LISTMANIA 2021: THE DGR YEAR-END EXTRAVAGANZA: 20-11

 LISTMANIA 2021  3 Responses »
Dec 232021
 

 

(Today we present Part Four of the week-long rollout of DGR‘s year-end list, with a segment that includes his countdown from 20 through 11.)

I’ve joked about it before but I believe this may be the first time I’ve actually pulled it off. We’ve danced around the fringes of it before but if we’ve timed this just right as a website, we may in fact be releasing my year-end list in time to ruin the holidays. If so, this one should be getting up there with tomorrow’s final entries smashing right into the holiday weekend. If that is the case then Hello, how are you?

I’m more than happy to help supply you with a multi-entry playlist of music to blast incredibly loudly and hopefully terrify both your neighbors and family in equal measure. You could even consider some of this the anti-holiday music list, because this is the one where things start to get increasingly abrasive. If it hasn’t become clear, it’s probably the part of the list I’ve had on max volume at work in order to drown out whatever the muzak is playing. I’ve heard it’s my coworkers new favorite game: “Is he doing construction over there or is that what he’s listening to?”

As with any installment of my year-end lists, this is the part that gets increasingly tech-death. Every couple of years I wind up with a gigantic block of entries from that genre and this has been an especially fruitful year. If you enjoy some instrumental pyrotechnics and musical wonder-working then there’s a damned good chunk of music in this block here for you. Everything else darts between weird and abrasive… so pretty par for the DGR course. Let us sally forth and crash headlong into tomorrow! Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2021: BANDCAMP DAILY’S “THE BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2021”

 LISTMANIA 2021  3 Responses »
Dec 222021
 

 

Reading year-end lists that someone other than you made tend to provoke mixed feelings of validation, perplexity (which sometimes verges into anger), and discovery. The opportunity for discovery is the main reason we here at NCS devote so much space to our annual LISTMANIA extravaganza, even though we know those other feelings will also be in the mix of reactions. The list we’re re-publishing from Bandcamp Daily will probably be no different in any of these respects.

Bandcamp, of course, has become a vital platform for the digital release of music of all stripes (and physical merchandise as well) since its founding in 2007. Bandcamp used to release an annual compilation of performance statistics, but I haven’t found a similar report since the one they released for 2017. However, the main Bandcamp page today reports that “Fans have paid artists $854 million using Bandcamp, and $212 million in the last year”.

In the summer of 2016, the company launched Bandcamp Daily, an online music publication about artists on the platform. Bandcamp Daily regularly publishes articles of relevance to metalheads, though metal is of course only one of hundreds of music genres represented on Bandcamp. Recently Bandcamp Daily published its list of “The Best Metal Albums of 2021“ under the byline of Brad Sanders, who writes the monthly metal column for Bandcamp. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2021: WIL CIFER’S TOP 20 METAL ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

 LISTMANIA 2021  6 Responses »
Dec 222021
 

 

(Long-time NCS contributor Wil Cifer weighs in here with his picks for the favorite Top 20 metal albums of the year.)

There are voices that cry out against lists such as these, saying music is subjective, and its merit cannot be measured . The obvious flaws with this might include highly derivative artists who are tribute bands trying to pass off songs as originals. The real measuring stick for a great album is songwriting. Do the songs get stuck in your head, finding you returning to them with a craving to hear more? How well music stands up over the course of time is another, though an end of the year list is not the best unit of measure since they have so far only endured 12 months at most.

My Last FM determined how much I actually listened to an album. Writers want our lists to appear as cool as all the other writers because the Corpse Painted Butt Plug demo is on it, but if I only listened to it once how inspiring could it really be? Sounding brutal is the easy part, you only need the right gear and producer, but writing songs is more telling . A rip your face off guitar tone might hold my attention for the first song, then after that the question is … but can you write a song? Continue reading »

AN ASSHOLE’S LIST PT II: SHIT THAT’S ON CASSETTE

 LISTMANIA 2021  3 Responses »
Dec 222021
 

 

(Our friend Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood) has joined us again with year-end lists as 2021 draws to a close, and today we have Part Two of a five-part series.)

