The Top 10 Metal Albums of 2021

We have needed heavy music more than ever this year. This is the culmination of all the other metal lists. Yes, I have done other metal lists for other blogs, and I seem them as being a refining process for when I make this list. So, while result may have varied, this is the final word.  I know many of you are ready for 2020 to be over with. Hate to break it to you but nothing is getting better next year. At the very fact these bands made it on the list means they are the cream of the crop so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Sure, you can bitch and complain about your favorite band not being on the list. However, I listen to five new albums a day so yes, I heard your favorite album and was not impressed. No, I do not care what you think about it. I   hope you can find your next favorite on this list and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out audio on these guys. Anyways here are the top 10 Metal albums of 2021

10-Hooded Menace - "the Tritonus Bell" 

 This band from Finland never struck me over the course of their careers so far as being as creative in the song writing department as they have so midway into the first song of this album. The have really paid more attention to their guitar melodies without becomes cheesy melo-death. The low guttural vocals could always turn into the one-dimensional element that shoots this inspiration down as the album progresses so we will see.   

Abysmal Hymns: Hooded Menace : "The Tritonus Bell"

 

9- Ruin - "Spread Plague Death " 

They come back nastier and grimmer on the title track of their new album. I really love "Human Annihilation". It had a very tangible hate to its sound. In the time of metal growing kinder and gentler I need it to be more hateful. These miscreants deliver. It is not until a few songs in that things pick up into the faster pounding most death metal is known for. They have not gotten any softer and it is still just as effective when they go from the jack hammer into a more deliberate crunch. All too often heaviness seems to sacrifice a willingness to care about song writing yet here we are with the most dismally gurgled vocals and the songs still have me engaged.  Perhaps this meanness is the only edge they have over Hooded Menace, it is almost too close to call. 

Abysmal Hymns: Ruin : "Spread Plague Death"

8- Flotsam and Jetsam- "Blood in the Water" 

These guys are the masters of power thrash. The album is way heavier than expected, but the songs are hooky, and Erik's voice sounds great, so what else can you ask for these guys, who keep surprising us with some of their best work coming this late in their careers. Songwriting is what beats out the brutality of Ruin. 

 Abysmal Hymns: Flotsam & Jetsam : "Blood in the Water"

 

 7-Glassing- "Twin Dream" 

At first you think ...ok this is a sludge album with a great deal of post rock atmosphere, not an uncommon sub-genre these days. As this album unfolds your ears are bathed in a great deal of powerful heaviness that hits you outside the sonic scope of sludge. Angular twists and turns as well as sections that pound at you like an angry hard- core band, or I suppose screamo since that tends to blend its sonic texture more in this direction. Darker a more powerful emotionally than Flotsam's more headfirst assault.

Abysmal Hymns: November is Doom - Glassing - " Twin Dream"

6-Witnesses - 'the Collapse"

They bravely follow up to "Doom II " which was such a perfect album, In my head this bar they set for themselves, they did not make the same album twice. Instead, they approached this more another angle. Perhaps, not as desolate and dark in the way it occupies sonic space as their previous album. But after a couple days of playtime, it is clear the guitar melodies are as equally haunting. I think in doing so for this album they have allowed the vocals to convey a similar emoting with more subtle flow as the take on a rawer edge. Heavier and more metallic it works in its own way.  Riffs are what beats out Glassing. 

Abysmal Hymns: November is Doom- Witnesses : "the Collapse"

 

5-Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - " Blood Moon "

I like these two artists almost equally it brings out Converge's best side as I prefer their dark creepy melodic stuff over when they are just a total punk rock freak out the album leans in more of a sludge direction though by the highly experimental definition of that sub-genre, Wolfe's solo work had those elements previously, so this is not a surprise. They work together in a masterful way to create heavy music that is still beautiful in different ways. The range of sonic colors beats out Witnesses. 

Abysmal Hymns: November is Doom - Converge & Chelsea Wolfe :"Blood Moon"

4-Hypocrisy- "Worship"

The 90s never left. This is the vibe I get from the first album in over a decade from one of Sweden's best death metal acts. I first got into them back in 1994 with the 'Fourth Dimension" album. They were ahead of the curve when it came to lyrics dealing with alien conspiracies. Their experience as song writers prevails and makes this better than what a younger band eager to prove how heavy they are would do. Lyrically it is very fitting for the past year so wish it had come out earlier but will take it. They impressively beat out Converge and Ms. Wolfe's collab as these songs hooked me in more. 

