Jon Rosenthal's Top Albums of 2021

I put on my headphones and suddenly it’s 1998 again. That’s how Colorado-based symphonic black metal troupe Stormkeep truly succeeds. This is a love letter to the beginning of black metal’s extravagant years, when musicianship really started to take hold and black metal bands embraced being musicians instead of conservative stylistic conduits. Mastermind Isaac Faulk (who you might recognize behind the Blood Incantation and Wayfarer’s drum kits) weaves a dramatic tale with equally striking art.

Listen here.

Derrick Vella (Tomb Mold) and Justin DeTore (Innumerable Forms, Mind Eraser et al) find an expressive and emotional means of finding the middle ground between early gothic-inspired death/doom metal and the dream pop and darkwave which dominated labels like 4AD and Projekt in the 80s and early 90s. The result? As a death/doom metal band, Dream Unending is certainly heavy, but not harrowing like its predecessors. Instead, Tide Turns Eternal‘s celebration of life and the indomitable essence of the human spirit fully embraces the “dream doom” tag the band self-imbued.

Listen here.

It’s fucking BLACK METAL, spelled in all caps and in a gothic font. Gallows is meant to be a traditional foray into black metal’s formative years, and this Denver/Salem duo certainly capture that era’s magick and musical values. Vocalist Mouth of Greed’s manic yowling and hooting pairs perfectly with multi-instrumentalist Lord Elzevir’s (later revealed to be I’m in a Coffin guitarist Adorable) night-worshipping riffcraft, and the 66 riffs which comprise 66 Black Wings (not a coincidence) hearken back to glory days of violent, unfriendly black metal made by frowning faces in monochrome.

Listen here.

Spaceman Jake goes for the gold and makes his most metallic record yet. Solar Paroxysm‘s riff-heavy and more blackened presence places itself apart from solo artist Jacob Buczarski’s historic forays into deep space’s more beautiful and atmospheric aspects. A logical conclusion from Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine‘s steps towards aggression, Mare Cognitum goes all in on power and strength, resulting in his best album to date. This was the record Mare Cognitum was meant to make.

Listen here.

Yes, of course you’ve heard this record, and with good reason. Sole creator M.’s previous releases are each masterworks in raw black metal riffcraft (except for the dungeon synth EP, which also rules), but it’s on Submission and Slavery where we begin to find more character in this enigmatic artist’s works. As evidenced by the cover’s tribute to The Sisters of Mercy’s Floodland, Lamp of Murmuur’s latest album takes quite a bit from post-punk and heavy gothic rock, giving the album more of a spooky, almost Halloween-like atmosphere.

Listen here.

It’s the right time of year for this album. Cradle of Judah’s “gothic folk” (read as: neofolk) walks the walk with its minimal and folk-inspired instrumentation, but it’s with songwriter Gabe Durkee’s rich vocal harmonies that this album sets itself apart from your everyday neofolk project. Cradle of Judah carries a profound sadness, one which even makes a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Play With Fire” sound dour.

Listen here.

John Darnielle’s work as The Mountain Goats is the stuff of legend. Coming from recording directly into a boombox to crafting this elegantly dark folk rock album is quite the “glow up,” but the spirit remains the same. Dark In Here‘s heavy emphasis on Americana and Western-style musics sets it apart from the band’s more indie rock-focused sound, focusing on opulent textures and practiced full-band composing and orchestration to bring forth an incredible album.

Listen here.

Markus “Schwadorf” Stock has an ear for the past, especially his own. Understanding Empyrium’s stance in a niche, Romantic scene is part of it, but it took understanding the person he was when he made those first two metal albums in the mid-90s and the person he’s become two decades later. Being able to reconcile those two halves and find his own identity, one beyond his influences and instead looking inside at what made Empyrium his music: a doomed, folk-inspired metallic sound full of longing and despair. Though obviously inspired by Empyrium’s salad days as a metal band prior to pivoting to a neofolk and progressive rock mid-period (and a lengthy break), Über den Sternen picks up right where Empyrium left off in 1997, but with a few years of added wisdom. As such, the musicianship and songwriting take this album on a more complex path than its predecessors, but it is still unmistakably Empyrium.

Listen here.

I love Circle of Ouroborus, especially when they concentrate on their more metallic half, not unlike the legendary split with Urfaust or their Armon Keitaalla album. Kiromantia, the band’s sole release this year, draws from that same pool of dreamy post-punk and unconventional black metal which made them an underground staple, but with a distinctly autumnal vibe. As opposed to an onslaught of demos, albums, and splits, Circle of Ouroborus shows what the masters of hazy melancholy can really do when they are given ample time to do it, and I truly believe the space Rauta and Antti Klemi put between releases shows. Though some might find Klemi’s vocals off-putting, there is a primordial sadness to his pitchy, warbling voice which wouldn’t come across as powerful in a more traditional performance. Though I miss the days when I could get up to ten Circle of Ouroborus releases in a year’s time, the potency found within this single public 2021 release can be felt, and it is quite a statement in a massive discography.

Listen here.

Like my favorite band of all time wasn’t going to make the best album of 2021. Shame on you for thinking otherwise. Following in Double Negative‘s electronics-heavy footsteps, HEY WHAT takes that last album’s musical concept to an extreme. Noise-heavy and laden with difficult, cranky textures, Low’s latest opus is an exercise in pop music’s resilience. How far can Low and their producer take their simple, harmony-rich indie rock (slowcore, but not really anymore) songs and stretch their musical base? At times resembling a Cold Meat Industry record, at others a sun-baked psychedelic pop dream, Low’s volume worship has completely turned the public’s idea about their music on its head. Once a band who would retaliate against outside noise by turning down their speakers and singing even quieter, HEY WHAT‘s HNP (Harsh Noise Pop) ushers in a new era for this long-standing band.

Listen here.