2021

Mega Colossus – Riptime Review

By Eldritch Elitist on December 17, 2021 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, 38 comments

“You might be surprised to hear that even in a position of relative music authority, more than a handful of my recommendations fall flat. Case in point: Riptime. I’ve preached the virtues of this album more than a handful of times on Twitter to zero fanfare. My AMG colleagues, caught in the fever of the 2021 list season, essentially shrugged it off. Now here I am, in full clown makeup, writing a few hundred words to apparently nobody at all. And that’s okay, because even if it’s for my own amusement, there’s no other band I’d rather be writing about right now than Mega Colossus.” Mega ginormous.

Black Sheep Wall – Songs for the Enamel Queen [Things You Might Have Missed 2021]

By Dear Hollow on December 17, 2021 in Things You Might Have Missed 2021, Doom Metal, Mathcore, Post-Hardcore, Post-Metal, Shoegaze, Sludge Metal, 22 comments

“I remember when Black Sheep Wall “qualified” for an Encyclopedia Metallum profile with sophomore effort No Matter Where It Ends. Kind of pedantic and nitpicky, but then again, their blend of sludge metal, post-metal, doom, and post-hardcore is bound to be divisive. The California quintet offers their fourth full-length Songs for the Enamel Queen, an expertly written and superbly executed mass of concrete-thick sludge metal injected with tumorous melodies and shifty rhythms.” Of Sheep and sludge.

Epiphanic Truth – Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms to a Sordid Species [Things You Might Have Missed 2021]

By Huck N Roll on December 16, 2021 in Things You Might Have Missed 2021, Black Metal, Post-Metal, Progressive Metal, 28 comments

“A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum this year; I started listening to a handful of albums that had the black metal tag affixed to them. I don’t know if it was my mindset, the evolution of musical taste, or the fact that some of this music was actually really good, but three of these albums made my list (four, if you count the sweet little Sea Mosquito track), and today I’m going to tell you about my second-most favorite of the bunch: Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms to a Sordid Species, by the mysterious collective called Epiphanic Truth.” Psalms for the poor.

Ethereal Shroud – Trisagion Review

By Kenstrosity on December 16, 2021 in Reviews, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 71 comments

“Trisagion, at its core, fits the mold of atmospheric black metal to a tee. However, only fools suggest that Ethereal Shroud settle for that core sound without layers upon layers of extracurricular influence to flesh it out. In 2021, that influence takes the form of a most depressive subset of doom, a network of melodic leads which alternate between chilling and radiant, and crafty drumming that handily combines post-metallic defiance of standard beats with traditional blasts and double-bass runs.” Ephemeral glory on the precipice of oblivion.

Age of Athena – Gate to Oblivion Review

By Twelve on December 16, 2021 in Reviews, Metalcore, Symphonic Metal, 32 comments

“This is also how I feel about symphonic metal, its glimmering, shiny surface often subject to intense scrutiny from those who say the subgenre has stagnated. Enter Age of Athena, a new band from Canada’s Ontario whose debut, Gate to Oblivion, combines “influences of American metalcore and European symphonic metal.” Symphony of opera destruction?

Lhaäd – Below Review

By Maddog on December 15, 2021 in Reviews, Atmospheric Black Metal, 13 comments

Below is the debut full-length from one-person ambient black metal project Lhaäd. This description is likely to conjure up worrisome images of self-indulgent hours-long snoozefests that use tepid atmospheres to mask lazy writing. But Belgian multi-instrumentalist Lykormas, Lhaäd’s prolific mastermind, is not so easy to pigeonhole.” Pigeons without homes.

Memory Garden – 1349 Review

By Steel Druhm on December 15, 2021 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Heavy Metal, 61 comments

“Well, this is a yuletide surprise. A new Memory Garden album was not on my bingo card for Covid-ravaged 2021. To set the stage, Memory Garden emerged out of the 90s Swedish power/doom scene that birthed such acts as Tad Morose, Morgana Lefay and Sorcerer. Like these somewhat better-known brethren, their sound was regal, polished, classy, and bedecked in the finery of both doom and heavy power metal. Since their last release was way back in 2013, I’d assumed they were in the garden themselves.” A pox on 2021.

Windfaerer – Breaths of Elder Dawns [Things You Might Have Missed 2021]

By Eldritch Elitist on December 15, 2021 in Things You Might Have Missed 2021, Black Metal, Folk Metal, 35 comments

“It is often difficult for me to know where to begin when writing about a record that resonates with me as deeply as Breaths of Elder Dawns. New Jersey’s Windfaerer swept me up so swiftly that I cannot even recall where I was first made aware of this record; the experience of listening to the album completely swallowed me.” Enjoy of deep breaths.

Grymm Comments: On Coming Out and Acceptance in the Metalverse… Again.

By Grymm on December 14, 2021 in Blog Posts, 205 comments

“Back in 2014, I wrote a piece on what it was like to be a gay metalhead, trying to find acceptance not only from the metal community when they find out about my orientation, but also from the gay community when one of “their own” doesn’t exactly march to the same drum that they do. The amount of people who weighed in on it, giving support while thanking me off-site for writing it was staggering, and to this day I’m amazed at how many people it touched when I wrote it. And in those last seven years, the scene shifted dramatically.” Updates.

Phrenelith – Chimaera Review

By Kronos on December 14, 2021 in Reviews, Death Metal, 72 comments

“Just listen to Desolate Endscape instead. That’s the record you want to hear. Chimaera simply doesn’t measure up to Phrenelith’s debut, a cratonic slab of atrocious death metal that crushed listeners with granitic indifference. Chimaera is nothing of the sort: an unfocused, unfinished, and forgettable record that manages at best to echo Endscape, foggily repeating its shapes without conviction.” Desolate tidings of the end.