Mardoch's 2021 Top 17

[Mardoch]

2021 felt a little bit thin in a lot of ways, but when I sat down to start writing this list I realized that while I may not have a ton of big releases from this year, the ones I have are monstrous and there were little to no letdowns (there was one, actually, but I'm not here to be negative).

Andromida - Hellscape
Sometimes I really love an artist that just wears their inspirations right on their sleeves. In this case, it's fucking DOOM (2016). If you've ever heard that game's soundtrack then from the open notes of the opening track, Havoc, you'll think to yourself "oh...a fan of Mick's then?" and it never lets up. It could have been a completely derivative work when it's so obviously inspired by something else, but the one-man crew behind it manages to keep things from being stale with enough variety to keep me planted. Each tune is definitely a song that goes somewhere in its own right, as well as being easily perceived as the soundtrack to a really brutal game. I keep coming back to this as an album to crush work to.
https://andromida.bandcamp.com/album/hellscape


Architects - For Those that Wish to Exist
An album that opens with a tune like "Do You Dream of Armageddon?" and closes with one like "Dying is Absolutely Safe" in a genre like metalcore is, at a minimum, a bold move. There's a lot more than just boldness in play on this disc, as the entire album goes from strength to strength pulling basically every metalcore trope out of the closet and breathing some fresh new life into it. Lots of technical chops, heavy riffage, bouncy hooks, and a delightfully heavy presence of synths. As great as the music itself is, though, it's the lyrics that really bring this album home for me. 15 tracks of continuous body blows that I really needed in a year like this one. I wasn't even into Architects before this year, but a new friend talked me into them when I was angry and drunk one night and here we are.
Do You Dream of Armageddon? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0omLTfoXjWw
Dead Butterflies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZmjG3wuUes
Meteor - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm7ejB08cbQ
Dying is Absolutely Safe - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUSJp8ohSAU


Benthos - II
Benthos has a kind of chunky atmospheric vibe not completely unlike Tesseract or Ihlo, and they occupy a similar kind of space in my mind as those bands. They don't sound a lot like them, though, with a more rock-ish edge (are they post-metal? whatever that is). I don't know quite how to describe them. But anyway, this is a short but very good album. It flows so smoothly that it's 32ish minute run time is done before you're ready for it to be over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOUayMhTckQ


Between the Buried and Me - Colors II
I'm not sure what I expected from a Colors II, or a followup to Automata for that matter, but...what I got was easily one of the most interesting albums of the year. I'm all in on this jazzy angular metal insanity, though. It took me a while to become a BtBaM fan (Coma Ecliptic did it), but I think I'm all in at this point.
Fix the Error - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q93v_nHmSM


Born of Osiris - Angel or Alien
Another band that I wasn't previously a fan of at all, but then someone encouraged me to check out the title track and I sat up in my seat like "oh...? what have we got here now?" and it turns out the rest of the album is basically just as strong as the title track. Djenty metalcore drenched in synths is really some shit I can get into when it's done well, and this album is. Smashing heavy riffs, thick synth pads, and some nasty-ass grooves. Sign me up.
Angel or Alien - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rvZSm2dXMg
Lost Souls - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDxLLMQPqAg


Caskets - Lost Souls
I don't know what it is with metalcore in 2021, but honestly it's the most promising genre of metal for me right now. There's so much technical metalcore that's heavy as hell and also melodic, and I'm really here for it. Caskets is one such act. I gather this is their debut album (I know almost nothing about them), and honestly it's a hell of a start. It's really melodic and chock-full of just good songs. It's kind of upbeat (musically at least, I haven't paid much attention to the lyrics honestly) and just...nice. It's just a really nice album. The pop infusion really works for them, and I have found myself repeatedly reaching for this album when I just need something to vibe with.
https://sharptonerecords.bandcamp.com/a ... lost-souls


Cynic - Ascension Codes
Not much of the old deathy Cynic remains by now, but what's left is a distilled version of that scifi/ambient prog they've always had. I really enjoy it. I'm a big fan of this kind of spacey/scifi prog metal and this album delivers everything I want from it. The vocal effects do kind of grate on me after a while, but they're part and parcel with the deal so I just accept it.
https://cyniconline.bandcamp.com/album/ascension-codes


