2021 Top Christian Metal and Rock Albums

[MetalPioneer]

2021 is almost over, and it's time to reflect on the best albums of the year. What are your top 10 Christian metal and rock albums of 2020? You can be creative if you like -- add album art, give an explanation or description -- it's up to you!

If you have less than 10 or want to list more than 10, that's okay too! There has been a ton of new music this year, so I know it's hard to choose.

[MetalPioneer]

Here is my top 10 list! It was a hard choice because there are so many great albums, but these are the ones that I keep coming back to.

I put an approximate genre next to each album if you're interested in checking any of these out.

1. Convictions - I Won't Survive (Metalcore)
2. Gospod - Israel's Exodus (Melodic Black Metal)
3. SorrowStorm - Epoch of Exile (Black Metal)
4. Dalit - Moksha (Death/Doom Metal)
5. Trytan - Blood of Kings (Progressive Metal)
6. Pantokrator - Marching Out of Babylon (Melodic Death Metal)
7. Warpriest - Dark Ages (Traditional Doom Metal)
8. Brotality - Worldwide Desolation (Thrash Metal)
9. Mangled Carpenter - Under the Shadow (Deathgrind / Death Metal)
10. Meadows - In Those Days and Also After (Melodic Hardcore)

[Kerrick]

There were some very good releases this year! My top three are, in no particular order because it's much too hard haha:

Warpriest - Dark Ages
Dalit - Moksha
Crowned In Sorrow - In Memoriam

('twas a great year for doooooom!)

Other albums I really enjoy, in alphabetical order:

Apostisy - The Paradox Of Existence
Death Therapy - Melancholy Machines
Irgalom - A Great Light
Irgalom - Pools Of Water
Northern Flame - Twisted Reality
OLTAS - Illusion Of Control
Pantokrator - Marching Out Of Babylon
Reflection Of Glory - Escape The Dream

[MetalPioneer]

There were some very good releases this year!  My top three are, in no particular order because it's much too hard haha:

Warpriest - Dark Ages
Dalit - Moksha
Crowned In Sorrow - In Memoriam

('twas a great year for doooooom!)

Other albums I really enjoy, in alphabetical order:

Apostisy - The Paradox Of Existence
Death Therapy - Melancholy Machines
Irgalom - A Great Light
Irgalom - Pools Of Water
Northern Flame - Twisted Reality
OLTAS - Illusion Of Control
Pantokrator - Marching Out Of Babylon
Reflection Of Glory - Escape The Dream

Nice list. There's some stuff I need to check out. I forgot about the Apostisy release, but I enjoyed it quite a bit as well. Isn't Northern Flame an old black metal band? I wasn't aware they released new material. Or maybe I'm thinking of a different band.

[Kerrick]

Enjoy! No, Northern Flame is euro power metal, through and through. Though the main guy is also in the black metal band Parakletos.

[MetalPioneer]

I've been listening to Irgalom off and on today while working on my novel. It looks like Spotify has all of their records. It sounds great! Not sure why I've been sleeping on this band. I see that Vision of God Records has their albums for sale as well, so I might have to splurge. Next up on my listening list is Reflection of Glory.

[Kerrick]

Oh dude Irgalom is great! I'm surprised too that you haven't delved into 'em yet. I love the biblical and worshipful lyrics. I also really dig Gergely's other project The Arbiter. And yes, VOGR is the label for all of both projects' American releases so you can snag 'em all up there.

I should add to my list Reminiscent - Memory Of The Scars. Top-notch symphonic doom/death in the vein of Morphia and Crowned In Sorrow.

[MetalPioneer]

There are just a lot of great bands and not enough time. I wasn't aware that he was involved with The Arbiter. The Reflection of Glory album is awesome. There isn't much Christian symphonic metal out there. I'm surprised that I haven't heard of them before.

[Kerrick]

Ha I feel ya! Never enough time OR money!

Gergely is in like a dozen bands haha. He's the owner of Abran Records and as far as I know, is the sole member of just basically the entire roster's bands. He's got some other projects that aren't on VOGR that range from melodic death metal, metalcore, electronic, and more.
https://abran.bandcamp.com/

I'm glad you like Reflection Of Glory! They've got some of the stronger lyrics in the current Christian scene IMO and top-notch music. I only fairly recently discovered them too and am surprised they haven't made more of a splash yet. I think the latest album got pretty high marks from many so hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more of 'em in due time.

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