Abysmal Hymns: Hypocrisy : " Worship"

 

  3-Bloody Hammers - "Songs of Unspeakable Terror"

What gave these guys the edge is that this album came out back in January and hung tough as an album I would return to at least once a week or so. An impressive feat when you consider how much new music I ingest. This time the band leaned into the punk side of their influences, and it works much better. It is not total Danzig as the Elvis side of the coin is toned down. The vocals are great and very catchy. I can appreciate how this is married to an almost edgy cock rock side of 80s metal, but all horror anthems which earned their place at the top of this list. They beat out Hypocrisy because I just got a little more mileage out of this one. 

Abysmal Hymns: Bloody Hammers : "Songs of Unspeakable Terror"

2- Iron Maiden- "Senjutsu" 

There is no real filler on this album, the first single is the weakest song on the album and that is a relative term as it is still better than anything another band trying to be them could do, and a solid song in its own right even if it is not just what I showed up for, If this is their last album it is a fine summary of their legacy.  They beat out Bloody Hammers, because well this is Iron Maiden and they do not just stick to one riff no matter how cool it is their songs are an adventure. 

Abysmal Hymns: Iron Maiden : "Senjutsu"

1- Portrayal of Guilt - "We are Always Alone"

This time around they brought the more sonic kind of heavy I love. They are pretty deliberate using very chilling chord structures.  From the first listen I knew that this was going to be the fucking album to beat this year this shit kicks your face in and is a beautiful dark mess, just what the world needs right now/The parts that did not tug at me right away grew on me, making this an almost perfect album and the best of the heaviest. Beating out Maiden because they took more chances.      

Abysmal Hymns: Portrayal of Guilt : "We Are Always Alone"

 

the Top 10 Worst Albums of 2021

In a year where music was less than stellar it seemed fitting to bring back this list. One of the things that made rap great in the 80s and 90s was rappers calling each other out for being whack. It provided a form of quality control. Now people have grown too sensitive for that kind of hard truth. There are those who would argue this is all subjective, but music is something that can be defined in technical terms, as well as artistic, how does it hold up over time. Chances are if it is hard is get through one listen it is not going to stand the test of time. Most of these albums it was hard for me to write a full review of as I could not listen to the album as a whole and had to skip around to try to find something to worthwhile to listen to. Sure, some of these might have sold a ton of album but the Fast and Furious movies are garbage in terms of storytelling, so the sheep are not a great barometer. So here are the top ten worst albums of 2021  

10--DED - "School of Thought" 

I mean half the fault here might lie in the PR company who sent this thinking that this was the kind of music I am into. Though I might send mixed messages since I do like Issues and the new Spirit Box was pretty decent so I can take commercial music if done the right way. Not that this sucks in the manner it was crafted, from a production and performance stance everything works, the source of inspiration is the problem. Metal is like funk you cannot fake it.  By the last song I no longer care what side of nu metal they are falling on and just want this to be over. 

9-Black Veil Brides-  'the Phantom Tomorrow"

Not a stranger to this list, these guys look like "Shout at the Devil" era Motley Crue, but sadly sound like Nickleback. Nickelback is at least catchy at times, these guys are just the blandest lowest common denominator radio rock you can imagine, you can never tell if it is their album or a beer commercial that just happens to crop up on Youtube when trying to listen to their album I could only take three songs. 

8-Tropical Fuck Storm - "Deep States" 

Weird indie rock and weird should be the good part , but instead they sound like a happy version of Xiu Xiu, which works against them since Xiu Xiu's most interesting quality is how well they personify their anxious depression sonically, this just sounds like punk rock for hippies in art school who want to seem cool by listening to this. 

