app on your phone, tablet, DAP or PC then that would be the perfect solution. They'd basically make MORE money because they don't have to faff round with distribution issues. Labels are wary of downloads because illegal downloads gutted the industry. Now streaming is hailed as the saviour, but it's not, it's just another way to rip off artists and expect them to be thankful for it.

Whether it is the artist or label that administers the download is up to them. Obviously, it's better if the artist gets it, but if the label has fronted production costs there is no harm in that partnership. Labels can still provide tour support services so many bands still need them.

 

[zackflag]

Man, Americans are complaining about paying over $5 for a digital album while us Canadians, and probably Aussies too, gotta pay minimum $11-13 for every album. Exchange rates are an absolute cunt! Don't forget how lucky you guys actually are.

[navybsn]

21 minutes ago, zackflag said:

Man, Americans are complaining about paying over $5 for a digital album while us Canadians, and probably Aussies too, gotta pay minimum $11-13 for every album. Exchange rates are an absolute cunt! Don't forget how lucky you guys actually are.

Yeah I get that, but it's a value issue. Only so much money to go around you know. I have no problems paying for things if I feel the value is there. Probably a hard wired American values thing related to rampant consumerism, but I guess that's just how it is. I'd probably be considered "wealthy" in the large majority of the world based on my income and assets, but in the US I am decidedly middle class. So I have to stretch my monies as much as possible to be able to cover responsibilities and have some left over for fun stuff like music. Those expenditures have to bring me enjoyment over a period of time or else it's just wasted. Just getting a file without the sort of things that @JonoBladementioned doesn't present more than a $5 value (currently $6.31 canadian) to me. If bands/labels put a bit more effort into the product which I don't think would raise their costs considerably, I would think differently and set my threshold accordingly. I definitely have different numbers for physical media I purchase again because of the perceived value I get. This sort of mindset extends throughout my financial outlook. I can afford to drive a BMW, but I choose to drive a Toyota because I get better value for my money. I buy reasonably priced (mid-fi) audio gear because the value point is better than audiophile (hi-fi) gear for the same reason.

You guys living outside the States certainly have your own financial algorhythm to go through with different demands on your income. I do know we are rather spoiled here and realize it's not the best thing to complain about from a universal perspective. It's a "first world" problem as my daughter would say.

[FatherAlabaster]

Price points are weird. Whenever I wince at an album price I try to remember that $5 will get me about 2/3 of a decent beer around town, and that the going rate for a CD at the record shops when I was a teenager was anywhere from $15-20. My son's hot dog meal at the college hockey game last week was $10. He finished it in less than 10 minutes. With any luck I'll have my digital album files for the rest of my life.

Production costs aren't nothing, either... the most recent recording I did was as much of a DIY affair as we could make it, and yet between mastering, physical copies, and some help with PR, it'll take us about 250 album sales to break even. That's not counting the money we put into equipment or any sort of compensation for the time we spent. And that budget would have been a lot higher if we'd booked studio time or hired a mixing engineer or had to pay for art. Not complaining, you know, that's just how it is. 

As far as labels go, I mean, they're run by people too... all of the small potatoes labels that I've worked with or known personally are pretty much just one or two people who believe in the music they're putting out, and so maybe they're the ones who sink a few grand into artwork, physical copies, merch, PR work, advertising, logistics, etc. Not trying to paint too rosy of a picture here, there's plenty of shady cutthroat behavior around, but at the end of the day it's mostly people who care about something, putting in a bunch of work and hoping they get something out of it.

For all of that, I think twice about buying albums on the higher end of the price range, and I'll take advantage of an NYP download if it's there. My music budget is pretty small. But I also look at download purchases as a donation, at least in part. I've gone back and bought DLs of stuff I already got for free, and I don't mind when it turns out I don't get too much out of an album after a few spins, because in the grand scheme of things, if I liked something enough to listen to it a few times, buying a beer for the people that made it isn't such a big deal.

[markm]

I'd say my music budget is shrinking with inflation and price of gas. I just purchased a physical copy of the new Immolation album. Not sure, how many I'll pass on this year. Helped my sped kids purchase lunch the other day and was floored that at Five Guys a regular burger, fries and drink was $18.00. 

[navybsn]

Inflation is certainly a factor of late. Combined with a new family addition in the form of a sister-in-law who is literally eating me out of a paycheck and a third property I'm now responsible for financially, I'm being much more critical of my music purchases than ever before.  Not just a few years ago,  spending $50 a week on music was routine. Not the case these days.