Well, we made it…kinda.
2021…another gigantic hoof in the genitals. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and very much like 2020, it comes in the form of some stellar new music. Bands, I doff my cap for providing us with the much-needed relief and distraction, from the absolute dumpster fire that was 2021. The abundance of killer albums have truly kept us going (check out our Spotify playlist of said albums here). Obviously, that makes this process of whittling down a stack of albums down to just 10…well….torture. But, it’s a pleasurable torture…ya know? Anyway, without further ado, people of the internet…here are the end of year lists from the Metal Epidemic team:
Dave Buchanan
1. MØL – Diorama (Spotify/Bandcamp)
2. Rivers of Nihil – The Work (Spotify/Bandcamp)
3. LLNN – Unmaker (Spotify/Bandcamp)
4. Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined (Spotify/Bandcamp)
5. Worst Doubt – Extinction (Spotify/Bandcamp)
6. Leprous – Aphelion (Spotify)
7. King Woman – Celestial Blues (Spotify/Bandcamp)
8. Cognitive – Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction (Spotify/Bandcamp)
9. Vorvaň – Awakened (Spotify/Bandcamp)
10. Boss Keloid – Family the Smiling Thrush (Spotify/Bandcamp) 
Duncan McLeish
1. Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon (Spotify/Bandcamp)
2. MØL – Diorama (Spotify/Bandcamp)
3. King Woman – Celestial Blues (Spotify/Bandcamp)
4. Turnstile – Glow On (Spotify)
5. Every Time I Die – Radical (Spotify/Bandcamp)
6. Deafheaven – Infinite Granite (Spotify/Bandcamp)
7. BUMMER – Dead Horse (Spotify/Bandcamp)
8. LLNN – Unmaker (Spotify/Bandcamp)
9. Heiress – Distant Fires (Spotify/Bandcamp)
10. Boss Keloid – Family the Smiling Thrush (Spotify/Bandcamp)
Kyle Sevenoaks
1. Green Lung – Black Harvest (Spotify/Bandcamp)
2. Pupil Slicer – Mirrors (Spotify/Bandcamp)
3. Olde – Pilgrimage (Spotify/Bandcamp)
4. Throat – Smile Less (Spotify/Bandcamp)
5. LLNN – Unmaker (Spotify/Bandcamp)
6. Deafheaven – Infinite Granite (Spotify/Bandcamp)
7. King Woman – Celestial Blues (Spotify/Bandcamp)
8. Boss Keloid – Family the Smiling Thrush (Spotify/Bandcamp)
9. Gojira – Fortitude (Spotify)
10. Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined (Spotify/Bandcamp)
Paul Cairney
1. Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined (Spotify/Bandcamp)
2. The Wildhearts – 21st Century Love Songs (Spotify)
3. Bala – Maleza (Spotify)
4. Atrae Bilis – Apexapien (Spotify/Bandcamp)
5. Carcass – Torn Arteries (Spotify/Bandcamp)
6. Wormwitch – Wolf Hex (Spotify/Bandcamp)
7. Nemophila – Oiran (Spotify)
8. Wolves in Haze – Chaos Reigns (Spotify/Bandcamp)
9. High Desert Queen – Secrets of the Black Moon (Spotify/Bandcamp)
10. Alastor – Onwards and Downwards (Spotify/Bandcamp)
Ross Bowie
1. Turnstile – Glow On (Spotify)
2. The Dirty Nil – Fuck Art (Spotify/Bandcamp)
3. Gojira – Fortitude (Spotify)
4. Every Time I Die – Radical (Spotify/Bandcamp)
5. Sleep Token – This Place Will Become Your Tomb (Spotify)
6. Seeyouspacecowboy – The Romance Of Affliction (Spotify/Bandcamp)
7. Whitechapel – Kin (Spotify/Bandcamp)
8. Spiritbox – Eternal Blue (Spotify/Bandcamp)
9. Bullet For My Valentine – Bullet For My Valentine (Spotify)
10. Dying Wish – Fragments Of A Bitter Memory (Spotify/Bandcamp)
Paul Franklin
1. The Blue Stones – Hidden Gems (Spotify/Bandcamp)
2. The Hawkins – Live in the Woods (Spotify/Bandcamp)
3. The Hawkins – Aftermath (Spotify/Bandcamp)
4. Alice Cooper – Detroit Stories (Spotify/Bandcamp)
5. Redscale – The Old Colossus (Spotify/Bandcamp)
6. The Black Keys – Delta Kream (Spotify)
7. The Wildhearts – 21st Century Love Songs (Spotify)
8. Rise Against – Nowhere Generation (Spotify/Bandcamp)
9. Holding Absence – The Greatest Mistake of my Life (Spotify/Bandcamp)
10. Beartooth – Below (Spotify)
Ryan Shearer
1. Spiritbox – Eternal Blue (Spotify/Bandcamp)
2. ERRA – ERRA (Spotify/Bandcamp)
3. Arcaeon – Cascadence (Spotify/Bandcamp)
4. Annisokay – Aurora (Spotify)
