[PLEASE NOTE: These are not the results of the year-end poll, which is ongoing. If you haven’t contributed your picks yet, please do so here.]

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Maybe 2021 was your breakout, or your hunker-down. Your recovery from trauma or more of the same. Maybe you got six shots, maybe you didn’t get any. Maybe you got sick or lost somebody. I don’t know. Whatever else this year was, though, and whatever else it continues to be, it was busy.

In terms of the heavy underground, the ‘aftermath’ of the covid-19 pandemic resulted in a creative movement that will continue to pan out for years to come. Bands, locked down in 2020, found new directions, new sounds, sometimes new projects or collaborators. Some dug deep into their root influences, others explored new ground entirely.

One way or the other, the result across this year was a lot of really, really good music, and in uncertain times, the comfort it provided and provides shouldn’t be understated. The Obelisk Questionnaire asks what is the primary function of art. I think we learned in 2021 that art is home when you need it.

I say this every year, but please, if you leave a comment on this post — if there’s something you want to suggest I left out (as I’m sure there is; always) or you’re responding to someone else’s comment — please, please be respectful. Please be kind. To me, because I’ve worked hard on this and I don’t mind saying that, and to anyone else offering their picks or suggestions or just words of response. Let’s not fight, or do that “unthinking internet meanness” thing. I’m a human being and so are you. That’s reason enough to make an effort toward kindness. Thank you for that effort and for reading, as always.

Here we go:

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The Top 60 Albums of 2021? Really? 60?

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Yeah, really 60. I was gonna do 30 and then 50 and I was having trouble narrowing it down and it was my sister who very concisely said, “Who cares? Do what you want,” and it turned out that was precisely what I needed to hear. So if there are complaints about doing a top 60, to them I might just point out that more music is not a hardship. Maybe instead look at the swath of amazing music being made and be glad to have been born? And I’m doing what feels right, if also a little over-the-top. Maybe next year it’ll be 100, or 1,000. To quote my sister, “Who cares?”

The more the merrier.

Alors:

#31-60

31. 3rd Ear Experience, Danny Frankel’s 3rd Ear Experience
32. Slowshine, Living Light
33. LLNN, Unmaker
34. Low Orbit, Crater Creator
35. Somnuri, Nefarious Wave
36. Delving, Hirschbrunnen
37. Kal-El, Dark Majesty
38. Hippie Death Cult, Circle of Days
39. Plaindrifter, Echo Therapy
40. Motorpsycho, Kingdom of Oblivion
41. IAH, Omines
42. Here Lies Man, Ritual Divination
43. The Kings of Frog Island, VII
44. Old Man Wizard, Kill Your Servants Quietly
45. Weedpecker, IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts
46. High Desert Queen, Secrets of the Black Moon
47. Kadabra, Ultra
48. Sleep Moscow, Of the Sun
49. Terry Gross, Soft Opening
50. Cavern Deep, Cavern Deep
51. 10,000 Years, II
52. Rebreather, The Line, its Width and the War Drone
53. Spiral Grave, Legacy of the Anointed
54. LáGoon, Skullactic Visions
55. Jack Harlon & the Dead Crows, The Magnetic Ridge
56. Boss Keloid, Family the Smiling Thrush
57. Shun, Shun
58. Black Willows, Shemurah
59. Expo Seventy, Evolution
60. Year of Taurus, Topsoils

Notes:

The best advice I can give you is DON’T IGNORE THIS LIST. From 3rd Ear Experience’s righteous jams to Kadabra’s and Slowshine’s debuts and 10,000 Years’ hard riffing and Old Man Wizard’s melo-prog swansong and Jack Harlon’s otherworldly West, and Cavern Deep’s conceptual darkness, and Black Willows’ consuming tones and Sleep Moscow’s emotive downerism and Weedpecker progging out and Here Lies Man still being in an league entirely their own, and that Plaindrifter record and Shun and Spiral Grave and Rebreather and The Kings of Frog Island. That Terry Gross’ sheer West Coastness and Somnuri’s Northeastern intensity. Kal-El’s pulp riffage bigger than ever. Motorpsycho being Motorpsycho. IAH collaborating with Spaceslug. Boss Keloid’s prog-metal shenanigans. Hippie Death Cult’s mellow heavy. LLNN utterly killing everything. Damn this is good.

If this was a year-end top 30 in itself, I’d be like, yeah that’s a solid list, and I don’t mean that as a platitude. So please don’t ignore it. If there’s something here you haven’t heard, I can only advise you chase it down. Any one of these could be higher or lower in your own consideration, but I dug all of them, and yeah, by the time you get up to 40 or so the numbering gets pretty arbitrary, but whatever. It’s a list of stuff I think you should check out. Releases that made the year better, all of them one way or the other.

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30. Monster Magnet, A Better Dystopia

Released by Napalm Records. Reviewed May 31.

New Jersey stalwarts Monster Magnet taking on obscure and semi-obscure covers out of the heavy ’70s is pretty high on the list of ‘ultimate no-brainers.’ One might’ve preferred an album of originals, but even in a stopgap, Dave Wyndorf and company found ways to be creative with the material, and this belongs here for their take on Dust‘s “Learning to Die” (video here) alone.

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29. Domkraft, Seeds

Released by Magnetic Eye Records. Featured April 2.

Domkraft‘s third album arrived in so-you-think-you-know-what-we’re-about fashion, building out the heavy noise rock of 2018’s Flood (review here) and 2016’s The End of Electricity (review here), leaning into more textured material executed with a burgeoning patience of approach, while still keeping impact central. They’ve come into their own and one expects they’ll continue to reshape what that means over time.

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28. Sunnata, Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth

Self-released. Reviewed March 16.

Consuming and shamanic. A record that really took the time to construct its own world for the listener to inhabit in its songs. Sunnata‘s fourth full-length, Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth brought together six tracks that resonated with purposeful depth and a cold-psych ambience that allowed space for minimalism and movements of blistering heavy in kind. Not for everyone, maybe, but each piece truly added to the flowing progression of the whole, showing the conceptual, ritualized strengths of the band.

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27. Conclave, Dawn of Days

Released by Argonauta Records. Reviewed April 22.

Five years after their debut, Sins of the Elders (review here), Massachusetts sludge-of-death metallers Conclave — now with a second guitarist — brought forth epic punishment and bleakness befitting our age. A willful, harsh slog, Dawn of Days had few comforts to offer in “Death Blows Cold” or “Haggard,” and the mourning finale “Suicide Funeral,” while allowed to be flourish in its way, found a means to express its grief while staying honest to underpinnings of extreme metal. Not an easy listen, not supposed to be.

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26. Crystal Spiders, Morieris

Released by Ripple Music. Reviewed Sept. 8.

Some records you just can’t fight. And why would you? Quick turnaround for North Carolina’s Crystal Spiders after their Sept. 2020 debut, Molt (review here), but the three-piece of bassist/vocalist Brenna Leath (also Lightning Born and The Hell-No), drummer/vocalist Tradd Yancey (also Doomsday Profit) and guitarist/producer Mike Dean (also of C.O.C.) demonstrated a range the first record only hinted at, touching on earthy psych, dirty punk, classic heavy and more with evident ease and a marked sense of craft.

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25. River Flows Reverse, When River Flows Reverse

Released by Psychedelic Source Records. Reviewed Sept. 30.

Hungarian collective River Flows Reverse brought lysergic healing as part of the Psychedelic Source Records milieu, with a particularly folkish and exploratory vibe branching out across pieces like the serene “At the Gates of the Perennial” or the acoustic-led “Rain it Rages,” creating gorgeous atmospheres from existential dread and a sheer need for outlet. Spontaneous in its spirit but with a thoughtful undercurrent, it’s by no means the highest-profile release on this list, but it also offered something nothing else did in quite the same way. Pastoralia for another world.

