올해도 역시 1년 간 발매된 앨범들 중 좋게 들었던 작품들을 정리해보려 합니다.
2021년에도 코로나 바이러스의 대유행이 여전히 지속되었지만, 그래도 올해에는 작년에 연기되었던 앨범들이 많이 공개되어 메탈 팬들의 마음을 조금이나마 달래 주기도 했습니다.

개인적인 기준으로 90점 이상에 해당하는 작품들입니다.
당연한 거지만 점수는 어디까지나 제 개인적 의견일 뿐입니다.

90점
Omnium Gatherum - Origin
Ambroxiak - Detritus of Elysian Creation
Monolord - Your Time to Shine
Rage - Resurrection Day
Fear Factory - Aggression Continuum
Helloween - Helloween
Inferno - Paradeigma (Phosphenes of Aphotic Eternity)
Solstice - Casting the Die
Violet Cold - Empire of Love
Neptunian Maximalism - Solar Drone Ceremony
Memoriam - To the End
Midnight Odyssey - Biolume Part 2: The Golden Orb

91점
Exodus - Persona non grata
Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime
The Devouring Void - Hypnagogic Hallucinations
Massacre - Resurgence
Antichrist Siege Machine - Purifying Blade
Trivium - In the Court of the Dragon
Defacement - Defacement
Esoctrilihum - Urionhsol (Seven Demons)
Wolves in the Throne Room - Primordial Arcana
Friisk - ...un torügg bleev blot Sand
ISON - Aurora
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Code - Flyblown Prince
Flotsam and Jetsam - Blood in the Water
Grave Miasma - Abyss of Wrathful Deities
Subterranean Masquerade - Mountain Fever
Grey Aura - Zwart vierkant
Vokonis - Odyssey
Akhenaten - The Emerald Tablets of Thoth
Gojira - Fortitude
Bodom After Midnight - Paint the Sky With Blood
Cannibal Corpse - Violence Unimagined
Wheel - Preserved in Time
Sphere - π
Sunnata - Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth
Pan-Amerikan Native Front - Little Turtle's War
Soen - Imperial
Asphyx - Necroceros
Proscriptor McGovern's Apsû - Proscriptor McGovern's Apsû

92점
Witches Hammer - Devourer of the Dead
Lacrimosa - Leidenschaft
Archgoat - Worship the Eternal Darkness
Obscura - A Valediction
200 Stab Wounds - Slave to the Scalpel
Cân Bardd - Devoured by the Oak
Sijjin - Sumerian Promises
Beast in Black - Dark Connection
Sulphurous - The Black Mouth of Sepulchre
Cradle of Filth - Existence Is Futile
Every Time I Die - Radical
Worm - Foreverglade
Necromantia - To the Depths We Descend...
Frontierer - Oxidized
Рожь - Вечное
Lamp of Murmuur - Submission and Slaver
Inferi - Vile Genesis
Serpent Column - Katartisis
Hooded Menace - The Tritonus Bell
Wormwood - Arkivet
Diskord - Degenerations
Agrypnie - Metamorphosis
Year of No Light - Consolamentum
Duskmourn - Fallen Kings and Rusted Crowns
Elderwind - Fires
Borgne - Temps morts
Decoherence - System I
VOLA - Witness
Dordeduh - Har
Vreid - Wild North West
Paysage d'Hiver - Geister
Obsolete - Animate//Isolate
Angrrsth - Donikąd
Kauan - Ice Fleet
Steel Bearing Hand - Slay in Hell
Aara - Triade I: Eos
Cryptosis - Bionic Swarm
Rapture - Malevolent Demise Incarnation
Stortregn - Impermanence
Swamplord - Tombstone
Empyrium - Über den Sternen
Epica - Omega
Forhist - Forhist
Suffering Hour - The Cyclic Reckoning
Sur Austru - Obârşie
Alkerdeel - Slonk
Cult of Luna - The Raging River
Evil - Possessed by Evil
Yoth Iria - As the Flame Withers

