“Long Lost” by Lord Huron is flawless. I mean that sincerely; this is a perfect album, an instant classic, a deeply profound meditation on the passage of time with the sounds of a life of reflection and contemplation on how one spent their days. At the climax of this breathtaking fusion of classic country and … Continue reading In Glowing Praise of “Long Lost” by Lord Huron (2021 Album of the Year)

They were so close. Up until it came time to figure out this list, this was sitting in my Album of the Year slot as it had for the majority of the year, until I was forced to admit that the album that crowns my Album of 2021 - one that very few people will … Continue reading In Praise of “Norchestrion: A Song for the End” by Need (#2 in 2021’s Top Ten)

Good art is dangerous. At it’s best, it allows you to enter someone else’s world and empathize with experiences and stories that are not our own. At it’s worst, it comes to narrate our own experiences and stories and vocalize our realities, and our ability to relate confirms to us that our lives are broken … Continue reading In Praise of “Aphelion” by Leprous (#3 in 2021’s Top Ten)

I will never forget where I was when I learned that it was actually happening: industry titans Between the Buried and Me were finally releasing a sequel to their legendary, genre-defining, paradigm shifting classic “Colors”. You can divide metal as a whole between the pre-Colors era and the post-Colors era; BTBAM’s 2007 breakout masterpiece influenced … Continue reading In Praise of “Colors II” by Between the Buried and Me (#4 in 2021’s Top Ten)

As the barrier to entry for music continues to lower, the possibilities of one-man bands continue to skyrocket. For those with the patience and talent to execute a vision, going solo opens the doors to create something distinctly unique and unrivaled, which is exactly what California native Jacob Buczarski set out do with his band … Continue reading In Praise of “Solar Paroxysm” by Mare Cognitum (#5 in 2021’s Top Ten)

When I listen to pop or electronic music, I usually listen for one thing both genres excel in: production quality. Say what you will about the banality of modern pop, but there is absolute no denying that it sound genuinely pleasant to listen to just sheerly on the basis of how well it’s made. Metal … Continue reading In Praise of “Witness” by Vola (#6 in 2021’s Top Ten)

Avant-Garde metal. A subgenre more creative, diverse, and obscure than it’s already creative, diverse, and fairly obscure parent genre of prog metal. At it’s worst, it’s poorly structured/written chaos justified in the name of high art; at it’s best, it’s Hungarian multi-instrumentalist Tamás Kátai and his collective Thy Catafalque, and 2021’s “Vadak” is a towering … Continue reading In Praise of “Vadak” by Thy Catafalque (#7 in 2021’s Top Ten)

The last time Mastodon released an album, I was hopelessly single; last week, my wife and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. It has felt as though a lifetime has passed between Mastodon albums, but to Mastodon’s credit, they’ve more than made up for lost time with the release of not one, but two albums … Continue reading In Praise of “Hushed and Grim” by Mastodon (#8 in 2021’s Top Ten)

Have you ever played a scale on the guitar before? There are all sorts of scales and all sorts of ways to play them. With enough practice and patience, you might be able to memorize some, and the longer you play, the more creative you can get with them. The exception, of course, are the … Continue reading In Praise of “Gloire Éternelle” by First Fragment (#9 in 2021’s Top Ten)

There are two common pain points for anyone who dabbles in writing album reviews: discovering a gem of an album years after it’s release, and when an artist decides to drop an album in the closing weeks of the year. Swallow the Sun’s “Moonflowers” is a case of the latter - the album dropped halfway … Continue reading In Praise of “Moonflowers” by Swallow the Sun (#10 in 2021’s Top Ten)