Guest 2021 Top 10 Release Listing - Ally Ripley. (The Lash)
Article posted by Trevor Proctor.
With Ally's list performing so well last year it was obvious I should ask him to compile another Top 10 for 2021. Whilst you may not recognise his name I can think of no one who supports the underground more through music purchases and gig attendance that is second to none.
As covid continued to cause gigs and tours across the globe to be cancelled or postponed Ally's gig attendance was, like the rest of us, minimal though he did make it to Kill-Town Death Fest in September. Also due to Covid and lockdowns, restrictions etc we didn't catch up as much as we would have liked to during 2021 but this lost time will be made up for when we get the chance.
Many thanks to Ally for providing me with his list.
In no particular order here's Ally's top 10 releases for 2021:
Baxaxaxa - Catacomb Cult - The Sinister Flame.
Another debut album and the much anticipated follow up to 2020's Devoted to HIM EP. The press release for Catacomb Cult featured here and stated, "Exquisitely OLD and proudly so, Catacomb Cult is everything a Baxaxaxa full-length should be: patiently hammering, ghoulishly atmospheric, and reeking of sulfur. But for as much as the album sounds like quintessential Baxaxaxa, the band prove they're not without surprises or at least subtle developments in their ever-uncompromising sound. For one, the production's clear and cutting, revealing every haunting nuance without sacrificing a whit of grit. For another, the songwriting across Catacomb Cult no doubt whips forth a fury at times, but equally so does it display a more doomed-out gait that gives depth and dynamics - and yes, a truly catacombed feel."
Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia - Dark Descent Records / Invictus Productions.
Highly anticipated debut album and easily Qrixkuor's best material to date.
Caveman Cult - Blood and Extinction - Nuclear War Now! Productions.
Blood and Extinction is the follow up to 2016's debut album Savage War is Destiny and their first new music since 2018's EP Supremacía Primordial. The press release featured here and stated, "Caveman Cult produced and recorded this offering themselves, affording them precise artistic control and an undiluted ferocity. Relentless and suffocating, this is war metal in its truest sense: a simulacrum of the violence that controls and dominates our essence of being. Blood and Extinction is primal barbarity that knows no surrender."
Portal - Avow - Profound Lore Records.
Very few bands have the material, or the confidence, to release two albums on the same day but this is what happened with Portal at the start of May when they simultaneously released Avow and Hagbulbia. These albums are Portal's first original material since 2018's Ion.
Malakhim - Theion - Iron Bonehead Productions.
Debut studio album from Sweden's Malakhim - their most recent release, the exceptional II EP featured on my Top 25 EP listing in 2019. The press release for Theion was published here, stating, "One could say, quite rightly, that the album is the pinnacle of orthodox black metal for the rest of the 2020s and leave it at that - and that one would be right. Yet, step deeper into Theion and find a majestic-yet-malevolent melodicism that harkens back to the ancient days of No Fashion and Solistitium; just as equally, that melodicism twists in unexpected ways, exuding a modernity that's palpable, palatable, and exceptionally multi-faceted."
Sorguinazia - Negation of Delirium - Iron Bonehead Productions.
Debut album from Canada's Sorguinazia, the press release featured here and stated, "It's very much in line with what the duo of Xolaryxis and Axczor presented before, but arguably in more brittle form here. Indeed, this almost-deliberate desiccation takes their ghoulish 'n' ghastly black metal to uncomfortable realms of sensory experience, that previously wobbly balance between beyond-the-shade mysticism and soul-flaying insanity now upended, and we are but below to witness its unsettling fallout. Put another way, this soundpool of gibbering, horrendous "notes" that somehow coalesce into rude yet strangely alluring shapes is faintly recognizable as being performed by humans, but the sonic-unto-spiritual dislocation is so strong that it thusly transports the listener far beyond the realm of man."
Sijjin - Sumerian Promises - Sepulchral Voice Records.
Featuring two members from Necros Christos, Sijjin's debut release, Angel of the Eastern Gate, received widespread critical acclaim on it's release in 2019.
Easily one of 2021's most anticipated albums, the press release for Sumerian Promises appeared here stating, "The Basque/German collaboration has proved extraordinary musicianship while recording all songs live as well as using full takes only: no cuts, no edits, no bullshit. Faithful towards the magic of the elder gods of death metal, Sijjin undoubtedly have managed to bring life unto death, or otherwise set death alive."
Concrete Winds - Nerve Butcherer - Sepulchral Voice Records.
Second album from Finland's Concrete Winds and follow up to 2019's Primitive Force.
Ninkharsag - The Dread March of Solemn Gods - Vendetta Records.
First album from Ninkharsag since 2015.
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