7-Portal - "Avow" 

If you took every element of death metal that makes it boring when not balanced out by melody and songwriting and maxed, it out to the extreme before condensing it into an album then this is what it would sound like, along with a noisy mix that makes everything sound like grumbling bowels. The literal embodiment of sounding like shit/

 6-Lingua Ignota - 'Sinner Get Ready" 

The music is one of the worst things about going to church.  She took it and made it even more boring. Minimalism is not her friend no matter how desperately she wants it to be as it continues to point out the fact, she cannot write a song that is not boring as fuck.

  5- Maneskin- "Teatro d'ira: Vol. I"

Somehow the Eurovision darlings have hung their dresses on the gimmick of trying to build a career off their glam androgyny, much like their millennial fan base they just want this to be handed to them without realizing they have to do the work of writing actual songs, they just threw some riffs in a bucket and hoped for the best.  

4-Coldplay -  "Music of the Spheres" 

At best this band was a dollar store version of Radiohead that was watered down for mass radio consumption and castrated. Now they have added a largely electronic version of that, so homogenized electro version of their uber vanilla pop. Could not make through more than a minute of each song. 

3-Insane Clown Posse - "Yum Yum Bedlam" 

When your whole career is built around a cult like following that calls themselves family to rally around the fact you are crazy clowns rebelling against the mainstream and then make an album of boring pop that sounds like all the other boring pop, what do you have to rally around?  

2-the Body - "I 've Seen All I Need to See" 

 This album should have been called "I've Heard All I Need to Hear"  it would be edited down to a minute long.  Switzerland should have their suicide machines ready in time for this band's future releases and all copies should come with voucher for the beta test. 

   

1-Lil Nas X - 'Montero"

Why would any album have 26 songwriters, 15 producers and 23 engineers? that is a is factory manufacturing product not making music. The songs sound like they are the product of focus groups on pops music. The took the blandest parts of songs by the Weeknd, Drake, Cardi B and Kayne and used AI to try to pick the algorithms of what should work to make hooky radio songs, which nothing got stuck with my head and it felt like torture to force myself through the album. The public was fooled, there were people online saying he was punk for being brave. The news is you are not getting millions of dollars to make CGI heavy videos without being approved by the board of an entertainment conglomerate which is the polar opposite of punk. Who cares if he is gay or not, when you press play on a song that is not what matters, so the reason it is the worst album is despite all the money pumped into it all we have is a snapshot with what is wrong with the music industry and a slab of bland boring color by numbers pop.    

The Top 10 Extreme Metal Albums of 2021

This list is new to encompass anything heavy that does not fit neatly into a sub-genre. Some lists were overcrowded and not a good fit so those bands who are just about sonic hedonism are here to haunt you.  Much like in years past I sort through the genre lists before making the overall top ten of the year list.  The fact these artists made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. I do hope you can find your next favorite on this list and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out audio on these guys. Anyways here are the top 10 Extreme metal albums of 2021

10-Archgoat - "Worship the Eternal Darkness" 

These guys from Finland are one of the few bands who bring the legit Evil on a regular basis, sometimes it has a track record on hitting you with all the brutality and not placing the most emphasis on songs. This time that is not the case. These are strong songs that stand on their own. There is a measure of restraint used as they slow into a more mid-paced throb at times, but their mission statement seems to be one that wants to punish you.  

Abysmal Hymns: Archgoat : " Worship the Eternal Darkness"

9- Succumb- "XXI"

The very fact they are on the Flenser, as label with a reputation for forward thinking artists means they are not going to simply be recycling Incantation riffs. There is a fair amount of chaos. Yes, grind core and especially Napalm Death is an influence. At times offering more mood and breathing room, for the punkish snarl of the vocals before reverting back to that more primitive state of brutality.

Abysmal Hymns: Succumb : "XXI"

  8-Culted-"Nous" 

A first this seems like a black metal band proving you do not have to live on blast beats alone, which is welcome. Eventually it transitions into an album that owes more to Godflesh than Darkthrone which was not what I went into the album expecting, but it was a surprise I enjoyed. 

Abysmal Hymns: Black Metal History Month- Culted : "Nous"

7-Seeping- 'the Watcher" 

The mournful quality of their sound does not overtake the aggression. Their songwriting is very compact, never sprawling out past the five-minute mark. The guitar sound is much dirtier than death doom. This rough around the edges approach helps place them closer toward death metal, though at the end of the day all the working parts of this nightmare machine made it a fun listen. 

