A bit late to the party, but I wanted to listen to everything I had on my 2021 list before making the final call.
Ratings of 3.8/5 and up (4+ in the archaic Sput system). Recs welcome.
I try to follow the scene carefully, and listen to all relevant albums and hundreds more obscure bands. And here I recognized maybe 5 albums. Then I looked more carefully and realised that like 80% of this is *core and nu-metal, which I don't listen to.
Maybe you could do this with all the cores and nu-metal excluded, you know, metal archives style? Of course if you feel like it and you're into this stuff. Just a suggestion.
I remember many great metal albums from last year, The Ruins Of Beverast, Hooded Menace, Archspire, Worm, Mare Cognitum, Ethereal Shroud, 1914 etc. I though those were some great albums.
The teacup is right alko, this is just my own, personal top albums of the year.
I've checked out some of your recommendations already - thought 1914's album was pretty decent but didn't get on as well with Archspire or The Ruins of Beverast. The latter I've got on my list to revisit one of these days though.
Was a fantastic album and definitely a band I plan to check out further. Not a genre I generally get too much from, but I think the melodeath leanings hooked me in!