5. Limp Bizkit – Still Sucks (Spotify)
6. Between the Buried and Me – Colors II (Spotify)
7. Caskets – Lost Souls (Spotify/Bandcamp)
8. Bullet For My Valentine – Bullet For My Valentine (Spotify)
9. Holding Absence – The Greatest Mistake of my Life (Spotify/Bandcamp)
10. Darknet – TSP Vol-1 (Spotify/Bandcamp)
Ken Love
1. The Night Flight Orchestra – Aeromantic II (Spotify/Bandcamp)
2. Mastodon – Hushed and Grim (Spotify)
3. Converge / Chelsea Wolfe – Bloodmoon: I (Spotify/Bandcamp)
4. Gojira – Fortitude (Spotify)
5. Dvne – Etemen Ænka (Spotify/Bandcamp)
6. Unto Others – Strength (Spotify/Bandcamp)
7. Architects – For Those That Wish To Exist (Spotify/Bandcamp)
8. Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined (Spotify/Bandcamp)
9. Cult of Luna – The Raging River (Spotify/Bandcamp)
10. Powerwolf – Call of the Wild (Spotify/Bandcamp)
Jordan Burton-Morris
1. Iron Maiden – Senjutsu (Spotify)
2. Exodus – Persona Non Grata (Spotify)
3. Reaper – Rebirth Of Chaos (Spotify)
4. Carcass – Torn Arteries (Spotify/Bandcamp)
5. Rob Zombie – The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy (Spotify)
6. Infrared – From The Black Swamp (Spotify/Bandcamp)
7. Helloween – Helloween (Spotify)
8. Repentance – Volume I – Reborn (Spotify/Bandcamp)
9. Black Label Society – Doom Crew Inc. (Spotify/Bandcamp)
10. Mastodon – Hushed And Grim (Spotify)
Jay Creepy
1. Doodswens – Lichtvrees (Spotify/Bandcamp)
2. Amenra – De Doorn (Spotify/Bandcamp)
3. Abscession – Rot of Ages (Spotify/Bandcamp)
4. Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined (Spotify/Bandcamp)
5. Hate – Rugia (Spotify/Bandcamp)
6. Cadaveric Incubator – Nightmare Necropolis (Spotify/Bandcamp)
7. HellLight – Until the Silence Embraces (Spotify/Bandcamp)
8. Demonstealer – The Holocene Termination (Spotify/Bandcamp)
9. Diabolizer – Khalkedonian Death (Spotify/Bandcamp)
10. Yakisoba – Acid Bath Litanies (Spotify/Bandcamp)
Trina Julian Edwards
1. ERRA – ERRA (Spotify/Bandcamp)
2. Archspire – Bleed the Future (Spotify/Bandcamp)
3. Carnifex – Graveside Confessions (Spotify)
4. First Fragment – Gloire Éternelle (Spotify/Bandcamp)
5. Born of Osiris – Angel or Alien (Spotify)
6. Powerwolf – Call of the Wild (Spotify/Bandcamp)
7. Ophidian I – Desolate (Spotify/Bandcamp)
8. Brand of Sacrifice – Lifeblood (Spotify/Bandcamp)
9. Gojira – Fortitude (Spotify)
10. Mastodon – Hushed and Grim (Spotify)
Rick Farley
1. Tribulation – Where the Gloom Becomes Sound (Spotify)
2. Harakiri for the Sky – Maere (Spotify/Bandcamp)
3. Rivers of Nihil – The Work (Spotify/Bandcamp)
4. Carcass – Torn Arteries (Spotify/Bandcamp)
5. Dormant Ordeal – The Grand Scheme of Things (Spotify/Bandcamp)
6. Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm (Spotify/Bandcamp)
7. 1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet (Spotify/Bandcamp)
8. Alluvial – Sarcoma (Spotify)
9. Primalfrost – Lost Elegies (Spotify/Bandcamp)
10. Eternity’s End – Embers of War (Spotify/Bandcamp
Calvin Ryan
1. Holding Absence – The Greatest Mistake Of My Life (Spotify/Bandcamp)
2. While She Sleeps – Sleeps Society (Spotify)
3. Asking Alexandria – See What’s On The Inside (Spotify)
4. Mammoth WVH – Mammoth WVH (Spotify)
5. At The Gates – The Nightmare Of Being (Spotify)
6. Slaughter To Prevail – Kostolom (Spotify)
7. We Butter The Bread With Butter – Das Album (Spotify)
8. Ministry – Moral Hygiene (Spotify/Bandcamp)
9. Limp Bizkit – Still Sucks (Spotify)
10. Gojira – Fortitude (Spotify)
Eric Wilt
1. Rivers of Nihil – The Work (Spotify/Bandcamp)
2. First Fragment – Gloire Éternelle (Spotify/Bandcamp)
3. Mortiferum – Preserved in Torment (Spotify/Bandcamp)
4. White Stones – Dancing into Oblivion (Spotify/Bandcamp)
5. Sunless – Ylem (Spotify/Bandcamp)
6. Frozen Soul – Crypt of Ice (Spotify)
7. Burial – Inner Gateways to the Slumbering Equilibrium (Spotify/Bandcamp)
8. Helloween – Helloween (Spotify)
9. Cerebral Rot – Excretion of Mortality (Spotify/Bandcamp)
10. Witherfall – Curse of Autumn (Spotify)
