Heavy Blog Readers’ Top Albums of 2021

After the success of last year’s poll, I decided it was worth the time and immense pain of doing this again! Once again and always, I am a glutton for pain. But enough about me! This post is all about you! Well, to be more precise, 118 of you. So I’ll let you decide how representative these numbers are thanks to self-selection bias etc. etc., but nonetheless we do have data and results to present, as well as some insights to draw from them!

Top Overall Albums

Archspire – Bleed the Future
Dvne – Etemen Ænka
Between the Buried and Me – Colors II
The Armed – ULTRAPOP
Every Time I Die – Radical
Mastodon – Hushed and Grim
Rivers of Nihil – The Work
Panopticon – …And Again Into The Light
Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm
First Fragment – Gloire Éternelle
Spiritbox– Eternal Blue
Obscura – A Valediction
Iotunn – Access All Worlds
Ad Nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
Lingua Ignota – SINNER GET READY
Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon
Turnstile – Glow On
Gojira – Fortitude
Converge & Chelsea Wolfe – Bloodmoon: I
Stortregn – Impermanence
Ophidian I – Desolate
VOLA – Witness
Inferi – Vile Genesis
Soen – Imperial
Low – Hey What
Architects – For Those That Wish to Exist
Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning
Humanity’s Last Breath – Välde
Worm – Foreverglade
Deafheaven – Infinite Granite
Vildhjarta – Måsstaden Under Vatten
Plebeian Grandstand – Rien ne suffit
Kayo Dot – Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike
black midi – Cavalcade
Atvm – Famine, Putrid and Fucking Endless
Leprous – Aphelion
Green Lung – Black Harvest
Black Country, New Road – For the first time
Alustrium – A Monument To Silence
Frontierer – Oxidized
The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die – Illusory Walls
yautja – The Lurch
Amenra – De Doorn
Eidola – The Architect
Kaatayra – Inpariquipê
Thy Catafalque – Vadak
Diablo Swing Orchestra – 2021 Swagger & Stroll Down The Rabbit Hole
Carcass – Torn Arteries
The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule’s Grimoires
LLNN – Unmaker

If a readership is a reflection of a publication, then I can say with confidence that we continue to have one of the best readerships out there. Compare this list to comparable ones from Metal Hammer, Metalsucks, Metal Injection, Revolver, and Kerrang, and I think this very clearly comes out on top. In particular seeing Archspire and Dvne at the top very closely mirrors our own internal polling.

Top Death Metal Albums

1. Archspire – Bleed The Future
2. Ad Nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
3. Rivers of Nihil – The Work
4. 1914 – Where Fear And Weapons Meet
5. Obscura – A Valediction
6. Ophidian I – Desolate
7. Iotunn – Access All Worlds
8. Alustrium – A Monument To Silence
9. Worm – Foreverglade
10. Stortregn – Imermanence
11. First Fragment – Glore Éternelle
12. Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning
13. Mortiferum – Preserved in Torment
14. Ænigmatum ‎– Deconsecrate
15. Humanity’s Last Breath – Välde
15. Veilburner – Lurkers In The Capsule Of Skull
15. Anna Pest – Dark Arms Reach Skyward With Bone White Fingers
18. Wharflurch – Psychedelic Realms Ov Hell
19. Frozen Soul – Crypt of Ice
20. Ominous Ruin – Amidst Voices that Echo in Stone
20. Abiotic – Ikigai

Top Black Metal Albums

1. Panopticon – … And Again Into the Light
2. Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm
3. Der Weg Einer Freiheit – Noktvrn
4. Wolves in the Throne Room – Primordial Arcana
5. Plebeian Grandstand – Rein ne suffit
6. Stormkeep – Tales of Othertime
7. MØL – Diorama
8. Harakiri for the Sky – Mære
9. Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst
10. 1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet
11. Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning
12. Fluisteraars – Gegrepen Door de Geest der Zielsontluiking
12. Dordeduh – Har
12. Glassing – Twin Dream
15. The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires
16. So Hideous – None But a Pure Heart Can Sing
17. Kaatayra – Inpariquipê
18. Ethereal Shroud – Trisagion
19. Stortregn – Impermanence
20. Olhava – Frozen Bloom
20. Violet Cold – Empire of Love