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24. Borracho, Pound of Flesh

Released by Kozmik Artifactz. Reviewed Aug. 2.

A decade on from their debut and five years after their last album, Washington D.C. roll-prone trio Borracho came back not only with terrifying cover art, but also an unabashed look at the world around them, socially conscious lyrics topping their hallmark heavy riffage in a way that their prior work had yet to engage. Pound of Flesh was an organic step forward for the band in sound and songwriting, and their perspective of wondering what the hell happened to pretty much everything was relatable, to say the least, but the nuances of arrangement and vibe went a long way too in changing things up around their classic-style sound.

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23. Erik Larson, Favorite Iron

Self-released. Reviewed Sept. 23.

Larson‘s gonna Larson. As to what that might mean on a given release, that’s harder to say. Drawing from a decades-long background in punk and hardcore, heavy Southern and acoustic songwriting, as well as a pedigree long enough to take up the rest of this post, Favorite Iron was one of three outings issued on the same day in September in a creative splurge and found him playing all instruments himself (horns on opener “Backpage” notwithstanding) and imbuing each piece with its own purpose in feeding the richness of the entire work. And somehow, was humble in it, putting it out on Bandcamp, no PR, no fanfare. Just wasn’t there, then was. Very Larson.

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22. Spaceslug, Memorial

Self-released. Review pending.

Issued just on Dec. 10, Memorial arrives from Poland’s Spaceslug in suitably mournful fashion and with it, the trio seem to dive into more personal, human issues than ever before. Loss, uncertainty. It’s certainly a record for the time in which it’s made, but neither do the band neglect their own growth as they continue to incorporate blackened screams along with their more grunge-derived clean vocals, a blend of mellow heavy psych and harsher presence coinciding. After a productive few years with the 2020 Leftovers EP (review here) and 2019’s Reign of the Orion (review here), Spaceslug have managed to push even deeper into their sound. They do so with an increasing sense of mastery.

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21. Genghis Tron, Dream Weapon

Released by Relapse Records. Reviewed April 5.

Unexpected and appreciated in kind. I wouldn’t have bet that Poughkeepsie, New York, glitch-grind innovators Genghis Tron would return with a new record after 13 years, and I wouldn’t have guessed either that Dream Weapon would bring both the revamped lineup and the refined focus on melody that it did. Live drums gave new heart to the songs, and thoughtfully layered washes of keys and guitar brought a sense of worldbuilding that, while in contrast to the freneticism of the band’s past work, was refreshing in its honesty and refusal to be anything other than what they wanted it to be. Caught a bunch of hype early and then disappeared, but the songs will hold up long after this year is over. If you get it, you get it.

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20. Vokonis, Odyssey

Released by The Sign Records. Reviewed May 5.

The story of Sweden’s Vokonis isn’t too dissimilar from that of Spaceslug above in that the band set its foundation in a certain kind of heavy worship and have moved outward from there over time. For the Borås trio, their latest outing expanded on their progressive ideology, taking the heavy riffs of their earliest work and setting them to a winding course while also incorporating a rawer vocal along with the cleaner shouting. In addition to being topped off by the best album cover I saw all year, Odyssey proved to be a journey of mind for those ready to take it, and showed that Vokonis‘ maturity, their finding themselves, is likely to be an ongoing process. And if they want to keep bringing Per Wiberg in on keys, that’ll be fine too.

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19. Lammping, Flashjacks

Released by Echodelick Records. Reviewed Aug. 19.

What a blast this record is. Warm tones, classic vibes, ’90s alt weirdness given a little extra push into heavy. I didn’t even care that half of the thing had been released as an EP prior, putting on Lammping‘s Flashjacks was and very much still is a joy. No pretense, no bullshit, just songs, songs, songs. Give me “Intercessor” and “Jaws of Life” and “Lammping” any day of the week as the Toronto outfit hold down both attitude and humor while inviting you in on their good time. 10 tracks/33 minutes — they weren’t even trying to take up too much of your day. Just a short and sweet set on an LP and then they roll out until the next one. May it arrive sooner rather than later. I’m not a party guy, but this is my kind of party.

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18. Snail, Fractal Altar

Released by Argonauta Records. Reviewed April 26.

The opening duo “Mission From God” and “Nothing Left for You” gave Fractal Altar an initial thrust that the heavy grunge of “Not Two” complemented with darker edge before the swinging “Hold On” tipped back toward forward momentum. “The False Lack,” a highlight, found some middle ground en route to a back half of the LP that culminated with the sub-nine-minute title-track, psychedelic ritualization coming to a head with spaced-out vocals over a black hole of low end. The weirder Snail get, the better they get in my mind, and more than half a decade after Feral (review here), they were ready to get plenty weird here. Wouldn’t trade that for the world.

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17. The Age of Truth, Resolute

Released by Contessa Music. Reviewed July 21.

Aggro-edged Philly heavy rock and roll, pulling influence not only from its own backdrop but from heavy modern and old, perhaps the best thing one can say about Resolute was that it lived up to the lofty declaration in the title The Age of Truth gave it. Whether they were playing to more atmospheric ideas on “Palace of Rain” and “Return to Ships” or digging into classic heavy blues on “Salome” or finding new levels of intensity on “Horsewhip,” it was clear The Age of Truth consciously set a high standard for themselves and put the effort in to meet it every step of the way. Clear and sharp in its production, it’s still a record you can put on and be blown away by each individual performance, as well as how they come together. Dudes only put the bar higher.

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16. Jointhugger, Surrounded by Vultures

Released by Majestic Mountain Records. Reviewed Oct. 29.

It was not an easy task for Norway’s Jointhugger to follow either their 2021 single-song EP Reaper Season (review here) or 2020’s debut, I Am No One (review here), but even amid a still-solidifying lineup, the band conjured listenability and weight in post-Monolordian fashion without either aping that band’s methodology or ignoring their own nascent sonic identity. There’s more growing to do, and one hopes that as they go they’ll hold at least somewhat to the pace of releases thus far established, but there was no getting past the accomplishments of Surrounded by Vultures, not the least because of the 700-foot ice wall of tone the band built along the path. Potential and achievement stomping hand-in-hand into an unknown heavy future.

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15. Temple Fang, Fang Temple

Released by Right on Mountain & Electric Spark. Reviewed Nov. 23.

I’ll be honest, I was a little bummed when Fang Temple got released and I didn’t even know it was coming. I got over the ego bruise quick with the help of the record itself, however, the Amsterdam-based psychedelic spiritualists taking the live-album method from 2020’s Live at Merleyn (review here) and using an on-stage performance as the basic tracks around which the rest of Fang Temple was constructed. The result was a resonant joy in heavy psych; a record as satisfying to lose yourself in as to consciously follow along its charted but spontaneous-feeling path. They’ve had some lineup shifts too, but gosh I hope there’s more to come, whether I get an early heads up or not.

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14. Yawning Sons, Sky Island

Released by Ripple Music. Reviewed April 12.

Would you have bet there’d be a second Yawning Sons album, more than 10 years after 2009’s Ceremony to the Sunset (review here; reissue review here)? I might not have, but the collaboration between UK instrumentalists Sons of Alpha Centauri and Yawning Man guitarist and desert rock figurehead Gary Arce brought a slew of memorable moments, including guest spots from Fatso Jetson/Yawning Man‘s Mario Lalli and Hermano‘s Dandy Brown, and return appearances from Scott Reeder and Wendy Rae Fowler. It’s still impossible to know if Yawning Sons will be a band or a once-every-decade happening, but Sky Island proved they were more than a cult one-off. A third outing would only be welcome.

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13. Comet Control, Inside the Sun

Released by Tee Pee Records. Reviewed Aug. 23.