Erra - Erra
I love Erra. I have since their first album. And since they're also from the US Deep South I feel a sort of kinship with them (feels like there just ain't that much of my brand of metal or metalheads here, so...). Their previous album, Neon, was their strongest album ever, in my opinion, and I wasn't sure how they'd top it, but they did. This album is even more varied and more certain of itself as well. The tapped riffs are back and I'm so happy because I do love them so. I lost count of how many times I put this album on but it's well over 40, I'm nearly positive. I listened to little else the week it came out.
Snowblood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruGgo1MkUj8
Lunar Halo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlQjare_-Rk
Vanish Canvas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXrlgU_jvFo


First Fragment - Gloire Éternelle
First Fragment describes themselves as Tech Death but like...that does absolutely nothing to really describe how batshit this album is. It opens with what I think could best be described as metallic flamenco and moves on from there in quite a few directions, frequently all at once. This is not an album for the non-adventurous. It's not often a tech death tune clocking in at 18:54 makes me say "ok yeah that was a totally warranted musical journey," but with "In'el" I did just that. This is, far and away, the most fun tech death album I've ever listened to.
https://uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp.co ... e-ternelle


Hippotraktor - Meridian
First off...what the hell even is post-metal? I have no clue, but if this is it, then I'm down with it. This album is kind of thick and sludgy with an oppressive atmosphere, but it's also groovy as hell. It kinda sits in a headspace that's like "I sorta want classic Riverside, but make it dirty." The EP that precedes this album, "P'eau" could have been an extension on this album, honestly. This is definitely a band I'll have my eyes on going forward.
https://hippotraktor.bandcamp.com/album/meridian


Leprous - Aphelion
There is, frankly, not a lot of metal left in the Leprous formula at this point, which I have mixed feelings about. That qualm aside, this album is still very good. It's not one I'm going to reach for terribly often, but when I want something broody and dramatic it's going to hit all the boxes, and when they do bust the metal out it's still absolutely top notch.
The Silent Revelation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7bOg3oercg
Castaway Angels - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85drl9-lqRU


Pollen - Mutualism
Pollen is the instrumentalist side of Make Me a Donut from their split, and they put out this very nice EP this year. Where Alchemists took all the piss and vinegar from MMaD, Pollen took almost exclusively the prog vibes. It's still nice and heavy, but now it's also got some beauty woven in. I'd love it if they picked up a nice vocalist to go in with this, but as is it's still very good. They did put out a followup single, Cordyceps, with Heli Andrea (the vocalist of Mobius, who I charted in 2020), and it's fantastic.
Cordyceps - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP_B3rDzzDk
https://pollenband.bandcamp.com/album/mutualism


Rivers of Nihil - The Work
Sometimes you need an album to basically scream at you to get your shit together, and that's what I feel like this album is. There's a lot of ways to read the lyrical content of this album, but no matter how you slice it, it's heavy. So's the music. So fucking heavy. It's just what I wanted as a followup to Where Owls Know My Name.
https://riversofnihil.bandcamp.com/album/the-work


Sion - Self Titled
I have a big soft spot for Howard Jones era Killswitch Engage so when I started listening to this album I immediately got thrown back... uh, more years than I wish to count...to that era of KSE enjoying. Howard sounds fantastic, Jared Dines' guitars are excellent, and as a whole this is just a fucking GREAT metalcore package. There's no tremendous ground being broken here, but it's all just so damned well executed.
https://sionband.bandcamp.com/album/self-titled


Sound Struggle - The Bridge
According to Cameron Rasmussen, the band/project leader, this may well be the last thing Sound Struggle ever records/releases, and if it is...what an opus. This album clocks in just 5.5 minutes shy of 2 hours and it's pretty much full throttle for the whole ride. There are a lot of guests on this album and it really helps build a varied and interesting soundscape. A nearly 2 hour album with an almost 21 minute epic smack dab in the middle definitely runs the risk of becoming a chore, but this one never does. Bombardment wins the award for the piece of music that made me hoot and holler the most in a single track this year. This is my style of wankfest. I wish jazz-metal were a fuller genre because I simply cannot get enough of this stuff.
Bombardment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdIMPNQItXk
https://soundstruggle.bandcamp.com/album/the-bridge


