Mick's Töp 15 Albums of 2021

2021 was an interesting year. It cleared the lowest bar possible of being better than 2020, but still was another year of adjusting to whatever the “new normal” is supposed to be. I work from home and do have a job that I love, but the monotony of not leaving my house basically ever has surfaced more moments of existential dread than I typically like to allow in one calendar year. My wife and our two cats have continued to be my foundation. Having each other has certainly meant the world in navigating through these weird times. I fell deeper into some hobbies which mostly were video game related (shocker, I know) but the tradeoff was that I wrote about music less. Durf really put the team on his back by coming up with the Durf’s Weekly Workout column, but it was personally a slow year around these parts. All in all, 2021 was like beating Dark Souls (which was also something I did for the first time this year); there were plenty of moments that felt like I was beating my head against the wall, but seeing it through was ultimately worth it. And since I didn’t write a ton this year, please allow me to word vomit a bit about the albums that carried me through.

Durf's Töp 15 Albums of 2021

Yeesh, what a year.  Yeah, I know, I say that pretty much every year, but this year I mean it.  In the span of really ten short months, the Durfette and I welcomed the Durfling 2, I got a promotion at work, the Durfette got a new job, we both decided we wanted to get the fuck out of Idaho, I got a new job, we sold our house, bought a new house, moved to Tennessee, and that's just off the top of my head.  It's been a year.  Not to mention that until shit got real bonkers around August/September, I managed to actually write something nearly every week for this her blog, which was a lot of fun.  I'd love to be able to tell you that Durf's Weekly Workout will make a triumphant return sometime soon, but I can't commit to that, and I just can't lie to you terrific folks.  The new job takes a lot of my time and energy, and I'm still trying to figure out how to make sure my family doesn't get shortchanged, and until I do, I need to do other things than tell you how wicked lifting to Suffering Hour is (it's pretty fuckin' wicked though).  But hopefully it will be back at some point.  But for now, let's talk about sixteen albums from this year that were phenomenal.  I listened to more music this year than potentially any year previous, so you know these sixteen are the choicest of choice cuts.  As always, the amount written about any album does not speak to my thoughts or feelings about it; that's what the numbers are for.

Tom's Töp 15 Albums of 2021

2021 was another year in the Covid-19 abyss, one that I had the displeasure of experiencing myself a few weeks ago, with minimal issues luckily. It is an ever-present threat to getting things back to as normal as humanly possible, lurking around every corner, making its presence known. Unlike the majority of 2020, 2021 saw the return of many live shows, including my foray back to them in the form of the Philadelphia portion of Decibel's Metal and Beer Fest back in September. My family and job helped form the foundation of the year as did my ongoing series of Heavy Metal Happy Hours that I run weekly on Zoom, if you were a part of even one of them, just know you have helped me, and I certainly hope it has helped you too. So anyway, a little less about me and more about the music that made 2021 pop, this is a veritable cornucopia of the year with everything from hardcore to goth, death and thrash metal as well. It accurately reflects my spastic sense of music and reality.