Careening back and forth between its space rock and more drifting psychedelic impulses, Comet Control‘s Inside the Sun brought varied pleasures of craft and melody, saving its more contemplative stretches for the peaceful immersion of “The Afterlife” or “Heavy Moments” and “The Deserter” later on after the duly cosmic launch of “Keep on Spinnin'” and the buzzing “Secret Life” established the pattern of movement under the drift. Whichever way a given track went — and it was by no means limited to one or the other with “Good Day to Say Goodbye” and “Inside the Sun” in the album’s midsection — the Toronto-based outfit worked mostly as a two-piece in putting it together, but the lushness of the ensuing work took what the band had accomplished on 2016’s Center of the Maze (review here) and added even more dimension.

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12. Maha Sohona, Endless Searcher

Released by Made of Stone Recordings. Reviewed July 13.

They should’ve called it “endless repeat.” The mellow heft of Swedish unit Maha Sohona‘s sophomore full-length is one that I just kept going back to, time and time again, and the appeal of doing so only grew with more listening. Melodically capable but not overblown, songs like “Luftslott” and “Orbit X” brought to mind Sungrazer and earlier Spaceslug with a bittersweet nostalgia (in the case of the former, certainly) even as Maha Sohona used them to chart their own stylistic course. It was seven years between their first and second records, so I’m not going to predict when/if a follow-up will come, but Endless Searcher made my 2021 better to the point that I just put on “Leaves” and can feel the serotonin being released. It feels only right to honor that by having them here.

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11. Samsara Blues Experiment, End of Forever

Released by Electric Magic Records. Reviewed Nov. 16, 2020.

With a permanent-seeming dissolution as context for its arrival, End of Forever wrapped a run for Samsara Blues Experiment that could only really be called successful in terms of what they accomplished during their time, but moreover, it underscored what made them such a special group to start with, its progressive psychedelia still developing in persona as the band was coming to a close. Guitarist/vocalist Christian Peters, having spent the prior few years in various solo explorations, brought increased use of keys and synth, and in combination with the organic fluidity of the rhythm section of bassist/backing vocalist Hans Eiselt and drummer Thomas Vedder, that let Samsara Blues Experiment say something new even as they were also saying goodbye. If they’re truly done for good, they’ll be missed.

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10. Heavy Temple, Lupi Amoris

Released by Magnetic Eye Records. Reviewed May 28.

An awaited debut from this Philadelphia trio, Lupi Amoris confronted high expectations and surpassed them with a complexity of atmosphere that was surprising even after seeing them live multiple times, taking the oft-psychedelic fuzz of Heavy Temple‘s previous output and setting it to a more rigid focus and a daring sense of intent. This was a record that came about after years of lineup changes and tumult, but made cohesion from chaos, and there was not one second of its stretch that didn’t serve the album as a whole. Even more than 2016’s Chassit EP (review here), which I’d previously counted as their first long-player, Lupi Amoris showed toward what Heavy Temple‘s potential had been driving all along, and its realization was stunning. Whatever they do next, whenever they do it, will also be confronting high expectations.

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9. Apostle of Solitude, Until the Darkness Goes

Released by Cruz Del Sur Music. Reviewed Nov. 9.

At this point, I feel ready to posit Indianapolis four-piece Apostle of Solitude as the best doom band in America. I know that’s a loaded statement because there are as many kinds of doom as there are of heavy metal itself, but if you look at a group bringing new ideas to the established traditions and tenets of the style Apostle of Solitude have put themselves in the uppermost of the upper echelon. At just 36 minutes, Until the Darkness Goes feels likewise concise and engaging, its songs holding the emotive thread that has always typified the band’s work, but engaging more vocal harmonies between guitarists Chuck Brown and Steve Janiak (now both also in The Gates of Slumber) atop the densely weighted impact from bassist Mike Naish (also Shroud of Vulture) and drummer Corey Webb. Don’t think they’re the best US doom band right now? Find me someone better.

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8. Greenleaf, Echoes From a Mass

Released by Napalm Records. Reviewed March 25.

With a wholesale invite to either take the heat or remove your ass from the kitchen, Greenleaf tossed out Echoes From a Mass as their eighth LP some 20 years after their first, 2001’s Revolution Rock (discussed here), and reminded their listenership of the songwriting chemistry that’s emerged over the better part of the last decade between founding guitarist Tommi Holappa — and yes, I’ve heard rumors he’s got new Dozer in progress as well; we’ll see in 2022 — and vocalist Arvid Hällagård, whose work here outshone even 2018’s Hear the Rivers (review here), establishing the conversation between instruments and voice as the crucial element in Greenleaf circa 2021. A heavy blues shuffle from bassist Hans Frölich and drummer Sebastian Olsson and production by Karl Daniel Lidén only up the asset count working in the band’s favor, and on any given day I might still be walking around with “Bury Me My Son” on repeat in my brain. No complaints.

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7. Blackwater Holylight, Silence/Motion

Released by RidingEasy Records. Reviewed Oct. 18.

At a pivotal moment, Blackwater Holylight pivoted. The Portland-based outfit’s third full-length found them pressing outward from their heavy psychedelic and dream-pop foundations into bleaker atmospheres, using Silence/Motion as a means for processing trauma and perhaps to revamp their audience’s expectations of the kind of band they want to be. 2019’s Veils of Winter (review here) and 2018’s self-titled debut (review here) brought marked progress from one to the next, but bassist/vocalist/guitarist Allison “Sunny” Faris, guitarist/bassist Mikayla Mayhew, synthesist Sarah McKenna, and drummer Eliese Dorsay (Erika Osterhout now plays guitar but isn’t on the record) brought on board producer A.L.N. of Mizmor, and the record’s guest vocals from Thou‘s Bryan Funck and Mike Paparo of Inter Arma brought flourish of more extreme metals than anything the band had done before. As a result, their next outing could go pretty much anywhere, so mission likely accomplished for this one.

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6. Kadavar & Elder, Eldovar – A Story in Darkness and Light

Released by Robotor Records. Reviewed Dec. 1.

Answering the call of being unable to tour and presumably tired of sitting on their hands as a result, Berlin-based outfits Kadavar and Elder (minus the latter’s bassist Jack Donovan, who lives in the US and was under travel restriction) hit the studio together earlier this year to piece together jams and, reportedly, take a “see what happens” approach. What happened was a sound that belonged solely to neither band and drew enough from both to legitimately earn the title Eldovar. Rife with melody brought to bear amid a threat of the breakout that arrived in “Blood Moon Night” — which, while the most uptempo, was not necessarily the highlight of the record — it was an album perhaps carved from experiments, but one that seemed to brim with a sense of underlying direction, even after the fact. Its shimmer felt like a light being cast through a dark year, defiant and peaceful. That two of the current generation’s leaders in heavy rock could come together in such brazen fashion was a noteworthy novelty, but it was the way that Eldovar stood on its own that made it so special.

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5. Stöner, Stoners Rule

Released by Heavy Psych Sounds. Reviewed July 1.

Gonna get this off my chest while I can. After this one came out, I saw on the vast sphere of social media some disappointed response, like what was up with Stöner being so stripped down and just rocking riffs and all that? Okay. The hell did you expect? That’s the point of the band! It’s Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri — and Ryan Güt, also of Bjork‘s solo band — purposefully digging back to their roots, playing the simplest form possible of the low desert punk they helped create together in Kyuss. It wasn’t about “let’s innovate,” it was about “I dig the Ramones and Fatso Jetson so let’s have a good time.” You got the ultra-grooves of “Own Yer Blues” and “Tribe/Fly Girl,” the Oliveri-fronted punk of “Evel Never Dies,” and the bluesman’s telling-it-like-it-is of “The Older Kids” and “Rad Stays Rad,” “Nothin'” and “Stand Down.” They were in, done, and out. I chalked some of the “meh” up to the studio album arriving so soon after their Live in the Mojave Desert stream (review here) and live album (review here), but even so, damn, be thankful these songs got made in the first place. With yer spoiled ass.

