The Fallen Release of the Year Contenders thread

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 each 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 doom, sludge, stoner, gothic, drone & Southern metal space last year:

Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - "Bloodmoon: I"  {US gothic post-sludge collaboration}

Worm - "Foreverglade"  {US doom/death}

Cult of Luna - "The Raging River" E.P.  {Swedish post-sludge}

Dvne - "Etemen Ænka"  {Scottish progressive sludge metal}

Amenra - "De doorn"  {Belgian post-sludge}

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 each 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 doom, sludge, stoner, gothic, drone & Southern metal space last year:

Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - "Bloodmoon: I"  {US gothic post-sludge collaboration}

Worm - "Foreverglade"  {US doom/death}

Cult of Luna - "The Raging River" E.P.  {Swedish post-sludge}

Dvne - "Etemen Ænka"  {Scottish progressive sludge metal}

Amenra - "De doorn"  {Belgian post-sludge}

Dvne is currently sitting with 3.5 from one vote while Wolvennest is at 4.2 site rating with 3 votes, Hooded Menace is on 4.0 with 4 votes so I don't see how Dvne is a highly regarded release and those aren't. What is the criteria for the release of the year as I'm a little fuzzy on the deal?

Sonny, the release of the year will simply be decided on the highest scoring release using our Site Ratings & whatever minimum rating cut-off seems to make sense. The shortlists I'm providing are not intended to tell everyone the only releases that are in contention. That's not the case at all. Metal Academy obviously only has a small number of regular contributors at this stage so the shortlists are intended to draw people's attention to the releases that are getting the most attention on social media & other metal-related websites. The Dvne release has been included in the shortlist because (despite the fact that it only has one rating on this site) it has been popular on other metal mediums e.g. it's been making a number of well-informed people's AOTY lists on Twitter where I spend a fair amount of time & has scored highly with a large number of ratings on competitor's sites.  The long & short of it is that I'm looking to minimize the chances of important releases slipping under the radar of our small group if at all possible. I'm not saying that these five releases are the only potential winners.

Sonny, the release of the year will simply be decided on the highest scoring release using our Site Ratings & whatever minimum rating cut-off seems to make sense. The shortlists I'm providing are not intended to tell everyone the only releases that are in contention. That's not the case at all. Metal Academy obviously only has a small number of regular contributors at this stage so the shortlists are intended to draw people's attention to the releases that are getting the most attention on social media & other metal-related websites. The Dvne release has been included in the shortlist because (despite the fact that it only has one rating on this site) it has been popular on other metal mediums e.g. it's been making a number of well-informed people's AOTY lists on Twitter where I spend a fair amount of time & has scored highly with a large number of ratings on competitor's sites.  The long & short of it is that I'm looking to minimize the chances of important releases slipping under the radar of our small group if at all possible. I'm not saying that these five releases are the only potential winners.

Ah, OK. It just seems like favouring the same releases that other sites have been championing just because they are championing them. With four of the five releases on the shortlist being sludge-related it also feels like we are pushing for that genre to be the ROTY because it's the genre of choice elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, the three I've heard are all great albums, but shouldn't the shortlist be a bit more varied? Perhaps one release per relevant genre?

Sorry, I don't wish to seem argumentative but it seems to be unfairly weighting certain releases because people who are not members of Metal Academy like them.

Sonny, the main reason for doing these posts is to drum up some interest in clans like The Sphere, The Gateway & The Revolution where we have very few ratings so I was wanting to give people an easy guide to the most likely releases as we only have a month to go. The Sphere is the best example as none of the more popular releases  have even a single MA rating & if we took the current leader as the winner then it'd go to a release that hasn't even made a dent elsewhere with only two MA ratings (e.g. it hasn't even come close to reaching 100 ratings on RYM). If you'd like to post some of your own suggestions for The Fallen then I'm sure everyone would appreciate it.

I've previously posted my top 50 Fallen releases of the year list, so anything near the top of that would be a recommendation from me.

https://metal.academy/lists/single/150

Again, I apologise if you think I'm being difficult.