93점
Funeral Mist - Deiform
Malignant Altar - Realms of Exquisite Morbidity
Aquilus - Bellum I
Eternity's End - Embers of War
Negură Bunget - Zău
Aephanemer - A Dream of Wilderness
Khemmis - Deceiver
Plebeian Grandstand - Rien ne suffit
Swallow the Sun - Moonflowers
Der Weg einer Freiheit - Noktvrn
Vertebra Atlantis - Lustral Purge in Cerulean Bliss
Archspire - Bleed the Future
Ophis - Spew Forth Odium
팎 (PAKK) - 칠가살 (七可煞)
SkeleToon - The 1.21 Gigawatts Club
Untamed Land - Like Creatures Seeking Their Own Forms
Abstracter - Abominion
Iskandr - Vergezicht
Skepticism - Companion
Succumb - XXI
Insomnium - Argent Moon
Seven Spires - Gods of Debauchery
Leprous - Aphelion
Devoid of Thought - Outer World Graves
Oxygen Destroyer - Sinister Monstrosities Spawned by the Unfathomable Ignorance of Humankind
Our Place of Worship Is Silence - Disavowed, and Left Hopeless
Ænigmatum - Deconsecrate
Ophidian I - Desolate
Amenra - De doorn
Cerebral Rot - Excretion of Mortality
Thy Catafalque - Vadak
Epiphanic Truth - Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms to a Sordid Species
Panopticon - ...and Again Into the Light
Apostasy - Death Return
Seth - La morsure du Christ
Nekromantheon - Visions of Trismegistos
Atvm - Famine, Putrid and Fucking Endless
Spectral Wound - A Diabolic Thirst
Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa - Corrupted Pillars of Vanity
Wode - Burn in Many Mirrors
Crescent - Carving the Fires of Akhet
Acid Mammoth - Caravan
Iotunn - Access All Worlds
Ad Nauseam - Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
Serenity in Murder - Reborn
The Ruins of Beverast - The Thule Grimoires
Autarcie-Apogée.Ivresse.Agonie

94점
Dormant Ordeal - The Grand Scheme Of Things
So Hideous - None But a Pure Heart Can Sing
In Mourning - The Bleeding Veil
Ars Magna Umbrae - Throne Between Worlds
Hyperdontia - Hideous Entity
Mystras - Empires Vanquished and Dismantled
Be'lakor - Coherence
Noltem - Illusions in the Wake
Aorlhac - Pierres brûlées
Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia
Vallendusk - Heralds of Strife
Spectral Lore - Ετερόφωτος
Tribulation - Where the Gloom Becomes Sound
Ferriterium - Calvaire

95점
Creature - Eloge de l'ombre
1914 - Where Fear and Weapons Meet
Unto Others - Strength
Papangu - Holoceno
Dr. Colossus - I'm a Stupid Moron with an Ugly Face and a Big Butt and My Butt Smells and I Like to Kiss My Own Butt
Esoctrilihum - Dy'th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath

96점
First Fragment - Gloire éternelle
Veilburner - Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull
Dvne - Etemen Ænka
Mare Cognitum - Solar Paroxysm


Album of the Year
97점
Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion



15년도의 정규 데뷔작 They Became the Falling Ash로 메킹에서도 좋은 평가를 받았던 원맨 밴드 Ethereal Shroud의 마지막 앨범입니다. 년초부터 고대했던 앨범인데 12월이 되어서야 발매된 앨범이기도 합니다. 하지만 오랜 기다림에 대해 보답하듯 아주 훌륭한 앨범으로 돌아왔다고 생각합니다. 하지만 앨범이 발매된 지 얼마 지나지 않아 Ethereal Shroud는 이제 더 이상 활동하지 않겠다고 선언하며 아쉬움을 남기기도 했습니다.


모두들 2021년도 고생 많으셨고 새해 복 많이 받으세요.

 

MMSA