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4. King Buffalo, Acheron

Released by the band and Stickman Records. Reviewed Nov. 11.

Word to anyone who’s managed to read this far: I hear King Buffalo might have an Xmas surprise in store as relates to this album, so heads up. Acheron — filmed as well as audio-recorded — was the second in an intended series of three yet to be completed of albums Rochester, NY, trio King Buffalo composed during the pandemic lockdown. Like so many, their inability to tour resulted in a need for another outlet. Following The Burden of Restlessness (review here) would be a challenge, but the band shifted focus in sound toward four extended pieces of heavy psychedelia — not completely escapist from the reality surrounding them, but attempting for sure to shift the mindset through which they (and the listener) were experiencing it. Traveling to record in the remote location of Howe Caverns, guitarist/vocalist/synthesist Sean McVay, bassist/keyboardist Dan Reynolds and drummer Scott Donaldson found a way to immediately differentiate their second album of 2021 from the first while offering a shift in sound that leaned less into darkness — ironic, maybe considering it was tracked underground — than its predecessor while retaining the band’s ever-forward progression of sound.

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3. Green Lung, Black Harvest

Released by Svart Records. Reviewed July 28.

One would be hard-pressed to find a more suitable Halloween release. London-based heavy rockers Green Lung brought together a collection of songs that, yes, were duly autumnal in their spirit, but also refreshing in their sound, unashamed in their readiness to engage their audience, and in cuts like “Old Gods,” “Reaper’s Scythe,” “You Bear the Mark” and “Graveyard Sun” tapped into a cross-genre appeal that was brought together with impeccable quality of craft and production. Classic and new at the same time. Thoughtful in arrangement, Black Harvest nonetheless skirted pretense and kept to a basic verse/chorus appeal that felt easy to get into, and the complexity held in the material only revealed itself more with time. It is an album in which something new will be heard for years, and it not only answered the call to step up after 2019’s Woodland Rites (review here), but put Green Lung in a different echelon of bands entirely. They are an act whose influence will be felt, and not that the world needs another reason to hope for a “return” for live music, but Black Harvest is one for sure. Its songs deserve to be heard by however many ears they can reach.

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2. Monolord, Your Time to Shine

Released by Relapse Records. Reviewed Oct. 21.

Monolord are the most essential band in heavy music. Whatever qualifier you want to put on that in terms of style, go ahead, it’s still true. The Gothenburg trio’s fifth album doubled as an anticipated follow-up to No Comfort (review here), which was 2019’s album of the year, and brought no dip in the quality of their craft, the breadth of their style or the force of their execution. In addition to having already ignited a generation’s worth of riffers in their wake, Monolord have steadily progressed in their own approach, and Your Time to Shine skillfully mirrored the structure of No Comfort before it while pushing ahead of where the band were two years ago. Someone needs to build a statue in honor of Mika Häkki‘s bass tone, let alone the riffs of guitarist/vocalist Thomas V. Jäger and the stomp/production of drummer Esben Willems, but with cuts like “The Weary,” “Your Time to Shine,” “I’ll Be Damned,” “To Each Their Own” and “The Sirens of Yersinia” — oh wait, that’s all of them — it was the entire band shining, a plural “your” that was realized in the work. The superficial bleakness of the cover art spoke to the death perhaps of an entire world, but also the new growth and life to inevitably emerge therefrom. The songs did no less.

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2021 Album of the Year

1. King Buffalo, The Burden of Restlessness

Released by the band and Stickman Records. Reviewed May 11.

A record for the times. The record for the times. There are a few reasons King Buffalo‘s third full-length and first in the pandemic-born series, The Burden of Restlessness, deserves to be the album of the year. There’s no reasonably denying the level of songwriting or the move into hard-edged progressive rock and metal of its songs, or the boldness of the manner in which the Rochester trio — again, Sean McVay, Dan Reynolds and Scott Donaldson — made that move, or the resonance of the finished product. It’s a very, very, very good album. Fine. What stands out to me though in thinking of The Burden of Restlessness in context of the addled period between 2020 and 2021 is the fact that it is completely unflinching. From the striking depiction of decay in the front visuals by Zdzisław Beksiński to the personal-seeming nature of songs like “The Knocks,” “Burning” — the opening lyric, “I turn my head from the stars” a direct contrast to “Orion can you hear me?” from the band’s 2016 debut, Orion (review here) — “Silverfish” and “Hebetation” and the speaking to the outside world of “Locusts,” “Grifter” and the maybe-daring-t0-hope-for-something-better conclusion in “Loam,” The Burden of Restlessness gave comfort to its listenership through shared experience rather than platitude. It didn’t tell you it was going to get better. It shared the space you were in, and acknowledged all the unknown corners of that space. This spirit, coupled with the outright sonic achievement on the part of the band, made the album a statement poised to ring out as a document of its weighted era and a standard for the expressive depth of its creativity.

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The Top 60 Albums of 2021: Honorable Mention

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Sit tight, we’ve got a ways to go here.

Acid Magus, Wyrd Syster
Acid Mammoth, Caravan
Age Total, Age Total
Alastor, Onwards and Downwards
Amenra, De Doorn
The Angelus, Why We Never Die
The Answer Lies in the Black Void, Forlorn
Apollo80, Beautiful, Beautiful Desolation
Arlekin, The Secret Garden
Bog Wizard, Miasmic Purple Smoke
Book of Wyrms, Occult New Age
Bongzilla, Weedsconsin
Canyyn, Canyyn
Craneium, Unknown Heights
Delco Detention, It Came From the Basement
Demon Head, Viscera
Doctor Smoke, Dreamers and the Dead
Dread Sovereign, Alchemical Warfare
Dream Unending, Tide Turns Eternal
Duel, In Carne Persona
Dunbarrow, III
DVNE, Etemen Ænka
Eyehategod, A History of Nomadic Behavior
Bill Fisher, Hallucinations of a Higher Truth
Funeral, Praesentalis in Aeternum
Fuzzy Lights, Burials
Holy Death Trio, Introducing…
Iceburn, Asclepius
Jakethehawk, Hinterlands
Kanaan, Earthbound
Khemmis, Deceiver
King Woman, Celestial Blues
Kvasir, 4
Lingua Ignota, Sinner Get Ready
Los Disidentes del Sucio Motel, Polaris
Low Flying Hawks, Fuyu
Low Orbit, Crater Creator
Malady, Ainavahantaa
Mastiff, Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth
Mythic Sunship, Wildfire
Zack Oakley, Badlands
Octopus Ride, II
Øresund Space Collective, Universal Travels
Red Beard Wall, 3
Robots of the Ancient World, Mystic Goddess
Emma Ruth Rundle, Engine of Hell
Saturnia, Stranded in the Green
Savanah, Olympus Mons
Sergio Ch., La Danza de los Toxicos
Shiva the Destructor, Find the Others
Smote, Bodkin
Snake Mountain Revival, Everything in Sight
Snowy Dunes, Sastrugi
Sonic Demon, Vendetta
The Spacelords, False Dawn
Spelljammer, Abyssal Trip
Spidergawd, VI
Swallow the Sun, Moonflowers
Thunderchief, Synanthrope
Thunder Horse, Chosen One
Ultra Void, Ultra Void
Vouna, Atropos
WEEED, Do You Fall?
When the Deadbolt Breaks, As Hope Valley Burns
Witchcryer, When Their Gods Come for You
Witchrot, Hollow
Wolftooth, Blood & Iron
Wowod, Yarost’ I Proshchenie

Notes:

I feel immediately defensive here, and that kind of sucks, to be honest. Here’s the basic truth: I know people like different things. I know people think different things are important, that everybody works hard making records, that lists are bullshit and that people go back to listen to different things more over time.