Abysmal Hymns: Death is June - Seeping - "the Watcher"

6-Apparition - "Feel" 

California based death metal band who is clearly fixated on Incantation. They do slow things down and offer enough atmosphere to jump on the death doom bandwagon. They have some hooky riffs and sometimes speed up to a more Obituary like pace . and win out at the end of the day with their very dirty and dark sound.

Abysmal Hymns: November is Doom - Apparition " Feel"

 

5-Severed Boy - "Tragic Encounters" 

This duo summons a very dense sound for just the two of them. The come of a dark and dirty corner of the sonic world where sludge and death metal collide. There are moments of hurtling speed placed between very deliberate walls of lumbering fuzz. They are not about making noise as spaces are left for you to catch your breath Unlike many sludge-oriented bands thanks to their death metal intentions they do not drag things on into sprawling drones and keep their songs under the five-minute mark.

Abysmal Hymns: Death is June - Severed Boy : "Tragic Encounters"

4-Portrayal of Guilt - " Christfucker" 

Most bands would be lucky to release something as dark and beautiful as " We Are Always Alone" , but no, these guys had to go and get even heavier and more dissident with this album that sounds like a discordant blend of indie rock with black metal vocals before the aggression overtakes it.  There no abbreviated grind core blasts of songs that are under a minute, at this point they are fully committed to song writing, even when it's a feral thrashing that they give you with the deliberate chug 

Abysmal Hymns: Portrayal of Guilt ; "Christfucker"

3-Fawn Limbs - "Darwin Falls" 

Much more metal in their intentions than say Portrayal of Guilt, I do admire bringing some jazz into the equation which makes some of the mathematics make more since after they step on the distortion. It also makes the heaviness they hit you with easier to digest and reflects back on more musical moments. The vocals are more death metal where other influences are all over the place

Abysmal Hymns: Fawn Limbs : "Darwin Falls"

 

2- ERDVE - "Savigaila"

If you have found yourself complaining it is hard to find music that is heavy enough for you these days then this band has got you boo There is more to this than just punishing your ears, there are some layers of eerie atmosphere to set off the breakdowns. You can have music that is blisteringly heavy and still care about the songs and make it well yes, catchy.

Abysmal Hymns: Erdve : "Savigaila"

1- Portrayal of Guilt - "We are Always Alone"

This time around they brought the more sonic kind of heavy I love. They are pretty deliberate using very chilling chord structures.  From the first listen I knew that this was going to be the fucking album to beat this year this shit kicks your face in and is a beautiful dark mess, just what the world needs right now/The parts that did not tug at me right away grew on me, making this an almost perfect album and the best of the heaviest.     

Abysmal Hymns: Portrayal of Guilt : "We Are Always Alone"

The Top 10 Prog Albums of 2021

If you are a regular reader here, you know when it comes to prog, I am not looking for a bunch of wanky shredding and math for the sake of math. I want bands that are progressing and that is what is happening with these bands who made the cut this year. Much like in years past I sort through the genre lists before making the overall top ten of the year list.  The fact these artists made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. I do hope you can find your next favorite on this list and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out audio on these guys. Anyways here are the top 10 Prog albums of 2021

10-Green Lung - "Black Harvest" 

 This time around there are more rock punches with some pretty great guitar that is heading in a more blues direction. While I prefer what they did on the one before as tt was a little darker.  I totally approve of this very Deep Purple influenced gem. 

Abysmal Hymns: Green Lung : "Black Harvest"

9 Fucked Up- "Year of the Horse" 

What was once a punk band is now making 20-minute songs. "Dose Your Dreams" worked well for pushing the envelope, but have they gone too far? Things take odd turns with female spoken word and folk music. When things get really metal, they sound like  like Mastodon covering Bathory before they go off on some Norah Jones jams. But it does not stop there with dips into various trains of pop music along the way. 

Abysmal Hymns: Fucked Up : " Year of the Horse"

8-Cara Neir- "Phase Out" 

This project has gone from black metal with post rock wanderings now into video game music. One of the oddest albums on a list full of odd albums.  Verty little of their black metal past is still present. 