Top Doom Metal Albums

1. Khemmis – Deceiver
2. Dream Unending – Tide Turns Eternal
3. Green Lung – Black Harvest
4. Worm – Foreverglade
5. Swallow the Sun – Moonflowers
6. King Woman – Celestial Blues
7. The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule’s Grimoires
8. Wheel – Preserved in Time
9. The Flight Of Sleipnir – Eventide
10. Hooded Menace – The Tritonus Bell
11. Monolord – Your Time to Shine
12. Skepticism – Companion
13. Converge & Chelsea Wolfe – Bloodmoon: I
14. Tribulation – Where The Gloom Becomes Sound
15. Seed – Dun Pageant
15. yautja – The Lurch
15. Mastodon – Hushed and Grim
18. Amenra – De Doorn
19. Mortiferum – Preserved In Torment
20. LLNN – Unmaker
20. Dvne – Etemen Ænka

Top -Core Albums

1. Every Time I Die – Radical
2. The Armed – ULTRAPOP
3. Spiritbox – Eternal Blue
4. Pupil Slicer – Mirrors
5. Frontierer – Oxidized
6. Turnstile – Glow On
7. Architects – For Those that Wish to Exist
8. Full of Hell – Garden of Burning Apparitions
9. Converge & Chelsea Wolfe – Bloodmoon: I
10. Zao – The Crimson Corridor
11. Silent Planet – Iridescent
12. Knocked Loose – A Tear In The Fabric Of Life
13. Dreamwell – Modern Grotesque
14. Employed to Serve – Conquering
15. Between the Buried and Me – Colors II
15. Whitechapel – Kin
17. Brand Of Sacrifice– Lifeblood
18. Fawn Limbs – Darwin Falls
19. Portrayal of Guilt – CHRISTFUCKER
20. Erra – Erra

Top Prog Albums

1. Between the Buried and Me – Colors II
2. Dvne – Etemen Ænka
3. Mastodon – Hushed and Grim
4. Soen – Imperial
5. Leprous – Aphelion
6. Rivers of Nihil – The Work
7. VOLA – Witness
8. Boss Keloid – Family the Smiling Thrush
9. Iotunn – Access All Worlds
10. Thy Catafalque – Vadak
11. Gojira – Fortitude
12. Cynic– Ascension Codes
13. Converge & Chelsea Wolfe – Bloodmoon: I
14. Dream Theater – A View from the Top of the World
15. Vildhjarta – Måsstaden under vatten
16. Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon
17. black midi – Cavalcade
17. Archspire – Bleed the Future
17. Obscura – A Valediction
17. Dordeduh – Har

Top Pop Albums

1. Adele – 30
2. Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
3. CHVRCHES – Screen Violence
4. Lil Nas X – Montero
5. Silk Sonic – An Evening with Silk Sonic
6. Arooj Aftab – Vulture Prince
7. Spiritbox – Eternal Blue
8. Kanye West – Donda
9. Olivia Rodrigo – Sour
9. Manchester Orchestra – The Million Masks of God

So like last year, we also asked a group of questions not directly-related to favorite albums and the like. Once again Covid-19 played a large part to these questions, though I also really wanted to get some sense of people’s general mental well-being and if they feel they have what they need to live well. Here’s how those shook out.

The good news: If we can extrapolate these results to our general readership as a whole, then there are very few of you who have chosen to not take any Covid vaccines. If you are one of those people I can guarantee that nothing I can say here will change your views on that. I just ask that you really evaluate the information you are receiving on the subject and make sure that those sources do not have ulterior motives of their own that are not in your best interest.

The less good news is that half of respondents as of mid-to-late December have not received a booster shot. In the case of our current wave of Omicron a booster is not a guarantee that you won’t catch Covid, but the data strongly suggests that it all-but guarantees you will not land in the hospital from it. This is unfortunately a case where I am more mad at how the discourse and policy around boosters was rolled out in the US and elsewhere, because by the time it was clear all people should get them as soon as they were eligible it was already too late for many. I know many people, including several on staff here, who caught Covid shortly before they could get a booster or even immediately after. In short, get the booster, and expect this to become a yearly prompt that likely gets bundled in with the other flu vaccine eventually.