What I’d ask is that after 60 records in the list proper and another 60-plus here, you please give me a break. I’ve reviewed well over 250 releases this year, so neither is this everything, nor is it nothing. I’ve done my best. And if one of these records is your album of the year? Awesome! I’m so, so glad for that. I can’t and won’t argue. I’m sure this list is incomplete and I’m sure I’ll add more to it over the next couple days — always do — but if you didn’t hear anything this year and you take this list and you take the other 60 records, listen to one per week, you’ll have enough new music to carry you into 2023, and I feel pretty good about that.

—

Debut Album of the Year 2021

Heavy Temple, Lupi Amoris

Other notable debuts (alphabetically):

Acid’s Trip, Strings of Soul
Age Total, Age Total
Bala, Maleza
Bog Wizard, Miasmic Purple Smoke
Bottomless, Bottomless
Cancervo, 1
Cave of Swimmers, Aurora
Cavern Deep, Cavern Deep
Chamán, Maleza
Cosmic Reaper, Cosmic Reaper
DayGlo Mourning, Dead Star
Delving, Hirschbrunnen
Den Der Hale, Harsyra
Dome Runner, Conflict State Design
Draken, Draken
Gangrened, Deadly Algorithm
Gristmill, Heavy Everything
High Desert Queen, Secrets of the Black Moon
Holy Death Trio, Introducing…
The Judas Knife, Death is the Thing With Feathers
Kadabra, Ultra
Kadavar & Elder, Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light
Kvasir, 4
Plaindrifter, Echo Therapy
Shiva the Destructor, Find the Others
Slowshine, Living Light
Smote, Bodkin
Snake Mountain Revival, Everything in Sight
Sonic Demon, Vendetta
Sow Discord, Quiet Earth
Stöner, Stoners Rule
Suncraft, Flat Earth Rider
Terry Gross, Soft Opening
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, TTBS
Vestamaran, Bungalow Rex
White Void, Anti
Witchrot, Hollow
Wooden Fields, Wooden Fields
Wytch, Exordium
Year of Taurus, Topsoils

Notes:

Yes, technically the Stöner record was higher than Heavy Temple on the top 60. I took into account the fact that Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri have worked together on and off for 30-plus years in my final assessment and decided Lupi Amoris, as a debut album, deserved the top spot. I actually had a numbered list going — Stöner were two, Delving was three — but decided to just let the Heavy Temple stand on its own instead, which it certainly earned.

One could see the pandemic shuffle of creativity peaking out though. Kadavar & Elder’s collaboration was a debut as well, but it was just one of the new projects or collaborations to surface this year. Note Slowshine is Earthship by another name (and purpose) and so are Dome Runner. There was a wash of diggable debuts, loaded with potential, and again, I don’t think this list is exhaustive so much as it’s a primer for some of the best stuff out there as I see/hear it. I’ll spare you wax poetry about the forward movement of genre overall, but suffice to say that in acts like Plaindrifter, Shiva the Destructor, Witchrot, Age Total and High Desert Queen, among others here, such things were readily apparent.

Your time would not be wasted with any of these, I just thought that Heavy Temple, as a first album, was a special achievement and deserved its place as debut of the year.

Short Release of the Year 2021

Jointhugger, Reaper Season

Other notable EPs, Splits, Demos, etc.:

Aiwass & ASTRAL CONstruct, Solis in Stellis
All Are to Return, II
Birth, Birth
Blackwolfgoat, (In) Control / Tired of Dying
Bog Wizard/Dust Lord, Split
Boozewa, First Contact
Carlton Melton, Night Pillers
Cerbère, Cerbère
Cortége, Chasing Daylight
The Crooked Whispers, Dead Moon Night
Doomsday Profit, In Idle Orbit
Dopelord, Reality Dagger
EMBR, 1021
Enslaved, Caravans to the Outer Worlds
Fuzz Sagrado, Fuzz Sagrado
Guhts, Blood Feather
Howling Giant, Alteration
Ikitan, Darvaza y Brinicle
Insect Ark, Future Fossils
Erik Larson, Measwe
Lurcher, Coma
Merlock, You Cannot Be Saved
Moonstone, 1904
Morningstar Delirium, Morningstar Delirium
Mos Generator, The Lantern
Nineteen Thirteen, MCMXIII
Old Horn Tooth, True Death
Planet of the 8s, Lagrange Point Vol. 1
Psychonaut/SÂVER, Emerald
Solemn Lament, Solemn Lament
Sorcia, Death by Design
Spaceslug, The Event Horizon
Spawn, Live at Moonah Arts Collective
Stonus, Séance
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Rosalee
Ultra Void, Ultra Void
Ungraven/Slomatics, Split
Wall, II
Weedevil, The Death is Coming
The Whims of the Great Magnet, Share the Sun
Per Wiberg, All is Well in the Land of the Living But for the Rest of Us… Lights Out

Notes:

Again, look at the amazing swath of new creativity happening. Guhts, Boozewa, Aiwass & ASTRAL CONstruct — even Wall with their second EP — Morningstar Delirium, Fuzz Sagrado, Doomsday Profit, Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships: these are new bands and projects coming together, some from established artists and some not, but the shuffling of sound and priorities is a hallmark of the last year-plus’ output, and it can be seen here for sure. Yeah, bands like Enslaved and Dopelord put out killer EPs, but it’s acts like Moonstone — with just one prior release behind them — or Howling Giant working instrumentally for the first time, that struck me even harder.

As regards Jointhugger in the top pick, I took into account the “oh shit this band isn’t fucking around” factor. Coming off their first record and headed into their second in quick succession, the single-song “Reaper Season” served due notice that the debut was no fluke and that the Norwegian outfit had no interest in resting on riffy laurels. This section is always tough since it encompasses different kinds of releases — singles, EPs, whatnot — but in terms of serving the band’s overarching progression, Jointhugger made a difficult choice markedly easier for me.

I won’t take away from the accomplishments of anyone on the list above — or the inevitable ones I forgot, either. Enslaved’s ever-outbound growth is worth a significant mention, and arrivals like Lurcher and Old Horn Tooth kept were undeniable. I’ll nod here too to Psychonaut/SÂVER and Ungraven/Slomatics’ split releases and that The Whims of the Great Magnet. And, and, and…

—

Late Releases

Partially affected by the Covid-19 pandemic — like everybody’s everything — vinyl pressing delays meant that many albums have come out in the last month or two that were intended to be earlier. I tried to account for these in the lists above, but thinking about November and December specifically, records by Low Orbit, Spidergawd, Weedpecker, King Buffalo, Spaceslug, Bog Wizard, Raibard, Funeral, Temple Fang, Kadavar & Elder, and Wolftooth can’t be left out as part of the larger narrative of 2021 in music.

I can’t say I’ve listened to, as an example, Spidergawd, as much as to Greenleaf or any number of things that were released in the beginning of the year, but neither do I feel like the lack relative passage of time since something came out should be held against it, especially given the circumstances. As much as the ‘music industry’ shuts down at the end of any given year, 2021 seems to have plowed straight through to the finish.

—

Live in the Mojave Desert

While we’re marking the highlights of 2021, it’s impossible not to note the continued proliferation of livestreaming as a (woefully inadequate but take what you can get) substitute experience for show-going and touring. In the case of director Ryan Jones’ Live in the Mojave Desert series, it was an opportunity to turn lemons into concert films of true measure, as well as live albums for Earthless, Stöner, Nebula, Spirit Mother and Mountain Tamer that held their own merit.

There have been a few noteworthy streams over the last year-plus issued in pay-per-view fashion, but in terms of the scale of the presentation, few have held a candle to what Live in the Mojave Desert accomplished — only Enslaved’s ‘Cinematic Tour’ comes close in my mind, and that’s a different animal entirely, ditto Roadburn Redux — or have managed to capture an atmosphere in the same way that not only gives a setting for the music, but adds to the experience of the viewer. It’s not just a show that otherwise would happen in a venue; it’s a show that would happen once in a lifetime.

