2021 EPs

At thirty-eight and a half minutes this is actually longer than a number of the albums on the main list. However, the band insist that it is an EP and acts as a bridge between 2019’s awesome “A Dawn to Fear” and their forthcoming 2022 record. It finds Cult of Luna piling on the introspection and the Astro-planning. This is essentially Metallica does a meditation album, equally transcendental and meatily metallic.

One of those “they have done what??” moments. Norwegian Black and rollers Kvelertak only went and reimagined four tracks of their last album as an 8-bit computer game soundtracks. It works, sort of. More quaint and quirky than actually any good.

You have to feel sorry for Insomnium. The Finnish melodic death metallers had just started a mammoth self-financed tour of the United States when the pandemic struck., just one show in. Then it all got pulled and they had to crowd fund to get themselves and their crew home again. Like many bands they embraced the livestream medium with a vengeance, playing a sizable amount of their epic albums in full in order to try and recoup their losses. During these sessions they started playing with ideas and “Argent Moon” was born. It really is a rather good idea and if this was an album it would be knocking on my top ten with a vengeance. It seems they move further into progressive territory than ever before; the death metal side of their persona is toned down to allow their lush orchestration to flow. Really rather wonderful.

Talking of prog, we have the veritable kings of Black Prog. Not content with releasing a fabulous record in 2020, they once again returned to the studio (face it, there was nothing else to do for most of this year) and produced one of their most wonderous records yet. They manage to capture their two distinctive selves in four tracks (well two massively long tracks and two interludes). There is rampant riffing of their formative Black Metal days and there is also the wind-swept introspection of their latter years. They are both here in actual perfect synchronisation. Again, another record that would be demanding a high berth in the main list if it twas a little longer.

This is stuff that didn’t quite make the cut for last years’ majestic “May Our Chambers Be Full”. There is heavier and more foreboding stuff here on the EP than actually made it onto the main record and it has a taut claustrophobic feeling. As ever it is all about the contrast between Emma’s delicate lilt and Bryan Funck guttural screams.

A poignant and bittersweet entry, this was the posthumous release from Alexi Laiho’s post Children Of Bodom. When the rest of the band bailed on him, he initially wanted to keep operating under the Bodom banner. Sadly, rights issues saw pay to that so instead we went for a subtle name change and started recording material that to be honest did not sound a million miles away from Children of Bodom territory. Tragically Alexi died from heart complications in late 2020 and Bodom after Midnight died with him. Meant to eventually be a full album, these three tracks were all that has been recorded before his untimely death.

“Sex, Death and Infinite Void” was so so close to being our album of the year last year. A literal hairs breath. “American Noir” is a companion piece and carries on both the lyrical themes and also the obsession with Jim Steinman like aural excesses. This is big, camp, soaring and only last nineteen minutes. ‘Midnight’ is the Eagles meets Rocky Horror with a chorus to die for (“take me now whilst the gods can’t hear us”), ‘America at Night’ is half torch song and half sweeping power ballad, ‘Ghosts of Calvary’ would make Bonnie Tyler weep in envy and ‘Damned and Doomed’ has all the feels. Basically, if this was longer it would have triumphed where its predecessor failed.