10 Incredible Metal Albums You May Have Missed In 2021

10. There Is No God Where I Am - Cruelty

It’s no secret that 2021 has been one hell of a miserable year, and who better than a band named Cruelty to take that misery and rip it apart with cathartic vigour.

A sense of despair permeates the entirety of this album, as the collective rage of the modern age is condensed into 42 hate-filled minutes. Opening with the fittingly titled ‘An Introduction’, the album lurches into feedback-soaked life, with a scream exalting the album title, before coming out swinging with full throttle hardcore in the vein of Converge. Indeed, the album’s impenetrable riffage and spitting vocals owe a lot to the Massachusetts standard bearers, but Cruelty have enough dirt underneath their fingernails to make this more than just a facsimile.

Whilst grounded in hardcore, the album makes frequent flirtations with Death Metal, finally giving into its filthy desires and delivering the promised goods in ‘Dead Culture’. Similarly Doomy elements bubble beneath the surface of the swamp, before rising to prominence in the churl of slow instrumental ‘Cut’. Though both stand as obvious deviations from the album as a whole, they nevertheless fit in organically amongst the other tracks. Moments of coming up for air above a raging ocean of feedback and riffs.

Closing off proceedings with the seven minute title track, Cruelty focus the raucous despair of the entire album into a razor point before slowing down proceedings for the extended outro. Over rising Post-Metal beauty, that familiar title phrase is brought back from ‘An Introduction’ to bookend the album, howled cathartically at an indifferent world.

Listen To: There Is No God Where I Am