Whatever context brings that about, it is something to celebrate.

—

Looking Ahead to 2022

—

I love looking forward to new music. I love it. In a spirit of anticipation and friendship and righteous tunes to come, here’s a list of bands who’ve either confirmed new stuff in the works or are recording or have preorders up or are subject to rampant speculation. In no order whatsoever:

Elder, Toad Venom, Torche, King Buffalo, High on Fire, El Perro, Yatra, Bevar Sea, Birth, Pia Isa, Colour Haze, JIRM, Samavayo, Tortuga, El Supremo, Ruby the Hatchet, MNRVA, Buss, White Ward, Dreadnought, Merlock, Gozu, Westing, Eric Wagner, Stöner, Blue Heron, All Souls, Arekin, 40 Watt Sun, Caustic Casanova, Deathwhite, Freedom Hawk, Hazemaze, Stoned Jesus, Mothership, Desert Storm, Poseidótica, Sasquatch, Conan, Seremonia, Långfinger, Wo Fat, Earthless, Dozer, Red Sun Atacama, REZN, No Man’s Valley, Ufomammut, Geezer, Messa, Clutch, Abronia, Somali Yacht Club, Sun Voyager, Atavismo, Some Pills for Ayala, Eight Bells, Stinking Lizaveta, Borracho, The Crooked Whispers, Naxatras, Rotor, Mos Generator, Big Scenic Nowhere, Righteous Fool, High Priest, High Priestess, Loop, Elliott’s Keep, Fostermother, Valley of the Sun, Boris, Deathbell, Siena Root, My Sleeping Karma, Firebreather, Matt Pike, Mythosphere, Crowbar, JIRM, Mount Saturn, Supersonic Blues, Wizzerd, 10,000 Years…

If any names are repeated there, consider it a sign that I’m looking forward to that record twice. And if you’ve got a name to add to that list, I’m all for it. As I said, I love looking forward to new music.

—

Thank You

—

Well, I guess that’s it. I’m not anymore done with 2021 than it’s done with itself — some of the releases featured above have yet to be reviewed; looking at you, Spaceslug — and there’s always catching up to do. No coincidence January will feature the second part of the Quarterly Review that began this month.

But while I’ve got you, if I still do, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you as always for your continued support of The Obelisk, this site, in the various ways it is shown, whether that’s liking a post, sharing a link, leaving a (hopefully kind) comment or buying some sweatpants. More than a decade after the fact, I cannot hope to tell you how much it means to me sitting here in front of my laptop to have that support and encouragement, day in and year out. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart and with ever fiber of my wretched being. Thank you.

But thank The Patient Mrs. even more.

More to come, so stay tuned.

—

Like many over the last 20-plus months, this Kadavar and Elder collaboration was born of plague-era restlessness — two bands who’d generally be quite active on one or another touring circuit forced to sit out and wait for live music to ‘happen’ again, coming together with reportedly little thought given to what the result might be, but just to jam and try something out. When one is sitting at home for a year-plus, there’s plenty of time to think of these things, and as the majority of the once-Massachusetts-based lineup of Elder reside in Berlin, Germany, where Kadavar also make their home, there was less concern for travel restrictions — Elder bassist Jack Donovan still resides in the US and could not travel for the sessions — as they got together at the latter’s studio to begin crafting what ultimately became Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light (on Robotor Records), a seven-song, 44-minute long-player. And, for all the professed “we didn’t know what would happen” narrative — indeed the first lyric on the first track is “We don’t know how it began” — it sure feels like someone in the six-player lineup had an idea that a record would come out of it, or at very least decided there was enough in their jamming worth building into one.

Of course, it’s an immediately notable release, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating in saying the project includes two of the current generation of heavy music’s most accomplished songwriters in Kadavar‘s Lupus Lindemann and Elder‘s Nick DiSalvo, each guitarist/vocalist for their respective outfit. From the nine-minute opener “From Deep Within,” both of their presences are felt readily across the album’s span. With Kadavar‘s Tiger Bartelt (drums) and Simon Bouteloup (bass) as well as Elder‘s Michael Risberg (guitar/keys) and Georg Edert (drums) working together as a rhythm section and then some, “From Deep Within” sets a patient and ethereal tone from its own mellow beginning guitar line through the keys-and-residual-effects finish of the closing track “Cherry Trees.” Eldovar is not without its moments of impact, and “From Deep Within” shows that as well as its quiet unfolding leads to a more driving section of riffing, but melody is central and the overarching feel is less about how heavy it can be in any given stretch than what spaces it can use its time to explore. Ultimately, they leave little doubt it was the exploration that led the project to manifest as Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light, the album, in the first place.

Experienced listeners will pick out given parts as recognizably Elder or Kadavar — second cut “In the Way” embarks with what feels like a Lindemann-led homage to ’70s-era singer-songwriterism, semi-acoustic, before gradually shifting into a winding progressive rock that comes across very much in the vein of DiSalvo‘s style, whether it actually is or not — but doing so is the wrong approach. As demonstrated by “El Matador”‘s Pink–Floyd-in-the-sunshine ambience and the subsequent instrumentals “Rebirth of the Twins” and “Raspletin,” Eldovar is more about how the two component acts’ styles mesh than how they can be set next to each other.

It is an amalgam, not just a parallel presentation. That middle stretch of three songs — “El Matador” into “Rebirth of the Twins” into “Raspletin” — is fluid enough to become a hypnotic movement unto itself, entrancing in a way the more structured movements of “From Deep Within” and “In the Way” aren’t trying to be, and with the penultimate “Blood Moon Night” taking up a quarter of the total runtime at 11 minutes before “Cherry Trees” rounds out, the arc finds the darker turn alluded to in the title and fulfills a dynamic entirety all the more complete for it.

 

Even for arriving amid high expectations due to the personnel involved, these songs succeed in being something that is neither definitively Elder or Kadavar while adventuring into a place of sound that draws from both. “Blood Moon Night” alone boasts a full-length’s worth of motion, taking place along delineated stretches, first of lead guitar giving way to a chugging verse, then shifting into a mellow, King Crimson-y chorus and minimalist setup for the big turn toward Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light‘s heaviest stint. There’s a break with the dual drums highlighted — something that, should these two bands align again, one hopes they explore further — and the full-toned sweep begins again, consuming as a payoff perhaps for the relative pastoralism of “Rebirth of the Twins” and “Raspletin,” let alone its own early moments. The last two minutes hold over a keyboard line that maintains some tension, but are more about drawing down that surge of energy and giving an organic (if native to another world) transition into the piano line of “Cherry Trees.” Drumless, it puts the album’s last emphasis on a wash of melody, and drifts off not so much as an epilogue as a last fleeting stroke to complete the picture.

I won’t claim to know either act’s plans, whether or not Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light is a one-off or will be an ongoing or periodic endeavor. I doubt they know at this point, but it’s fascinating that the collaboration arrives as both bands involved have engaged their own work that might be regarded as departures. Kadavar‘s The Isolation Tapes (review here) was perhaps a more radical shift in approach than Elder‘s Omens (review here), but neither group has ever been content to do the same thing twice, even going back to their respective beginnings. Should there ever be a second Eldovar installment, its making would invariably be informed by what the six-piece have done already, branching off from their individual progressions and starting this new one.

That alone makes Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light singular, in that no matter what happens from this point onward — if anything, and maybe nothing — the moment they’ve captured in this initial joint effort can never be duplicated. Expanded on, yes — and if they want to grow this as a project, they have left themselves plenty of room to do so — but never repeated. For as humble as their stated goal might’ve been going into the studio together, their accomplishments here set a high standard for any who’d try to reach it. This is two of the most pivotal acts of their generation working as one unit, and the result of their labor surpasses even the novelty of that fact.

