Territory's Edge - Best New Metal of December 2021

Happy New Year 2022! As December tends to be, this month was lean for new metal albums, and none of these entries cover new full-length material.  However, heavy music still provided plenty to cover.  One particular song marked an exciting return for a band that has been essentially MIA for over eight years.  Arch Enemy and Venom Prison both released excellent second singles this winter, while other bands familiar to me like Sylosis, Nonpoint, and Fit For an Autopsy put out songs this month as well. 

Be on the lookout for several big posts on the way in January.  I'm currently working on finishing an in-depth breakdown of my best-of list for 2021, as well as a full-length review/essay on Silent Planet's Iridescent. 

Karnivool - "All It Takes"

Let's start with the big one first.  Australian progressive alt rock group Karnivool, whose 2009 opus Sound Awake combined an energetic catchiness with sprawling prog-rock ambition, is back. "All It Takes" uses the same producer as that album and marks the first stage of a new project with more to come.  While their vocalist Ian Kenny has remained active in the alternative group Birds of Tokyo, December 10th ended an eight-year-and-a-half gap since 2013's Asymmetry.  (In the interim though, Karnivool still played shows, including supporting Deftones for their 2016 Australian tour and recently livestreaming a playthrough of Sound Awake.)  It's suffice to say there's no rust in sight on the new single.

Sevendust - "All I Really Know"/"What You Are"

 

Reliable Atlanta alternative metal mainstays Sevendust put out a special edition of last year's Blood and Stone with two newly released tracks and three remixes.  "All I Really Know" and "What You Are" are the two B-side tracks recorded during the album sessions.  On a side note, while I'm generally not a fan of remixes of rock and metal songs, the three that appear are all mixed by artists well-versed in the metal world and retain much of the identity of the originals.  Jake Bowen (electronics in Periphery) produces a chilled-out take on opener "Dying to Live", and his solo ambient electronic project The Daily Sun is worth checking out as well.

Cult of Luna - "Cold Burn"

The Swedish post metal band releases their new album titled The Long Road North on February 11, which the band described as "big-sounding" and "cinematic".  "Cold Burn" is a slow-burning, brooding sludge metal track that opens up the upcoming 9-track project.  The black-and-white visualizer video doubles as a preview from The Long Road North game designed in collaboration for the album, representing a lengthy, uncertain journey.  Building visuals to accompany the music and taking it a step further by allowing listeners to interact within that visual plane is a creative premise.  The band aims to move forward and believes that adding these storytelling elements will be prevalent in the future of music video design. 

Arch Enemy - "House of Mirrors"

 

December brought another single from Swedish death metal outfit Arch Enemy.  The melodic opening guitar riff from Michael Ammott immediately commands attention, in a track that vocalist Alissa White-Gluz described as being "about the dark twists and turns of the human psyche".  While its predecessor "Deceiver, Deceiver" was good in its own right, I consider "House of Mirrors" to the be the stronger single of the two.  While no additional full-length been confirmed at this point, a new album announcement within early 2022 seems likely. 

Venom Prison - "Pain of Oizys"

When covering "Judges of the Underworld" last month, I took note of the Greek mythology metaphors present on Venom Prison's upcoming album Erebos.  The UK band's most recent song holds true to that concept, taking its title from a lesser-known goddess of grief, anxiety and woe.  "Pain of Oizys", as interpreted through its music video, represents the struggle with inner torment - and ultimately finding liberation in the midst of it, as the protagonist finds her way to the dawn of a new day at the end.  The band's most dynamic track to date, "Pain of Oizys" is the first to completely pivot away from Venom Prison's established death metal style.  However, it does not sacrifice intensity as the subdued instrumentation hosts both cleanly sung and screamed vocals.  It's a song intended to lead the listener into a "false sense of security", as guitarist Ben Thomas described.  Vocalist Larissa Stupar has indeed made good on her word that Erebos would represent a new phase for her group while still remaining recognizable.  Larissa stated that "Pain of Oizys" ultimately represents a message of empowerment while acknowledging her own depression.  Saying, "It's about respecting that I want to live with it, instead of not wanting to live at all.  It's about catharsis; about feeling empowered in who you are instead of looking to find yourself as somebody different.  If you stay strong, you can survive anything." It's an excellent message of both honesty and hope, and one of the reasons why this band earned a spot here two months in a row.