No need to introduce death metal, right? It’s death, and metal! There has been so many great death and death-adjacent records this year that this top 5 was one of the toughest to call! I could’ve easily extended it into a top 10, but for the sake of concision, I was able to keep only the 5 best in my opinion!
Number Five: Dagtum – Revered Decadence VIDEO Dagtum released an underground gem of dissonant death metal with Revered Decadence . The band is actually a supergroup hailing from the Philippines, and they truly deserve the “super” prefix, as everything they do on that album is insanely bleak and amazing!
Number Four: Carcinoma – Labascation VIDEO It’s disgustingly heavy and the production has just the right amount of grit. This album is beautiful in all its ugliness. I wrote about this one earlier this year , so why haven’t you listened to it yet?
Number Three: Barús – Fanges VIDEO Let this album play at the funeral of those who release year-end list in November. Fanges was released on the very last day of the year, and it’s an absolute masterpiece! Progressive, atmospheric death metal that can put any other to shame. The album is made up of two tracks, the first of which, the title track, plays a little more into the doom metal territory, while the second one, “Chassis de chair”, showcases the band’s more black metal and technical death metal influences.
Number Two: Yautja – The Lurch VIDEO The Lurch is one of the best death albums this year. Blending grind, post, and sludge into a wormhole of death! I’ve just been constantly going back to this album whenever I needed something heavy throughout the year. Endlessly rewarding and cathartic to listen! If you haven’t already, please do.
Number One: Ad nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse VIDEO You know you’re in for a treat when the album has a “full dynamic range” mix. With Imperative Imperceptible Impulse , the Italian avant-garde dissonant death metal entity really outdid themselves, and to surpass a masterpiece, their previous album that is, is a Herculean endeavour.
Notable Releases Hover over foreign scripts for pronunciation and romanization.
Friday, 5 February DSKNT – Vacuum γ -Noise Transition 43:19 avant-garde death metal Switzerland Independent
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Spin [03:03]
2. Deconvolution J/ψ [Part I] [07:38]
3. Transition K0 [Part I] [06:39]
4. Θ-Noise – Phase Shift [05:59]
5. Transition Ω- [Part II] [07:20]
6. Deconvolution Ξ*0 [Part II] [09:17]
7. Spore [03:23]
Friday, 12 Ad nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse 57:05 avant-garde death metal Italy Avantgarde Music
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Sub Specie Aeternitatis [08:41]
2. Inexorably Ousted Sente [08:45]
3. Coincidentia Oppositorum [12:05]
4. Imperative Imperceptible Impulse [09:45]
5. Horror Vacui [08:44]
6. Human Interface To No God [09:05]
Friday, 19 Carcinoma – Labascation 37:10 progressive death metal Plymouth, UK Independent
Read our review.
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Paroxysmal [01:04]
2. Verminous [02:20]
3. Inner Tyrants [04:06]
4. Senescence [04:37]
5. Bloated Parasites [05:43]
6. Rectify [01:32]
7. Futile Hope [12:45]
8. Occupier [05:03]
Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning 44:29 blackened death metal Forest Lake, Minnesota Profound Lore
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Strongholds Of Awakening [05:27]
2. Transcending Antecedent Visions [07:58]
3. The Abrasive Black Dust Part II [07:59]
4. Obscuration [06:33]
5. The Foundations Of Servitude [16:32]