Kadavar and Elder, “From Deep Within” official video

Kadavar on Facebook

Kadavar on Instagram

Kadavar on YouTube

Kadavar website

Elder on Facebook

Elder on Instagram

Elder on Bandcamp

Robotor Records on Facebook

Robotor Records on Instagram

Robotor Records on Bandcamp

Robotor Records website

I mean, it’s gorgeous. This isn’t the first collaborative outing Kadavar have done — that would be with Aqua Nebula Oscillator however many years back — but my goodness, “From Deep Within” is breathtaking. ‘A single act to separate darkness from light.’ At nine and a half minutes, the first ‘single’ and opening track of Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light is unveiled to mark the beginning of preorders for the Dec. 3 Robotor Records release, and it explains more than a few things about the nature of the pairing. You can hear the Elder, you can hear the Kadavar and more importantly, you can hear the two of them together as something new. Bloody hell.

Not saying I’ve heard the record or anything, but I’ll note that late-2021 is making list-time much more difficult than it would otherwise be. This is something special. Might as well get my CD order in now.

From the PR wire:

First single „From Deep Within“ with Elder is out now! Pre-order for „ELDOVAR – A Story Of Darkness & Light“ starts today 12:00 CET here: https://kadavarelder.lnk.to/ELDOVAR

Berlin’s most important rock band Kadavar has written its second album during a single pandemic. This time around, however, they weren’t stuck alone in lockdown. They colluded with US prog rock wunderkinder Elder, Berlin immigrants just like Kadavar were a decade ago, and decided to drown in sound together. What surfaced is “A Story of Darkness & Light”, a marvel of musical liberty, a gushing opus between rock, prog and alternative, held together by the two bands’ contrasts. Light and shadow. Alpha and omega.

The album “Eldovar – A Story Of Darkness & Light” will be released on December 3, 2021 on Kadavar’s label Robotor Records. Today the bands launches the first single “From Deep Within” together with a music video for the song.

Eldovar: A bond between Kadavar and Elder. “A Story of Darkness & Light”: An intimate, touching, billowing, roaring piece of music, a sublime manifesto of musical freedom that we paradoxically owe a horrible pandemic.

“After ‘The Isolation Tapes’ I simply wasn’t ready for the next Kadavar record,” drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt recounts the origins of this collaboration. “I couldn’t imagine continuing as if nothing had happened.” He wasn’t alone. As both Kadavar and Elder are horrible at sitting around doing nothing, they holed up in Kadavar’s Robotor Studios in Berlin between March and June 2021 and formulated the shared vision of an essentially human, deeply personal album – a body of work with the gravitas and wonderful weirdness of early prog albums, a monument for musics’ ecstatic urge for freedom.

Tiger Bartelt, Lupus Lindemann, and Simon Bouteloup of Kadavar as well as Michael Risberg, Nick DiSalvo, and Georg Edert of Elder (minus bassist Jack Donovan who wasn’t allowed to travel from the US) extract an arcane and fleeting magic from the primordial broth of rock, the kind of magic that can only work when everything is in fluid. When nothing is disturbing the creative process, when there is no external or internal pressure whatsoever. Never before did the music of these bands breathe in such a way. Never before did they sound as versatile, as surprising and as peculiar as they do here.

“Eldovar – A Story Of Darkness & Light” will be released on December 3, 2021 via Robotor Records. The album will be released on vinyl in 8 different colors and two special silkscreen editions and on CD. Pre-order starts today!
The album will also be available on all digital platforms.

Kadavar are:
Lupus Lindemann – Vocals & Guitar
Simon ‘Dragon’ Bouteloup – Bass
Tiger – Drums

Elder are:
Nick DiSalvo (guitar, vocals, keyboards)
Jack Donovan (bass)
Michael Risberg (guitars, keyboards)
Georg Edert (drums)

https://www.facebook.com/KadavarOfficial/
https://instagram.com/kadavargram/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVmSmatRaSUU2LMhecGKiqg/
https://www.kadavar.com/

http://facebook.com/elderofficial
https://www.instagram.com/elderband/
https://beholdtheelder.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/robotorrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/robotorrecords/
https://robotorrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.robotorrecords.com/

Kadavar and Elder, “From Deep Within” official video

Both largely based in Berlin, Kadavar and Elder have united to present Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light. The two bands were in the studio together earlier this year and apparently it went well enough that they managed to put together an entire full-length, which will see release through Kadavar‘s own Robotor Records imprint. First single is out Oct. 22.

As it happens, earlier this year I interviewed members of both bands. I talked to Lupus Lindemann of Kadavar in January to coincide with the trio’s streaming performances and releases, and spoke to Elder‘s Nick DiSalvo in June for his Delving instrumental side-project. The latter mentioned this was in the works off the record, and gave some clue as to the possible direction the material was taking. He talked mostly about the open creative process with which they were working, how open-minded the Kadavar guys were as songwriters, and so on. Sounded like it might be a pretty special thing.

It also seems worth mentioning that, at least as per the picture above, Elder bassist Jack Donovan — the lone-remaining Massachusetts-based contingent in the band — didn’t take part here, most likely due to travel restrictions. If you’ll recall, Spring was a shitshow.

Fresh off the PR wire:

KADAVAR & ELDER WILL BE RELEASING AN ALBUM TOGETHER

“ELDOVAR – A STORY OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT”

As some attentive eyes might have noticed already, KADAVAR teamed up with their friends in Elder, in Spring 2021 to write and record music together.

What started as an idea to just jam and play music in times of social and creative isolation became an trip on its own and after three months of composing, editing and rewriting parts and lyrics, as well as going through countless hours of jam sessions, they accomplished to put together an album that they called „ELDOVAR, A Story Of Darkness & Light“.

We can’t wait to share more details with you very soon.

Stay tuned for pre-order start and first single on October 22

PRE-SAFE the first single “From Deep Within”: https://kadavarelder.lnk.to/FromDeepWithin

Kadavar are:
Lupus Lindemann – Vocals & Guitar
Simon ‘Dragon’ Bouteloup – Bass
Tiger – Drums

Elder are:
Nick DiSalvo (guitar, vocals, keyboards)
Jack Donovan (bass)
Michael Risberg (guitars, keyboards)
Georg Edert (drums)

https://www.facebook.com/KadavarOfficial/
https://instagram.com/kadavargram/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVmSmatRaSUU2LMhecGKiqg/
https://www.kadavar.com/

http://facebook.com/elderofficial
https://www.instagram.com/elderband/
https://beholdtheelder.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/robotorrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/robotorrecords/
https://robotorrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.robotorrecords.com/

Kadavar, Studio Live Session Vol. II (2020)

Elder, Omens (2020)

Tickets are on sale as of today for Desertfest Berlin 2022, which will be headlined by Electric Wizard, Kadavar playing a hometown show and Witchcraft. The rest of the lineup is a thrilling combination of mainstays — which somehow feels extra comforting — and upstarts, plus Stöner, who are kind of both, I guess, being a new band but with Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri at the helm thereof. You’ll note Lowrider and Orange Goblin — the latter celebrating their 25th anniversary, delayed of course — and Elder and Ufomammut (debuting their new lineup), 1000mods and Truckfighters and My Sleeping Karma. Could hardly get more Desertfest than that. Like a reaffirmation of the festival’s core mission. Plus YOB, for extra life-giving vibes.

And with those, you get acts like Slomosa, Slift, Polymoon and Villagers of Ioannina City, underground celebrants like Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs and Samavayo and Dhidalah and MaidaVale and 24/7 Diva Heaven as well as Love Machine, Los Bitchos and Huntsmen. There’s reportedly more to come — and by that I mean that’s what it says on the poster below — but for real, if this was the four days, I can’t imagine wanting to see any less than all of it.

