The Best Metal of May 2021

Yes, I'm still alive and doing this

Thank you all for your patience. It turns out that when writing is your profession, it’s not always easy to do more writing on the side for fun. But now that we’ve wrapped up the month of June (almost), it’s time for me to dive back in and recap the best metal from May. I’ll be following this up shortly with a month of June recap and a best of the year so far recap sometime in early July. The next best of the month will also include non-metal selections since that feels more reasonable than sending y’all four backlogged letters all at once. 

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s dig into the best metal from May.

Esoctrilihum - Dy'th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath

I’ve already waxed poetic about this record in a previous newsletter but it bears repeating that this is not just a competitor for metal album of the year, but also flat out album of the year. Everything that made 2020’s Eternity of Shaog so promising returns on Dy'th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath in a more refined and calculated state. The riffs and guitar tones grab hold of you like an addiction while sickening vocals do their best to turn your stomach. It’s everything that’s great about metal wrapped into one exceptionally slick package.

Panopticon - ...And Again Into the Light

Much like their previous effort The Scars of Man upon the Once Nameless Wilderness, ...And Again into the Light seems destined to be the non-metalhead’s best metal record of 2021. If you’re not a metalhead, then just go check it out, there’s certainly plenty to keep you interested in this magnificent blend of black metal, folk, avant-garde metal and post metal. But if you’re a metalhead who feels burned by the encroachment of the Pitchfork/NeedleDrop crowd into your territory, know that this album should not be the subject of your ire. It contains everything you could possibly want, whether that be monstrous riffs, huge crescendos, blast beats, or traditional folk arrangements. ...And Again into the Light deserves all the praise it receives from people of all tastes, it’s just that good.

Portal - Avow

If Panopticon and Deafheaven make music for the weird Pitchfork reader, then Portal makes music for the weird metalhead. This sounds like a journey into hell, and not in the usual sense. There’s a tension and anxiety within Avow that rarely makes its way into metal records. Impossibly, this tension doesn’t come at the expense of speed or intensity. Portal spends the majority of the record jumping maddeningly from one riff to another at blistering speeds. The resulting effect is a disorientation so profound that it nearly rips your mind apart. Avow will not be for everyone, but those who it is for will love its unyielding and unforgiving approach to extreme metal.

Gateway - Flesh Reborn

While I do my best to remain open minded about all forms of music and metal, there remain a few easy ways to capture my heart. When it comes to metal, the fastest way to earn my praise is to lob the heaviest riff you can find directly at my eardrum. Gateway’s Flesh Reborn does this perfectly. As a death doom group, Gateway holds onto the speed and ferocity of death metal but avoids the more technical doodling of the genre by drop-tuning the hell out of everything. This record is just as heavy as some truly dyed-in-the-wool doom metal, and it’s all the better for it.

Burial Pit - Subhuman Scum

First off, I love it when a metal band has a gorgeous album cover. Second, good lord this rips. It sort of fits in the death-doom category but pulls in enough tech death and punk influence that it never becomes too predictable. The vocals are positively incredible and everything is produced incredibly well. It reminds me of the best parts of my favorite hardcore punk band breakdowns but run through a dozen iterations that all sought to be heavier and more ferocious. If this is what Burial Pit is giving us on their debut EP, then I can’t wait to see what they have in store for a full length record.