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BEST OF 2021

Best Of 2021: Metal

MAGNET’s Andrew Earles picks the best metal releases of the year

1) Midwife Luminol (The Flenser)
2) Darkthrone Eternal Hails…… (Peaceville)
3) Part Chimp Drool (Learning Curve)
4) Fuoco Fatuo Obsidian Katabasis (Profound Lore)
5) Pressed Mirrored Body (The Ghost Is Clear)
6) Boris No (Third Man)
7) Kowloon Walled City Piecework (Neurot)
8) Withered Verlorean (Underground Activists/Season Of Mist)
9) King Woman Celestial Blues (Relapse)
10) Amenra De Doorn (Relapse)

1) Midwife Luminol (The Flenser)
This is a gross oversimplification, but the Jesu-meets-Grouper move in heavy music has scratched what was apparently a huge itch. 

2) Darkthrone Eternal Hails…… (Peaceville)
2013’s The Underground Resistance was a new and very special Darkthrone, especially considering the albums released between then and 1999’s Ravishing Grimness. It resonated deeply enough that I figured each successive LP would definitely be personal year-end list food. Well, it turns out I was wrong—until now. 

3) Part Chimp Drool (Learning Curve)
Drool is just as awesome and essential as the albums Part Chimp released back during the heaviness famine that was the ‘00s. To quote the late, great Biggie Smalls: And if you don’t know, now you know.

4) Fuoco Fatuo Obsidian Katabasis (Profound Lore)
2010’s Dark Worship seven-inch by now-labelmate Innumerable Forms spoiled me when it came to top-shelf death doom, of which there’s been a shit-ton over the ensuing 11 years. These Italians make OG ‘90s Incantation seem like JEFF The Brotherhood. 

5) Pressed Mirrored Body (The Ghost Is Clear)
Ah, the glorious upward trajectory we’ve come since one couldn’t give away an original pressing of an AmRep record. And unlike more than a few of its contemporaries that simply add modern dynamics to the first wave so as to comfortably fit under the banner of “underground metal,” Pressed is the sound of right now and the near future as opposed to another practitioner of mid-‘90s noise-rock karaoke. 

6) Boris No (Third Man)
Is this vinyl release of last year’s No the best place in Boris’ expansive (literally and stylistically) discography to start? Probably not, but Boris is not a band for the curious or dabbling masses who honestly and correctly intake music with zero-percent outside influence or any concern over social optics. 

7) Kowloon Walled City Piecework (Neurot)
The ongoing war on context and nuance isn’t going to be friendly to this record. Like listmates Pressed and Part Chimp, KWC is an antidote to the current trend of bearding up the same testosterone-hemorrhaging knucklehead thump with lyrics-about-licking-the-inside-of-a-vacuum-cleaner-bag syndrome. That caused noise rock to declare creative bankruptcy in the mid-to-late’-90s. 

8) Withered Verlorean (Underground Activists/Season Of Mist)
On paper, this style of DM would normally have me running in the opposite direction. Proggy, floor-to-ceiling layers, minimum three vocal styles—all rendered powerful and genuinely emotional by this band’s unknown extra ummph. 

9) King Woman Celestial Blues (Relapse)
If this actually was considered some form of blues, it would be the best thing to happen to the genre since John Lee Hooker. 

10) Amenra De Doorn (Relapse)
“Atmospheric Sludge Metal” is like saying “Amenra’s label releases metal.”