Announcement follows as per the PR wire:

Desertfest Berlin – 26-29 May 2022

www.desertfest.de

LINEUP:
Electric Wizard
Kadavar
Witchcraft
Orange Goblin
YOB
Truckfighters
Elder
1000mods
My Sleeping Karma
Ufomammut
Stöner
Lowrider
Villagers of Ioannina City
SLIFT
MaidaVale
24/7 Diva Heaven
Samavayo
Slomosa
Los Bitchos
PigsPigsPigsPigsPigsPigsPigs
Dhidalah
Polymoon
Enigma Experience
Huntsmen
Love Machine

+ more to be announced

After two years without our beloved Desertfest happening, we need you more than ever. We can’t wait to see you all again to party, have some drinks and enjoy the finest of stoner, psychedelic, doom and heavy rock music!

Thank you so much for your continuous support and for holding on to your tickets. We want to give a little something back to you…

Existing weekend passes (3-days tickets) from 2020 will remain valid for the full 4 days in 2022 automatically. Yes, you will be granted access to ONE MORE FESTIVAL DAY ON TOP, FOR FREE!

We hope you’ll understand that there are logistical changes to the original 2020 line-up. Due to these challenges, existing 2020 single day ticket holders will be refunded for their chosen day. More info about our ticket-policy: www.desertfest.de/information

https://www.facebook.com/events/520164272080736
www.desertfest.de
www.facebook.com/DesertfestBerlin
www.instagram.com/desertfest_berlin

Desertfest Berlin 2019 official aftermovie

Can’t help but wonder if this isn’t the shape of things to come. Amid loosening regulations in the country, Desertfest Belgium 2021 announces a hopeful list of names for the Antwerp edition of the festival and also unveils that Wolves in the Throne Room — who were bringing Stygian Bough and Blood Incantation along for the trip — have canceled their Fall tour of Europe because, obviously, of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Thinking about what touring looks like in the future, it seems to me that domestic and continental runs are what’s coming back first. Places you can drive to on tour or take a train at most. Travel within the EU, travel within the US, within Asia, Australia.

I know Psycho Las Vegas managed to bring Psychlona across, but there were numerous international cancelations there as well, and seeing Wolves in the Throne Room pull out of their Fall stint makes me think that while regulations in Belgium are opening up (for now, remember; these things are fluid), it’s still so uncertain how the next several months are going to play out. It’s amazing to have no fucking idea about anything. I admire Desertfest Belgium for trying to make a thing happen, genuinely, but I don’t envy them the task.

While I’m opining, I think My Sleeping Karma might be my biggest bucket list band at this point. I’ve been a fan since their first record and I’ve never seen them live. I won’t be traveling to Antwerp to do so either, sorry to say. One day though. They join a slew of awesome acts here.

With hope and well wishes, this from the PR wire:

DF ANTWERP: Kadavar, My Sleeping Karma & more – WITTR cancelled

Summer’s nearly over, and yet it feels like life is only just beginning anew. COVID regulations are loosening up over here in Belgium, so we are looking hopeful towards the future. We’ll give you an update on the exact conditions very shortly.

First however, we have to bear some bad news that is very much still the result of the pandemic. Wolves In The Throne Room are forced to cancel their European fall tour, and in their wake we also have to forego Blood Incantation and Stygian Bough. All three will NOT be performing at either the Antwerp or Ghent editions of the festival.

We’re very sorry, but them’s the breaks in this Foul Year of our Lord 2021.

Fortunately, to make up for the loss we have some killer new additions to the Antwerp line-up as well! We figured you’re all in need of some face-melting unadulterated RAWK, and you know that’s what you get whenever KADAVAR hits the stage. On a more Sabbath-y trip, the same goes for DOPELORD who bring the Dooooooom with no prisoners taken.

Need some more healing vibes? Let the power of MY SLEEPING KARMA wash over you, as they bring back their entrancing instrumental groove after some severely trying times. MOHAMA SAZ hails from Spain, but cooks up a globetrotting psychedelic sound that is impossible to pin down. Total sonic freedom!

Closer to home, we present a new Dutch supergroup by the name of SPLINTER, born out of the ashes of Death Alley and Birth Of Joy. A fresh take on retro sounds, with a glorious Hammond organ sound at the juicy center. And finally, the Belgian black sludge sensation KLUDDE draws from local folklore to spin their evil tales of sorrow and despair.

TAKE NOTE: All of these bands will ONLY perform at the ANTWERP edition, we will complete the GHENT line-up later this month.

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My Sleeping Karma, “A Steya” Live in Nijmegen, July 31, 2021

Berlin heavy rock three-piece Kadavar will play a series of weekender shows later this summer in their native Germany. One can hardly say the trio didn’t make the most of their time in lockdown, between their two livestreams — both released as live albums afterward — and later-2020’s The Isolation Tapes (review here), which found them ahead of the game in conveying a sense of pandemic-loneliness now broadly heard in a variety of acts while pushing their own sound to new places in terms of atmosphere and influence, as well as working with their own label, Robotor Records, for the first time.

This year, they also released a split 7″ with Lucifer, again through Robotor, and have set about adding to the label’s roster by bringing in Dutch outfit Splinter. As parts of the planet — and isn’t it astounding how many of these parts are rich and white? what a coincidence — take initial steps toward life post-pandemic, removing lockdown regulations, and so on, Kadavar have now announced a couple of weekender live shows in Germany, presumably tentative steps toward broader touring. Under general circumstances, the band spends a goodly portion of any given year on the road. That they’re getting out at all felt noteworthy to me at this point, regardless of the amount of territory they’re covering.

It’s been long enough that I’m not even going to try to remember what plans they had that were canceled — Australia? — but in the alternate reality that happened and is still happening, they’ve persevered admirably. I hope this shows and many more go off without a hitch.

As seen on socials:

Kadavar – German Live Dates

This feels a little weird but here we go.

We are back:
14.08. Augsburg – Sommer am Kiez
15.08. Lindau – @clubvaudeville
28.08. Vilshofen – Zauberberg Passau
30.08. Hannover – KOMMRAUS Hannover
09.09. München – Backstage München
10.09. Dortmund – JunkYard
11.09. Bremen – Hellseatic

Kadavar are:
Lupus Lindemann – Vocals & Guitar
Simon ‘Dragon’ Bouteloup – Bass
Tiger – Drums

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Kadavar, Studio Live Session Vol. II (2020)

Kadavar and Lucifer will cover Fleetwood Mac and Dust, respectively, on a new split single to be released in March. Kadavar are set to take on “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown),” while Lucifer will cover “Pull Away/So Many Times.” You might recall in the recent video interview with Kadavar‘s Lupus Lindemann, he mentioned this 7″ was happening, and indeed, it will be out through Kadavar‘s own Robotor Records imprint, as well as Lucifer‘s Riding Reaper Records. Seems a worthy cause for all to get behind.

Lucifer released their aptly-titled third album, Lucifer III, last year through Century Media, so I don’t know if putting this out through Riding Reaper means they’ve parted ways with that label or what. Lindemann discusses the amicable split with Nuclear Blast Records in that interview, and it makes for a good story about how Robotor came to be in time to release the audio from their two livestreams and last year’s The Isolation Tapes (review here) studio album. If you get the chance. If not, I won’t be offended.

No preorders yet, but let’s assume that’s coming, as well as audio of one or the other if not both tracks:

Lucifer X Kadavar Split 7″

We’ve got a brand new collaboration to announce: Kadavar and Lucifer are teaming up for a limited split 7“. Both bands dug through their records and chose a classic track to cover. KADAVAR recorded a version of “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown) by Fleetwood Mac and on LUCIFER‘s side, you´ll hear “Pull Away / So Many Times” by Dust. Limited to 1500 total with 5 different color options, Robotor Records and Riding Reaper Records will sell 750 records each through their web stores starting March 2021! We´re stoked for this project and will share more info very soon!

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Kadavar, Interview with Lupus Lindemann, Jan. 14, 2021