Not so fun fact: the last indoor concert I attended was early February 2020, which also happened to be we broke the weather‘s first ever (and tragically thus far only if you don’t count our participation in Somerville Porchfest this past fall) show. I have been tempted multiple times since to brave the odds and see live music, and it’s killed me not doing so. But the idea of being in a packed indoor space with a bunch of sweaty people drinking/eating and generally not wearing masks is enough just in theory to trigger my anxiety these days. I hate it, but the alternatives feel worse.

Based on the responses above, it appears many are in the same or similar boat as me. Over 1/3 of respondents attended zero shows last year, and the same percent only went to 1 or 2 shows. That said, it appears that those who did attend shows felt reasonably comfortable about their covid safety. The median response was a 3 out of 5, with the average somewhere between 3 and 4. I really, truly hope to join you all in those feelings and endeavors soon and break my dry spell this year.

So this is actually a repeat from last year’s survey, and a very odd thing seems to have happened in that year. This year’s outlook on Covid’s impact in 2022 is noticeably more pessimistic than last year’s for 2021. Then the most popular response was 4, with a fair number of people selecting 5. This year the curve has definitely shifted down by one level. I actually don’t know if I would agree with that myself as I do feel starting around spring this year we should experience at least a few months of relative “normalcy,” whereas in 2021 it feels like that really only lasted maybe a couple of months.

I think what is happening though is way more aggressive expectations management after the disappointments of 2021. At the end of 2020 I think there were probably too many people (including, frankly, within the incoming Biden administration) who believed that the coming vaccines would be the panacea to the virus and we could squash it for good. Not only did the vaccination rollout not go as planned, with huge swaths of populations refusing to take them, but multiple strains of the virus would prove to be incredibly efficient at evading the immunity of people who had received the vaccine or had even already caught the virus previously. So now more people are readjusting their expectations and possibly accepting that this is something we will have to learn to live with in some fashion for at least a few years to come. I think that’s actually a healthy attitude overall even though it can also lead to some less productive Covid fatalism (“We’re all going to get it anyway, so why wear masks/quarantine/get boosters/etc.?”).

As someone who is a chronic and lifelong sufferer of The Big Sad(TM), I think my perspective on how people’s overall mental health is probably going to be more pessimistic than the majority of non-clinically depressive people. But at least based on this relatively small sample with almost certainly some self-selection bias on multiple levels, it appears you all aren’t doing stellar yourselves. Nearly 40% of you described your mental health in 2021 as being fair to poor, and over another 1/3 of you were somewhere in the middle of the scale. Only a quarter of respondents said they were actively doing quite well. I probably would have described my own as being fair to poor, but I also had some extenuating circumstances around all of that.

The more hopeful side of things though is that just over half of you said that you have pretty much everything you need in the way of resources and support to address whatever struggles you might face, and only a few of you said you feel you do not have sufficient resources. There is definitely a sea change of sorts happening about how we think about mental health and deal with it on a larger scale, but at least in America it continues to be an uphill battle just to find adequate mental health treatment and not be bankrupted from it. It’s better but still not good. I don’t have any real answers (other than, you know, dismantling capitalism and the unreasonable and unsustainable pressures it places onto ordinary people, not to mention the earth itself), but it is something I feel strongly about and will continue to be a public advocate for whenever possible.

And that’s about it in terms of information that is probably particularly interesting to you all. We did receive some responses and feedback for our own internal use that is always incredibly welcome and will help us plan some of our priorities and goals for the coming year. For one, I already have been hard at work building up our blooming community on Discord to offer our readers and well-wishers a place to chat and nerd out about all sorts of things.

I will say in particular I got choked up reading the responses to the question I posed of “What was your favorite moment of 2021, music-related or otherwise?” I got to read people sharing comments about new relationships, impending weddings, births, birthdays, quitting their jobs, escapes to nature, and all sorts of musical high points. It’s a legitimately good reminder to me that even when things look like absolute and complete shit from the mile-high view, there are constantly little moments of light happening. So thank you for sharing all of that with me, and I hope it also gave you an opportunity to focus or reflect upon something positive for a moment.

And that is where I will leave things. I wish you all nothing but good things this coming year, and at the very least if things are going to shit we can still be in the shit together.