#15 tie: Mental cruelty: a hill to die upon (6.7/10)
- Genre: Blackened Deathcore
- Strong start, but gets to be "more of the same" as the album goes
- Still slaps tho
#15 tie: Born of Osiris: Angel or Alien (6.7/10)
- Genre: Progressive Metalcore
- I'm guilty of 100% having slept on this album because the title track / single was super watered down
- The rest of the album is actually pretty good
- No Top 5 BOO songs, but lots of solid stuff
#14: Phinehas: The Fire Itself (6.8/10)
- Genre: Melodic Metalcore
- Band has always been good, but this is superb
- "Eternally Apart" is a killer opener
- August Burns Red and Affiance had a baby
#11 TIE: Rivers of Nihil: The Work (6.9/10)
- Genre: Heavy Metal
- I've heard mixed reviews on this likely due to the pacing, but thought it was very solid front to back
#11 TIE: Abiotic: Ikigai (6.9/10)
- Genre: Progressive Metal / Death Metal
- Full of nice surprises throughout, no bad moments
- The 2 tracks w/ music videos are 2 of the dullest tracks - I assume they have videos because they have guest features
- Ikigai, Covered the Cold Earth, The Wrath, Horadric Cube, and Gyokusai slap
#11 TIE: First Fragment: Gloire Éternelle (6.9/10)
- Genre: Tech Death
- Generational talent, Dominc Forest LaPointe might be the best bass player in metal
- Only drawbacks are the vocalist not being on the same level as the rest of the musicians and that the album starts to fatigue as it goes, "more of the same"
#8 TIE: Every Time I die: Radical (7.0/10)
- Genre: Metalcore / Hardcore
- Arguably their best release to date
- Desperate Pleasures and AWOL are bangers
- Solid start to finish
#8 TIE: Sentinels: Collapse by Design (7.0/10)
- Genre: Modern Metalcore / Noisecore
- Chuck full of strong songs and few low points
- The kids from the Age of Revision video in 2014 grew up and added to their sound while keeping their ability to relentlessly transition from relentless to even more relentless in their songs in a relentlessly relentless fashion
#8 tie: Darko US: darko (7.0/10)
- Genre: Deathcore / Metalcore
- More dynamic than expected based on "singles" being mostly open note to ugly chord transitions
- Studio collab between vocalist Tom Barber (Chelsea Grin, ex-Lorna Shore) and Josh Miller (ex-Glass Cloud, ex-Emmure) who as a lefty drummer plays guitar upside down
#7 tie: Leprous: aphelion (7.2/10)
- Genre: Progressive Rock
- Not a bad track on the album
- Standouts are Out of Here and On Hold
- They keep sounding more and more like Dredg
#6: spiritbox: Eternal Blue (7.4/10)
- Genre: Modern Metalcore
- Not as good as their 2019-2020 singles
- Predictable song structures compared to earlier works
- Still solid even though Circle With Me sucks
- I cried during the Constance music video the 2nd time I watched it because I'm a big softie
#5: Silent Planet: Iridescent (7.5/10)
- Genre: Modern Metalcore
- Solid effort, strong start to finish
- As always, top notch lyrics
- Trilogy was released as a single in early 2020, but was a standout track on this 2021 album
#4: between the buried and me (8.1/10)
- Genre: Progressive Metal
- Best work since Parallax 2
- Great blend of perfect moments and drawn out boring parts
- Monochrome rolling into The Double Helix of Extinction is epic
#3: FRONTIERER: OXIDIZED (8.4/10)
- Genre: Mathcore
- Danza meets Dillinger
- One of the best mathcore albums of the past decade
- Should be listened cover to cover for true experience
#2: Ice Nine Kills: Welcome To Horrorwood: T.S.S.2 (8.5/10)
- Genre: Melodic Metalcore
- I don't like music like this, I should hate this
- It's so cheesy and brilliant at the same time because it's self-aware AND maximum effort at the same time - they didn't take shortcuts here
- It's like a Disney movie that's for the kids, so you should hate it but don't
- This is different - cover to cover banger
#1: Archspire: bleed the future (8.7/10)
- Genre: Tech death for people who don't like tech death
- Genre staple
- If you're not familiar with this album, you're not trying hard enough at life