2021 was an outstanding year for the cassette, at least until the last few months of it because the little screws that are used to hold the fucking things together were apparently stuck on one of those boats that contained 80% of the country’s supply chain. Even still there were a ton of releases that were pushed through, some of them were even good.

This was probably the most difficult part of this year’s trophy parade because there were so many killer tapes that I left off this list but I really had to cut the fat, otherwise this would be a thirty-band list and nobody wants that. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2021: THE DGR YEAR-END EXTRAVAGANZA: 30-21

 LISTMANIA 2021  1 Response »
Dec 222021
 

 

(Today we present Part Three of the week-long rollout of DGR‘s year-end list, with a segment that includes his picks from 30 through 21.)

On The Bubble:

The bubble is a difficult term to describe but it’s the one I’ve found myself applying to releases throughout the year. It’s the place where a lot of the albums that would normally make the ‘pretty good’ list for most people tend to reside. They’re ones that I enjoy tremendously throughout the year but I can often recognize when it’s a band playing to their comforts more than anything else.

Of course, that leaves a lot of room wide open for different hypocritical statements. Sometimes a band can be as ‘comfort zone’ as they can think of and still wind up winning me over, where at other times a band can just jam out a bizarrely ambitious release and have it not quite work. I don’t think I have the strength in me to truly ‘hate’ anything anymore – especially because at this point, I’ve learned to see a lot of signs for things that I just know I’m not going to enjoy and we’re not the type to force anyone to listen to anything here – but I definitely have room to recognize when things work less well for me than others.

It’s hard to tell what or why a band might break through and make it on to the year-ender proper, but you’ve probably noticed that this year I didn’t bother constructing a ‘bubble list’ of things I felt worthy to check out. I reviewed and wrote up a lot of shit this year so if you’re looking to go even further into the fruits of 2021 and none of Andy‘s expansive lists this year have you covered then you could likely make worse mistakes. Save for the few bands that have just always been hit or miss with me, but you’ll likely guess those when you don’t see a name like Converge popping up here. Continue reading »

AN ASSHOLE’S 2021 LIST PT I: EPs and LPs

 LISTMANIA 2021  2 Responses »
Dec 212021
 

 

(Our friend Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood) has joined us again with year-end lists as 2021 draws to a close, beginning with this selection of EPs and LPs.)

It felt like I blinked and this year was over. When I did these lists last year I was at various hotels traveling while I trained for a new job. Now I just celebrated a year without anyone (either customer or upper management) calling me hurtful names that make me sad. I found that I’ve kept most of my 2020 picks in rotation (and still a good chunk of 2019’s as well) and I don’t really have a dour tone to strike this year, unlike the mess my 2018 list was. I don’t think I listen to anything except Extinction of Mankind from that list at all anymore.

I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seats to hear more about my personal life and that’s all well and good but I’m here to deliver what I thought were the most interesting musical moments of the past 12 or so months. Like the previous two years there were a lot of really worthwhile recordings that came out, especially in the category of splits and demos. For this first list I’m going to touch on a few LPs that I didn’t go into detail with elsewhere as well as the EPs, just to start off slowly since I’m trying to romance you into paying attention for a few thousand more words.

And with that, we’re off: Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2021: THE DGR YEAR-END EXTRAVAGANZA: 40-31

 LISTMANIA 2021  8 Responses »
Dec 212021
 

 

(Today we present Part Two of the week-long rollout of DGR‘s year-end list, with a segment that includes his picks from 40 through 31.)

I didn’t begin yesterday’s tour through 2021 with a traditional overview of the year as a whole, outside of acknowledging how time was starting to feel like it had no meaning and large chunks of the year were starting to blur together. I think I wound up using the album reviews tab of our own website as a way to keep track of what had been happening more than I have any other year.

2021 was an interesting year when attempting to look back at it because it seemed to move in fits and starts. The early part still had the whole world on hold, and some of the best releases that hit this year came out during that time, but they were from new and unexpected names. That is always exciting for a group like us, because we love getting new names out there. We’re also suckers for some of the more popular and well-known names but it has always felt good being able to share newer or more underground projects with people, so the bands can see some sort of positive response and continue to make music.