What is the actual cut-off date when the winners will be decided, Daniel? I ask so that I can make sure to get a few listens in for more of the albums and give them a reasonably informed rating.

The end of January Sonny.

This is a decent enough album, albeit a bit too polished for my taste, but I don't feel it is a true representation of The Fallen. It is about 25% sludge and 75% progressive metal as it attempts to reproduce latterday Mastodon's sludge-prog. Personally I would feel a bit short-changed if it was considered Fallen AOTY as I think it is more suited to The Infinite. That's just me though, so have a listen and see what you think.

Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - "Bloodmoon: I" (2021)

What a stunning collaboration this is then!? I'd never given gothic rock artist Chelsea Wolfe a real chance before but her style beautifully compliments the sludgy atmosphere & riffage of metalcore masters Converge here for a varied & emotionally engaging journey that sees both artists stretching themselves into uncharted territory while never really sounding outside of their comfort zones. The beginning & end of this record are utterly spectacular while the middle requires multiple listens for its charms to fully sink in so I saw the appeal of "Bloodmoon:I" increasing dramatically with each revisit. The gothic rock/ethereal wave influence from Chelsea is certainly evident on some of this material but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with Gothic Metal being a primary genre for this record. The post-sludge metal tag is more than sufficient to cover most of this material with full-blown sludge metal pushing for inclusion but failing at the last hurdle due to the large amount of ground this album covers & the phenomenal atmosphere it pervades. I often found myself referencing Mastodon's progressive sludge metal sound while a couple of the tracks even hint at an Alice In Chains/alternative metal feel. There's just so much substance to this material. "Bloodmoon: I" definitely represents one of the strongest releases I've heard from 2021. 

4.5/5

Bloodmoon I was extremely good and made the top half of my 2021 list, but it didn't grow enough on me to have it be truly stunning. It definitely deserves to be in contention though, the album has a unique sound that I don't think anyone would have guessed given who was collaborating. I can't wait for Bloodmoon: I if it happens. 

Going to push myself to go through all these 2021 posts to get my "vote ratings" in. 

Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I

While the album is definitely a genuine collaboration, it does seem to be more of a metal album than Chelsea Wolfe would normally produce, so feels like Converge were the dominant side of the partnership with their music being tempered by Chelsea's presence rather than being an equally divided recording. This is no bad thing and I'm guessing this was the natural way for the album to come about, without worrying about ego and  preciousness, the music coming first.

From the opening track, the almost eight minutes of Blood Moon, it is apparent that Chelsea Wolfe's gothic darkwave influence acts as the perfect temper for Converge's withering intensity, providing the moments within the music that allow it to breathe and offer some introspection rather than merely deploying relentless aggression which, for me personally, is a big plus as I find the sustained intensive aggression of metalcore and mathcore to be insufferable most of the time, but these gentler, more reflective parts provide contrast and context to the whirling maelstrom and make it much more effective as a result. Don't be misled though, there are still plenty of great riffs and metal moments - I'm particularly fond of the riff towards the end of Coil as the track peaks from the extended build-up. Chelsea's influence can also be felt on the crawling, Soundgarden-ish Flower Moon which also has a great riff and crunchy guitar sound as it ramps up the intensity for a real stand-out track. Flower Moon is followed by Tongues Playing Dead which sounds more like I imagine Converge to usually sound and, I must confess, if the whole album sounded like this track then I would struggle with it. Lord of Liars is similarly intense, but the presence of Chelsea Wolfe's clean vocal and the whirlwind guitar work make this a far superior number.

Anyway I have no intention of producing a track by track breakdown, suffice it to say that Bloodmoon:I provides far more variety and interest than I originally expected and although I certainly wouldn't say it's a perfect album, the protagonists, despite coming from very different directions, work well off one another and have combined to produce an album that should appeal to a large cross-section of fans of metal and more mainstream taste alike.

Solid 4/5, has potential to push itself up to a 4.5 with subsequent listens.