Abysmal Hymns: Black Metal History Month - Cara Neir : "Phase Out"

7-White Void - "Anti" 

These guys used to be more of a metal band than they are now, though if we are talking about perhaps late 70s metal then this would still count. They are about as heavy as Deep Purple. The melodic vocals work well. There is also something darker than your standard retro retro metal, almost reminds me of Beastmilk. Which is a huge compliment as they were one of my favorite bands.

Abysmal Hymns: White Void : "Anti"

 

6-Voices- "Breaking the Trauma Bond" 

The drumming is impressive, while the progressive elements that haunted the previous album are still in place it is handled differently. It is a darker album but, in some ways, also more of a straightforward arrangement, yet in the grandiosity of what they are doing some of the catchiness from the previous album might have been sacrificed, but it is still one of the year's best listens when it comes to prog.

Abysmal Hymns: Voices : "Breaking the Trauma Bond"

5-Starless - "Hope is Leaving You" 

Polished and catchy amid the wonderment. The vocals begin to remind me more of Opeth's mellower moments. There is the crunch of distortion here, and they are a metal band by definition they are certainly more middle of the road due to atmosphere and in the zip code of perhaps Katatonia when it comes to where they fall in terms of heaviness or the lack of.

Abysmal Hymns: Starless : " Hope is Leaving You"

4-Rivers of Nihil - 'the Work" 

This album is pretty epic and really well done. This is their most commercial work yet. If there was an album that was going to break them through to a larger audience, this is going to be it. Is it a sell out? Hmmm, well maybe in some ways. There is more clean singing, but it works for the songs. 

Abysmal Hymns: Rivers of Nihil- "the Work"

 3-Mastodon - "Hushed and Grim" 

The 8th album by the Atlanta band is a massive undertaking that takes some time to absorb. The playing is great and the melody floats, the drumming really goes for the gold. Not as aggressive as their first couple albums but puts its foot to the gas more. It is not until guitar work of Hinds when it drops into a more, blues-based section that makes the song shine. Often when we think of progressive rock, we think of just odd time signature and lots of dazzling wanking, but how much progress is being made there

Abysmal Hymns: Mastodon : "Hushed and Grim"

 2-Cynic- "Ascension Codes" 

I love Cynic but very surprised Paul Masvidal is carrying on after the death of of both Sean Malone and Sean Reinert. But drummer Matt Lynch who plays on this album was recruited by Masvidal and Malone, before Malone died Rather than replace Malone, the bass lines are done by a bass synth since his style of playing was untouchable. They are continuing more where they left off with "Traced in Air" as it is a return to heavier sounds than where they went into the more elf like prog of "Kindly Bent to Free Us". 

Abysmal Hymns: Cynic : " Ascension Codes"

 1-Danny Elfman - "Big Mess" 

Elfman has an ear to what is going on in music for sure. It is heavier than what you might expect from him, yet theater lies in the panned vocals that bounce around these songs.  It is progressive without really trying to be. Like I tell my daughter when she hears Oingo Boingo this is Kack Skellington singing! The drums and guitars are way harder edged than what you would find in Oingo Boingo, which explains why this is not being done under that name. He has both Josh Freese and Robin Finck playing on this album. Guitar is also provided by Warren from the Vandals, so both the Vandals and Nine Inch Nails figures in the mix

Abysmal Hymns: Danny Elfman - "Big Mess"

The Top 10 Indie Rock albums of 2021

This marks the return of the Indie Rock list which split off into the shoe gaze list, but there were many albums that did not rock hard enough to be rock records or fell askew from other lists so they are falling here. Indie rock has been a thing since the days of bands like Television, in the 90s they got commercialized and scooped up by major labels so it lost its charm, so this does not mean bands that are not on mainstream labels but bands that fall outside of pop and rock.   Much like in years past sort through the genre lists before making the overall top ten of the year list. The fact these artists made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. I do hope you can find your next favorite on this list and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out audio on these guys. Anyways here are the top 10 electronic albums of 2021

10-Penlope Trappes - "Penelope Three" 

The third chapter in Trappes musical trilogy finds her is in the same sonic zip code as Fever Ray, though maybe mixed with Hillary Woods. Production wise there is more in common with electronic music than what she is actually using to write this song. It is minimal but well placed. Her hushed voice flutters over everything like a fall chill in the air

Abysmal Hymns: Penelope Trappes : "Penelope Three"

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9- Genghis Tron - "Dream Weapon" 

I can appreciate what is going down here as the album sounds great. It really depends on what you want from this band in terms of if it will live up to your expectations of what their comeback should be like. It is so different than the more Botch like earlier work they should have changed the name, but on it's own merit the album is an impressive piece of modern space rock.

