Cheryl's Top 5 Albums of 2021 So Far
1
Amenra
De Doorn (Relapse Records)
De Doorn is the Belgian's bands first album for Relapse and their first to be sung entirely in their native tongue of Flemish. The album is a lesson in catharsis and release and the peaks and valleys of their sound are curated in such a way as to evoke the rise and fall of breath and emotion in times of hardship.
2
Këkht Aräkh
Pale Swordsman (Self-Released/Livor Mortis
Romance is at the heart of Ukranian artist Këkht Aräkh's Pale Swordsman as the black metal genre is twisted to include longing and love by way of a vampyric narrative. It's very clever and quite beautiful at times.
3
Old Nick
A New Generation of Vampiric Conspiracies (Grime Stone Records)
Old Nick are one of the most fun black metal acts around at the moment and their take on raw black metal is filled with curious melodies and synths, a whole lot of tongue-in-cheek humour and the knowledge that black metal is kinda stupid sometimes. A New Generation of Vampiric Conspiracies is the work of a band who are working hard to improve their sound and have a lovely time while doing so.
4
Paysage d'Hiver
Geister (Kunsthall Produktionen)
Paysage d'Hiver only released their first "official" full-length in 2020 after two decades of existence (although the project has several demos under their proverbial belt) and so another new album in less than a year came as quite the surprise.
Geister is a furious work that takes in nightmares and darkness and is based around the curious Swiss tradition of Tschäggättä.
5
The Ruins of Beverast
The Thule Grimoires (Ván Records)
The Ruins of Beverast have always been an intriguing addition to black metal in that they take the structures of the genre and inject them with blackened doom and gothic influences. The Thule Grimoires is a heady mix of all of those inspirations and explores the outer reaches of the known world.
- Cheryl
