Features

For extended reading and interviews

Features

For extended reading and interviews

The Top 25 Albums of 2021

Featuring Top 25 Albums of 2021

No genre remains untouched: metalcore, blackgaze, indie, emo. Your listening flavor had something for you this year, and it's reflected in the results. EPs were a concerted gut punch (Of Mice and Men, Impending Doom), cornerstone acts like Zao and The Devil Wears Prada released new material, and there's plenty of room for sophomore triumphs (Sleep Token) and instant-classic debut releases (Spiritbox). It's a rainbow of musical taste, and it's years like 2021 that yield lists like this one to remind us how vibrant music can be across the spectrum. These are HM's selections for the Best Albums of 2021.

Into the Heartland

Featuring Last Year's Model

For Last Year's Model, every song starts with a story. Andrew Voigt sat down with vocalist Brendan Gallagher to talk about the band’s history, their influences, the essence of their music, and why storytelling still matters.

HeartSupport leads the fight for mental health

Featuring HeartSupport

HeartSupport is a street-level and online community helping people brave their wounds, discover healing, and find purpose. Hear from Houston chapter Director John Williford as the coalition prepares to host its 3rd Annual Banquet Dinner and Presentation.

Alphaville’s Metal Renaissance

Featuring Imperial Triumphant

With influences that span Miles Davis and Stravinsky to Geddy Lee and Les Claypool, jazz metal force Imperial Triumphant is the epitome of genre-bending. HM contributing writer Andrew Voigt spoke with the band about their unique style, the massive bass presence in their music, and the rise and fall of civilization.

Five Death Metal Bands You Need to Know Now

Featuring In-Conquered, Incarnate Deity, Mangled Carpenter, Pantokrator, Symphony of Heaven

Death metal is no longer strictly a one-kind-of-sound genre but a cloud under which many elements have formed. We have assembled five must-hear death metal acts you should be listening to now, each distinctly set apart from another in form, yet still brethren in the death metal community.

Atreyu's Baptism

Featuring Atreyu

At their core, Atreyu is a hard rock band with metal riffs and pop choruses. Now, after more than 20 years, the band has stepped boldly into their next chapter with a change in lineup and an album that proves the lifeblood of Atreyu is stronger than ever.

Heaven's Metal

Featuring Guardian, Holy Soldier, Stryper, Tourniquet, Whitecross

When rock emerged from blues and 'heavy metal' began to surface, faith-based metal acts also rose to start their own journeys. Initially shunned by both believers and non-believers, they were fighting for their spot at the table, ultimately building a legacy that would go on to change the genre forever. HM presents an oral history of the beginning of Christian metal music, featuring Guardian, Tourniquet, Holy Soldier, Whitecross, and, of course, Stryper.

Trapped in Limbo

Featuring Gaerea

Black metal may not be the first thing on your mind when you think of Portugal, but GAEREA is here to change that. HM contributing writer Andrew Voigt sat down with GAEREA to discuss the band’s music, their mysterious name and image, and how office work can be art.

Quite The Undertaking

Featuring The Undertaking

Frenzied. Chaotic. Punk. The Undertaking!, San Diego's newest wild bunch, is about to release their debut album, and, if their live show is a premonition of any kind, the world will be opening up to one heck of a party with them. Contributing writer Andrew Voigt talks to vocalist Austin Visser about the band's new album, the reality of their music, and how they've been able to embrace their creative freedom.

The Top 10 Faith-Based Black Metal Bands to Listen to Right Now

Featuring A Hill To Die Upon, Crimson Moonlight, Dawnbreaker, Daygraves, Exortta, Frosthardr, Since the Death, Skald In Veum, Vials of Wrath, Within Thy Wounds

Often referred to as “unblack” in the Christian world, it can be difficult to find your way around when you're first getting started with the genre. We're here to help. Already a fan? Great: We're here to take you deeper. These are the best faith-based black metal artists to listen to right now.

Drowning The Sound

Featuring The Drowned God

Andrew Voigt, a contributing writer to HM Magazine, sat down with Cody Golob, the lead vocalist and one of the original two members of The Drowned God, to discuss their as-yet-unnamed upcoming record, the inspiration behind its writing, and a mutual love for sparkling water.

Marching Onward

Featuring Pantokrator

After being together for a quarter of a century, they've been called Illuminati, fundamentalists, and even fascists. Now, with their first new album in seven years, 'Marching Out of Babylon,' they're honed in more than ever, a steadfast and evolved version of themselves. Andrew Voigt digs a little deeper into the Swedish band's roots, uncovers the narratives on the new release, and finds out how a little playground spat brought the band together.

Love and Death and Resurrection

Featuring Love and Death

After an eight year hiatus, Love and Death return with 'Perfectly Preserved,' an eclectic and personal release for nu-metal icon and frontman Brian 'Head' Welch. Still at the heart of it all, the man with the dreads details his life in the spotlight after returning to Korn, the launch of a holistic recovery center, and his spearheading of an autobiographical documentary. As fresh as he's ever been at 50 years old, he's still got more to give.

