Good morrow
This is Prnzo
this list is probably for...
idk, the more adventurous...
jack-of-all-trades listener
lots of apples/oranges here
hopefully this top list helps
at least one MS'er
and if not...
there's always next yr
...unless there's not

update: this list still reflected just releases from earlier in the year - I keep updating my list offline... but I'm never happy with some of the configuration/arrangement (due mostly to indecision or losing track of even a very good release here n there)

1.Between The Buried And Me - Colors II

2.Dordeduh - Har

3.Adjy - The Idyll Opus (I-VI)

4.The World Is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Illusory Walls

5.Converge and Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I

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1.Trhä - Endlhëtonëg

2.Spectral Wound - A Diabolic Thirst

3.Suffering Hour - The Cyclic Reckoning

4.Ad Nauseam - Imperative Imperceptible Impulse

5.Belore - Artefacts

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The top 50 of the year that will be remembered as the gap year between the pandemic and the war

Album count: 138
Average rating: 7.24

1.Empyrium - Über Den Sternen

2.Swallow The Sun - Moonflowers

3.Wardruna - Kvitravn

4.Leprous - Aphelion

5.Cannibal Corpse - Violence Unimagined

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Metallic World War 2021

2017 champions Archspire want to defend their leadership (strategy: we raze you with more BPM), while Dvne (3rd place in 2017) and Rivers of Nihil (3rd place in 2018) enhance their sonic arsenal by forcefully declaring war on sovereigns; however, the battlefield is filled with loose mines that could explode and blow everything up, ultra-technical mines called Inferi, Deviant Process and First Fragment (brand: Dominic Forest Lapointe). From afar, cautious and silent, veterans named Carcass, Dream Theater and Mastodon lurk. Steffen Kummurer of Obscura (3rd place in 2009, 2nd place in 2011, 6th place in 2016, 7th place in 2018) warrior experienced and reliable, re-sheaths his most powerful weapons (Jeroen Paul Thesseling and Christian Muenzner, champion with the Alkaloid in 2018) and prepares for the final assault on the Throne of Metal. The 2012 champions, Between the Buried and Me, dethroned but never tamed, take the field recalling the glorious colors of the past to regain what is rightfully theirs.

1.Between The Buried And Me - Colors II

2.Dvne - Etemen Ænka

3.Archspire - Bleed The Future

4.Obscura - A Valediction

5.Mastodon - Hushed And Grim

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I feel like my overall favorites list is getting too long. I'm splitting it up by rating.

1.Ulcerate - Stare Into Death And Be Still

2.Madder Mortem - Eight Ways

3.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

4.Ayreon - 01011001

5.Igric - Svet Svetlom Stvorený

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1.Transilvania - Of Sleep And Death

2.Bhleg - Ödhin

3.Ferriterium - Calvaire

4.Asphyx - Necroceros

5.Yoth Iria - As The Flame Withers

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Keeping track of 2021's albums

1.First Fragment - Gloire Éternelle

2.Ad Nauseam - Imperative Imperceptible Impulse

3.Thy Catafalque - Vadak

4.Between The Buried And Me - Colors II

5.Iotunn - Access All Worlds

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1.Lorna Shore - ...And I Return To Nothingness

2.Harakiri For The Sky - Mære

3.Monolord - Your Time To Shine

4.Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion

5.Der Weg Einer Freiheit - Noktvrn

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2 Anno Covidi

1.Khirki - Κτηνωδία

2.Band-Maid - Unseen World

3.Dread Sovereign - Alchemical Warfare

4.Dvne - Etemen Ænka

5.Need - Norchestrion: A Song For The End

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