GMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 2021
- Thread starter RadicalThrasher
- Start date
I need to update mine too.
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
15. darkthrone - eternal hails
basically any album these guys release nowadays is an exact 4/5, no more, no less. never amazing, never surprising, but always delivering.
14. pharaoh - the powers that be
I respect it more than I enjoy it but I could see this being one I'm still revisiting 10 years from now.
13. seven spires - gods of debauchery
this is basically kamelot with mallcore growls and uh, I get how that doesn't sound like a positive, but to me this album is one of those rare sublime rewards for giving something outside of your wheelhouse a chance. I can accept that certain negative traits come with the territory in some styles of music and it just doesn't weigh that highly for me when you have orgasmic choruses sung by a genderswapped daniel heiman. would be higher if it didn't run out of steam in the last third.
(arg would love this)
12. mefitis - offscourings
slightly academic and unapproachable album whose thrills are not always immediate, but repeated listens reveal a thoughtfully constructed album that transcends the debut's hodgepodge of the right influences and assumes an identity all its own.
11. helloween - helloween
look, I'm not even the biggest fan of classic helloween, but hearing hansen, kiske and deris swap vocal duties makes me sentimental. fan service gets a bad rap, but I can hardly think of a better way to pay off a 40-year legacy. and the songs are good too!
10. vision master - orb
essential weirdo metal for people who think slough feg isn't dorky enough.
9. dungeon serpent - world of sorrows
very transparent in its influences, rendering it rather demystified. that said, I still kind of love it on a moment-to-moment basis even if the whole feels less than visionary. although I can't explain why such synthetic elements should be here, I love the synth interludes and the aggressively mechanical drum programming, and the eleven-minute instrumental is huge.
8. crystal coffin - the starway eternal
workmanlike bm, not flashy but underpinned by measured, melancholy atmosphere building, and it always delivers on the riffs.
7. starscape - colony
oddball two-man trad metal effort that feels like a spiritual sibling to vision master in some ways. features some of the most vivid musical storytelling of the year, in service to a tragic narrative with shades of the epic sci-fi poem 'aniara', one of my favorite works of literature. would've been higher in the past, but I have had to concede that nothing that follows matches the brilliance of the opening epic 'pilgrims of the stars'.
6. seven sisters - shadow of a fallen star
close to impeccably realized nwothm, each relisten revealing new levels of dynamics and detail and new amazing flourishes to pick up on.
5. at the gates - the nightmare of being
I haven't kept up with revival-era at the gates, but by this point they've clearly exited out of the darkness of sotses jumpdafuckupcore into something more mature and reflective. if 'irae melanox' is trad metal's tritsio, this is almost like the evil, cosmic pessimist death metal counterpart to that band's gracefully aged old man prog era. won't satisfy anyone looking for the second coming of 'red', but it's great in its own right, consistent, varied and relentlessly committed to an unsettling message that is only made more blood-curdling by singer tomas lindberg's untimely death.
4. atvm - famine, putrid and fucking endless
feels like a living, breathing, many-limbed alien organism that's in the room with you while it's on. dense and inscrutable yet absolutely bizarrely accessible and inviting, the improbable midway point between occult literature study and tribal dancing in the firelight.
3. ravenlaw - for the sign of trident crossed
europm without the rough edges filed off and all the more full of wonder for it, delivered by a singer who at any given moment sounds like he's fully inhabiting whatever pulp fantasy narrative he's singing about.
2. mega colossus - riptime
given that the years since this came out have seen me acknowledge their 2024 track 'grab the sun' as, no hyperbole, the best song ever written, I was due a 'riptime' revisit. turns out, a lot of the qualities I love about 'showdown' are present here. like on that album, most of the songs here start out as pretty solid pop punk-tinged speed metal tunes that escape into the fucking stratosphere in exuberant second halves full of unexpected tangents that open up the scope of the songs into vast epics. and even if it never quite comes together in songs as transcendental as 'fortune and glory' or 'sun', it also avoids duds like 'wicked road' and delivers an uninterrupted series of bangers from start to finish. oh and one of the songs on it is about the second best video game ever made, xcom: enemy unknown
1. les chants de nihil - l'tyrant et l'esthète
despite being french,
basically any album these guys release nowadays is an exact 4/5, no more, no less. never amazing, never surprising, but always delivering.
14. pharaoh - the powers that be
I respect it more than I enjoy it but I could see this being one I'm still revisiting 10 years from now.
13. seven spires - gods of debauchery
this is basically kamelot with mallcore growls and uh, I get how that doesn't sound like a positive, but to me this album is one of those rare sublime rewards for giving something outside of your wheelhouse a chance. I can accept that certain negative traits come with the territory in some styles of music and it just doesn't weigh that highly for me when you have orgasmic choruses sung by a genderswapped daniel heiman. would be higher if it didn't run out of steam in the last third.
(arg would love this)
12. mefitis - offscourings
slightly academic and unapproachable album whose thrills are not always immediate, but repeated listens reveal a thoughtfully constructed album that transcends the debut's hodgepodge of the right influences and assumes an identity all its own.
11. helloween - helloween
look, I'm not even the biggest fan of classic helloween, but hearing hansen, kiske and deris swap vocal duties makes me sentimental. fan service gets a bad rap, but I can hardly think of a better way to pay off a 40-year legacy. and the songs are good too!
10. vision master - orb
essential weirdo metal for people who think slough feg isn't dorky enough.