The Industrial Revolution

Featuring ODDKO

Italian creative Giovanni Bucci, otherwise known as ODDKO, has spent a professional career pushing the limits of some of the world's largest brands. HM contributor Andrew Voigt talks with the man behind the curtain to find out what it looks like when he pushes the limits of his own creativity.

The Space for Rebirth

Featuring Age of the Abstract

On Age of the Abstract's new EP, 'Rebirth,' the duo explores what a new sound looks like apart from the day-job in Canidria. Here, contributing writer Andrew Voigt talks with Julio Arias about influence, vision, and how writing in the wake of his father's death propelled the band forward.

The Top 25 Albums of 2020

Featuring HM Magazine

When the going gets tough, artists create art. Despite a world reckoning outside our quarantined doors, musicians relentlessly created new music giving birth to genre-defining releases and, despite a year spent indoors, a marked 2020 full of passion and fervor. Here are our Top 25 albums of 2020.

Overflowing with Wrath

Featuring Vials of Wrath

Dempsey Mills is the brains behind Vials of Wrath, an atmospheric solo project rooted in Nordic inspiration, historic genre, and a dichotomy of peace and tension that underlies the heaviness of the music. Just don't call it unblack.

In a World of Hurt

Featuring Earth Groans

...a kind word goes a long way. "When it comes to writing and music, these are the gifts God has given me and that’s what I want to use to further the Kingdom and return those things back to God."

Droning On

Featuring Drones

The world came to a halt in 2020, but London-based Drones trudged on, giving a voice to the hurt that circulates with (or without) a pandemic: "You shouldn’t underestimate the power of writing things down or literally speaking them out loud, which I’m learning. I’m glad I made these songs, no matter how personal they are."

Changing Focus

Featuring Weathered

When Weathered wrote their debut album, 'Stranger Here,' it was an introspective take on life as they knew it. The appropriate way to follow it up? Turn the mirror around and tell the stories of those around you.

Seaway's Big Fall

Featuring Seaway

Planned for the summer, 'Big Vibe' was moved to the Fall as COVID swept the nation. It turns out, the vibes were exactly the breath of fresh air we needed. HM contributing writer Danielle Martin talks with Seaway vocalist Ryan Locke about the band's new era, how they formed their sound for 2020, and why Harry Styles belongs in their lives.

Hidden Behind Glass

Featuring Glass Houses

One of the most difficult things for the human spirit to embrace when feeling broken is vulnerability with those we trust and sometimes even with ourselves. Glass Houses vocalist and lyricist Josh Haider is working to change that.

Tearing Apart at the Scene

Featuring Of Virtue

Of Virtue has been around for awhile, but, on the eve of the release of a stripped-down version of their latest EP, they're still ripping through the scene

A Voice of Life

Featuring P.O.D.

Almost 27 years after the band's first studio album, P.O.D.'s message is arguably more important than ever. "I believe (our message) is even more relevant now than it was then. If you really listen to 'Youth of the Nation,' we still have these tragedies going on. There’s a lot of searching still going on out there."

Hope Through the Loss

Featuring Idle Threat

Idle Threat's latest EP, 'Nothing is Broken for Good,' paints a serendipitous picture of what comes from hope in the future: 'The record is definitely about loss and hope through that loss.'

A Disparate Vintage

Featuring Tigerwine

On Tigerwine's latest, 'Nothing is for You,' vocalist and lyricist Trobee departs from the band's last effort as a concept record to write about an array subjects. Notably, Trobee tackles his evolution from rigid belief system to an acceptance and understanding of other ideas: "Through touring and becoming close with those very people I was taught to be afraid of, I realized how untrue it all is."

Becoming Comrades

Featuring Comrades

The trio of Comrades – husband and wife Joe and Laura McElroy alongside drummer John Gaskil – is used to living in a van and touring the country. Now, their new normal has provided them with a moment to "be adults" for once. We recently sat down with the McElroys to talk more about the spiritual reality within life, how soon they'll be able to release new music, and how koalas are their new normal.

HM Magazine Turns 35

Featuring HM Magazine

In 1985, Doug Van Pelt photocopied a letter-sized sheets of paper, bound them together, and handed them out in person on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. It's all digital now, but, along the way, Van Pelt stirred up quite a few waves, played some seriously heavy music, and made a few friends along the way. Here: A quick look back at the magazine's 35-year history with Van Pelt and new owner, David Stagg.

Between the White Noise

Featuring My Epic

My Epic's last full-length album came out in 2013; despite a number of EPs along the way, the band's dedication to their craft, lyrical approach, and unyielding approach to let the music come naturally has made them critical darlings. Now, they're learning to interact and feed a rabid fanbase in between albums and in a new normal.

Evolution Beyond Dissonance

Featuring Hands Like Houses

Two years since the release of Hands Like Houses' latest album, 'Anon,' the band should be on the road supporting the release. Instead, the band has leveraged their local presence, government help, and new platforms like Patreon to stay afloat in the COVID-age.

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