Monday, 22 February Unknown Artist – The Stench of Delusion 19:20 avant-garde death metal France Standalone Complex
Tracklist (click to display) 1. The Stench Of Delusion [19:20]
Thursday, 25 March Vile Dissonance – Music Theory Is a Social Convention 35:06 avant-garde death metal USA Independent
Tracklist (click to display) 1. The 80’s aren’t that terrible [04:39]
2. A drunken man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts [04:24]
3. To groove or not to groove, that is the question [01:46]
4. Start without finish [04:49]
5. Everything out there has only one purpose, to distract us from ourselves [06:02]
6. Drums [01:42]
7. Richard Wilder [04:41]
8. On second thought, I hope she suffers quite a bit before she dies [07:03]
Friday, 26 Aziola Cry – The Ironic Divide 49:47 progressive death metal Chicago, Illinois The Laser’s Edge
Tracklist (click to display) 1. And Cowards [09:36]
2. Hollow Reflections [06:38]
3. The Ironic Divide: I. Premonitions ● II. A Torment Of Reason ● III. Distort Persona ● IV. One Final Collapse [21:05]
4. Scars Now Rest Where Once Bore Wings [12:28]
Blindfolded and Led to the Woods – Nightmare Withdrawals 39:07 progressive death metal Christchurch, New Zealand Independent
Tracklist (click to display) 1. The Inevitable Fate of the Universe [04:05]
2. Black Air [02:52]
3. …And You Will Try To Speak [05:17]
4. The White of the Eyes [01:25]
5. Atop the Wings of a Magpie (feat. Karl Sanders) [05:38]
6. Lucid Visitations (feat. Callum Gay) [04:04]
7. Nightmare Withdrawals [02:28]
8. The Obscured Witness [03:03]
9. Rorschach and Delirium [04:20]
10. Sic Mundus Creatus Est [05:55]
Friday, 23 April Altarage – Succumb 63:03 blackened death metal Bilbao, Spain Independent
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Negative Arrival [02:02]
2. Magno Evento [03:45]
3. Maneuvre [03:20]
4. Foregone [07:39]
5. Drainage Mechanism [04:22]
6. Watcher Witness [04:37]
7. Fair Warning [01:42]
8. Lavath [04:07]
9. Forja [04:01]
10. Inwards [02:18]
11. Vour Concession [04:06]
12. Devorador De Mundos [21:11]
Friday, 21 May Yautja – The Lurch 46:00 deathgrind Nashville, Tennessee Relapse
Read our review.
Tracklist (click to display) 1. A Killing Joke [03:52]
2. The Spectacle [03:54]
3. Wired Depths [04:16]
4. Undesirables [07:12]
5. Tethered [03:12]
6. Clock Cleaner [05:52]
7. Catastrophic [06:16]
8. The Weight [04:07]
9. Before The Foal [07:19]
Sunday, 30 May Charnel Grounds – Molecular Entropy Examined in the Bowels of a Great One 9:51 avant-garde death metal Florida Independent
Tracklist (click to display) 1. The Hellmouth Beckons Across The Void [01:16]
2. Desecration Of The Host: Madness Complete [03:28]
3. Soul Scavengers Of The Abyss [02:28]
4. On A Cross of Ether [02:39]
5. As Above, So Below [03:06]
6. Pineal Gland Recalcification [03:50]
Friday, 13 August Diskord – Degenerations 41:06 progressive death metal Norway Transcending Obscurity
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Loitering in the Portal [02:48]
2. Bionic Tomb Eternal [02:51]
3. Abnegations [04:39]
4. The Endless Spiral [03:56]
5. Dirigiste Radio Hit [03:54]
6. Lone Survivor [01:31]
7. Dragged for Coronation [02:59]
8. Clawing at the Fabric of Space [04:01]
9. Atoms Decay [02:19]
10. Raging Berzerker in the Universe Rigid [03:22]
11. Gnashing [04:31]
12. Beyond the Grime [04:15]
Friday, 27 White Stones – Dancing into Oblivion 35:46 progressive death metal Barcelona, Spain Nuclear Blast
Tracklist (click to display) 1. La Menace [02:16]
2. New Age Of Dark [04:54]
3. Chain Of Command [04:40]
4. Iron Titans [08:43]
5. Woven Dream [02:11]
6. To Lie Or To Die [04:57]
7. Freedom In Captivity [06:30]