Spiritbox - Eternal Blue
Having only learned about Spiritbox at the end of 2020 it's kind of surprising how stoked I was for this album. Luckily I only had to wait about 10 months to get it, and it was damned worth the wait. Courtney's a masterful vocalist in both harsh and clean forms, the riffs are heavy as hell, the grooves are nasty, and the songs are all tightly crafted. It would be folly to expect as much as I did from a debut LP, but what I got surpassed even my high hopes. This album is really peak metalcore, in a year where metalcore went from strength to strength.
Circle With Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0WzT0OJ-E0
https://spiritboxofficial.bandcamp.com/ ... ernal-blue


VOLA - Witness
In my opinion this album's a return to form. I found Applause of a Distant Crowd to be...boring...which was tremendously disappointing for me after I listened to Inmazes a million times or so. Witness puts VOLA back near the top of my favorite modern prog bands.
Head Mounted Sideways - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shwx0jK_II0

[introclaus]

Andromida - Hellscape
Sometimes I really love an artist that just wears their inspirations right on their sleeves. In this case, it's fucking DOOM (2016). If you've ever heard that game's soundtrack then from the open notes of the opening track, Havoc, you'll think to yourself "oh...a fan of Mick's then?" and it never lets up. It could have been a completely derivative work when it's so obviously inspired by something else, but the one-man crew behind it manages to keep things from being stale with enough variety to keep me planted. Each tune is definitely a song that goes somewhere in its own right, as well as being easily perceived as the soundtrack to a really brutal game. I keep coming back to this as an album to crush work to.
https://andromida.bandcamp.com/album/hellscape

I guess this is a thing only gamers would get, right? I was confused by the music for sure, lol.

Architects - For Those that Wish to Exist
An album that opens with a tune like "Do You Dream of Armageddon?" and closes with one like "Dying is Absolutely Safe" in a genre like metalcore is, at a minimum, a bold move. There's a lot more than just boldness in play on this disc, as the entire album goes from strength to strength pulling basically every metalcore trope out of the closet and breathing some fresh new life into it. Lots of technical chops, heavy riffage, bouncy hooks, and a delightfully heavy presence of synths. As great as the music itself is, though, it's the lyrics that really bring this album home for me. 15 tracks of continuous body blows that I really needed in a year like this one. I wasn't even into Architects before this year, but a new friend talked me into them when I was angry and drunk one night and here we are.
Do You Dream of Armageddon? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0omLTfoXjWw
Dead Butterflies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZmjG3wuUes
Meteor - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm7ejB08cbQ
Dying is Absolutely Safe - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUSJp8ohSAU

Benthos - II
Benthos has a kind of chunky atmospheric vibe not completely unlike Tesseract or Ihlo, and they occupy a similar kind of space in my mind as those bands. They don't sound a lot like them, though, with a more rock-ish edge (are they post-metal? whatever that is). I don't know quite how to describe them. But anyway, this is a short but very good album. It flows so smoothly that it's 32ish minute run time is done before you're ready for it to be over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOUayMhTckQ

Between the Buried and Me - Colors II
I'm not sure what I expected from a Colors II, or a followup to Automata for that matter, but...what I got was easily one of the most interesting albums of the year. I'm all in on this jazzy angular metal insanity, though. It took me a while to become a BtBaM fan (Coma Ecliptic did it), but I think I'm all in at this point.
Fix the Error - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q93v_nHmSM

Born of Osiris - Angel or Alien
Another band that I wasn't previously a fan of at all, but then someone encouraged me to check out the title track and I sat up in my seat like "oh...? what have we got here now?" and it turns out the rest of the album is basically just as strong as the title track. Djenty metalcore drenched in synths is really some shit I can get into when it's done well, and this album is. Smashing heavy riffs, thick synth pads, and some nasty-ass grooves. Sign me up.
Angel or Alien - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rvZSm2dXMg
Lost Souls - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDxLLMQPqAg

Cynic - Ascension Codes
Not much of the old deathy Cynic remains by now, but what's left is a distilled version of that scifi/ambient prog they've always had. I really enjoy it. I'm a big fan of this kind of spacey/scifi prog metal and this album delivers everything I want from it. The vocal effects do kind of grate on me after a while, but they're part and parcel with the deal so I just accept it.
https://cyniconline.bandcamp.com/album/ascension-codes

First Fragment - Gloire Éternelle
First Fragment describes themselves as Tech Death but like...that does absolutely nothing to really describe how batshit this album is. It opens with what I think could best be described as metallic flamenco and moves on from there in quite a few directions, frequently all at once. This is not an album for the non-adventurous. It's not often a tech death tune clocking in at 18:54 makes me say "ok yeah that was a totally warranted musical journey," but with "In'el" I did just that. This is, far and away, the most fun tech death album I've ever listened to.
https://uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp.co ... e-ternelle

Leprous - Aphelion
There is, frankly, not a lot of metal left in the Leprous formula at this point, which I have mixed feelings about. That qualm aside, this album is still very good. It's not one I'm going to reach for terribly often, but when I want something broody and dramatic it's going to hit all the boxes, and when they do bust the metal out it's still absolutely top notch.
The Silent Revelation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7bOg3oercg
Castaway Angels - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85drl9-lqRU

VOLA - Witness
In my opinion this album's a return to form. I found Applause of a Distant Crowd to be...boring...which was tremendously disappointing for me after I listened to Inmazes a million times or so. Witness puts VOLA back near the top of my favorite modern prog bands.
Head Mounted Sideways - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shwx0jK_II0

Yes, all of these are really great albums. Five of them are to be found in my top 25.

Caskets - Lost Souls
I don't know what it is with metalcore in 2021, but honestly it's the most promising genre of metal for me right now. There's so much technical metalcore that's heavy as hell and also melodic, and I'm really here for it. Caskets is one such act. I gather this is their debut album (I know almost nothing about them), and honestly it's a hell of a start. It's really melodic and chock-full of just good songs. It's kind of upbeat (musically at least, I haven't paid much attention to the lyrics honestly) and just...nice. It's just a really nice album. The pop infusion really works for them, and I have found myself repeatedly reaching for this album when I just need something to vibe with.
https://sharptonerecords.bandcamp.com/a ... lost-souls

Erra - Erra
I love Erra. I have since their first album. And since they're also from the US Deep South I feel a sort of kinship with them (feels like there just ain't that much of my brand of metal or metalheads here, so...). Their previous album, Neon, was their strongest album ever, in my opinion, and I wasn't sure how they'd top it, but they did. This album is even more varied and more certain of itself as well. The tapped riffs are back and I'm so happy because I do love them so. I lost count of how many times I put this album on but it's well over 40, I'm nearly positive. I listened to little else the week it came out.
Snowblood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruGgo1MkUj8
Lunar Halo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlQjare_-Rk
Vanish Canvas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXrlgU_jvFo

Both of these I wish I could love the same way you do. I've tried Erra many times, but they just never wow me like they do you. I'm sure I'll keep trying and hopefully one day I'll get there.

Caskets I feel are a bit too "standard" for the metalcore genre. I had 3 other metalcore albums (one of them Architects) on my list that I prefer over this.

Hippotraktor - Meridian
First off...what the hell even is post-metal? I have no clue, but if this is it, then I'm down with it. This album is kind of thick and sludgy with an oppressive atmosphere, but it's also groovy as hell. It kinda sits in a headspace that's like "I sorta want classic Riverside, but make it dirty." The EP that precedes this album, "P'eau" could have been an extension on this album, honestly. This is definitely a band I'll have my eyes on going forward.
https://hippotraktor.bandcamp.com/album/meridian

Pollen - Mutualism
Pollen is the instrumentalist side of Make Me a Donut from their split, and they put out this very nice EP this year. Where Alchemists took all the piss and vinegar from MMaD, Pollen took almost exclusively the prog vibes. It's still nice and heavy, but now it's also got some beauty woven in. I'd love it if they picked up a nice vocalist to go in with this, but as is it's still very good. They did put out a followup single, Cordyceps, with Heli Andrea (the vocalist of Mobius, who I charted in 2020), and it's fantastic.
Cordyceps - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP_B3rDzzDk
https://pollenband.bandcamp.com/album/mutualism

