The Sphere Release of the Year Contenders thread

First Post January 01, 2022 08:31 AM

Hi everyone.

With only one month to go until we announce our release of 2021 for each clan (which will once again be based on our site ratings), Ben & I thought it'd be worth highlighting five key releases contending for The Sphere title in order to give everyone the chance to investigate some (or all) of them this month if you wish to. These were some of the more highly regarded releases in the industrial metal, cyber metal & Neue Deutsche Härte space last year with all of them being regular inclusions in our monthly The Sphere playlist:


Fange - "Pantocrator"  {Industrial sludge metal from France}

Youth Code & King Yosef - "A Skeleton Key In The Doors Of Depression"  {Industrial metal from the US}

Fear Factory - "Aggression Continuum"  {Industrial metal from Los Angeles}

Autarkh - "Form In Motion"  {Industrial death metal from the Netherlands}

Keygen Church - "░█░█░░█░█░█░"  {Italian cyber metal}


We currently have very few ratings for 2021 The Sphere releases so any ratings you may submit are likely to have an impact on the result.

January 25, 2022 08:47 PM

Fange - "Pantocrator" (2021)

Where the fuck did this short thirty minute gem of an album come from?! I think I might just have found my new AOTY right here. Imagine the super dark & crushingly heavy sludge metal of Primitive Man combined with the mechanical industrial beats of Godflesh & the cold production of Uniform & you won't be far off the mark. Throw in some death metal riffs too just to stroke my comfort zone a but more too. I just fucking love this shit!

4.5/5

January 25, 2022 11:12 PM


Fange - "Pantocrator" (2021)

Where the fuck did this short thirty minute gem of an album come from?! I think I might just have found my new AOTY right here. Imagine the super dark & crushingly heavy sludge metal of Primitive Man combined with the mechanical industrial beats of Godflesh & the cold production of Uniform & you won't be far off the mark. Throw in some death metal riffs too just to stroke my comfort zone a but more too. I just fucking love this shit!

4.5/5

Quoted Daniel

Yeah, I enjoyed it's bleak, confrontational sound so much I bought the CD. My favourite industrial-adjacent album in years, if not ever!


January 28, 2022 05:53 PM

Yeah, Fange is the CLEAR winner here in my opinion; it's not even close. Two great songs that pull the mechanical-ness into some seriously sludgy riffs in all the best ways.