8. Acacia [01:35]
Monday, 30 August Dagtum – Revered Decadence 37:25 avant-garde death metal Philippines Eastbreath
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Immaculate Decay [04:02]
2. Avarice Enshrined [04:49]
3. Ad Infinitum [03:47]
4. Werewhale [04:41]
5. Seething Seasons in Catharsis [05:35]
6. Ocean’s Edge [05:10]
7. Ill-Lit [04:36]
8. Monolith of Grace [04:45]
Friday, 3 September Defacement – Defacement 39:06 avant-garde black metal Utrecht, Netherlands I, Voidhanger
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Limbo I [02:06]
2. Shattered [09:29]
3. Limbo II [00:54]
4. Disavowed [06:37]
5. Limbo III [01:04]
6. Disenchanted [09:50]
7. Limbo IV [01:12]
8. Wounded [07:54]
Friday, 17 Michel Anoia – Nervures 27:09 deathgrind Lyon, France Independent
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Nigredo [04:24]
2. Albedo [02:01]
3. Rubedo [02:57]
4. Nervures [06:17]
5. Suture [02:15]
6. Ibliss [02:59]
7. L’ombre et l’errant [06:16]
Friday, 24 September Cognizance – Upheaval 33:05 avant-garde death metal Leeds, UK Prosthetic
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Hymns [02:16]
2. Drifting (R)evolution [03:25]
3. Decaying Gods [03:22]
4. Oneiric [03:00]
5. The Mouth Which Cannot Speak [03:20]
6. Forbidden Alchemy [03:13]
7. Syntheticus I: Atrophy [03:26]
8. Syntheticus II: Refuge [03:03]
9. Fever Dream [03:56]
10. Aeon Sickness [04:04]
Friday, 22 October Apparition – Feel 34:29 death metal Los Angeles, California Profound Lore
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Unequilibrium [04:49]
2. Drowning In The Stream Of Consciousness [05:09]
3. Nonlocality [05:01]
4. Perpetually Altered [06:11]
5. Entanglement [06:22]
6. Feel [06:57]
Friday, 29 Prophetic Scourge – Gnosis: A Sorrower’s Odyssey 64:44 progressive death metal Bayonne, France Klonosphere
Tracklist (click to display) 1. THE KING: An Odyssey Begins Aright [08:35]
2. THE CYCLOPS: Blinded In The Garden Of Eris [07:50]
3. THE FURY: Of Tasteless Wine And Sorrow’s Flesh [06:47]
4. THE PSYCHOPOMP: Deaf To The Siren’s Hail [07:04]
5. THE DRAGONCHASER: Crowned On The Throne Of Loti [09:49]
6. THE MENDICANT: Known Only By Touch [08:21]
7. THE TYRANT: Wading ‘Ward Solace He Lucidly Drowns [16:18]
Sunless – Ylem 39:07 avant-garde death metal Minneapolis, Minnesota Willowtip
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Spiraling into the Unfathomable [04:40]
2. Ascended Forms [03:21]
3. The Unraveling of Arcane Past [05:23]
4. Atramentous [05:11]
5. Flesh-Particle Amalgamation [04:49]
6. Forgotten (Remnants of Life) [03:47]
7. Perpetual Contortion [04:29]
8. Molding Axioms of the Metaphysical [07:27]
Friday, 4 December 2020 Burning Palace – Hollow 32:02 blackened death metal Santa Rosa, California Independent
Tracklist (click to display) 1. I [01:00]
2. Admonished Ones [03:37]
3. Process Of Hollowing Out [04:24]
4. Drowned [05:14]
5. II [01:57]
6. Oceans Of Black [04:52]
7. Casting Shadows [05:24]
8. Plagues [04:20]
9. III [01:14]
Friday, 10 Dessiderium – Aria 33:12 progressive death metal Phoenix, Arizona Independent
Tracklist (click to display) 1. White Morning in a World She Knows [15:13]
2. Pale [10:59]
3. Aria [13:41]
4. Moon Lust Delirium [09:15]
5. The Persecution Complex [11:26]
Friday, 31 December Barús – Fanges 34:23 atmospheric death metal Grenoble, France Aesthetic Death
Tracklist (click to display) 1. Fanges
2. Châssis de Chair
Best of 2021 01/01 – Best of Afrobeat 01/02 – Best of Atmospheric Black Metal 01/03 – Best of Avant-Garde Black Metal 01/04 – Best of Brutal Death Metal 01/05 – Best of Classical 01/06 – Best of Death Metal