Too Soon? Ryan Dyer’s Best Metal Albums of 2021… So Far

As Jake the Snake said in his infamous drunken promo at Heroes of Wrestling, “You wanna play 21?” Well, let me pull out a few pythons from my trunks: these are 21 albums I have actually listened to in 2021. Each of us only has two ears and 24 hours in a day to waste so there are probably better albums on different lists. Consider mine a recommendation for some of the best big releases and deep cuts of the year so far. 

Abjection – Malignant Deviation (Godz ov War Productions)
Alice Cooper – Detroit Stories (earMUSIC)
Band Maid – Unseen World (Pony Canyon)
Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined (Metal Blade)
Darkthrone – Eternal Hails (Peaceville Records)
Devin Townsend – Devolution Series #2 – Galactic Quarantine (NB)
Evile – Hell Unleashed (Napalm Records)
Eyehategod – A History of Nomadic Behavior (Century Media)
Fear Factory – Aggression Continuum (NB)
Gojira – Fortitude (Roadrunner)
Horror of Pestilence – Illiterate Construction // Inaudible Deterioration EP (Chaser Records)
Impure Injection – Gore in the North EP (Brutal Reign Productions)
John Carpenter – Lost Themes III – Alive After Death (Sacred Bones Records)
Mayhem – Atavistic Black Disorder / Kommando EP (Century Media)
Nine Treasures – Awakening From Dukkha (self-released)
Perturbator – Lustful Sacraments (Blood Music)
Pig Destroyer – Pornographers of Sound (Relapse)
Rectal Wench – Judgement of Whore Labia From The Sewer Throne (Splatter Zombie Records)
Tomahawk – Tonic Immobility (Ipecac)
Video Nasty – Video Nasty (Petrichor)
Vitriolic Sage – Ascension (Pest Productions)