Abysmal Hymns: Genghis Tron : "Dream Weapon"

 

8-Xiu Xiu - "OH NO" 

After 20 years of creating dark music that falls somewhere between indie rock and post punk, they continue to fuel their legacy with a unique album of duets. TheY are obviously artists that are in the same zip code as Xiu Xiu's brand of weird ranging from Chelsea Wolfe to Drab Majesty, at the best moments of the album they seamlessly blend 

Abysmal Hymns: Xiu Xiu : " OH NO"

 

7-Ryan Adams- "Big Colors" 

This album feels like an 80s adult oriented rock or adult contemporary was one of the marketing genres back then which meant it is pop but more thoughtful than a bunch of party songs for kids. The War on Drugs would also fall under this if they had come out in the 80s as well and this album is in that neighborhood.  

Abysmal Hymns: Ryan Adams : "Big Colors"

 

6-Marissa Nadler-'the Path of the Clouds" 

She is returning more to her dream country sounds, this album drifts away in all the ways you want it to. She was aided by Lightning Bolt producer Seth Manchester who added the distorted guitars that sit back in the atmosphere. You might have read some reviews that lead you to believe she is becoming Chelsea Wolfe and this is more of a rock record which is not the case. She does continue to lure you in with this one. 

 

Abysmal Hymns: Marissa Nadler : 'the Path of the Clouds"

 5-Lantlos - "Wildhund" 

No stranger to us here, this German band is no longer black gaze but now creating a double album of poppy gaze influenced 90s rock. The drummer who has now been with the band for ten years is responsible for some of the more adventurous turns the songs takes. In some ways it is progressive. Not far removed from the likes of Hum or Quicksand, they do not let you hang to comfortably on a groove for long. The guitars replicate tones from that era and the vocals are greatly improved.

Abysmal Hymns: Lantlos : Wildhund"

 4-The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die - " Illusory Walls" 

These guys are almost progressive in the span they cover and wide cinematic sonics they convey, which is beyond the bounds of hard core or screamo. The first song is sweeping and emotive. The album sounds great I love the guitar tone the second song it is almost more Cure like. I am surprised by the addition of female vocals, but I am not sure the last album I checked out by these guys, as they are courtesy of the keyboardist who is now a member of the band. This brings a more indie rock feel to things. 

Abysmal Hymns: The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die ;" Illusory Walls"

 

3-Failure- " Wild Type Droid" 

I was a fan of this band in the 90s and they were always grunge for when I was too high to want to hear Soundgarden. The opening track of their newest album, which features a pristine croon that could have come from "Fantastic Planet" also clicks with me that these guys are really into Gary Numan, they just use guitars not synths. They are also great song writers and have not lost that touch

 

Abysmal Hymns: Failure- "Wild Type Droid"

 

 2-Dinosaur Jr - "Sweep It Into Space" 

I first listened to this album at a more moderate volume, and I think cranking through headphones might do the mix more justice. Unless they are going for a rawer almost Neil Young like sound. Overall this album goes to show these guys keep getting better when many of their peers from this era just dial it in. With all the fanfare Weezer has gained over the years, I think if you compared the output of these two bands Dinosaur Jr would be more deserving of praise when it comes to being consistent song writers

Abysmal Hymns: Dinosaur Jr : "Sweep It into Space"

1-Slothrust- "Parallel Timeline" 

Things are different. The mood has changed and matured. Where "|the Pact" was a much more polished effort than their previous albums, this one is another step forward in the refinement of their sound. They are less grunge than their earlier work, but still pack more punch than say HAIM. At the end of the day

Abysmal Hymns: Slothrust : "Parallel Timeline"