9. dungeon serpent - world of sorrows
very transparent in its influences, rendering it rather demystified. that said, I still kind of love it on a moment-to-moment basis even if the whole feels less than visionary. although I can't explain why such synthetic elements should be here, I love the synth interludes and the aggressively mechanical drum programming, and the eleven-minute instrumental is huge.
8. crystal coffin - the starway eternal
workmanlike bm, not flashy but underpinned by measured, melancholy atmosphere building, and it always delivers on the riffs.
7. starscape - colony
oddball two-man trad metal effort that feels like a spiritual sibling to vision master in some ways. features some of the most vivid musical storytelling of the year, in service to a tragic narrative with shades of the epic sci-fi poem 'aniara', one of my favorite works of literature. would've been higher in the past, but I have had to concede that nothing that follows matches the brilliance of the opening epic 'pilgrims of the stars'.
6. seven sisters - shadow of a fallen star
close to impeccably realized nwothm, each relisten revealing new levels of dynamics and detail and new amazing flourishes to pick up on.
5. at the gates - the nightmare of being
I haven't kept up with revival-era at the gates, but by this point they've clearly exited out of the darkness of sotses jumpdafuckupcore into something more mature and reflective. if 'irae melanox' is trad metal's tritsio, this is almost like the evil, cosmic pessimist death metal counterpart to that band's gracefully aged old man prog era. won't satisfy anyone looking for the second coming of 'red', but it's great in its own right, consistent, varied and relentlessly committed to an unsettling message that is only made more blood-curdling by singer tomas lindberg's untimely death.
4. atvm - famine, putrid and fucking endless
feels like a living, breathing, many-limbed alien organism that's in the room with you while it's on. dense and inscrutable yet absolutely bizarrely accessible and inviting, the improbable midway point between occult literature study and tribal dancing in the firelight.
3. ravenlaw - for the sign of trident crossed
europm without the rough edges filed off and all the more full of wonder for it, delivered by a singer who at any given moment sounds like he's fully inhabiting whatever pulp fantasy narrative he's singing about.
2. mega colossus - riptime
given that the years since this came out have seen me acknowledge their 2024 track 'grab the sun' as, no hyperbole, the best song ever written, I was due a 'riptime' revisit. turns out, a lot of the qualities I love about 'showdown' are present here. like on that album, most of the songs here start out as pretty solid pop punk-tinged speed metal tunes that escape into the fucking stratosphere in exuberant second halves full of unexpected tangents that open up the scope of the songs into vast epics. and even if it never quite comes together in songs as transcendental as 'fortune and glory' or 'sun', it also avoids duds like 'wicked road' and delivers an uninterrupted series of bangers from start to finish. oh and one of the songs on it is about the second best video game ever made, xcom: enemy unknown
1. les chants de nihil - l'tyrant et l'esthète
despite being french,
Last edited:
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
overlap with slammed: 0/10
overlap with slayed_necros: 0/10
overlap with bloopy: 0/10
overlap with cig: 0/10
overlap with cronopio: 0/10
overlap with crimsonfloyd: 0/10
(only counting my top 10, since most of you only posted top 10s)
overlap with slayed_necros: 0/10
overlap with bloopy: 0/10
overlap with cig: 0/10
overlap with cronopio: 0/10
overlap with crimsonfloyd: 0/10
(only counting my top 10, since most of you only posted top 10s)
CiG
Room with a View
no country for old wainds
Active Member
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,822
- 9,683
- 113
1. les chants de nihil – le tyran et l'esthete
2. pharaoh – the powers that be
3. insurrexÃon – insurrexÃon
4. ravenlaw – for the sign of trident crossed
5. atvm – famine, putrid and fucking endless
6. starscape – colony
7. seven sisters – shadow of a fallen star pt. 1
8. zaratus – in the days of whore
9. mega colossus – riptime
10. kenn nardi – trauma
**HMs**
lucifer's fall – from the deep
vertebra atlantis – lustral purge in cerulean bliss
herzel – le dernier rempart
mefitis – offscourings
zofos – erevothen
Ænigmatum – deconsecrate
evil nerfal – sons of chaos (anti-kosmic dissonance)
escumergamënt – ...ni degu fazentz escumergamënt e mesorga...
prelude to ruin – ronin ex mortis
tower – shock to the system
2. pharaoh – the powers that be
3. insurrexÃon – insurrexÃon
4. ravenlaw – for the sign of trident crossed
5. atvm – famine, putrid and fucking endless
6. starscape – colony
7. seven sisters – shadow of a fallen star pt. 1
8. zaratus – in the days of whore
9. mega colossus – riptime
10. kenn nardi – trauma
**HMs**
lucifer's fall – from the deep
vertebra atlantis – lustral purge in cerulean bliss
herzel – le dernier rempart
mefitis – offscourings
zofos – erevothen
Ænigmatum – deconsecrate
evil nerfal – sons of chaos (anti-kosmic dissonance)
escumergamënt – ...ni degu fazentz escumergamënt e mesorga...
prelude to ruin – ronin ex mortis
tower – shock to the system
no country for old wainds
Active Member
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,822
- 9,683
- 113
CiG
Room with a View
no country for old wainds
Active Member
- Nov 23, 2002
- 26,822
- 9,683
- 113
CiG
Room with a View
If you didn't already check it out, their split with Diskord from last year was great too.
Cronopio
Glorious Imperator
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
Cronopio
Glorious Imperator
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