What I didn’t expected was how kindly the year would be to the deathcore and tech-death scenes, as both genres had long since hit a saturation point. Both of those had some murderous releases this year – one or two of which already appeared in the first segment of this list yesterday – and the way the more traditionally rigid genre lines for other styles continued to blur was also interesting to watch. Today’s chunk of picks is going to reflect a lot of all this in microcosm. You’ll see well-known names, newer discoveries from earlier in the year, and the previously mentioned thriving genres all gathered around this year’s funeral pyre. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2021: THE DGR YEAR-END LIST EXTRAVAGANZA: 50-41

 LISTMANIA 2021  4 Responses »
Dec 202021
 

 

(Today we begin the week-long rollout of DGR‘s year-end list with Part One, encompassing his picks from 50 through 41.)

When I started this list I had 65 albums and EPs that I had set aside to construct my year end list out of. I’m not saying this to brag about how much music I’m able to digest throughout the year, because in the face of some of our other writers around here it’s pretty clear that I’m not anywhere close to being able to do that. I say this because in all honesty I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to do my usual ridiculous top fifty this year.

For a large chunk of it I couldn’t even remember what had come out. Nothing was sticking – save for the few I had written down in my ongoing text file that morphs into this list – and more often that not it felt like there was a haze hovering over much of 2021, as if we were still trapped within the confines of 2020 and that year had just never ended.

With so many bands unable to tour or even play shows, and those that were brave enough to do so often cancelling multiple dates when the inevitable COVID-positive test would happen, it seemed like now was the time for any sort of EP/Single release they could pull off. In that case many bands even went year-over-year with releases, so there are some names here in very similar spots where you might find yourself saying, ‘But we saw that last year too!’. Don’t worry, I thought the same thing.

Taking this list down from 65 – which I reiterate is an incredible number of releases that I would be deeming worthy – to 50 was surprisingly difficult. So much so that it was tempting to do the usual ‘on the fence’ section of the list, and I just may as I get deeper in, but it also may be tempting to do a segment on some of the more notable absences in this year-end list. We’ll see where the winds take us. It may also be that my fingers will have cramped up by then.

Preamble out of the way, let’s begin our tour through what may have in fact been the year 2021, no matter what my brain seems to think. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2021: ROLLING STONE’S LIST OF THE 10 BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2021

 LISTMANIA 2021  4 Responses »
Dec 202021
 

Here’s another entry in the part of our annual LISTMANIA orgy where we re-post lists of metal from “big platform” web sites and print zines — the kind of places that get a lot more eyeballs on them than filthy little metal-only hovels like ours.

Rolling Stone magazine should need no introduction, so I’m not going to provide one. Last year we didn’t include a Rolling Stone metal list in our year-end LISTMANIA series — because they didn’t publish one. I thought they’d jettisoned the idea permanently, but their Top 10 metal list has made a return this year — and it’s better than I expected it would be. Continue reading »

2021 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE PERSONAL TOP TEN

 LISTMANIA 2021  36 Responses »
Dec 172021
 

(Andy Synn closes out his annual List-Week with a ranked round-up of his personal favourites)

And here we are, finally. Can you hear my sigh of relief ?

Don’t get me wrong, doing all these round-ups and lists is, ultimately, quite a rewarding experience – especially when people tell me that it’s help them discover, or re-evaluate, something they might not otherwise have listened to – but it’s also quite a bit of work, and no matter how early I start putting it all together I somehow always end up having to finish things off in a rush at the last minute.

Thankfully my final list of the week is, this year at least, relatively easy, as I’m 99% certain as I write this that I know exactly which albums I want to include as part of my “Personal Top Ten”.

These albums aren’t necessarily the biggest, or the best, or the most popular/well-known releases by any means, but they’re definitely the ones which have resonated with me the most on a purely personal level.

So let’s just crack on, shall we, and give you all some insight into my listening tastes/habits this year.

Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries