I always do like 50 different drafts for just the opening alone then end up with one stripped down thing like this at the end of it all because I just wanna get this ish out there to the masses. 2021 has been up’s and down’s in the world but a pretty solid year overall for music. So much so that I almost considered not ranking my massive list of 21 releases that did it for me in 2021. Almost. As always, thanks for liking and following and most importantly, thanks for reading!
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It’s hard to put into words the sounds that are coming out of my speakers when Kataan is playing. It’s this unholy union of Black Metal and Thrash and Post-something that’s just devilishly divine. Featuring Nick Thornbury of Vattnet Viskar and Brett Boland of Astronoid, Kataan does the New England heavy music scene proud with a debut release that’s short and anything but sweet.
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Pupil Slicer make the kind of heavy that compelled us to resurrect “Untitled Metal Column” for the first time in over a year. We don’t use this column for any reason and only clean the mothballs off when it’s something really deserving like this London-based trio that is rightly being hailed as one of the next big things in Metal. Fer chrissakes, their name alone warrants attention to see if the music matches the moniker (Spoiler alert: It does!).
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I feel like there’s a lot of records we’ll be hailing as “must-hear” especially this soon after leaving that shitshow of a year in the rearview. Sarin’s aptly-titled upcoming record, You Can’t Go Back, is definitely one of those kinds of artists giving this reviewer the same feelings as listening through Isis’ Oceanic for the first time.
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Once in a blue moon (Or once in a full moon?)…or more like once every month or two comes an album that’s so out of my normal listening frequencies that just hits. Recently, albums from Lord Mantis and Cattle Decapitation wrecked my ears with collections of aural carnage that Werewolves looks to repeat with their latest here in 2021.
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Four Stroke Baron records are like the gifts that keep giving. Their last outing (Which you can read all about by clicking here) was Prog perfection and their upcoming record which collects a slew of diverse and new covers as well as re-recorded versions of songs which originally appeared on King Radio is similarly a godsend.
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We may have used the word “epic” a buttload of times when reviewing Loviatar’s last collection of recorded tunes so we’re going to come up with some different descriptors this time, okay? Like awesome. And monolithic. And gargantuan. And bold. And beautiful. But mostly masterpiece when it comes to Lightless and this band overall.
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Um, so the Metal album of the year is here already? Quite possibly! Venom Prison’s latest is this vicious slab of experiments in extremes. It’s nasty. It’s gnarly. It’s fast. And it’s fuckin’ brilliant.
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Is it too late to add to our year end ‘Best Of’ list? Asking for friend. Who is REALLY into what Four Stroke Baron is about. But seriously, wow! Where did this band come from?!?! According to their bio: “Four Stroke Baron is a band that over 7 billion people don’t know about.” which makes me feel a little less disappointed in myself . [Read more…]
Huntsmen is a weird band to pin down. And I don’t mean that in a negative connotation at all. Far from it! It just means that the band falls under our ever growing category of “enigma wrapped inside a riddle” and American Scrap is an album that encompasses that just as much as it defies genres consistently throughout its’ eight blissful tracks. [Read more…]