Rivers of Nihil - The Work
Sometimes you need an album to basically scream at you to get your shit together, and that's what I feel like this album is. There's a lot of ways to read the lyrical content of this album, but no matter how you slice it, it's heavy. So's the music. So fucking heavy. It's just what I wanted as a followup to Where Owls Know My Name.
https://riversofnihil.bandcamp.com/album/the-work

Sound Struggle - The Bridge
According to Cameron Rasmussen, the band/project leader, this may well be the last thing Sound Struggle ever records/releases, and if it is...what an opus. This album clocks in just 5.5 minutes shy of 2 hours and it's pretty much full throttle for the whole ride. There are a lot of guests on this album and it really helps build a varied and interesting soundscape. A nearly 2 hour album with an almost 21 minute epic smack dab in the middle definitely runs the risk of becoming a chore, but this one never does. Bombardment wins the award for the piece of music that made me hoot and holler the most in a single track this year. This is my style of wankfest. I wish jazz-metal were a fuller genre because I simply cannot get enough of this stuff.
Bombardment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdIMPNQItXk
https://soundstruggle.bandcamp.com/album/the-bridge

I didn't like these - I gave them all a listen but none of them worked for me.

Spiritbox - Eternal Blue
Having only learned about Spiritbox at the end of 2020 it's kind of surprising how stoked I was for this album. Luckily I only had to wait about 10 months to get it, and it was damned worth the wait. Courtney's a masterful vocalist in both harsh and clean forms, the riffs are heavy as hell, the grooves are nasty, and the songs are all tightly crafted. It would be folly to expect as much as I did from a debut LP, but what I got surpassed even my high hopes. This album is really peak metalcore, in a year where metalcore went from strength to strength.
Circle With Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0WzT0OJ-E0
https://spiritboxofficial.bandcamp.com/ ... ernal-blue

Everyone, their mom, and their dog, seem to adore this band, except me ... What am I missing? Tell me how to get into them, please.

Sion - Self Titled
I have a big soft spot for Howard Jones era Killswitch Engage so when I started listening to this album I immediately got thrown back... uh, more years than I wish to count...to that era of KSE enjoying. Howard sounds fantastic, Jared Dines' guitars are excellent, and as a whole this is just a fucking GREAT metalcore package. There's no tremendous ground being broken here, but it's all just so damned well executed.
https://sionband.bandcamp.com/album/self-titled

This is on my list of things to check out. Always liked Howard Jones' voice, and Jared seem like a fun and knowledgeable dude (although he sure does love himself an awful lot). I just have been too busy getting my own list together lately to give this the time it deserve.

[Mardoch]

I guess this is a thing only gamers would get, right? I was confused by the music for sure, lol.

I wouldn't say so, but it certainly doesn't hurt. It's almost like if you wanted to make metal but the only road you knew to take to get there was EDM/dubstep, and then you also happened across someone with a guitar.

Caskets I feel are a bit too "standard" for the metalcore genre. I had 3 other metalcore albums (one of them Architects) on my list that I prefer over this.

You're completely correct here. There's nothing really exceptional about it. It's just well executed genre standard stuff with a poppy edge. It just really clicked for me for whatever reason. Sometimes that apparent fickleness is my favorite thing about being an "art appreciator."

Everyone, their mom, and their dog, seem to adore this band, except me ... What am I missing? Tell me how to get into them, please.

I wish I could let you feel the enthusiasm for Erra and Spiritbox that I do, hah. Sometimes a thing everyone else loves just doesn't work. The other side of the "I really love this for no special reason" coin is "this thing everyone else universally loves is no good for me," which is how I feel about Zero Hour and everyone tied to it, honestly. Everyone croons for those guys and I just...do not get it.

This is on my list of things to check out. Always liked Howard Jones' voice, and Jared seem like a fun and knowledgeable dude (although he sure does love himself an awful lot). I just have been too busy getting my own list together lately to give this the time it deserve.

I don't disagree with your evaluation of Jared, lol. I will say if you're expecting the sky you will be disappointed. It's pretty straight forward metalcore like the KSE of Jones' era, but with more modern guitar work.